The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 2 of 2
A Queensland carpenter identified off a television screen twenty five years later. A man serving life who was ruled out by the only witness who saw the abductor's face. A friend of the family who was pulled in for questioning and nev…The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 2 of 2
A Queensland carpenter identified off a television screen twenty five years later. A man serving life who was ruled out by the only witness who saw the abductor's face. A friend of the family who was pulled in for questioning and never charged. And an upholsterer with a shack in the mid north whose own grandson wrote forty pages about him from a prison cell.
Fifty three years on, nobody has been charged with the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon. What the case has instead is names. In Part two of the Adelaide Oval abductions, we chase down the suspects and present new evidence in this horrifying case.
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• Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon
• Andrew Rule, "50 years on, the search for a depraved man who abducted and killed two little girls continues", Herald Sun, August 2023. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/50-years-on-the-search-for-a-depraved-man-who-abducted-and-killed-two-little-girls-continues/news-story/28ecaa5f898e6d96f4c03bb566116128
• Elizabeth Henson, "Adelaide Oval abduction witness Tony Kilmartin reveals what happened the day Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were taken", The Advertiser. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-oval-abduction-witness-tony-kilmartin-reveals-what-happened-the-day-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe-were-taken/news-story/91a88591d76f28407092ebd318a990f9
• Belinda Jepsen, "The Adelaide Oval abduction", Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/adelaide-oval-abduction/
• "Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon abduction: Adelaide Oval mystery breakthrough", Under Investigation, Nine, October 2022. https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html
• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, season 1, episode 2, interview with Anthony Kilmartin. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise
• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, interview with Alex Bone, recorded November 2024. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise
• 1973 SANFL season, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_SANFL_seasonmore
The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 1 of 2
Adelaide Oval, the twenty fifth of August, 1973. Norwood versus North Adelaide, a winter crowd. Joanne Ratcliffe, eleven, took four year old Kirste Gordon to the toilets, the way she had done once already that afternoon. Ninety minut…The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - Part 1 of 2
Adelaide Oval, the twenty fifth of August, 1973. Norwood versus North Adelaide, a winter crowd. Joanne Ratcliffe, eleven, took four year old Kirste Gordon to the toilets, the way she had done once already that afternoon. Ninety minutes later they were three kilometres from the ground, fighting for their lives, and they have never been seen since.
In part one of two, we thoroughly examine the events of that day. Facts that we have believed to be the truth for over 50 years might not have told us the full story. We reveal the new eye-witness testimony that challenges the conventional wisdom on a case that has haunted Australia for decades.
Sleepers Podcast - Bryan Littlely and Max Marten https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise/episodes/688c7609fc150bcf7f24a146
Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast
Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast
• Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon
• Andrew Rule, "50 years on, the search for a depraved man who abducted and killed two little girls continues", Herald Sun, August 2023. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/50-years-on-the-search-for-a-depraved-man-who-abducted-and-killed-two-little-girls-continues/news-story/28ecaa5f898e6d96f4c03bb566116128
• Elizabeth Henson, "Adelaide Oval abduction witness Tony Kilmartin reveals what happened the day Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe were taken", The Advertiser. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-oval-abduction-witness-tony-kilmartin-reveals-what-happened-the-day-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe-were-taken/news-story/91a88591d76f28407092ebd318a990f9
• Belinda Jepsen, "The Adelaide Oval abduction", Mamamia. https://www.mamamia.com.au/adelaide-oval-abduction/
• "Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon abduction: Adelaide Oval mystery breakthrough", Under Investigation, Nine, October 2022. https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html
• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, season 1, episode 2, interview with Anthony Kilmartin. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise
• Bryan Littlely and Max Marten, Sleepers, interview with Alex Bone, recorded November 2024. Show index: https://shows.acast.com/sleepers-its-time-to-rise
• 1973 SANFL season, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_SANFL_season
August 25, 1973 Adelaide, Australia. While attending a football match at the Adelaide Oval stadium alongside their respective families, 11-year old Joanne Ratcliffe and four-year old Kirste Gordon leave their seats to go to the toilet together, but never return. After Joanne and Kirste are reported …August 25, 1973 Adelaide, Australia. While attending a football match at the Adelaide Oval stadium alongside their respective families, 11-year old Joanne Ratcliffe and four-year old Kirste Gordon leave their seats to go to the toilet together, but never return. After Joanne and Kirste are reported missing, numerous eyewitnesses report having seen them in the company of a middle-aged man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and since the two girls appeared to be in distress, they were likely the victims of an abduction. Over the years, a number of known pedophiles are looked at as potential suspects in the case, but there is not enough evidence to implicate any of them, so Joanne and Kirste are never found.
On last week’s episode, we presented Part One of our series about the 1966 disappearance of the Beaumont children. This week, we will not only conclude our series about the Beaumont case, but also explore another unsolved Australian mystery known as the “Adelaide Oval Abductions” and look into the possibility that these two missing children’s cases are connected.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joanne_Ratcliffe_and_Kirste_Gordon
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/on-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-disappearance-of-joanne-ratcliffe-and-kirste-gordon-family-reveal-new-connections-to-murderer-bevan-spencer-von-einem/news-story/c5449152bfe324dd65b4bead5fcc7fc1
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/cold-case-fresh-leads-in-1973-adelaide-oval-abduction-links-key-suspect-to-abandoned-prospect-home-with-an-underground-bunker/news-story/a20c5f0e8db7de5c81c22ff316971a30
https://www.nine.com.au/tv-shows/joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-abduction-adelaide-oval-mystery-breakthrough-under-investigation-20221031-p5rcy0.html
https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/adelaide-oval-abduction-1973-sister-joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon-20230823-p5yuqz.html
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-25/joanne-ratcliffe-and-kirste-gordon-disappeared-50-years-ago/102770974
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-29/search-for-clues-linked-to-kirste-gordon-and-joanne-ratcliffe/105112146
https://www.womensweekly.com.au/news/real-life/joanne-ratcliffe/
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/coldcases/top-cops-stern-words-in-private-search-for-joanne-ratcliffe-and-kirste-gordon-50-years-after-disappearance/news-story/c2c53d53603c3039b96c8f2a3d689220
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-10/bones-found-in-yatina-search-not-human/106325728
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_the_Beaumont_children
https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/parents-of-beaumont-childrens-tortured-wait-goes-on/news-story/fb533bc2a34d59bacea04713d1b03732
https://www.theage.com.au/technology/one-man-so-many-faces-of-evil-20070422-ge4pv0.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/suspected-mass-child-killer-is-buried-with-his-secrets-at-90-20020722-gduf0t.html
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/allan-max-mcintyre-who-was-linked-to-the-disappearance-of-the-beaumont-children-in-1966-has-died/news-story/aa23bce2ce29b65a9182a81cb5f18ef5
https://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/exscout-master-anthony-allan-munro-jailed-for-repulsively-evil-abuse-of-boys-from-1965-to-1983/news-story/e75963cb928358a9487460a13a3deb12
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/sa/2018/01/22/new-search-beaumont-children
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/beaumont-children-mystery-harry-phipps-angry-son-says-his-father-did-not-kill-the-children/news-story/173bda07a90ba4a450e8f154921bddf6
https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/beaumont-children-grandfather-was-involved-in-disappearance-says-grandson-20180201-p5w63x.html
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-10/beaumont-children-search-at-former-castalloy-factory-site/104917216
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-01/dig-for-beaumont-childrens-remains-concludes/104997388
“The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing at AdvocacyCon, which is taking placemore
On August 25 1973, 12,000 South Australian National Football League spectators packed into Adelaide Oval to watch the North Adelaide Roosters take on the Norwood Redlegs. During the game’s third and penultimate quarter, 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe was given permission by her parents to escort 4-yea…On August 25 1973, 12,000 South Australian National Football League spectators packed into Adelaide Oval to watch the North Adelaide Roosters take on the Norwood Redlegs. During the game’s third and penultimate quarter, 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe was given permission by her parents to escort 4-year-old Kirste Gordon to the toilet. But the girls never returned.
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Casefile would like to give a special thanks to Suzie Ratcliffe for her assistance with this episode
Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host
Researched and written by Elsha McGill
Creative Director: Milly Raso
For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-163-joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon
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