Probation Behavior

In this episode, Abby covers the murder of Sherri Rasmussen, a 29-year-old nursing director who was found dead inside her Los Angeles home in February 1986. Sherri was newly married, thriving in her career, and looking forward to her future when her life was tragically cut short. Investigators initially believed she'd been killed during a burglary gone wrong, but her family wasn't convinced. What...

In this solo episode, Ally covers the story of Denise Huskins, a physical therapist who was taken from Aaron Quinn’s Vallejo home after a terrifying overnight intrusion. When Aaron finally reached police, he described blindfolds, sedatives, recorded instructions, and a ransom demand—but Denise was still missing, and investigators had to decide what, if anything, they believed. As the s...

In this episode, Ally covers the disappearance and murder of Nicole van den Hurk, a 15-year-old who left her grandmother’s home before dawn on October 6, 1995, to bike to her supermarket job in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. She never arrived. Her bike, her bag, and eventually her body were found in separate locations, leaving investigators to piece together what happened on a ride that should...

In this episode, Abby covers the murder of Betsy Faria. On December 27, 2011, Betsy returned to her Troy, Missouri, home after a chemotherapy appointment. That night, her husband, Russ, found her murdered in their living room. Betsy had been facing cancer with people around her who were supposed to offer love and support. One of those people was her friend Pam Hupp, who had driven her home that ev...

In this episode, Ally covers the murder of Anthony “Nino” Puglisi and the abduction of his wife, Debra Puglisi Sharp. On April 20, 1998, Debra was planting roses outside their Newark, Delaware, home when Nino arrived home from work and went inside. When Debra followed him a short time later, an ordinary spring afternoon became the beginning of a nightmare. Over the next 101 hours, Debra’s family a...

In this episode, Abby covers the disappearance and murder of Skylar Neese, a 16-year-old from Star City, West Virginia, who slipped out of her bedroom after midnight on July 6, 2012, and climbed into a waiting car. Skylar left behind the things she would have needed if she planned to stay away, making it clear to her parents that she intended to come home. What followed was a months-long search sh...

In this episode, Ally covers the disappearance of Dr. George Parkman, a wealthy Boston physician and businessman who was last seen entering Harvard Medical College in November 1849. As the search spread across Boston, investigators kept returning to the building where Parkman had vanished—but their reluctance to thoroughly search the prestigious school left one man increasingly suspicious. What he...

In this episode, Abby covers the mysterious disappearance of George Smith IV, a 26-year-old newlywed who vanished from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas during his Mediterranean honeymoon in July 2005. A suspicious stain beneath the couple’s balcony, conflicting accounts of George’s final hours, and questions about the people last seen with him have fueled years of speculation over whether...

In this episode, Ally covers the murder of Emma Caldwell, a 27-year-old woman whose 2005 killing in Scotland went unsolved for nearly two decades. As Emma’s family pushed for answers, the accounts of women who had reported violence and a journalist’s investigation helped expose serious failures in the original case and ultimately bring long-awaited justice. Before we get into the case, we discuss...

In this episode, Ally and Abby both cover the deaths of Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy, and the trial of their mother, Lindsay Clancy, as it stands this week. Cora was 5, Dawson was 3, and Callan was 8 months old when they died in their Duxbury, Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023. Lindsay, a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of...

In this episode, Abby covers the disappearance of Brian Shaffer, a 27-year-old medical student who vanished during a night out in Columbus, Ohio, on April 1, 2006. Despite surveillance footage, an extensive investigation, and years of continued attention, no confirmed trace of Brian has ever been found. Before we get into the case, we discuss The Handmaid’s Tale , binge-watching TV, and the shows...

In this episode, Ally covers the murder of Jerry Heimann, a retired Boeing employee who opened his home to help care for his elderly mother during the final chapter of his own life. What began as an act of trust turned into one of Washington state's most disturbing murder cases, involving a shocking plot that pulled several children into a crime that would change all of their lives forever. Before...

In this episode, Abby covers the murder of Helle Crafts, a Danish flight attendant and mother of three who disappeared from her Connecticut home in November 1986. As investigators searched for answers, a snowplow driver’s observation and evidence discovered near the Housatonic River helped uncover the truth behind one of the most infamous murder cases in American history. Before we get into the ca...

In this episode, Ally covers the case of Derrick Johnson, a non-speaking man with cerebral palsy whose family believed a Rutgers professor might be helping him communicate in a new way. What began as hope that Derrick had been underestimated became a disturbing case involving facilitated communication, consent, disability, race, power, and the question of who was really speaking for Derrick. Befor...

In this episode, Abby covers the victims of The Predator of Seville , the story of how dozens of women studying abroad in Spain uncovered a pattern of sexual violence connected to a charismatic tour guide known as "Manu White." As more survivors came forward, their stories revealed years of abuse and a determined fight to hold him accountable. Before we get into the episode, we discuss Malcolm in...

In this episode, Ally covers the cases of Cherie Bishop and Donna Bell, two women from Brockton, Massachusetts whose cases began years apart but would later become connected through DNA. What starts with Cherie’s 1991 murder and Donna’s 1993 attack becomes a story about cold case evidence, forensic genealogy, and what it means when answers come decades too late. In the intro, we talk about how Abi...

In May 1986, 22-year-old Roberta Walls was found murdered in a field behind Old Donation Elementary School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She had last been seen the night before at the Bayside Public Library, just across the street from where her body would later be discovered. Her case stayed unsolved for nearly 40 years. This week, we walk through who Roberta was, the night she disappeared, the di...

In December 2010, 24-year-old Phoebe Handsjuk was found at the bottom of a garbage chute inside a luxury apartment building in Melbourne, Australia. Her death was officially ruled a tragic accident, or death by misadventure. But from the beginning, Phoebe’s family believed the explanation did not match the evidence. This week, we walk through who Phoebe was, her relationship with Antony Hampel, th...

In this episode, Abby tells the story of Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian woman whose life was violently taken in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city we call home. Iryna survived war and displacement, came to the United States looking for safety and a fresh start, and was building a life filled with creativity, work, family, and hope when she was killed in a random attack on the Lynx Blue Line. B...

This is a preview of our first Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. In the full 55-minute episode, we’re talking about how Probation Behavior actually came together, from deciding we wanted to make a podcast, to choosing the name, figuring out the vibe, planning the launch, and everything we were doing behind the scenes before our first episode went live. We also get into what we almost did differentl...

In this episode, Ally covers the complicated life, legacy, and death of Michael Jackson, with a little extra atmosphere because we recorded during a full torrential downpour, so yes, that is real thunder you hear in the background. From his childhood in the Jackson family machine to his rise as one of the most influential performers in history, we look at the brilliance, pressure, public scrutiny,...

In this episode, Abby covers the disappearance of Maura Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student who vanished after a car accident on a rural road in Haverhill, New Hampshire in February 2004. What begins as a timeline of a young woman’s final known movements quickly turns into one of the most debated missing person cases in modern true crime, with unanswered questions around the crash, the 911 calls...

Welcome to the first Motion to Gossip , our new bonus series where we get to be a little less structured and a lot more chatty. We do touch on some true crime updates in this episode, including Alex Murdaugh and Kouri Richins, but we also go wildly off course into pop culture, bad spending habits, reality TV, and whatever random thoughts show up along the way. If you’re here for the tangents, this...

In this episode, Ally covers the murder of Gail Spencer, a 58-year-old mother, grandmother, sister, and longtime legal secretary in Macon, Georgia. When Gail’s neighbors noticed something small but strange outside her home, it led police into a scene that immediately felt off: a cold house, lights still on, Gail’s car missing, and Gail found dead inside. What first looked like a confusing death in...

In this episode, Abby covers the murder of Eric Richins, a Utah father, husband, entrepreneur, and outdoorsman whose sudden death in March 2022 was first believed to be a tragic loss. This episode focuses first on who Eric was, then walks through the night he died, the investigation that followed, the public attention surrounding Kouri Richins’ grief book, and the trial that turned a private famil...