November 18, 1970. Nashville, Indiana. A barn located on the property of 52-year old Clarence Roberts burns to the ground and a charred body is found in the rubble. Clarence’s family assume the body is him, but since he was experiencing serious financial problems at the time, the authorities suspect that Clarence faked his own death, so that his wife, Geneva, could collect on some substantial life insurance policies. Ten years later, Geneva Roberts is killed in a mysterious house fire… alongside...
Jun 21, 2017•39 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast August 29, 1943. Indianapolis, Indiana. 33-year old Maoma Ridings is serving as a corporal in the Women’s Army Corps at Camp Atterbury and checks into a room at the Claypool Hotel. Later that evening, Corporal Ridings is found murdered on her bed. She has been beaten and slashed with a whiskey bottle and is nude from the waist down. Less than two hours earlier, a bellboy had seen a woman dressed in black inside Ridings’ room. Who was this mysterious woman in black and was she responsible for Rid...
Jun 14, 2017•24 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast August 4, 1981. Toledo, Ohio. 20-year old Cindy Anderson shows up for her job as a legal secretary at a law firm. Later that morning, Cindy’s co-workers arrive at the locked office and are surprised to discover that she has vanished. A romance novel is lying on Cindy’s desk and is open to a page describing a scene where a woman is abducted. This would only be one of many bizarre clues in a missing persons case which includes some haunting graffiti, a pair of chilling anonymous phone calls descri...
Jun 07, 2017•40 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast August 27, 1992. Tupelo, Mississippi. While Hurricane Andrew moves over the area, 13-year old Leigh Occhi is left home alone for the day by her mother, Vickie Felton. When Vickie fails to reach her daughter from work, she rushes home to discover that Leigh is missing and the presence of blood in the house suggests foul play. Weeks later, Vickie is mailed an envelope containing Leigh’s glasses. Was Leigh abducted and murdered by an unknown intruder… or could her own mother have been responsible f...
May 31, 2017•27 min•Ep 130•Transcript available on Metacast December 17, 1967. The skeletal remains of an unidentified male are found in Balsam Lake Provincial Park near Coboconk, Ontario, Canada. Five months later, the decomposing body of another unidentified male is discovered in a field near the village of Schomberg, and the similarities between the two scenes suggest that both victims were murdered by the same killer. The victims go unidentified for 40 years until clay busts of their heads are constructed and shown on television. They are both eventu...
May 24, 2017•36 min•Ep 131•Transcript available on Metacast Back in January, we released a minisode about the disappearance of 47-year old Pamela Butler, who vanished from her Washington, D.C. home in February 2009. Even though Pam’s house was covered by security cameras, none of the surveillance footage showed her leaving, but her boyfriend, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, was seen entering and exiting the home on multiple occasions in the days following her disappearance. On April 8, 2017, Jose was finally arrested and charged with Pam’s murder. Incredibly, it ha...
May 20, 2017•13 min•Ep 132•Transcript available on Metacast June 6, 1991. Greenford, England. While leaving her family’s home, 43-year old Penny Bell tells a group of builders that she is running late for an appointment. Later that morning, Penny is discovered dead inside her vehicle after being brutally stabbed 50 times. Three days before her death, Penny had withdrawn £8,500 from her bank account without telling anybody, but the money is never recovered and no one uncovers the reason for the mysterious appointment which led to Penny’s death. “The Trail...
May 17, 2017•24 min•Ep 133•Transcript available on Metacast January 6, 1982. Breckenridge, Colorado. After finishing her shift at work, 29-year old Bobbie Oberholtzer phones her husband to say she is going out for drinks with friends. Bobbie never returns home and is found shot to death the following day. Strangely, an orange sock which does not belong to Bobbie is found at the murder scene. Six months later, the body of a 21-year old missing woman named Annette Schnee is found and she is wearing the matching orange sock. This piece of evidence suggests ...
May 10, 2017•44 min•Ep 134•Transcript available on Metacast May 9, 1994. Pine Bluff, Arkansas. 18-year old Cleashindra Hall phones her mother from her workplace to say she will be working late and might be calling again once her shift ends. Cleashindra never phones back and does not return home. Cleashindra’s boss, Dr. Larry Amos, tells police that an unknown individual picked her up that night, but troubling holes open up in his story and he displays some suspicious behavior. Even after a search is conducted of his home 18 years later, no hard evidence ...
May 03, 2017•28 min•Ep 135•Transcript available on Metacast January 14, 1983. 62-year old Terri McClure travels from her hometown of Reno, Nevada to attend the wedding of her son, Tim, in Lake Tahoe. After leaving the reception that night, Terri does not return home. Three days later, she is found shot to death inside her vehicle in the parking lot of a Carson City casino. Due to some suspicious behaviour and strange inconsistencies in his story, the investigation soon zeroes in on Tim McClure as the prime suspect. Tim is charged with his mother’s murder...
Apr 26, 2017•44 min•Ep 136•Transcript available on Metacast April 25, 1988. Copperas Cove, Texas. After an argument with her boyfriend, 20-year old college student Elizabeth Campbell storms out of his house and receives a ride to a convenience store. After phoning her boyfriend and making an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to pick her up, Elizabeth vanishes without a trace. Over the next few weeks, there would be multiple sightings of a woman resembling Elizabeth in the company of a possessive man, leading to speculation that she was being controlle...
Apr 19, 2017•20 min•Ep 137•Transcript available on Metacast August 17, 1992. Waukegan, Illinois. While babysitting two children, 11-year old Holly Staker is sexually assaulted and brutally murdered inside their apartment. Two months later, a suspect named Juan Rivera is brought in for questioning and confesses to the murder after four straight days of interrogation. He is subsequently convicted and receives a life sentence, but no physical evidence links Rivera to the crime and the veracity of his confession is called into question. After Rivera serves 1...
Apr 12, 2017•48 min•Ep 138•Transcript available on Metacast January 6, 1994. Ylenia Carrisi, the 23-year old daughter of the famous Italian singing duo, Al Bano and Romina Power, and a minor celebrity in her native country, has embarked on a solo trip around the world. Shortly after arriving in New Orleans, Ylenia vanishes without explanation. Her disappearance would generate a few leads, including a suspicious street musician who attempted to use Ylenia’s passport and traveler’s checks, and a witness who may have seen her jump into the Mississippi River...
Apr 05, 2017•26 min•Ep 139•Transcript available on Metacast October 23, 1981. Newburgh Heights, Ohio. 17-year old Kurt Sova goes out to spend the evening with friends, but does not return home. When Kurt’s parents go searching for him, they learn that he vanished after getting drunk at a party. Five days after his disappearance, Kurt’s body is discovered in a ravine, but the coroner’s office cannot figure out his exact cause of death and determine that he died only a day or two before he was found. The confusion is heightened by suspicious behavior from ...
Mar 29, 2017•40 min•Ep 140•Transcript available on Metacast March 24, 1994. After being honorably discharged from the Army, Matt Flores begins a new job at a computer company called Applied Materials, Inc.. One morning, Matt shows up for a training session at their headquarters in Silicon Valley, but after parking his car, an unknown assailant shoots him in the back of the head. Even though there were more than twenty people in the parking lot and it was covered by security cameras, the killer manages to escape without being seen and the only clue turns ...
Mar 22, 2017•22 min•Ep 141•Transcript available on Metacast June 1, 1948. Denton, Texas. 21-year old Virginia Carpenter takes a train trip from her hometown of Texarkana to enrol at the Texas State College for Women. That evening, Virginia is dropped off at her dorm by a cab driver, who claims he last saw her speaking with two unidentified males. Virginia is never seen again and it would be three days before she is reported missing. Over the next several years, there would be numerous twists and turns, including alleged sightings of Virginia and suspicio...
Mar 15, 2017•36 min•Ep 142•Transcript available on Metacast November 8, 1988. Botany Bay, Australia. A radio operator receives three calls from Ken Jones, the skipper of a steel schooner called the Patanela. The yacht is currently in the midst of a month-long voyage to Airlie Beach, and Ken Jones’ wife, Noreen, and two crew members, John Blissett and Michael Calvin, are also on board. Ken claims the boat has run out of fuel, but after his final radio call is abruptly cut off, there is no more communication from the vessel. When the Patanela fails to arri...
Mar 08, 2017•28 min•Ep 143•Transcript available on Metacast December 12, 1985. 36-year old Mike Riemer and his 21-year old girlfriend Diana Robertson leave their home in Puyallup, Washington to take their two-year old daughter, Crystal, out for a day in the woods to get a Christmas tree. That afternoon, Crystal is discovered wandering alone outside a Kmart, but is unable to tell anyone where her parents are. Two months later, Diana is found murdered outside Mike’s truck on a remote logging road with a tube sock tied around her neck, but Mike himself has ...
Mar 01, 2017•38 min•Ep 144•Transcript available on Metacast July 4, 1999. Travelers Rest, South Carolina. The parents of 20-year old Brooke Henson return home to find her sitting on the front porch at 2:00 AM. Brooke tells them she is going to walk to a nearby store to buy cigarettes, but she does not return home and is never heard from again. Years later, investigators are shocked to discover that Brooke is registered for classes at Columbia University in New York because a con artist named Esther Reed has stolen her identity. In spite of this revelatio...
Feb 22, 2017•21 min•Ep 145•Transcript available on Metacast September 12, 1943. Los Angeles, California. David Bacon, a 29-year old actor who has just played the title character in the serial drama “The Masked Marvel”, tells his wife he is planning to go swimming and leaves their home. Later that afternoon, Bacon’s car is seen driving erratically before it jumps a curb and crashes into a bean field. After Bacon stumbles out of the car and dies, a fatal knife wound is discovered in his back. The investigation would uncover numerous clues to suggest Bacon ...
Feb 15, 2017•42 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast September 12, 1987. Bradford, Pennsylvania. 50-year old Dale Kerstetter shows up to work the overnight shift as a security guard at the Corning Glassworks plant. The following morning, Dale is discovered to be missing and he is never heard from again. A check of the security tape uncovers footage of Dale walking through the plant alongside an unidentified masked intruder and it turns out that $250,000 worth of platinum was stolen that night. The ambiguous nature of the footage causes some debate...
Feb 08, 2017•23 min•Ep 146•Transcript available on Metacast April 9, 1992. 59-year old Jean Moore and her 70-year old fiancee, Al Henderson, have traveled from their hometown of Apple Valley, California for a vacation in Laughlin, Nevada. On the morning they were planning to return home, Al claims he dropped Jean off at a casino before she vanished without explanation. However, Jean does not show up on the casino’s surveillance footage, which contradicts many aspects of Al’s story. Investigators wonder if Jean even arrived in Laughlin to begin with and s...
Feb 01, 2017•35 min•Ep 147•Transcript available on Metacast September 17, 1990. Davenport, Iowa. Jennifer Lewis, a nine-year old girl from nearby Rock Island, Illinois, is found murdered on a school playground and her body has been set on fire. A man named Stanley Liggins is soon convicted of the crime, but this would only be the beginning of a very controversial case in which Liggins’ conviction has overturned on two separate occasions. This story is chronicled on a brand new true crime podcast called “Suspect Convictions”, which examines the case from ...
Jan 30, 2017•53 min•Ep 148•Transcript available on Metacast December 20, 1984. Greeley, Colorado. After singing in a choir at a Christmas performance, 12-year old Jonelle Matthews is dropped off at her family’s house by a friend. When Jonelle’s father returns home later that evening, he is horrified to discover that Jonelle is missing and the evidence suggests she was abducted by an intruder. In spite of an extensive search, Jonelle is never found and investigators fail to uncover any potential suspects in her disappearance. Our newest minisode of “The T...
Jan 25, 2017•20 min•Ep 149•Transcript available on Metacast June 2, 2007. San Francisco, California. Hugues de la Plaza, a 36-year old sound engineer with dual French and American citizenship, returns to his apartment after spending the evening at a club. When morning hits, Hugues is found stabbed to death. Since a security camera shows no one else heading in the direction of Hugues’ apartment that night, police explore the possibility that Hugues committed suicide and his death is classified as “undetermined”. However, Hugues’ family discover disturbing...
Jan 18, 2017•30 min•Ep 150•Transcript available on Metacast February 12, 2009. Washington, D.C.. 47-year old Pamela Butler phones her mother to say that she is planning to take her out on Valentine’s Day. Pam never shows up and after not hearing from her for several days, her family checks her house and discovers that she has vanished without explanation. Curiously, even though her home was covered with surveillance cameras, none of the footage shows Pam leaving during the time period she went missing, but her boyfriend can be seen entering and exiting t...
Jan 11, 2017•21 min•Ep 151•Transcript available on Metacast October 23, 1987. Arlington, Texas. 43-year old Patsy Wright phones up her sister in the middle of the night to complain that she has become nauseous after taking some NyQuil, but collapses during the call and soon passes away. An autopsy eventually reveals that Patsy was poisoned after strychnine was put in her NyQuil. The investigation would uncover multiple suspects with a motive to murder Patsy, but no evidence to implicate anyone. Our first “Trail Went Cold” episode of 2017 analyzes a real-...
Jan 04, 2017•30 min•Ep 152•Transcript available on Metacast June 4, 1989. Spokane, Washington. 13-year old Russell Evans heads home after spending the evening with friends, but is soon found seriously injured in the middle of the road. Russell eventually succumbs to his injuries and the official ruling by police is that he was the victim of a random hit-and-run accident. However, the nature of Russell’s injuries and evidence from the scene do not support a hit-and-run scenario. Russell’s parents come to believe he was attacked and murdered by multiple in...
Dec 28, 2016•22 min•Ep 153•Transcript available on Metacast Christmas Eve 1945. Fayetteville, West Virginia. George and Jenny Sodder are preparing to celebrate the holidays with nine of their children, but shortly after they go to bed, their home burns completely to the ground. When the smoke clears, five of the Sodder children – whose ages range from five to fourteen years old – are nowhere to be found and a search of the rubble fails to turn up any trace of their remains. Due to a number of suspicious events surrounding the fire, the Sodders begin to s...
Dec 21, 2016•42 min•Ep 154•Transcript available on Metacast June 28, 1981. Tilden Township, Michigan. After a night of drinking at a local club, 48-year old Helen Dymond and her husband Roy get into an argument in the parking lot. Roy drives home without his wife and Helen decides to walk from the club to her son’s house in order to spend the night. However, Helen never arrives and vanishes without a trace. Unfortunately, potential resolution for this case would be hampered by a faulty police investigation, contradictory stories from eyewitnesses, and th...
Dec 14, 2016•22 min•Ep 155•Transcript available on Metacast 
