Shortcut: A Dark End to Donna Fitchett's Dark Life

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a "Shortcut" episode. It’s a shortened version of this week’s more detailed full episode, which is also available on our feed.

Content warning: this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence against children.

In March 2025, Donna Fitchett’s story came to a grim end, just weeks after her release from prison.

Fitchett had served 15 years for the shocking murders of her two young sons, Thomas and Matthew.

Criminologist and Forensic Pathologist Dr. Xanthé Mallett, author of Mothers Who Murder, joins us on this episode to delve into the psychology of a person capable of such an unimaginable act of betrayal.

Links:

Click here to purchase Mothers Who Murder.

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CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on instagram.

Guest: Dr. Xanthé Mallett

Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In March 2025, the body of 66-year-old Donna Fitchett was discovered in a flat in Perrin in Melbourne.
0:12.9	Police quickly established there were no suspicious circumstances involved in her death,
0:17.3	but it was a fittingly dark end to a dark life.
0:21.3	Donna Fitchett had been released from prison just three weeks before her death.
0:25.7	She'd served 15 years for the murders of her two young sons, Thomas 11 and Matthew 9.
0:33.2	Our Dr Zanthi Mallet covered the case in her book, Mothers Who Murder, and she joins us on Australian True Crime to talk us through it.
0:41.3	This is Australian True Crime.
0:43.0	We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created,
0:47.6	the Wurundri Woi Warang people of the Koolin Nation.
0:51.1	And a warning. This episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
1:03.4	Better Help Online Therapy bought this 30-second ad to remind you right now, wherever you are, to unclench your jaw. Relax your shoulders.
1:17.2	Take a deep breath in and out. Feels better, right? That's 15 seconds of self-care.
1:28.4	Imagine what you could do with more.
1:31.0	Visit betterhelp.com forward slash random pod for 10% off your first month of therapy.
1:37.3	No pressure.
1:38.5	Just help.
1:39.4	But for now, just relax.
1:42.8	Fancy a fever tree.
1:44.9	In a glass with ice and rum?
1:49.2	You thought I was going to say gin, didn't you?
1:52.0	But I'm talking about fever tree ginger beer,
1:55.0	made from three gingers for that perfect blend of freshness,
	...

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