Criminology

In 1983, 27-year-old Janette Roberson's murder rocked the small town of Reed City, Michigan. Janette was murdered in the afternoon while she was working in the basement pet department of a store called Gambles. This was an extremely savage murder. But, somehow, no employees or patrons of the store upstairs heard anything. A composite sketch of a man seen in the store around the time of the murder...

Shawn Baur and Scott Fosnaught were great friends who were killed on a rural road in July 2002 after attending a party. Shawn and Scott were about ready to turn sixteen. This week marks the 17-year anniversary of their deaths and the mystery has not lessened during that time. Join Mike and Morf as they walk through this mysterious case that some have called a hit-and-run while others have deemed i...

In this episode of Criminology, we are discussing the murder of two college students and the mysterious disappearance of a third. Each case is separated by time and distance but they all have one thing in common; they center around a mystery involving a female college student. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss these three baffling cases. What really happened to Sigrid Stevenson in New Jersey, Dan...

On June 27, 2000, Molly Bish disappeared from her lifeguard post at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts. Molly's mother Magi dropped her off at work that day and was the last known person to see her alive. When people began showing up to swim that day, they found no lifeguard on duty. Molly's disappearance turned into one of the biggest and most expensive searches in the history of Massachusetts....

In this episode, we are covering part 2 of the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case involving his wife and two daughters. The murders occurred in 1970 while Jeffrey and his family were stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. MacDonald has always maintained his innocence and has asserted that hippies broke in and murdered his family. Join Mike and Morf as they put the wrap on this infamous American mur...

We are discussing Jeffrey MacDonald and the MacDonald family murder case on this episode of Criminology. This is the first part of what will likely be 2 episodes on this infamous case. Jeffrey MacDonald was a doctor in the army stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina with his wife and two young daughters. In the early morning hours of Feb 17, 1970, Jeffrey was wounded and his wife and two daughters...

We have a Q&A episode for this week while we are at CrimeCon. We've been wanting to do one for a while now and thought CrimeCon week would be perfect. We didn't want to leave our faithful listeners without something to listen to. Join Mike and Morf as they answer some very good questions. These range from case-specific to personal, from Jon Benet to stranded island-type questions. We talk about up...

The 1990 murders of Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry in Houston, Texas were particularly brutal. Andy and Cheryl had only known each other briefly but the attraction between the two was immediate and powerful. Cheryl's car was found in a lover's lane type area with blood inside and music still playing. Both Cheryl and Andy were found the next day but the details of their murders are horrendous. Join...

In this episode, we are discussing the strange and frustrating death of Ellen Greenberg in Philadelphia, PA. In January 2011, this vibrant 27-year-old teacher and bride-to-be was found dead in her apartment with over 20 stab wounds and a knife lodged in her chest. Her cause of death has changed multiple times but for years now has been ruled a suicide. This is something that her parents are fighti...

In this episode of Criminology, we are discussing the Reinert family murders. Susan Reinert was a 36-year-old English teacher near Philadelphia, PA, and mother to an 11-year-old girl named Karen and a 10-year-old boy named Michael. Karen was found brutally murdered and stuffed into the trunk of a car in 1979. Her two children have never been found. This is a case with many different players and se...

Almost 20 years ago, just before Memorial Day weekend in 1999, Dale Williams went missing. Dale was a devoted father and husband who vanished from his hometown of Nucla, Colorado. Dale owned an auto body repair shop and apparently received a call to help a stranded motorist. He has not been seen since. An unlikely suspect emerged in Dale's case but only served to frustrate both the authorities and...

This our second and final part of the story of the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway rocked the United States and the world when it was announced that he was the Green River Killer. He was initially arrested for a small number of murders, but after confessing to over 40 murders the news went global. But there was a lot of work that went into the identification and arrest of Ridgway. There were also...

For many years, beginning in the early 1980s, Washington state had a serial killer on its hands. Sex workers went missing at an alarming rate, most of them were picked up around Pacific Highway South and found later, dumped, in the Green River. This is how the serial killer got his moniker as the Green River Killer. It would be many years later that authorities figured out it was Gary Ridgway. Joi...

It's hard to believe but it has been a year since the arrest of Joseph J. DeAngelo as the suspected EAR/GSK. It occurred during our long second season of Criminology when we took a deep dive into this case. In this episode, we talk about what has happened in the past year. But, we do so with the help of our friends, some of the people that made Season 2 so great through their interviews. You'll he...

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr of the Beatles took the world by storm. They became one of the most popular and influential bands of all time. Nothing in Mark David Chapman's life seemed to work out as he wanted it to. He listened to the Beatles all the time. But Chapman's life was spiraling out of control in the late 1980s. He was obsessed with John Lennon of the Bea...

In 2004, Jason Allen and Lindsay Cutshall were a free-spirited couple who had their whole lives ahead of them. They had so much in common. They came from very religious families and their religion played a huge part in their lives. They had both graduated from a bible college which is where they met. They loved life and were extremely adventurous, choosing to hike, camp, and go white water rafting...

Between 1978 and 1983, four teenage girls disappeared from Pocatello, Idaho. All four were later found deceased. There were similarities between the victims aside from their ages and gender. They all attended the same school. All went missing during the summer months, and three of the girls were either babysitting or due to babysitting at the time they disappeared. Was this the work of a serial ki...

Three girls disappeared, each in a different year, in different states, and under different circumstances. Deborah Ann Quimby vanished in 1977, Colleen Orsborn in 1984, and Alicia Markovich in 1987. There was nothing to connect the disappearances of the 3 girls. That was until an apparent connection was seen in an anonymous letter writer. In each case, someone had written at least one letter relat...

In 1985, 81-year-old Ed Maurin and his wife 83-year-old Minnie Maurin were shot to death in Washington State. Their murders shocked and saddened the small community where they lived. Residents were asking themselves who would want to kill this friendly and well-liked couple. The police began to investigate the murders but couldn't put anything concrete together. For almost 27 years, the murders of...

In 1980, Roger Atkison and Rose Burkert were brutally murdered inside an Amana Holiday Inn room in Williamsburg, Iowa. As the details emerged, police realized that Roger and Rose were hundreds of miles from their homes. Not only that but Roger was married and the meeting between Roger and Rose was a romantic tryst. This was a bizarre and baffling case from the very start and remains the same to th...

On this 50th episode of Criminology, we are talking about the Mary Morris murders. Two women, both named Mary Morris, were murdered in Houston, TX in 2000 just a few days apart. Their killers have never been caught. But this case has fueled speculation among the online sleuth community. Was this the act of a hitman who killed the wrong woman and then corrected his mistake days later? Or was this a...

n the summer of 1964, three civil rights workers went missing in Mississippi. They were in the state working to help African Americans get registered to vote. Their station wagon was found burned and then their bodies were found after a 44-day search. The murders sparked a national outcry for justice and led to the first successful federal prosecution in a Mississippi civil rights case. There was...

13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German went missing on February 13, 2017. The two friends were out hiking and their families became worried when they didn't show to be picked up. After an extensive search, their bodies were found the very next day. Police recovered evidence from Libby's cell phone and released an image and small snippet of audio that they believe to be the suspect....

In our part 2 episode on the disappearance of Maura Murray, we talk with Tim and Lance from The Missing Maura Murray podcast. They give us additional insight into the case using the information they have learned over their years of covering this case. There is also breaking news in the case that just came out this week that we'll talk about as well. You can help support the show at patreon.com/cri...

Maura Murray was a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Massachusetts. On February 9th, 2004, she crashed her car on a secluded road in New Hampshire and has not been seen or heard from since. The events surrounding the night of her disappearance and the things that transpired in the days leading up to it have caused much speculation and a lot of rumors over the years. Was Maura Murray...