Lurkers

A mother rushes through a Dublin hospital to pick up the woman she trusts: Lucy Fitzwilliams. But at reception, there’s no Lucy on the list. Just one name… and one location: “Samantha. Cubicle three.” What follows is a true story of long-form identity fraud: a woman who doesn’t just lie, she becomes whoever the room is most ready to trust. Over more than a decade, Samantha Cookes slips into real l...

Each year on June 17, we remember Mackenzie Lueck. This is a remembrance re-release of our Season 1 episode on Mackenzie, 23 years old, last seen after a late-night arrival in Salt Lake City, taking a Lyft to Hatch Park to meet someone she’d been speaking to online… and then her phone went silent. We reconstruct the timeline, the digital trail, and the investigation that followed, told with care f...

A red Kia Soul runs out of road in the California desert. Patrol units close in. A helicopter circles overhead. Police believe a 15-year-old girl is inside the car... along with an armed driver. Then the name comes over the radio: Austin Lee Edwards. Deputy sheriff. Former Virginia State Police. And suddenly this isn’t just an abduction alert, it’s an authority nightmare. Because the “boy” she tho...

Morata de Tajuña sits just outside Madrid, Spain, a small town where routines are a heartbeat. And when that heartbeat stops… everyone feels it. Three elderly siblings, known around town and always moving together, suddenly vanish from daily life. Days turn into weeks. The shutters stay closed. The lights don’t come on. And when authorities finally enter the home, Morata realizes this isn’t just a...

Two teenagers. Two different states: California and Kentucky. One crime that spreads faster than shame can be spoken out loud: sextortion. It starts with a message that feels private, a quick exchange. Then the screen flips. Suddenly, it’s online blackmail, and the threat comes with a timer: 45 minutes. Pay, or your life gets detonated in front of everyone you know. In this episode, we tell two st...

Sydney Loofe goes missing in Lincoln, Nebraska after a night connected to Tinder... and within hours, the search isn’t just happening in the streets. It’s happening online. A video appears. A calm voice. A plea that sounds like concern. But in a missing-person case, a public narrative can become a weapon… especially when it’s posted before anyone can verify the timeline. Investigators and friends...

Kelly Gowe gets a voicemail from a federal agent: “I’m calling in regards to your mother, Laura Kowal, who may have been involved in a fraud scam.” She calls her mom. Laura answers. She is alive. But her voice doesn’t sound right. Scattered. Distant. Like she’s already inside something she doesn’t want to explain. Then Laura disappears. What started as online dating becomes something darker: a rom...

She was 19. He was charming from a distance. Ashley Wadsworth meets Jack Sepple online, and what starts as attention quickly becomes a relationship built on messages, calls, and promises that feel bigger when you’re young and hopeful. Before long, Ashley leaves Vernon, British Columbia, and moves to Chelmsford, England. Into his orbit, into his control. But the real story isn’t just “a bad boyfrie...

The call comes out of nowhere. Your teenage daughter is sobbing, gasping for air, and begging for you. It sounds surgically real. The same breaks in the voice. The same breath between words. The same panic. And then a man gets on the line. He says she’s been taken. He says you have minutes. He tells you not to hang up and tells you exactly where to go, what to do, and how fast to move. In the car,...

It’s late 2002. Dial-up internet. A shared family computer in the living room. And a 13-year-old girl in rural Arkansas who just wants more people to talk to after school. Kacie Woody meets “Scott” and “Dave” online, two names that feel harmless at first. The messages turn constant. The attention turns intimate. And slowly, the boundary between “friend” and “stranger” disappears… without anyone no...

PART 2 OF 2 A dot on a map doesn’t cry. It doesn’t panic. It just… stops. In Part 2, investigators pull location history from a family safety app, Life360 , and the case pivots. A route becomes a record. A stop becomes a timestamp. And a timeline becomes something you can’t argue with. We follow the coordinates into a field, track the evidence from the road to the courtroom, and unpack how the sam...

PART 1 OF 2 A quiet farm road. A familiar running route. Then she disappears. In northeast Arkansas, 24-year-old nurse Sydney Sutherland leaves for an afternoon run and vanishes within minutes. Her family, her boyfriend, and an entire community flood the backroads with flashlights and four-wheelers, calling her name into fields that don’t answer. But the usual tools, phone pings, tower data, don’t...

Four people on three continents are coached from chat apps into fake exchanges and “profits” in USDT they can never withdraw. A grandfather in North Carolina, a professional in Los Angeles, a single mother in Sydney, and a victim in Hong Kong follow the same script. Behind those messages is Sara, trafficked to a Myanmar compound and forced to run the chats. We map the playbook from wrong-number op...

Her followers trusted her name. Then her page started selling tickets she never posted. Overnight the grid fills with urgent drops and countdowns; DMs flood with “is this you?” and “where are my seats.” Locked out and stuck in support loops, she watches her brand used against her audience. We trace how the takeover worked, where the money went, and the steps to get her account and followers' trust...

Patricia Alatorre was a Bakersfield teenager who wanted to be seen. It began with compliments in DMs and shifted to secrecy, urgency, and late-night plans. When Patricia went missing, her family and a city searched while detectives traced messages, locations, and cameras. This episode follows the timeline step by step, from first contact to the hours that triggered the search, and shows how groomi...

A video call feels right. A voice sounds right. A profile pulls pieces from real people to make something that never existed. We follow how a deepfake relationship forms, how pressure normalizes, and the emotional and financial fallout when the seams show. Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production. Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe. — Follow LURKE...

The messages would not stop. In Part 2, investigators test accounts and devices and read the data behind years of activity. Logins, IPs, Wi-Fi associations, EXIF timestamps, and deleted files begin to align. Step by step, digital forensics reveal how an online presence was fabricated and how the harassment was orchestrated. The trail points to someone very close to home and brings resolution to a...

A relationship ends and an avalanche of messages begins. This first part follows the disappearance of Cari Farver, the early theories, and the widening trail across accounts, devices, and locations in and around Omaha and Council Bluffs. The story examines how identity can be forged online and how harassment persists when a digital presence will not stop. Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Dan...

A friendly DM becomes pressure, then demands, then threats. This episode shows how a sextortion ring builds leverage from a single message, multiplies fear with screenshots and deadlines, and uses payment apps to keep victims silent. We center victim recovery and the choices that help people take control back. Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production...

Bianca Devins’ name became a headline after images of her violent murder spread online. This episode focuses on the person behind the posts, the escalation that led to tragedy, and how platforms, press, and strangers responded in real time. We examine how attention and algorithms amplified harm, the grief for her family, and the trust of an entire community. Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by...

A late flight, a Lyft to Hatch Park, an online meetup... then silence. After a late flight into Salt Lake City, Mackenzie Lueck messages that she has landed and takes a Lyft to Hatch Park in North Salt Lake to meet someone she knew online. Minutes after the drop-off, her phone activity stops. This episode reconstructs the overnight timeline, texts, rideshare data, airport and neighborhood cameras,...

A survivor speaks, and the friends of a missing woman refuse to let the trail go cold. This episode follows a verified New Jersey case where posts, check ins, and dating-app activity form a pattern. The friends of Sarah Butler screenshot profiles, match usernames, compare places and times, and pass everything to detectives. Alongside survivor Tiffany Taylor's account, a community effort turns a so...

Real cases that start online and end in the real world, told with immersive sound and empathy. Welcome to Lurkers. This brief preview explains what the show is and how we tell these stories. We follow verified cases that begin on phones and feeds and then move into everyday life. Expect careful research, scene by scene sound, and a clear warning about the risks hiding in everyday clicks. With new...