On a frigidly cold night in 1976, in a western suburb of Chicago, sixteen-year-old Pamela Maurer was hanging out at her friend’s house in Woodridge, Illinois.  Around 9:45 p.m., Pam decided she needed a pick-me-up and told her friends she was heading out to get a soda. Pam put on her plaid coat and headed out into the frozen night, her breath billowing and catching on the wind. She pulled her coat close and made her way through the snow-covered neighborhood. When Pam did not return to her...

On the morning of January 7, 2018, at 9:25 a.m., a chilling call was made to the 911 dispatch in Belgrade, Montana. A distressed woman reported that her neighbor had just come to her home in a panic, explaining she had returned to her residence to discover her two roommates had been shot. One roommate, she believed, was gravely injured but still clinging to life. Terrified, the neighbor had fled the scene and sought refuge, desperately asking for help. Law enforcement officers were...

On Saturday, February 20th, 2016, Matt called for an Uber driver around 4:00 in the afternoon in Kalamazoo, Michigan. When the Uber driver arrived at about 4:20 p.m., Matt noticed a dog in the backseat.. The Uber driver began driving recklessly, ignoring stop signs and driving into the median. He sped into an oncoming traffic lane, blew through a stop sign, and sideswiped a Ford Taurus. But outwardly, the driver acted like nothing was wrong. Matt was terrified. “Dude, you just hit that car!”...

On Sunday, August 23, 1992, Tammy Jo Zywicki, a 21-year-old college student, had just dropped off her 19-year-old brother, Daren, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The siblings had been traveling from the East Coast, and Tammy was eager to return to college. During their journey, the car, a white 1985 Pontiac T1000, had been experiencing issues, requiring frequent stops to add oil or water. After staying the night, Daren advised Tammy to monitor the vehicle closely on her...

On the afternoon of September 19th, 1978, Carl Bridgewater, 13, hopped on his bike and started his paper route. In fifteen minutes, he arrived at Yew Tree Farmhouse, owned by Mary Poole, 79, and Fred Jones, 75, who were roommates at the farm. Both were elderly and answering the door often took them a long time. So, Carl was instructed to leave the paper in a basket outside. But if the door was open, he was supposed to take the paper inside and deliver it to them directly. However, Mary and...

It is May 24, 2000, and we are going to Tuscarawas County in Ohio to New Philadelphia. It is exactly what you think of when you say small-town America, with lots of farmland and friendly people. Elizabeth Reiser who goes by Liz is a 17-year-old high school student who is looking forward to graduating and finding out all that life has to hold for her. Her good friend 18 year old Brandi Hicks asked Liz to come over and stay the night with her. On this day Brandi who was in the school choir was...

Thank you to Nick for the episode suggestion. Content warning: Child death 2017 was a wondrously magical Christmas season. Heaps of heavy white snow had piled on top of Oak Bay on Vancouver Island, and everybody, except maybe the most die-hard winter haters, was excited at the prospect of building snowmen and sledding. On Christmas Day, Sarah awaited the arrival of her daughters, Chloe and Aubrey. They had been with their father, Andrew, the days before the holiday and were due to be home...

It is just after 10:30 p.m. on June 3, 1999, and we go to 23-year-old Bobby Bornt's home in Perry, Oklahoma. He sleeps on the couch, and his 9-month-old baby boy sleeps in a nearby room.  Suddenly, a loud noise startled him awake. Three men entered the house after kicking in the front door. The three strangers beat Bobby mercilessly, but not all were strangers; Bobby recognized 23-year-old Clayton Locket as the tattoo artist who had recently done some artwork on him. The other two men were...

Thank you to Stacy for requesting this episode.  After 32-year-old Rebecca "Becky" Klein didn't show up for work on March 16, 2007, her wife of seven years, Nicole Abusharif, set off looking for her. After driving around their neighborhood, she found Becky’s car, a white work van, parked on the side of the road near their home. The van was unlocked, and the keys were in the ignition. Nicole then called the police to report her wife missing. The next day, police found Becky's body locked...

Today’s case takes us to Mason City, Iowa. It's July 25, 1993, and like most school-aged kids, summer is the reward after being stuck in a classroom for nine months. Six-year-old Amber Duncan was no different. After an afternoon of playing on a Slip 'n Slide with her best friend, Brittney, Amber headed home around 3 PM, still wet from a day of fun in the water. As the little girl waved goodbye to her best friend, no one could have known it would be the last time she'd be seen. But Amber...

On a warm, partly cloudy night in Vidor,(ViE Dur) Texas, a newspaper boy, up early for his route, noticed that a black 1991 Mercury sedan was pitched forward in the ditch just off Interstate 10. The ditch was located between West Bolivar and the freeway access road. He immediately called the police to report the vehicle and that he was pretty sure there was a body in the front seat.  When the police arrived on the scene at West Bolivar and I-10, they immediately saw that there was a body of...

Today, we are headed to Riverdale, Georgia, on August 2, 2004, where the Fayetteville Sheriff’s office gets a call from a 16-year-old named Sara Polk, who informs them that there had been a murder or two, to be exact, and proceeds to give them the address of the location where the killing had occurred. Det Bruce Jordan takes the call and arrives on the scene to find two people savagely murdered. The first victim, 74-year-old Carl Collier,  was located in the kitchen, which had blood spatter...

Greg stared at his phone and wondered why Joanna, his girlfriend and flatmate, wasn’t answering his calls. Greg had spent the weekend with his family in Sheffield, U.K., which was about four hours north of Bristol, where he shared the apartment with Joanna. Maybe she was just busy. It was, after all, the weekend before Christmas.  But still, it wasn’t like her to not reply to him at all. Could her phone be dead? If it was, it had been dead all weekend because she hadn’t responded to his calls...

Today's case takes us to Marietta, Georgia. The book centered on this case was one of the first true crime books I had read, and it has always stuck with me. The book Secrets Never Lie: The Death of Sara Tokars- A Southern Tragedy of Money, Murder, and Innocence Betrayed is by R. Robin McDonald. It is November 29, 1992, and Thanksgiving weekend has just ended. 39-year-old Sara has been visiting with her parents and her sisters in Bradenton, Florida, for the holiday weekend, but it was time...

It was 1996, and all anybody could talk about in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada was the Abbotsford Killer. A few months before, a sadistic, barbaric individual had beaten two girls with a baseball bat, raped one, and thrown her body in the Vedder River. The killer taunted the police and terrorized an entire community of 108,000 people by promising that there would be more bodies. And he was still at large. People, especially women, were terrified to go anywhere. What would make...

Former Dauphin County Chief Detective Thomas Brennan’s phone rings between 3 am and 4 am from a responding officer requesting assistance on a crime scene. When the detective arrives, he notices a car pulled close to a ditch. Brennen, who received training at the FBI Behavioral Science Unit during his tenure with the state police, knew immediately what he was dealing with when he arrived at the Conrail crime scene. After Brennan asks the officer for details, the officer explains that a Conrail...

In the summer of 1991, Krystal Naab was sixteen years old. She lived in a mobile home in Ramsey, Illinois, with her mother and two siblings. She spent time with her boyfriend, whom she had plans to marry, and hung out with her friends. Everyone described Krystal as a genuinely sweet person. July 23rd was shaping up to be a scorcher, and by 7:30 a.m., it was already warm and humid. Since one of Krystal's chores was to mow the lawn, her brother Curtis woke her up before he left for work. He...

*Content Warning: This episode deals with domestic violence that may be disturbing to some of our listeners.If you or someone you love needs help, please call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or visit their website at https://www.thehotline.org/.  Thank you to Jessi and Kristin for speaking with us about their friend Leanne. Leanne Davidson Beck was known for being fiercely independent, tenacious, and kind. She had a good heart, and she was loved by everybody who...

On August 7, 1995, in Aroma Park, Illinois, 9-year-old Christopher Meyer approached his mom, Mika Moulton, asking for permission to visit the Aroma Park boat launch by the Kankakee River. Christopher, who spent his summers with his mother but resided with his father, Jim Meyer, in Walla Walla, Washington, during the school year, was eager to explore. Mika permitted him to go but set a curfew, instructing him to return home by 5 pm.  When 5 o'clock came and went, Mika began to worry. She went...

In April 2001, Jerry Heimann's son, Greg, had come to Washington State to visit his father. When his father didn't pick him up from the airport, he grew concerned. When he arrived at his father's home, and there was no answer, he broke into the house. Jerry wasn't there, and neither were most of Jerry's belongings.  As he made his way into the dining room, he found an 89-year-old grandmother, Evelyn, and an Alzheimer's patient slumped in her wheelchair. She had been left alone, starving. Greg...

In the early hours of May 14, 1983, two California Highway Patrol officers pulled over a suspected drunk driver on the San Diego Freeway in Mission Viejo, California. Instead of staying in his vehicle, the driver jumped out, pouring the contents of a beer bottle onto the road as he exited. His disheveled appearance caught the officers' attention as he approached their patrol car. The officers asked for the man’s driver’s license, and he readily admitted that he had been drinking beer, but he...

All considered twenty-five-year-old school teacher and beauty queen Irene Garza to be a “devout” Catholic. She attended daily mass at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. There was nothing pretentious or fake about Irene, and she lived her faith. Being good to others was part of her life’s mantra. She told a friend of hers that she found strength and comfort from her daily communion, so it was only natural that she would go to confession that Saturday evening before Easter. In fact, her family...

Nancy Brophy fills her novels with romantic betrayals and murder. It’s a far cry from her quiet life in the suburbs, where she and her chef husband, Dan, are living out their golden years. But when Dan is shot dead, Nancy finds herself at the center of a murder case that could be ripped from the pages of her novels. From Wondery, this is a story about what happens when the line blurs between fiction and reality. Listen to Happily Never After: Dan & Nancy early and ad-free on...

Warning: Today's episode deals with mental health struggles. If you or someone you love need help please contact 988, where resources are available to you.  On Friday, July 25, 2002, Ernie Williamson woke up to the alarm at either 6 or 6:30 AM, preparing to head to work. As he starts his day, his 6-year-old daughter, Cassandra, affectionately known as Casey, approaches him, telling him she is hungry. Ernie assures her that he'll quickly take a shower and then accompany her across the street...