Cardinal Crimes

On Wednesday, June 25, 1980, workers at the Sheraton Motor Inn in Galesburg, Illinois, found the body of William Kyle, a lumber salesman, brutally murdered in his hotel room. To this day, Kyle’s murder remains unsolved, but the crime scene contains many similarities to that of Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison’s murder. In this episode, we cover what we know of the murder of William Kyle, and discuss...

The brutal 1980 murders of Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison have puzzled investigators for decades. While suspicion has often fallen on people close to the couple, the list of potential suspects has grown far beyond their inner circle. In this episode, we explore the individuals who’ve been investigated over the years — from those who knew Rose and Roger personally to complete outsiders. We break do...

On September 12, 1980, Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison were brutally murdered at a Holiday Inn in Williamsburg, Iowa. To this day, this case remains unsolved. In part one, we went through the crime scene in detail.  Today, in part two, we step beyond the crime scene and into the investigation that followed. Who were Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison, and what brought them to that Holiday Inn room on t...

On September 13, 1980, a housekeeper at the Holiday Inn in Williamsburg, Iowa, discovered a horrifying scene: Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison had been brutally murdered in their hotel room bed. More than four decades later, their case remains unsolved. But could the answers be closer than ever? In part one, we dive deep into the crime scene itself, piecing together details from decades of media cov...

This week, we’re revisiting a past episode with freshly cleaned-up audio before diving into a brand-new cold case next week. This particular interview is one I’m especially proud of. It was such an honor to speak with someone with such knowledge and dedication to ending domestic violence and pursuing real solutions. I hope you enjoy listening, and as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! In this...

Laura Van Wyhe spent the evening of Friday, October 25, 1996 celebrating her recent 21st birthday with family and friends. Hours later, around 2 a.m. on Saturday, October 26, 1996, she was found critically injured along Highway 136 near Kahoka, Missouri. She later died from her injuries at an Illinois hospital. While her injuries led investigators to believe she had been struck by a vehicle, the s...

On July 30, 2011, a massive fire destroyed the home of Bill and Kay Wood. One victim was found in the rubble, and testing would later confirm the remains were those of Bill. An autopsy revealed he had been shot several times before the fire. Kay's remains were not found in the home. The couple's vehicle was found during the fire, 170 miles south in Kansas City, MO, and an unidentified ma...

On July 30, 2011, firefighters rushed to a massive late-night blaze in Norwalk, Iowa. When the flames were finally extinguished, the charred remains of 79-year-old Bill Wood were discovered inside. His wife, Kay, was missing, and the couple’s truck turned up abandoned over 170 miles away in Kansas City, Missouri, with witnesses reporting a lone man walking from the vehicle. Weeks of investigation...

In the early morning hours of July 4, 2001, Crystal Arensdorf vanished after being out at a bar in Dubuque, Iowa with friends. After countless searches, interviews, and months of investigating, there was no sign of the 20-year-old. In fact, no one ever saw Crystal leave the bar at all.  In this episode, we go over what we know of her movements before she disappeared, some of the known individuals...

In 2004, an analyst from the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation discovered a pattern of murdered women dumped along the Interstate 40 corridor in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Her work eventually led to the creation of the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative.  In today’s episode, I sit down with Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI Assistant Director and author of Long Haul: Hunting the Hi...

Tammy Zywicki was last seen on Sunday, August 23, 1992, on her way back to college in Grinnell, Iowa. When her parents didn’t receive word that she’d arrived safely, and later learned her vehicle had been abandoned along I-80, they reported her missing, sparking a multi-state search effort. Nine days later, her body was discovered in rural Missouri, hundreds of miles from where she was last seen;...

Almost a year after the abduction of Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins from Evansdale, Iowa, two more young girls would be abducted from a town just under two hours away. On May 20, 2013, 15-year-old Kathlynn Shephard and 12-year-old Dezi Hughes were kidnapped by a man named Michael Klunder while walking home from school in Dayton, Iowa. No one could deny the similarities between the two...

On July 13, 2012, ten-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and eight-year-old Elizabeth Collins went for a bike ride in the quiet town of Evansdale, Iowa and never came home. Their bicycles and a purse were found abandoned, sparking a massive search effort that gripped the community and the nation. Months later, their remains were discovered in a remote area over 20 miles away. In this episode we will co...

In this bonus episode (possibly a recurring segment, we'll see), we’re digging into some of the biggest headlines in the crime space. First, we break down Brian Kohberger’s early July plea in the University of Idaho murders and explore how reported patterns of misogyny may have played a role in his actions. Then, we discuss the new Hulu docuseries Her Last Broadcast, which revisits the 1995 a...

In the final part of our series on the “milk carton kids,” we turn our focus to Marc Allen, a 13-year-old who disappeared in 1986 under circumstances somewhat similar to that of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin. Though Marc’s face never appeared on a milk carton, his case is often linked to Johnny and Eugene. Was there a connection, or are these unsolved disappearances just tragic coincidences? We w...

Almost exactly two years after the abduction of 12-year-old paper boy Johnny Gosch, another young paperboy was abducted. In this episode, we examine the 1984 abduction of 13-year-old Eugene Martin, a Des Moines paperboy whose disappearance prompted national attention and contributed to the launch of the milk carton campaign. We begin with a look at how effective that campaign really was before wal...

Have you heard of the original milk carton kids? In the first episode of this three-part series, we explore the 1982 disappearance of 12-year-old Johnny Gosch, one of the first missing children to appear on a milk carton. Johnny’s case marked a turning point in how the U.S. approached missing child investigations and sparked ongoing discussions about child safety, media attention, and law enforcem...

We are revisiting this episode as I was able to clean up the audio that was a little off in the original recording! I hope you enjoy it.  In this episode, I sit down with Janine Latus, an award-winning journalist, domestic violence survivor, and author of the New York Times and internationally bestselling book If I am Missing or Dead: a Sister’s Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation. Janine’s book...

Corinne Perry was last seen at the Highlander Laundromat on April 17, 1983. Her car was left abandoned in the laundromat parking lot, with her clothes folded neatly inside of it. Days later, her purse was found miles away on a bridge. Despite multiple witnesses saying a man -- about 6 feet tall, with a medium build and medium-length brown hair, clean shaven, and wearing glasses -- followed Corinne...

This June is the 30-year anniversary of Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance and abduction. She was abducted from her apartment complex parking lot on June 27th, 1995. I covered this case in a different episode when we sat down with Scott Fuller from FindJodi, but I wanted to present the information in her case in a new format with the upcoming anniversary. In this episode, we will go over the details...

On November 2nd, 2021, two 16-year-old boys beat their 66-year-old Spanish teacher, Nohema Graber, to death. The reasoning? They were getting bad grades in her class. The murder of Nohema Graber stunned the community of Fairfield, Iowa, and the nation. In this episode we discuss the timeline of events, how the two teens stalked and meticulously planned their crimes, and discuss what transpired at...

In this episode, we discuss the tragic murder of 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey by 14-year-old Aiden Fucci. I wanted to cover this case after watching the Netflix series Adolescence, a four-part series that dives into the epidemic of violence against women and girls, the radicalization of young men, and tries to answer the question “Why?”.  In this episode, we attempt to answer that same question. We...

When Denise Fraley went missing in 1982, her husband was immediately suspected of having been involved. Not only because of his bizarre and changing stories about what happened to her, but because of a history of domestic violence in their marriage.  Over 40 years have passed with nothing bringing investigators or Denise’s family closer to knowing what happened. But will advancements in forensic t...

On October 13, 2016, Jesse Leopold, 23, left work during the middle of his shift and was never seen again. Days later, his truck was found abandoned at Ledges State Park in Iowa. While multiple searches have been conducted at the Ledges State Park, the current Sheriff openly questions the efficacy of and quality of those previous efforts. Over the last nine years, Jesse’s father Jerry has worked t...

In early 2023 it was revealed that the Walker County Jail in Jasper, Alabama attempted to cover up the abuse and death of an inmate in their custody. The inmate, Anthony Mitchell, was forced to endure horrific conditions at the jail and was repeatedly denied medical treatment.  In part 2 of our coverage of this case, we talk about the hours before Anthony Mitchell’s death and the inaction from the...