Ep: 54 Tanya Bretherton – The Suitcase Baby

In Sydney in the 1920s, babies were turning up in the harbour, on trains, and in public places. These babies, all murdered, mostly by their mothers, were a devastating symptom of changing morals and a growing metropolis.

One of these babies turned up on a harbour beach – and from there, an extraordinary story unfolded. A true history that is both shocking and too real, this unforgettable tale moves at the pace of a great crime novel. Police tracked down Sarah Boyd, the mother of the suitcase baby, and the complex story and subsequent murder trial of Sarah and her friend Jean Olliver became a media sensation. Sociologist Tanya Bretherton masterfully tells the engrossing and moving story of the crime that put Sarah and her baby at the centre of a social tragedy that still resonates through the decades.