Original title
Murder Call
Released
8/11/1997
Origin country
AU
Genre
Crime, Drama
Production companies
Southern Star
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
3
Number of episodes
56
An unconventional team of homicide detectives face various cases, as led by Tessa Vance and Steve Hayden. Hayden is an often light-hearted 'man's man' who is moving up the career hierarchy, while Vance is more introspective and no-nonsense, and often solves the murder with intuition and insight. Their team includes boss Inspector Malcolm Thorne, Constable Dee Suzeraine, forensic services expert Lance Fisk, and unorthodox doctor Imogen 'Tootsie' Soames.
A man out for an early morning surf gets more than he bargained for when surf blows a corpse out of the water and into his face. It appears to be a routine investigation, natural causes being indicated... but complications arise when Tessa and Steve find they cannot identify the victim, and no-one steps forward to claim him. Surely someone should be missing a well-groomed man in his fifties?
Late night. A voice recites limericks on a moonlit beach. Suddenly, all goes quiet. A grey dawn, and a dog and its owner, the stern Major Richter, make a gruesome discovery - a human head attached to the very dead body of Adrian McCafferty who is buried up to his neck under the sand. Adrian drowned when the tide came in and covered him. Tessa and Steve learn that there was a beach party last night. Adrian was buried as part of a joke. Is his death simply a stupid party prank gone wrong, or is there something more sinister to discover?
Wheelchair bound Spinner congratulates himself on finishing a piece of artwork by pouring a cold beer and logging on to his favourite internet games forum. His pleasure is short lived, however, as a shadow falls across him and a lead pipe takes him out of the game... permanently. Tessa and Steve arrive on the scene to find the killer has taken the time to send the message ""Spinner Resigns"" over the internet to the victim's games partner. The murder takes on new importance when Dee reveals she knows the victim. While Dee tries to come to terms with her friend's murder, Steve and Tessa struggle to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
While investigating a series of bizarre murders, Steve and Tessa are drawn to the local community centre, a drop in for former mental patients. With a handful of suspects, but no real clues, Steve and Tessa must race against the clock to find the killer before he strikes again.
To the outside world former football star Robin Cochrane was a picture of charm, but when he is found poisoned by a chemical solvent, Tessa and Steve are forced to put together a picture of the not so pleasant private life of Robin Cochrane.
When Maddie Herman, a paparazzi photographer who made her living out of the gossip and innuendo of the lives of others is found murdered, Steve and Tessa have no shortage of suspects. But when the case takes a sudden twist, Steve and Tessa realise that someone is leading them on a merry chase, until the trail leads the team back to a very surprising suspect.
Steve and Tessa are called in to solve the murder of Trevor Parkin, his body was found one Friday afternoon in a zoo - he was wearing a gorilla costum. The more they discover about the deceased, the deeper the mystery, and although all the witnesses are helpful, there is no suspect, and no clear motive..or is there?
Abel Jago sits dead in an armchair before his valuable toy railway, on which the train of cars make their rounds. The railway engineer left a short farewell letter to his wife Ellie before committing suicide. Tessa however soon has doubts about Jagos suicide and when the autopsy results come in, it is revealed he was poisoned with cyanide.
Tessa and Steve are confronted with a conspiracy of silence while investigating the death of a man with a history of abuse.
Steve and Tessa are baffled when former football star Wayne Pascall is found stabbed to death in a lift, with a missing woman's handbag next to his body.
When Krystyan Balzan is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in his house, Steve and Tessa believe he came home unexpectedly and disturbed a robbery in progress.
Steve and Tessa investigate the death of a woman found in an area notorious for prostitutes. When they learn the woman was a pregnant nun and not a prostitute, their investigation takes a new turn.
When a mummified body is found in an empty house, it is identified as that of Karen Diskin, the daughter of police inspector Snowy Muldoon, who went missing two years earlier.
The brutal murder of a video store owner initially appears to be linked to a protest demonstration until other suspects emerge.
Tessa suspects an apparent suicide is really an elaborate scam designed to cover a woman's disappearance.
When the general manager of a department store is found dead during the store's opening, the owner and employees become the main suspects in the investigation. Steve is haunted by a face from his past, and Tessa pursues the case alone.
When a professional stuntman is found dead, hanging in a harness outside the window of his apartment, Steve and Tessa must determine whether it was an accident, suicide or murder.
Steve and Tessa rush to solve the crime of a man who is murdered on his 50th birthday.
When Dr. Theo Magnus, a leading cosmetic surgeon, is ambushed in his clinic and brutally murdered with a scalpel, his family and staff shed little light on the mystery.
Steve and Tessa investigate when the body of a young women is found, having been killed by a blow to the head before being set alight.
When a young woman is electrocuted by her twin brother's robot, the subsequent investigation leads Tessa and Steve to uncover a bizarre tangle of relationships.
The body of a beautiful women, victim of hit-and-run accident, is taken to the morgue. Tootsie arrives shortly afterwards to find the body missing and her new assistant murdered.
When the body of a women is found in a local dump, Tessa and Steve discover that her husband received a ransom note two days before.
A gruesome discovery draws Steve and Tessa into a case that leads them into the dark stormwater tunnels of the city.
Thorne is convinced he saw a man pushed off a building roof, but cannot locate the body at first. When the body turns up, Steve and Tessa not only have to track down the killer, but discover why the body disappeared.
A bizarre murder in a city amusement park is the first in a series of horrible killings inspired by an innocent nursery rhyme. Homicide's youngest and brightest detective, Tessa Vance, is confronted by a psychopath from her past as the nursery rhyme killer prepares to strike again.
A bizarre murder in a city amusement park is the first in a series of horrible killings inspired by an innocent nursery rhyme. Homicide's youngest and brightest detective, Tessa Vance, is confronted by a psychopath from her past as the nursery rhyme killer prepares to strike again.
Steve and Tessa uncover a web of blackmail and obsession while investigating the murder of two business partners.
When the detectives attend an extravagant costume hire shop, they find the shop's young security guard dead.
When a food critic drops dead in a restaurant, Tessa finds there is no shortage of suspects as the critic was universally loathed and regularly received death threats.
Steve and Tessa are called to the murder scene of a woman who had called the police twice the night before she was murdered.
When Tessa and Steve investigate the death of a museum curator, they soon realise that his public face as a knowledgeable and well liked man who could rake in the funding dollars, hides a private life littered with sexual indiscretions and money troubles.
When the referee at a women's soccer match is murdered in full view of 100 people, the detectives are puzzled when they cannot find a single eyewitness.
The Klein String Quartet is a hotbed of passions and hatreds. When its founder and first violinist is found murdered, the other three members come under Steve and Tessa's spotlight.
Tessa and Steve are drawn into a web of mystery and intrigue when legendary paleontologist Dr. Charlie Minogue is murdered, and his attractive assistant disappears.
Following the bizzare murder of a medical professor, Tessa and Steve must carefully interpret a series of cryptic clues left by the killer.
Tessa and Steve investigate when a young blind man is found dead in a swimming pool.
A sports teacher is found impaled at a boarding school and is found by Fisk's older sister. Tessa and Steve investigate, but Fisk is frustrated when his sister is interviewed, and he is excluded.
A mutilited body is found near a church, with identical markings to the victims of a serial killer 15 years ago- Thorne's first case. Experiencing a sense of deja-vu, Thorne heads the investigation. Has the killer returned, or is this a copycat crime?
Steve and Tessa investigate when a young woman is found hanging from a tree limb in a popular city park, and Tootsie's preliminary findings indicate it was not suicide.
A vagrant is found dead at an inner city underpass surrounded by the corpses of poisoned sparrows. When Tootsie diagnoses death by strychnine, Tessa, Steve and Thorne fear that someone is out there trying to purge the streets of the homeless. But the investigation takes a twist after Fisk finds $10,000 hidden in the vagrant's mattress.
When a woman is found murdered in a neighbourhood that is terrorised by a local gang, Steve and Tessa are called in to investigate.
Tessa and Steve are called in to investigate a series of murders revolving around a prominent bio-chemistry lab.
Tessa and Steve investigate what appears to be a routine case, but soon uncover a dangerous web of blackmail and righteous fanaticism.
Following the suspicious death of an elderly worker, Tessa and Steve must race against time to avert another tragedy growing from the ruins of the first.
Tessa and Steve uncover a web of intrigue surrounding businessman Brian Hart's horrific death when he is killed as he commutes to work by train when a letter bomb concealed in a card explodes. Tessa and Steve are confronted by a bewildering array of suspects and motives to finally apprehend the person they believe to be the killer, only to realise at the last moment that they only have it half right.
Tessa and Steve investigate a murder where nothing is as it seems.
When horror novelist Sebastian Tombs is found lying dead with a knife in his back, Tessa and Steve must investigate the four people closest to him, each of whom has a strong motive for committing the murder.
As a crypt is opened for an interment, the funeral goers are shocked to discover the sarcophagus already occupied by the corpse of a young woman holding a rare orchid in her hand.
A man's body is found floating in a spa, a large roll of cash stuffed into his mouth. Steve and Tessa discover that almost everyone who knew him had a reason to kill him.
A busker suffers from hallucinations while performing mime outside a train station. When he collapses and dies, Tootsie's autopsy points to poisoning.
A woman is ripped to shreds by savage dogs on the grounds of an empty house. Steve and Tessa must determine whether her death was an accident, or if the dogs were trained to kill by someone with a grudge and a vicious streak.
At the opening night of his exhibition, artist Vincent Osborne's head is discovered inside his own death mask.
While attending a school reunion, Tessa is called to a homicide on the school grounds. The victim is one of her friends — stabbed in a reenactment of a Muckup Day prank, leaving Tessa as either a suspect, or another possible victim.
Tessa and Steve investigate when a psychic conducting a séance in a storm-swept house is shot dead by the ghost of the man he was trying to contact.
The cleaner at an up-market beauty parlour makes a gruesome find — the proprietor strung up in a tanning booth and roasted like a pig-on-a-spit. Tessa and Steve's investigation uncovers a wealth of secrets and resentments harboured from birth.
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