True Crime in the 50

Lois and Dave Reiss lived in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota and raised a family. Lois ran a daycare business for awhile out of the couple's home and Dave ran a successful wax worm farm. Everything was good, from the outside. From the inside, the couple was plagued by mental illness and abuse. Lois was also suicidal and addicted to gambling. On March 12, 2018, Lois came down to the wax worm farm to ask another employee to run payroll, something Dave always did. This strange request would set off a chain of events that included evading the law, a fugitive from justice, multiple murders and complete mayhem in The Great State of Florida. Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33481557/

Charles Robert "Bobby" Steele had not had the best childhood. He got into a serious accident when he was 13 and became addicted to drugs not long after. But he was finally trying to turn his life around when he went to stay with his sister in Claymont, Delaware. Until April 11, 2014, he left to run a few errands, made a strange phone call to his sister and was never seen again.Benjamin Archer grew up in New Jersey and traveled out West for years. He got into a bad car accident and wanted to go live with his mother in Delaware City, Delaware. On March 2nd, 2016, Ben walked to nearby DuPont park in just a t-shirt and pants. Shivering, his family found him by a lake talking to himself. While they couldn't convince him to come home, they left some warmer clothes for him by the lake. When they returned to check on him, Ben had vanished and was never seen or heard from again.Show Notes:https://www.audible.com/podcast/Charles-Robert-Bobby-Steele/B0CSWH593Hhttps://www.audible.com/podcast/Episode-234-Benjamin-Morse-Archer-Vision-Quest/B08TGK9HH3

Robert "Hoagy" Hoagland lived in Newtown, Connecticut, with his wife, Laurie, and one young adult son. The couple had two other sons. Hoagy was a part-time paralegal, former chef and had his real estate appraiser's license. He was your all-around, average and average-looking 50-something-year-old guy. Until Sunday, July 28, 2013. Hoagy got up early, went to get bagels for him and his son and then paid some bills. He went out to mow the lawn and was seen by a neighbor around 11 am. At noon, his son Max asked to use the car and Hoagy let him. When Max returned a few hours later, his Dad was gone.Hoagy was supposed to pick up his wife at JFK airport the next day, Monday, July 29th, but he never showed. When he still wasn't back by Tuesday, Laurie reported him as a missing person. All of the family vehicles were accounted for, and Hoagy had left behind his keys, wallet, thousands of dollars in cash in a home safe and his daily medication. Hoagy's family never heard from him again. It was as if he literally just disappeared. Until 10 years later, when his wife, his sons and investigators would get the shock of their lives.Show Notes: https://podtail.com/en/podcast/wicked-deeds/

On Mother's Day, 2020, a mother of two, Suzanne Morphew, received texts from her daughters and husband wishing her a happy holiday. Suzanne, who lived in Salida, Colorado, never responded. Soon, her husband Barry had put out a reward for her safe return and all of her loved ones were searching for her, but to no avail. What would come from her disappearance was a story of betrayal and lies. Kelsey Berreth lived in Woodland Park, Colorado with her one-year-old daughter, Kaylee. Kaylee's Dad and Kelsey's boyfriend, Patrick Frazee lived in nearby Fluorescent, Colorado. Kelsey was a flight instructor and was looking in to finally moving in with Patrick. But on Thanksgiving Day, 2018, Kelsey suddenly vanished. Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17507508/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11673730/

On Sunday, October 17, 2021, Heidi Planck, a 39-year-old divorced mother of one left the townhome that she rented in the Palms area of West LA near Culver City and got into her silver Range Rover. She brought along her Labradoodle dog, Seven, and set out for her son, Bond's football game in Downey, California, about 17 miles away. But Heidi left the game early, and after texting with her son that evening, suddenly went radio silent. Her last known whereabouts were at a luxury high rise residential building called the Hope and Flower in downtown LA at 6:30 that night and then Heidi Planck simply...vanished. Her dog was found by residents of the Hope and Flower building on the 29th floor wandering aimlessly. Heidi Planck has never been heard from or seen again. Joseph McStay and his wife, Summer, along with their two little boys, Gianni and Joe Jr had just moved into a new house in November of 2010. On February 4, 2011, Joseph left to go have lunch with a business partner and friend named Chase Merritt in the early afternoon. By February 13, when Joseph's mother had not heard from him, she had his brother, Michael, go check on the family. What Michael found in their home was fruit rotting on the counter and a half eaten bowl of popcorn on the table. The family's two dogs were out in the yard. It was as if, on that day, February 4, 2011, the whole McStay family had simply...vanished.Show Notes:https://blood-money.simplecast.com/https://dateline-missing-in-america.simplecast.com/https://www.oxygen.com/killer-motive/season-2/episode-1/the-mcstay-family-mystery 

Colleen Nick took her oldest daughter, Morgan Nick, to watch a Little League baseball game at 9 pm in Alma, Arkansas on June 9th, 1995. Morgan ran off to play with some other little kids to catch fireflies in the parking lot of baseball field at 10 pm, but by 10:30, Morgan had disappeared. What transpired after that is one of the most elaborate searches in a child abduction case, ever, and Morgan Nick's case remains one of the most elusive and infamous True Crime cases of all time.Danick Adams was an 18-year-old mother of one who lived in Jacksonville, Arkansas. She was outgoing, friendly, and held down two part time jobs while she cared for her infant daughter, Nivea. On August 14th, 2008, Danick went with a friend to the fitness center where she worked to get ready to go out for the night. When they were leaving the gym, a masked man brandishing a gun ran up to them and demanded their wallets and car keys. While her friend escaped, Danick was mortally shot five times and her killer has never been found. Show Notes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-for-justice/id1469338483https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11595808/https://navigatingadvocacy.com/For information on the Danick Adams' murder please call the Jacksonville Police at:501-533-6477 or message them on Facebook. 

Ira Pomeranz was a playboy about Scottsdale, Arizona; he was a nightclub owner, restaurant owner and twice-divorced bachelor. Until he met Valerie Pape. Valerie was a beautiful blond woman in her mid-forties, who had come to Scottsdale from the French countryside. She had also recently been divorced and was looking for love. The two started dating, hit it off, and were soon married. Ira continued with his nightclub business, and even gave Valerie the money to start her own upscale hair salon with a partner from France named Michel. Everything was good, until it wasn't.In the wee morning hours of January 27th, 2000, a delivery truck driver saw something strange. He saw a petite woman wearing heels and a jumpsuit pop the trunk of her car and struggle to lift a heavy object into a dumpster behind a supermarket. The delivery truck driver would start a chain of events that would bring to the surface a marriage and life full of infedility, debts, divorce, and, ultimately, death.Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17493708/

You have probably heard of the Bermuda Triangle, but have you heard of the Alaska Triangle? It is the area between Utqiagvik, Anchorage and Juneau, where, in the past four decades, people have gone missing at a rate of 4 per 1,000 individuals. That is more than twice the national average. The cases covered today include: traveling nurse Thomas Anthony Nuzzi, Congressman Hale Boggs, Congressman Nick Begich, political aide Russ Brown, pilot John Jonz and a young mother by the name of Jael Tiara Hamblen. Show Notes:https://www.trailwentcold.com/e/the-trail-went-cold-episode-380-thomas-nuzzi/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14457788/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jael-hamblen-pretty-in-pink/id1151955197?i=1000455701559https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/states-alaska-and-wisconsin/id1547117573?i=1000630901489For information about Thomas Anthony Nuzzi:Anchorage PD: 907-786-8900For information about Jael Hamblen:http://www.anchoragecrimestoppers.com/sitemenu.aspx?P=MissingPersons&ID=124&SID=1134#:~:text=Hamblen%20was%20last%20seen%20the,for%20her%20safety%20and%20wellbeing. to submit an anonymous tip on this website

On January 12th, 1983, the police department in Brattleboro, Vermont, got a strange call from some colleagues at a local company about a case of what they thought to be false identity. The woman in question worked as a secretary at the company and called herself Teri Martin. Martin claimed to be the twin sister of a woman named Robbie Hannon, who had recently died and who had been married to her brother-in-law, John Greenleaf Hannon III. Except there was no Teri Martin. And there was no Robbie Hannon. There was only Marie Hilley.Audrey Marie Hilley, who preferred to go by Marie, was born and raised in Anniston, Alabama. That is where she grew up, got married the first time and raised her two children. She also had multiple affairs with her bosses, tried to poison both of her children with arsenic, and succeeded in doing so with her first husband. Marie Hilley would go on to wreak havoc all over the South and the NorthEast, leaving a trail of false identities and dead bodies in her wake. Show Notes:https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/season-27/episode-8/marie-hilley

The Mysterious Death of Robert WoneShow Notes:https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/who-killed-robert-wone/8330027078016478112/seasons/1

High –powered Hollywood agent Mackenzie Monroe has just gotten engaged to her boyfriend Nick Tenenbaum and they are planning what else? A Christmas wedding in the tiny town of Evergreen Ohio where they first met... oh and where they first solved two murders. After putting the perpetrators away for life, Mackenzie is looking forward to returning to Evergreen, seeing all of her friends and getting married to the love of her life. But of course, Evergreen and Christmas have other plans in store for her. Not long after Mackenzie gets back, someone winds up dead. And, almost before she can start to investigate that killing, another murder occurs. Mackenzie must once again solve the murders before her own Christmas wedding. Will she make it down the aisle or will she be next?  The wildly popular series The Evergreen Murders: A Mackenzie Monroe Christmas Mystery is back with a third season. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 

The Evergreen Murders: Return to Evergreen premieres Tuesday, November 19th

On the night of February 22nd, 2002, a woman named Taylor Schabusiness picked up her boyfriend Shad Thyrion and a friend in her Town and Country minivan in Green Bay, Wisconsin to go buy drugs. The three friends did meth, marijuana and Trazadone until the friend left. Then, Taylor and Shad went into the basement of his mother's house to continue doing drugs and to have sex. They carried on until after midnight, using sex toys and other paraphanalia. Until something went horribly wrong. Shad's mother Tara came down in the wee hours of the morning to check on her son and made a horrific and gruesome discovery that would haunt the residents of Green Bay forever. Show Notes:https://truecrimesocietyblog.com/2023/07/26/taylor-schabusiness-and-the-murder-of-shad-thyrion/

Danny Casolaro was a journalist on the verge of discovering something huge. A U.S. Intelligence military breach, lies, scandal, computer data hackings, killings and bribery that went up to the top of the government. The conspiracy even involved President Reagan himself. So when Danny Casolaro was found dead in a hotel room in Martinsburg, West Virginia, many thought he was murdered, even though the death was ruled a suicide. Show Notes:https://www.netflix.com/title/81168725

David Anderson and Alex Baranyi werhe best of friends. They were also murderers. Both boys had bad childhoods and were abused. But no one could have known that they would commit the ultimate sin. Show Notes:https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Secrets-School-Crime-Killers/dp/038080087X

Michelle Castillo was 43 years old and lived in Ashburn, Virginia in a 10,000 square foot mansion with her four young children. Michelle had recently been estranged from her husband, Braulio Castillo and had obtained a restraining order against him. She was enjoying her newfound freedom, and had just found out she had acheieved a dream of hers: to participate in the Boston Marathon in 2014. But little did she know that Braulio, who had moved just a few doors down from Michelle, was tracking her every move and stalking her. And then he escalated. On the night of March 19, 2014, he snuck into the house where he used to live with his family and committed the most heinous of crimes, leaving his five children without a mother and a murderer for a father. Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15545452/

George Peacock, 76, and his wife, Catherine, 73 were creatures of habit. So much so, that when George did not show up at a local convenience store one morning in his hometown of Danbury, Vermont to get the paper, the clerk noticed. He also did not show up for his part time job at the Rutland Travel Lodge on Sunday, September 17, 1989. Friends of the couple were asked to go check their home. What they saw there shocked them. Both George and Catherine were dead, and both had been stabbed multiple times. There was no forced entry into the home so it must have been someone they knew. The couple's three daughters and their husbands were interviewed, and their middle daughter, Penny, had a husband named Michael Luis whose story kept changing for the day of the murders. It would take over 30 years and modern science to finally solve the case of the senseless killings.Show Notes:https://darkdowneast.com/georgecatherinepeacock/

Lauren McCluskey was an excellent 21-year-old athlete who competed on the track at field team at the University of Utah. At the beginning of Lauren's senior year there, in 2018, she met a man named Sean Fields while out at a club. Sean was 28 years old and went to the local community college. Sean and Lauren started dating for a few weeks in September and October and things were going great...or so Lauren thought.It turned out that Sean Fields was actually 37-year-old Melvin Shawn Roland and he was a criminal. Roland had been arrested many times throughout his troubled life. Once Lauren found out about his past, and the fact that he had lied to her about his age and his name, she broke it off with him.But Melvin was not done with her. He stalked, extorted, blackmailed and harrassed Lauren so much so that Lauren went to the campus police and the local police. But no one would listen and no one would take her claims seriously. Until one night, in October of 2018, the unthinkable happened.Show Notes: https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2023/03/directors-statement-nicole-noren/

Mary Lou Morris and Mary McGinnis Morris were two middle-aged women with short, dark curly hair and brown eyes. Mary Lou Morris was a bank loan officer and lived in Baytown, Texas. Mary McGinnis Morris was a healthcare medical director and lived in Sugarland, Texas. Mary Lou Morris was murdered by being burned alive in her car on a country road on October 12, 2000. Mary McGinnis Morris was murdered by being shot in the head on October 16, 2000. The two women were killed in towns that were only 30 miles apart.The Texas police considered the women's deaths to be coincidences, since the two did not know each other and had never met. But many believe that two women with the same name, same look and who lived in neighboring towns were killed because of a case of mistaken identity. But who wanted one or both of them dead?Show Notes:https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/death-x-southwest/double-trouble-the-murders-tKFoaXqphvO/Please call The Harris County Sherrif's Department Homicide Hotline at 713-967-5810 with any information.Correction: Tune in in two weeks on Monday, August 26th for another Crazy True Crime Episode from The Great State of Utah.

Blair Adams was from Surrey British Columbia, Canada, was 31 years old and had a good job as a construction site manager. He had struggled with drugs and alcohol at one point in his life, but, at the time of his death, had been sober for two years. On Friday, July 5th, 1996, Blair went to the bank and drained his checking and savings accounts. He then tried to get over the Canadian border to Seattle, Washington by ferry. He was turned away because of the large amounts of cash and gold coins he had with him. On Monday, July 8th, Blair, without warning, quit his job at the construction site and left for the airport to buy a $1700 ticket to Germany. But, instead of going to Germany, he purchased another round-trip ticket to Washington D.C. and made it to the nation's capital. From there, he rented a car and drove south.And this is where Blair Adams' story gets even stranger. From "losing" the keys to the rental car, to driving to Knoxville, Tennessee, to loitering in the lobby of a hotel for an hour, to being found dead in the parking lot of another hotel under construction on the morning of July 11, Blair Adams' mystery death gets even creepier. Was he murdered in cold blood, and, if so, for what reason? Or was his death simply a tragic accident?Show Notes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinking-sideways-blair-adams/id679462887?i=1000364153311https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0737586/

South Dakota's cold cases include: Tammy Haas, Eugene Prins, Morgan Bauer, Pamela Dunn and Morgan LewisShow Notes:Tammy Haas:Yankton Police Department: 605-668-5210FBI Office in Sioux Falls: 605-334-6881tips.fbi.govAnonymously at Yankton CrimeStoppers: 605-665-4440Eugene Prins:Sanborn County Sherriff's Office: 605-796-4511SD DCI: 605-773-3331Morgan Bauer:Atlanta PD: 404-546-4235Atlanta CrimeStoppers Anonymous: 404-577-8477Pamela Dunn:Watertown PD: 605-882-6210Department of Criminal Investigation:605-773-3331Morgan Lewis: Aberdeen PD: 605-626-7000Brown County Sherriff's Office: 605-626-3500

David Smith met Susan Vaughn at the local Winn Dixie in Union, South Carolina when the two were teenagers working as cashiers. Soon, they started dating and fell in love and Susan became pregnant. The two married and started a life together. They then had a second son. But things were not perfect, not even close. Susan and David both had affairs and they fought over things like money constantly. Until October 25, 1994, David received a call at work. He and Susan were separated by that point. It was Susan telling him that she had been carjacked and that the man had taken off with her car and their two boys in the backseat. For nine days, a massive search effort was launched, until early November when Susan admitted the terrifying truth. She had made the whole thing up, and had drowned their two precious baby boys.Show Notes:https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-All-Reason-Susan-Smith/dp/0786002921

Ernest Brendel was an attorney who lived with his wife, Alice, a library assistant, and their young daugther, Emily in Barrington, Rhode Island. Through a mutual friend, Ernie met Chris Hightower, a twice-married financial advisor and the families became close. They even vacationed together in the New Hampshire moutains. But Ernie had invested $11,000 of his money with Chris and Chris lost it all. Irate, Ernie called the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission and placed a complaint against Chris Hightower. That enraged Chris to the point where, on September 20, 1991, Chris snapped. He purchased a crossbow at a local sporting goods store and laid in wait for Ernie Brendel in his garage. The next few days would have Chris going on the run, committing multiple murders and other criminal acts, and would involve wild tales of mob hits and buried bodies.Show Notes:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216550.Death_of_an_Angel

Andrew Bagby was a well-liked and gregarious guy who always knew he wanted to be a doctor. He went to medical school in Newfoundland, Canada, and that is where the 28-year-old met 40-year-old Shirley Turner. Shirley was twice divorced and had left three kids behind with three different fathers when she went to medical school.Andrew Bagby broke things off with Shirley Turner when he started his residency in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, but Shirley did not like that much. She came back to Pennsylvania and fatally shot Andrew Bagby on November 5, 2001. Shirley would be in and out of jail, and, over the next year, birthed Andrew's baby, a boy named Zachary.What followed was a tragic occurence that Andrew Bagby's parents tried to prevent. Shirley would soon take her own life, as well as that of her son, Zachary.Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152758/

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, 1974, the Cowden family, which consisted of Richard Cowden, 28, Belinda, 22, David, 5, and Melissa, 5 months, made a spontaneous decision to go camping at one of their favorite spots, Carbury Creek, 40 miles to the Southwest from where they lived in White City, Oregon. They packed the truck then stopped off at the General Store in Copper, Oregon to visit Belinda's mother, Ruth Grayson. Ruth offered to have the family over for lunch the next day, Sunday. The family agreed and set off.But when the next night rolled around and Ruth still hadn't heard from her daughter and her family, she made the mile drive to go look for them. What she found was concerning. Melissa's diaper bag and fishing poles were next to some trees. Richard's wallet and watch were on the ground, along with Belinda's cigarettes. And some milk and water had been left out on a picnic table. There was no sign of the Cowden family.A search began that same day and lasted for months. Until finally, half a year later, the family's bodies were discovered near and inside an old mining cave. But who would do such a thing? And what sort of depraved killer would have wanted a young, innocent family dead?Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22138532/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6372106-but-i-trusted-you-and-other-true-cases

Brittany Phillips had just moved back home to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend nearby Tulsa Community College, with plans to transfer to Oklahoma State. She aspired to work in the medical field. She had a lot of friends nearby, and was very close with her mother, whom she talked to at least once a day and made the two hour drive to visit every weekend. But at the end of September, 2004, Brittany's mom, Maggie had not heard from her.Neither had her friends. So one of her friends went to check on her and found her apartment door ajar. Not wanting to enter, she called her father, a former District Attorney, who called some police buddies to do a wellness check. There was Brittany, lying on the floor by her bed. She was dead and had been sexually assaulted.What followed was two decades of the desperate search for Brittany's killer. Her mother, Maggie, still travels the country, searching in desperation for who could have done this to her. If you have any information on Brittany Phillips' murder please contact someone below.Show Notes:Brittanyphillipsmurder.netEddie Majors: Lead Detective: emajors@cityoftulsa.orgTulsa homicide hotline: 918-596-9141 or 596-COPShttps://casefilepodcast.com/case-146-brittany-phillips/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brittany-phillips-part-1-732/id1062418176?i=1000642664084

On the morning of Sunday, August 12th, 2012, a 16-year-old High School student, Jane Doe, woke up in Steubenville, Ohio, about 15 miles from her hometown of Weirton, West Virginia. She woke up in a strange basement and had no idea where she was. She was missing her earrings, underwear and cell phone. In the room with her were tow boys, aged 16 and 17, named Trent May and Malik Richmond. Jane remembered very little from the night before, only that she had been at a few parties with the Steubenville Varsity Football players, and, after texting some friends, that she had also been raped.The following year would bring chaos to Steubenville, Ohio. Accusations, denials, lawsuits, hackers, crime blogs and an article in the New York Times would divide this small town. It was their word against hers, and they were the star football players. Until damning evidence in the form of text messages and a video came to light. Show Notes: https://rollredrollfilm.com/

Barbara Cotton was born on November 10th, 1965 in Tayoga, North Dakota. She had 9 brothers and sisters and a hard life. Her family was poor and her father abused many family members. When her mother finally divorced her father in 1973, she took Barb and two siblings and moved to Williston, North Dakota. There, Barb went to High School, partied some, had a bussing job at a local restaurant, The Country Kitchen, and saved money for a place of her own.But on the night of April 11th, 1981, Barb disappeared. She was last seen by her mother when she visited her place of work with a 21-year-old male friend named Stacy Wardner. Stacy was the last person to see Barb that night as she walked three blocks toward home. But no body was ever found, and the investgation would lead authorities down a winding path, with plenty of suspects, one of them being Barb's own brother. Show Notes:https://wondery.com/shows/the-vanished-podcast/episode/5623-barbara-cotton-part-1-a-lost-girl/

After the sudden and tragic death of his wife, Margaret in 2006, Ireland native Jason Corbett needed a nanny for his two children, Jack, 3 and Sarah, 12 weeks. Along came Molly Martens, a Montessori school teacher from the United States. Molly had a bubbly personality and was great with kids, so, soon, she was hired and the Corbett's started to heal.But Molly was not who they thought she was. She had mental issues, and had been committed to a psychiatric hospital on more than one occasion. Despite all of this, Jason and Molly married in Tennessee in 2010. They then moved to North Carolina in the states. Everything wasn't great, but at least they were a functioning family. Until August of 2015 when Molly's mom and dad showed up for a visit, unannounced. By the wee hours of the next morning, Jason Corbett was dead, killed at the hands of Molly Martens and her father, Tom.Show Notes:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-brother-jason-tracey-corbett-lynch/1128593449

When Florida native Jake Nolan was 14 years old, he started showing signs of mental illness and depression. By the age of 17, he was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and had tried to kill himself. Because of this, his mother sent him to live with his second cousin, Dr. Pamela Buchbinder, in New York City. Pamela was a psychiatrist, could help Jake, prescribe him medicine, and, in turn, Jake would help out with Pamela's son, four-year-old Caulder.Everything was going well until November of 2012, when Pamela became obsessed with the idea of having her son's father, Dr. Michael Weiss, another psychiatrist, killed. Pamela manipulated and groomed Jake until Jake was ready to kill for her. So on November 12, Pamela outfitted Jake with some fake school forms to sign, a hand-drawn map, a sledgehammer and a knife and ordered him to go torture and kill her ex-boyfriend. What came next, no one saw coming.Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6411610/

In January of 1998, a 911 dispatcher in Las Cruces, New Mexico, received a call from a student at nearby New Mexico State University. The student was calling to say that she had not seen her roommate, Carly Martinez in over a day. The night before Carly had gone out with a man named Jesse Avalos to a roller skating rink and was later joined by Avalos' friend Jason Desnoyer. The three had left the roller skating rink together, and Carly disappeared. It took police over two months to find Carly's body, and by then, the two men had been arrested and charged with her murder.On August 31st, 2003, a couple out doing target practice shooting in the desert near Las Cruces, came upon the horrifying sight of a woman who was half naked, face down and deceased. Her killer had tried to burn her body, but had been unsuccessful. The body was that of Katie Sepich, a New Mexico State University grad student. Police first looked at her boyfriend, but he was ruled out. It would take years before they were able to bring her killer to justice, after a manhunt that spanned multiple crimes and took investigators thousands of miles away, and all the way up to the Great State of Wisconsin.Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1248040/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11673738/

February 13, 2001 started out like any other day for the Viola family. Patricia Viola got her two kids ready for school, and her husband, Jim, went to work. At around 8:30 am, Patricia set off on foot for her volunteer librarian position at the local school. Patricia, who went by Pat, had lost her license for a few months because of a seizure disorder that had flared up. At around 9 am, the burglar alarm was tripped at the house. Police came and checked the windows and doors and nothing seemed amiss. The alarm company shut it off.Patricia Viola returned home at 11:40, waved to a mailman and called her mother. At 1:11 pm, she reset the alarm and left...and was never heard from or seen again. A years-long search ensued with no leads, save for a cryptic message she told her best friend the night before. Could she have met with foul play or hurt herself somehow? Did she disappear on purpose? Where had Patricia gone and how had she seemingly vanished into thin air?Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2083494/

On January 19th of 2001, a man named Andrew Patti was relaxing in his vacation home in Vermont, just over the New Hampshire border, a little past 10 pm, with his son, Andy when he heard a knock on the door. Before him stood two teenage boys who asked if they could come inside and use the phone, since their car needed a jump. Sensing something was off, Andrew said no, but that he would call someone for them and shut the door. When he went upstairs, he grabbed the phone, and, smartly, his gun. It was then that he realized the boys had cut his phone lines. Not wanting to go back outside, he held his son and his gun until the wee morning hours when the boys finally left.The boys were Robert Tulloch, 17, and Jim Parker, 16, from Chelsea, New Hampshire. The boys were misfits who decided to leave town and start careers as assasins in Australia. To do so, they needed $10,000. To get the money, they decided they needed to rob houses in which wealthy inhabitants lived. They also wanted to kill said inhabitants, simply for the thrill of it. Their plan failed with Andrew Patti, so they tried the house of well-liked and renowned German professors at Dartmouth, Half and Suzanne Zantop. And on the morning of Saturday, January 27t, 2001, they put their devastating and murderous plan into action.Show Notes: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/604620.Judgment_Ridge

Brookey Lee West was born in June of 1953 to LeRoy and Christine Smith. Her parents were drug addicts and frequently left her and her younger brother, Travis, alone at home for days on end with no food to eat. When Brookey was seven years old, her mother attempted to kill an ex-boyfriend in a fit of rage with a shotgun at a bar, and subsequently went to prison. Brookey graduated High School and enrolled in the army, but, as soon as Christine was released, moved in once again with her mother. The mother and daughter duo shoplifted and attended AA meetings meant for Indigenous people in order to meet men. Brookey did and met a man named Howard Simon St. John. Not long after that, Brookey kicked her mother out, and Howard moved in. But their relationship with rife with fighting and substance abuse. She and he also committed insurance fraud together. But, it wasn't until 1994, when both Howard and Christine Smith ended up dead, that anyone would come to know just how criminal and evil Brookey Lee West really was.Show Notes: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20386870/

In 2012, Dave Kroupa was just a normal guy living in Omaha, Nebraska. Dave was recently single, after breaking up with the mother of his two children, and was casually dating on the online dating forum, Plenty of Fish. It was on there that he met Liz Golyar. Liz and Dave dated for awhile, until Dave found someone he was more interested in; a woman named Cari Farver. Cari was twice divorced, had a son and worked as a computer programmer at West Corporation. But after she and Dave had only dated for about three weeks, Liz Golyar inserted herself back into Dave's life. And then, on November 7th, 2012, Cari Farver disappeared from Dave's apartment after spending the night.What would follow for the next months and years was an absolutely insane tale of Liz Golyar's catfishing, manipulation, jealousy and rage, ultimately resulting in the fact that Cari Farver was dead, and had been murdered in cold blood.Show Notes:https://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Web-Cyberstalker-Obsession-Twisting/dp/0806539976https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7466836/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

On Monday, July 8th, 2013, a man named Cameron Frederickson was concerned. His usually reliable and on-time employee, 25-year-old Cody Johnson had not shown up to work that day. Frederickson went to Johnson's house in Kalispbell, Montana, and let himself into his garage. There, he found his friend's cell phone lying on a table, which was also out of the ordinary.Cody Johnson had just gotten married one week before, at the end of June. His bride was Jordan Johnson and Cody's friends and family were not big fans of hers. A search ensued for Cody, and Jordan led police and searchgoers up to the hiking cliffs where Cody never would have gone because of his fear of heights. But there he was, lying dead at the bottom of the highest cliff. Clearly, Jordan was their primary suspect, but why would this young and very Christian newly-married woman kill her husband?Show Notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10337328/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

Robert Courtney grew up as the son of a revivalist preacher, moving around to Alabama, Kansas and Louisiana before settling in Missouri. He was a strange child and never had many friends. But he graduated from the University of Missouri, met and married three times, had five children and became a successful pharmacist. So successful, in fact, that he lived in a mansion and bought an office in downtown Kansas City, Missouri called the Research Medical Center Tower.Robert Courtney could also mix chemotherapy drugs, and he sold the chemo drugs to many of the doctors who had practices in the tower, and around town. He was soon a millionaire. But, after a chance encounter with a drug rep from Eli Lilly and one of Courtney's doctor's nurses, things started to look fishy. Many suspected that Courtney was not mixing enough of the chemo drug Gemzar for his patients. What would follow would be an FIB sting operation and the realization that the trusted pharmacist was actually a greedy criminal, and was not to be trusted at all.Show Notes:https://www.podcastone.com/episode/THE-OPPORTUNIST-SEASON-TWO-IS-AVAILABLE-NOWThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

Hey there all you Christmas fans: Check out my podcast The Evergreen Murders: A Mackenzie Monroe Christmas Mystery. Mackenzie Monroe is a hardworking, high-powered Hollywood talent agent who HATES Christmas. Much to her dismay, her newest actor client, Cameron Stack, has just gone against her wishes and accepted a role as the architect love interest in a holiday movie on the Candy Cane channel. After being ordered by her boss to follow him to the tiny town of Evergreen, Ohio for filming, she finds herself in a whirlwind adventure with a menacing cast of characters, a possible love interest, and, ultimately....a real-life murder mystery. Check out The Evergreen Murders wherever you get your podcasts, as well as the second season, Murder at Mistletoe Manor. Happy Holidays!This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

On Tuesday evening, February 4th, 1986, 17-year-old Shondra May drove to her part-time McDonald's fast food restaurant job in Forest, Mississippi. Since it was a slow night, her manager let her go home around 7 pm. At 7:24 Shondra used a pay phone outside of the McDonald's to call her mother to tell her she was going to the local TG&Y store to pick up a Valentine's Day gift for her boyfriend, Tony Adams. Her mother, Janelle, thought nothing of it and figured her daughter would be home within the hour. But Shondra May never came home. Her car was parked outside of the home, down the driveway a ways in the woods, but no one heard from the girl for weeks. Then, three weeks later, on February 26th, an off-duty fireman named Jimmy Lewis found her body in a swamp outside of Bolton, Mississippi. She had been brutally murdered and was placed in a garbage bag. But who would have done such a thing to such a nice girl? The case remains unsolved today.Show Notes:https://www.usrynetwork.com/bhbThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

On November 1st, 2002, Steve and Jan Jenkins were at their home in Burlington, Wisconsin, waiting for their daughter, Sara, to visit, when they got a call from Ben Kroon, their son, Chris' roommate at the University of Minnesota. Ben was calling to tell Chris' parents that Chris had attended a Halloween party at a bar the night before, and no one had seen or heard from him since. Chris Jenkins, 21, was kicked out of the Lone Tree Bar at around 1 am for reasons no one was really sure. He was not that intoxicated, but he left the bar and headed in the direction of his apartment. Almost four months later, in February of 2003, a woman was taking her daily walk over the bridges of the Mississippi River. She looked down and saw something strange floating in the river below. It was Chris Jenkins, and he had been dead for months. So what had happened? Did he have a horrible accident, or was he met with foul play. And, if so, why?Show Notes:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/footprints-of-courage-our-familys-struggle-for-justice_jan-jenkins/865412/#edition=5586369&idiq=5992786https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8373524/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

In the dead of winter, February 2014, married couple Jason and Kelly Cochran moved to Iron River, a tiny town with a population just shy of 3,000 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Jason, due to his mental and physical disabilities, stayed home, while Kelly was the breadwinner; she had a job at the Oldenberg Group as an electrical assembler. Jason and Kelly were said to have an open marriage...but this just meant that Kelly took it upon herself to date and sleep with other men, and Jason did not have any other partners.28-year-old Kelly was involved with her superior at work, a 53-year-old supervisor by the name of Chris Regan. Until Chris went missing in October of 2014. No one knew where he had gone, but the prime suspects were the Cochrans. What would transpire over the few months was the stuff of tall tales, but all were true. There was a wedding vow adulterous murder pact, betrayal, lies and deceit, alleged cannibalism and possibly one of the only female serial killers to ever walk the earth. Show Notes: https://www.discoveryplus.com/show/dead-northThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

Annie Dhookan was a rising star and the MVP at her job as a drug lab chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Annie's role was test drugs or other substances that were brought in by arresting officers, see if they were of the illegal variety, and sometimes, to testify in a court of law. But Annie was so good at her job, she was getting complaints from the other chemists. She was too good at her job. It would eventually come to light that Annie was testing more than five times the amount of substances of her co-workers. She was doing this by dry-labbing, or packaging some of the similar-looking drugs together and calling it a day. This was illegal. Across the state, and a mere few months after Annie Dhookan was caught, another chemist at the Amherst Lab in Western Massachusetts, was also up to no good. Sonja Farak was good at her job, as well, but she was also a drug addict. Her addiction got so bad, that she was stealing drugs from work, snorting cocaine, and smoking meth and crack. Crack that she would cook at her desk. Dhookan and Farak's Drug Lab Scandals would rock the state from the East to the West, and Massachusett's drug conviction rates would never be the same again.Show Notes:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Dookhanhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt11958942/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

Steve and Kim Hricko's marriage was on the rocks. So that is why, on Valentine's Day in 1998, Steve had the idea to take his bride to the Harbourtowne Golf Resort and conference center on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the night. It was to be a romantic getaway, with food and drinks and even a Dinner Theatre Murder Mystery experience.But by the end of the night, it was not only the Dinner Theatre actor who was dead. Steve Hricko was actually dead, and this was no play. He was murdered while lying in between the beds in the hotel room, on the floor, with a burnt cigar and a Playboy magazine open beside him. And then, the murderer started a fire and burned the room down. Who could have done such a thing? All fingers pointed toward Kim Hricko, Steve's wife. But did she murder her own husband, and why would she do such a thing?Show Notes:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-act-of-murder-linda-rosencrance/1007661657This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

Little Ayla Bell Reynolds was only 20 months old when she mysteriously disappeared from Watertown, Maine on December 16th, 2011. Her parents, who never married, were locked in a legal custody battle for the child and Ayla had been staying with her father on the night of December 15th. Also at her father's house were 6 or 7 other people, children and adults, and a party was being thrown. Ayla's father claimed he put the child down at around 8 pm and her aunt checked on her at 10 pm. By 9 am the next morning, Ayla was gone. Police suspected the father and the other people at the house that night, although Ayla's father swore that someone had abducted her and he would never hurt his child. Ayla's blood was found all over the residence, but there was never enough to make any arrests in the case. Ayla Reynolds is still missing today. Show Notes:https://www.voicesforjusticepodcast.com/post/ayla-reynoldsIf you have any information about the disappearance of Ayla Reynolds please call 1-800-452-4664 or 207-624-7076 or you can contact the Maine police department on their website: https://www.maine.gov/dps/msp/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

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Barbara Blount was a widow with two children who lived in the small town of Holden, Louisiana. She was devout and church-going and did not have an enemy in the world. May 2nd, 2008 started out just like any other. Barbara spoke to her daughter Christy, and a friend on the phone and set about cleaning out her kitchen cupboards. But by 2 pm, when none of her friends or family could reach her, Barbara had disappeared. The cordless phone she used was shattered on the driveway and her car was found abandoned in a rural area a few miles outside of town. No one has seen Barbara Blount since.AJ Breaux was a clothing salesman in another small town called Homa. AJ was a divorced father of three girls, a recovering alcoholic and an active member in the local Alcoholics Anonymous chapter. On August 28th, 1991, AJ left a nighttime meeting, went to pick up some milk at a local convenience store, and never made it home that night. A few days later, two friends of his recognized him in town. AJ was on a pay phone and was acting nervous. After those sightings, AJ Breaux was never seen or heard from again. These are the stories of Louisiana's missing. Show Notes: https://podcast.app/southern-gone-p459120/https://www.trailwentcold.com/2019/05/22/the-trail-went-cold-episode-125-a-j-breaux/If you have any information concerning Barbara Blount please contact the Holden, Louisiana police department at 225-686-2241 extension 345If you have any information concerning AJ Breaux please contact the Homa, Louisiana police department at 985-873-6371This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

On the first day of summer, Friday, June 21st, 2013, Brookelyn Farthing went with her sister to obtain her driver's license. She then went to a birthday party for a family member, and, that night, went to a party in a rural field in Berea, Kentucky to celebrate her graduation with classmates. Her sister and her friend abandoned her, so, pretty soon, Brookelyn was looking for a ride home. She found one, an older guy, Joshua Hensley, but the 23-year-old did not exactly take her home. Instead, he took her to his house that was being foreclosed on. After numerous text messages to friends and family, Brookelyn's phone went silent, and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance were more than suspicious.17-year-old Paige Johnson was from Florence, Kentucky. She was very close with her sister, Britney. Both Britney and Paige struggled with substance abuse and had a child very young. On the night of September 22nd, 2010, Paige got into a car with a friend by the name of Jacob Bumpiss. She was supposed to see her sister later that night, but she never arrived. Paige's disappearance would also rock to the small Kentucky town, and it wouldn't be until more than a decade later, that her family would receive answers...Show Notes: https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-dangerous-houses/umc.cmc.4b92cmjfyj4czr3tl8kvlcrlihttps://www.lex18.com/news/covering-kentucky/berea-college-professor-2-others-face-child-porn-related-chargeshttps://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/episodes/2020/1/27/episode-210-paige-johnsonThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

When Tracy, a 40-something-year-old Kansas mother of two found Mickey on an online dating site, she thought she had hit the jackpot. He was accomplished, handsome, had his private pilot's license and owned his own real estate company. Within days they were saying I love you and within a month, moving in together. Then, they were talking marriage. It all seemed too good to be true...because it was.Mickey was really Richard Scott Smith, a scammer, cheat, liar and love fraudster who had swindled multiple women out of thousands of dollars, had used multiple aliases and social security numbers. He was also a polygamist, and, at one time, was married to six or more women at the same time. It would take a blog post, a badass bounty hunter, and scores of scorned women to come together to take down the man known as Richard Scott Smith.Show Notes:https://www.sho.com/love-fraudhttps://heavy.com/entertainment/2020/08/love-fraud-richard-scott-smith-update-now-today/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

In August of 1969, Dorothy Miller, the only female real estate agent in the city of Burlington, Iowa, received a call from a man named Robert Clark, asking to see the for sale property at 118 Grand Street. Dorothy agreed to show it to the man that evening, but made sure her husband, Fred Miller, came along for safety purposes. The next day, the man called Dorothy and asked to see the property again, and this time, Dorothy went with the man alone. She was found dead at the property the next day, with multiple stab wounds to her head and back and she had been sexually assaulted. 42 years later, in West Des Moines, Iowa, a 27-year-old real estate agent by the name of Ashley Okland was set to attend an open house at a new model home property in an upscale part of town. Ashley, who had not an enemy in the world, was targeted in broad daylight, by a gunman who came through the front door of the town home and shot her twice, killing her. Both cases remain unsolved to this day. Show Notes:https://iowaunsolvedmurders.com/https://iowacoldcases.org/https://popculturecrime.medium.com/https://theamericangenius.com/https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/cults-crimes/iowa-ashley-okland-y983vX_mFNY/ Ashley Okland information: Polk County Crime Stoppers at (515) 223-1400This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement

Herbert "Herb" Baumeister was born on April 7th, 1947 to a prominent doctor and a homemaker on the upscale north side of Indianapolis, Indiana. Ever since he was a child, Herb was odd. And not just odd, downright weird. He once asked a friend what he thought drinking urine would taste like, and placed a dead crow on top of his grade school teacher's desk. But Herb got married and found semi-successful careers, first at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, then by opening a chain of thrift stores in the Indianapolis area with his wife, Julie. The couple had three children. But things were not as they seemed. Herb and Julie's marriage was falling apart, the Sav-A-Lot stores were going bankrupt, and Herb had a massive secret. While Julie and the kids were at Lake Wawasee in the summer months of 1994, Herb was at home every Friday night, prowling the gay bars of Indianapolis. It was there that he would pick up gay and/or drug-addicted men, take them back to his mansion on a property called Fox Hollow Farm, have sex with them, and kill them. As more and more gay men started going missing from the Indianapolis area in the summer of 1994, Herb Baumeister was just getting started.Show Notes: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Bodies-Buried-Martins-Library/dp/0312966539This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5659010/advertisement