"Have you ever seen a dead body?" It was a haunting question that marked the beginning of a gruesome discovery inside the Smylie family home in Brandon, MS, in March of 2024. A beloved high school teacher was found shot dead, and her husband narrowly escaped with his own life. Amid the chaos that followed, Heath Smylie recognized the killer—but if not for the footage captured on a home security camera in the family’s kitchen, no one might have believed him… Written by Sam Foster, Edited and...

Shortly after 5 a.m. on Sept. 10, 2012, three masked men wielding guns broke into a suburban home in Ocoee, Florida. The intruders dragged roommates Alex Zaldivar, 19, Brienna Campos, 20, and her brother Remington Campos, 23, from their beds and lay them face down on the living room floor. Minutes later, bullets were fired into each of the heads. The men fled. When the ringing in their ears subsided, Remington and Brienna Campos realized they had miraculously survived, but their friend did...

On Monday, June 24th, 2019, 33-year-old Kaylynn Blue failed to show up for her shift at a Walgreens in Idaho Falls, raising concern among her coworkers. Kaylynn had already missed two days—which was highly unusual for her. Worried, they reached out to her family, who soon involved the authorities. By 9 a.m., police arrived at Kaylynn’s residence to conduct a welfare check. There, they encountered her boyfriend, Philip Schwab, also 33. What they discovered was chilling: Philip was not only...

We're all drawn to the same things for different reasons. Nineteen-year-old “Serge” craved the freedom and exploration that travel offered. In 2008, he jumped at the chance to join a friend on an illegal train-hopping adventure to Florida. From that moment on, he was hooked. But his carefree nomadic lifestyle soon led him to cross paths with a coarse train hopping veteran known only as,  "Dirty Mike." Serge and his adventurous friends quickly discovered that Dirty Mike was on a journey of his...

On December 7th, 2016, 22-year-old Jessica Seger had plans to visit her sister, 25-year-old Amanda Suarez, at her home in Okeechobee, Florida. When Jessica arrived at the home, she noticed something strange: the door was open. And what lay inside proved to be horrific, as her sister's body was set on the floor, posed and covered in blood. Along with the body was Amanda’s hysterical 2-year-old child. Jessica grabbed her nephew and ran up the block to call the police. In the ensuing...

In the early hours of July 23rd, 2013, Amy Lord was heading out of her apartment for a morning gym session with a friend. At the same time, just a few blocks away, a woman had been brutally attacked, and the assailant was now prowling the streets in search of his next target. When he spotted Amy, the events that followed would send shockwaves through South Boston… Special thanks to Kayleigh Ballantyne for her courage, insight, and willingness to speak with us for this episode. Written by Sam...

On October 25th, 2018, staff at the California Men’s Colony Prison in San Luis Obispo noticed their beloved co-worker 64-year-old Athena Valentiny had not arrived at work. This absence prompted a wellness check, as was their standard procedure. But it was when two security guards tasked with checking up on Athena noticed her car was still parked in front of her home that they began to worry. To make matters worse, they noticed what appeared to be blood on her window shades. With Athena’s well...

On June 28th, 2023, the University of Waterloo in Ontario, CA conducted a successful campus-wide test of its WatSAFE Emergency Alert System. However, just 93 minutes later, the unthinkable happened when a former student entered a Gender Issues lecture and unleashed a horrifying hate-fueled attack…  Written and Executive Produced by Michael Ojibway. View full episode source list at https://www.invisiblechoir.com/listen/getouthidefight    Support Our Sponsors:  Rocket Money: Cancel...

On May 7th, 2019, 62-year-old Kenneth Herring drove through a red light and struck a semi-trailer truck off I-285 in Clayton County, GA. Thankfully, no one was hurt. But when witnesses pulled off to the side of the road to check on things, they noticed Kenneth acting strangely. After he suddenly fled the accident scene, bystander Hannah Payne jumped into her Jeep to pursue him, against the advice of a 911 dispatcher…  Written by Sam Foster, Executive Produced by Michael Ojibway. View full...

On Monday, April 10th, 2023, a day after Easter, colleagues gathered for their morning sales meeting at the Old National Bank in Louisville, KY. They brewed coffee and stowed away personal belongings while catching up with one another before the meeting began in the conference room. The day started normally, and everyone was in relatively high spirits. But everything changed when one of their coworkers emerged from his office carrying a large rifle… Written by Trevor Pason, Executive Produced...

It was 4 AM on June 13th, 2023 in Nottingham, England when 19-year-old Grace O'Malley-Kumar and 19-year-old Barnaby Webber were walking back to their dorms after a night out celebrating the end of their first year at The University of Nottingham.  As night slowly turned to day, and just a short walk from their final destination, the two were intercepted by a man dressed in all black.  Unbeknownst to them, this encounter was only the beginning of a  deadly rampage that would leave three dead...

On November 8, 2016, 26-year-old Brittany Southwell was holding her 7-month-old son in her arms, while inside her basement bedroom with her fiancé Tyler, in Jackson, MI. It was like any other Tuesday inside the home located in the 400 block on Jefferson St…until Tyler’s father noticed a suspicious SUV pull into the driveway from his upstairs window. Moments later, a knock came at the door, before several loud bangs turned to screams, and eventually… gunfire. After an intruder had kicked in...

On June 21st, 2022, Michael Cole Rathel was eagerly awaiting his friend and co-worker 21-year-old Xichen Yang’s arrival to work at a pool cleaning company they were both employed at in Orlando, Florida.  Xichen, a pool technician, never turned up and Michael became frustrated with his absence.  Michael proceeded to call and give his tardy friend an earful, but noticed Xichen sounded distraught on the other end of the line.  When asked if everything was okay, Xichen responded that his wife,...

Anchorage, AK ranks #1 when it comes to areas with the highest rate of Indigenous women who go missing each calendar year in the U.S. Unfortunately 2019 proved to be no different - when Anchorage Police received an SD card from a homeless woman who claimed she found it on the side of the road. When authorities viewed the contents of the card labeled, "Homicide at Midtown Marriott,” they were met with exactly that. Early into an investigation filled with twists and bizarre turns, law...

During the early morning hours of October 18th, 2015, in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Corey Jones’ SUV broke down, so he pulled over on an offramp. Multiple people came to Corey’s aid, but the process for getting a tow ended up taking hours. While Corey waited, another man was also on the street that morning. When Officer Nouman Raja noticed Corey’s stalled Hyundai Santa Fe, he headed in the direction to investigate further. What happened next involved two strangers, rapidly escalating tensions,...

17-year-old Valerie Leona Tindall was a hardworking teen who lived with her siblings and parents Jack and Shena in the rural community of Arlington, Indiana. While attending Rushville Consolidated High, Valerie worked various jobs after school and on the weekends. After tiring from gigs such as McDonald’s and Domino’s, she was eventually offered part-time work from a neighbor and owner of a local landscaping company, 59-year-old Patrick Allen Scott. On June 7th, 2023, Valerie was headed into...

35-year-old Ellie Mizon Tran was an immigrant from Vietnam who came to America in search of a new life and better opportunities. While establishing herself in the states, working two jobs at different nail salons in Virginia Beach, Ellie had endured one failed marriage. However, her second husband would turn out to be far worse than the first. On Valentine’s Day of 2017, the surveillance cameras Ellie Tran had just installed for the sole purpose of protecting herself against 29-year-old...

16-year-old Brianna Ghey was a transgender teen from Birchwood, Cheshire - located about 15 miles west of Manchester, England. Online, she portrayed herself as a confident and fierce role model for LGBTQ+ teenagers everywhere. But despite having thousands of followers on TikTok, offline, Brianna privately struggled with anxiety and depression. In February of 2023, she thought a new friend had come into her life when a 15-year-old named Scarlett Jenkinson transferred from a neighboring...

27-year-old Karina Castro was a single mother of two living in San Carlos, CA. She was in the process of looking for a new apartment following an ugly breakup with her estranged boyfriend,  33-year old rapper, Jose “Rafa” Solano Landaeta. According to Karina’s family, she was excited to get away from Jose and start a new life with her girls. However, just before noon on September 8th, 2022, Karina was stripped of any opportunities the future might bring, when onlookers witnessed a 300+ lb....

On May 23rd, 2014, social butterfly Nichole “Nikki” Burgess stopped replying to calls and texts. It was so unlike her, that her friends and boyfriend immediately grew concerned and reported her missing. When police searched her home, they found signs of a struggle – but no indication of what had actually happened to the aspiring Instagram model. And while they found abundant circumstantial evidence pointing at a possible homicide culprit, investigators’ greatest challenge may have been...

Fairfield, Iowa is home to just over 9,000 residents. It’s a place that feels more like a small town than a city. There’s a sense of community here, which was a main draw for Nohema Graber and her husband Paul when they decided to move to the Midwest and start a family. Nohema was born and raised in Mexico, and after settling down in Fairfield, she decided to make a career change in her fifties- eventually taking a position teaching Spanish at Fairfield High School. In 2020, Mrs. Graber was...

68-year-old Akron, OH antiques dealer Mary Kay “Katie” Wohlfarth mysteriously vanished while preparing for an upcoming auction with her friend and business partner on June 17th, 2019. As her family and business partner begin piecing together her last known movements, they are left with only a single vague clue. A cryptic voicemail about a handyman…  Written and Executive Produced by Michael Ojibway. View full source list.    Support Our Sponsors:  EveryPlate: Get started with EveryPlate...

When 48-year-old Floyd East Jr., a Texas Tech University police officer, responded to a disturbance call at the Talkington Residence Hall on October 9th, 2017- he couldn’t immediately locate the suspect. But while conducting a search, authorities did find a small pharmacy of illegal controlled substances inside of a dorm room. When 19-year-old college sophomore Hollis Daniels arrived back at his quad-style suite hours later, police conveniently met him at the door. He was patted down and...

When Melissa Howard was found dead in her Crestview, FL home on January 6th, 2006, the case left investigators stumped. There was no shortage of possible suspects with motive to kill her. But there was a near total lack of physical evidence. Melissa would wait over a decade for justice, as her case proved impossible to solve until investigators used technology that wouldn’t be developed until long after her murder. Written by Angela Jorgensen, Executive Produced by Michael...