About this episode

This episode explores the unsolved abductions of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon at the Adelaide Oval and connects it to the Beaumont children's case.

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…

More episodes of The Trail Went Cold

• The Trail Went Cold - Episode 499 - Patty Chesher · September 9, 2026 · 43 min
• The Trail Went Cold - Episode 498 - Jeffrey Mitchell · September 2, 2026 · 45 min
• The Trail Went Cold - Episode 497 - Jane Hart · August 26, 2026 · 52 min
• The Trail Went Cold - Episode 496 - Margaret Kilcoyne · August 19, 2026 · 1h 3m
• The Trail Went Cold - Episode 495 - Terry Bowers · August 12, 2026 · 49 min
• The Trail Went Cold - Episode 494 - The Be-Lo Murders · August 5, 2026 · 48 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Trail Went Cold podcast page.