For more than 30 years, the name Mr Cruel has haunted Melbourne.

He was meticulous, terrifying and seemingly vanished without a trace — leaving behind one of Australia’s most disturbing unsolved crime mysteries. But in this gripping six-part investigation, Adam Shand uncovers secret forensic evidence that challenges everything police thought they knew about the case.

Across the series, we revisit the abductions, the fear that gripped suburban Melbourne, the assumptions that shaped the investigation, and the hidden evidence that may overturn them all.
Was Mr Cruel really the offender police believed they were hunting or has the truth been buried in the evidence all along???

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In the dead of night, a masked man broke into family homes across Melbourne and abducted young girls from their bedrooms. Some were returned hours later. One, 13-year-old Karmein Chan, never came home alive. In episode one, Adam Shand goes back to the first abduction police linked to Mr Cruel and asks whether the hunt for one monster may have blinded investigators to the truth.

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