Crime&Stuff

The Lady in the Dunes case — a murdered woman found in the dunes of Cape Cod on July 26, 1974 — may have gone cold shortly after she was found, but the case lived on in New England as an enduring mystery, and then became an internet sensation. When she was finally identified on October 31 as Ruth Marie Terry, whose Tennessee family had been looking for her for nearly 50 years, what cam...

Michael Allen had been living large in the nine years since 1988, when he’d won $5.8 million in the lottery. The problem was, he didn’t really know who his friends around town in Lewiston, Maine, were. Then one night, two of them lured him to a motel room… he didn’t live to see the morning. Rebecca reports. We also give the Discover+ show “Real Life Nightmare” t...

When Ashling Murphy was attacked and killed in broad daylight by a stranger on a well-used path in Tullamore, Ireland, shock and anger reverberated across the small country. Her murder renewed vows that attitudes toward women in Ireland had to change. But where’s the same outcry when women and children are killed by a man who isn’t a stranger? You might well ask Miriam Burns, killed in...

Miss us already? We’re taking a short break, but we’ll be back the first week of October with an exciting new episode. Thanks for all the support and thanks for listening. Meanwhile, check out our “More Stuff” page, where we’ve posted some of the video footage we discussed in Episode 128.

In one week, three arson fires in Lewiston, Maine’s Tree Streets downtown neighborhood made dozens of residents homeless, destroyed millions of dollars worth of property and added pain to the already hardscrabble existence of the state’s poorest inner city. Police were quick to arrest four people in the unrelated fires — including two children — but was there justice? Rebec...

Jill Sidebotham and her daughter, Lydia Hansen, were last seen by their family on June 27 in Springvale, Maine, when they left with Lydia’s father (Jill’s former boyfriend) on what he described as a “camping trip.” The last confirmed sighting was on surveillance camera at the Mexico, Maine, Walmart on July 2. Jill and Lydia were expected home June 30, but no one has heard f...

In this Maine Mini we discuss the June 18 murder of Nicole Mokeme, who’s life mission was to create safe and powerful places for Maine’s black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized people. Unfortunately, an abusive man and a criminal justice system that let him continue to get away with it made Maine a very unsafe place for her. Haven’t heard of her? No big surprise. After a...

It’s hard to get past some of the more sensational aspects of the New Hampshire murder of Jonathan Amerault and the horrific abuse of Brittney Barron by Armando Barron, but once you do it’s a textbook case of what can happen when coercive control goes unchecked. Some people may ask why Barron’s wife didn’t do more to stop what happened, but we’ll get into that. And mo...

One of Maine’s greatest assets is Baxter State Park and Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain, is its crown jewel. Some visitors chafe at the rules, but those who don’t pay attention learn the hard way, and sometimes lose their life because of it. Maine’s Wabanaki legend has it that Pamola guards the mountain and rains thunder and danger down on those who dare climb it. We tal...

Rebecca takes on a tragic story from our old hometown, with a very special appearance by our mom! We also update our most-ever updated episode, Annie Dookhan (Episode 29), the Concord, NH, double-murder of Desjwende and Stephen Reid (Episode 122.2) as well as catch up on a 2020 Maine triple murder (Episode we can’t remember) and give the NNW treatment to Maine Cabin Masters.

Sophie Sergie was killed on April 26, 1993, in the bathroom of a dorm at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The case went cold fast and stayed that way for 26 years until an investigator in Alaska, inspired by the resolution of the Golden State Killer case decided to try something new.

BONUS EPISODE Djeswende and Stephen Reid were shot to death while on an afternoon walk in the woods near their Concord, New Hampshire, apartment April 18. There was seemingly no motive for the double murder, and police seem baffled. A little more than a week later, Holly Banks and Keith LaBelle, a newly dating couple, were shot to death in Banks’ home, 100 miles to the north, in Gorham, New...

When Jeff Ryan, his 10-year-old son Jesse and Jeff’s buddy Jason Dehahn are stabbed to death in Amity, Maine, population 218 in June 2010, it’s a classic “it can’t happen here” crime. But it can And it did. Rebecca exlains.

One angle in the ongoing story of the death of Lauren Smith Fields that hasn’t been looked at is dating app sexual crimes and violence. Lauren met a man on Bumble — and somehow during their first date wound up ingesting a deadly cocktail of drugs. If her date has something to do with her death, it’s part of the ongoing issue of dating app crimes against women that no one wants to...

When Lauren Smith Fields died in her Bridgeport, Connecticut, apartment while on a first date with a man she met on Bumble, and the police didn’t bother to notify her family, that was just the first injustice in a case that has all the worst elements of racism, white male priviledge, police incompetence and more. And the sad thing is, she’s not the only one. Also, Rebecca gives NNW tre...

Something suddenly came up that has delayed Episode 120. No, no one was murdered, but we do have to take a short break. Listen to this special announcement to find out when we may be back and also some things to do so you’re not staring at the wall until we return (hopefully soon).

Irish immigrant Mary Mallon became synonymous with the spread of infectious disease, and is still known more than a century later as Typhoid Mary. But what really happened? And it’s interesting how, more than 115 years after she was identified as the source of a typhoid spread in New York, that as much things have changed, how some things just don’t. Rebecca tells us all about it. We a...

Greg Fitzgerald checked all the eraser killer boxes, including making sure life without parole didn’t really mean life without parole. The second part of the story about the tragic end to the extraordinary life of Amy Fitzgerald. Also, Rebecca NNW’s the Netflix doc “The Tinder Swindler”

There’s a certain kind of killer and Amy Fitzgerald was the victim of one of them. Maybe not as famous as some of the others — Scott Peterson, Chris Watts, Charles Stuart, Mark Hacking, the list goes on and on — but her story is just as significant as their victims. Marilee Strong identified these type of men in her 2008 book “Eraser Killers,” and we’ll talk mor...

Hey! It’s a special bonus episode. We had so much stuff for Episode 116 that we had to leave some out, but still wanted you to hear it. We talk about Maine’s first murder of 2022, the alleged domestic homicide of Eva Cox, of Lubec. We also catch up on the recent and startling sentence for the perpetrator in Maine’s first murder of 2020. We’ll be back next week with a brand...

Marc LePine tried to make a “political point” by shooting up a university in Montreal in 1989, killing 14 women. The legacy of the Montreal Massacre could have gone a long way to changing things, ranging from attitudes toward women to guns. But the equivocation started while the bodies were still warm. Are we any smarter in 2022? Rebecca takes a look. We also update news on Ghislaine M...

Sister Liz is our guest storyteller, bringing another troubling tale from the great northwest. We also discuss the merits of “The Thomas Crown Affair” (the 1968 version) versus “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” both bank robber movies shot in Boston in the late 1960s and early 1970s. And Rebecca and Maureen give the NNW treatment to the Hulu documentary “Dead Asleep.&#822...

On his 20th birthday, July 10, 1969, Ted Conrad walked out of the Clevebank bank where he worked with $215,000 in a paper bag. For 52 years he eluded the FBI and U.S. Marshal Service in what’s still that city’s most expensive bank heist. But then, in May 2021, a Massachusetts man on his death bed, told his family his secret… We also discuss the Taylor Swift-Don McLean situation,...

Happy fifth anniversary! To celebrate, we have a jam-packed episode. Dottie Milliken and Pamela Webb were both young women with promising lives who were murdered in Maine, cases that have gone decades with no arrests ever made. Rebecca takes an in-depth look. We also discuss some recent news events, the new Bechdel-Milliken Test for sexism in movie, TVs and books, and update the Loon Mountain bone...

We revisit The Station nightclub fire, which we covered in Episode 72, after the TV show “48 Hours” airs an episode that claims to nail down who was responsible for the 2003 blaze that killed 100 in Rhode Island. Then doesn’t. We also update the Maine-New Hampshire landfill body mystery. More or less. And Rebecca gives NNW treatment to the new Netflix series “Catching Kille...