Indiana True Crime

When we walk through the doors of a hospital, we hand over our most basic autonomy because we trust a system built on a sacred oath: First, do no harm. But in the mid-1990s, inside the tiny, four-bed Intensive Care Unit of the Vermillion County Hospital in Clinton, Indiana, that trust was systematically dismantled. In this episode of Indiana True Crime , we dive into the chilling case of Orville L...

What happens when a criminal empire is born in your own backyard? In our premier episode, host Erica is joined by her best friend and fellow Jackson County local, Heather, to track the blood-soaked history of America's very first moving train robbers: The Reno Brothers Gang. With both hosts bringing a professional background in probation, corrections, and social work, they look past the standard t...

If you listen to a lot of true crime, you already know there is an invisible script most stories follow. We are used to hearing about the "perfect" victim—stories that comfortably fit into a neat, marketable headline. But the reality of who vanishes or gets hurt in this country is a lot messier, and a lot darker, than what fills our national feeds. In criminology, the term "Less Dead" describes a...

Explore how ambitions for wealth and power drove a small-town kid to mastermind Indiana's largest financial fraud, leaving hundreds devastated. Discover the journey from humble beginnings to a lavish lifestyle and the reckoning that followed. In this episode: The early life of Tim Durham in Seymour, Indiana, and his childhood aspirations How Durham became a successful lawyer and venture capitalist...

Think Indiana is just endless cornfields, high school basketball, and quiet, small towns where nothing ever happens? Think again. Welcome to the dark, beating heart of the Midwestern underworld. For over a century, the Crossroads of America hasn’t just been a quiet country neighbor—it has functioned as a premier sanctuary, highway, and headquarters for organized crime. Our geography made us perfec...

One single act of violence can fundamentally change a community’s sense of safety. In this episode of Indiana True Crime , host Erica connects the dots across fifty years of local history to explore the anatomy of a threat, the power of collective memory, and the thin line between a normal morning and an unthinkable tragedy. We look back at Friday morning, February 22, 1974, at Brownstown Central...

Episode 2: Pamela Milam: Echoes on the ISU Campus (with Special Guest Trevor) On a clear, warm Friday night in September 1972, nineteen-year-old Indiana State University sophomore Pamela Milam walked out to her car after a campus sorority event and vanished into the shadows. The heartbreaking discovery of her body the next day sent shockwaves through the city of Terre Haute and left a dark cloud o...

In the premiere episode of Indiana True Crime , we examine a case that deeply impacted anyone who grew up in Indiana during the 1980s and 1990s: the tragic loss of 12-year-old Shanda Sharer in January 1992. Moving past the sensationalized headlines of the 1990s, this episode centers on who Shanda was—a vibrant, active Midwest preteen—while taking a critical look at the toxic dynamics of juvenile p...

Welcome to the premiere of Indiana True Crime . In this quick introductory episode, host Erica Bohn steps into the studio to strip away the sensationalized headlines and lay out the heart, the history, and the mission behind this project. Discover how growing up in a small town, navigating personal trauma, and working daily in the intensive aftermath of social work shaped a completely different pe...