Campus Crime Chronicles

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). On Oct. 7, 1998, a teenager was riding his mountain bike in some fields just outside of Laramie, Wyoming, when he discovered what he thought was a scarecrow that had fallen off its post. Or, perhaps it was some type of Halloween gag, a dummy lying on the ground, maybe? It WAS October, after all. But when the teen got closer, he realized it was...

This episode is rated a 4.5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s another one of those stories that DOES involve homicide, but under what some might call extenuating circumstances… and, honestly, you’re probably going to be left scratching your head or maybe even questioning the justice system at the end of it. In my opinion, there were TWO victims in this case. There were TWO wrongs that clearly DID...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Eleven days after the shootings at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard, Jackson State College (which is now Jackson State University) in Jackson, Mississippi, faced a similar tragedy, where two young people were killed by Jackson police officers and Mississippi state troopers. The two campus shootings by America’s own were so clos...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). May the 4th is a significant date for numerous reasons. For some, it’s more of happy date on the calendar that represents a nod to the iconic Star Wars franchise and a play on words for "May the Force Be with You." But for Kent State University in Ohio, May 4th has a much more serious, significant, and somber meaning. On May the 4th of...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of Humboldt State University student David Josiah Lawson. In 2017, Josiah, who was commonly known by his middle name, was stabbed to death at a house party off campus. Even though there are TONS of witnesses from the scene who can testify about exactly what they saw happen, nobody has been convicted of Josiah’s murder. In fact,...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of 18-year-old Anita Knutson, a freshman at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota. In June of 2007, Anita was killed in her off-campus apartment. Initially, police had a very large circle of suspects, and none of those suspects were ever officially cleared, which means police could never build what they would consider a...

This episode is rated a 2 (on my Serious Crime Scale). This story is partially what sparked the conspiracy theories (AKA rumors) that the coronavirus was developed in a lab in China. While the man in this story was found guilty of blatantly lying to the IRS about millions of dollars and his ties to China, he was NOT found guilty in any way of developing the coronavirus or even charged with anythin...

This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's the story of Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old Indiana University student who seemed to disappear without a trace. But THIS story, this episode, has several possibilities of what might have happened to her. You see, in the summer of 2011, Lauren went out one night with some friends, but the last time she was seen seems to have left more q...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of 19-year-old Shannon Melendi, a young woman attending Emory University, a private research institution in Atlanta, Georgia. On one morning in March of 1994, Shannon was working her part-time job as a score keeper at a community softball complex; but when she left the softball fields that day for lunch, she was never seen or he...

This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's the story of missing Ohio State University medical student Brian Shaffer. In 2006, Brian walked in to a bar with some friends. When closing time came and went, Brian's friends can be seen leaving the bar, but Brian is nowhere in sight. He is never seen leaving the bar he walked into less than an hour earlier. For over 15 years, po...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of two roommates attending the very prestigious Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1995, after Trang Phuong Ho told her friend and roommate Sinedu Tadesse that she would no longer be rooming with her the next school year, Sinedu took the ultimate revenge, tragically ending the lives of both of these...

This episode is rated a 4.5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). How would you feel, or how would you react, if you were sitting in a college psychology class, and it was a typical day, just like any other day in a college classroom (at least you thought so when you first walked in); but, when you get there, the professor tells you and the rest of your peers, his deepest, darkest secret? Right then and th...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of two separate murders that occurred on the campus of Gallaudet University, a prestigious school in Washington, D.C., and the nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf and hard of hearing. The acclaimed university was deemed a safe, happy place, with a 10-foot rod iron fence enclosing the entire 99-acre campus in the h...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of not one, or two, but THREE different murders on the grounds of Stanford University. In the course of two years, THREE young women were violently killed at the college in Stanford, California, and all three remained cold cases for nearly 50 years! That is... until DNA technology brought out the smoking guns investigators neede...

This episode is rated a 3 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's the story of a former college professor, who has ties to several colleges across the country, and allegedly went on an "arson-setting" spree in the summer of 2021. He allegedly set a string of wildfires in the vicinity of California's Dixie Fire, the state's second largest wildfire in history, which burned for over thr...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of Illinois State University graduate student Jelani Day. Earlier this year, on Aug. 25, Jelani was reported missing and shortly after, on Sept. 4, Jelani’s body was found floating face down in the Illinois River in Peru, Illinois. After an autopsy supposedly revealed no evidence of assault or altercation, the county coroner con...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's the story of Marissa Pagli, an 18-year-old freshman volleyball player attending Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. Marissa's life was tragically cut short at the hands of her OWN mother, who was experiencing a severe mental breakdown at the time of the crime. Check out this episode to hear more details of Marissa's...

This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's the story of a young woman, 17, who accused a 20-year-old college student from the University of Kansas of rape. She alleged he sexually assaulted her after the two met at a popular college hangout called "The Hawk" in Lawrence, Kansas. That former KU student, Albert N. Wilson, has always denied the accusations and maintained...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of a University of Miami football player who was gunned down and killed in the parking lot of his apartment complex – and after 15 years of, basically, no public suspects or “official” suspects – police finally announced that they made an arrest for this crime JUST this year, on August 19, 2021. Advertising Inquiries: https://re...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of one South Carolina college student who was simply trying to be responsible and call a ride share after a night out drinking with her friends. When a black Chevy Impala pulled up beside her, the student got in, thinking it was the Uber ride she ordered… but, instead, it was a terrible, evil person waiting for her behind the wh...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of how one of America’s most notorious serial killers escaped from a prison in Colorado and made his way to Tallahassee, Florida. While there, that escaped convict, the infamous Ted Bundy, entered the Chi Omega sorority house on the campus of Florida State University. Once inside the house, he killed two young women that night a...

This episode is rated a 3… and also a 2 (on my Serious Crime Scale). That’s right! This week I have a double rating because I tell you two different stories with a similar theme; both of which are about a professor’s worst nightmare coming true -- when a distraught student decides to take revenge. In both situations, the professors escape their situations relatively unharmed, hence the ratings of...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of two college students, 19-year-olds Dominique Hurd and Peter Robertson, who were attending the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 1998. After having dinner at a restaurant one night, the two students were in the parking lot, taking pictures, when a stranger approached them from seemingly out of nowhere, held them at gunpo...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Yesterday, Aug. 1, 2021, marked the 55th anniversary of the first public mass shooting in U.S. history. In this episode, I tell the story of how one man climbed to the top of the clock tower on the University of Texas campus, loaded with plenty of guns and ammo, and wreaked havoc on people below for 96 minutes. By the time three brave men took...

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of how one college, Eastern Michigan University, accrued the largest fine in history (at the time) from the Department of Education in violation of the Clery Act. In 2008, the school had to pay $350,000 in fines after administration lied about the death of 22-year-old Laura Dickinson. For 10 weeks, they allowed not only Laura’s...