Morbidology

It was the 18th of February, 2014, and on West Lombard Street in Springfield, Missouri, a man was raking leaves in his front yard. Then a little girl came around the corner. She had her phone in hand, stopping now and then to snap a selfie. That was when the truck appeared - a gold pickup, moving slowly down the street, back and forth, past the same houses, past the same yards, in no hurry, going...

On the night of the 24th of August 1996, a 14-year-old girl left a housing estate in a small Scottish town and walked alone toward a river in the dark. The investigation into what happened to her would remain unsolved for 27 years, sustained by one mother's refusal to stop asking, and finally cracked by the memory of a four-year-old boy. SPONSORS -  Nutrafol:  Find out why Nutrafol is the best-sel...

On the morning of January 17th, 1984, a 17-year-old boy picked up the phone and called 911. He said his parents were dead. The investigation that followed would divide a close-knit community, force a prosecutor to question his own instincts, and cause the detectives working the case to go home at night and look at their own children differently. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spre...

On the night of the 4th of December 1998, two teenage boys were having a sleepover in a trailer in rural Hopewell, Missouri. They played games, they stayed up late, and eventually they fell asleep. In the early hours of the following morning, they woke up to the smell of smoke. It was coming from the room at the end of the hallway. Neither of them would ever forget what they found on the other sid...

On 26 September, 2016, a young mother rushed from a Harlem apartment building carrying her six-year-old son in her arms. The boy was limp, unresponsive. His small body was covered in bruises, welts, and broken bones - evidence of months of brutal abuse. The investigation into what happened would reveal something equally disturbing: a child welfare system that had failed him at every turn, despite...

On the 31st of May, 1996, Tom Williams picked up the phone and called Shenandoah National Park. His daughter, Julie, hadn't come home from her camping trip with her girlfriend, Lollie. She was supposed to be back by the 28th. Three days had passed. She had a new job starting June first. Julie wasn't the kind of person who just didn't show up. SPONSORS -  Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals witho...

Russellville, Arkansas was a quiet college town that hadn't seen a murder in nearly a decade. On December 15th, 2005, 19-year-old Nona Dirksmeyer, a beauty queen and music student, was found brutally beaten to death in her apartment. Her boyfriend discovered the body and immediately became the prime suspect. But what followed would expose deep flaws in the investigation and leave a family searchin...

The residents of Meadows Mobile Home Park in Tarpon Springs, Florida, couldn’t help but notice a strong odour emanating from one of the properties in December 2018. Then one day, the spotted a man digging a large hole in the front yard…. SPONSORS: Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https://www.hero.co/ Nut...

Tracy Latimer was twelve years old and severely disabled. She had cerebral palsy, couldn't walk or talk, and lived in constant pain. On the morning of Sunday, October 24th, 1993, her mother, Laura, prepared to take the other children to church in Wilkie, Saskatchewan. Tracy’s father, Robert, stayed behind on the farm with Tracy. What happened that morning would spark a national debate about euthan...

It was 2 October, 1994, when nine-year-old Daniel Handley set off on his BMX from the estate where he lived in Beckton, London. He had no clue there were predators circling the estate, hunting for a boy just like him… SPONSORS: Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https://www.hero.co/ Nutrafol:  Find out why...

On Sunday, October 21st, 2018, a young woman drove north from Cairns to Wangetti Beach. She parked her car in the camping ground and walked along the sand with her dog. By nightfall, her boyfriend found the car abandoned, keys in the ignition…. SPONSORS: Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https://www.hero....

It was a routine morning for the 911 dispatch centre in Arlington, Texas. But then a phone call came in that shattered the peace. A mother was on the other end of the line, and she said that her nine-year-old son was unresponsive. SPONSORS: Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https://www.hero.co/ Nutrafol:...

On the afternoon of March 25th, 1988, eighteen-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell left Denver, Colorado, in her black Honda CRX. She was driving north through Wyoming to pick up her boyfriend in Cody. From there, they'd continue to Billings to visit a friend in the hospital. It was supposed to be a straightforward eight-hour drive. It was anything but… SPONSORS: Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals with...

In the early morning hours of 4 November, 2022, the small town of Laurel in Nebraska was asleep. Then suddenly, there was an explosion coming from a home along Elm Street. Neighbours looked out of their windows to see smoke coming from one of the homes. SPONSORS: Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https://...

On October 9th, 1986, two nine-year-old girls vanished from a Brighton council estate after dark. Their disappearances sparked one of the longest and most complex investigations in British history - a case that would take over three decades to solve, require a change in the law itself, and prove that justice delayed doesn't always mean justice denied. SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goa...

It was a summer morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2003. A woman glanced out her window and saw a man standing in her backyard. He was bundling her underwear into a pillowcase. Months later, that same woman would fail to show up for work. And when police forced their way into her home, they would discover that the system meant to protect her had failed in the worst way possible. SPONSORS -...

One summer night in 1989, eighteen-year-old Shannon Siders went out to party with friends in her small Michigan town. She climbed into a car with two brothers she knew and was never seen alive again. It would take 25 years, a father's dogged determination, and witnesses finally breaking their silence to reveal what really happened that night… Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreake...

Ryan Kepner was lying in his bed in his apartment in the East Campus of the University of Missouri. It was some time around 3:30AM on the 5th of June, 2004, and he was trying to sleep. But then he heard some thumping noises coming from next door, followed by a man repeating: “Stop it. No.” SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MO...

On the night of June 28, 2000, a fifteen-year-old girl vanished while walking home through Coquille, Oregon. Her boyfriend spent hours driving through town, desperately searching for her. But while he was looking for answers, police were looking at him... SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https...

Primm, Nevada was alive with neon and noise on 25 May, 1997, but inside the glittering casino, one small detail flickered across the security monitors - a little girl wandering alone. She slipped past rows of slot machines and bright carpet patterns, eventually disappearing into the women’s restroom. She never came back out. SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your f...

Norfolk Island hadn’t had a murder in over 150 years, but that all changed one stormy afternoon in 2002. Two tourists left their accommodation after the rainstorm had cleared. They headed to Cockpit Waterfall. On the floor near the barbecue area, something unnatural caught their attention… SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MO...

It was Valentine’s Day of 1989, and a sex worker from Cardiff, Wales, vanished. Some believed she had gone into hiding, avoiding testifying a two upcoming trials that could have put her in danger. But her disappearance sparked a chain of events that saw innocent lives upended, and it would take decades before the truth finally came to light. SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without...

Gordon DeVries was driving through his property near Grand Haven, Michigan, on the afternoon of May 8th, 2002. About fifty yards off Winans Street, something unusual caught his eye. Thin gray smoke rising through the trees. And on the ground, something dark and misshapen, still smouldering… SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "M...

It was a quiet morning in Surrey, British  Columbia, on the 10th of December, 2014. A woman living in a quiet cul-se-sac heard a knock on her front door. She opened it up to find a woman there she didn’t recognise. She stank of alcohol, and asked her to call 911. SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off a...

On the morning of the 18th of November, 1987, a brown Ford van pulled up to the ferry terminal in Victoria, British Columbia. Inside were two teenagers. They were heading to Seattle to pick up a furnace. It was supposed to be a simple overnight trip… SPONSORS - Hero Bread: This year, hit your goals without giving up your favourite bready dishes. Use code "MORBIDOLOGY" to get 10% off at: https://ww...