The Maria Corp Case

It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction, and surely no case proves that more than that of the events leading to the slow, brutal death of Maria Korp. When the Melbourne mother of two went missing on 9 February 2005, police immediately suspected her wayward husband, Joe, and his mistress, Tania Herman. While Maria lay dying in the boot of her car near the Shrine of Remembrance, Korp made the fateful decision to point the finger of blame at his lover - and keep his role in her actions a secret.

Before long, however, the betrayed Herman decided to turn herself in,confessing to police a twisted tale of suburban swingers, predatory psychics, grand-scale deceptions, petty lies, and the outrageous manipulations of a man whose out-of-control ego and desires led him down a murderous path. Sunday Herald Sun journalist Carly Crawford followed the Maria Korp case from the beginning, and was one of the last people to have contact with Joe Korp before he committed suicide on 12 August 2005, the day of Maria's funeral.

In this extraordinary, gripping account she has gathered, for the first time, all the evidence - including statements to police by Herman and her brother, Stephen Deegan; text messages exchanged between Herman and Korp; conversations recorded by the police; Maria Korp's diary entries from the months leading up to her death, and excerpts from Joe Korp's diary - as well as depicting the drama surrounding the Public Advocate's decision to allow Maria to starve to death. The bizarre death - and almost as strange life - of Maria Korp is already one of Australia's most notorious criminal cases; The Maria Korp Case is a book you will never forget.