Lurking In the Shadows Podcast

Happy Spooky Season! Episode 72: She was an ordinary college student, until the day she began barking like a dog, eating spiders, and claiming that Adolf Hitler and Lucifer were speaking through her mouth. When medicine failed her, her deeply devout family made a fateful choice: they traded doctors for priests, embarking on sixty-seven secret, grueling exorcisms. But did they save her soul, or con...

Welcome to True Crime In a Dime Chapter 14, our short stories segment. In this themed episode we are discussing the cases of Hyun Jong “Cindy” Song (disappeared Halloween night), Dennis Depue (inspiration for Jeepers Creepers), Lisa French (murdered Halloween night), and Teresa Halbach (murdered Halloween night). https://www.psucollegian.com/features/a-light-should-burn-21-years-on-penn-state-stud...

Happy Spooky Season! Episode 71: In 1895, Irish fairy folklore was no bedtime story; it was a deadly weapon. When twenty-six-year-old Bridget Cleary contracted a severe chill, ancient superstition collided with a scared family, convincing nine people that a demonic double had taken her place. Today is a case of torture and madness. https://researchrepository.ul.ie/bitstreams/1d0d33fb-1762-406b-a8e...

Episode 70: Imagine checking into a Times Square hotel room in 1979, only to find the fire department rushing past you into a smoke-filled room. What they discovered inside wasn't just a fire—it was a scene so depraved, it would change New York City forever. Two women, completely dismembered, their heads and hands missing, and a killer who melted into the neon lights of the city. This is the story...

Episode 69: Thousands of miles of asphalt, anonymous truck stops, and a lone man. In the early 1990s, long-haul trucking was the ultimate frontier of anonymity—and for Clark Perry Baldwin, it was the ultimate hunting ground. For nearly thirty years, investigators across multiple states were haunted by nameless victims known only as 'Bitter Creek Betty' and 'I-90 Jane Doe.' But what happens when ou...

Episode 68: Most serial killers have a hunting ground, but for Robert Ben Rhoades, the hunting ground was the entire American highway system—and for investigators in the 1990s, it presented a nearly impossible challenge. How do you track a suspect who is constantly moving across state lines? You’ve driven past hundreds of semis on the highway. Today, we look inside the rolling House of Horrors tha...

Welcome to True Crime in a Dime, our short stories segment. In Chapter 13 we discuss the cases of Jeanne Clery, Judy Martins, Betsy Aardsma, and Tammy Zywicki, all college students who were murdered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jeanne_Clery https://www.mcall.com/2002/08/31/henry-trades-appeal-rights-for-life-in-prison-for-1986-rape-murder-of-lehigh-student-northampton-county-judge-oks-...

Episode 67: A head-on collision hundreds of miles from home. A silent stare from a stranger as she walks into the pitch-black Montana prairie. In April 1989, Patricia Meehan walked away from a car crash and vanished without a trace, leaving investigators with one simple, terrifying question: Where do you go when you may have forgotten who you are? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQdzbOlzYzs https:...

Episode 66: Mackenzie Cowell was a 17-year-old student and aspiring model from Washington who was murdered in February 2010. She vanished after leaving her beauty school in Wenatchee, and her body was found four days later along the Columbia River. A fellow cosmetology student who left the school shortly after Mackenzie on the day she vanished, emerged as a prime. Who killed Mackenzie Cowell? http...

Episode 65: A man walks into a bank in a disguise, fires a submachine gun into the ceiling, and shouts, 'The party has just begun!' Six days later, the hostages he held at gunpoint refused to testify against him, raised money for his defense, and hugged him as he was dragged away in handcuffs. Welcome to the robbery that created Stockholm Syndrome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Erik_Olsson htt...

THIS EPISODE IS A RE-RUN. Due to life and vacations, we were unable to give you a new episode this week (so sorry!), so we are playing a re-run of our first True Crime In a Dime. This episode features the cases of Tanner Ward (mysterious death by hanging), Daniel Robinson (mysterious disappearance), Shane Fell (mysterious disappearance), and George Stinney (wrongful execution at the age of 14!). L...

Episode 64: On June 7th, 1992, sometime after 2:00 in the morning, three women disappeared from a home in Springfield, Missouri, leaving all personal belongings, cars, and the family dog behind, with no clear signs of a struggle. These women included Sherrill Levitt (47), her daughter Suzie Streeter (19), and Streeter's friend Stacy McCall (18). Despite a large-scale investigation, the Springfield...

Welcome to Lurking In the News, our True Crime News segment. In Volume 15 we discuss the stories of Ryan Weeks (remains identified), the Long Island Serial Killer trial verdict, Denise Elaine Hartley (remains identified), Melissa Ellison (solved cold case), Carol Ann Beale (solved cold case), and Rose Marie Gayhart (remains identified). https://www.kctv5.com/2026/06/24/family-renews-plea-tips-afte...

Episode 63: In the summer of 1985, the quiet Midlands of South Carolina were plunged into a "Summer of Terror" by a predator whose cruelty went far beyond physical violence. It began when seventeen-year-old Shari Faye Smith was abducted from her own driveway just two days before her high school graduation. He was a killer who didn't just lurk in the shadows, but actively called the victim's family...

Welcome to True Crime In a Dime, our short stories segment. In Chapter 12 we discuss the cases of a triple disappearance including Kelly Gaskins, Ervin Williams, & Virginia Wood, Nicole Morin (missing from apartment building), Amy Billig (suspected abduction), and Randy Stair (Easton, PA Weis Market shooting). https://charleyproject.org/case/kelly-gray-gaskins https://ncmissingpersons.org/virginia...

Episode 62: The Stacy Robinson Hunsucker case centers on the 2018 death of a 32-year-old preschool teacher from Mount Holly, North Carolina, whose husband, former flight paramedic Joshua Lee Hunsucker, is accused of fatally poisoning her with over-the-counter eyedrops. The case has garnered widespread national attention due to the highly unusual method of murder, a financial motive, and a subseque...

Episode 61: In Oregon in May 1983, a blood-soaked car pulled up to an emergency room, carrying a mother with a minor gunshot wound and her three young children who had been brutally shot at close range. The mother, Diane Downs, spun a terrifying tale, but as investigators looked, they found a chillingly calm, narcissistic woman who seemed more concerned with a love affair than the survival of her...

Episode 60: Ryan Shtuka is a 20-year-old Canadian man who mysteriously vanished from the Sun Peaks Resort village in British Columbia on February 17, 2018. Despite immense volunteer efforts and extensive law enforcement investigations, his disappearance remains an unsolved missing person case with no traces or clues ever recovered. https://ryanshtuka.com/contact/ https://sunpeaksmunicipality.ca/re...

Episode 59: Angie Zapata was an 18-year-old transgender woman living in Greeley, Colorado. In July 2008, Zapata met 31-year-old Allen Ray Andrade through an online social networking site. The two went on a date and spent nearly three days together at Zapata's apartment. After finding photographs that made him question her sex, Andrade confronted Zapata and beat her with his fists and a fire exting...

Episode 58: Brandon Teena was a 21-year-old American transgender man who was brutally raped and murdered in late 1993 in southeastern Nebraska. His death, along with the subsequent systemic failure of law enforcement, became a landmark catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement and inspired the Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry. Tune in to hear his story. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! https://www.britann...

Welcome to True Crime In a Dime, our short stories segment. In this themed episode we are sharing 4 cases where couples or individuals have been murdered in a state park- Heidi Childs & David Metzler (couple from Virginia Tech, unsolved), Julie Williams and Lollie Winans (couple, solved after many years), Matthew Dunmire (murdered by ex-girlfriend), and Louise Chaput (unsolved murder). https://www...

Episode 57: A 19-year-old girl goes for a bike ride in New Mexico and never comes back. A year later, a Polaroid is found in Florida showing a girl who looks exactly like her, bound and gagged in the back of a van. Is it Tara Calico? For nearly forty years, that photograph has haunted investigators, but the truth behind her disappearance might be closer to her hometown than anyone ever wanted to a...

Welcome to Lurking In the News Vol. 14, our True Crime News segment. In this episode we share the stories of Joseph Patrick Reardon (John Doe identified), Leyla Monserrat Lares Becerra (murder), Shalyn Shantel Harvey (remains found), Kouri Richins (murder trial verdict), Roxanne Sharp (cold case- solved), and Roberta Walls (cold case- solved). https://dnasolves.com/articles/ventura-county-camarill...

Episode 56: In London in September of 2005, 22-year-old Clare Bernal was murdered by her stalker, Michael Pech, at Harvey Nichols Dept. store. With just ten minutes left in her shift, Michael Pech, a former security guard who had been stalking her for months, emerged from the shadows and raised a gun to the back of her head in front of customers and staff, forever changing lives and exposing criti...

Episode 55: What’s more dangerous than a serial killer? A serial killer with an FBI badge in his pocket. Scott Lee Kimball was a master manipulator who convinced the feds he was their best asset, even as he was murdering the very people he was supposed to be 'informing' on. We’re peeling back the layers on how the Bureau got conned by 1 man—and the four victims who paid the price for their mistake...