Hell and Gone

Last week, we talked about the mystery regarding whether or not Deputy Blake Hassell ever went out to the area in Kingston where on August 5th at 12:34 AM, a 911 caller reported that she heard a woman screaming - that it sounded like she was being raped or tortured.  The dispatch report reads, "A caller advised she believes that she heard a woman in the woods behind her house yelling. Stated she b...

We’ve been trying to figure out what happened to Taylor Barksdale in the last few weeks of her life that led her to Kingston, Arkansas At 12:34 on August 5, a 911 caller reported that it a woman was screaming on a rural property in Kingston  and that she sounded like she was being raped or tortured.  Just over a month later, on September 9, Taylor’s remains were found in a field near where the 911...

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office got a 911 call in the early morning hours of August 5, 2024 from caller who heard sounds that she believed could be from a  woman being raped or tortured.  But the police never came. Then a few weeks later, people were expressing concern about Taylor Barksdale, a 30-year-old woman who had been living in Huntsville and who had gone missing. When police finally we...

On September 9, 2024, searchers on a property in Madison County in the area of Kingston, Arkansas, broke open a hay bale and found a body.  Police have shared almost no information about this investigation. And while Sheriff Ronnie Boyd at the Madison County Sheriff’s office has publicly denied this, some people in Madison County think this body was discovered while the police were searching for J...

In this summer we covered the case of Shannon Lee Collins, the 48-year-old veteran who vanished without a trace from his family home in Pottsville Arkansas.  I am thrilled to report that we have a major update in this case: federal fraud charges have been filed against Shannon’s wife Treasa and her daughter, Brittany. And now that the fraud has been uncovered could murder charges come next?  See o...

After Doug Janis was murdered in 2020, police were focused on one suspect: his wife, 31-year-old April Mae Janis.  Was April a loving wife who adored Doug or a master manipulator who orchestrated his murder? In Hemphill, Texas, it depends on who you ask. Half the town thinks that April was this vixen who has murdered multiple people, while the other half see her as a victim of sexual abuse.  This...

We’re in Sabine County, Texas, investigating the area where Doug Janis was murdered. We’ve talked a lot about April and Doug’s relationship - one that went on for years - but what I wonder is, if April did kill Doug, why did she choose that moment? What was her motive?  I think that solving Doug Janis murder starts with figuring out what really happened to April’s mother, Anna, on the night she wa...

Catherine and Amy head to Sabine County, Texas, where on December 13, 2020, there was a massive explosion on Toledo Bend lake. The houseboat belonging to 64-year-old Doug Janis, a well known commercial catfisherman, went up in flames. Doug Janis was found dead inside the boat. At first, police assumed that it had been a propane leak, but then the medical examiner found the two bullets in the back...

On December 13, 2020, in Hemphill, Texas, police in Sabine County got a call about a houseboat on fire.  The houseboat was docked behind 322 Echo Ridge, off of Cedar Grove Road on Highway 21 in the Pendleton area of Toledo Bend. And the scene very quickly descended into total chaos.  The firefighters had trouble getting out to the remote location, and by the time they got there the boat was engulf...

Hello Hell and Gone listeners! We'll be back on September 26th with brand new episodes of Hell and Gone Murder Line.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello Hell and Gone listeners! We'll be back on September 26th with brand new episodes of Hell and Gone Murder Line.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello Hell and Gone listeners! We'll be back on September 26th with brand new episodes of Hell and Gone Murder Line.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New episodes of Hell and Gone Murder Line start September 26th! In the meantime, if you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend and her team to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello Hell and Gone listeners! We'll be back on September 26th with brand new episodes of Hell and Gone Murder Line.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday, December 12, 1980 at approximately 6: 45 in the morning, the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Department got a call about a female body lying on the side of Highway 181, just south of Highway 158.  The woman was dressed in a striped red colored dress and velveteen jacket and was five foot five. She weighed around 115 pounds.  It wasn’t hard to figure out the cause of d...

On Tuesday July 25 1989, 18 year old Dana Stidham went home to do some laundry. She drove from her home in Centerton to where her parents Lawrence and Georgia lived in Hiwasse, Arkansas.  After she put her clothes in the wash cycle, she headed out to run an errand for her dad. His stomach was upset and he needed some medicine.  She left the Phillips food store - which is now a Harp’s grocery - in...

On July 25, 1989, 18-year-old Dana Stidham had just graduated from high school in Gravette, Arkansas and had her whole life in front of her. Dana had moved out on her own for the first time to Centerton where she was living with her older brother Larry and a cousin. She was starting her life and excited about the future, but on that day, she had to do some laundry and like a lot of kids that age,...

On June 14, 2000, there was a huge storm brewing in northeast Arkansas. It had been raining heavily all day and according to local weather data, tornados had hit. Over 100 trees were downed, power lines were down and homes were destroyed.  Twenty year old Amanda Tusing was hanging out with her fiancé, Matt Ervin, at his apartment in Jonesboro. Amanda lived 40 miles away in Dell, Arkansas, which is...

On March 11, 2021, Shannon Lee Collins, a 48-year-old veteran, came back from a work trip to his home in Pottsville, Arkansas. Then, he seemed to vanish into thin air.  Catherine continues her investigation from last week, focusing on two things: one, what angles are the police investigating, and are they making any progress in finding out what really happened to Shannon? And two, what do you do i...

On March 11, 2021, Shannon Lee Collins, a 48-year-old veteran, came back from a work trip to his home in Pottsville, Arkansas. He was working a part time job delivering packages, which sometimes took him on the road out of state. He had been married to his wife Treasa for more than 20 years, and they raised their family together. They had their son Josh, who was in his early twenties, and Shannon’...

On January 18 2012, a contractor was walking along a road In Dover Township Pennsylvania, called Schoolhouse road in York County when he noticed a plastic bag there.   It was heavy and had a weird kind of liquidy consistency.  At first he said he thought it might be a dead animal but then he saw the blood and what looked like long, gray human hair and skin he called the police…he realized what he...

On Sunday June 17, 2024, Jay Slater, a 19 year old bricklayer’s apprentice who lived in Lancashire, England was on his first ever foreign holiday - and he seemed to be having a blast.   He had gone to the island of Tenerife in Spain with a female friend named Lucy and a guy named Brad. That night he and Lucy went out to a music festival called New Rave Generation. It was held at Papagayo Beach Clu...

On the night of Saturday, November 21, 2015, Victor Collins, a 47-year-old former police officer who worked in loss prevention at Walmart, was hanging  out with some friends, Owen McDonald and Sean Henry, who all also worked at Walmart, and 31-year-old James Bates. The four friends went back to James' house in Bentonville, Arkansas to watch a Razorbacks football game. According to court documents,...

On November 30, 1963, just eight days after president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas - across the country in  Los Angeles, friends of a 23-year-old actress named Karyn Kupcinet were getting concerned. She was supposed to get to their house to eat at 6:30 PM but arrived an hour late at 730 PM. When she did arrive, she was acting strangely. She barely touched her food and was acti...

On September 14, 2018, in Galesburg, Illinois, a 23-year-old graduate of Western Illinois University named Tyler Smith headed out to party with some friends. The next day, he was due to report for drills. But he never showed up. And twelve hours later, his body was found in the Cedar Fork Creek area, just two blocks from where he was last seen the night before. Since then, Tyler's family has been...