Murder In The Rain

In February of 1990, a Beaverton teen was lured from her house by a school friend, a former boyfriend. He raped her, murdered her, and hid her body in hopes that he could get away with it. What ensued after the murder of 16-year-old Erin Reynolds was a complex court case that brougt both families in and out of court for decades while Oregon changed the sentencing of Conrad Engweiler multiple times...

It’s that time of year again, the best time, Halloween time! I think part of Halloween’s appeal is how it can be a mix of Disneyland with Las Vegas but with lots of candy. We decorate our homes with things that, any other time of the year might be deemed “macabre”. Excuses need not be made to act wild, silly or child-like. Costumes of clothing we would never dream of wearing around our friends and...

As the summer of 2021 came to an end and the fall began, we saw the internet come together to try and locate missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito. From true crime podcasters to video gaming dads with a proclivity to finding hidden details in surveillance footage, we saw a massive nationwide fixation to help bring Gabby home. We also saw anger from the underserved families of missing people of color. W...

We’ve heard many stories of “cursed lands''. Usually, it’s surrounding a colonizer building on indigenous American land who is then dealt a nasty curse, think Poltergeist. Cursed land stories only continue the misconceptions surrounding what are perceived as “mysterious” cultures like indigenous Americans or gypsies. If a piece of land isn’t cursed, can it still harbor evil? Can a location...

Today’s case shows you how an average American family can have dark secrets behind closed doors. A couple once totally in love can turn on each other for lust or money, or to avoid the inconvenience that breaking up can inflict. What exactly can make some turn from committing to spending the rest of their life with someone to plotting to commit the murder of that same person? How can one person be...

More often than not, a case appears to be cut and dry. At the very least, a death is usually obvious as to if it was caused by an accident, by the victim, or by foul play. But in today’s case, none of those answers are clear. Was Cindy James a tortured victim that was hunted and haunted for 7 years by a perpetrator who eventually caused her death, or were her own mental health issues causing her t...

Can livestock be the perfect coverup for murder and the TV tropes about pigs true? After a farmhand goes missing in southwestern Oregon the gruesome details around his “disappearance” begin to unfold. Is it possible that a female serial killer remained hidden in the farmland of the Rogue Valley avoiding detection and preying on the nomadic locals that helped her on her farm? In today’s case, we ta...

When people hear “Murder” they usually think of a gun, knife, or strangulation. What if the murder weapon is a combination of choices, actions, and a vehicle? Every day, an average of 102 lives are lost due to car crashes in the US, 27 of which are due to an impaired driver. That breaks down to about 1 death every 14 minutes. Car accidents are just that right, accidents? What if what caused the ac...

In the early 1980s, several girls went missing in the Salem, Oregon area. Some disappeared with hardly a trace while others turned up dead. An 18-year-old recent high school graduate disappeared while delivering pizzas on the night of July 4th, 1982 leaving behind her car with the engine still running. The hunt for her abductor would lead those working on the case down many paths, but no one expec...

When a lesbian couple went missing for three days in Medford, Oregon, concerns for their safety were immediate. Roxanne and Michelle were partners and vocal supporters of gay rights. When their bodies were discovered, it led investigators down a path of destruction left behind by a homophobic man obsessed with an exotic dancer who had already committed another hate-fueled murder mere weeks before...

Waldport, Oregon is a small quiet town along the Pacific Coast located south of Newport. With a little over 2,000 permanent residents, your chances of being a victim of a violent crime are pretty low, but it happens. While we were all reeling from the immediate aftereffects of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, no one was prepared for the shocking case that would rock this small coastal town in Decemb...

Murder in the Rain is packing their bags and heading over the pond for CrimeCon UK in September! In preparation of our big trip, we had a lovely chat with Caprice from The Unseen Podcast. We talk about it all; what got us interested in true crime, why we started a podcast, cases that made an imprint on our heart, and the struggles and wins thereafter. We're very excited to meet Caprice from Th...

May is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women awareness month. Today, Alisha will be telling the story of 19-year-old Barbara Whitesell; a teenager excited to start the next phase of her life whose only priorities were her friends and family. When Barbara’s body is discovered in a church’s field, those family members start to look at her friends as potential suspects. Was her friend responsible for...

In today’s episode, you’ll learn about two cases of missing children who disappeared under incredibly suspicious circumstances. Cody Haynes was 11 years old when he disappeared from his bedroom in Kittitas, WA leaving his stuffed animals in his bed to look like he was asleep. In the days that followed, it became clear that Cody didn’t just run away and his father looked more and more like he might...

When the Whitman family wagons made their way to the Pacific Northwest, they were literal trailblazers. Not only were they some of the first non-native people to cross the Rocky Mountains, they included the first white woman to make it so far West. Accomplishments aside, the Whitman’s brought more than their own curiosity and sense of adventure. They also brought religion, other settlers, and even...

Introducing the Murder in the Rain 2-year anniversary special! We’ll give you some updates on cases from the past year, talk about some listener messages and feedback, and what we’ve learned this year! We'd like to tell you all how much we appreciate and adore you! We are regularly overwhelmed by the messages of support and suggestions and in the very best way! Keep it coming! Please send us y...

Angela McAnulty was no stranger to trauma after growing up in a household of abuse and tragically losing her mother to murder in 1973. After being arrested for drugs and having her children taken away, she went to jail and then got clean in the hopes of restarting her life. However when the opportunity came, rather than a reunion filled with laughter, love, and the start of a wonderful new beginni...

In 2020, Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the United States were faced with a barrage of hate crimes. From getting punched while walking to the store to spat at by strangers passing, fear is rippling through the AAPI community, rightfully so. While his death was not targeted because of his heritage, the loss of Matthew Choi was a huge loss in Portland. Everyone from his Korean family and fr...

In 1977, a young woman was kidnapped by a seemingly safe-looking couple while hitchhiking from Oregon to California. For over seven years she would be held against her will, suffering daily whippings, rapes, and other unimaginable tortures. When she was finally able to make her escape, the public was horrified and baffled. Horrified after hearing the details of her life of captivity in a box and b...

This week’s story isn’t about moving, and the murder doesn’t take place in the northwest (I know!), but its origins do. So let’s Haul...ass to Ridgefield, Washington, 1943 where fate would have two lovers meet, start a company that would change how we move, lead to one of the most public and expensive family feuds in modern history and leave a family destroyed by suicide and murder. Today I’m talk...

Valentine’s Day is usually a day for lovers, one where they can dote on each other and express their love in the form of special time and presents. But in today’s episode we learn that for some, the happiness of Valentine’s Day can be replaced with heartache, fear, and even death.  Gerald Dean Krein Jr. was a depressed man who desired to take others down with him when he was ready to complete suic...

In the last few weeks, we’ve seen just how much can happen when a group of white supremacists gets together. In 2011, the terror came not from a large group, but a young couple with shared beliefs in hatred. Once they found each other through white supremacist groups, Joey Pederson and Holly Grisby went on a 10-day spree of terror through Washington, Oregon, and California that would leave four de...

The man now known as “The Longview Serial Killer” was once a child victim to a time in our history where native children were plucked out of their homes to be adopted out to white middle-class families. The little boy who was affectionately called “Joey” by his adoptive mother, grew up to be a terrifying nightmare to many children in the Pacific Northwest. Today’s case is about Joseph Kondro. He f...

Small, tight, confined spaces. Not many people like them and most of us have been feeling claustrophobic while stuck at home. One of those small places would be the final resting place for 4 women in the Portland area. It seems shocking and unexpected, especially for Portland, but many people end up having their bodies stuffed in the trunks of cars. In this episode, Murder in the Rain will share f...

It’s the holiday season and many of us are celebrating with a Christmas tree and the promise of Santa’s visit. While this is normally a happy time for us all, it’s a time for great sadness for one family in Washington State. Ed and Minnie Maurin were an elderly couple who disappeared just before a Christmas party in 1985. Their bodies would later be discovered and the entire town would be left ask...