A Simpler Time True Crime

On an April afternoon in 1994, a fifteen year old Florida girl gets off her school bus at the entrance to the dirt road leading to her home. From there, she still had about a quarter mile to walk. The narrow road cut through thick Florida brush, with dense vegetation pressing in on both sides and tree branches overhead creating an almost continuous canopy. It was a walk she knew well and one that...

In July of 1997, an avid runner spent the afternoon running errands before driving into Wyoming's Shoshone National Forest to map out a 10K route as part of her marathon training. When she didn't return home by nightfall, her husband knew something was wrong. Friends, family, and volunteers quickly began searching the trails, believing she may have been injured somewhere along her run. But after a...

In early 2006, a 30-year-old woman in Tallahassee was four months pregnant and navigating a tricky time in her life. Cautiously optimistic about welcoming her rainbow baby, she was also going through some personal troubles. Her and her husband had been separated for a few months and she was casually seeing another man, whom she was breaking things off with to work on her marriage and prepare for t...

While recently covering the disappearance of Branson Perry, I briefly discussed the murder of his cousin's wife, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a victim of the rare and devastating crime known as fetal abduction. That conversation led me to a discussion with returning podcast guest and retired Bronx Homicide Detective Robert Klein, who investigated a remarkably similar case in 2015. In this episode, Rob join...

When we think about the natural order of life, we expect that one day we'll have to say goodbye to our parents and grandparents. It doesn't make that loss any easier, but it's a reality most of us understand is likely to come. What we don't expect is for a younger family member to die before their time. The grief of losing a child or grandchild is something most people can't imagine, and if it hap...

Just after the start of the New Year in 1996, two women are found brutally stabbed to death in their own homes in city of Clarksville, TN just days apart. This came only a month after another woman had been found stabbed to death in her Clarksville home. That case would eventually get solved, while the other two are still waiting for answers. Outside of the local area, these cases have not receive...

In April of 1985, a Montana man is working multiple jobs to save money and pursue his dreams. After getting off one job, he went straight to his second job to deliver pizzas. As he approached a regular looking house for delivery, he would have no idea that he was walking into a trap. His own brother would be the first responder who showed up to the house, a scene that has never left him. The inves...

Just before Memorial Day weekend in 1978, a college student visited a residence hall on the campus of Kent State University. Photos from that night show her smiling and laughing with friends, wearing a playful wig as part of a costume she put on to prank her friends. But sometime after midnight, she left the dorm room to make what should have been a short walk back to her own dorm, a distance repo...

In February of 1996, a pregnant woman is attacked in her Bronx apartment with her young son as a witness to the brutal crime. The case seems like it is going to be solved early on when a witness comes forward and names who they say did this. But as quickly as this comes together, it falls apart and the case goes cold for over two decades. That was until a series of events lands the case in the han...

In 2003, a young couple heads into the remote desert of Yavapai County to celebrate their anniversary. They only had time for a quick overnight trip, so they decided to spend the evening together beneath the stars, camping in the back of a pickup truck. But when the two failed to show up to obligations the next morning, friends began to worry.  Because the couple had shared their camping plans wit...

One night in the spring of 1981, a North Dakota teenager didn’t come home. Sometimes when it feels like someone has vanished into thin air, there are very few leads to go on. And for many of the decades that followed, that’s how this case appeared to people outside the local area. There was one clear last sighting of Barb, and then she was gone. But as the case was revisited and looked at more clo...

An arrest has been made in the 1991 Killing of Cindy Wanner. Here you'll hear the original episode plus the updates.  A mother is making a little extra money by cleaning her sister's house in an upscale neighborhood. She is feeding her eleven-month old daughter cereal in her high chair while cleaning each room. Somewhere in a small forty-five minute window, someone would gain access to the house a...

From 1986 to 1990, a small community in Louisiana was shaken by a series of disappearances involving teenage girls and young women. By 1990, after multiple cases happened close together, people began to notice patterns. Some of the victims shared similar appearances. A few were last known to be using a phone, including public payphones, around the time they vanished. Some were the teenage daughter...

Hi A Simpler Time True Crime Podcast Listeners! This week I'm sharing an investigative podcast with you that my friends over at Fire Eyes Media have been working so hard on. Please check out episode 1 today and then go susbscribe to their podcast.  Introducing the new long form investigative podcast from the team behind Missing in Hush Town, Secrets Beyond the Sacramento River. Subscribe now where...

On November 1, 1999, Dayton Police Officer Kevin Brame spent an unexpected evening with his two sons and his family. His estranged wife had called to say the boys were hoping to see him, and he never passed up a chance to be with them, especially as everyone was adjusting to life during the separation. He got the boys home in time for baths and bed on a school night, and stayed a little while to s...

This Episode is Part 2 of the Molly Bish case. If you haven’t already listened to part 1, go back and do that now or this won’t make a lot of sense. In part 1 we discussed Molly, the days leading up to her abduction, the aftermath of the search, and the work her family is done to not only find resolution in her case but to help other families as well. We left off in May of 2003, with a hunter find...

Its June of 2000 and sixteen-year-old Molly Bish is on day eight of her new job. Fulfilling the role her brother held the summer before, she’s the lifeguard at the local pond in her tiny New England town. In the short window of time between her mother dropping her off and the first kids arriving for swim lessons that day, Molly disappears. When a large-scale search of both the water and nearby lan...

In the late summer of 1973, a graduate student is living alone in an off-campus apartment, taking summer classes to get ahead. She’s well known on campus, the kind of person who’s involved in everything. She’s also a gifted musician with a lot going for her. After a day spent socializing, her night ends with a short walk home, what should have been just a 60 foot stroll across her apartment courty...

On an early spring evening in 1998, a young soldier returns home on leave, visiting his family for the first extended time since enlisting in the U.S. Army. He’s back in the Bronx neighborhood where he grew up, a place where he had already begun to defy expectations and set his life on a different path.  Late on a Friday night, he heads out and cuts through the same local park he passed through co...

Its May 2004 in Aurora, Colorado and a 53-year-old man is starting a fresh chapter of his life. To help keep up with expenses, he rents out a basement apartment within his townhome.  After his most recent roommate moves out, he places an ad to fill the space. Things look promising when he identifies someone interested in the place who even puts money down and signs a rental agreement. But when the...

In the early summer of 2001, a young man just weeks away from his twentieth birthday was called into work early at the restaurant where he worked. His car was in the shop, so he arranged a ride with a female coworker. They agreed to meet at the local high school before heading to their shift together. Jason left home to meet her. He never made it. No one reported seeing a struggle. Nothing appeare...

In the fall of 1997, a college senior says goodbye to her mother and heads out for the evening, planning to spend a little time with friends cruising around her small hometown. But when her curfew comes and goes without a call, her family immediately knows something is wrong. After a sleepless night spent searching and calling friends, her mother and stepfather contact police. Then Erica’s car is...

In late January of 1968, an Iowa State University freshman was hoping to make her way home to Evanston, Illinois for the weekend. She had planned to ride back with her boyfriend, but when those plans fell through, she needed another way home. Rather than thumbing a ride along the side of the highway, students on campus had something a little more organized. A ride board where people could offer ri...

On January 7th, 1996, a historic storm moved into the Northeastern United States, and first responders across the region began preparing for what they knew could be a long and unpredictable night. When Thomas Dorr received a call from the firehouse where he volunteered in his town, he told them he would head in and stay overnight to help if needed. But Tom never made it to the firehouse. A search...

In February of 1983, young mother Ora Owens woke up to every woman’s worst nightmare. A man standing over her bed watching her as she slept as she is home alone with her children. After leaping out of bed to try to run for help, the stranger caught up to her, dragging her back into her bedroom and violently attacking her. In the middle of the attack, her four-year-old son Mitchell walked in. He br...