Small Town Mysteries

Send us Fan Mail ALERT, ALERT!!! FIRST EPISODE OF SPOOKY SZN!! This Spooky Szn, we are covering cases in New England. Today, Christine talks about The Lady in Black (a famous New England Ghost story) and all about VAMPIRES.  No, not the ones who sparkle in the sun. No, sadly not the ones who are brothers pining over a doppleganger of their ex-gf (hello, fans of Vampire Diaries?).  No, no, no. We&a...

Send us Fan Mail In 1969, a body is discovered in the brush off of Mulholland Drive in LA California. The murder was extremely gruesome -- the woman was stabbed over 150 times. This unidentified woman became known as “Sherry Doe” or “Jane Doe 59.” It took 46 years for this woman to get her name back.  Jane Doe #59 is actually a woman named Reet Jurvetson, who was murdered at the young age of 19 ye...

Send us Fan Mail Today, Kate explores the kidnapping of Carlee Russell, which recently EXPLODED on social media. Carlee was missing for about 2 days before she suddenly re-appeared. What might have led Carlee to make the choices she made? This case is still very much unfolding, and if there are any major developments, we’ll be sure to cover them! Sources:  1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover,_...

Send us Fan Mail This case will leave you enraged.  When twin sisters Dannette Millbrook and Jeannette Millbrook go missing, nothing happens. They are labeled runaways by the primary investigator (despite clear evidence that points to the contrary) and no actual investigation is conducted until years later.  If it weren't for the horrendous lack of investigation in this case, as well as numer...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Rachael covers the heinous crimes committed by two teenage girls, Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum, which includes the murder of Holly's grandmother and grandfather. What drove them to do this?  Sources: 1) https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/murder/killer-couple-murderous-lesbian-teens-holly-harvey-sandra-ketchum 2) https://murderpedia.org/female...

Send us Fan Mail When Helen Wilson is murdered in her apartment on February 8th, 1985, investigators work to find a suspect. However, they soon have a total of 6 - most of whom willingly state that,  yes, they were involved in the crime in some way. What do the majority of these people have in common? A psychologist they all see - who helps them uncover certain "repressed" memories... So...

Send us Fan Mail When multiple people in Circleville, Ohio start to receive increasingly threatening letters regarding their supposed dirty laundry, everyone is questioning who this person could possibly be.  Years later, after a gun from a booby trap is traced back to someone, everyone believes the case is solved. The person who had been writing the letters for the last several years has been fou...

Send us Fan Mail All four members of The Thrasher Family were found murdered in their home in Woodward, Oklahoma. The person who was eventually convicted of the murders had no obvious motive for this senseless murder.  Sources: 1) https://law.justia.com/cases/oklahoma/court-of-appeals-criminal/1977/1068.html 2) https://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/ThrasherMurders1974.txt www.finndagrave.com...

Send us Fan Mail This week is a doozy! We are sure a lot of you are familiar with The Duggar Family, who had their own TV show, called 19 Kids and Counting, throughout the late 2000s. This run ended in 2015, when some horrifying court documents came to light regarding the Duggar's eldest son, Josh.  Or, you might be familiar with the family through the new documentary about them and the culti...

Send us Fan Mail In this case, Christine covers the case of Logan Tucker, a 6-year-old boy who is the victim of a murder in which no body has never been found. Logan Tucker was living with his mother, brother, and a roommate of his mother's at the time of his death, in a small city called Woodward (Oklahoma). The large amount of circumstantial evidence in this case made it clear that one pers...

Send us Fan Mail Rachael reports on the case of Colleen Ritzer - a teacher from Massachusetts who was brutally murdered and sexually assaulted by her student. This student was only 14 years old, and was tried as an adult in court. Shortly after his prison sentence begins, more shocking details emerge. Sources: 1) https://www.masslive.com/police-fire/2022/06/family-of-colleen-ritzer-danvers-teacher...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Kate discusses a murder that occurred in the 1930s and is still unsolved. Mamie Thurman was only 32 when she was brutally murdered. Small town politics is definitely at play in this one and factors heavily into the trial.  Sources:  1) https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/06/unsolved-murder-of-mamie-thurman.html 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan,_West_Virg...

Send us Fan Mail In 1985, in two small towns in Massachusetts, 16-year-old Cathy Malcolmson and 9-year-old Sarah Pryor go missing within 2 months of each other. When bone fragments are found, investigators are led to one person of interest.  Sources: 1) https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/313dfma.html  2) https://charleyproject.org/case/catherine-ruth-malcolmson  3) https://rcccmcc.com/2019/10/09/cat...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, Rachael goes over the tragic murder of Alexandra "Ally" Zapp, a 30-year-old woman who was stabbed to death at a Rest Stop off of a highway in Massachusetts. Ally's murderer had a lengthy history involving violent crimes, and her family has worked (and is still working) to pass legislature today that will keep persistently violent individuals...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we talk about weird and creepy phone calls. Some certainly involve crime, some might involve the supernatural...and others just end up being downright hilarious. Sources: 1) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-10-08-mn-54702-story.html 2) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-sep-17-me-victimpeck17-story.html 3) https://gizmodo.com/la-train-victim-...

Send us Fan Mail Asha Degree is 9 years old when she goes missing on a dark, rainy night in February 2000. Her backpack, which she seemed to have packed, is found 26 miles from where she was last seen walking along the highway.  What happened to Asha? Did she simply run away? Was she lured, in the early internet days? Did she encounter a bad actor who brought her harm? Sources: 1) https://en.wikip...

Send us Fan Mail Rachael covers a tragic case this week involving the horrendous lynching of James Byrd Jr.  James was murdered by three white men - simply because he was black.  We talk about James, the crime, and what resulted after, as well as the legacy that his family wants to leave in James' memory. Sources: 1) https://www.britannica.com/event/murder-of-James-Byrd-Jr 2) https://www.biog...

Send us Fan Mail Do you believe in psychics?  In this episode, we talk about our (very) different opinions on psychics and their involvement with criminal investigations.  Kate discusses several high-profile cases that were solved(-ish?) with the help of psychics, focusing primarily on the murder of California nurse Melanie Uribe.  Hear from a believer, a skeptic, and someone who just isn't s...

Send us Fan Mail College student Brooke Wilberger goes missing one day while at work. The crime scene? Just a pair of flip flops and some cleaning supplies off of a parking lot. Brooke’s wallet/purse, cell phone, and car were also left behind. A break in the case comes several months later, when another young woman is kidnapped - but manages to escape.  Brooke's murder case was one of the mos...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Rachael takes us back in time to the early U.S. to discuss a case involving a loooot of dead bodies, a trap door, a tiny "cabin", and one murderous family.  Sources: 1) https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1871?amount=4600 2) https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-benders/ 3) https://crimereads.com/the-bloody-benders-americas-first-family-of-serial-killers/...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Kate covers the case of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph. Maria was taken off of the street by a stranger in the 1950s. This case was presumed to be solved not once, but TWICE, with the convictions being overturned both times.  Twice solved, but never closed, this case is as cold as ever. Sources:  1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycamore,_Illinois 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/...

Send us Fan Mail In this case, we bring it allll the way back to the 1830s/40s to talk about the unsolved case of Mary Rogers. This case was a major catalyst for the start of the True Crime genre. Mary herself was a sort of a "reality celebrity" in town, with many people traveling to the tobacco store she worked at for the sole purpose of getting to see her. Mary had a suspicious disappe...

Send us Fan Mail A family disappears one day in 2009, and their skeletal remains are found several years later. In their car is 32,000 dollars, and videos show the family seemingly packing up in the days leading up to their disappearance. Theories range from murder or a drug deal gone wrong, to witchcraft and possession.  Sources: 1)https://allthatsinteresting.com/jamison-family 2)https://www.stra...

Send us Fan Mail For the episode this week, Kate tackles a VERY complicated topic: Salman Rushdie’s book THE SATANIC VERSES and the controversy that surrounds it. Spoiler alert: the last section of this episode will be about an assassination attempt on Rushdie’s life that occurred in New York on August 12, 2022 Sources: 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Send us Fan Mail How does one woman manage to steal an estimated 5,000 babies from their parents, then sell them to the rich?  In this episode, Christine goes over the atrocities committed at the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an orphanage ran by a woman named Georgia Tann.  Tann committed everything from fraud to abuse, and even murder. Learn how Tann got away with committing these crime...