The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron

A murdered young woman; a missing wife; a forty-year mystery.

In 1986, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her married boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The authorities instantly jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed her husband’s much younger girlfriend and then committed suicide. Vivienne’s body was never found.

But aspiring young writer Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced by the official conclusion. Not only were there plenty of pieces that didn’t fit, but there was a strange silence about the case on Phillip Island—two hours and a world away from Melbourne. An incident such as this would usually be the talk of a small community. Was it just institutional sexism that discounted any other explanation for the murder? Or was the silence something to do with the Camerons—an influential local family? Was this a case of the Phillip Island murder—or murders? No-one was ever prosecuted; the silence settled; but the mystery endured.

More than thirty years after co-authoring her first book on the murder with journalist Paul Daley, Petraitis has kept finding small pieces of new evidence. When she became an influential podcaster with Casefile Presents, she made a series about the murder, jogging the memories of some who heard it, and questions that weren’t asked at the time slowly emerged. Now, to mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened on that cold September night so long ago.

The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron is a compelling exploration of lingering questions and untold stories, woven through with the tenacity of a determined writer seeking justice.