Campus Crime Chronicles

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). One of the most critical moments in any dating or domestic violence situation, is when the victim tries to leave or break off the relationship. Unfortunately, for 20-year-old college student Alyssiah Wiley, her exit from the relationship with her long-term boyfriend resulted in the ultimate betrayal – her murder. Listen now to hear the full st...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale), and it sheds light on just how dangerous firearms can be if they are placed into the hands of an irresponsible owner – even when they aren’t used with intention to kill. In September of 2021, just days after he committed to the U.S. Army, Texas State University student Austin Salyer was fatally wounded by a bullet while he slept. The tragic in...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). When 22-year-old college student Jenna Burleigh didn’t show up to classes during the first week of school and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, her father quickly became worried and reported her missing. Unfortunately, Jenna’s body was found a few days later, over 100 miles away. An intense, yet swift investigation led police right to her b...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). After college student Sydney Powell was placed on academic suspension at the University of Mount Union for poor grades, she dreaded telling her parents the news. So when her mother, Brenda Powell, called the college to get some answers, Sydney flew into a rage and brutally killed Brenda. But here’s the primary question: Was the murder due to a...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). During Homecoming weekend in the fall of 2007, Rowan University student Donald Farrell III was beaten to death by at least two men in a well-lit, convenience-store parking lot. It was a chance encounter, and police believe the motive was robbery. But to this day… despite a clear image and description of one of the suspects, despite a rare, lim...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). When Binghamton University student Haley Anderson went missing in March of 2018, her roommates turned to their iPhones and the Find My Friends app in a desperate attempt to locate her. The app led them to the apartment of fellow Binghamton student Orlando Tercero, but when he wasn’t answering the door and was nowhere to be found, Haley’s frien...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). When New Mexico State University student Liette Martinez applied for and got accepted into a National Student Exchange program at a university in Indiana, she thought she was signing up for a life-changing experience. Instead, it was life-ending. In April of 2008, Liette Martinez was brutally stabbed to death in her on-campus, apartment-style...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). When police found 24-year-old University of Florida student Michelle Herndon dead in her home, it appeared that, in an ironic twist of fate, the health-conscious young woman had suddenly and tragically passed away from natural causes. Although rare, situations like these aren’t as completely out of the ordinary as one might think. So, investig...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of not one, but two victims who tragically lost their lives at the hands of an unlikely suspect – a person who would only be caught because he left behind the same clue at both crime scenes. In 1997, Vincennes University student Brook Baker was raped and brutally murdered in her off-campus home. Police interviewed hundreds of po...

This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's one of those truly puzzling stories that will leave you scratching your head, racking your brain, and just really wondering… WHERE IS HE??? In this episode, I tell you the story of University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth student Charles Allen Jr., affectionately known as Charlie to his friends and family. In October of 2007, Charlie m...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). In February of 2010, a distraught biology professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville opened fire at a staff meeting, killing three colleagues and critically wounding three others. The professor, Dr. Amy Bishop, taught at least five different courses in the Department of Biology, and she had been employed at the university since 2003. In...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). In February of 2010, a distraught biology professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville opened fire at a staff meeting, killing three colleagues and critically wounding three others. The professor, Dr. Amy Bishop, taught at least five different courses in the Department of Biology, and she had been employed at the university since 2003. In...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). I want to shine a light on a deeply troubling issue – dating and domestic violence among college students. This vulnerability becomes stark when young adults navigate relationships without the compass of prior experience. Think about it: this stage of life is often labeled in academic research as emerging adulthood, a time when they’re not qui...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). In October 2022, a cross-state rivalry took a bleak turn when University of New Mexico student Brandon Travis and his friends visited New Mexico State University in Las Cruces for the two schools’ annual football showdown. What started as a clash between fans ended with Travis on the losing side of the scuffle, which sparked a chilling chain o...

You've been asking for it, and I have been listening! Your favorite campus crime podcast is going to a WEEKLY show! Starting Monday, January 1, 2024, Campus Crime Chronicles will officially transition to a weekly podcast, so all you Campus Chronies can get your CCC fix EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. AND I will also be launching a Patreon on January 1... FINALLY! Stay tuned for more info. Big things ahea...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s a heartbreaking tale that unfolded on a prestigious campus, changing lives forever. In August of 2016, Ithaca College student Anthony Nazaire embarked on what should have been a promising sophomore year as a business administration major. Anthony’s journey from a challenging neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, to college was a testament t...

This episode is rated CREEPY AND SCARY! I have a very special episode of the podcast for you today. In true Halloween spirit, I’m giving you more of a University Mystery rather than a Campus Crime Chronicle. It’s no secret that most colleges and universities have some rich traditions and strong history attached to them. Many come with folk tales and urban legends that have been passed down from on...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). During the mid-winter of 2006, John Jay College student Imette St. Guillen went out with several of her friends for an early birthday celebration. In a few days, 24-year-old Imette would turn 25, and she was on top of the world. She was a brilliant graduate student in John Jay College’s Criminal Justice program who, in only a couple months, wo...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Sometimes in this world the unfortunate, violent actions of certain individuals can be explained by severe mental illness, and reform and treatment are viable options. But other times, those actions stem from nothing but pure and utter evil. There’s simply no explanation other than the fact that the person CHOSE to be violent or commit a heino...

This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale). The COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of college students at very rapid rates. Not only were they navigating the physical health effects of COVID and how it impacted themselves and their loved ones, but they were also having to abruptly adjust to a completely digital world. Just imagine being forced to take courses like statistics a...

This episode is rated a 5. In the spring of 2008, Brittany Zimmermann, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, arrived home to her off-campus apartment after class. On her way back home, she tried calling her mother at work, since the two talked every single day, sometimes even multiple times a day. But her mother was away from her desk at that specific time, and the phone wasn’t equipped...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). In September of 2021, Valencia College student Miya Marcano was scheduled to take a flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with family. They were actually planning to go on to Jamaica for a family vacation. But when she failed to board the plane and missed her flight, Miya’s family became incredibly worried and reported her missing....

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Y'all… Fair warning: Some of this may be particularly hard to hear because it involves the murder of an entire family – a husband and a wife and their teenaged daughter. In 2014, three members of a prominent newspaper publishing family in Duncan, Oklahoma, were shot to death inside their home. The one and only suspect – the family’s 19-yea...

This episode is rated a 4.5 because it is a story of survival. In the summer of 1974, Texas Christian University student Janelle Kirby was attacked in her own apartment by a man she did not know. He shot her five times, but Janelle lived to tell her story. However, it took 12 years before her attacker was found, and for 12 years, two separate lives were ruined in a way that most of us couldn’t eve...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). When a sophomore from the University of Nebraska, Jessica O’Grady, failed to show up for work and stopped responding to all texts and phone calls, her family reported her missing. When investigators dug into her case and focused on one prime suspect – Jessica’s so-called boyfriend – they quickly shifted the case to a homicide, despite never re...