Mysteries and Histories: Recent Episodes
Georgia Marie
Join Georgia as each week she talks you through important pieces of history that more people should know about or true crime cases that require more public attention - awareness and education are key!
At Nottingham’s Goose Fair in 1766, cheese became a symbol of something much bigger: hunger, profiteering, and a town pushed too far. After failed harvests sent food prices soaring, locals watched Lincolnshire merchants buy up huge quantities of cheese, already selling at nearly double its usual price, to carry away and resell elsewhere.
What began as an argument spiralled into days of chaos: stalls were looted, wheels of cheese rolled through the streets, a cargo boat was raided, and even Nottingham’s mayor was knocked down by a runaway cheese wheel. When soldiers arrived to restore order, they fired into the crowd and killed a man, proof that the Great Cheese Riot was never really about a silly food fight, but the violence that erupts when ordinary people can no longer afford to eat.
On a freezing January night in 2010, 55‑year‑old JoAnn Matouk Romain attended an evening prayer service at her church on Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, then seemed to vanish between the pews and the water. Her Lexus was found abandoned in the church parking lot with her purse, wallet, and cash still inside, footprints in the snow led toward Lake St. Clair, and police quickly decided she had walked down the icy embankment in high heels and drowned herself.
Seventy days later, JoAnn’s body surfaced in the Detroit River near Boblo Island, roughly 30 miles away, with autopsies ruling freshwater drowning but leaving the manner of death “undetermined”, no clear signs of assault, no water in her lungs according to the family’s own experts, and no solid proof that she entered the lake where investigators said she did. Her children have spent years arguing that she was murdered and that someone staged a suicide, pointing to uninvestigated relatives, odd police behavior, and a civil lawsuit that raised the specter of a cover‑up but was ultimately dismissed, leaving the JoAnn Romain case suspended in that unsettling space where the official story says “she walked into the water,” and her family insists, “someone helped her disappear.”
In the isolated highlands of Papua New Guinea, a strange and horrifying disease spread through entire villages, leaving women and children trembling, stumbling, and erupting into sudden fits of laughter before wasting away to death. For years, no one knew what was killing them, and the answer turned out to be far more disturbing than anyone expected: a fatal prion disease tied to one of the greatest human taboos.
On a honeymoon in rural Ontario in 1947, Christina Kettlewell was found dead in a few inches of water after the cottage she was staying in burned down around her. Eight days after a secret wedding, a fire, a drowned bride, and a pair of men with too many explanations turned her death into one of Canada’s strangest mysteries, part romance, part cover-up, and part nightmare no inquest ever fully solved.
In the late 1800s, women began wearing a seemingly ordinary accessory that made men furious, nervous, and sometimes even afraid to stand too close. What looked like fashion was also a tiny weapon, and as women claimed more freedom in public, the hatpin became a symbol of that shift, elegant on the surface, but sharp enough to stab back when men thought they could crowd, grab, or control them.
On a January morning in 2002, 19-year-old Rachel Louise Cooke left her home for a run in suburban Austin, Texas, and never made it back. What should have been an ordinary jog turned into a nightmare of empty roads, unanswered questions, and a family forced to live with the sickening fact that Rachel seemed to vanish without a trace.
Her disappearance left behind no body, no confirmed explanation, and no closure, just a case that still feels frozen in the moment she stepped out the door. It’s the kind of mystery that gets darker the longer it stays unsolved, because the silence around it makes the absence feel even larger.
In the summer of 1994, Oakville, Washington was hit by something no one could quite explain: not rain, but translucent, gelatinous blobs that fell from the sky again and again, leaving residents sick, panicked, and convinced they were being poisoned by something unnatural.
Samples were tested, theories ranged from airplane waste to biological contamination to something stranger, and then the evidence effectively disappeared, turning the Oakville Blobs into one of those rare mysteries where the substance was real, the fear was real, and the answer still feels disturbingly out of reach.
On an April evening in 1998, Traci Pittman Kegley stopped for gas in Elmore County, Alabama with her two-year-old daughter in the car and then vanished. By morning, her white Geo Storm was found abandoned on a secluded road with her little girl still inside, unharmed but alone, her purse and ID left behind, and Traci nowhere to be found, launching a case that has stayed cold for decades but never stopped feeling like a kidnapping scene frozen in place.
Even years later, investigators kept circling back to the same rural property near where the car was found, and search teams with cadaver dogs detected signs of human remains, but Traci herself has never been recovered, leaving her family with a brutal half-answer: someone almost certainly took her, but the final truth still hasn’t surfaced.
For centuries in the villages of southwestern France and northern Spain, there was a group of people who looked like everyone else, spoke the same language, prayed to the same God and were still treated as if they carried some invisible curse. These were the Cagots: forced to live in segregated hamlets, made to use separate church doors and fonts, banned from touching public water or marrying “normal” neighbors, and branded with symbols like a goose’s foot, even though no one could agree on what was supposedly wrong with them or where they had come from in the first place.
Over hundreds of years, myths piled up, were they lepers, heretics, Goths, Saracens, cursed builders?, but modern research suggests they weren’t racially or physically different at all, just victims of a prejudice so deep that by the time the French Revolution finally broke their legal chains, many Cagot families chose to erase their own identity to survive, leaving behind one of Europe’s strangest outcast histories: a hated “caste” with no clear origin story and almost no trace.
In the winter of 1994, figure skating stopped being just glitter and triple jumps when Tonya Harding’s story crashed into a hallway attack that shattered her rival’s knee and the sport’s reputation at the same time. Harding, tough, working‑class, and wildly talented, was suddenly at the center of a true‑crime‑level scandal after people in her orbit helped orchestrate the assault on fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan, turning an Olympic dream into a tabloid nightmare and forever tying Tonya’s name to the question: how far did she really go, and how much was she willing to let others do in her name?
In December 1935, Hollywood comedian and café owner Thelma Todd left a glittering night at the Trocadero, was driven home to the Pacific Coast Highway, and then simply disappeared into the dark. Two days later she was found slumped behind the wheel of her car in a hilltop garage, dead from carbon monoxide, in the same party dress and heels she’d worn Saturday night, no clear injuries in the official report, no suicide note, and a timeline that immediately made police call it an accidental death while almost everyone else smelled something far more sinister.
Rumors of a staged scene, mob threats, jealous lovers, and a director who may have locked her out after a fight have kept her case alive for nearly a century, turning Thelma Todd’s silent, lonely death into one of Old Hollywood’s most enduring “did-someone-get-away-with-murder?” stories.
On a snowy February evening in 1957, 11‑year‑old Moira Anderson popped out from her Coatbridge home to run a quick errand, climbed onto a near‑empty bus in the blizzard and was never seen by her family again.
For decades, her disappearance was treated like a tragic mystery with no clear suspect, until witnesses, cold‑case detectives, and even the bus driver’s own daughter slowly pulled the same man into focus: Alexander Gartshore, a convicted child abuser who was driving that bus, seen dragging a girl like Moira, and who prosecutors now say they would charge with her abduction and murder if he were still alive.
Today, searches of graves, canals, and now even old mine shafts still chase Moira’s missing body, leaving her case “almost solved”, the likely killer all but named, the motive chillingly clear, yet the one small girl at the center of it all still lost somewhere beneath Scottish soil.
In the summer of 1974, a farm worker in rural Norfolk stumbled across a bundle in a field, a plastic sheet tied with rope, hiding the headless, bound body of a woman in nothing but a pink Marks & Spencer nightdress. With her head carefully removed and never found, no name, no missing‑person match, and only the faint clues that she was a young adult, likely a mother, and probably from central Europe, she became known only as the Norfolk headless body: a woman so thoroughly erased that, half a century later, police still don’t know who she was, let alone who decided she didn’t deserve an identity in death.
Along Oregon’s remote Highway 20, the road itself feels haunted: from the late 1970s into the early 1990s, a string of women and girls were abducted, raped, murdered, or simply erased along this lonely stretch of asphalt, while the same man’s name kept surfacing and somehow slipping away again. Only years later, after dogged reporters pieced together cold cases and families’ grief in the “Ghosts of Highway 20” investigation, did the picture sharpen around highway worker John Arthur Ackroyd, a predator who turned his job into a hunting ground and whose victims include a jogger taken from her morning run, a 13‑year‑old stepdaughter who vanished from home, and “lost women” the courts never fully accounted for.
Just after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston police knocked on the door of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, claimed they were responding to a disturbance, and were calmly let inside. Ninety‑one minutes later, the guards were tied up in the basement, thirteen masterpieces, including a Rembrandt seascape and a rare Vermeer, had been sliced from their frames, and more than $500 million in art had vanished into the night, leaving behind empty gold frames that still hang on the museum walls as taunting reminders of the biggest unsolved art heist in modern history.
In 2003, construction workers smashing up the basement of a former Manhattan nightclub broke through a slab of concrete and uncovered a rolled rug, a skull, and the bound, strangled remains of a teenage girl no one could name. For more than twenty years she was “Midtown Jane Doe,” a mystery buried under Hell’s Kitchen, until forensic genealogy finally matched her degraded DNA to a 9/11 victim’s mother and revealed she was 16‑year‑old Patricia Kathleen McGlone from Brooklyn, a runaway bride and new mother who was never even reported missing.
Now investigators know Patricia married musician Donald Grant and that his address was the very building where her body was entombed in concrete, making him a key person of interest but her husband, her baby, and her killer have all vanished into the same silence that kept her hidden for decades.
The Patty Stallings case is a nightmare of bad science turned into a murder charge and a rare example of TV saving the day. In 1989, when Patty’s newborn fell violently ill, lab results were misread as antifreeze poisoning, and she was swiftly branded a baby‑killer, arrested, and convicted even as her second child showed the same terrifying symptoms.
After her story aired on Unsolved Mysteries, watching doctors recognized the pattern as a rare metabolic disorder, methylmalonic acidemia, that only looks like antifreeze poisoning on tests, proving her children were sick because of genetics, not abuse. Patty was eventually cleared, but only after losing a child and years of her life, making her case a stark warning about how quickly “clear evidence” can collapse and how a single TV episode can sometimes do what the justice system failed to do.
Polygraph tests or “lie detectors” sound like the perfect true crime shortcut: strap someone in, ask the right questions, watch the needles jump, and let the machine tell you who’s lying. In reality, they sit in a murky space between science and theatre. They don’t measure lies, they measure stress, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, sweat, and then a human interpreter decides what those spikes mean, which makes them dangerously persuasive in interrogation rooms and almost useless in courtrooms.
In case after case, people have “passed” while hiding horrific secrets, and others have “failed” simply because they were terrified, traumatized, or anxious, not because they were guilty. That’s why most judges won’t allow polygraph results as hard evidence, and why investigators who lean on them too heavily can end up chasing the wrong suspect or pressuring someone into a confession just to make a bad result go away.
The Jens Söring and Elizabeth Haysom case starts like a doomed campus romance and ends in a blood‑soaked farmhouse and a lifetime of questions. In 1985, the wealthy, respectable Haysom parents were butchered in their Virginia home, their daughter Elizabeth and her boyfriend Jens soon fleeing across Europe, spinning tangled stories about who had really taken the knives to her mother and stepfather. Decades later, after confessions, recantations, trials, and a fiercely disputed conviction, the case still sits in that uncomfortable space between a love story, a family annihilation, and a crime where the truth never quite feels settled.
Feminism isn’t just “girl power” slogans and pink protest signs, it’s a century‑spanning fight that’s come in waves, each one crashing against a different kind of control over women’s lives. The first wave clawed open the doors of citizenship and voting, the second stormed workplaces and bedrooms, the third tore into race, sexuality, and identity, and the fourth is now raging online, calling out abuse, power, and patriarchy in real time for the whole world to see.
In the shadowy woods around Vermont’s Glastenbury Mountain, Paula Jean Welden is only one of several people who walked into the trees and never properly came back. In just five years, an experienced hunter vanished from a hunting party, a war veteran disappeared from a moving bus, an eight‑year‑old boy slipped away from his mother’s parked truck, and a hiker stepped off a trail to change her wet clothes, only to be found months later where searchers swore they’d already looked, feeding the legend of a forest that doesn’t just lose people, but erases them.
In April 1981, inside a shabby rental at Cabin 28 in the tiny mountain town of Keddie, California, someone turned a cramped living room into a slaughterhouse. Sue Sharp, her teenage son John, and his friend Dana were beaten, bound, and stabbed, while 12‑year‑old Tina vanished into the night, later found as a skull in the woods miles away, leaving behind surviving children who slept through the carnage and a crime scene so chaotic, mishandled, and haunting that the “Keddie Cabin murders” still feel less like a solved case and more like something evil that walked in, did its worst, and walked back out into the dark.
In a monarchy obsessed with heirs, weddings, and “traditional values,” some of Britain’s most powerful rulers were living far queerer lives than their portraits ever admitted. Behind the careful marriages and staged public affection, kings whispered with male favourites in locked chambers, queens poured their longing into letters for the women who never left their side, and courtiers learned to speak about desire in code
or not at all. Their secrets shaped alliances, sparked scandals, and sometimes even helped topple governments, yet history kept sanding down the edges, pretending these loves were just “friendship” so the myth of a perfectly straight crown could survive.
On a foggy New Year’s Eve in 1959, 16‑year‑old Mary Flanagan waved goodbye to her family in West Ham, supposedly heading to a work party at the Tate & Lyle sugar factory and then vanished into the London night.
No body, no confirmed sightings, and even her original police files lost to time have left her disappearance frozen in place as Britain’s longest‑running missing person case, an open question that has haunted her siblings and the Metropolitan Police for more than six decades.
Across centuries, crowds have convulsed, nuns have meowed like cats, factory workers have fallen “sick” from phantom June bugs, men have panicked that their bodies were literally shrinking away, and entire towns have watched mysterious tics spread like a virus. Doctors now call it mass psychogenic illness, terror and stress so contagious that they leave real bite marks, real vomit, real screams, and sometimes whole communities convinced that something impossible is hunting them.
The Stayner brothers’ story is a nightmare split in two: in 1972, seven‑year‑old Steven Stayner was abducted on his way home from school in California and held captive for seven years by a pedophile who tried to remake him as his “son.” Steven finally escaped as a teenager, rescuing another kidnapped child in the process and becoming a national symbol of survival, only for the family to be dragged back into horror decades later, when Steven’s older brother Cary was unmasked as a sadistic serial killer who murdered four women near Yosemite, turning one family’s tale of victimhood and heroism into something far darker and more tragic.
Behind the brick walls of the Fernald State School in Massachusetts, thousands of children, many poor, disabled, or simply unwanted, were warehoused for decades under the guise of “care” and “education.” Inside, they endured overcrowding, abuse, neglect, and secret radiation experiments in which boys were fed radioactive oatmeal and tracked like lab animals, all so researchers and corporate sponsors could collect data they never consented to give.
The school marketed itself as a place of opportunity, but for many of the children trapped there, Fernald was a closed world of humiliation and exploitation that only much later would be exposed as a hidden crime scene masquerading as a classroom.
In the mid‑1980s, a shadowy group calling itself “The Monster with 21 Faces” terrorized Japan by tampering with popular candy and snack brands, sending taunting letters to the police and media, and threatening to poison products on store shelves. Their campaign of blackmail, arson, and public fear forced massive product recalls, humiliated law enforcement, and dominated national headlines, yet despite intense investigation and one suspect driven to suicide, the group vanished without a trace and has never been identified, leaving behind one of Japan’s most chilling unsolved mysteries.
On a cold January night in 1931, Liverpool insurance agent William Herbert Wallace received a mysterious phone message sending him to a fake address across town, luring him out of his home. When he returned, he found his wife Julia brutally bludgeoned to death in their sitting room, a locked‑door puzzle that would become one of Britain’s most famous unsolved murders and spark nearly a century of debate over whether Wallace was a criminal mastermind, a wrongfully accused husband, or the victim of an elaborate frame‑up.
On a February afternoon in 1985, eight‑year‑old Cherrie Mahan got off her school bus near her rural Pennsylvania home and walked toward her driveway, then vanished before she reached the front door. Her backpack and footprints were there, witnesses reported a suspicious van, but Cherrie was simply gone, leaving behind one of America’s most haunting missing‑child cases and the very first face to appear on the now‑famous “Have You Seen Me?” mailer posters.
The Guatemala Syphilis Study is one of the darkest chapters in medical history: a U.S., funded experiment in the 1940s where doctors deliberately infected prisoners, soldiers, psychiatric patients, and sex workers in Guatemala with syphilis and other STIs without their informed consent. Many were never properly treated, never told what had been done to them, and were used as test subjects simply because they were poor, vulnerable, and out of sight.
Decades later, the study stands as a brutal reminder that “public health” and “scientific progress” have, far too often, been built on the bodies and lives of people who were never given a choice.
On a March afternoon in 2002, 13‑year‑old schoolgirl Milly Dowler disappeared while walking home from the train station in Surrey, turning an ordinary journey into a national nightmare. Her abduction and murder exposed both a dangerous predator hiding in plain sight and a shocking media scandal, after it emerged that journalists had hacked Milly’s voicemail while she was missing, interfering with the investigation and tormenting her family even further.
On a September night in 2012, nine‑year‑old Chloie Leverette and seven‑year‑old Gage Daniel were believed to have died in a Tennessee house fire, until investigators realised there were no remains for either child in the ashes. The blaze killed their grandparents and destroyed the home, but Chloie and Gage seemed to have simply vanished, turning a tragic fire into a chilling mystery.
Years later, their faces still stare out from missing posters and age‑progressed photos, leaving one unbearable question hanging over the case: did the children die in a fire that left no trace, or did someone take them, using the chaos of the flames as cover?
Long before she was a Disney princess, “Sleeping Beauty” was a much darker story about power, consent, and punishment. In the earliest versions, the sleeping girl isn’t woken with a kiss, but is assaulted in her sleep, gives birth without ever opening her eyes, and only wakes up when one of her children accidentally dislodges the enchanted splinter keeping her under. Later retellings softened the edges, turning rape into “true love’s kiss” and brutal revenge into a neat happily‑ever‑after—but that polished fairy tale still sits on top of a much more disturbing original: a warning about what happens to young women’s bodies when they’re treated as objects in someone else’s story.
On a summer evening in 2000, eight‑year‑old Sarah Payne vanished while playing near her grandparents’ home in West Sussex, turning an ordinary family visit into every parent’s worst nightmare. Her abduction and murder shocked the UK, sparked a massive search, and ignited a national debate about child protection and the public’s right to know where convicted sex offenders live.
Hidden in the trees of rural Florida, the Dozier School for Boys sold itself as a “reform school” for troubled kids but behind its fences, it became a place of terror. Boys sent there for minor offences, poverty, or simply being unwanted reported savage beatings, solitary confinement, torture, and sexual abuse at the hands of the very men meant to “correct” them.
Years after the school finally shut its doors, investigators began uncovering unmarked graves and human remains on the grounds, confirming what survivors had been saying all along: for countless boys, Dozier wasn’t a second chance, it was a place they never escaped.
On a November night in 2007, 12‑year‑old Jaliek Rainwalker vanished from upstate New York and was never seen again. He was officially reported missing after a supposed overnight stay with his adoptive father, but from the beginning, timelines, stories, and behaviour around the case didn’t quite add up.
Years later, there’s still no body, no confirmed crime scene, and no charges, just a boy frozen in time on missing posters and a haunting question hanging over his last known hours: did Jaliek run away, or did someone make sure he never came home?
During the Second World War, Scottish medium Helen Duncan claimed to pull the dead out of the dark, until the British state decided her séances were dangerous. After she appeared to reveal a naval disaster that was still officially secret, she was dragged into court under the centuries‑old Witchcraft Act, branded a fraud, and locked up as Britain’s so‑called “last witch”, turning one woman’s ghost shows into a clash between belief, fear, and wartime paranoia.
Henry Lee Lucas built a reputation as America’s most prolific serial killer, then the truth started to fall apart. He confessed to hundreds of murders across the United States, closing cold case after cold case, while sheriffs and rangers lined up to hand him files and take credit for “solving” them. But as timelines clashed, details didn’t match, and impossible alibis emerged, Lucas’s story warped into something even darker: a mix of real violence, false confessions, and a justice system so eager for answers that it stopped asking the right questions.
A wagon train chasing the promise of a better life, a shortcut that became a death sentence, and a winter no one was ready for.
The Donner Party set out for California in 1846 and ended up snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, trapped for months with dwindling food, rising panic, and an unthinkable choice: starve together, or survive by consuming the dead.
By the time rescuers finally broke through the drifts, the trail they left behind was less a story of pioneers and more a gruesome legend of desperation, betrayal, and what humans are capable of when there is nothing left to eat.
Paul Logan was just doing his job, dropping off a takeaway order like countless nights before, until the address on his delivery route turned out to be a trap. Lured by a fake order, he walked straight into an ambush that would cost him his life, leaving behind a crime scene with more questions than answers and a family trying to understand how a simple shift ended in horror. His story turns an everyday job into a nightmare scenario: who placed that order, why was he targeted, and how do you stay safe when the danger is waiting at the front door?
Thousands of children, one empire, and a promise that was a lie. For decades, “British Home Children” were shipped overseas from the UK to Canada, Australia and beyond, sold the dream of fresh starts and loving homes, but too often met with hard labour, neglect, and abuse instead. Their childhoods were packed into suitcases and stamped with a destination, turning poverty and vulnerability into a one‑way ticket out of sight, and for many, out of their own families’ reach forever.
In 1996, hiking partners Julie Williams and Lollie Winans set out into Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a quiet camping trip and were found days later, murdered at their secluded campsite. Their throats had been cut, their dog was left alive, and there was no clear sign of who had slipped into the forest to kill them or why. Decades on, the case remains officially unsolved, haunted by questions about hate crime, investigative missteps, and whether a killer walked back out of those trees completely unseen.
In the middle of the American Revolution, there was a spy so secret we still don’t know her name, only her code: Agent 355. Moving through British‑occupied New York as a well‑placed “lady,” she is said to have charmed information out of officers, slipped secrets to the Culper Ring, and helped expose Benedict Arnold’s treason, then vanished into history with no confirmed face, no confirmed grave, and a legend built entirely out of whispers in other people’s letters.
In 1936, a group of English schoolboys set off on what was meant to be a scenic hike through Germany’s Black Forest and walked straight into a blizzard they were never prepared for. Ignoring local warnings, their teacher pushed them higher into the mountains as snow deepened, temperatures crashed, and the boys began to collapse from exhaustion and cold.
By the time rescuers fought their way up the slopes, five boys were dead, and a simple school trip had become “The English Calamity”: a haunting lesson in negligence, hubris, and how quickly nature punishes the smallest bad decisions.
Willowbrook State School was supposed to be a “school” for children with intellectual disabilities but behind its doors, it became a warehouse of human suffering.
Overcrowded, filthy wards held thousands of neglected children and adults, many left naked, restrained, or lying in their own waste, while disease, abuse, and even unethical medical experiments spread through the corridors.
For years, families and staff whispers were ignored, until hidden cameras finally exposed the horror to the world, turning Willowbrook into a byword for institutional cruelty and a chilling reminder of what happens when society stops seeing certain people as fully human.
On a September night in 1973, 40‑year‑old Barbara Gibbons was found brutally murdered in her Connecticut home, her body so savagely attacked that the crime scene shocked even seasoned investigators. Her teenage son was quickly pulled into the centre of the storm, and what followed was a tangle of rushed assumptions, pressured statements, and courtroom drama that would hang over the case for decades.
To this day, the Gibbons murder sits in that uneasy space between justice served and justice distorted, raising the lingering question of what really happened inside that house, and who we choose to believe when the only witnesses are bloodstains and memories.
Imagine getting sick and then slipping into a sleep you can’t wake up from, not for days, not for months, sometimes not for years. In the early 1900s, a mysterious “sleeping sickness” known as encephalitis lethargica swept across the world, leaving people frozen between life and death: eyes closed, bodies still, but often aware of everything happening around them.
Doctors watched as some patients never woke up, while others opened their eyes decades later with strange, permanent damage to their brains, turning one baffling illness into one of medicine’s most haunting unsolved stories.
In July 2014, 28‑year‑old German tourist Lars Mittank vanished after a series of strange, paranoid behaviours at a Bulgarian airport, caught on CCTV running into the woods, never to be seen again. He’d left his luggage behind, seemed terrified of people who weren’t there, and was acting like someone who desperately believed he was in danger.
Years later, his disappearance has become one of the internet’s most unsettling mysteries, raising the same chilling question over and over: what was Lars so afraid of, and where did he go?
Imagine waking up convinced you’re dead. Walking Corpse Syndrome, or Cotard’s Syndrome, is a rare condition where people genuinely believe they have no organs, no blood, or no life left inside them. They might insist they’re a walking corpse, deny the need to eat or sleep, and move through the world like a ghost in their own story, physically alive, but utterly certain they no longer exist.
On the morning of January 25, 2019, 29-year-old Liz Barraza was shot and killed in front of her own home while setting up a garage sale. The suspect waited for her husband to leave for work, then opened fire with a revolver before fleeing in a dark-colored Nissan Frontier. Nothing was stolen. No clear motive has ever been established.
The murder was captured on home security cameras, and the suspect's vehicle was recorded in the neighborhood hours before the shooting, suggesting a premeditated attack. Police were initially certain they would catch the killer within hours. Over six years later, the case remains unsolved.
On a June afternoon in 1980, coal miner Zigmund Adamski vanished after popping out for a quick trip to the shops and was found days later on top of a coal heap, miles from home, with no clear explanation of how he got there. His clothes were oddly neat, there were strange marks on his body, and parts of the timeline simply refused to make sense. Between talk of botched foul play, mysterious medical treatment, and even whispers of UFOs, the Adamski case has become one of Britain’s most unsettling unsolved mysteries.
On a July morning in 1992, 23‑year‑old Rachel Nickell took her young son and their dog for a walk on Wimbledon Common and never came home. She was brutally attacked in broad daylight, a crime so shocking it gripped the UK and terrified women across London. What followed was a deeply flawed investigation that fixated on the wrong man, a media frenzy that turned grief into spectacle, and years of legal and forensic battles before the truth finally emerged.
Two schoolgirls, one quiet English village, and a killer who thought he’d gotten away with murder, until science caught up with him. In the 1980s, the brutal killings of Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth left Narborough living in fear and police desperate for a lead. What followed would change criminal investigations forever: the world’s first use of DNA profiling to crack a murder case, expose a false confession, and unmask the real predator hiding in plain sight.
On a summer weekend in 2015, 21‑year‑old Lauren Agee headed to a cliff‑side campsite at Center Hill Lake for a party, by Sunday morning, her body was found in the water below. Friends claimed it was a tragic accident, but strange injuries, shifting stories, and missing pieces quickly turned a simple drowning into a storm of rumours and suspicion.
To this day, the case sits in a tense space between “accident” and “something more,” leaving Lauren’s family and true crime followers asking the same question: what really happened on that cliff in the dark?
For centuries, Britain watched its king slowly unravel. George III, once seen as a dutiful, steady ruler, began to speak in torrents, pace through the night, and drift in and out of terrifying, incoherent episodes that baffled his doctors and horrified his court. Whispers of “madness” crept through the palaces and into Parliament, as ministers juggled a crumbling royal mind with the need to keep an empire running. Behind the polite portraits and powdered wigs lies a far darker story: a monarch trapped inside his own head, a family torn between love and power, and a kingdom forced to ask what happens when the person wearing the crown is no longer truly in control.
In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service launched what they claimed was a study on “bad blood” in rural Alabama. In reality, it was a 40-year-long lie: hundreds of Black men with syphilis were deliberately left untreated, even after penicillin became the standard cure. Known today as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, this shocking violation of trust exposed deep systemic racism and reshaped the way medical research is conducted.
FROM THE VAULT | In the late 1980s and early 90s, Melbourne, Australia, was gripped by fear as a masked predator known only as Mr. Cruel stalked the suburbs. He was cunning, calculated, and terrifyingly methodical, breaking into homes, abducting young girls, and vanishing without a trace. Despite massive police investigations and public outcry, his true identity remains one of Australia’s biggest unsolved mysteries.
In 1966, two Brazilian electronics technicians were found dead on a hill outside Rio de Janeiro, wearing strange lead masks and formal suits, with a cryptic note at their side. Known as the Lead Mask Case this chilling mystery has baffled investigators for decades. Were they victims of a bizarre scientific experiment, a secret ritual, or something far stranger?
In 1986, Sherri Rasmussen, a 29-year-old newly married nurse, was found brutally murdered in her Los Angeles home. The case stunned her family and baffled detectives. For over two decades, it was believed to be a botched robbery... until DNA evidence revealed a shocking twist.
From ancient herbal remedies to modern-day contraceptive pills, the history of birth control is as fascinating as it is complex. In this episode, we trace the evolution of how humans have tried to prevent pregnancy - through science, culture, trial, and error.
Today we explore the innovations, setbacks, and key figures who shaped the path toward reproductive autonomy. From ancient Egypt to the feminist movements of the 20th century, this is a journey through time that reveals how birth control has influenced health, freedom, and society as a whole.
In the late 15th and 16th centuries, a terrifying illness swept through England with brutal speed - striking healthy people in the morning and leaving them dead by nightfall. It was called the Sweating Sickness, and to this day, no one knows exactly what it was.
In this episode, we investigate the chilling history of this mysterious epidemic that haunted Tudor England. Was it a virus? A toxin? An early form of hantavirus? We explore the symptoms, the panic it caused (even in royal circles) and why it vanished as suddenly as it appeared.
You’ve heard the punchline: a woman spills McDonald’s coffee in her lap and sues for millions. But behind the jokes and late-night talk show fodder lies a story that’s far more shocking, and far more human, than you’ve been told.
In this episode, we dig into the truth behind the 1994 Liebeck v. McDonald’s case, where 79-year-old Stella Liebeck’s life was forever changed by a scalding cup of coffee. We explore the media spin, the corporate defense strategy, and the public’s misunderstanding of a landmark case that sparked national debate over personal responsibility, corporate accountability, and tort reform.
Joan Robinson Hill had it all: wealth, beauty, and prestige as a celebrated equestrian in Houston’s high society. But in 1969, her sudden and suspicious death at just 38 years old shocked the city and set off a tangled saga of scandal, betrayal, and murder that would haunt Texas for decades.
In this episode, we unravel the gripping true story of Joan’s life and death, the strange behavior of her husband Dr. John Hill, and the explosive chain of events that followed - including a grand jury, a sensational trial, and a deadly act of vengeance. Was Joan the victim of a medical mystery or something far more sinister?
At the turn of the 20th century, a simple accessory ignited a wave of fear, controversy, and legislation. In this episode, we explore the Hatpin Panic - a bizarre and fascinating moment in history when women’s fashion clashed with societal expectations and public safety. As women began to assert their independence in cities around the world, long steel hatpins (used to secure extravagant hats) became symbols of both elegance and defiance… and, to some, dangerous weapons.
Between 1975 and 1980, at least 13 women were murdered in Yorkshire, England, spurring on one of the biggest manhunts the UK had ever seen. Eventually, Peter Sutcliffe was captured. Who was he? Who were his victims? And how did he remain on the loose for so long?
FROM THE VAULT | Today, we dive into one of France's most haunting true crime mysteries: the Dupont de Ligonnès murders, also known as the Nantes murders. In April 2011, five members of the Dupont de Ligonnès family were found buried beneath the patio of their home, sparking a nationwide manhunt and leaving the world gripped by unanswered questions. At the center of the case is Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès — husband, father, and the prime suspect — who vanished without a trace.
In 2014, a teenage boy came across a human head in the woods and called the authorities. They expected to find decomposed remains, but were shocked to find the head was fully intact and, strangely, embalmed. How did an embalmed head end up here and more importantly, who did it belong to?
We've probably all heard of Jack the Ripper, one of the most famous English unsolved mysteries. He was responsible for the murders of at least five women near Whitechapel in London's East End between August and November 1888. But do you know all the details?
The Pendle witch trials, held in 1612, were a series of witchcraft trials in Lancashire, England, where 10 people were accused of witchcraft and executed, with the trials centred around the area of Pendle Hill. They predated Salem by 80 years, but the events were eerily similar. Why and how did these two things happen, thousands of miles apart?
In September 1988, schoolboy Lee Boxell left his home in Cheam to go and hang out with a friend before saying he might go and watch a football match at the local Selhurst Park stadium. And then he disappeared, never to be seen again. In the last 37 years there have been countless leads and theories as to what happened to him, but answers remain illusive.
Today I have a brand new case updates episode for you, where I look back over the cases I've covered in the past and share new information!
In this episode, we explore the mysterious death of Natalie Wood, the Hollywood star whose life was tragically cut short under circumstances that still spark debate. Found drowned off the coast of Catalina Island in 1981, questions remain about what really happened that fateful night on the yacht Splendour. Was it a tragic accident, or is there more to the story?
In this episode, we examine the terrifying case of Mr. Cruel, the unidentified predator who terrorised Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Known for his calculated attacks and chilling anonymity, Mr. Cruel left behind a legacy of fear and unanswered questions. Who was he? How did he evade capture? And could he still be out there?
In this episode, we unravel the haunting case of Mary Marrs Carwein, a mystery that has baffled investigatorsf or decades. What really happened to Mary, and who was responsible for her fate? We explore the circumstances surrounding her case, the suspects, the theories, and the lingering questions that remain unanswered. Join us as we take a deep dive into this chilling story, separating fact from speculation in our search for the truth.
Today we dive into the chilling story of Andrew Cunanan, the manipulative and dangerously charismatic man who became one of America’s most infamous spree killers. Best known for the murder of fashion icon Gianni Versace, Cunanan’s killing spree spanned four states and left five men dead before ending in a dramatic police manhunt.
FROM THE VAULT: today we uncover the incredible yet often overlooked story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells revolutionised modern medicine. Born in 1920, Henrietta’s cells—taken without her knowledge—became the first immortal human cell line, known as HeLa cells. These cells played a crucial role in medical breakthroughs, from the polio vaccine to cancer research, IVF, and even COVID-19 treatments.
Join us as we explore the ethics, impact, and legacy of Henrietta Lacks and her family’s fight for justice.
FROM THE VAULT: today we're diving into one of the most haunting unsolved cases in American history: The West Mesa Murders. In 2009, a woman walking her dog in Albuquerque, New Mexico, made a shocking discovery - the remains of 11 women and an unborn child buried in the desert. The case, linked to a suspected serial killer known as the West Mesa Bone Collector, remains open to this day, with no arrests and more questions than answers.
Who were the victims? What clues have investigators uncovered? And could the killer still be out there?
FROM THE VAULT: Today we delve into the chilling case of Peter Sutcliffe, the man who terrorised northern England as the Yorkshire Ripper. Between 1975 and 1980, Sutcliffe brutally murdered 13 women and attacked 7 others, evading capture for years as fear gripped the region. His crimes exposed deep flaws in the police investigation, leading to one of the most infamous manhunts in British history.
How did Sutcliffe evade justice for so long? What were the mistakes that allowed him to continue his reign of terror?
FROM THE VAULT: In September 1994, 30-year-old Camille Dardanes Dotson vanished after leaving the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite decades passing, her case remains unsolved, leaving her family and friends searching for answers. In this episode, we delve into Camille's life, her sudden disappearance, and the efforts to uncover what really happened to her.
FROM THE VAULT: In the 1980s and ’90s, the AIDS epidemic devastated communities around the world—yet governments, media, and society largely turned a blind eye. In this episode, we uncover the early days of the crisis, the devastating loss of life, and the fearless activism that forced the world to pay attention. From the rise of organizations like ACT UP to the scientific breakthroughs that changed the course of the epidemic, we explore the human stories behind one of the most tragic and transformative public health crises in history.
FROM THE VAULT: In honour of it being LGBTQ+ history month here in the UK, today I'm going to be sharing the tragic story of Matthew Shepard. In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student, was brutally attacked and left for dead in Laramie, Wyoming - simply for being gay. His murder shocked the nation and became a turning point in the fight against hate crimes.
FROM THE VAULT: In the 1950s and 60s, a "miracle drug" promised relief from morning sickness but left a devastating legacy. The thalidomide scandal shook the world as thousands of babies were born with severe birth defects due to a drug marketed as completely safe. In this episode, we delve into the harrowing stories of those affected, the corporate negligence that allowed it to happen, and the fight for justice that followed. How did this tragedy change drug regulations forever? Join me as we explore one of the most infamous medical scandals in history.
FROM THE VAULT: Today we uncover the chilling story of the Victoria Cilliers case, also known as the parachute murder plot. When a routine skydive went horribly wrong in 2015, investigators uncovered a web of deceit, betrayal, and a sinister plan by her husband, Emile Cilliers, to kill her. Was it greed, lust, or something darker that drove him? Join us as we unravel the shocking details of this real-life thriller and explore the psychology behind betrayal and survival.
FROM THE VAULT: On a chilly March night in 1964, Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered near her home in Queens, New York—a crime that shocked the nation and changed the way we think about human behavior. The tragedy became infamous for reports that 38 bystanders heard her cries for help but did nothing. Was it urban apathy, or is the truth more complicated? In this episode, we unravel the myths, explore the psychology of the bystander effect, and uncover how this case reshaped laws, research, and public consciousness. Join us as we dive into the lasting legacy of the Kitty Genovese case.
On 23rd December 1993, delivery driver Paul Logan was tasked with delivering a Chinese takeaway to a nearby farm. When he arrived, the homeowners said they hadn't made any order. By the time he got to the end of the driveway, Paul was dead. 31 years on, who lured him to his death, and why?
In July 1994, the body of a man was found floating in the North Sea, of the coast of Heligoland, Germany. He was found wearing a suit, hence his nickname of 'Gentleman', but all clues have led to dead ends. Who was he? How did he end up in the water?
In this episode, we delve into the twisted story of Cary Stayner, a man whose name is forever tied to one of California's most infamous crime sprees. Known as the "Yosemite Killer," Stayner committed a series of brutal murders that shocked the nation. But his story takes an even darker turn when juxtaposed with the haunting legacy of his younger brother, Steven Stayner, a national hero who escaped from a notorious kidnapper years earlier.
In 1994, a small town in Washington State experienced a strange phenomenon: jelly-like blobs rained from the sky, leaving residents sick and baffled. Scientists and locals speculated wildly—was it a government experiment gone wrong, a byproduct of military testing, or something otherworldly? Join us as we dive into the theories, eyewitness accounts, and the lingering questions surrounding one of the most peculiar events in modern history.
The Steven Stayner case is a harrowing story of abduction, survival, and resilience. Kidnapped at age 7 in 1972, Steven spent seven years under the control of Kenneth Parnell before bravely escaping and rescuing another child. While his return brought hope, Steven faced lasting challenges and tragically died at 24. His story later intertwined with his brother Cary’s crimes as the "Yosemite Killer," marking a chilling chapter in true crime history.
In February 1985, 8 year old Cherrie Mahan got off the school bus 500ft from her home. Her parents heard the bus pull up, heard the door open, and waited for Cherrie to arrive back any moment. But she never did. At some point in that short walk, she was abducted and has never been seen again.
On the morning of August 27th 1992, Vickie Felton left for work, leaving her 13 year old daughter Leigh home alone for the first time. There was a tornado warning that morning, and when by 8.30am Leigh wasn't answering the phone, Vickie rushed home - only when she arrived, Leigh was gone and has never been seen since. What happened to Leigh Occhi?
In 2009, Paula Hounslea told her daughter she was going to visit a friend. She told the friend she was going away for a few days. And then she never came home. 3 years later, her remains would be found in a fire pit by an abandoned railway. What happened to Paula?
Today we’re going to explore a historic case that changed the course of criminal investigations forever: the first-ever case solved by DNA fingerprinting. This groundbreaking technique was used to catch Colin Pitchfork, a man responsible for the brutal murders of two young girls, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, in the 1980s. What started as a complex investigation, with dead end after dead end, took a revolutionary turn when DNA evidence exposed the killer in a way that had never been done before.
Every few months I like to take a look back over the cases I've covered in the past and share any new updates with you... and today I have a LOT of very interesting things to share, with updates in the cases of the Menendez brothers, Asha Degree, Sandy Irvine, Julie Doe, the Bear Brook Jane Doe and much more.
One night in September 1973, 18 year old Peter Reilly returned home to find his mother dead on their bedroom floor, brutally murdered. He called the police and within just minutes, became was their one and only suspect. After a long night and day, Peter eventually confessed to Barbara's murder... but did he do it?
In 1900, a reform school opened up in Mariana, Florida, with the intention of helping wayward boys go on to become productive members of society. What happened instead was of pain, abuse and suffering for the children forced to attend.
In 1959, 16 year old Mary Flanagan waved bye to her family as she headed to work and then to her work's annual New Year's Eve party. But little did her parents know that Mary hadn't actually gone to work for two weeks, and she likely had no intentions of going to the party. And then she never came home. Where is Mary?-0
Siblings Chloie and Daniel were living with their grandparents in Unionville, Tennessee, when a fire broke out on 23rd September 2012. The bodies of their grandparents and pets were all found in the ashes, but there's never been any sign of Chloie or Daniel.
In 1964, 15 year old Reed Jeppson got back from a morning at church and went out to feed his beloved dogs in their backyard kennel whilst his sister prepped lunch for the family. She warned him not to take too long, that food would be ready soon... but he never came back. Both Reed and both of his dogs seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, with no clue as to their whereabouts.
On April 19th 1953, Ron Tammen came back to his dorm room at Miami University, Ohio, to discover a dead fish in his bed. Assuming it was a prank by a peer, he went to change his bedsheets and got back to his studying. And then, he just disappeared. What happened to Ron Tammen?
Today we're taking a look at some of the craziest cults the world has ever seen, including a cult in which a man worshipped coconuts... and convinced others to do the same.
In 1992, Rachel Nickell was out for a walk with her dog and 2 year old son on Wimbledon Common in London, when a man came out of the blue and stabbed her to death. She was found with her son by her side, holding her hand. What followed was a shambles of an investigation by the Met Police, in which they decided to focus all their efforts on one (innocent) man, as the true perpetrator went on to kill others.
From the late 1970s through to the early 90s, there were a number of of victims, all young women, who disappeared along the same highway, running through Oregon in the US. It was highway 20, connecting the whole state, from west to east and running through the Cascade Mountains. It runs through cities and some of the most remote areas of the state; there are plenty of areas in which someone could run into trouble. Several stretches of the highway runs through thick, thick forest, so heavily wooded that you can walk into it and immediately find yourself lost and disorientated. Any body hidden in there would be near-on impossible to find.
This week we're covering the cases of two Jane Does, both of whom are currently in the process of forensic genetic testing, but there's something standing in the way: it seems neither of them are from the country in which they were found, which complicates things somewhat. Who are the Bowmanville Jane Doe and Kilgore Jane Doe?
On New Years Day 1963, two teenagers come across a man lying face down next to the Lane Cover River in Sydney, Australia. At first they assume he's drunk but soon realise that's not the case. Police later find a second body, that of a woman, located just metres away, but an autopsy was unable to find a cause of death for either... all they know, is that they died from the same, mysterious cause.
In June 1980, 56 year old Zigmund Adamski left his home on home to go and grab some food shopping, and then he never came home - his body would later be found under baffling circumstances, that to this day, no one has ever been able to make sense of. The strange, strange situation around Zigmund’s death has led to countless theories over the years, none of which quite make sense but there is one theory that people seem to focus on more than the rest: alien abduction.
In September 1890, French inventor Louis Le Prince was supposed to be travelling back to New York City to see his family for the first time in three years after finally completing his invention: the motion picture camera. His brother waved goodbye as he dropped Louis off at Dijon train station, to travel to Paris and begin his long journey home. But somewhere along the way, Louis disappeared, never to be seen again.
In December 1996, 12 year old Celina Mays went off to bed and was never seen again, her younger sister finding her bed stuffed with pillows the next day. But Celina wasn't like your regular 12 year old: she was 9 months pregnant and living in a cult-like church, under the thumb of her aunt. Did Celina run away, or did something darker happen?
In 1974, a decapitated body is found hidden underneath a plastic sheet on a quiet county road in Cockley Cley, Norfolk. Despite a massive investigation, there have been few leads over the years and the Norfolk Headless Doe remains unidentified. Who was she?
In 2010, Lori Erica Ruff ended her own life, leaving her husband to clear through all her belongings. And in doing so, he found out that his wife was not who she claimed to be... but who was she? What was she running from?
In 1966, three people, Vernon Shipman, Charles Glass and Louise Shumate were found dead in a clearing in Henderson County, North Carolina. Vernon and Charles were close friends, but Louise had no known connection to the pair... so why had they spent that afternoon all driving around in a car together? Why were they murdered?
What would you do one day if you woke up dead? You're walking, talking, but you're dead: your brain and skin and organs no longer belong to you. Well, for those with Cotard's Syndrome, that is a terrifying reality.
In August 1995, 23 year old Heather Teague went sunbathing on Newburgh beach in Henderson County, Kentucky. Then someone emerged from the woodland behind, pulled her up by her hair and threatened her with a gun, forcing her back into the trees. And wildly, this was all witnessed by a man and his telescope 25km away, in a different state.
In 2003, workers prepping a building for demolition in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, discovered a body encased in concrete in the basement. After 21 years, the girl was identified at Patricia McGlone, but now the search is on for who killed her.
Through the 70s and 80s, multiple women were found murdered along the Connecticut River Valley - until one woman, Jane Boroski, survived a brutal attack and the killer seemed to go into hiding. Who is the Connecticut River Valley Killer?
UPDATE: as of Tuesday 21st May 2024 (after I recorded this), a search warrant has been enacted in the home of a man in Newport. No more information has been released at this time.
In 2019, Liz Barraza was setting up a garage sale on her driveway whilst neighbours got up and ready for the day. And then a car pulls up, someone gets out, and shoots her. Who was this mysterious person? Was it a random attack? Mistaken identity? Had someone taken out a hit on her?
In 2002 authorities in Eastlake, Ohio were called to a suicide in an apartment and it looked like it was going to be an open and shut case... until it turned out that the man, who they thought was Joseph Chandler Newton III, had been living under a false identity for YEARS. Recently he was identified, but no-one knows why he went on the run, abandoning his family forever.
One night in 1994, Bob and Bunny Lehton arrived home from church to find a masked intruder in their home, pacing back and forth, saying they were just there to rob them and was waiting for a lift. Despite all offers for him to take what he wished, the man refused to leave... until the couple's daughter Amy Gellert came home. Amy was brutally attacked and died from her wounds, with the perpetrator escaping on foot. He's never been found.
In 1972, a male body was found in a secluded area in Volusia County, Florida. At the time it was thought that the remains were that of an adult, but testing decades later showed that it was more than likely a child, a pre-teen boy. For decades, investigators have been looking in the wrong places, but could he be found now?
32 years ago, much-loved mum Vera Anderson received a phone call that resulted in her leaving her home at 10pm on a Saturday night and driving to a quiet, deserted area. Hours later, she would be found murdered in her car, in what appeared to be a hit. Despite extensive investigation, authorities have never found any motive, any reason as to why someone might want Vera dead.
FROM THE VAULT: In November 2010, 13 year old Yara Gambirasio disappeared after gymnastics in Lombardy, Italy. What followed was one of the most intensive police investigations ever seen in Italy, and eventually, her killer was captured.
In 2015, 21 year old Lauren Agee went to a weekend festival with her friends but little did she know she wouldn't be returning home. There's been lots of speculation over the years as to what happened to Lauren, law enforcement wrote it off as an accident but her family has never accepted that, because as you'll come to see they didn't actually investigate the case...
FROM THE VAULT: From 1974-1975, a number of murders and assaults took place in San Fransisco, all targeted at gay men. The police took little to no interest in investigating the plights of the queer community, so to this day, the so-called Doodler killer goes unidentified.
Today's episode is featuring a number of updates on cases I've covered in the past, small and big! We have a murderer being found in the Colonial Parkway case, movements in the Redhead murders, the Amelia Earhart plane potentially being found, and as always, plenty of Doe identifications and updates.
FROM THE VAULT: Rebecca Schaeffer was an up-and-coming American actress with a bright life ahead of her, when it was tragically ripped away at age 21. Her murder would bring to light gaps in the law around stalking, leading to questions as to how this was allowed to happen in the first place.
In 1983 a transient man called Henry Lee Lucas was arrested for the murder of an elderly woman called Kate Rich and as he stood in court for his crimes he asks 'what about the rest of the people I killed?' Beginning a frenzy throughout law enforcement across the country. He would go on to confess to over 600 murders, but how many people did Henry Lee Lucas REALLY kill?
FROM THE VAULT: In 1992, 14 year old Misty Copsey went missing from Puyallup, Washington after visiting a fair with her best friend. Despite many clues pointing in multiple directions, there's never been any trace of her found.
In August 1979, a resident of Tok, Alaska found a decomposed body at the side of a quiet country road. Investigators were soon able to pin down his killer, but One Eyed Jack, as he would come to be known, has never been identified.
FROM THE VAULT - For centuries we've seen multiple different iterations of women being accused of witchcraft, of having too much power, men screaming how they must be stopped; the most famous of which is the Salem witch trials. But do you know the full story?
In 2014, Lars Mittank travelled to Bulgaria for a week away with friends. An unfortunate encounter means he gets a burst eardrum and is unable to fly back home to Germany, being left alone in a foreign country... what happens next has never been explained.
FROM THE VAULT - in 1917, the Radium Luminous Material Corporation started producing luminous paints called Undark, with companies quickly realising how helpful luminescent watch faces would be for the military. Hordes of women were employed in factories, tasked with the painstaking job of painting the watches... only as we all know, radium and humans do not mix.
In the 1930s, plans were made to build an institution for intellectually disabled children, sold to parents as a haven, with around the clock care and training programmes. Of course, none of the promises came to fruition and it's soon-to-be 6000 residents would be found living in squalor, ignored by the outside world.
In January 2002, Rachel Cooke was home in Georgetown, Texas for the winter break when she decided to go for a run, as she did every morning. Only on this day, she never arrived home and it's widely believed she was the victim of foul play. What happened to Rachel?
In 2002, Joanna Yeates had just moved in with her boyfriend in Bristol, England. She was just starting her adult life, having graduated university and beginning her first job, before it was cruelly ripped away from her when she was home alone for a weekend. Here is her infuriating story.
We all know historians often refuse to acknowledge queerness meaning there's a whole beautiful rainbow out there in history that has been missed. There have been 40+ monarchs in British history, so statistics tells us that at least ONE must've been gay right? Let's find out.
In 1946, 18 year old Paula Jean Welden decided to go on a Sunday afternoon hike in the Glastonbury mountain in Vermont. And then she just vanished into thin air, no sign of her has been since. But the strangest thing is, she wasn't the only person in the 1940s to disappear under those circumstances...
In 1988, 17 year old Mark Haines went for a night out with his friends, ending with his body being found on the train tracks the next morning. Police quickly brushed it off as suicide, then misadventure, leaving Mark's family to investigate on their own. Finally in 2024, it looks like justice may be around the corner.
Today we've got a four-in-one episode, with a number of cases of mass hysteria throughout history: the meowing nuns, the june bug epidemic, the shrinking penis epidemic and the jell-o factory hysteria.
In 1976, a corn farmer in Benton County, Indiana came across a heavy box in his field - and soon found a human body inside. Despite immediate investigation, police still have no answers as to her identity or killer 47 years later. Who was the box lady of Benton County?
In 2002, John Darwin got in his kayak and went off for a paddle in the North Sea... and then never returned, assumed dead. 5 years later, he turns up at a London police station claiming amnesia. But of course, that's not what happened.
In 1936, a teacher decides to take 20 schoolboys on a trip to Germany on his own... what could go wrong? Everything it turns out, after deciding to take them on a hike to the highest peak in the Black Forest.
It's been over 40 years since the body of an woman was found on the strip in Las Vegas and finally in 2023 she was identified as Gwenn Marie Story, but her identification sadly hasn't shed any light on who was responsible for her death - who killed Gwenn?
Since 2007, 23 feet have been found on the shores of the Salish Sea in Canada and the United States, most found inside trainers/sneakers and hiking boots. What's going on?
This is a huge part of British and Canadian history which is rarely spoken about now, but a piece of history which has undeniably had a massive butterfy effect on both nations today. Thousands of children were taken off the streets of London and sent to homes in Canada for labour... and as you can imagine, there wasn't much love.
Julie Hogg disappeared in 1989 after a pizza delivery shift, her mother calling to wake her up the next morning for a court date to find there was no answer. Despite her family's insistence that Julie would not have run away, police fail to investigate properly... and three months later, mother Ann finds her daughter's remains behind the bath panel. From that moment on, she embarks on a mission to see her daughter's killer behind bars, but it's not going to be an easy journey.
In the early hours of August 23rd 1994, Beth-Ellen Vinson was on her way to work when she disappeared, her car being found abandoned on the side of the road. A week later, her body was discovered nearby but to this day, there are no answers. Who killed Beth-Ellen? What was the motive?
In Franklin County, Maryland in 1982, two mushroom hunters came across a steamer trunk in woodland. Curious, they go to open it and find the decomposed body of a woman who remains unidentified 41 years on. Who was the Cheerleader in the Trunk?
Releasing over a million balloons at once sounds like a pretty spectacle right? What could go wrong? Well in 1986, the residents of Cleveland would find out.
Today I've got some updates for you in some massive cases from over the last few months. This is what we hope for in the world of true crime, new information bringing us one step closer to solving a case or identifying a person.
For a whole decade between 1984 and 1994, elderly couple Bill and Dorothy Wacker were harassed by an unknown assailant, with Dorothy even being physically attacked on two occasions, sending her to hospital. But there was never any sign of the perpetrator and police eventually decided Bill himself was responsible. But was he?
On Christmas Day 1929, residents of Germanton, North Carolina were disturbed by multiple gunshots over at the Lawson residence - and when they arrived to investigate, they found a scene that no-one ever wants to witness: an entire family killed by their own father. We've always known who's responsible for the Lawson family murders, but the big question is: why? Why did Charlie Lawson do it?
From 2010 to 2018, rumours were flying around Toronto's gay village that there was a serial killer on the loose, targeting muslim men in the area. Despite these cries, no-one seemed all that interested in investigating... until in 2018 something undeniable happened. Here is the story of the victims of Bruce McArthur.
Sarah Ottens was murdered in her university dorm in 1973 and after an investigation, James Hall was arrested and charged with the crime. But then a decade later, Hall was exonerated for the crime. Was he truly responsible? If not, who did kill Sarah?
When in 1984 751 people in The Dalles, Oregon, suddenly contracted salmonella after eating at a number of salad bars, the authorities put it down to poor hygiene of the food handlers, despite local residents suspecting the involvement of the Rajneeshees, a cult of 7000 people who had overtaken a nearby ranch. This is the tale of everything that happened before and after.
In May 1968, a man came across the remains of a girl who would go on to become known as Tent Girl. 2 decades later this man would be telling his future son-in-law, Todd, the story who found himself unable to get it off his mind. Todd goes on to dedicate his life to reuniting Tent Girl with her name and her family, becoming one of the founders of DoeNetwork and changing the face of true crime forever.
In 1991, 18 year old Nicola Payne set off on the 6 minute walk from her boyfriend's house to her parent's house, a walk she had done countless times before... and then she disappeared. Over three decades on, numerous arrests and a failed trial later, Nicola's case still remains unsolved. Where is she?
In 1988, the body of a woman was found in the Green Swamp area of Clermont, Florida. Investigators went out in search of her identity, but were never successful - and then in the early noughties, a wave of funding meant that were able to take another look at the case. At this point it was found that investigators may have been looking in the wrong places, as Julie seemed to in fact be a transgender woman, adding a whole other layer of considerations to the investigation.
Lesley Herring was known to be a solid, reliable person who always showed up - so when one day in February 2009 she failed to turn up for work, her family knew that something was seriously wrong. What followed was a hunt, not only for Lesley but also for her husband Lyle, investigators following a trail of red herrings he'd left in his wake.
A few years ago Thomas Chan consumed magic mushrooms and went on to attack his father, arguing the defence of automatism in court: he wasn't responsible for his actions whilst under the influence. This, and the case of Sullivan, opened up a can of worms in Canadian law.
This week we're going to be looking at some updates in cases that I've covered in the past, including Alicia Navarro, Lady of the Dunes, Nude in the Nettles, Paige Johnson and more.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the bodies of a number of women were found alongside major interstates from Virginia to Missouri. Investigators soon began to connect the cases, as all the women had one thing in common: they all had red hair.
In the 1960s, two couples were driving near Point Pleasant, West Virginia when they came across a creature that they could only describe as 'not-human', 7ft tall with 10ft wide wings and glowing red eyes. They reported it to the local authorities, and since then countless people have reported a similar creature, some think it is a harbinger of doom. But if the mothman exists, why is there no solid evidence?
In 2001, a missing persons segment was aired on Mexico's Canal 5 and for some reason people on the internet deemed that the photo of missing Selene Delgado Lopez was fake... and from there, you won't believe where this story goes.
On 29th October 2004, a woman got in the lift at the Wembley Point building in London and took it all the way up to the 21st floor. Once there, she calmly opened a window and jumped out, her body soon being found in the river down below. Almsot 2 decades on and she has still not been identified, despite a number of interesting clues being left behind.
The 1800s were a time of great migration within the USA, with families packing their entire lives into wagons and setting off on the treacherous journey. Lansford Hastings managed to convince the Donner-Reed party to try out a new route, one which was apparently shorter than the usual - they'll reach California quicker! But things went terribly wrong, and the party were forced to do things to survive that no human should do.
In 1980, Jessie Earl was due to come home to visit her parents but when she failed to arrive her mother headed down to her flat in Eastbourne to ensure Jessie was okay - only finding an enduring mystery. 9 years later, Jessie's body would be found but their battle would be far from over.
In April 1998, Traci Pittman Kegley failed to turn up home to her parents house, causing them to search for her through the night. The next morning, her car is found abandoned on the side of the road with her 2 year old daughter in the back, entirely unharmed. There's never been a single sighting of Traci since.
In 1994, Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked as she came off the ice after a practice session - and soon it transpired that her rival, Tonya Harding, may have been involved. But how did it come to this?
Did you know that only 0.5% of recorded history is about women? Think about all the stories of women who have been erased from history, the stories about men which may actually be about women? Well today we're going to be talking about a potential female spy who changed the course of the American Revolution, mentioned in just one letter in the culper spy ring. Did she exist? Who could she have been?
In 1976 the dismembered body of a young woman was found in Carbon County, Pennsylvania and despite extensive investigation, she went unidentified for 44 years. Finally in 2021 after her biological nephew uploaded his genetic information, investigators were able to confirm her identity as 15 year old Evelyn Colon. And through that, find the identity of her potential killer.
In the 1970s, four children went missing the Detroit, Michigan area, their bodies all being found shortly after. Despite this being the biggest investigation is USA history at this time, multiple suspects and even DNA evidence being linked to a person of interest, this case has never been solved.
In 1989, 130 people boarded small pleasure boat, Marchioness, for a party cruise down the Thames. Less than an hour later, 51 of these people would die after the boat was struck by a large dredger. 34 years on, and still there's not been justice for the victims, survivors or families of this disaster. Who was responsible?
This week we're going to be looking at some updates in cases that I've covered in the past, including a massive update in the LISK/Gilgo Beach Killer: a suspect has been arrested.
Starting in the 1940s, American researchers travelled down to Guatemala to conduct a number of experiments around STD research. They said they intended to find a post-exposure prophylaxis, but ended up deliberately infecting over 1000 Guatemalan people with STDs... and didn't cure over half of them. How was this allowed to happen?
In 1970, 17 year old Helen Claire Frost had had a few rough months after being forced to give up her newborn baby girl. One day in October, she headed out for a 'quick walk' after inviting her sister along, who declined, and she never returned. In all these years there's never been a single clue, but someone must know what happened to Helen.
We're travelling back to 1650 today to learn about a 22 year old woman called Anne Greene who gave birth to a stillborn baby and was unjustly sent to the gallows... only to survive her own execution. How was this possible? Find out with me!
On 2nd November 2007, 12 year old Jaliek Rainwalker was reported as missing by his adoptive father, who said he must have runaway during the night. However in 2012 Jaliek's case was reclassified as a presumed homicide, and much suspicion has been cast on those closest to him.
In 1979, a horse rider in Bedgebury Forest, Kent, England, spotted the body of a woman in the bracken. What followed was an extensive murder investigation and one of the UK's most puzzling criminal cases, with a man going to trial 20 years later only to be found not guilty. Now in 2023, Jane Doe still has no identity and no justice.
In 1987, 16 year old Theresa Bier got picked up by a man called Russell 'Skip' Welch to go hunting for bigfoot in the North California mountains. And then she was never seen again. Skip would later say she was abducted by Bigfoot, but do we believe him?
In January 1996, 9 year old Amber Hagerman was cycling around an abandoned parking lot when a man in a black van pulled up beside her, snatched her off the bike and threw her into his van. He sped away and days later Amber's body was found in a creek. He has never been identified.
The News of the World phone hacking scandal was a controversy that came to light publicly in 2011 after employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories for many years. How was this able to happen?
In October 1996 a woman checked into a Seattle hotel under the name Mary Anderson, with hotel staff finding her dead in her room two days later. It would then be uncovered that Mary Anderson was a fake name, as was the address and number she provided. Who was she? Why did she end her own life in that hotel room?
On April 19th 1996, Timothy McVeigh detonated a car bomb out the front of the Alfred P Murrah building in Oklahoma City after spending years harbouring anti-government views. In that moment, the USA would change forever.
Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles were two people with unusual views of the world, they believed they were aliens sent from a higher kingdom, the two witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelations. So how did they manage to convince 39 people to end their lives in a mass suicide?
In 1990 the body of a woman was found in a culvert near Monroe Township in Pennsylvania, and despite investigation her identity and killer both still remain unknown. Who was Penny Doe?
In 1989 a bulletin about a missing woman called Joanna Lopez was broadcast overnight with no context on WMAQ Chicago, but the photo was low-res and all-round creepy. Then 2 years later, the same photo was re-broadcast. Who was Joanna Lopez? Why is there no evidence she even existed?
In 2002, 13 year old schoolgirl Milly Dowler was abducted on her way home from school, her body found 6 months later - and investigators had no clue as to who was responsible. After almost a decade, in 2011, Levi Bellfield was convicted of her murder. How did they finally catch him?
In 1957, 11 year old Moira Anderson hopped on a bus in her home of Coatbridge, Scotland, and then disappeared. The bus driver that was a convicted criminal but for some reason the police didn't speak to him until 1992... what happened to Moira?
In 1997, people across Phoenix, Arizona saw a formation of unusual lights in the sky: 7 lights, travelling in perfect unison, non-blinking, no glow, just eery movement. Later that same night, a bunch of lights are seen again, this time moving up and down. Despite best efforts, the lights have never been explained. Was it alien activity?
On 18th March 1950, 13 year old Janett Christman went to babysit for family friends to earn some pocket money. At around 10.30pm that night the local police received a call from a girl screaming for help and then the line went dead. When the parents arrived home, they found Janett's body.
In 2012 the decomposed remains of a girl thought to be between 15-17 were found in black bin bags behind a church in Houston. Despite a few identifiable features, Smurfette Jane Doe, named after the t-shirt she was wearing, is yet to be identified.
In 1928, May Donoghue headed to a cafe in Paisley, Glasgow to catch up with a friend. They ordered a ginger float for May to enjoy, but after enjoying most of her drink she poured out the remains of a decomposing snail. After weeks of illness, she decided to fight her case - someone was responsible for the snail being in that bottle and she was going to make them (literally) pay. In a world with no laws protecting the consumer, she would make a change that all of us experience the effects of today.
On my platforms our interest in a case doesn't just end when the episode ends, I always keep one eye on cases I've covered in the past so I can keep you all up to date on the latest going ons and steps forward. Today we have some big updates in the cases of Opelika Baby Jane Doe, the Boy in the Box, Renee and Andrew McRae, Madeleine McCann and more!
On 1st July 2000, 8 year old Sarah Payne was playing in a corn field with her siblings when she fell over and hurt her knee. She decides to run back to her grandparents house for comfort, her older brother 13 seconds behind her. She disappears around a hedge... and then she's never seen again.
In 2002, a group of children playing in Carryduff, Northern Ireland, came across the body of a newborn baby girl in a bin bag. Investigation quickly discovered that she had been murdered, naming her Baby Carrie. Despite extensive investigation over the years, the mother and/or the murderer have never been discovered.
In 1968, 18 year old Sheila Jean Collins put her details up on a ride share board at the ISU student union hoping that someone would be able to give her a lift home so she could see her boyfriend for the weekend. A man called offering her a ride, and she headed off to the intersection to meet him - two days later, her body would be found by the side of a remote gravel road near Nevada, Iowa.
In 1971, a man came across the body of a man on private property in Winshill, Burton upon Trent. Investigators were sure the murder would be quickly solved once they were able to find the identity of the man... only 52 years on, we still don't have his name.
The Fernald School is a dark stain on the history of Massachusetts, a school originally intended to teach physically and intellectually disabled children real-life skills that eventually turned into an experiment in eugenics. Many people speculate as to what exactly happened within those walls, but what we do know is that throughout the mid 20th century, radiation was tested on children.
Between 1976 and 1986, three Native American women would be found murdered around the name neighbourhood in Oklahoma City. To this day, there have been so viable suspects.
9 year old Anthonette Cayedito went missing in 1986 after a knock on her door in the middle of the night. A year later a phone call came in to her local police department from a girl claiming to be Anthonette Cayedito... and her mother agreed it was her. Where is she? Can she still be found today?
In April 1974, cousins Raelene Eaton and Yvonne Waters headed to a local tavern to watch a band play, and whilst there started chatting to some men. They were last seen with these men in the car park; one minute they were there, the next they were gone. And they've never been seen again. What happened to the teenage girls? Who were these men?
In 1958, teenage lovers Pinky Redman and Mike Griffin set off on a road trip to Las Vegas to possibly elope, but they were never seen again. And they weren't the only ones to go missing. Six months later the boy of a teenage girl was found in the Arizona desert. Was this Pinky? Was this someone else entirely? What was happening in Arizona?
There aren't many silver linings when it comes to true crime, but one of the only good things we get are case updates: new suspects, identifications, steps forward in the investigations. Today we're going to be taking a look at updates in the Boy in the Box, the Somerton Man, Madeleine McCann, Tara Calico and more.
In April 1981, 14 year old Sheila Sharp headed home after a sleepover at a neighbours house to discover that the majority of her family had been brutally murdered in the night - a murder that 41 years later still remains unsolved. Despite many suspects over the years, and a recent rejuvenation in the investigation, we're still waiting for answers. Could 2023 be the year we get them?
March 18th 1937 was meant to be a normal day at New London School in East Texas, and just after 3pm children were buzzing to go home - but then disaster struck when an unknown gas leak caused an explosion that lead to the deaths of nearly 300 children and teachers. What lessons have we learned from this to ensure it never happens again?
In July 1980, the bodies of two women would be found miles apart and neither would be identified for a long time. In the noughties, steps would be made to finally connect the Does to the same killer and one was eventually identified... but the identity of the Ventura County Jane Doe remains elusive.
True crime is inherently a depressing topic, but occasionally some good news comes out when a perpetrator gets apprehended, someone gets identified or even new evidence is found and released - today we're going to discuss all of those latest updates!
In 1910, 25 year old Dorothy Arnold went out to shop for a dress for her sister's debutante ball. And then she disappeared into thin air. 112 years on, and there has never been so much as a single clue as to what happened to Dorothy. Did she run away to start a new life? Did she die in a botched abortion? Was she abducted off the street? Maybe one day we'll find an answer.
In September 2001, a man walking across Tower Bridge in London spotted a human body floating in the Thames, something investigators would soon discover to be just the torso of a young boy who seemingly had been victim of a ritualistic murder. Despite many leads and close calls over the years, 21 years on and Adam still doesn't have an identity, and police don't have their perpetrator.
In 1944 a fire at the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey circus in Hartford, Connecticut led to the deaths of 168 people, of which 5/6 people still remain unidentified. As well as finding these identities, investigators have battled for decades to find the true cause of the fire - was it a carelessly discarded cigarette or something more nefarious?
In 1988 in New Bedford, Massachusetts 11 women went missing over the course of just 6 months and over the coming year, 9 of their bodies would be found alongside major roads leading out of the city. Despite a number of good suspects in this case, investigators were slow to realise something was going on under their noses and therefore the case remains unsolved to this day.
In 2014 the Broaddus family bought their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey. All the preparations were made to begin some serious renovation work before they moved in when an anonymous letter arrived from someone who referred to themselves as 'The Watcher'. Thinly veiled threats were made to the family's children and this person professed to be part of a long line of people watching the house, generation after generation. Who were they and what was their motivation?
Today we're talking a look at the Hays Code, a list of 36 'don'ts and be carefuls' for movie studios starting back in 1934 that changed the face of Hollywood forever. Ever wondered why Golden Age Hollywood films are so PG? Why even now queer people characters are hard to come by in films? Here's your answer!
On 19th September 1990, the body of a teenage girl/young woman was found by workers on the side of the I-40 in Hillsborough, North Carolina. She had been there for less than a week, and despite a couple of witnesses coming forwards enabling police to piece together her final hours, she's never been identified. Who is New Hope Jane Doe and who is responsible for her murder?
In the 1960s, a serial killer roamed the streets of West London, hunting for poor sex workers to be his next victim. Each woman would be found nude or partially nude with teeth missing and covered in paint splatters. But despite extensive investigation and many suspects over the years, the killer nicknamed Jack the Stripper has never been apprehended.
65 years ago, the body of a young boy was found on Susquehanna Road in Philadelphia. Despite one one the biggest searches in state history, and becoming one of the most infamous Doe cases of all time, the boy has never been reunited with his identity, nor given justice for his murder. Genetic genealogy might mean we're close to answers in this case, but spreading the word is always helpful.
Police insist that in August 2014, 22 year old Jake Latiolais ended his own life by jumping over the edge of the Horace Wilkinson bridge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, however there has never been any solid evidence to support this theory - and no proper investigation was ever conducted. I've worked closely with Jake's mum, Tina, to bring his story to you today and try to spread the word.
In June 1934 the dismembered torso of a woman was found at Brighton train station before her legs were found the following day at Kings Cross. To this day she remains unidentified, but her discovery led to the uncovering of the similar but apparently unrelated murder of Violette Kaye.
In October 1972, a rugby team were catching a flight from Uruguay to Chile for a match but after a pilot error, they ended up crashing in the middle of the Andes. For 72 days, 16 men managed to survive against all odds before a remarkable feat of bravery led to their rescues.
29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Everest, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted the same. They made one last attempt but tragedy struck and they never made it back down the mountain - for many years neither of their bodies were found and when one was, it only provided more questions than answers. Did they make it?
Joseph Merrick was sadly born in a time before modern medicine, born into a world where people with deformities were forced to either live life in the shadows or put themselves on display as a novelty, as freaks. Joseph chose the latter. He never received a proper diagnosis for his illness, that caused him to form growths and tumours all over his body, and still to this day scientists can't answer the question fro certain. What was it that the Elephant Man suffered with?
Today we're going to be covering 3 Jane Doe cases, St Charles Jane Doe from Missouri and two Davidson County Jane Does from Tennessee, one from 1976 and another from 1998. More and more Doe cases are being solved every single day, but these stories need more eyes and ears on them, do you live in any of these areas?
Back in December 1981, 14 year old Dana Bradley hitchhiked on her way home from a friend's house and she was never seen again. Her body was found four days later, but 41 years on we still haven't found her killer, despite four witnesses seeing the man and car in question.
We all know the story of how penicillin, the life-saving antibiotic, was discovered right? An Alexander Fleming accident. But what if I told you there was actually a lot more to the story and it turns out multiple people were actually involved in the creation of the antibiotic we know and love today? Crazy, right?!
Throughout the latter part of the 20th century crime rates in the USA and across the world started to grow exponentially, before reaching a peak in the early 1990s and rapidly falling from there. Plenty of theories have been put forward over the years, but what if the reason is as simple as the huge usage of lead in the aftermath of World War 2?
Back in 1887-1889, body parts started washing up along the banks of the River Thames in London, victims who for the most part still remain unidentified today as well as the perpetrator. Who was skulking in the shadows, attacking women and dismembering their bodies? Some think it may have been Jack the Ripper, using a different MO from his 1888 Whitechapel murders, but we may never have the answer.
49 years ago to this day, an arsonist set a fire at a gay bar in New Orleans, leading to the deaths of 32 people. Despite many witnesses knowing who set the fire, investigators didn't care enough about the deaths of 32 gay men to investigate properly and no justice was ever brought.
In 2002 the body of a teenage girl was discovered behind a strip mall in Tempe, Arizona after she had died following a cocaine overdose. Despite a man coming forward saying he was the last person to see her alive with a detailed description of her last moments, investigators have never been able to find the girl's identity.
Holly Bartlett was found unconscious at the base of a bridge in 2010 after a night out with friends. The taxi driver insists he dropped her outside her apartment building the night before but somehow Holly, who was a blind woman, travelled 300m in the wrong direction and somehow became so injured her family made the decision to turn off life support the next day. How did this happen?
Today we're taking a look at some old cases I've covered and sharing some big and some small updates that have recently come out about them. We have new suspects in the Madeleine McCann and Mr Cruel cases, Jane Doe updates and one exciting identification, a new victim announced for San Francisco serial killer the Doodler and more.
This week we're going to be discussing the case of Lorraine Stahl, the alias of a woman who's body was found in Ledyard, Connecticut in 1974. Whilst we do have an alias of hers and someone was even convicted for her murder, we still don't know her real identity, her family have never been notified.
This week let's talk all about vaccines, from inoculation to the creation of the smallpox vaccine to Louis Pasteur, all the way up to the recent creation of the COVID-19 vaccines. A real one to nerd out to!
This week we're going to be talking about Jesse Pomeroy, who at 14 years old became the youngest person to ever be convicted of first degree murder in Massachusetts after killing two children, but suspicion runs deep that he may have been responsible for the deaths of many more.
This week we're going to New Hampshire to take a look into the Bear Brook murders and the web that has unravelled in the authorities attempts to find the identities of four murder victims found in barrels. Somehow, this case eventually led to them solving the identity of the Golden State Killer.
14 year old Alicia Navarro went missing from her home in Glendale, Arizona on 15th September 2019 after leaving her mum a note promising that she would be returning. She hasn't been seen since and it's thought that she was lured away from her home by a person she met online through her love of gaming.
This week we're looking at the disappearance of 6 boys from Pickering, Ontario back in 1995. After telling friends they were going to 'goof off' at the marina, they all disappeared and after an unhelpful cursory search, police immediately assumed they died in the lake. But no trace of them or the boats have ever reappeared.
Something a bit lighter hearted this week as we explore the strange phenomenon of 'time slips', people momentarily, unintentionally travelling back in time before appearing back in the present. This seems to happen more in certain places than others, one of which being on Bold Street in Liverpool. Why?
In 2010 a body was discovered outside an old carpark by Angel's Meadow, Manchester. It was clear that she had been there undiscovered for many decades, but 12 years since her discovery and investigators are no closer to finding out her name or her killer.
On 12th June 1977, three Girl Scouts went to camp in Oklahoma for the week, but would never arrive home, instead being brutally murdered on their first night away. After an extensive manhunt for the person police believed to be responsible, he was acquitted at trial. Will there ever be justice?
Very rarely today we're talking about what is technically a solved case, but a solved case that a lot of people still have doubts about to this day. In 1985, Derek and Nancy Haysom were found dead in their Virginia home and their daughter's boyfriend was found guilty of the crime. But did he really do it? Or was it their own daughter?
In 2005, Anna Ayala sat down to eat at a Wendy's restaurant and found a human finger in her chilli. What would follow was a media whirlwind, allegations thrown in all directions and eventually, an arrest. What actually happened and who did the finger belong to?
Following on from last week's episode, this is part two of the Texas Killing Fields; a series of unsolved (and some solved) murders that happened along the I-45 corridor in south Texas from the 70s all the way through to 2006. Last episode we spoke about the 70s, this week we focus on crimes from the 80s onwards.
This week we've got part one of a two part series focusing on the Texas Killing Fields/I-45 murders, a decades long web of disappearances and murders along the I-45 between Houston and Galveston, Texas. In this episode we focus on the crimes throughout the 70s and a couple of early suspects.
This week we're looking at a Jane Doe case from 1960, when a 2-7 year old girl was found half-buried in a creek bed in Yuvapai County, Arizona. Almost 62 years on and we still have no answers, but her DNA is currently being analysed in the search for an identity.
On 9th February 2018, David Scott Elmquist died from self-immolation and the authorities were quick to rule it a suicide. But in the months that passed, David's family started to have some questions, there was some things that just did not make sense in the following investigation and now they're desperate for answers and for the case to be reviewed.
Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/mn-attorney-general-keith-ellison-mn-attorney-general-to-appoint-an-outside-prosecutor-to-review-david-elmquist-s-death?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=33da0fe0-77ce-11ec-823c-5593f7747fdd
Sometimes you need something a little bit lighter, so this week we're taking a look at the everlasting mystery of Oak Island, a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia where over two centuries ago, a seemingly never-ending pit was discovered. There have long been rumours of buried treasure, but nothing substantial has ever been found, bar some mysteriously inscribed stone, wooden platforms and the occasional strange item. What is there?
In 1814 a large brewery in the middle of London suffered an exploding vat of beer and although to some this might sound like a dream, the real story was tragic. Let's learn about it...
Today's story is more of a conversation starter than my usual mystery. In the 1960's, Ruth Ellis was convicted of the murder of David Blakely and was subsequently ordered to hang. The British public was outraged and believed that there were enough mitigating circumstances that her life should have been spared. What do you think?
This week we're taking a look at the Dane County Chimney Doe, a skeleton found in a chimney in Madison, Wisconsin in 1989 that still remains unidentified. This is a Doe case that's proving particularly hard to get answers to - how did they even end up in the chimney in the first place? How were they not reported as missing?
This week we're travelling back in time to the early 10th century, when Theodosia Burr, the only surviving daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr, boarded a ship to New York only for it to never arrive at its destination. Over two centuries later, and what happened to Theodosia is still a complete mystery, with only one clue in the form of a portrait of a beautiful woman.
Two days before Christmas in 1974, three girls went to do some last minute Christmas shopping at their local mall in Fort Worth, Texas, but they never came home. The next day a mysterious letter arrives, saying that the girls decided to run away for a week, but were they the ones who wrote it?
This week we're taking a look at a historical story, with the invention of vaccines by a man called Edward Jenner to put an end to 'the scourge of the earth' (as he put it) smallpox - because apparently I just love the drama.
This week we're taking a look at a small, unknown case from the sleepy village of Eversley in Hampshire. Jacqueline Palmer-Radford was found murdered in her own kitchen in 1992, and despite some interesting leads no answers have ever been found.
This week we're going back to the 1970s to take a look at the case of Margaret Ellen Fox, a 14 year old who disappeared from New Jersey after going to meet a man called John Marshall about a babysitting job. But John Marshall didn't exist, and Margaret was never seen again.
In late 2006, the bodies of four women were found in a drainage ditch behind a motel just outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey. They were all facing east, towards the city, all murdered under very similar circumstances. The killer, or killers, have never been found. What happened to them?
Be warned: this week's episode is not one for the faint-hearted as we are venturing into the world of parasites with a look at how hookworm led to the negative stereotypes of the American south.
This week we're diving into the crimes of the mysterious Dr No, an apparent serial killer who roamed Ohio throughout the 80s and 90s, dumping the bodies of sex workers alongside the major interstates. It was recently reported that Dr No has been captured, but is this really the case? Let's find out.
This week I want to share the story of Ernie Ortiz, who was sadly murdered in Garden City, Kansas, in 2019. Two years on and there are no answers, the family are desperate for justice.
This week we're taking a look at the case of Tammy Vincent, who was unidentified for almost 3 decades. Thanks to advances in DNA technology, she eventually got identified, only to find that that led to few further answers about who killed her. Can we help find answers?
In 1966, thousands of tonnes of mining waste fell on top of a small welsh village called Aberfan. Sadly, the majority of this landed on the primary school, burying the majority of the village's children alive. How did this come to happen and why?
This week we're exploring a John Doe case from here in the UK. In 2015 a male body found in Clocaenog Forest in Wales and it's suspected that he'd been there a long time before this discovery. Who is he and how did he end up where he did?
This week we're going to be learning about the Tokaimura Criticality Accident from Japan, in which three workers received high doses of radiation - one of them, Hisashi Ouchi, receiving the most radiation ever received by a human. I
This week we're taking another look at piece of forgotten history, the UK's Canary Girls, who during World War 1 put their lives at risk to play their part in the war efforts. Why have they been pushed to the side?
This week we're taking a look at the decade old disappearance of Lauren Spierer, who disappeared after a night out with friends. With there never being a single clue found as to what happened to her, it's important to share her story as far as possible with the hope that one day, it might reach the right person.
This week we're taking a look at another unidentified woman, Grundy County Jane Doe or Jane Seneca Doe, who was found in a ditch in Grundy County, Illinois in the 70s. Despite having found a close familial match through genetic genealogy, investigators are still missing that one puzzle piece that could provide an answer as to who our Jane Doe was. This case is SO close to being solved and all it's going to take is one person with information to provide all the answers.
This week we're covering our first serial killer on the podcast, by taking a deep dive into the crimes of Israel Keyes, who managed to go undetected between 2001 and 2012. We know details of three of his murders, but there are thought to be 8 more that we know nothing about at all - who are his victims?
This week we're exploring a very interesting piece of history: the Satanic Panic. How deep does the cause of the panic go, could it have been avoided and what have the repercussions been over the coming years?
This week I'm going to be sharing the story of the murder of Saswati Jana, in West Bengal, India, earlier this year. I worked closely with Saswati's cousin to tell this story, and the family are desperate to get the word out in any way they can. They know who committed the crime, and more public pressure means the police are more likely to prosecute.
This week we're talking about the currently-unsolved murder of 17 year old Paige Johnson from Florence, Kentucky. She disappeared in September 2010, with her body not being found for 9 and a half years. Now someone has been charged in relation to her murder, but there are still many more answers needed.
Join Georgia this week as we take a look at the Starved Rock murders, a case from Illinois in the 60s. Someone was arrested and spent 3 decades in prison for the crime... but now there's question as to whether he was truly guilty. Let's delve into the case and see what we think.
This week we have a history story, where we take an in depth look at Ireland's Madgalene Laundries and the lasting effect they had on Irish society.
This week we're taking a deep dive into Rochester, New York's Alphabet Murders: three young girls killed in the early 1970s, and still to this day nobody knows who was responsible.
This week we're taking a look at the mystery century-old murder of William Desmond Taylor, a silent film era actor and director. Was it a love killer, drug related, a crazy mother, or someone else?
This week we're going to be exploring the story of Annandale Jane Doe, or Christmas Tree Lady, a woman who it seems took every step not to be identified. As I tell her story, we'll also delve into the ethics around Doe identification and genetic testing. How much right does one have to anonymity after they've passed?
This week we're taking a look at the tragic and solved case of Brandon Teena, who was killed in Nebraska in 1993, under horrifying circumstances.
Join Georgia this week as she talks you through the interesting (really!) history of the pride flag, or rainbow flag.
This week we're going to be taking a look at the unsolved case of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, who were found murdered in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, USA, in 1996. To this day we don't know who the perpetrator was, but the FBI have refused to give up on their search. They're searching for anyone who was at Shenandoah at the time, who might have that piece of information that could finally lead to answers.
Join us this week we're diving into a bit of history with the Lavender Scare, a consequence of the Red Scare during the Cold War which meant that gay people were forced out of government. This is something that the world still feels the aftershocks of today.
In the first instalment of our Pride month series, this week we're going to be taking a look into the life and death of queer icon Marsha P Johnson. She dedicated her life to the gay revolution and was thanked only with a mysterious unsolved death that the authorities refused to look into any further. Could there be more to her story?
This week we're going to be delving into the story of the still-unsolved Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, yet another serial killer active in California in the 1970s. He had at least 7 victims and probably many more, but one day the murders just stopped. What happened and who was he?
This week we're taking a deep dive into the case of Lauren Dumolo, who disappeared from Cape Coral, Florida on 19th June 2020. Her family and friends are still desperately searching for her and trying to unpick the strange story around her disappearance.
In today's episode we're going to be talking about the cases of Snohomish County John Doe, Bibb County John Doe and Saguache John Doe. Although all three have different stories in life, they all have one thing in common: they're missing their identities and deserve to be reunited with their loved ones.
SOURCES:
Bibb County John Doe
https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Unidentified_Wiki?file=BibbCountyJohnDoeInscription.png https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMU/1250767 https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Bibb_County_John_Doe_(1961)#:~:text=Bibb%20County%20John%20Doe%20was,not%20led%20to%20his%20identification http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2844umal.html Contact 1-800-843-5678 Bibb County Sheriff’s Office 1-(205) 926 4683 Saguache County, Colorado John Doe https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/15756/details?nav http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1550umco.html Saguache County Sheriff’s Office 719-655-2525ma Sultan John Doe https://www.heraldnet.com/news/who-am-i-clues-heat-up-search-for-name-of-another-john-doe/ https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/2886 http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1847umwa.html Medical Examiner’s Office (425) 438-6200
Sheriff’s Office (425) 388-3393 (then press “0”)
This week we're going to be learning about 4 cases that have been solved (or maybe even made more of a mystery) through a death bed confession.
This week we're going to be taking a look at the TRUE story of Frank Abagnale and his crimes, the story which has been twisted to become a billion dollar industry including the Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can, an autobiography... even a Broadway musical. Turns out, the story isn't quite what you'd think.
The video this audio is from was sponsored by the book The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can by Alan C Logan. You can find more information here: http://www.greatesthoax.com
This week we're going to be taking a deep dive into the Cleveland Torso Murders, a spate of killings that happened in the 1930s in Cleveland, Ohio. 10 out of 12 victims remain unidentified, as does the perpetrator of these horrific crimes.
This week we're diving into the historical case of Lizzie Borden, who for over a century has been the number one suspect in the murder of her father and step-mother - even after she was acquitted at trial. Let's dive into the case and decide for ourselves.
This week we're looking into the case of 17 year old Kendrick Johnson, who sadly died in 2013 at his school. After years of contention, his family insisting he was murdered and officials saying it was nothing more than an accident, his case has finally been reopened.
In this week's episode we're talking about our first history story - the Tulsa Race Massacre, or riots, which happened back in 1921. People did everything they could to erase this story from history, ensuring that humanity forgot it ever happened - but we can't let that happen.
In this week's episode we're talking about the Dupont de Ligonnès family from Nantes, France. In April 2011, 5 members of the family were brutally murdered and the sixth disappeared. Where did he go and what did he do?
In today's episode we're going to be talking about the cases of SoCal/Riverside Jane Doe, Broadway St Phoenix Jane Doe, Yonkers Jane Doe and Medford Jane Doe. Although all four have different stories in life, they all have one thing in common: they're missing their identities and deserve to be reunited with their loved ones.
Mysteries and Histories is a new podcast by Georgia Marie, taking her audio from Youtube and making it available to listen to on the go! Learn about true crime and historical cases that need as much public attention as they can get, education and awareness is vital.