The Snowtown murders, also known as the Bodies in Barrels murders, were the murders of 11 (the twelfth charge of Suzanne Allen was dropped due to lack of evidence) people in South Australia, Australia between August 1992 and May 1999. The crimes were uncovered when the remains of eight victims were found in barrels of acid located in a rented former bank building in Snowtown, South Australia on 20 May 1999. The town of Snowtown is 145 km north of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Though Snowtown is frequently linked with the crimes, the bodies had been held in a series of locations around Adelaide for some time, and were moved to Snowtown in early 1999, very late in the crime spree that had spanned several years. Only one victim was killed in Snowtown; none of the victims or the perpetrators were from that town.Eight bodies were found in six plastic barrels in the disused bank vault on 20 May. Three days later two bodies were found buried in a backyard in Salisbury North, a suburb north of Adelaide. By the end of June, nine of the ten victims had been identified. The discoveries followed a lengthy, covert criminal investigation by South Australian Police. During the investigation two mysterious deaths already known to authorities were found to have been murders perpetrated by the "Snowtown" murderers.
A total of four people were arrested and charged over the murders. All were convicted of the murders or assisting in the murders. The Court decided that John Justin Bunting was the ringleader of this conspiracy. More than 250 suppression orders prevented publication of details of this case. In early 2011, a judge lifted the remaining orders in response to a request by the producers of the film Snowtown, a dramatic account of the murders.