Case 231: Anna-Jane Cheney
In 1994, 29-year-old Adelaide lawyer Anna-Jane Cheney was looking forward to her dream wedding. But just six weeks before she was due to walk down the aisle, her fiancè Henry Keogh called paramedics to report that he’d found Anna-Jane lying unconscious in the bath of their Magill home.
Police ruled Anna-Jane’s untimely and unexplained death a tragic accident, but evidence soon began to emerge that suggested otherwise.
Team:
Anonymous Host - narration
Elsha McGill - research, writing
Mike Migas - production, music
Andrew D.B. Joslyn - music
Milly Raso - creative direction
Comments (13)
I requested this a while ago so thank you so much for doing it. Compelling case.
Finally an Australian one again. Thank you
This guy is guilty as fuck. Thank goodness his conviction was overturned.
Personally, I think he did it. I can’t move past the multiple life insurances despite it being some sort of industry practice at the time. Coupled with the cheating and general treatment of their relationship, but also despite the one chick not actually knowing the circumcision status of his penis. While in a legal setting it’s probably too difficult to prove without a reasonable doubt, the amount of cases of people killing their partners for insurance payouts is just too numerous for me to think he didn’t do it. Ultimately I’d say the blame lays at Manock’s feet.
Chick?!
I think there are lots of issues with Dr Manock's work, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. There probably wasn't enough evidence to convict Keogh, but I still think he did it. All those insurance policies with forged signatures - as if his lawyer fiance said she doesn't mind having her signature forged on legal documents. And he constantly cheated on her, giving no indication he actually wanted a future with her. I think he did it and now has the money he always wanted.
Adelaidean here…well told as always. I honestly don’t understand how anyone could still think there was an actual crime here. Definitely worth taking a look at Dr Robert Moles’ website. There’s a huge amount of info there on this and numerous other miscarriages of justice in South Australia. Manock and the people who have protected him over the decades have a lot to answer for.
The moment Manock’s name came up, I let out a furious gasp. He did so many of the highest profile autopsies in SA history and was just truly unqualified. Debi Marshall, in the Banquet book and also Frozen Lies podcast/ TV series, showed a lot of his enduring legacy of flawed autopsies. This includes the other high profile alleged miscarriage of justice of the Derrence Stevenson (David Szach, body in the freezer case) murder. So much of Manock’s work is incredibly iffy and represents some pretty damning issues with so many cases throughout SA history. As much as Banquet has its flaws, Chapter 29 about Manock (also touching on Keogh) is worth a read if you want it know about who they let become the top pathologist in SA.
It's pretty telling how the justice system won't review all of Dr. Manock's cases because they're worried they might have to pay a lot of wrongfully convicted people 🙃 Yeah, definitely better to let injustice continue. Sometimes I think the justice system prefers for a wrongfully convicted person to die in prison or be executed so they don't have to worry about lawsuits
I still believe he is guilty.
Yeah same I think Dr manock is wack but Henry is still guilty
Ummmm did you say Dr manock performed a PUBLIC AUTOPSY???? This man sounds absolutely vile and totally incompetent to be SA’s “top forensic expert” for nearly 30yrs… makes me sick how many cases have been wrongfully interpreted due to his negligence
Lot of American episodes lately, so good to be back to an Australian case - one that I haven’t heard of!