Our True Crime Podcast

Mark Tim Todd was raised in Herculaneum and it was right away that everyone knew Tim was going to be a standout in athletics. His dedication and his physique helped him become a stellar athlete. At 6’7 and 230 pounds, it was no shock that he would be so successful in all sports, voted most talented his senior year as well as most handsome. Every boy wanted to be him and every girl wanted to be wit...

The aroma of hot dogs, churros, and fried twinkies waft over the fairgrounds. The bright lights, some flashing, some remaining solid with brilliant color, are dazzling to the fairgoer. The sounds of children laughing, carnival workers barking at the crowds to come play a game, bells dinging, the echo of rides spinning and rolling is what draws the people of Barton County to the annual fair. Sonny...

Today we are going to a city outside of Los Angeles called Bradbury. It is a gated community of the elite where everyone has a mansion and several cars. With a small population and so close to a large city, it is a peaceful paradise for those that can afford it. The serenity was shattered when a killer came calling early one morning in 1988 leaving two people dead and a community that would have t...

Since the Columbine school shooting in 1999, many schools and institutions in the United States now hold active shooter drills. Per the NEA National Education Assoc, In the 2017-16 school year, over 4.1 million students had participated in at least 1 drill. Lockdowns and active shooter drills are normal now. School mass shootings only account for .2% of the 36k or so gun deaths in the United State...

**Special thanks to APOSTROPHE for sponsoring this episode of OTCP.Today we venture back in time to 1931, Honolulu Hawaii. At this time, the beautiful land was home to native Hawaiians but also immigrants who traveled to Hawaii for its alluring beauty and a shot at a better life. Honolulu was also home to many US Navy Soldiers stationed there. These young men brought their families to this paradis...

What pops in your head when the state of Texas is mentioned? Cattle? Oil? Football? Music? Texas is the 2nd largest state in the United States and Austin, Texas always makes it on the best cities to live in lists. Another list that Texas has made isn't quite as positive. That is Rolling Stones November 2014 list of 5 Worst States for LGBT People. In the 1980s and 90s, queer-bashing was a popular p...

The Caffey family are resting peacefully in their beds in the Emory Texas home when all of a sudden someone bursts through the bedroom door. Shots ring out and both Terry Caffey and his wife Penny are being riddled with bullets. Terry jumps up from his bed even though he was shot and at that time, not even aware of how many times, he rushes out to go to his children. As he is attempting to get to...

Clare is a divorced mom of two when love walked into her life. She wasn’t expecting it but welcomed it with open arms. At first, it seemed like the couple was happy but soon Ed’s behavior was beginning to seem strange. Marrying this man would soon become not only the biggest mistake she ever made but a deadly one as well. Join Jen and Cam of Our True Crime Podcast as we discuss the episode ‘Decept...

Police were trying to bust a ring of thieves who were stealing yachts and then selling them. The detectives had received information that a yacht by the name of La Vita was stolen and was going to be docking nearby at Marina Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond, just north of San Francisco. Detectives were waiting for this yacht to pull in and when it did, they wanted to have a little chat with the crew,...

In 1980, 32-year-old Virginia Uden and her two sons, 11-year-old Richard and 10-year-old Reagen, left for a day of fun but when they still had not arrived home, Virginia’s mother knew something was not right. After a fruitless search, Virginia’s ex-husband Gerald and her mother Claire phone police to file a missing person’s report. What no one knew at the time, would be that the case would go cold...

Ethan wrote us another great script! Thank you, Ethan! The Whitakers were a perfect family. They were well known in the affluent city of Sugar Land Texas. But things aren't always what they seem. On the evening of Dec. 10, 2003, the family of four were gunned down as they returned home from a celebratory dinner. Mom, Tricia Whitaker, a retired teacher, and her youngest son 19-year-old, Kevin, died...

Today we are beginning our case at the Del Mar Resort Hotel in Las Vegas and it is far from a resort. It is the kind of hotel that rents by the hour and adult movies are included in your room rental. The hotel has the usual cast of seedy characters that you expect on rotation. The Del Mar is no stranger to despair and darkness so on August 5, 1998, when a couple checks into the hotel and reports t...

It is Monday, April 14 2003 when co-workers of Maria Cruz become concerned. 35-year-old Maria was always a dependable, conscious employee who would just not show up for work. A few of her employee friends decide to swing by her apartment to check on her. They arrive at her home where they are greeted by a stack of newspapers on her front door. They knock on the door and no one answers it. Clearly,...

On April 8, 2009, eight-year-old Tori Stafford disappeared while walking home from school in Woodstock Ontario. CCTV captures her walking away from the school with her abductor. News of her kidnapping spread across the nation and led to one of the largest searches in the Ontario Provincial Police history. Although her brutal captors were arrested and charged 6 weeks after Tori was taken,her broken...

A 9-1-1 call comes in from a woman who is speaking in a muffled voice barely understandable. The operator is able to understand that someone is hurt at a hotel in the town of Fallbrook which is located in the northern part of San Diego county. After the operator calms the caller down, he is able to get an address, and police are dispatched to the location. When officers arrive and knock on the doo...

Before you listen to this particular episode, I wanted to mention that the perpetrator in the case targeted sex workers many of whom were indigenous women struggling with addiction and/or mental health issues. According to www.statista.com, in 2018, the rate of homicide victims among women in Canada was more than six times higher for the indigenous population. Often, victims of violent crimes, Ind...

Eddie Sexton was an ordained minister so all those in town knew him and he was the go-to guy who could marry you and fast with little fuss. Eddie and his wife, Estella May had 12 children in all, seven boys and five girls. From the outside, this large church-going family seemed to be an ideal family but we all know looks can be deceiving and in this case, twisted and deadly. This is a story about...

On August 20th, 1979 civil lawyer Wallace Schwartz gets a phone call at 2:12 AM When he answers he hears his friend, 38-year-old Albert Fentress, in a low emotionless tone, say he is going to kill himself because he did something awful, something unthinkable. The story that Albert would tell his friend Wallace would be a tale of cannibalization, mutilation, and murder involving a teenager. The man...

We are venturing to the college town of College Station, Texas home of Texas A&M.They like simple things like studying, partying and football. They also like getting to meet new people who share similar interests, especially if that interest is Aggie Football. Kerry Kujawa is a 20-year-old engineering major at the university and just like a lot of other students, he has a 21-year-old girlfriend na...

Well, it the very final episode of 2020 and day 12 of our Nightmare Before Christmas series. So far we have traveled back in time and to other countries, like the UK, Australia, and Japan. In this last episode, we are going into our own backyard. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter opens an anonymous letter sent to him from someone praising him for a recent story he wrote about a murdered sex worke...

Health care workers are angels walking on this earth. In the last nine months, these angels have been pulling double duty saving the lives of our loved ones and caring for them when they are sick all while trying to take care of themselves. They often hold life and death in their hands and work so hard to save lives. That is what they do...most of them ...but not all. In 1992, there was a nurse in...

On the 10th day of the 12 Nightmare Before Christmas series, Cam and Jen talk about Clifford Bartholomew. Clifford Bartholomew lived until the ripe old age of 72 and had lived a wonderful life with his wife of twenty-two years and his seven adopted children. When the beloved father and grandfather died, the family knew they would miss him terribly and things would never be the same. What they did...

Day Nine and we are taking a plane flight to Zama City, Japan which is a suburb of Toyko and also home to the United States' Camp Zama Army base. The story begins with two investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department's Personal Safety-related Case Comprehensive Countermeasures Headquarters and Takao Station. This unit, which usuallt dealt with stalking, had a much different case on this d...

On August 17, 1991, 33-year-old Wade Frankum wakes for the day. He gets dressed in casual clothes with a beanie on his head and a duffle bag in his hand. Frankum went to the train station to buy a ticket to Strathfield but gave the rail worker, whom he knew, a strange command: "you'd better go home." Frankum then walked away to catch the train to Strathmore, after all, Frankum was on a mission of...

On August 19 in 1979 Edda Kane went for a hike in a scenic park that overlooked the San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Usually Edda would enjoy these hikes with a friend or two but on this particular day, no one wanted to go with her. When Edda did not return home at the time she was expected, her husband called police. Worried that perhaps she fell and hurt herself, the police put together a sea...