The unsolved murder of Stephen Sweeney: Sexy literary parody, yoghurt and robot dogs. Artwork

Everyone Dies In Sunderland: A podcast about growing up terrified in the eighties and nineties

Everyone Dies In Sunderland is a podcast about growing up terrified in the eighties and nineties. Ah, the good old days. People left their front doors unlocked. Children played out in the street. Everyone got burgled. Children got murdered, like, most days. Then there was Mad-Cow Disease and the Animals of Farthing Wood. It was a truly terrifying time to be a child. And those children are adults now. Adults with children and mortgages and Senseo Machines and jobs with actual responsibilities.And three of them have started a podcast where they laugh nihilistically at their own childhood trauma. Each week John, Gareth and Claire travel back to a year of their childhoods in North East England - like a True Crime Geordie Quantum Leap - and talk about what scared and scarred them that year, taking a closer look at one of the notorious crimes which were happening within walking distance of their childhood homes while they were watching Going Live.

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Everyone Dies In Sunderland: A podcast about growing up terrified in the eighties and nineties

The unsolved murder of Stephen Sweeney: Sexy literary parody, yoghurt and robot dogs.

August 01, 2021 • Everyone Dies In Sunderland • Season 1 • Episode 16

On July 8th 1998, Stephen Sweeney didn’t come home from work.

Maybe this wasn’t unusual – his furniture business had been struggling lately, so it’s to be expected that he was working every hour he could to keep the factory open. But he wasn’t answering his phone. And at 9pm his partner went to the Gateshead factory to see where he was. She found him shot dead at his desk.

There was no sign of a struggle or break in – and nothing had been taken. There was a security guard on duty, but they saw or heard nothing. There was CCTV at the site but no sign of the gunman was recorded.

What happened? 21 years later, we still don’t know. And the police interviewed a lot of bus passengers.

There’s also sexy literary parody, yoghurt and robot dogs.

Gareth has a birthday party for a labrador. Claire pursues an anti-tagine agenda and ends up tormented by rodents. John tries his hand at sports coaching.

Along the way: Deep Blue Something! Killer Net! Spice World!

For all our snark, Stephen’s partner and daughter deserve to know what happened, and Stephen deserves justice. If you know anything at all please call Gateshead East Area Command on 0191 221 9058.

Recommended podcasts: Maximum Power Up and Whatever Happened to McDonalds Pizza

Bring yer dinner! https://youtu.be/XVj45yN72uU

Chicks dig scars! https://youtu.be/Q6E4Oy6pFKQ

You can reach us on email everyonediesinsunderland@gmail.com, on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Our theme music is “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here: https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

Some animals were harmed during the making of this podcast. Again.

My self-esteem’s not low enough to date you.