Hell and Gone

On September 14, 2018, in Galesburg, Illinois, a 23-year-old graduate of Western Illinois University named Tyler Smith headed out to party with some friends.  Tyler had dreams of becoming a police officer. He was super athletic, played football in high school, and after graduating from Western Illinois University, he applied to and was accepted into the police academy in San Jose, California. Tyle...

It was April 12, 1971, a 27-year-old woman named Pauline Storment was walking down South Duncan Avenue in Fayetteville, Arkansas, just a few blocks from her apartment. She didn't know someone was following her in the darkness.  And then, while she was walking and just a few blocks from her apartment, her attacker came out of the darkness and attacked her, stabbing her eight times in a frenzied att...

On Sunday October 17, 2021 in Los Angeles, a 39-year-old mother of one named Heidi Planck went to watch her 11-year-old son Bond play football. When Heidi left the game, she said that she would call her son later, but even though she ALWAYS talked to him every day she never called him. In fact  Bond never talked to his mother again. Because that day, Heidi Planck vanished.  If you have a case you’...

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been covering two cases in Arkansas: the murder of Gail Vaught, whose body was found on March 17, 1980, and Dennis Flowers. Police believe that Dennis was responsible for the execution style murders of Lee Dickson, a pharmacist who had become addicted to cocaine and started dealing it with Dennis, and Lee’s wife Karen Dickson who was eight months pregnant. A few days...

On the morning of March 22, 1984, at around 6:30 am, police came to the one-story nondescript home in Fayetteville, Arkansas that belonged to a quiet unassuming 33-year-old pharmacist named Lee Dickson and his wife Karen.  When police came to the Dickson home, they knocked, but Lee and Karen didn’t answer. Finally, their young son came to the door. He told the police that his mother was sleeping a...

Catherine Townsend continues her investigation into the death of Gail Vaught.  On the morning of Friday, October 17, 1980, a man was on his way to work, driving his truck down Highway 16 that runs between Siloam Springs, Arkansas near the Oklahoma border through the Ozark National Forest near Searcy when he saw something out of the corner of his eye down a small dirt road. It looked like a person...

On the morning of Friday, October 17, 1980, a man was on his way to work, driving his truck down Highway 16 that runs between Siloam Springs, Arkansas near the Oklahoma border through the Ozark National Forest near Searcy when he saw something out of the corner of his eye down a small dirt road. It looked like a person lying in the road. The driver doubled back and saw to his horror that it was th...

On May 21, 2023, Dr. John Forsyth, a 49-year-old ER doctor, was due to work the evening shift at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, Missouri. He had already worked the overnight shift the day before and finished up at 7 am. After that he went to crash for a few hours before starting his next shift that night.  This was a normal day for John. He had a habit of pulling long shifts and working between 80 a...

It was Thursday night, November 1, 2007, and 18-year-old Justin Gaines was getting ready for a night out with his friends at Wild Bill’s, a club in Duluth, Georgia.   Justin was a freshman in college. He had just started at Gainesville State college, which was about an hour away from where his family was. Justin was 5 '11, 210 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair in a buzz cut. He was a handsome,...

On the evening of Sunday, September 14, 2014, 15-year-old Cassie Kay Compton went out for a pack of cigarettes down the road from her small white house in Stuttgart, Arkansas...and never came back. At least that’s the official story.  We know a few things for sure: Cassie had been spending the weekend with a friend of hers named Hunter, and Cassie slept over there on Saturday night.   Hunter’s mot...

On February 15, 2024, 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, a fifth grade student at Creekside Elementary in Livingstone, Texas, never made it to the bus stop.  And when she didn’t come home after school, her family knew that something was very wrong. Audrii lived with her dad, and on that property, there was someone else living there: a 42-year-old friend of the family’s who lived in a camper. And even...

This episode continues the investigation into the disappearance of Ieshia Jackson.  It was Halloween night 2020, and 22-year-old Ieshia was getting ready to go to a party. She lived in El Dorado, Arkansas just a short distance away from her mother, her younger brother, and the rest of her family, but because she had had a couple of break-ins at her new home, she was staying at her uncle’s. Ieshia...

It was Halloween night 2020, and 22-year-old Ieshia Jackson was getting ready to go to a party. She lived in El Dorado, Arkansas just a short distance away from her mother, her younger brother, and the rest of her family, but because she had had a couple of break-ins at her new home, she was staying at her uncle’s. Ieshia and her mother were very close and normally spoke a few times per day. So by...

Catherine continues her investigation into the disappearance of Jason Lierl. In January of 2022, Jason Lierl was visiting friends in Madison County Arkansas when he disappeared off the face of the earth.  Jason was last seen in Madison County, Arkansas. His abandoned car was found in the parking lot of a mall in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  His car keys, motorcycle and other belongings were found in d...

In January of 2022, Jason Lierl was visiting friends in Madison County Arkansas when he disappeared off the face of the earth.  Jason was last seen in Madison County, Arkansas. His abandoned car was found in the parking lot of a mall in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  His car keys, motorcycle and other belongings were found in different places, spread across Arkansas and Missouri  - but to this day, no t...

Sometime between the evening of September 2 in the early morning hours of September 3, 1994, 35-year-old Billie Jean Phillips was brutally beaten to death at her home in Alabam, Arkansas. The case soon became the biggest story in Madison County, and there was a long list of potential suspects.  But in 2002, there was an arrest in the Billie Jean Phillips murder case. One that would shock the commu...

On Saturday September 3, 1994, a federal poultry inspector named Chic Philips was taking his seven-year-old son MacKenzie back to the home of his mother and Chic’s ex-wife, 35-year-old Billie Jean Philips.  When they arrived, Billie Jean’s son ran inside the house and walked back to the bedroom he saw his mom lying on the floor a few feet from the bed with her head kind of propped up against a wal...

In this season of Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows, we travel back to a pivotal moment in the history of this country, and we trace how, decades before Covid-19, a virus tore through some of our most vulnerable communities while the wider world looked away. We go to a pediatric ward in Harlem, a women’s prison in upstate New York, a drug market in the South Bronx, and the inner sanctum of the...

Elderly couple David and Mina Swan lived in a quiet neighborhood in Clearwater, Florida. But on Saturday September 29, 2018, a neighbor of theirs was concerned when their newspapers started piling up outside. The neighbor called Mina’s daughter, and the pair of them went inside the house. What they found was horrific. David and Mina were at the kitchen table slumped over in pools of blood. The pol...

In Arkansas, some people think that a slew of child deaths in the early 1990s are related. Those children are Christina Pipkin, who went missing in May of 1991, Steve Branch, Michael Moore, Christopher Byers, the three eight-year-old boys who were murdered in West Memphis in 1993, and also includes 16-year-old Gardenia Cross Jones and 13-year-old Geneva Smith, whose bodies were both found near Wyn...

On December 28 2017, 19-year-old Natalie Bollinger was at home in her apartment in Broomfield, Colorado. But when her boyfriend Joey got home from work that afternoon, Natalie was gone. So was his 9mm Glock. Joey tried to call Natalie but noticed that her cellphone was still at home. So he called the police and reported Natalie missing.     The next day, December 29, police got a tip that a body h...

In May 1991, nine-year-old Christina Pipkin headed out to sell jewelry for her school fundraiser. But she never made it back home. Her body was found in a ditch several days later. Who, or what, killed Christina Pipkin? Catherine Townsend tracks down other witnesses who saw Christina the night she disappeared and identifies inconsistencies in the case file.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine...

In May 1991, nine-year-old Christina Pipkin headed out to sell jewelry for her school fundraiser. But she never made it back home. Her body was found in a ditch several days later. Who, or what, killed Christina Pipkin? Catherine Townsend continues her investigation in Arkansas.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-614...

In May 1991, nine-year-old Christina Pipkin headed out to sell costume jewelry for her school fundraiser. Her father gave her strict instructions: Stay on your side of the railroad tracks, and be home by dark. But Christina didn’t make it back home before dark. And she never made it home alive. Her body was found in a ditch several days later. Who, or what, killed Christina Pipkin? And could her d...

Hello, Hell and Gone listeners! Catherine is headed back to Arkansas this week to investigate a slew of child deaths that have never been solved. We'll be back next week with a full episode of Hell and Gone Murder Line.  If you have a case you’d like Catherine to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...