In the premiere of its new series, Australian Crime Stories tells the heartbreaking saga of a family’s fight for justice and how the police failed a murdered woman and those who loved her.
The series returns this week with an investigation into the case of Lucille Butterworth, a 20-year-old Miss Tasmania aspirant who disappeared from a bus stop in 1969.
Police thought Lucille had run away to the mainland, and it would be weeks before they officially started a murder investigation. Seven years later, Geoffrey Charles Hunt was arrested and questioned over the rape and murder of a 24-year-old woman from Hobart, a crime he would ultimately serve 22 years in prison for. During his questioning, Hunt confessed to killing Lucille Butterworth, but senior police did not take his confession seriously.
In 2016, the Tasmanian Coroner named Hunt as the likely killer, but despite damning evidence the police did not lay charges. Hunt is now walking free as a result.
In Australian Crime Stories, investigative journalist, researcher and co-writer Adam Shand drops viewers into the scene of the crime, revealing the secret desires, mysterious appetites and hidden hatreds that shaped the most notorious figures in Australian criminal history.
Australian Crime Stories is produced by The Full Box for the Nine Network.
