Bitter Endings Podcast

In January of 1980, twenty-one-year-old Helene Pruszynski was interning at a radio station in Denver, Colorado. At the end of her shift she left to take the bus home to her aunt and uncles' home in Englewood, Colorado. She never arrived. The next day her brutalized body was found in a barren field. Her murder would go unsvolved for forty years.  Find Episode Show Notes Here This episode is sponsored by my latest fiction release, Coem Home, Katie. You can find that here. 

Tammy Schuster is a psychic medium, life coach and paranormal investigator in northern Michigan. In this episode we talk about her experience as a medium, her beliefs about good and evil and her experiences doing paranormal investigations.  You can find Tammy on her website here: https://www.tammyschuster.com/ Show Sponsor: The Troubled Spirits Series

This is a short update with information about some changes happening on the podcast. Primarily those include the name change from Bitter Endings to Between Light and Dark as well as new episodes featuring interviews with mediums and paranormal investigators in addition to true crime cases. 

The horrors began in Scarborough, Ontario in Canada in 1987 with the rape of a young woman who was attacked in front of her parents' home. Eventually the rapist would gain a partner and escalate his crimes from rape to murder. The couple behind the terrible crimes would eventually be dubbed the Ken and Barbie killers.  Show notes: The Biter Endings Podcast Show Sponsor: The Scream Sisters by J.R. Erickson Contact Me

It was March 21st of 1980, and residents of Newport, Rhode Island were on the cusp of spring and 19-year-old Diane Drake was in the spring of her life. A time when most young people have given little thought to their own mortality. Unfortunately for Diane, that March would be her last. After departing for work on that stormy Friday, she was abducted. Her strangled body would be found a stretch of Newport's Easton Beach the following morning. Her case remains unsolved. Show sponsor: Grave Devotion Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/dianedrake

It was after eleven pm on April 4th, 1991 in Clinton, Missouri when twenty-year-old Angela Hammond's friends dropped off at her car which was parked in a grocery store parking lot. She walked to the payphone and called her fiancé. As they spoke a man in a green pickup truck pulled up to the phones and violently abducted Angela. Horrified, her fiancé jumped in his truck and raced to the grocery store. He caught sight of the pickup truck and gave chase, but his truck broke down and he watched Angela disappear into the night. She was never seen again. Full Show Notes Show Sponsor: Ashes Beneath Her  

It was May 12th, 2018, an ordinary day in the life of Joleen Cummings, but one tinged with excitement because the next day was her birthday and Mother's Day. The mother of three worked her shift at Tangles Hair Salon in Yulee, Florida. What came after would be a mystery that baffled her family, friends, and investigators. It appeared that Joleen had left the salon and vanished into thin air. The truth would be far more sinister. Full Show Notes Show Sponsor: Grave Devotion 

Mina Dekker was just nineteen years old when she walked into work in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 4th, 1938. She would never walk back out. Sometime in a span of mere minutes while she was alone, someone walked into the building and brutally beat Mina Dekker to death. Show Notes at Bitter Endings Show Sponsor: Ashes Beneath Her (a Northern Michigan Asylum Novel)

Today's episode covers two unrelated murders that I originally released on my Patreon as mini episodes.  Eve Wilkowitz was murdered in New York IN 1980 and the idenity of heR killer would remain unknown for more than forty years. Christina Harris was murdered in Michigan in 2014. Her family would spend years demanding justice when police ruled her death an accidental overdose.  Full show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/eveandchristine Show Sponsor: Flowers in Her Bones by JR Erickson

Saturday, October 24th, 1953, was an otherwise ordinary day for fifteen-year-old Evelyn Hartley. She left her home to babysit the young daughter of her father's colleague. That evening as many of the community in La Crosse, Wisconsin were attending a homecoming game, someone would enter the house where Evelyn was babysitting and violently abduct her. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/evelynhartley Show Sponsor: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Hollow-Hideaway-Troubled-Spirits-ebook/dp/B0B4HCQNPH/ Paperback Giveaways: http://jrericksonauthor.com/2022/10/black-hollow-hideaway-plus-launch-contest.html/

This episode of the Bitter Endings Podcast was originally a mini episode for Patreon members. It features two unrelated cases of girls who vanished and were later found murdered. Caroll Ann Cole and Stacey Chahorski were both young women from Michigan who went missing and met with foul play in other states.  Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/carolcoleandstaceychahorski Show sponsor: The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It was September 7th, 1979, a time of freedom for young people including twelve year old Lesia Michelle Jackson who lived in Conroe, Texas. That Friday the shy, blonde Lesia swam in the lake after school. When she emerged from the water, she had no idea that the day would be her last. That evening Lesia disappeared, her brutalized body would be found five days later and the hunt for her killer would last decades. Show Notes Audiobook Giveaway Troubled Spirits Series Patreon By Me a Coffeee

It was labor day, usually a time for celebrating but for Valerie Pride and her two daughters it would be the last day of their lives. Valerie was just 24 years old on September 6th, 1982. She'd just moved into a beautiful new home with her beloved little girls, Shonita who was eight and Duana who was four. She could not have imagined when the she purchased the Spanish style home at 1545 E. Ardmore in Phoenix, Arizona that it would be the setting for their brutal murders. Show Notes Patreon Darkness Stirring Audiobook Buy Me a Coffee

The weekend of October 3rd, 1997 began as a fun weekend of camping for fourteen year old Lauren Barry and sixteen year old Nichole Collins in Kalaru area near Bega, Australia. Hanging with friends, horseback riding and siting around the bonfire were the extent of their plans. However, on Sunday October 5th, the girls made a fateful choice to leave their camp and walk a dark isolated road to visit a friend in town. That night they would vanish and when the gruesome story of their murders was finally revealed, the devastation would leave lasting scars on their families, friends and community. Show Notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/laurenbarryandnicholecollins Flowers in Her Bones: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VFZ3KRG Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings BuyMeaCoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings

Almost five decades ago on January 23rd, 1974, 56-year-old Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was brutally attacked and murdered on the front steps of her home in St. Augustine, Florida. A month later, a man was arrested and charged with her murder—and yet, to this day, the case remains officially unsolved. Shiw notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/athalialindsley   Ashwood's Girls: https://www.amazon.com/Ashwoods-Girls-Troubled-Spirits-Novel-ebook/dp/B09B654CMN/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings BuyMeaCoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings

This is episode 2 of the MacDonald Murders. You'll want to listen to episode 41 before listening to today's episode. Part 2 begins with the convening of a grand jury hearing to examine the evidence that Jeffrey MacDonald murdered his wife, Colette and daughters, Kimberly and Kristen. Show sources: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/macdonaldmurderspart2 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/Troubled-Spirits-6-book-series/dp/B08KSC9SV1

This is a two part case on the murders of Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen MacDonald.  They should have had it all and for a time it seemed they did. Jeffrey MacDonald was a surgeon and a green beret. Colette MacDonald was his beautiful, doting wife, pregnant with their son. They had had two lovely daughters, Kimberly and Kristin. The life before them was luminous. It was all shattered on a cool rainy night on February 17th, 1970 when the lives of a young mother and her two daughters were brutally taken. Show Sources: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/macdonaldmurders The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1 Bitter Endings Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings Buy Me  a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings

It was a cold Michigan night on March 12th, 2004 when 39-year-old Mary Denise Lands vanished without a trace in Marshall, Michigan. Allegedly she got into an argument with her boyfriend Chris Pratt that evening and leaving her cell phone and keys to her Dodge Durango behind, she walked into the frigid night. She was never seen again. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/marylands Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings BuyMeACoffe: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings Still Falling: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Falling-Troubled-Spirits-Novel-ebook/dp/B09M8TB4SF/

If life had unfolded for Susan Smith the way it did for most residents of Pikeville, Kentucky, she never would have met FBI agent Mark Putnam. But life is unpredictable and in Susan's case, a relationship which should have been among the safest in her life turned out to be the deadliest. Susan vanished on June 8th, 1989. It would be a year before her whereabouts were known. A year of wondering if she left, or perhaps was silenced by her ex-husband, a year of grief for the children and family she left behind. When the truth of what occurred on that fateful summer night was revealed, those who loved both Susan Smith and Mark Putnam were devastated. Show sources: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/susansmith Show Sponsor: Still Falling-A Troubled Spirits Novel: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Falling-Troubled-Spirits-Novel-ebook/dp/B09M8TB4SF Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings

It was a windy October night in 1995 when the family of Debora Green and Michael Farrar was forever ripped apart. A fire had started at an upscale house in Prairie Village, Kansas, and by the time it had run its course, the once immaculate home would be little more than charred ruins. Amongst those ruins lay the bodies of 12 year old Tim Farrar and six year old Kelly Farrar.   Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/deboragreen Show Sponsor: Still Falling: A Troubled Spirits Novel: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Falling-Troubled-Spirits-Novel-ebook/dp/B09M8TB4SF/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings  

It was an ordinary morning in Helena, Montana for nineteen-year-old Pamela Dorrington on February 17th, 1968. Pamela slept in her second story apartment, her black lab nearby, as her cousin and roommate left for her shift at the hospital. Pam's roommate would return that afternoon to find Pam gone. The vanishing of Pamela Dorrington would spur a massive search for the nineteen-year-old, but four months would pass without any clue as to what had happened to the young woman. The worst possible answer would arrive when a man found Pamela's mutilated torso floating in the Missouri River north of Helena. Fifty-three years would pass without an arrest in Pamela's case. Resolution finally appeared in December of 2021 when Courtney Atlas, Pam's former landlord, confessed to murdering and dismembering her in 1968. Show Sources Some Can See: A Northern Michigan Asylum Series Novel Patreon Buy Me a Coffee

It was a chilly spring day on May 8th, 2002 when a farmer drove onto his wooded property in Ottowa County, Michigan. It was an area where he grew and harvested blueberries. As he drove through the property he made a chilling discovery. A burned body lay in a trunk in an area of scorched forest. The murder victim would remain unidentified for more than a decade. When his name was at long last known a horrendous murder plot would be revealed. Roberto Caraballo died at the hands of his wife Beverly McCallum, his step-daughter Dineane Ducharme, and Dineane's friend Chris McMillan. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/robertcaraballo Show Sponsor: Ashwood's Girls Support Me on Patreon Buy Me a Coffee

She looked like an ordinary housewife, a mother, a grandmother. Full bodied, always smiling as she prepared dinners and baked pies. But the innocent appearance of Nannie Doss belied a much darker, much uglier persona. Nannie was a murderess, a woman who killed not only callously, but casually, eliminating husbands and members of her own family with total disregard for human life. Show notes Ashwood's Girls Patreon for Bitter Endings Buy Me a Coffee

It was Sunday, April 12th, 1992 when nineteen-year-old Amanda Davies left her home in Dansville, Michigan to meet a friend. She would never return home. Eleven days later her brutally murdered body would be found in an isolated location in Mason, Michigan. Complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/amandadavies Show sponsor: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KSC9SV1 Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/bitterendings Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bitterendings

It's been fifty two years, more than five decades, since a terrible mystery that continues to haunt a small northern Michigan town occurred. It was Halloween day, October 31st 1969, when 16 year old Patricia Spencer and 15 year old Pamela Hobley walked away from Oscoda High school in Oscoda, Michigan. They had fun plans for the evening, which included the Oscoda Owls homecoming football game and a Halloween party. The girls would not attend either event and after getting a ride into downtown Oscoda, they would never be seen again. For show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/pamhobleyandpatriciaspencer Show Sponsor: Ashwood's Girls: https://www.amazon.com/Ashwoods-Girls-Troubled-Spirits-Novel-ebook/dp/B09B654CMN

It was an unseasonably warm day on March 13th, 1996 when 25-year-old Danielle Shinaver finished work and prepared for an evening hanging out with friends at her new apartment. Danielle's life had not been easy, but the tide was turning and things were looking up. However, sometime in the early morning hours of March 14th, 1996 a person entered Danielle's apartment and savagely beat her to death. Her murder remains unsolved. Show sources: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/danielleshinaver Show Sponsor: Darkness Stirring Novel Halloween Contest

It was the kind of crime that lingered, that ripped apart families, that left detectives sleepless and wondering. It was October 28th, 1994, just three days before Halloween when the bodies of twenty-three-year-old Stacy Ann Falcon-Dewey and her three-year-old son Jacob were found shot and discarded in the middle of an isolated street in Renton, Washington. Though their murderer would eventually be discovered through the use of DNA, little justice would come for Stacy and Jacob. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/staceyfalcondewey Halloween Contest: http://jrericksonauthor.com/2021/09/halloween-yet-giveaway.html/ Troubled Spirits Novels: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1  

It was December 7th, 1993, weeks away from Christmas when eighteen-year-old Rosie Larner climbed into a car in the cold, early morning hours in Lansing Michigan. She had no reason to be afraid. She was with friends, people she loved and trusted. She did not know she was hours away from breathing her blast breath, and that her brutal murder would send shock waves through the community of Lansing, Michigan and change her families lives forever. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/roselarner Show Sponsor: The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It was a spring Sunday on April 18th, 1943 when four boys wandered into Hagley Wood in Worcestershire, England. They had no idea they were about to stumble upon a crime scene that would mystify the world for decades to come. Hidden inside a strange looking tree known as a wych elm was the body of a woman. This woman's identity still remains a mystery.  For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/wychelm Darkness Stirring: https://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Stirring-Troubled-Spirits-Novel-ebook/dp/B092KCSJHQ 

On June 30th, 1987 22-year-old Anita Carlson had a lot to be excited about. Two months before she'd graduated with honors from Bemidji State University with a degree in communications and she'd already been offered a job at a television station. The upcoming weekend was an exciting time for residents in Bemidji. It was the fourth of July and many people celebrated by visiting the Water Carnival. Anita had no reason to suspect her future was anything but bright. Sadly, her promising life would come to a bitter end when she abducted from Pete's Place West, a convenience store where she was working the night shift. A week later her body would be discovered in a heavily wooded area. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/anitacarlson Made in Michigan Giveaway:  http://jrericksonauthor.com/2021/07/made-michigan-giveaway.html/ Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It was an odd weekend for camping on October 8th, 2000 in Wallowa County, Oregon. The weather was cool and would soon be turning cold, especially in places like the Wollowa-Whitman National Forest, but that didn't deter 44-year-old Chris Northon and 38-year-old Liysa Northon from taking their three-year-old son into the mountains for a weekend in the outdoors. Tragically, though three people drove into the mountains, only two would come back out alive. In the early dark of Saturday, October 9th, Chris Northon would be shot in the head by the woman he'd married just four years before. For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/chrisnorthon The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-River-Inn-Troubled-Spirits-ebook/dp/B08HX1XJ52  

It was warm spring day on Friday April 25th, 2008 in Aiken, South Carolina when 47-year-old Ann Fox Smith didn't show up for work. Ann was a beloved special education teacher at Kennedy Middle School and this was definitely out of the ordinary. As the day went on with no word from Ann, her friend and fellow teacher, Sally Ferriter drove to Ann's house on Whitney Drive to check on her. As she stepped from the sunny spring day into Ann's home, she did not realize she was moments away from a life altering discovery. Ann Fox Smith lay dead on the floor in a blood spattered bedroom. Complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/annfoxsmith Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

Nothing about Cherryl’s day on Friday January 4th, 2002 foretold the trouble awaiting her. The 37-year-old pediatrician lived in Bartlett, Tennessee; a city located northeast of Memphis with a population of more than 50,000 people. That evening, she attended a Memphis Grizzlies game at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis. Cherryl had season tickets and as a former basketball player herself, it was a sport she enjoyed. She went to the game alone, which was not unusual. After the game, around 10:30 .pm., Cherryl returned to her brick home located across the street from a golf course on Daybreak Drive in Bartlett Tennessee. Her close friend Andrea Fox and another girlfriend came over to hang out for a while, leaving around 1 a.m. These friends would be the last known people to ever see Cherryl Pearson. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/cherrylpearson Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It was a seemingly ordinary day for thirty-one-year-old stay-at-home mom Joan Risch on October 24th, 1961 at her home in Lincoln Massachusetts. Joan was married and lived with her husband and two children, a son and a daughter, in a nice suburban home in a quiet, safe neighborhood. That morning Joan’s husband went of of town on a business trip, and Joan went about usual day. Unfortunately that day would turn out to be anything but usual. Sometime in the early afternoon hours, while her young son slept upstairs and her daughter played at a neighbors, Joan would vanish mysteriously. She would leave behind a house smeared with blood and an array of clues that would puzzle investigators for sixty years. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/joanrisch Northern Michigan Asylum Series: http://jrericksonauthor.com

In the cold early morning hours of April 9th, 2011, 26-year-old Adam Campbell left Baron’s Bar where’d been hanging out with friends in downtown Escanaba, Michigan. He walked west on Ludington Street and seemed to vanish into the night. Adam would not be gone for long, just one hour after he left the bar, his body was found burning in a parked car in an alleyway behind a residential neighborhood in the 300 block of Escanaba. To this day neither law enforcement or his family know who put him there. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/adamcampbell Show sponsor: The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It has been nearly 27 years since 15 year old Chanty Shiverdecker disappeared after basketball practice in Alexander City, Alabama, nearly 27 years since her body was discovered at an abandoned lumberyard, and nearly 27 years without answers for her family. On December 9th, 1994, Chanty attended girls varsity basketball practice which was being held at Radney Elementary School in Alexander City, Alabama. Around 6:30pm, as practice ended and other girls were picked up by parents or took the bus back to their high school, Chanty stayed behind waiting for a ride. Her friends and family would never see her alive again. On February 24th, 1995, Chanty’s decomposed and nude body was discovered at an abandoned lumberyard near Highway 9 in Coosa County Alabama, approximately ten miles from the place Chanty was last seen. Nearly three decades have gone by without an answer to the question: Who killed Chanty Shiverdecker? If you have any information regarding the unsolved murder, please contact the Coosa County Sheriff’s Office at 256 377 2211 or email office@coosaso.com.   For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/chantyshiverdecker   Show Sponsor: www.jrericksonauthor.com

Many people will never have heard of Derry Township Pennsylvania. Those that have might think of small town America or perhaps that most iconic of American company’s Hershey Chocolate whose first factory was built and remains in Derry Pennsylvania. But every city has its mix of light and dark. In Derry Township the dark doesn’t get much worse than the unsolved brutal killing of 22-year-old Samantha Joann Lang on March 27th, 2007. Samantha’s life ended bitterly on the kitchen floor of her father’s home where she bled to death after an intruder slashed her throat. For nearly fourteen years Samantha’s family has lived with the horror of what occurred that night and with the mystery of who  stole her life. Full show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/samanthalang JR Erickson audiobook giveaway:  http://jrericksonauthor.com/freeaudio/

Bob Durst might have faded from the spotlight after Kathie’s case went cold, but the man would end up in the news again and again and each time a violent death seemed to be at the center of the focus on Bob Durst. Two more murders would occur that would put his name back in the headlines. The first was the shooting death of his close friend Susan Berman. The second, and much more gruesome of the two was the murder and dismemberment of Morris Black.

It probably seemed like a fairytale when 19 year old Kathleen McCormack met Robert Durst in New York in 1972. Kathie had grown up in a blue collar family. Robert, or Bobbie had grown up in one of the most wealthy and influential families in New York City. Friends later said it was love at first sight. Sadly the fairytale was not meant to be for Kathie and Bobbie Durst for behind Bobbies soft demeanor lurked another individual all together, a man who would commit the most heinous crimes and for years, decades even, get away with them. Kathie McCormack Durst would not witness the unraveling of Bobbie Durst. For on rainy January evening in 1982 she disappeared forever. Full show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/kathiedurst

It was a hot summer Saturday in Henderson County, Kentucky on August 26th, 1995. 23 year old Heather Teague went to an isolated area on Newburgh Beach to sunbathe and perhaps have some time alone. Her peaceful tranquility was shattered when a bearded man stole from the woods and grabbed Heather by her hair. He dragged the 23 year old away from the beach where the forest seemed to swallow her whole. Heather Teague was never seen again. Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/heatherteague Sponsor: Dark River Inn

In July of 1989, Fawn Cox was just sixteen years old, working at as a cashier at Worlds of Fun Amusement Park in Kansas City Missouri, and enjoying an ordinary life as teenage girl in the Midwest. Sadly, Fawn’s life would come to a bitter end on July 26th, 1989 when someone crept into a second story window in the home Fawn shared with her parents and two sisters. As her family slept, Fawn was brutally attacked, raped and murdered. Her murder would go unsolved for 31 years. For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/episode-17-the-murder-of-fawn-cox Show Sponsor: http://jrericksonauthor.com/

It was a chilly February day in 1981 when Deanie Peters, just 14 years old, stepped away from her brother’s wrestling practice to use the bathroom at Forest Hills Central Middle School in Ada, Michigan. She’s never been seen again. Today, nearly forty years later, what happened to Deanie Peters remains a mystery.   For complete show notes visit: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/deaniepeters

It’s December 9th, 2012, and 23 year old Julia Niswender is excited for Christmas. Santa and penguin decals cling to the windows of her first floor Ypsilanti apartment and candy canes hang from the door. She works her shift at Walmart and heads home for a relaxing evening in the apartment she shares with her two roommates. However, her quiet evening will have a violent end and for two days no one will be the wiser that tragedy has befallen the outgoing young woman. On December 11th, police will enter Julia’s apartment and make a horrifying discovery. The young woman has been murdered and left in her bathtub. Julia’s death is a mystery that persist to this day, nearly eight years later. For Complete Show Notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/julianiswender Episode sponsored by the Northern Michigan Asylum Novel - Ashes Beneath Her: See the Audiobook Here

Imagine it. It’s October 26th, 2014, just five days short of Halloween in southeast Michigan. The air is cool, the golden and red leaves of autumn have begun to fall from the trees. 22 year old Chelsea Bruck is excited for a Halloween bash at a large rural farm in Monroe County. The party is being thrown by the lead singer of a local metal band, it’s bound to be an exhilarating night. Chelsea has spent weeks perfecting her poison ivy costume. It’s a time of year when we celebrate the darker side of life. However, for Chelsea a night of spooky fun will become a night of horror. The party lasts well into the early morning hours of October 27th. It’s 3 am when Chelsea is seen walking to the parking area with an unidentified man. She will never been seen alive again. Chelsea has walked away form the party with the man who will rape and murder her, who will steal her future and forever alter the lives of those who knew and loved her.   For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/chelseabruck Sponsor: The Northern Michigan Asylum Series

A century has passed since the roaring 20s, nearly a century since the Great Depression that shook the foundation of most American lives. It was a time of unrest in our country, a time of changing values and for Mamie Thurman the peak of her life as well as its tragic end would arrive. On a rainy summer night in West Virginian, 31 year old Mamie Thurman walked out the door of the apartment she hared with her husband for the last time. Sometime in the late night or early hours of June 21st into June 22nd, 1932 a man drove Mamie to a remote mountain area. He slashed her throat and then shot her twice in the head before tossing her down the weedy embankment on the roadside. Her death would spawn a year long media outrage, but the mystery of Mamie Thurman’s death persists to this day. It’s not merely her mysterious murder, something ore haunts the people near Logan Wes Virginia. The ghostly apparition of a woman wanders the isolated mountain road 22 Mine Road, the place where Mamie’s corpse was discarded nearly a century ago. For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/mamiethurman Northern Michigan Asylum Series: http://jrericksonauthor.com/home/northern-michigan-asylum-series-2/  

There are certain places in this world we almost always feel safe. Our homes generally come in at number one, our workplaces are second. In the tragic and troubling death of Lorraine Kirkley, called Lori by friends and family, both of those two spaces would become places of danger. On July 21st, 1999, Lori, a cardiac nurse at the Northwest Indiana Heart Center, had a typical day working her shift before heading home to the house she shared with her husband, Rob, in Valparaiso, Indiana. Less than an hour after she arrived home, Lori would be forced from her house and led to her horrific rape and murder. Her killer would turn out to be someone Lori knew all too well… For complete show notes, visit the Bitter Endings Website: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/lorikirkley  

It’s a warm September evening in 2014 in the wooded hills of Butte County in northern California. Flames and smoke fill the sky as a car burns. Inside the car is the body of 25 year old California State University Chico student Marc Thompson. Marc is a brilliant young man, a psychology and sociology student, a human rights activist and a man friends will describe as an old soul, poetry in motion, and a person who made everyone feel welcome. Someone murdered Marc at the beginning of his future, a future in which he wanted to be a professor, he wanted to be the change in the world. So how does does such a life end in such tragedy? It’s one of those mysteries, one of those painful realities that too many people will face int his world. Adding depth to this mystery is the question about whether or not Marc’s murder was racially motivated. Marc was an African American man living in a predominantly white area in northern California. His murder remains unsolved. For complete show notes visit: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/marcthompson

Robert and Vicki Graves thought they were purchasing their dream house when they discovered Fox Hollow Farm in Indianapolis, Indiana. Soon, they would realize they were not alone in the house. Are the spirits of Herb Baumeister’s victims haunting the property where they were brutally murdered? Or perhaps, it is Herb himself who is behind the paranormal experiences people have had there.   For show resources visit: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/foxhollowhauntings

Something was happening to gay men in Indianapolis in the early to mid 1990s. Over the course of two years, beginning in May 1994, 10 men would vanish, mostly from clubs and bars that catered to gay men. This was, in a way, just the tip of the iceberg, other men and boys had been murdered in the previous decade. They were found strangled in streams and ditches along the 1-70 and 1-35 corridors in Ohio and Indiana. Herb Baumeister would murder more than a dozen men beginning in 1980. From the outside, Herb looked like a man who had it all. A happy marriage, healthy children, a successful business and a beautiful home located on more than 18 acres and known as the Fox Hollow Farm. Appearances, as many of us know, can be deceiving and rarely is there a more disturbing example than in the case of Herbert Baumeister. For complete show notes visit www.bitterendingspod.com.

On Friday September 15th, 1972, 19 year old Pamela Milam was excited for the weekend ahead. A sophomore at Indiana State University and a member of the Sigma Kappa Sorority, Pam had plans of attending several days worth of sorority activities including meetings, rush parties and more. Around 11 pm that fall evening, she ducked out of Holmestead Hall, where’d she’d attended a meeting, and told her sorority sister’s she’d catch up with them in a few minutes to eat at the Lincoln Quad on campus where she was staying for the weekend. Minutes turned into hours and Pam never arrived. The following day, Saturday September 16th, 1972, Pam’s father Charles Milam and her sister, Sam Milam would make a horrifying discovery. They opened the trunk of Pam’s car to find her bound and strangled to death inside. Pam’s murder went unsolved for 46 years, but thanks to genetic genealogy, investigators were able to put the oldest cold case in Terre Haute Indiana to rest. For complete show notes and sources visit: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/pamelamilam

June in northern Michigan is a time that residents look forward to all year. The harsh days of winter have gone, the mud and rain of spring are mostly behind us, and summer has reared her beautiful face. For fifteen-year-old, Melissa Simmons the summer of 1993 was full of promise. She’d just finished her freshman year at Mason County Central High School and started a new summer job at the Blue Lake Resort. Wednesday June 23rd had been warm and sunny reaching in the upwards of eighty degrees during the day. The warmth lingered that evening with temperatures hovering in the 60s. Melissa, Missy to her family and friends, left her parents’ home to walk to a friends a few blocks away. More than a week later, Melissa decomposing body would be found floating in the Pere Marquette River. Just three days after the discovery of her body, more than 50,000 people would flood into Ludington Michigan, just miles from Melissa’s home to watch the 4th of July parade and evening fireworks. This month marks 27 years since the unsolved murder of Melissa Simmons. Find show notes and complete sources at https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/melissasimmons