A Simpler Time True Crime

I first came across Detective Robert Klein while covering the 1996 murder of Jasmine Porter. Detective Klein was the lead investigator on her cold case, and more than two decades later, he was the one who put the handcuffs on her killer. Recently retired from the NYPD after an accomplished career that included reaching the rank of Detective First Grade, Detective Klein joined me to talk about what...

On a holiday weekend in 2003, a woman was working overtime to get a project across the finish line for her employer. When her digital footprint trailed off and loved ones failed to hear from her, both her friends and colleagues grew concerned. Concern that was merited when a grisly discovery in the nearby Green River revealed she had met a horrific end to her life. Those closest to her believe the...

On a summer night in 1988, an eight-year-old girl and her mother were at a neighborhood laundromat near their home, sitting together and talking while their first load of laundry finished. As they talked, they barely registered the movements of a man who entered the laundromat and passed through their line of sight. Moments later, he attacked them without warning. Injured and terrified, they manag...

It’s not every day that a town of just six thousand people becomes known for so many strange and unlikely things. Snowflake, Arizona, named after Erastus Snow and William Flake, is often described as the most Mormon town west of the Pecos. But in sharp contrast to its religious roots, it is also home to one of the largest cannabis cultivation operations in the country. It is the place where Travis...

“There is no actual physical injury, is there, other than some bruising? I am not suggesting that bruising is nice, but there is no disfigurement. There are no broken bones. There are no serious physical injuries, are there?” Those words were spoken by Criminal Court Judge Lorin Duckman at a bail hearing for the man who had been relentlessly stalking and abusing Galina Komar. Galina was present in...

I want to be transparent about this case from the start. While it is technically unsolved, there is a strong and consistent understanding of who is responsible. This is less a whodunit and more an opportunity to walk through our criminal justice system and examine how, over the course of decades, one man was able to manipulate outcomes in his favor. Shorter sentencing, public sympathy, and ultimat...

A fifth grader comes home from school in 1991 expecting to see his mother but instead is greeted by an empty home and a terrifying scene. Everything from the home pointed to foul play for the mother. Other clues made it seem like aspects had been staged to make the scene look like something that it wasn’t. On the day of Deborah’s disappearance, she was supposed to be meeting with her husband to fi...

In September of 1968, a young saleswoman named Carol was traveling through Indiana, selling encyclopedias for a company based in Indianapolis. She was part of a small crew made up of another black woman and two white men. That day, their route brought them to Martinsville, Indiana, a town that was already known among Black travelers as a dangerous place to be. As the term was better adopted over t...

In January of 2002, a college student is home in Texas for winter break, just days away from returning to school. Like she does nearly every morning, the avid runner laces up her shoes, grabs her Walkman, and heads out on her familiar four-mile route through her family’s quiet subdivision. Neighbors see her along the way. Her movements are accounted for. One neighbor even places her less than a fo...

A treasured pediatrician from Tennessee spends the night out at an NBA basketball game. She calls her mom from the game and mentions to her that she isn’t feeling well. After she gets home, she hosts a couple of girlfriends at her place to finish out the evening as a quiet night in before heading to bed. What happens to her after they leave her home is a mystery, but her family began to worry when...

UPDATED EPISODE: When I first covered this case in October 2025 the case was unsolved. As of November 24th, 2025 a suspect was confirmed in the case with advanced DNA evidence and NHSP Closed the case. Today I go through the evidence police have released after their big press announcement. This is the full original episode with an updated ending.  Rest Peacefully, Judy. The truth is known.  A youn...

On a Tuesday morning in late November of 1981, a newlywed met up with a man she thought was purchasing her wedding dress from her. She was scraping together any cash she could for a down payment on a house. Little did she know, the man had no intention of buying her dress. Her murder has stuck with the Tulsa community for over four decades, but with DNA advancements there is still hope. TIPS: http...

“I don’t know if it is a joke or not. The timer is not ticking or anything, but if it is a joke, it is a very poor one. I would like someone to come over and look at it please.” Those were some of the last words Andrew Puskas ever spoke to a Middlesex, New Jersey police officer. Moments later, his home exploded, killing both Andrew and his wife and stunning an entire community. The Puskas family w...

In November of 1996, two co-workers are closing up their retail store in large mall outside of Richmond, Virginia. Their closing routine is like clockwork so when they don’t return to their homes, alarm bells went off. The next morning would reveal a horrific scene inside the mall. How could two women be brutally murdered inside a popular mall with security nearby? Nearly thirty years later, this...

In Part 2, we pick back up on what happens after John Rodney McRae is released from prison. In this episode, we leave off after discussing Kip Hess's disappearance and the early conviction of McRae in Joey Housey's murder. After his sentence is commuted, McRae relocates to Florida and other boys begin disappearing.  While these cases may appear solved on the surface, the boys have never been locat...

When a young teen vanishes on his way to school, a single note left behind pushes police toward the idea that he was a runaway. But the people who knew him best never believed that. As the days stretched on, that theory began to crumble and a prime suspect emerged. On this podcast, I never center the perpetrator, and that remains true here. But to show just how unsafe the so-called simpler times c...

A family of three is brutally murdered in their rural New Jersey home in 1978. Police dismissed early rumors of connections to a violent motorcycle gang, but as the years went on they began to lean into that theory more, especially after a chillingly similar crime 3.5 years later. While many accept this theory, some say the killings feel more personal and fall outside of the way outlaw motorcycle...

In 1987, the owner of a small lingerie shop was closing up for the night, looking forward to a busy evening of plans ahead. Plans she would never make it to. When her brother came by later, he found her body inside the store. Investigators believe she was ambushed by someone pretending to be a customer, trapped in her own business. She fought hard for her life and injured her attacker in the proce...

It’s late August of 2001, and a bubbly teenager from a tiny town just outside Bowling Green, Kentucky, answers a phone call on her family’s landline. Everything that happens after that call becomes a mystery. No one knows who was on the other end, but it’s believed she slipped out of her house that night to meet the caller and never came back. Weeks later, her body was found the day before a natio...

On a hot summer day in 1993, recent college graduate Katie was making sales calls in downtown Portland, Oregon. It was her first day working solo after weeks of training and shadowing. She finished her morning calls and was on her way to her afternoon appointments—appointments she never made it to. When her car was found abandoned in an industrial lot, investigators explored several theories, incl...

In 1975 Sacramento, a young girl named Harriet went out to play at the park and never returned home. Her concerned mother called police and tragically, the next day, her body was found in a dumpster just a mile away. Police quickly focused on two local boys who claimed it was all part of a child’s game that went terribly wrong. But as you’ll hear, there’s so much more to this story. Her father — a...

Note: When I first covered this case in October 2025 the case was unsolved. As of November 24th, 2025 a suspect was confirmed in the case with advanced DNA evidence and NHSP Closed the case. Rest Peacefully, Judy. The truth is known.  A young woman is living in a small Concord, New Hampshire apartment with her husband and their little boy. Their marriage is rocky, and he comes and goes often, leav...

In the early morning hours of August 19, 1984, a Virginia State Trooper answered his front door and was ambushed. In an attack lasting no more than three minutes, he was fatally stabbed more than 40 times in front of his wife, brother, and sister-in-law, as well as his toddler daughter – who had been asleep in bed with him prior to the attack. From the over-the-top disguises left behind at the cri...

In May 1983, a young couple parked near the Loch Raven Reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland, was suddenly ambushed when gunfire shattered the quiet night. Just four weeks earlier, another couple had been shot in a similar lovers’ lane attack, but they managed to survive. This second tragedy claimed the life of a 22-year-old woman and left the community shaken with fears that a serial predator w...

High in the mountains of northern New Mexico, overlooking the village of Questa, a father and his young daughter lived in the dream home he built with his own hands. Friends and neighbors knew him as the kind of man who always offered help and kept his door open to anyone in need. But that open door would one day invite in evil. In early September 1999, both he and his 9-year-old daughter were fou...