The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron by Vikki Petraitis

A murdered young woman; a missing wife; a forty-year mystery.

In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne’s body was never found.

But Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced. The official line didn’t explain all the evidence, and it certainly didn’t seem like the behaviour of a mother with two small boys. Fascinated by both the case and the bias it revealed in investigators, Petraitis wrote her first true-crime book about the murder, with Paul Daley, and decades later made a podcast on the case. Both brought new evidence and testimony to light, and asked questions that were not asked at the time.

Now, to mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened all those years ago, and why.

A murdered young woman; a missing wife; a forty-year mystery.

About the Author: Vikki Petraitis is an Australian true crime author and podcaster. Her first book, The Phillip Island Murder (1993), was co-written with Paul Daley. Since then, Vikki has written numerous true crime books, including her bestseller The Frankston Murders about Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer, and two acclaimed crime novels. Vikki is also a renown podcaster in the Casefiles network and her series ‘The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron’ was released in 2020.

28 Jan 2026
 

The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron: Forty Years Searching for the Phillip Island Murderer by Vikki Petraitis ISBN 9781761820830