Coffee and Cases Podcast

PART ONE: On January 26, 2011, twenty-seven-year-old first-grade teacher Ellen Greenberg was found dead in her Philadelphia apartment with twenty-three stab wounds and more than thirty bruises. Despite the violence of the scene, her death was ruled a suicide—a ruling that has been challenged for more than a decade by Ellen’s parents, Josh and Sandee Greenberg. The case has since become one of the...

We first brought you this case in July 2020, when Maggie covered it solo. We’re re-issuing it now because there have been developments—and Maggie and I will be sitting down together to discuss the updates in a new companion episode. On January 26, 2011, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 27-year-old Ellen Greenberg left school early ahead of a snowstorm and headed home to the Venice Lofts. A locked do...

It was supposed to be a quiet weekend. On October 24, 2015, in the Castleridge neighborhood of Calgary, Alberta, 31-year-old Amanda Antoni stayed home alone to recover from a migraine while her husband was hundreds of miles away. The two spoke on the phone that evening, sharing the kind of small-talk conversation every couple has—until a strange sound broke through the line. Moments later, the cal...

When 52-year-old Shannon Lee Collins vanished from his home in Pottsville, Arkansas, on March 12, 2021, there were no tire tracks leading away, no note left behind—just silence. A phone that suddenly went dark. A man who never missed a call simply stopped answering. At first, his loved ones were told he’d left on his own. But as the months passed, the stories about where he’d gone began to shift—a...

When 52-year-old Shannon Lee Collins vanished from his home in Pottsville, Arkansas, on March 12, 2021, there were no tire tracks leading away, no note left behind—just silence. A phone that suddenly went dark. A man who never missed a call simply stopped answering. At first, his loved ones were told he’d left on his own. But as the months passed, the stories about where he’d gone began to shift—a...

On July 24, 1997, 24-year-old Amy Wroe Bechtel set out for what should have been an ordinary afternoon near Lander, Wyoming. A rising athlete with Olympic dreams, Amy was in the middle of mapping the course for a 10K race she was organizing. By the end of the day, her white Toyota station wagon sat abandoned, her to-do list unfinished, and Amy herself was nowhere to be found. Despite a massive sea...

In late August 2016, the Tromp family of Silvan, Victoria—Mark, Jacoba, and their three adult children—suddenly fled their successful berry farm and thriving businesses without phones, wallets, or passports. Over the next week, their strange journey would stretch hundreds of miles across Australia, leaving behind a trail of abandoned cars, disoriented wanderings, and desperate pleas for help. What...

On March 2, 1996, 25-year-old Alicia Showalter Reynolds set out before breakfast, pointing her white Mercury south from Baltimore toward Charlottesville for a shopping day with her mom. Somewhere along U.S. Route 29 in Central Virginia—near Culpeper—that ordinary drive met an extraordinary danger, the kind that hides in plain sight on the shoulder of a busy highway. By nightfall, Alicia hadn’t arr...

A bent bell. A bike tossed six feet into a field. A rush of leads that cancel each other out: a bloody handkerchief, conflicting train sightings, a black Morris, a red-and-gray van. In this episode, we trace April Fabb’s 1969 disappearance minute-by-minute and ask the question residents of Norfolk, England have asked for decades: what happened in the nine minute window during which April disappear...

On April 15, 2005, Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar of Pennsylvania left work for what seemed like an ordinary day off. He called his girlfriend while driving his red-and-white Mini Cooper, promised to be home later, and then—he was never seen again. His locked car was found the next day near the Susquehanna River, his phone still inside but his laptop mysteriously missing. Did Gricar wa...

On November 1, 1986, 51-year-old Morro Bay fisherman Hugh Harlin vanished along Highway 1 between San Simeon and Cambria, California. His truck was discovered roadside under suspicious circumstances—but not a trace of Hugh. Did he flee secrets tied to his wife’s unsolved murder, or did the same hand that strangled Dian Harlin in 1982 come for him, too? For context, you’ll likely want to start with...

In the fall of 1982, the quiet rhythm of Morro Bay, California was shattered when the body of 43-year-old Dian Harlin was discovered beneath a cluster of cypress trees near the high school. She had been strangled with a dog leash—an eerie detail that raised more questions than answers. Was her stormy marriage to blame? Or was Dian the victim of a predator who struck by chance? And what are we to m...

July 1995. Ada, Oklahoma. A small city with a long memory for tragedy. When 15-year-old Daniel Furr vanished, the search ended in a place that seemed to hold more questions than answers — the bottom of an abandoned brick quarry. What happened to Daniel in the days before a body was found has become the subject of rumor, fear, and conflicting theories that still divide those who knew him. Was it ga...

She was tiny, fierce, and fighting for survival from the moment she was born. On October 4, 1978, Wilma June Nissen’s body was discovered along a quiet country road in Lyon County, Iowa. For decades, no one knew her name—only that someone had brutally taken her life. Today, we explore the haunting questions: Who wanted Wilma gone? What really happened at the parties she attended that summer? And w...

An unregistered ship. A haunting distress signal. A crew found dead, their faces twisted in terror—and then, an explosion that swallowed the vessel forever. This isn’t the plot of a horror movie. This is the real (or is it?) story of the SS Ourang Medan. In this episode, we dive deep into one of the most unsettling maritime mysteries ever recorded—or invented. What really happened aboard the ghost...

On December 7, 1958, the Martin family of Portland, Oregon—Kenneth, Barbara, and their three daughters—set off for a Sunday drive to gather Christmas greenery. They were never seen alive again. What began as a cheerful holiday tradition ended in one of the most baffling disappearances in Oregon history. Was it a tragic accident on the winding roads of the Columbia River Gorge? Or was something far...

It was just two days before Christmas in 1974 in Fort Worth, Texas, a time usually filled with holiday cheer and last-minute shopping rushes. Seventeen-year-old Rachel Trlica, 14-year-old Renee Wilson, and 9-year-old Julie Ann Moseley headed to the bustling Seminary South Shopping Center with plans to pick up gifts and be home in time for holiday parties. They parked the car, ready for an afternoo...

On the evening of September 16, 1997, six-year-old Brittney Ann Beers vanished just steps away from her Sturgis, Michigan apartment complex. Minutes earlier, neighbors had seen her chatting with a stranger. Then—nothing. Her bike was left behind, her voice gone quiet, and a haunting mystery began. Who was Brittney’s “new friend”? Why did no one see what happened next? And, more importantly, where...

On April 9, 1947, a monstrous F5 tornado tore through Woodward, Oklahoma—obliterating homes, claiming over 100 lives, and leaving behind one of the most haunting mysteries in American history. Four-year-old Joan Gay Croft survived the storm, injured but alive—only to disappear from a hospital basement hours later, never to be seen again. Who took her? Why was she taken? And why has no trace ever b...

On a quiet June evening in 1901, gunshots shattered the calm inside Montreal’s lavish Redpath Mansion. By night’s end, two members of one of Canada’s wealthiest families—Ada Maria Redpath, 59, and her 24-year-old son, Jocelyn Clifford Redpath—were dead. But what really happened inside the secluded estate at 1065 Sherbrooke Street? Was it a tragic accident, a desperate act, or something far more si...

Vacations are supposed to be carefree—a time to disconnect from stress and reconnect with loved ones. But for the Bradley family, a Caribbean cruise aboard Rhapsody of the Seas became the start of a nightmare. Just three days into their trip, 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley vanished without a trace. No signs of struggle. No clear answers. How does someone disappear from a ship filled with thousands o...

In September 1981, the Oklahoma State Fair promised a night of freedom and fun for two best friends, thirteen-year-olds Charlotte Kinsey and Cinda Pallett. But what began as an evening filled with rides, laughter, and the excitement of adolescence quickly turned into every parent’s worst nightmare. This week, Allison explores a case that stunned a community, shook a nation, and left behind far mor...

Labor Day weekend in 2014 was supposed to mean a short trip to Canada for Amina and Belel Kandil with their father, Ahmed, before the celebration of Amina’s 11th birthday on Monday, September 1 and the start of school on the following day. However, as the weekend came to a close, Amina and Belel’s mother--Rebecca Downey-- found that her phone calls were going unanswered. Her daughter’s birthday pa...

A name carries history, identity, and belonging—but what happens when it's lost to time? In 1984, the quiet town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was rocked by a gruesome discovery along Interstate 65-- the discovery of a body. With no immediate clues to her identity, the woman became known only as "Bowling Green Jane Doe," her past a mystery and her voice silenced. Who was she? How did she end up ther...

When 31-year-old Megan Drumhiller hugged her parents goodbye in January 2022, no one could have guessed it would be the last time they’d see her. She had dreams of moving, a tight-knit family who adored her, and a love for music that connected her deeply with her father. But when Megan suddenly stopped responding to messages, concern grew into fear—and that fear was justified. What happened to Meg...