Not Today

On Christmas Eve, 1945, a fire destroyed the Sodder residence in Fayetteville, West Virginia. At the time, it was occupied by George Sodder, his wife Jennie, and nine of their ten children. During the fire, George, Jennie, and four of the nine children escaped. The bodies of the other five children have never been found. The surviving Sodder family believed for the rest of their lives that the fiv...

In Part 2 we'll discuss each of the cult members' breaking points, how they got away, and how Larry Ray was his own undoing.

After their freshman year of college, a friend group decided they'd all live together for their sophomore year. Early into the year, one of their roommates, Talia Ray, informed the house that her father was getting out of prison and she was so excited for him to finally visit. When Larry Ray first arrived, it seemed like he made a real positive change in some of their lives with his advice and gui...

In May 2023, a small plane carrying a mother, her four children (ages 13, 9, 4, and 11 months), and two other adults crashed into the dense Amazon rainforest. The adult passengers didn’t survive the impact, however the children walked away from the crash and survived 40 days in the jungle. An unprecedented rescue mission was launched for the children which combined every tool at the Colombian Mili...

In this listener episode we discuss a few terrifying uber rides, an attempted abduction, a haunted daycare, and more!

On April 21st 2001, a woman who was covered in blood, burst through the doors of a Kentucky Fried Chicken screaming for someone to call 911. Through her hysterical pleas, employees at the KFC managed to figure out that her name was Melissa Latham and that she was claiming a man and woman had tried to kill her. As paramedics and police arrived and tended to Melissa, a well dressed woman named Tonic...

In 2006, Karen Kummerer was stepping back into the dating scene after divorcing her husband of 17 years. On a night out with her sister, she met Joseph Scott Freeman and the two began quickly dating. Not long into their relationship, things took a dark turn and after only 7 months with Scott, Karen called things off. Despite the emergency restraining order Karen got, Scott continued stalking Karen...

For 6 years, FBI Special Agent Joeseph Pistone, worked undercover as a jewel thief named Donnie Brasco in order to infiltrate the biggest mafia families in New York City. Slowly but surely Pistone worked his way up the ranks of primarily the Bonanno Crime family until they asked him to join their family as a “made” man shortly before the FBI ended his assignment. Thanks to the evidence he collecte...

21-year-old Brady Lowry and his Northwest College wrestling teammate Kendall Cummings were mauled by a grizzly while shed hunting near Cody, Wyoming. When Kendell saw the bear on Brady, he jumped in and tried to pull the bear off his friend, but the grizzly turned on Kendell and mauled him too.

On October 11th 2016, Washington detectives received a bizarre call from a man claiming he wanted to report a murder, however it hadn’t happened yet. An old friend from high school had contacted him over facebook and asked him to kill someone. Detectives quickly determined that the threat was real and used the caller as their informant.

We'll be discussing more Reddit Creepy Encounters, including someone who got cornered at an abandoned gas station in the middle of the night, a woman who was almost murdered by her boyfriend, a terrifying delivery job, and more!

February 20th 2016, Jason Dalton was driving for Uber when he went on a random, deadly shooting spree in Kalamazoo, Michigan, killing six people and critically wounding two others between picking up regular fares. He later blamed mind control for his actions, saying the app took over his body and made him do it.

Both Emma Carey and Johnny Korthuis experienced terrifying accidents while skydiving and BASE jumping and miraculously survived. Emma Carey fell from 14,000 feet, strapped to an instructor who was unconscious before she hit the ground and Johnny Korthuis' parachute malfunctioned after he jumped from a 500 foot bridge over a body of water.

For nearly 400 years, the Colosseum in Rome served as an arena for brutal public spectacles, including deadly gladiator combats, exotic animal hunts, public executions, and even mock naval battles. The arena was a mix of enslaved prisoners of war, condemned criminals, and volunteer fighters hoping to gain fame and fortune. On any given day, 80,000 spectators packed into the stadium to witness the...

At 13-years-old Paul Martin Andrews was asked by a man in a van to help him move some furniture, which he happily agreed to do. However when Martin was taken nearly 30 miles away from his home and brought into the woods, he realized something was very wrong. The man had Martin follow him deep into the woods and jump into a small box that was buried underground. After nearly a week in a box Martin...

In August 2016, the Tromp family mysteriously fled their successful berry farm in Silvan, Australia, on a spontaneous "off-grid" road trip without phones, credit cards, or passports. Over a six-day period, they split up, and were eventually found scattered across multiple states in paranoid, catatonic, or agitated states.

On Saturday June 8th 2019, Maike Hohnen took his son, 7 year old Julian Hohnen, and best friend Steven Jaecocke on what was supposed to be an overnight fishing trip off the coast of Queensland Australia. Around 1:30AM Maike was woken up to the boat very swiftly taking on water and within a matter of minutes the boat went down. Maike, Julian, and Stephen were left stranded in the ocean with no life...

Judy Buenoano was an American serial killer who poisoned two of her husbands with arsenic, attempted to kill her fiancé, and murdered her own son. Driven by greed, she collected substantial life insurance payouts after each murder. She was the first woman executed in Florida in 150 years and the first to die in the state's electric chair

On September 29th 2016, 45 year old Elizabeth Wettlaufer voluntarily reported herself as a serial killer to Toronto Police. Wettlaufer injected her victims with fatal doses of insulin because she believed God was telling her to. Her victims were elderly and vulnerable, ranging in age from 75 to 96.

Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escape artist, renowned as the "Handcuff King" for his death-defying escapes. He became world-renowned for escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets, milk cans, and locked chests, often while submerged in water. While his death was not a direct result of his performances, he had a few terrifying brushes with death and another magician who attem...

In this Listener story episode we discuss almost falling into an upside down volcano, a parent who was held at gunpoint, very creepy characters in Disneyland Paris, and more!

The Word of Life Christian Church began as a tiny bible study led by self proclaimed prophet, Jerry Irwin. Eventually the bible study progressed into a fully fledged cult with around 80 members at its peak. When the paranoid and power-hungry Jerry Irwin suddenly died, his eldest daughter Tiffanie took his place. As the leader, Tiffanie subjected the group to extreme isolation, control, and abuse w...

22-year-old Hannah Pettey, a married mother of two from Alabama, suffered debilitating pain and lost more than 45 pounds as her health rapidly declined. As doctors worked to figure out what was causing the months of Hannah’s pain, they concluded someone had been poisoning her and whoever it was, they were probably pretty close to her.

In 2003 Ken Jones spent four agonizing days in the frozen wilderness of Romania’s Transylvanian Alps, dragging himself to safety after getting hit by an avalanche that left him with a shattered pelvis and broken femur.

Janie Lynn Ridd and her roommate Rachel Booth had been best friends for 25 years, but when Rachel began getting mysteriously sick leading to multiple hospitalizations, she discovered that Janie allegedly tried to purchase an extremely dangerous strain of anti-biotic resistant bacteria to poison her with. And even worse, that wouldn’t have been Janie’s first attempt at Rachel’s life over the past y...