Coffins & Confessions

Did you know in 1976 a tree almost caused another World War? Listen as Dae and Spencer dive into Operation Paul Bunyan, a military operation specifically made to chop down a tree! On August 18, 1976, a routine tree-trimming operation in the Korean Demilitarized Zone turned into a deadly confrontation that brought the United States and North Korea dangerously close to open war. Listener discretion...

Two cases. Two young women whose stories continue to raise questions decades later. And two investigations that show just how complicated the search for answers can become. In October 2001, Hyun Jong “Cindy” Song, a 21-year-old Penn State student, disappeared after spending Halloween night out with friends in State College, Pennsylvania. She was last seen returning to her apartment area in the ear...

Long before Halloween became a night of costumes, candy, haunted houses, and spooky decorations, people across Ireland and other parts of the Celtic world were observing a festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. That festival was Samhain (pronounced SOW-in ). Rooted in ancient Celtic traditions, Samhain was associated with the changing seasons, the dead, supernatural b...

Halloween is supposed to be a night of costumes, candy, and harmless scares. But in 2010, one Ohio teenager arrived at a family home expecting a Halloween prank, and instead walked into a scene that would change everything. On October 31, 2010, three members of a family were murdered in their home in Bellevue, Ohio. The case quickly took a disturbing turn when investigators focused on a family mem...

In 1941, Soviet archaeologists opened the tomb of one of the most powerful conquerors in Central Asian history. His name was Timur, also known as Tamerlane. Buried inside the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Timur’s remains had rested undisturbed for centuries. But when Soviet researchers opened the tomb in June 1941, a warning was allegedly found telling those who disturbed his grav...

On a March night in 1990, a family home in rural Bacon County, Georgia, became the scene of a violent attack that would lead to a murder conviction, a death sentence, years of appeals, and ultimately an execution. William Sallie had separated from his wife, Robin, and was involved in a bitter divorce and custody dispute. In the early morning hours of March 29, Sallie entered the home where Robin a...

In 1971, the Stanford Prison Experiment began as a two-week study designed to explore what happens when ordinary people are placed into the roles of prisoners and guards. Within just six days, the experiment was brought to an end. But the story of the Stanford Prison Experiment didn’t end when the participants left the basement of Stanford’s psychology building. In Part 2 of our Stanford Prison Ex...

In 1971, a psychology experiment at Stanford University set out to explore a simple but unsettling question: what happens when ordinary people are placed into the roles of prisoners and guards? What followed would become one of the most famous, and controversial, psychological experiments in history. The Stanford Prison Experiment was designed by psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his team to simula...

On November 13, 2012, Cari Farver disappeared. At first, the case seemed to point in one direction. Cari’s phone and online accounts were still active, messages were still being sent, and people in her life continued receiving communication from her. But there was one problem: Cari herself was nowhere to be found. What followed was a bizarre and deeply disturbing story involving a love triangle, o...

In 1932, Western Australia found itself facing a rather unusual enemy. Thousands of emus had moved into farming areas, damaging crops and threatening the livelihoods of farmers already struggling through the Great Depression. What started as a farming problem would eventually become a military operation involving Australian soldiers, machine guns, and an enemy that turned out to be surprisingly di...

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1981, a quiet cabin in the small California community of Keddie became the scene of a brutal and baffling crime. Inside Cabin 28, four people were discovered murdered. Three children were asleep in another room and somehow survived the night, while one young boy was missing from the cabin entirely. What followed was an investigation filled with unanswered qu...

On the glittering surface of King Louis XIV’s court, wealth, power, and influence were everything. But beneath all that luxury, something much darker was happening. The Affair of the Poisons had already exposed a world of fortune tellers, alleged witches, secret rituals, and people willing to turn to poison in the pursuit of money, revenge, and power. But the investigation was about to get much cl...

What happens when poison, black magic, murder, and the French royal court all end up in the same story? Well… things get complicated pretty quickly. In 17th-century France, rumors began spreading about a growing network of poisoners, fortune tellers, occult practitioners, and people looking for ways to get rid of their enemies. What started as a criminal investigation would eventually become one o...

On December 30, 2000, a quiet neighborhood in Setagaya, Tokyo, became the scene of one of Japan’s most disturbing unsolved murders. Inside their home, the Miyazawa family was found murdered. But what makes this case even more bizarre is what investigators believe happened after the killings. The person responsible didn’t simply leave the house and disappear. Investigators believe the killer stayed...

On a warm summer evening in 2003, five-year-old LeeAnna Warner disappeared from her family’s front yard in Chisholm, Minnesota. In just a matter of moments, a quiet neighborhood became the center of a massive search, and a mystery that has remained unsolved for more than two decades. In this episode of Coffins & Confessions, Dae and Spencer take a look at the heartbreaking disappearance of LeeAnna...

In 1961, a group of Americans got on a bus. That might not sound particularly interesting. But these weren’t ordinary bus rides. The Freedom Riders were students, activists, clergy, and everyday Americans who decided to test whether the laws against segregation in interstate travel were actually being enforced. They knew what could happen. And unfortunately, they were about to find out. In this Bu...

Today, when you dial 911, help is only a few minutes away. But it wasn’t always that way. Before ambulances were equipped with modern medical equipment, before paramedics were trained to provide advanced care, and before emergency medical services became the system we know today, getting help during a medical emergency could be a matter of luck, and how quickly someone could get you to a hospital....

In this episode of Coffins & Confessions, we examine the tragic story of Travis the chimpanzee, a case that forever changed the conversation about keeping exotic animals as pets. We explore Travis’s unusual upbringing, the warning signs that were overlooked, the devastating attack that shocked the nation, and the lasting impact on wildlife laws and public perception. Was this an unpredictable trag...

One tragic night on a lonely stretch of highway changed Hollywood forever. The fatal car crash that claimed the life of actress Jayne Mansfield shocked the nation, sparked decades of rumors, and even led to a safety feature found on millions of trucks today. In this episode of Coffins & Confessions, we separate fact from fiction as we examine the events leading up to Jayne Mansfield’s final journe...

Hidden behind the battlefields of World War I was a secret that remained buried for decades. Deep within occupied China, Unit 731 operated under the guise of scientific research, but what took place inside its walls would become one of history’s darkest chapters. In this episode of Coffins & Confessions, we uncover the origins of Japan’s covert biological warfare program, the people who ran it, th...

In this episode of Coffins & Confessions , we examine the disturbing case of serial killer Edmund Kemper, one of the most infamous murderers in American history. Join us as we explore Kemper’s troubled childhood, his escalation into serial murder, the failures of the mental health system, and the lasting impact his case has had on criminal psychology and FBI profiling. We also take time to rem...

On a quiet summer night in 1912, the small town of Villisca became the scene of one of America’s most horrifying unsolved crimes. Inside a modest white house, eight people — including six children — were brutally murdered in their sleep with an axe. By morning, the killer had vanished without a trace, leaving behind a blood-soaked crime scene, covered mirrors, strange clues, and decades of unanswe...

On December 26, 1996, six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder after her parents reported her missing hours earlier. A chilling ransom note, unanswered questions, and decades of conflicting theories turned the case into one of America’s most haunting unsolved mysteries. In this episode of Coffins & Confessions, we unravel the timeline, the evi...