Box in the Basement

Send us Fan Mail In April 1970, 11-year-old Terry Bowers eagerly joined his Boy Scout troop for an overnight camping trip at a Catholic church in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Terry had worked odd jobs to earn the money for the trip and was especially excited to sleep under the stars to earn a merit badge. The next morning, the camp awoke to every parent's worst nightmare. Terry was found sta...

Send us Fan Mail In September 2002, 22-year-old television reporter Jennifer Servo was living her dream. After leaving Montana for a reporting job in Abilene, Texas, she was quickly making a name for herself as a talented young journalist with a bright future ahead. But just weeks after arriving in Texas, Jennifer was found murdered inside her apartment. Investigators determined she had been stran...

Send us Fan Mail On Memorial Day weekend in 2011, beloved New Jersey diner owner Shafiq “Steve” Ezzedine was finishing up another long shift at the family restaurant he’d spent decades building. Known throughout Roxbury Township for his kindness, generosity, and tireless work ethic, Steve often left the diner unlocked after closing in case someone hungry needed help. Hours later, his wife Amal ret...

Send us Fan Mail On the thirtieth anniversary of Leon's murder, Arlene pours her heart out about  losing her Uncle and best friend, her sadness, and the devastation of never receiving justice.  To Leon: Brother, Uncle, Friend, protector, and a precious life lost too soon.  Support Box in the Basement & Our Causes  Leon Laurales: Website & GoFundMe  Follow us on Facebook & Instagra...

Send us Fan Mail It's been thirty years since Arlene received the worst news of her life: her Uncle and best friend was murdered in the dead of night on his way to work. His car left burning in a culvert next to the railroad tracks and a gun range on the outskirts of Brownwood, Texas.  The next thirty years would bring more questions than answers. Leon had a secret, one that could have gotten...

Send us Fan Mail In March 2006, Albert and Joan Musalo were living a quiet, comfortable retirement in a gated golf community outside Reno, Nevada. They were well-liked, financially secure, and deeply devoted to their family. Then, overnight, everything changed. The couple was found shot to death in their own bed - no signs of forced entry, no clear motive, and almost nothing disturbed inside the h...

Send us Fan Mail On February 16, 2013, 73-year-old Kate Ragsdale followed a routine she rarely broke. After dinner, she met friends to watch her favorite show, Downton Abbey . At around 9:15 p.m., a friend watched her pull into her driveway in Tuscaloosa’s quiet Highlands neighborhood. No one saw her alive again. A week later, worried neighbors entered Kate’s home and discovered her body on the be...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Box in the Basement , we examine one of Texas’s most enduring cold cases: the mysterious disappearance of William and Margaret Patterson of El Paso in 1957. The wealthy couple vanished without warning, leaving behind their home, business, finances, and even Margaret’s beloved cat. A strange phone call, a suspicious telegram, questionable letters, and decades of...

Send us Fan Mail In 1985, 11-year-old Angelica Gandera vanished while walking home from her grandmother’s house in Temple, Texas. Despite eyewitness accounts and multiple persons of interest, no trace of her has ever been found. In 2025, 48-year-old Monica Sanford disappeared after leaving to go camping near Bridgeport, Texas. Her car, belongings, and beloved dog were left behind—raising immediate...

Send us Fan Mail On May 20, 1989, Kimberly Rachelle Norwood , a 12-year-old honor student, left a friend’s house in Hallsville, Texas and began the one-mile walk home. She never arrived. In this episode, join Arlene and Leah as they examine Kimberly’s disappearance, the early assumption that she had “run away,” and how that narrative stalled the investigation at a critical moment. We break down th...

Send us Fan Mail Part 3 of our Highway of Tears series examines some of the most infamous missing and murdered cases along Highways 16, 5, and 97 in British Columbia, from the 1990s to the present day. We explore the disappearances of Delphine Nikal, Ramona Wilson, Roxanne Thiara, Alisha Germaine, Lana Derrick, Nicole Hoar, and Aielah Saric-Auger , tracing patterns of neglect, systemic racism, and...

Send us Fan Mail For more than five decades, a remote stretch of road in British Columbia has been the epicenter of one of Canada’s darkest crises. The Highway of Tears is home to dozens of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and families — many cases mishandled, ignored, or never fully investigated. In this episode, Arlene and Leah uncover: The disappearance of the Jack Family, t he tra...

Send us Fan Mail The Highway of Tears is ground zero in one of Canada’s darkest ongoing tragedies. For more than 50 years, dozens of people – mostly Indigenous women and girls – have been murdered or gone missing along Highway 16 and its connecting routes in northern British Columbia. Despite RCMP task forces and national attention, these cases have been plagued by racism, mismanagement, jurisdict...

Send us Fan Mail Two Indigenous women— Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton —were both found dead at the home of a former Alaska mayor. Both had dated his sons. Both suffered violence. And yet, no one has ever been charged. Join Box in the Basement as Arlene and Leah uncover the disturbing failures, corruption, and silence surrounding two deaths that demand answers. 🔗 Show Notes – The Deaths of Jenni...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Arlene and Leah uncover the tragic cases of Senovia Medina , a young mother who fled civil war in El Salvador only to vanish in Houston in 2006 — her boyfriend later convicted of her murder, though her body was never found — and Cecilia Huerta Gallegos , a San Antonio nurse and mother of four who told her sister, “If anything happens to me, look at my husband,” be...

Send us Fan Mail  In this episode of Box in the Basement , Arlene and Leah uncover the chilling case of Vicki Lynn Nisbett , a Texas mother who vanished in 1991—without a body ever found. Her husband was convicted, released, and reconvicted in a legal saga that still divides Williamson County. Was justice truly served, or is the real story still buried in the evidence?  🔗 Show Notes – The Disappe...

Send us Fan Mail In 1987, 24-year-old Margaret Chauncy left her shift at St. Michael’s Hospital in Texarkana and asked a coworker to follow her home, fearing she was being stalked by a man in a black car. She pulled into her apartment complex in her red Pontiac Fiero—and vanished. Nearly 38 years later, Margaret’s case remains unsolved. Two decades later, in 2007, 44-year-old Lisa Chandler spoke w...

Send us Fan Mail Join us for part 2 exploring the perpetrator of the Austin Servant Girl Murders.  If you or someone you know is a victim of violence, please go to Domestic Violence Support or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline. 800-799-SAFE. The hotline is asnwered 24 hours a day by trained advocates prepared for crisis intervention support, safety planning, education, advocacy, and can...

Send us Fan Mail Between 1884 and 1885, a shadowy figure terrorized the city, breaking into homes, dragging women from their beds, and leaving behind scenes so brutal that even hardened reporters became physically ill. The press dubbed him the Servant Girl Annihilator —some later called him the Midnight Assassin or even speculated he was Jack the Ripper before London. In this two-part special, we...

Send us Fan Mail She was setting up for a garage sale at sunrise. Minutes later, she was dead. On January 25, 2019, 29-year-old Elizabeth Barraza stepped into her driveway in Tomball, Texas, ready for a weekend of fundraising and fun. What happened next was caught on camera—but the killer remains a mystery. Wearing a disguise, the shooter approached Liz, fired four rounds at point-blank range, and...

Send us Fan Mail Tiera Strand, a 25-year-old mother from Austin, Texas, vanished on April 16, 2023, after a night out on Sixth Street with friends. As she worked to complete her GED, Tiera dreamed of joining the Navy to forge a better future for herself and her daughter, despite her family's expectation that she would follow a path in cosmetology.  That evening, Tiera and her friends stopped...

Send us Fan Mail In 1968, five members of the Arellano family were slaughtered outside a remote Texas farmhouse, after two blown out tires in the middle of nowhere. Like out of a horror movie, the whole family was found shot, stabbed and beaten to death, with one sole survivor, 5-year old Manuel Jr. He claims a cowboy good Samaritan who helped with their flat tire was the perpetrator, a man police...

Send us Fan Mail Seven-year-old Cortney Clayton vanished while walking home from a corner store in tiny Stamford, Texas. It was 1988—a time when kids still rode bikes until dark, and trust lingered in small towns. But what followed shattered that trust: Cortney's body was found miles away, and despite witness sketches, leads, and decades of investigation, her murder remains unsolved. This cas...

Send us Fan Mail On a cold February night in 1999, 25-year-old Wil Hendrick vanished after leaving a party near Moscow, Idaho. His friends thought he had walked home. He never made it. Months later, his abandoned car was found—muddied, keys gone, and ominously silent. Three years after that, Wil’s remains were discovered on a remote hillside, miles from town. Wil was openly gay in a small town, a...

Send us Fan Mail In the spring of 1988, two women set out for peace, adventure, and freedom on the Appalachian Trail. But only one would make it home. Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner were hiking through Pennsylvania’s Michaux State Forest when their journey turned into a nightmare. After being stalked by a stranger in the woods, the couple was ambushed in a shocking act of violence fueled by hat...