Is true crime our latest obsession, or just history's oldest guilty pleasure?
A brand-new exploration of historical true crime through the ages, exposes why we should be looking over our shoulders to the past with bestselling historian, Rebecca Rideal & Archaeologist, Professor Raksha Dave.
Together they will unpack the buried stories of crime and uncover the darkest chapters of criminal history, from victims and investigators to perpetrators and punishments.
Using archaeology as a key investigative tool, Raksha and Rebecca will uncover how a dig separates fact from folklore. Such as Otzi the Iceman - a body from 3300BCE discovered in 1991 - where the archeological examination of his bones provided a window into the last 48 hours of someone living thousands of years ago. Or the site discovery of The Salem Witch Trials, where a dig immediately dispelled the stories of gallows at the top of the hill and formal burials.
Using archaeology, history and modern forensic science, Buried Evidence reopens some of the world's oldest cold cases to separate folklore from fact.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Death in the Arctic: Franklin's Lost Expedition - Part 2
For more than a century, the Arctic was assumed to be keeping Franklin's secret; but it wasn't. The native Inuit people who lived there had been telling the story all along.
And yet for decades, another idea dominated the investigation; lead poisoning, bad tins.
But what if the evidence tells a different story? What if Franklin's men weren't brought down by a single fatal mistake—but by a catastrophe far more complicated than anyone imagined?
In the second part of the Franklin story, we ask what really helped kill him and his men.
Buried Evidence is part of The Crime Desk. Subscribe today for ad-free listening, early access to new shows, exclusive bonus episodes and complete access to our true-crime podcast collection. Visit thecrimedesk.com for more information.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
9 Oct 2026
Death in the Arctic: Franklin's Lost Expedition - Part 1
London, 1848. Three years have passed since Sir John Franklin and 128 officers and men sailed into the Arctic, in search of the Northwest Passage. No letters, no survivors, no ships.
What nobody yet realises is that Franklin's men may already be dead, buried across a frozen landscape thousands of miles away.
In the first of this two-part episode, we uncover the 180-year-old mystery of Franklin's ill-fated expedition. A mystery that has become one of the biggest cold cases - literally - in exploration history.
Buried Evidence is part of The Crime Desk. Subscribe today for ad-free listening, early access to new shows, exclusive bonus episodes and complete access to our true-crime podcast collection. Visit (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/on-the-case)thecrimedesk.com (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/on-the-case) for more information.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
2 Oct 2026
Here Be Witches: The Salem Witch Trials
It’s the 19th of July 1692 and thirty-nine year old Sarah Good, is the youngest of five women being trundled through Salem Village to a hill on the outskirts of the settlement. They are to be hanged as witches.
The events in Salem would see over 200 individuals accused, dozens of confessions, 30 convictions, 19 executions, a number of deaths in prison, and a seventy-year-old man tortured to death by pressing.
The trials have framed the way we think about mass hysteria - inspiring countless novels, tv shows and perhaps most famously Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. But what really went on? Who was accused, and why?
Buried Evidence is part of The Crime Desk. Subscribe today for ad-free listening, early access to new shows, exclusive bonus episodes and complete access to our true-crime podcast collection. Visit (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/on-the-case)thecrimedesk.com (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/on-the-case) for more information.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
25 Sept 2026
Lizzie Borden Took An Axe…
As the legend of Lizzie Borden comes to Netflix, we visit one of the most notorious murder mysteries in American history. A brutal double murder that inspired one of the darkest nursery rhymes of all time.
But what do we really know about this case? How much of it is a ghoulish sensation dreamed up by a press hungry to sell a good story?
In this episode we go beyond criminal legend to explore the real case of Lizzie Borden that begins in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August,1892, in a modest house on Second Street.
Buried Evidence is part of The Crime Desk. Subscribe today for ad-free listening, early access to new shows, exclusive bonus episodes and complete access to our true-crime podcast collection. Visit (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/on-the-case)thecrimedesk.com (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/on-the-case) for more information.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
18 Sept 2026
Ötzi: Murder on the Mountain
It's September 1991, two hikers in the Alps believe they’ve stumbled across the body of a climber who’d lost his way. He lies face-down in the ice. His arm caught awkwardly beneath him. A shoulder protruding from melting snow.
Police are alerted. Recovery teams arrive. And then someone notices the axe. Not iron. But Copper. At least five thousand years old. This man didn’t die in the mountains by accident. Someone killed him and the frozen Alps kept the evidence.
Buried Evidence is brought to you by The Crime Desk. Subscribe at thecrimedesk.com (http://thecrimedesk.com/) to get every new episode a week before anyone else, completely ad-free, plus full access to our entire true crime podcast collection, early access to new shows, and exclusive bonus episodes.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
11 Sept 2026
The Tragedy of the Titanic
11.39pm, 14 April 1912: A grand new Ocean liner, the RMS Titanic, cruises across the North Atlantic. It’s 4 days into a weeklong voyage from Southampton to New York. Most of the passengers have returned to their cabins after the evening’s dinner, music and socialising. Experienced merchant sailors Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee man the crows nest, 29 metres above deck level. Frederick is the first to spot the dark and terrifying mass ahead of them. He immediately rings the warning bell three times and phones down to the ship’s sixth officer James Moody, warning… "Iceberg! Right Ahead!"
Within hours the ship would be at the bottom of the ocean and nearly three quarters of its passengers and crew would be dead.
Guest: bestselling author, historian and creator of the hit podcast series Titanic: Ship of Dreams, Duncan Barrett.
Buried Evidence is brought to you by The Crime Desk. Subscribe at thecrimedesk.com (http://thecrimedesk.com/) to get every new episode a week before anyone else, completely ad-free, plus full access to our entire true crime podcast collection, early access to new shows, and exclusive bonus episodes.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
4 Sept 2026
St. Brice's Day Massacre
This story begins not on a battlefield, but beneath one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. In 2008, excavations at St John’s College, Oxford uncovered a mass grave of thirty-five men, buried without ceremony. Nothing about the burial looked normal. These weren’t individuals laid to rest. They were dumped. Bodies overlapping, limbs twisted, no sign of burial rites. And then the injuries become clear. Deep cuts to bone. Fractured skulls and the signs of burning.
This wasn’t a disease. This wasn't a famine. This was premeditated violence. And it might just be the physical evidence of a forgotten event recorded in medieval chronicles — The St Brice’s Day Massacre of 1002.
Buried Evidence is brought to you by The Crime Desk. Subscribe at thecrimedesk.com (http://thecrimedesk.com/) to get every new episode a week before anyone else, completely ad-free, plus full access to our entire true crime podcast collection, early access to new shows, and exclusive bonus episodes.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
4 Sept 2026
The Original Serial Killer
We tend to think about serial killers as being a modern phenomenon, but in France during the Hundred Years War, we find the story of a monster straight out of a horror film. A sadist, who kidnaps and murders young children to sacrifice them to the devil.
In perhaps our darkest case yet, we investigate Gilles de Rais. Military hero, comrade to Joan of Arc, wealthy aristocrat and… the most depraved of serial killers?
Buried Evidence is brought to you by The Crime Desk. Subscribe at thecrimedesk.com (http://thecrimedesk.com/) to get every new episode a week before anyone else, completely ad-free, plus full access to our entire true crime podcast collection, early access to new shows, and exclusive bonus episodes.
Email us at buriedevidence@thecrimedesk.com or WhatsApp us on 07796 657512, starting your message with the word BURIED.
Presenters: Rebecca Rideal & Raksha Dave
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Rowan Jacobs
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
26 Aug 2026
Coming soon... Buried Evidence
The Crime Desk presents Buried Evidence, a new weekly podcast where history meets true crime, unearthing the murders, mysteries and scandals of the past.
Hosted by historian and bestselling author Rebecca Rideal, and Time Team archaeologist and broadcaster Professor Raksha Dave, each episode uncovers a different case from history's darkest chapters, from victims and investigators to perpetrators and punishment.
Episodes 1 and 2 are available from Friday 4th September, wherever you listen to your podcasts. Follow the show so you don't miss an episode.
Crime Desk subscribers can unlock episode 3 on launch day and get every new episode a week before anyone else. Start your 7-day free trial at thecrimedesk.com (https://plus.thecrimedesk.com/buried-evidence).
Hosts: Rebecca Rideal, Professor Raksha Dave
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
For early, ad-free access to every episode of Buried Evidence as well as all our other incredible true crime shows, subscribe to The Crime Desk now. Visit thecrimedesk.com (thecrimedesk.com) to become a member today.
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Spotify
4.7 / 5
21 ratings
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