Enigma

You may have been wondering where we've been. Well, we have exciting news. We have been hard at work on a new podcast, Keepsake. If you are a fan of the stories told here, you are sure to enjoy Keepsake. Check us out at keepsakepod.com or wherever you get your Podcasts.

On this episode of Enigma we will look at a few of the different lighthouse stories Maine has to offer before focusing in on one tale of mystery in particular. Will they be tales of hope or horror? Like a ship sailing the waters on a foggy night, we’ll search for the light to guide us, to show us the way. But beware, the waters are rough and the shores rocky. And by the time you see the warning of the lighthouse beacon, it may already be too late to change course.

On the morning of July 5th, 1987 Kenny Kunz ran to his neighbors house to use the phone. His family had been murdered and his mother was missing. What transpired the night before was utterly tragic, but the events that unfolded after, and the details that emerged, painted a picture much darker and depressing than anyone expected. On this episode we’ll take you through the twists and turns of the Kunz family murders in the small town of Athens Wisconsin. From the brutal to the bizarre, this case is a scatter of puzzle pieces that refuse to fit together, and even though the whole picture is not clear to us, what we do see, is something wholly unsettling.

A legend from the Old West of a girl who ran with wolves, and the cowboys who sought to reintroduce her to society bears striking resemblance to the very real story of Genie and psychologists trying to reintroduce her to society. What can these two stories teach us about each other, if anything? And what can we learn about the feral children myths that exist all around the world?

Hummel Park in Omaha Nebraska is known as one of the most haunted places in America. Just ask the internet. The 202 acre park in the northern part of the city has seen multiple crimes including at least seven murders. There are also countless urban legends tied to it. The stories associated with the park range for the strange and unbelievable to the horrific and true. While some stories are clearly fact, and others fiction, there are still more stories that blur the lines between the two leaving a park’s visitor with a sense of mystery and perhaps, fear. Today on Enigma, we’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to take a tour of Hummel Park in Omaha Nebraska.

In Virginia there is a 23 mile stretch of road known as the Colonial Parkway. Over a ten-year span, a series of unusually similar murders occurred here. To this day, no one knows who is responsible. There could be one murderer, or many, living day to day with the rest of us. It's also possible that this killer moved on, and committed other similar murders. Many theorize the killer is either a police officer or park ranger. However, no one can say for sure.

In 2010 an eccentric millionaire art collector went into the wilderness north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. With him he had a chest containing over 2 million dollars of his personal fortune. He hid it somewhere out in nature, and only left one clue for the rest of us: a poem. Since the poem's publishing, thousands of adventurers have flocked to the Rocky Mountain area in search of fame and riches. However, not all have returned. The treasure remains undiscovered to this day, its location unknown.

In 1842 one of the leading causes of death in America was tuberculosis. Dr. Croghan believed he found the cure for the disease deep in Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system in the world. He took his eleven patients underground into a village he constructed. This became the nation's first tuberculosis hospital. Miraculously, they began to recover. However the effects were short lived, and soon their village became one inhabited by ghosts. This story points at a past, and perhaps a future, darker than the cave itself.

On Christmas Eve 1945 the Sodder family home in West Virginia went up in flames. Five of their children were thought to be dead in the fire. However, no remains were ever found. Soon, eyewitnesses came forward claiming they had seen the missing children. So what happened to the Sodder children? Were they missing, kidnapped or murdered? It remains a mystery to this day.