Barrenjoey Road

Description

A gripping expose of a notorious cold case 1978. An idyllic beachside community. A series of abductions and rapes. So what happened to Trudie Adams? Back in the 1970s, Sydney's Northern Beaches felt like a slice of paradise to those lucky enough to live there. Bordered on one side by the glistening blue of the Pacific, and on the other by stunning rugged bushland, it was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone. No wonder the area was known as 'the Insular Peninsula'. So, when a popular local girl, 18-year-old Trudie Adams, disappeared one night while hitchhiking home from the surf club dance, her family, friends and community were devastated. It just seemed wrong that something so terrible could happen in a place so perfectly picturesque. But as police began to investigate, the dark underbelly of the peninsula was exposed. It was a place where surfers ran drugs home from Bali, teenagers hitchhiked everywhere due to a lack of public transport, predatory men prowled the streets, and countless young women were abducted and raped, crimes rarely reported or, if they were, rarely investigated. Inspired by the Walkley Award-shortlisted #1 podcast and acclaimed ABC TV series, and containing information never previously revealed, Barrenjoey Road is a compelling expose of why the disappearance of Trudie Adams was never solved. It takes us all the way to the top, from a criminal perpetrator with a lifelong record and links to organised crime who was never formally accused, to police corruption at the highest level.

Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist Neil Mercer has been a broadcast and print journalist for more than 40 years. He has reported in the Canberra bureau of The Sydney Morning Herald and for News Corp in New York. In 1988 he joined the ABC's Four Corners, where he won a Walkley for his profile of convicted Whiskey Au Go Go killer James Finch. He has worked on Seven Network current affairs program Witness and Nine's 60 Minutes. He is the author of Fate, about the Belanglo State Forest murders. Ruby Jones is an award-winning broadcast and digital journalist. Her stories have appeared on the ABC's flagship TV current affairs programs 7.30 and Lateline. She has worked as the news host of triple j's breakfast program, and for the ABC's national reporting team.