The big question remains: does incarceration as a punishment work? As we currently handle crime and punishment, are inmates rehabilitated to the point where they can safely be returned to society? We can tackle these quandaries in an abstract way in the safety of our locked homes, digging out statistics and data to answer our burning questions. But for many, the debate about whether an inmate should continue to be held in custody or let go free is an intensely personal one, with the real experie...
Mar 20, 2023•25 min•Season 3Ep. 1
There are couples who seem to have all "The Things." Successful careers, a family they’ve lovingly created, social connections, important charity work--the kind of people who do good things for the right reasons and leave behind a positive legacy of well remembered contributions, the kind we tend to admire and remember fondly as a community. When tragedy strikes such a family, it almost seems especially hard to grasp. Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert were just such a couple. And this is their story...
Jan 31, 2022•20 min
After Christmas of 2016, Shannon didn’t check in with her family. What would happen next is the stuff of nightmares...
Dec 05, 2021•18 min
The most dangerous times in a woman’s life are when she is in the company of men. That may seem like a dramatic overstatement, but if you think about it, it’s true. This is the story of a young woman named Angel.
Nov 14, 2021•21 min
America has a self-created mental health crisis, and state and federal prisons are dominated by populations of the mentally ill, where resources are few and treatment is non existent. Our story involves a family struggling to deal with a very sick young man, culminating one Halloween night when people asked the question: Is this a sick prank, or something much, much worse?
Oct 31, 2021•17 min
You don't know anything about the people who live next door.
Oct 17, 2021•20 min
When we think of a crime committed by someone who is truly, demonstrably, certifiably insane, an image of such a person may come to mind. We imagine someone who has seen lengthy periods of institutionalization, in cells designed for their own, and their caregivers, protection against violence. You may imagine straight jackets and electric shock therapy--this is not that case.
Apr 19, 2020•16 min
When a child commits a murder, and the victim’s surviving family members rightfully want the killer to be punished, the age of a youthful perpetrator can automatically dial down how severe that punishment is, because we, as a society, don’t hold children to the same standard of accountability as adults. Then there’s the general public squeamishness about sending a kid to death row or life in prison. It just doesn’t feel right, and seems like compounding the tragedy.
Mar 23, 2020•19 min
When you hear of a home invasion, the words likely conjure a scenario in which one or more people enter a home forcibly, seeking to rob the inhabitants and perhaps relieve them of their lives. And you’d be right. Such home invasions are rare, rare enough that when something like that appears to have occurred, law enforcement is generally suspicious of the story from the get-go. But there are violent home invasions bent on robbery and murder, and then there are invasions of a home’s peaceful spac...
Nov 04, 2019•20 min
Join us for part two of this amazing story about love, loss, and forgiveness, as we sit down with Mrs. Reiser while she talks about her beautiful and talented daughter, Liz.
Oct 01, 2019•35 min
When we hear the story of a life that has been taken, we can feel empathy and share in the family’s grief in a small way, but can never really know what that experience is like. Early this year, we spent several hours with Becki Reiser of Dover, Ohio, who generously spoke about that experience in detail. It’s a story of a child who is loved and for whom there are many hopes for their life. It’s a story of faith, of horror, and of forgiveness. It’s a first hand account of loss, and it’s a story n...
Sep 16, 2019•1 hr 49 min
Sep 11, 2019•1 min
It really doesn’t matter whether the desire to lend a hand to a young person in need comes from. Maybe it’s a sense of duty. Maybe it’s rooted in your faith or belief system. Maybe you just want to pay it forward. Foster families, and we know successful ones, are a vital, loving part of the societal puzzle. But we also know of those who are less successful. Any time a young person is introduced into a family bringing a difficult past, with possible unknown issues, with understandable neediness— ...
Aug 08, 2019•26 min
This story looks at several people whose lives intersected on a stretch of interstate highway late one night in 1986. Two of them just happened to arrive at a certain place in space and time at just the right moment. Or, more properly, just the wrong moment.
Jul 08, 2019•20 min
You’ve probably known a couple who just can’t seem to make things stick, you know? They’re together, they’re apart, they make up, they split up, and all the while, they seem to generally get along. They seem like a good match, but there’s something… some important piece of the puzzle, that’s missing or that they can’t get a good grip on. Eventually, they split up for keeps, often amicably, and friends and family are left scratching their heads.
Jun 18, 2019•28 min
On the face of it, Circleville is just another quiet, sleepy, Ohio town, but if this podcast has taught you anything, it’s that…not all small towns are safe. In 1976 someone started a terror campaign against the residents of Circleville. And this is their story.
May 30, 2019•10 min
Learning about relationships, and how that all works, is a part of becoming an adult. It’s an experience that is common to all of us, and though it may be difficult, most of us emerge with no greater harm than a temporarily broken heart, and we get on with our lives. Jodi Blankenship was ready to move her boyfriend into that “used to know” category after three years together. She was young, talented, set to aggressively chase her dreams, and date other people. And this is her story.
May 27, 2019•26 min
Troy Lee Temar was a big fish in the little pond that is Deer Park. He was a well-liked, all American guy. But what happened when he crossed paths with a particular femme fatale, would change the lives of not only his family, but the community of Deer Park forever.
May 12, 2019•34 min
The passing of time is a serious enemy in finding a missing person, and in solving a murder case. A body is discovered, the crime scene is sifted carefully, evidence gathered, theories formed, suspects identified. Grieving families want answers. The community wants answers. Law enforcement wants answers. But if the answers don’t turn up pretty quickly, the case can grow cold, leaving everyone unsatisfied.
May 05, 2019•20 min
Striking out at the beginning of a college education marks many firsts for late teens. It’s the beginning of independence, and likely the first extended period away from family and a familiar home environment. Its the beginning of true responsibility for your own life. It marks the start of the sobering reality of necessary debt. Along with these newfound freedoms comes an adjustment to the consequences of those freedoms. And sometimes the consequences are deadly.
Apr 14, 2019•20 min
In a calm and sparsely populated corner of southeastern Ohio, newlyweds Stacey and Todd Holston are starting out their lives together in a tiny mobile home. On an October day much like any other, a trusted relative brings husband, wife, son, stepson, and mother and father in law together in that small trailer, and shatters a young family’s promising future forever.
Mar 31, 2019•27 min
Domestic abuse takes many forms, and sometimes it’s not easy to know which spouse is the abuser, especially when a couple is known to fight it out in regular quarrels. When one or the other is pushed to murder, and the killer decides to hide the evidence, the solution to that age old problem can take a gruesome turn, as is clear in episode 14: The Murder in Barberton.
Mar 10, 2019•24 min
Any murder in a small town is especially unsettling. But what if a murder in your town was soon followed by the news that your name may be on a list of the next victims of a ritual sacrifice? Just such a scenario played on in Bellaire, Ohio in 1995, causing widespread alarm and decades of caution. Follow us on Instagram: thestateofperfectbalancepod Twitter: StatePerfect Facebook: The State of Perfect Balance Podcast Visit our website: http://www.thestateofperfectbalance.com...
Feb 24, 2019•21 min
Feb 13, 2019•47 sec
When a young couple, planning a life together turn up missing after a quiet walk in the autumn woods, who is to blame? And what did freaky crosses and nude photos have to do with it? Was it a case of Satanic Panic? Or was it a simple crime of opportunity? In Episode 12 of A State of Perfect balance, we visit a farm in Logan, a small town in southeastern Ohio, to follow suspicious behavior, rapid justice, and the mystery of a missing couple in love.
Feb 11, 2019•35 min
In the case of James Allen Ponder, of Hamilton, Ohio, the only thing we’re really left with is questions, with no answers to be found. “Closure,” something families desperately seek when someone they love is taken violently from them, is an elusive thing in the best of circumstances. When the killer and the victim are both close family members, and there are no answers to the big fat “why,” everyone is left feeling tormented and adrift. James Ponder was 71 years old. He enjoyed many of the thing...
Jan 28, 2019•18 min
Amish Country is a land of simplicity and quiet. Horses, buggies, and bonnets. Reverence and respect. Hand crafted furniture, and a life far removed from everything modern. It was the life Barbara Weaver desired and expected. No one, least of all Barbara, could have foretold the life she found herself in, with a sex-obsessed, porn surfing, discontented husband bent on getting rid of her. Amish Country may not be what it seems. It’s trysts with random hookups in the barn, mystified neighbors, plo...
Jan 14, 2019•30 min
Some murder cases capture the attention of the public in a way that seems disproportionate. All murders are terrible, of course. All of them cut short a valuable life and bring sudden tragedy and emotional agony to the families of the victims, and all of them deserve our respectful attention as the killers are brought to justice. Before the time of television, or even radio, murder cases would sometimes become the focus of breathless national attention. This episode of The State of Perfect Balan...
Dec 27, 2018•33 min
The relationships we form, especially romantic relationships, occupy a special place in our emotional lives. We choose our friends and we choose our romantic partners, and hopefully they are people who will care about us in return, look out for us, and be there when we need them. But what happens when the dark side that lives within us all comes to the surface?
Dec 02, 2018•20 min
A poorly written horror story, a disturbed teenaged boy, a self-diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder, and that's only the beginning! Join us for a doozie of a story in episode 7 of The State of Perfect Balance.
Nov 18, 2018•26 min
