Crime Adjacent

Someone was following me. At the diner, at the bookstore, the cafe, the town square. Wherever I went that day, the same day the clown struck again, the same man appeared behind me.  He was watching, waiting. In the pedestrian tunnel that connects downtown Petoskey to the waterfront, he finally struck. Get out of town, he said. Now. Petoskey, Michigan, had been hit by a strange wave of crime s...

Do you know about those fancy shoes with the red soles? How about that brand with the plaid design crawling over coats and purses? What does a belt with "G" on it denote, or "H"? In the field of conspicuous consumption, these are what sociologists call loud signals of wealth.  But there are quiet signals as well, signals so subtle and obscure as to be noticed only by the truly, impossibly ric...

United States Olympic Rugby gold medalist Aubrey Ertz went to Walloon Lake for a short vacation and a team-building retreat. The 2028 Olympics are fast approaching, and Ertz wanted to set the goals for the team. But on Friday morning, September 27, 2024, she woke to a horrible surprise. Someone was in her room, rubbing her feet.  And so she did what she normally does in situations like this:...

On Sept. 3, 2024, Realtor Yuki Sugita was hosting an open house in a rural neighborhood on the outskirts of Traverse City. Sometime between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., someone showed up at this house and discovered Sugita alone. No neighbors. No buyers. Just her and an empty, quiet home. Sugita was tied up and stabbed to death, only to be discovered by potential buyers out shopping for homes that afternoo...

Beginning in January 2024, the town began experiencing an odd but noticeable rash in crime.  The high school science teacher suddenly began sending people nudes. The school principal was arrested for embezzlement. The bookstore owner also sent nudes. A cafe worker was charged with felony assault for beating up a high school football player. The town's biggest problems were bar fights and traf...

Have you ever stayed in a short-term rental while on vacation and wondered: Is that fire alarm real? Or is there a camera in there? Because that's exactly what happened in this case. And it led to a series of big breaks. When hidden spy cameras were found inside the cabin, investigators narrowed on a suspect quickly. This sounded exactly like something one man in particular would do -- a man with...

Clowns are supposed to be happy, entertaining figures. And yet, they factor into true crime cases all the time -- from bank robberies to burglaries to serial killers. As more break ins and foot rubs were tied to this case, we take a look at why clowns have such a fascinating -- and terrifying -- hold on us.  And we also discover something shocking inside the cabin of one victim. Someone had r...

Early in the morning on Sept. 26, 2024, a man in a Halloween clown mask broke into the cabin of a single, vacationing woman in Northern Michigan.  He bagged all her shoes. Watched her sleep for an unknown period of time. And then crept to the foot of her bed, where he gently lifted the covers and massaged her feet. Night after night, cabin after cabin, the man prowled the quiet vacationland o...

In the annals of true crime lore and media representations, serial killers are far too often held up as loner geniuses and masterminds. But the truth is, for the most part, these guys are morons -- usually psychopathic, narcissistic idiots who are, ultimately, done in by their own stupidity and hubris.   Ted Bundy couldn't help but steal the same type of car. The Son of Sam got parking ticket...

Everything pointed to Daniel Palmer as the main suspect in the Rest Stop Killer case. All of the victims were found on his property, either in the valley or at his home or at his office When Bea Macy, the final known victim of the Rest Stop Killer, was discovered outside of his downtown headquarters building on Dec. 16, 2023, there was a literal trail of blood leading directly to his office. Ridge...

On a quiet lake in Northern Michigan, in the early morning hours of September 26, 2024, a man in a long tan coat and a Halloween clown mask broke into the cabin of a single, vacationing woman named Claire Gasley. First, he bagged up her shoes and socks. Then, he crept to the foot of her bed, slipped his hands under the covers, and … massaged her feet. Michigan is practically a breeding ground for...

Ed Gein took skin. BTK took jewelry and trinkets. The Zodiac took pieces of a bloody shirt.  In Ridgewood, police knew exactly what the Rest Stop Killer took from each victim. And somehow, they managed to keep this a secret for decades, knowing these souvenirs provided the only link between each murder. If police could find these tokens, they'd find their suspect. On Dec. 16, 2023, on the nig...

In the winter of 2023, three city councilmembers from the city of Ridgewood were abducted.  One, Gary Pugh, was murdered, his body dumped in a valley on the outskirts of town -- the exact same location used by the Rest Stop Killer.  The two others, Margie Miller and Bea Macy, were brutally assaulted but, somehow, survived. To figure out what happened and to better understand how the Rest...

Episode title: Stephanie's Great Escape This episode tells of Madame Stephanie St. Clair's great escape from prison and flight to France, aided by her secretary, Ruby and her top underling, Manos. This episode features: Gabrielle Adkins as Stephanie St. Clair Mare-Francoise Theodore as Josephine Baker Journey Brown-Saintel as Ruby Luke Slattery as Manos Additional voices by Tom Smith, Emilio...

Bea Macy was born in a small town in Wisconsin but, just like Len Macy, she made her way to Ridgewood in a roundabout fashion following the Summer of Love. She remained in town until the very end. In the 1960s, she escaped the doomed cult in the valley outside of town, grabbing on to a secretarial job at City Hall. There, she learned the ins and outs of Ridgewood. In the 1980s, she ran for school...

There’s something undeniably eerie about a parking lot. The rows of silent cars, or worse, the vast swaths of empty space. The distant echo of footsteps. The half-burnt yellow lights casting shadows across the gritty pavement. Parking lots are liminal spaces — they’re designed for movement, for transitioning from the safety of cars to the safety of places. But for many - especially women - parking...

Over the span of a week in December 2023, two Ridgewood city council members were abducted and assaulted. One, Gary Pugh, had been murdered. The other, Margie Miller, managed to survive somehow, but the prognosis did not look good. She was abducted on Friday night, Dec. 15, 2023, and by the following morning, Saturday, she would be in the hospital, fighting for her life.  No one knew it at th...

True crime is littered with cases of killers who tied to throw investigators off their tracks. These cases are also littered with the tiny, dumb mistakes these killers made that ultimately led to their demise. The out of place pizza box. The tiny trace of DNA. The wild story of a late-night trip through a blizzard that was most definitely not an impromptu alibi attempt. Which is all to say, true c...

On Dec. 13, 2023, Ridgewood resident Mollie Miller came to one of the Crime Adjacent live shows in San Francisco. She had a message for us: The Rest Stop Killer had returned to Ridgewood.  But more than that, she knew exactly who the killer was. So why, then, when I returned to Ridgewood to investigate, did I find her in her main suspect's home? I needed answers. Fast. Because during that col...

True Crime stories are riddled with serial killers and their crimes. But how do they get started?  From BTK to The Nightstalker to the Rest Stop Killer, many serial killers begin with what forensic psychologists call rehearsal fantasy.  That's the term for the young teen or young man outside, in the bushes, watching. Eventually, for some, these voyeuristic, Peeping Tom fantasies evolve i...

Margie Miller spent her life trying to escape Ridgewood. But a series of unfortunate events always pulled her back home, and right back into the heart of this case. At 18, she was accepted into the University of Chicago, but her family just couldn't afford it, and so she stayed home. At 22, she was offered a job in San Francisco, but her father suddenly died and she remained home to help her mothe...

On Sept. 27, 1969, the Zodiac killer donned a black hood and approached a young couple on the shores of Lake Berryessa — just a few miles north of Ridgewood. Once he tied up the couple, he stabbed them mercilessly.  I told you the Zodiac kept appearing in strange ways in the case of the Rest Stop Killer, and it happened again here, at Lake Berryessa.  Because this exact spot where the Zo...

The disappearance of Michelle Diaz happened at the worst possible time in a small town with limited resources and in a media environment desperate for information about a different case altogether.  So although her death would eventually lead to uncovering the true volume of horror committed by the Rest Stop Killer, she would, sadly, become a footnote in the larger story.  Michelle Diaz...

It was Mollie Miller who alerted me to the death of Gary Pugh. It was Mollie Miller who said the Rest Stop Killer was back, who said the Palmer family was involved somehow, and that the police were covering for them.  And yet, she now refused to talk.  Something was happening in Ridgewood, and on Thursday Dec. 14, 2023, I went home for the first time in nearly 30 years to figure it out.&...

Curiosity is a dangerous thing. Kingscreek is a weekly horror semi-anthology podcast, with weekly episodes. Follow Damien Bachman as he reads through his late uncle's old research, centered around the strange and paranormal occurrences in Kingscreek, Washington. Case A-95: Serial Roadside Phenomena (Fall 1997) Recording Date: 09/16/08 Content Warnings: - Animal Death - Animal Body Horror Starring...