Our True Crime Podcast

It is day 3, and we are headed to Longview, Washington. It is a quiet, safe town located about 50 miles outside Portland, Oregon. It is May 15, 1985, when Danelle Traxler is waiting for her young daughter, 8-year-old Rima, to arrive home from school after her walk home. Her mother had a strange feeling knowing that Rima was never one to be late. Danelle went outside and traveled the same path Rima...

On the 9th of October 1986, Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows returned home from school, running through the front doors of their respective homes, eager to get changed and play outside. Around 5 pm, the girls played with friends outside a neighbor's house. Shortly after this, the girls headed to Wild Park; despite knowing they were not allowed there, Nicola was told by her parents that the “boogey...

Our first nightmare before Christmas takes up back in time to 1961. It is March in Odessa, Texas, and while the state is known for being warm, the spring air is still crisp in the mornings. The William’s household is getting ready for the day. Mrs. Williams had made breakfast for her 17-year-old daughter Betty who is currently a senior at Odessa High School. Screaming her name from the small kitch...

It is October 17, 1941, and 73-year-old Phillip failed to answer his front door. Since his wife was in the hospital, the neighbors took turns having him over for dinner so he would not be all alone. This evening Phillip was excepted to come to the neighbor's house for food, and he didn’t show up. Not sure why the neighbor went to Philip’s house and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Worried...

****This is a brutal episode. Listener discretion is advised ****In April of 1973, on Friday the 13th, Elsie Ralph was at work, bartending at the Punch Bowl Tavern in the Rainbow Hill district of Worcester, England. At closing time, her husband came to pick her up and left their three young children at home with their lodger, David McGreavy. An hour later, as the couple approached their home, they...

We are headed to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a resort town in the Midwest. The summer tourist season is about to kick off. The popular destination is located on Geneva Lake and has been popular for years, with everyone from the elite to kids hitting up the water parks. On June 5, 2014, a call came into the Walworth County Sheriff's Department at about 3:20 pm. The dispatch informed them that laying on...

On July 25th, 1980, a couple looked out the window and saw a young woman running toward their apartment. She had long blond hair, and she was covered in blood. She was also naked from the waist down with her bikini top pulled over her breasts. The man says to his wife, “If she’s running like that, somebody’s chasing her.” As the girl knocked on the door, Robert swung it open. “Help me,” she mutter...

It was Thursday, May 19, 1983, at 10:48 pm when a red Nissan pulled up to the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital emergency room drop-off door honking the horn repeatedly. A blonde woman hops out of the car, screaming for help, and points to her car. Someone shot my kids, she yelled. Nurses Rose Martin and Shelby Day ran to the car and were momentarily stunned, noticing all the blood inside the vehicle....

About two hours from Paris, the body of 23-year-old Sylviane Lesage was found in a pasture. The case fell into the hands of Constable Christian Jambert. He was considered an outstanding policeman and a dogged investigator for the National Gendarmerie. Constable Jambert began hearing stories of girls that had gone missing in and around Auxerre in the Department of Yonne, just up the road from Rouvr...

It is December 23, 1999, in Easley, South Carolina, located right outside Greenville. People were getting ready to celebrate the holidays by cooking, cleaning, and wrapping goodies for loved ones. One of those getting ready to welcome family for a celebration was 87-year-old Martha Browning. Martha was always a hard worker and started working at the local mill at 12 years old. Like most grandmothe...

Today's episode is a Listener Request! Thanks to Christina Young for her request. Big thanks to Wondery and The Generation Why Podcast for sponsoring this episode Make sure you go listen to Justin and Aaron. They are amazing. Down the road from Costco, past the Hobby Lobby, and the Chick-fil-A. stood a home on Knob Hill Drive that was in stark contrast to its surroundings. It was filthy and run-do...

We are headed to a small town named Woodacre which is located right outside of San Francisco, California. It is Marin County which is beautiful if you have never been there, truly postcard pretty. The town is a small community where the center of the action is a bar named The Paper Mill Saloon where the locals meet to catch up and unwind. Bartender Jennifer Villarin worked hard to make all the pat...

On January 4th, 1997, two eight-year-old boys were playing in the parkwhen they came upon what they thought was a pile of clothing. When they realized it was a body, they ran to tell their parents, who immediatelycalled the police. After identifying the body as twenty-year-old Kim Wilson, police go to the Wilson residence to notify her family. When Detective Gomes arrived at the house, he saw cars...

It is a parent’s worst nightmare. The abduction of a child is more than traumatic but what if two of your children simply disappeared. That is precisely what happened on March 25, 1975, when 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and her little sister, 10-year-old Katherine departed from their home to walk ½ mile to the local shopping mall in Wheaton, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC. The girls made it to th...

Situated in the middle of a wild and beautiful outdoor playground, the town ofSmithers, British Columbia, Canada, rests at the foot of the luminous Hudson BayMountain. The town is located halfway between Prince George and Prince Rupert alongthe 450-mile evergreen-lined Highway 16. Currently, most of the inhabitants of Smithersare of European descent. The First Nations people, notably the Wet’suwet...

It is Jan. 9, 2002, in Oregon City, Oregon, 12-year-old Ashley Pond left her home to walk to the bus stop for Gardiner Middle School. Ashley was hurrying as she was going to be late and miss the bus stop located approximately 10 minutes from her home. Ashley was popular in school but what she loved most was dance. She was on the school’s dance team, The Fallen Angels. The team would be rehearsing...

Back in 2018, we covered this case with our first episode of The 12 Nightmares Before Christmas. It is the most infamous unsolved murder in the state of Missouri. The case is open, and the child's identity is still unknown. It was February 1983 when two men entered the basement of 5635 Clemens Avenue, a derelict and vacant apartment building in northwest St. Louis, and stumble upon a grisly scene...

****Content Warning**** Sexual Assault****Cape Town, South Africa: In the early hours of May 27, 2017, Hannah Cornelius drove her friend Cheslin Marsh home after a night out. Before Cheslin could say goodbye, four men hijacked the car at knifepoint and kidnapped the two Stellenbosch University students. Cheslin was beaten with bricks and left to die. The gang members brutally assaulted Hannah and...

Earlier this month, Cam and Jen sat down with John Palmer and discussed the tragic accident that took his wife Katie's life. ​April 21st, 2020, in Denison, Texas, situated on the border of Oklahoma. Thirty-eight-year-old Katie Palmer decided to take an early morning walk with her husband, John Palmer, hoping to see the nesting spot for a bird known as a killdeer. As the couple was returning home,...

As little kids, we are scared of monsters and things that go bump in the night. We hear stories about big scary, hairy creatures that would get you if you weren’t being good. You had to always be aware of your surroundings and, of course, beware stranger danger. We grow up and imagine that bad guys are like the ones in the movies. But what if the monster was nothing like that, what if they were ki...

On September 20th, 2014, dog walker Barbara Denham entered the walled graveyard of St. Margaret of Antioch church in Barking, London. She saw a young man sitting up against the cemetery wall amidst the ruins of the old abbey. As Ms. Denham approached, the young man never reacted or indicated that he heard her or the collie. Hesitantly, she walked over and found that twenty-one-year-old Daniel Whit...

Imagine you are a probation officer and you get a phone call that one of your offenders hasn’t checked in with you as of late. Since he is an elderly man in his late 70s, you hope he is ok. It is April 13, 2010, an officer goes to the home to check on him. The officer goes into the home and talks to the man. He then walks about the house to get a look around which is standard. It all looks ok. Loc...

****Content Warning****Cannock Chase is 26 square miles of deciduous and coniferous woodland, open heathland, and small lakes in the West Midlands of England. It's a popular place to go hiking and mountain biking. As beautiful as Cannock Chase is, it has a bit of a dark past. In the 1960s, children in the area were abducted, assaulted, and murdered; their bodies were discovered later in the dense...

He seemed like the perfect man, at first. He wined and dined that special one who caught his eye, at the beginning. He would sweep them off their feet and marry them, quickly. He was after more than marriage, in fact, marriage was just a way to get what he was after. What he was after would cost more than one woman her life. After all, tragic accidents happen but when these tragic accidents happen...

On an unseasonably warm day in August of 1973, while a crowd of around 13,000 fans watched the North Adelaide football team play the Norwood Red Legs at the Adelaide Oval, 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe assisted 4-year-old Kirste Gordon to the bathroom. The girls never returned to their seats. Although there were many witnesses, the girls have never been found. Their disappearance is one of South Au...