The disappearance of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart from a party on New Year's Eve, 1997, sparked one of New Zealand's biggest and most controversial police investigations.

Their bodies were never found, but detectives believe they found the killer: Scott Watson.

In part one of this two-part series, Eugene Bingham and Adam Dudding examine the critical evidence – hairs from a tiger-print blanket, hotly disputed eyewitness accounts, and the hunt for a mysterious missing ketch.

If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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In 1967, a film was released that was so shocking, so arousing, and so full of rude words that the NZ censor banned men and women from sitting together when watching it.

Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham get out the popcorn and investigate what happened when the movie of James Joyce’s high-art novel Ulysses arrived downunder. It's tale of pearl-clutching, patriarchy and a punch-up in a projector-room.

(Content warning: there are, unavoidably, quite a few rude words)

If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In June 2018, a man dressed in black was shot in the neck and left bleeding on a manicured lawn in the quiet town of Goochland, Virginia. His passport revealed he had travelled almost 18,000km from Auckland, New Zealand.

Why did gamer Troy Skinner fly across the globe armed with a hunting knife, pepper spray, and duct tape? And what was he planning once he got there?

Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham unravel a bizarre tale of online obsession and legal loopholes.

If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.