A Lethal Partnership Unveiled

Ever wonder what darkness lies behind the eyes of a killer couple? This episode peels back the layers of the sinister Moorhouse murders, where David and Catherine's twisted paths led them to the abduction of innocent Kate Moore. As Shannon and Danica dissect their chilling story, we reveal the impact of their traumatic histories on their descent into crime. From shoplifting and car theft to a lethal partnership, we explore the depths of their moral corruption over Mimosas. You'll be drawn into the psychological intrigue of pair killers, uncovering how their complex dynamics and premeditated strategies unfold in a tapestry of terror.

The tragedy of crime often casts a shadow on those we rarely consider: the families left to bear the weight of a relative's notorious actions. Catherine's tale is particularly wrenching, as even her own son endures the stigma of her deeds, advocating for her perpetual incarceration. This episode is a solemn reminder that the threat of violence can come from any gender, urging us all to maintain vigilance. Share your thoughts and cases with us on social media and join the ongoing discussion in our Facebook group. Until our next chilling encounter—cheers and keep an eye out for the unseen dangers that might be lurking closer than you think.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Catherine_Birnie

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/catherine-birnie-the-parasite-serial-killer-who-now-wants-freedom/news-story/7dbb6c2671d66234fd63230e8e85fbc9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Catherine_Birnie
https://youtu.be/es9bQ8qlg8k?si=3ydqiTVfFTL7W7LN

https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/birnie-david.htm

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Bringing you murder stories with Mimosas in hand.

Speaker 1: 0:18

Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' families in mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information, with some information that is more verifiable than others. With that, grab your Mimosas and let's dive in. Hey, true crime fans, if you know us, you know we're avid readers and we have partnered with Pango Books and we will be selling our own books, some that we've used to research our cases, others that we've read just for fun, and we want to give you a discount if you're buying from us.

Speaker 2: 1:15

So just use code Mimosas10. Welcome back. I'm Shannon and I'm Danica. Today we're going to tell you the story of the Morehouse murders. So grab your Mimosas. You sip while we share.

Speaker 2: 1:31

17 year old Kate Moore went to a concert with her friends in Perth, australia. Her friends are driving her home. When she tells them it's too far, just let me out, I'll walk the rest of the way. She's walking home when a couple pull up and offer her a ride the rest of the way home. She graciously accepts and gets in the back seat. They slowly pull up to her house, but they don't stop. They continue driving and she begins to reach for the door handle when she realizes there aren't any door handles in the back seat, nor are there window handles. The couple pull over past her house and the man, david, takes her head and rams it into the back seat, while the woman, catherine, pulls a butcher knife and puts it to her neck. She is then tied up, wrapped in a blanket and, before she's gagged, she asks if they're going to kill her. And Catherine says quote will only rape you if you're good and quote when is this?

Speaker 1: 2:31

I know you said something about handles on the doors and windows. Just it could be an older car, but it kind of leads me to believe it's not.

Speaker 2: 2:39

This happened in 1986.

Speaker 1: 2:41

Okay and who are David and Catherine, and are they married?

Speaker 2: 2:47

Both of them have pretty dysfunctional upbringings, but don't we all? So let's start with David. David was the oldest of five kids. His father was a hard worker, but he was very rarely home because he was always at work. His mother didn't work outside of the home, but she didn't work in the home either. The house was disgustingly filthy all the time. She was an alcoholic, and the older kids were responsible for taking care of the younger ones. Once David's younger brother, james, broke something of his mother's and his mother shook a broom handle and beat David for letting this happen.

Speaker 2: 3:27

My heart hurts for these babies. They were in and out of what we call the foster care, but in and out of the system there in Australia, david began a life of shoplifting, car theft and breaking and entering. His first time caught was at the age of eight. He broke into a house and was sent to an institution for a little bit and he meets Catherine at one point when they are neighbors and they become fast friends.

Speaker 1: 3:54

I guess she would say Breaking in at eight years old. That blows my mind. I mean that either has to be like a learned behavior, but doesn't really something like his dad would done that and his mom was probably too drunk to, so this is probably like out of necessity for food or some sort of need. I mean, that's not usually how an eight year old thinks.

Speaker 2: 4:18

Right, I mean, that just blows my mind for this little boy. Then we have Catherine. Catherine's mother dies when she's two and she was giving birth to Catherine's little brother, who also ends up dying. Her father kept her for just a little bit while. He was also sexually abusive to her and he definitely did not need a daughter. So her maternal grandparents got her and took her to South Africa to live with them until her grandmother began to have seizures and her health declines. And then she's passed back to her father again and then to her hand, which is when she finally meets David.

Speaker 2: 5:01

David drops out of school at 15. He's a little small guy and he gets a job as a horse stalker. The horse trainer sets him up in a boarding house nearby, and the horse trainer gets a call one day from a lady that lives at the boarding house saying that David came in her room butt-naked and tried to rape her. The only thing that saved her was her little yapping dog that would not stop barking. And he's shocked at all this news and he fires David right away, which rightfully so. Okay.

Speaker 1: 5:34

I agree, definitely should have been fired. But at this point this little, this boy's 15, right and he's trying to rape someone, an adult at that. You may even think he would try this on a kid. That would be like scared of him. But a grown adult, he's a jockey. So we know he isn't big, but again, he has been in that of facilities all of his life, so who knows what type of things he's truly encountered.

Speaker 2: 6:01

Right. So the two of them have this strong bond but, like I mentioned, both are being shuffled all around and aren't always in one another's life. They seem to thrive on this dysfunction together, and not in a good way. The two to both engage in breaking and entering and shoplifting, you name it. They do it and they get busted, though when they're both 18, and they actually go to prison now to do some hard time.

Speaker 1: 6:32

I mean, do these two think they're body and clock?

Speaker 2: 6:35

I guess the media did romanticize them, and, to be honest, they weren't taught any better. If you think about it. They have no morals or no real upbringing. So, while in prison, though, catherine starts talking to a therapist, that makes her see that David's really bad news, and she finally gives him up for a while anyway, this therapist helps her get a job when she gets out as a housekeeper and she ends up marrying her client's son on her 21st birthday.

Speaker 2: 7:06

They go on to have seven kids, but sadly the very first of their children is run over right before Catherine's eyes, which wasn't good for her mental health.

Speaker 1: 7:17

I mean, that's not good for anyone's mental health, whether it's your child or not. I can't even imagine how I would be able to process that, what that would do to me if it was my own child.

Speaker 2: 7:32

I know I can't even fathom that. So David also gets married at 21 and he and his wife have one daughter. His wife says their marriage was good until about six years into their marriage. She says David got hit in the head at work with a drum and this caused a large gash on his head and a brain injury and she feels like David slowly started to change after that. He began having multiple affairs. She even saw an ad he placed in the Sunday Times looking for a fling.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Why on earth is she still there?

Speaker 2: 8:09

She said all this really did a number on her self-esteem and maybe she thought she can do better, or maybe she thought she didn't even deserve better. But this guy's out of control appetite for sex and he doesn't want it just daily, he wants it multiple times a day. I'm afraid he would have to find someone else.

Speaker 1: 8:33

No one has that much free time, especially with a child. Well, eventually he does.

Speaker 2: 8:37

This wasn't just one of his affairs. He moves this 16 year old girl in their house, he moves his daughter into the bedroom with his wife, and he and his girlfriend share his daughter's room. He and his girlfriend share his daughter's room.

Speaker 1: 8:55

Uh, okay, does he talk to his wife about this beforehand? And if he did, please to God tell me she wasn't actually okay with this.

Speaker 2: 9:07

No to both. He just willingly moves her in, doesn't say a word. This is when she finally decides that this is gone too far and she's had enough and she leaves after ten years of marriage, which she should have got out of the way before then. I just want to say, and I want to add this His wife said the affairs and all the changes started once he hit his head. But his youngest brother, james he talks about David's sex drive before he was ever even married. He said David needed sex every night and he broke up with this girl at one time and he had gone three whole days without sex and he came into his brother's room and he asked his brother to have sex with him and he said no. James woke up that night to David raping him and I couldn't find out how old he was at the time, but this is still mind-blowing, oh my god, he can't just take care of himself like most men?

Speaker 1: 10:15

and did his brother tell?

Speaker 2: 10:16

anyone, not until years later. So Catherine grew tired of being a wife and a mother and she sought David out and the two of them began having an affair while she was married. After also ten years of marriage, catherine leaves her husband and kids and she and David move into a house together on Morehouse Road. They never, never get married. But she changes her last name to Bernie and I mentioned David's brother before and when he turns 21, he says that David offered Catherine up to him to have sex with him for his 21st birthday present and he actually does take his brother up on this and he says this was his first sexual encounter with a woman.

Speaker 1: 11:07

This won't make family get together as awkward or anything.

Speaker 2: 11:11

I'm assuming they have any, but good Lord James actually ends up going to prison later after he rapes an 80-year-old woman and molests a six-year-old girl. Well, he doesn't discriminate Right, and it's in prison, when he's getting counseling, that he tells them about what David did to him years ago.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Okay, so we do see this a lot. If we could just break the cycle, stop the hurt. I mean, you hate hearing what people endured, but then it blows my mind that they're able to turn around and do it to someone else. But that's just what they know and they're able to justify it that way.

Speaker 2: 11:52

Right. I wish we could end the cycle, but I'm not sure how it began Probably David's sensational appetite for sex. But they decide they're going to find a girl for David to rape. David was working as a at a record shop when he meets 22-year-old Mary Nielsen. She, or he tells her that he has some discount tires and he can sell them to a really cheap. He gives her his number, she calls and she gets their address to stop by to get them. Once she enters the Dungeon of Doom, also known as the Bernie residence, she's gagged, strip-neckied, chained to the bed and raped. While David is raping Catherine, or while David, I'm sorry, while David is raping Mary Catherine's also touching him, trying to stimulate him.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Okay, could be wrong, maybe it's just me, but honestly it sounds like this man doesn't need any help being stimulated and I can't believe she's okay with this and nobody does nothing but like helps.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Yeah, this all brought me back to the Ken and Barbie murders. The first time I heard of what all they did, I was just like shocked at like what kind of behavior can happen in a couple. It just it makes no sense to me. But David drives this girl Mary's car back, he drops it off. They drive her to Glen Eagle National Park. Once there, david rapes her again, they strangle her with a rope and stab her in the heart and then dig a shallow grave to bury her in. Get this though these two read a perfect murder before they do any of this.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Oh, so they've researched well murders and how to get away with it. I guess Probably not enough for talking about it right here though.

Speaker 2: 13:49

Right so October 20th. Two weeks later, the two are cruising around looking for another victim when they spot 16 year old Susanna Candy, who was hitchhiking. These two freaks even made a code word for girls they wanted to take home, which was munchies. Catherine tells David she has the munchies, and this poor girl is taken back to their place. Well, after first bonding her and gagging her in the car, okay.

Speaker 1: 14:20

A codeword. Does it really need to be one? If you say, let's rape this one, what is she gonna do?

Speaker 2: 14:27

Yeah, I don't really get the codeword either. Like Mary, though, she's strip-naked and changed to the bed and raped. They forced Susanna to write letters to her family, though, so there wouldn't be suspicion as to what her whereabouts. They forced sleeping pills down her throat and strangle her after they drive her out near Mary and dig yet another shallow grave and bury her. And also, I'm not really getting the sleeping pills when you're gonna strangle somebody, but I can't think like them so.

Speaker 2: 14:59

So then, november 1st, the couple see 31 year old Nolene Patterson stranded on the side of the road. She ran out of gas on her way home from work, as with the others. They offer to give her a ride, but of course she never makes it home. David rapes her, like the rest, but he has some kind of weird attraction, or maybe bond, with this woman, and they force Nolene to call a friend and tell them that her car ran out of gas, but she's staying with some friends. They actually keep this lady for three days, and Catherine begins to get jealous. She finally tells David they have to kill her or she is killing herself.

Speaker 4: 15:43

On the Mortal Musings podcast. We like to take the cases seriously, but not ourselves. Each week on the Mortal Musings podcast, your host, Neil and Megan get into either a true crime case or a truly macabre story followed by a strange and interesting tale of oddity. Join us as we venture into the dark and disturbing world of the Mortal Musings. New episodes every Wednesday, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Oh, the world would have been such a better place. Has she just taken herself out? But I'm assuming that's not the case here.

Speaker 2: 16:32

Of course not. He gives her sleeping pills and then strangles her while she's sleeping. She is taking and very close to the others. November 5th, they are out hunting again and see 21 year old Denise Brown at the bus station and they offer her a ride.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Okay, the thing that gets me is had it been just David, I'm sure these girls what is it At least thinking like thought twice about taking a ride. Not thinking. That's not what I thought twice. I don't know, Maybe they would, because I know this was a different time and hitchhiking wasn't as big of a deal then. But I'm sure having a woman in the car definitely helped put them at ease, put their guard down, made them feel a little safer because you know, dude, no woman's gonna let you get in the car if it's dangerous.

Speaker 2: 17:24

Yeah Right, I thought about that too. You just automatically feel safer. They just don't know how demented this woman is, though, so Denise has done the same way. Chained to the bed and raped, they drive her to a panorupon plantation where they plan on burying her. I guess their normal spot was like filling up at this time. So David rapes her again in the car, and then they dig a grave for her after they have, after they've stabbed her in the neck. While they're throwing dirt on her in the grave, she sits up in the grave.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Oh, I would have peed my pants.

Speaker 2: 18:06

So David grabs an axe and hits her several times in the head and then they continue to bury her. So then, on November, not they offer a ride to Kate Moore.

Speaker 1: 18:22

Okay, so that's who you started with, right? Yes, and notice these are getting like progressively closer together.

Speaker 2: 18:32

Yes, definitely. Once they got started, apparently they couldn't stop. So the couple take her home, they have her in dress, they take all her personal items, such as clothing, whatever she has, put it in plastic bags and they actually label this with her name, address and age. And then they sit her down on the couch between them while they watch Rocky on the VCR and hold it off to her throat and they're just asking her about her personal life, about maybe who would be coming looking for her. So after the movie she's chained to the bed, both arms, both legs chained to each post of the bed, and she's raped by David While Catherine sits at the end of the bed and watches. They later force her to dance for them and David rapes her, again chained to the bed. They force her to call her parents and she tells them that she's had too much to drink and she's staying at a friend's house. When David is done, he handcuffs their feet together and she's giving sleep in pills. Kate puts the pills under her tongue and spits them out when no one's looking and she cries all night, knowing she's probably going to die. And she's scared to death to go to sleep because she doesn't know if she'd actually wake up if she goes to sleep.

Speaker 2: 19:57

Kate tried to befriend Catherine after David left for work that next day and Catherine actually let her guard down and unchain her from the bed and let her sit on the couch and watch Rocky yet again. Then Catherine hears a knock at the door, which turns out to be her drug deal. She shoves Kate in the bedroom and locks the door. While she goes to answer it, kate wastes no time. There's a window in the bedroom and she jumps out of it. She's got barely any clothes on, but that's the least of her concerns.

Speaker 2: 20:32

When she jumps, she does hit her head on the ground and probably suffered maybe a mild concussion because she's feeling nauseous and dizzy, but it could be the adrenaline too. She runs frantically to the neighbor's house and pounds on the door and doesn't get an answer. She runs to the next house, hoping Catherine isn't behind her. Still no answer. She runs into the neighbor's backyard and then is attacked by a dog, but this isn't about to stop her. She runs to the nearest business she can find and screaming that she has been kidnapped and raped. She begs the man in the store to call the police and tell him if a woman comes in saying she's her mother and they've had a fight, that this woman is not her mother.

Speaker 1: 21:18

I'm feeling nervous over here just listening to this. I cannot even imagine the terror that she had.

Speaker 2: 21:25

I know right, so let's listen to a little bit of this from Kate's own words.

Speaker 3: 21:31

You know you're going to die, but you don't acknowledge that to yourself. You don't live it. So how did you make the odds better for yourself? I didn't make the odds better for myself. Instead, I just kept evidence everywhere so that when I died, people would work out. I was one of the missing girls. I hid my lipstick in the bin bag and a pack of cigarettes threw her in the roof by standing on the back of the couch. So my parents and I had run away from home that day. Were the culprits?

Speaker 2: 21:57

The police pick her up and take her to the station. They actually aren't even believing her story because it all sounds so far fetched to them.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Okay, but what about all these missing women that are just like going missing around town? This doesn't give them a clue.

Speaker 2: 22:13

They aren't really on their radar yet because they have these women calling their families and friends, writing letters, so they're not even being reported missing as of this time, when she does go into the police station.

Speaker 1: 22:28

These calls and letters aren't going though right. Like after, you don't call me the next day. I'm still calling and reporting you missing.

Speaker 2: 22:35

So my knowledge, these families didn't. It was 1986 and you weren't as easily accessible and you didn't stay in touch if you weren't brought by a phone. So life 360 would have been great then, but they didn't even have a cell phone yet. So the police actually had a new employee, a 22 year old woman Constable. They sent her in there to get a statement because they didn't believe her. She did, though. Kate had actually planned on dying there and hit things all over the house. She threw her lipstick under a beanbag, she had cigarettes in the attic door. She had notes. She said she wanted someone to know. These were the people that took her. Once they were caught, she provided too many details for this to be a hoax, and she convinced the others. They asked her does she know their names? And she says they use fake names. She thinks, but she brought a medicine model in the bathroom and thinks the man's name is actually David Braun.

Speaker 1: 23:36

I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with her. She's just a teenager, but she had her wits about her, even in a crazy situation like this. Obviously, I hope this never happens to me, or anyone else for that matter, but if so, I just hope that I can like think this clearly, like she did.

Speaker 2: 23:53

Yes, and this was before all the true prom shows, even if there were shows. What they have done is it's really amazing when I hear about it, especially from that time frame. So the police of course, know the names as much as David spent with them. He directs them to the house and is sitting in the back of the car when she points to the house but becomes hysterical. I just want to say this is the part I'm not going to be able to do. I can't get from point A to point B without getting lost, so I would never have gotten them back to the house. So they knock on the door but no one answers. They barge on in and I can't find out if they didn't need a search warrant in Australia. They didn't care, or they have one that quickly. They find all the things Kate mentioned, brought down to the rocky and the VCR tape in the VCR, the chains, locks, lipstick, everything. Since no one is home, they sit in the car and wait. Catherine comes back and they get her and take her to the station. She says that Kate was there but this was a mutual sex thing she can send into all of this. And they bring David in and he says nothing forever, until later that night One of the officers finally says it's getting late, just tell us where to do. David does decide to give it up and lead them to the bodies, as well as Catherine. Catherine actually sits on the grave of Denise, the one she was jealous of.

Speaker 2: 25:26

Both are given life sentences, with Pharrell being possible after 20 years. David was put in a maximum security prison and soon after put in solitary confinement, not for anything that he did, but for his own safety, until that prison was closed in 1991. I don't know why he wasn't in the new prison. I guess no one cared about him, so he ended up hanging himself in his cell in 2005. Catherine was up for parole in 2007, but it was denied. The attorney general said it was likely that she would never be a parole as long as he remained in office. In 2010, there was a new attorney general, christina Potter. She received a request from the victim's family to never release her. She said that Catherine would never be released and marked her papers as never to be released.

Speaker 1: 26:23

I guess this stuff is possible and I'm all for it. But can we please do this in America too?

Speaker 2: 26:28

That would be so not rather than putting families through parole hearings over and over again, which, by the way, is something that Kate began trying to change? Catherine is the third woman in Australia to be marked as never to get out. Her son in fact requested she be executed in 2017. He says he's been assaulted several times just for being her son.

Speaker 1: 26:52

Oh, wow, that breaks my heart for him. We have to remember, and I think a lot of people forget, but they are victims too. Obviously he didn't choose to be her son, right.

Speaker 2: 27:05

So I know you guys are true coms tabby, but just remember a woman doesn't always mean no threat, so stay safe and stay tuned until we see you again next week. We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers.

Speaker 1: 27:35

If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermamosas on Instagram. You can also find us at murdermamosas on TikTok, twitter, and if you have a case you would like us to do, you can send that to murdermamosas at ginocom. And, lastly, we are on Facebook at Murder and Mamosas podcast, where you can interact with us there. We love any type of feedback you can give us, so please write your views on Spotify, itunes or wherever you listen to your podcast.