Generation Why: True Crime

August 10th, 1996. Preston, Washington. Sergeant Mathias Bachmeier responded to a call at the home of James Wren, who was in a dispute with his landlord. Officer Bachmeier put Wren into his patrol car and took him to a nearby station to make a statement. James Wren was never seen alive again. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Won...

It's the end of the year and Justin and Aaron look back at some of the episodes from this year. Did an episode stand out to you? Maybe you hadn't heard of it before? Let us know. We hope you have a safe and happy holiday season with your friends and families. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, earl...

On January 31st, 2011 Johnny Clarke and Lisa Straub were found dead inside Lisa’s home. Their hands were bound, and plastic bags were taped over their heads. The murder was carefully planned, and the house was ransacked in such a way that it seemed like the intruders were looking for something specific. The couple had many friends, most of which were involved in some kind of criminal activity. One...

July 30, 2022. Atlanta, Texas. The bodies of three young sisters were found in a neighbor’s private pond several hours after they were reported missing. Their deaths were initially reported as accidental drownings, but months later it was revealed the girls were strangled. Get old episodes and bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wonder...

November 22nd, 1999. Camarillo, California. After an argument with his wife, Xavier Caro left his home and drove to his office. When he returned, he found his wife injured from a gunshot wound to the head, and three of his children dead in their beds. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access...

March 29th, 2019. Columbia, South Carolina. Samantha Josephson was spending the evening with her friends celebrating her recent acceptance into Drexel University School of Law and her upcoming graduation from University of South Carolina. Her long-term boyfriend was going to be moving to Columbia to live with her during law school. She had been texting her boyfriend all through the night and told...

October 1, 2020. Las Vegas, Nevada. Tiffany Booth texted her mom and said she needed to get out of the condo because her asthma was acting up, and she and her boyfriend Eduardo were going to stay in Boulder City, Nevada. More texts followed but her family didn't believe they were from Tiffany. As time went on and Tiffany wasn't heard from again, Eduardo became a person of interest in her disappear...

October 21, 2021. Friends Jack Grimes and Dwayne Selby were heading to a horse show in Fort Worth, Texas. After not hearing from Dwayne for a couple of days, his mother Cookie went to his and Jack’s home to check on the horses and dogs. She stayed there a couple of days waiting for the two to come home, but instead, she went missing, too. Jack's remains have now been found, but the other two remai...

November 8, 2019. Jacksonville, North Carolina. Morgan Patten, 24, had traveled to North Carolina to visit her fiance, Phillip Brandon. He was a U.S. Marine and would be able to see her the following day. In the meantime, she walked from her hotel room to a diner to eat. Mysteriously, Morgan vanished from the diner and wasn't seen again until she was discovered at the scene of a crash. What circum...

July 29th, 2016. Bellaire, Texas. 16-year-old AJ Armstrong called the police to report that he heard gunshots inside his home. Both of his parents were found in their bed with fatal gunshot wounds. Suspicion immediately fell on AJ, who claimed he saw a masked intruder fleeing the house, but there were no signs of forced entry. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Lis...

In the first episode of this four part series, 16 year old Kalief Browder is arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. His bail will be set but with a prior charge the courts will deny bail and Kalief is sent to Rikers Island in the Bronx to await trial. We'd like to thank Paul Prestia for joining us. https://www.prestialaw.com/ Need more Generation Why? With Wondery+, enjoy exclusive episodes a...

April 14, 2022. Yorktown, VA. On April 14, 2022, Twelve-year-old Sean Daugherty was found dead, hanging from the swingset in his backyard. His family was devastated and immediately knew someone had hurt their son. However, law enforcement approached the investigation as a tragic suicide and declared it as such a few weeks later. Sean’s family took to Facebook asking for a more thorough investigati...

September 1st, 2016. Carlsbad, California. In September of 2016, Greg Mulvihill was shot in a secluded area of Carlsbad, California. He was lured to the area after receiving a phone call from a person claiming to be a PI, hired by his ex wife to gather information about him in a custody battle over their son. When Greg and a friend went to collect this evidence they were shot at by a man hiding in...

December 30, 1999. Welch, Oklahoma. On December 30th, 1999 authorities responded to a fire at the Freeman family home outside of Welch, Oklahoma. The bodies of a married couple named Kathy and Danny Freeman were found in the wreckage, but they didn’t die in the fire. They died from gunshot wounds to the head. Their daughter Ashley Freeman, and Ashley’s best friend Lauria Bible, who was sleeping ov...

April 14th, 2022. Montgomery, Alabama. Rick Ennis was convicted of the murder of Lori Slesinski, a young woman who went missing in 2006 and has never been found. Until he was arrested, many people who knew Rick Ennis didn’t know this wasn’t the first time he was convicted of murder. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for...

August 31st, 2012. Seattle, Washington. 42-year-old Yancy Noll was shot inside his car at an intersection in Roosevelt, Seattle. On September 21st a man named Thomasdinh Bowman was arrested and charged with murder. Dinh Bowman and Yancy Noll were strangers, and investigators were tasked with figuring out why Dinh Bowman would murder a man he didn’t know. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: p...

July 19, 1995. Birmingham, Alabama. Toforest Johnson was just 22 years old when he was convicted in the of capital murder of Deputy William G. Hardy and sentenced to death. He still sits on Alabama’s death row over 20 years later despite repeated false witness testimony, poor legal counsel, and allegations of severe prosecutorial misconduct. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/ge...

April 19, 2022. Lynchburg, VA. On April 19, Johnny Cashman Jr.’s family is informed that he died of an apparent medical condition in Virginia. They are devastated and have his cremains returned to them in Maine. However, they later discover that his apartment is covered in an abnormal amount of blood and his neighbor’s camera picked up chilling audio on the day he died. They are now urging detecti...

July 24, 2016. Bend, Oregon. After a night out at her friend’s bachelorette party, Kaylee Sawyer walked down the street outside her apartment and disappeared. Edwin Lara, a campus security guard, kidnapped her in his campus security vehicle, took her to a remote parking lot, and murdered her. This was just the beginning of what would be a multi-day crime spree that ended with his capture. This cas...

August 7th, 2005. Mountain, Wisconsin. In 2005, Amy and David DeBauche were in the midst of a divorce and custody battle for their two children. One summer night, David trespassed on Amy’s parent’s vacation property with the intention to vandalize a trailer they owned. The altercation that ensued left Amy and her parents dead. Get bonus content from Generation Why at: patreon.com/generationwhy Lis...

August 22nd, 2011. Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. Corey Scherbey was found dead in his home on August 22nd, 2011. The RCMP initially investigated his death as a homicide, but in 2014, Corey’s death was declared an accidental overdose. Corey’s family believes he was murdered. The way Corey’s body was found, details at the crime scene, and a strange letter leave some with the belief that this...

November 16, 1989. Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, England. Julie Hogg, a single mother from Billingham in Northern England, disappeared in the early hours of November 16th, 1989. She had been dropped off at her home by a coworker from her pizza delivery job. When her mother, Ann, couldn’t reach her by phone around 7:30am, she knew something was wrong. She would find Julie around 80 days later, dece...

January 16, 2009. Chattanooga, Tennessee. In October 2019, Angel Bumpass was found guilty of first-degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery for the 2009 murder of Franklin Bonner. Her fingerprints were found at the crime scene, the main evidence leading to her conviction. The problem is, Angel was just thirteen years old when Bonner was murdered. Hundreds of thousands of people belie...

May 24, 2012. Bismarck, North Dakota. Eric Haider was working as a top grounds man for a plumbing and heating company. After the crew he was working with returned from lunch, Eric was never seen again. Eric’s family begged and pleaded with police to help find him. His coworkers said maybe he had walked away from work after his vacation request was denied. His family knew he never left the jobsite....

December 15, 2005. Russellville, Arkansas. Nona Dirksmeyer was a beauty pageant queen, a college student, and a girl loved by many people. She was found murdered inside her apartment on December 15th, 2005, brutally stabbed and beaten to death with the base of her own floor lamp. Two suspects were tried and acquitted in Nona’s murder, meaning her killer either walks free, or is someone the police...