The Final Hours with Sarah Turney and Kourtney Nichole

On a sunny afternoon in July 1983, eighteen-year-old model and aspiring actress Tammy Lynn Leppert called goodbye to her mother, got into a car with a friend, and was never seen again. In the months before she vanished, she'd been telling people that she'd seen something she shouldn't have and that someone was going to kill her for it. She never said what. The friend who drove her said they argued...

On the morning of July 26th, 2015, twenty-one-year-old Lauren Agee vanished from a cliffside campsite on Center Hill Lake in Tennessee, leaving behind her shoes, her phone, and her purse. By that afternoon, she was floating face-down in a cove hundreds of feet away. The friends who'd been with her didn't call anyone, and somehow knew exactly where her body was before any announcement was made. The...

On the night before Thanksgiving 2016, eighteen-year-old Tom Brown left his home in Canadian, Texas to go cruising with friends. But he never came home. When his red Dodge Durango turned up the next morning at a sewage treatment plant on the edge of town, there was a bullet casing on the floor and a drop of his blood on the door handle, but no sign of Tom. What followed was two years of strange di...

Crime House’s Murder: True Crime Stories presents a special series for America’s 250th Birthday: The Crimes That Built America. Listen every Monday until July 6th on Murder: True Crime Stories. Join Crime House+ to get all 4 episodes right now ad-free. To subscribe, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. 250 years ago, a b...

In April 2014, Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon, two Dutch women in their early twenties, went for a daytime hike on a trail near Boquete, Panama. They never came back. Weeks later, their backpack was found on a jungle riverbank with their phones, camera, and cash still inside. What was on that camera changed everything: photographs taken in total darkness, including what appears to be an SOS signal...

In August 2010, 30-year-old Ben McDaniel suited up for a dive into Vortex Spring, a celebrated cave diving site in Florida, and descended into a narrow underwater passage. He never returned. One of the employees claimed to have watched Ben enter a restricted section of the cave, a passage that required advanced certification that Ben didn't have. Despite exhaustive underwater searches, his body wa...

On September 12, 1987, 50-year-old security guard Dale Kerstetter clocked in at Corning Glass Works in Bradford, Pennsylvania and was never seen again. Surveillance footage captured him calmly walking off-camera beside a masked intruder, pausing only to look directly into the lens. When the masked man reappeared hours later, he dragged a large bag from the building and left with $220,000 worth of...

In August 2021, 25-year-old Illinois State University graduate student Jelani Day was last seen leaving a dispensary in Bloomington-Normal, far from his apartment and with no clear reason to be there. His car was found abandoned miles away. Weeks later, his unclothed body was recovered from the Illinois River. The coroner ruled accidental drowning, but his mother refused to accept that answer. She...

In the summer of 2016, 29-year-old Kristal Anne Reisinger vanished from a remote Colorado gathering in the wilderness, leaving behind her young daughter. Those who knew her described a young mother navigating addiction and drawn to alternative spiritual communities. When her remains were eventually recovered years later in a remote canyon, they raised more questions than answers. Her case sits at...

In October 1981, 17-year-old Kurt Sova stepped outside a Halloween party in Cleveland to get some fresh air while his friend ran back in for their jackets. By the time that friend returned two minutes later, Kurt was gone. Five days later, his body was found in a nearby ravine, posed with his arms outstretched and both shoes missing, with no clear cause of death. Decades later, the police departme...

In August 2013, 19-year-old college sophomore Bryce Laspisa gave away his most prized possessions, broke up with his girlfriend, and spent 30 hours driving aimlessly through California. He sat motionless in parking lots, for hours, before his SUV was found crashed and empty at the bottom of a 15-foot embankment near Castaic Lake. He had shattered the rear window from the inside, leaving behind his...

In March 2000, 23-year-old Leah Roberts left her North Carolina apartment in the middle of the night, drove nearly 3,000 miles alone, and stopped at an Oregon gas station where security cameras caught her glancing back at the parking lot. Five days later, her white Jeep Cherokee was found wrecked at the bottom of a ravine in Washington State. Investigators discovered the engine had been deliberate...

On April 16, 2005, 59-year-old Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar called in to work, took a scenic drive, and parked his Mini Cooper outside an antique mall in Lewisburg. Then, he vanished. No note, no signs of a struggle. Months later, his laptop turned up in the Susquehanna River, its hard drive missing, raising urgent questions about what secrets it may have held. Why would a respected,...

Nine year old Asha Degree left her North Carolina home in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day 2000 and began walking alone along Highway 18. Multiple drivers reported seeing her before she disappeared into the darkness. Months later, her backpack was discovered buried miles away, containing items that raised more questions than answers. Why would a child leave home in the middle of the nigh...

On a cold December evening in 1981, fourteen year old Dana Bradley was last seen hitchhiking along Topsail Road in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Witnesses watched her enter a light colored sedan. Days later, her body was discovered in a wooded area outside the city. Despite descriptions of the driver and years of investigation, no one has been convicted. Dana’s case remains one of Canada’s most heartb...

Four year old Nyleen Marshall vanished during a family picnic in Montana’s Helena National Forest in 1983. At first, authorities believed she had wandered into the wilderness. Later, children reported seeing a strange man speaking with her moments before she disappeared. Years afterward, a cryptic letter surfaced from someone claiming personal knowledge of Nyleen’s life. Was she lost to the forest...

Brian Shaffer entered a crowded Columbus bar in April 2006 after a night out with friends. Surveillance cameras captured him going inside, but there is no confirmed footage of him leaving. Within minutes, he was gone. Despite security cameras, witnesses, and a packed nightlife scene, no trace of Brian has ever been found. His disappearance remains one of the most baffling modern missing person cas...

Tara Leigh Calico disappeared on the morning of September 20, 1988, after leaving her New Mexico home for a routine bike ride. She never returned. What followed was a search filled with unsettling possibilities, small town rumors, and one of the strangest clues in missing person history: a Polaroid photo discovered months later that some believed showed Tara alive. Decades on, her case remains unr...

Chuck Morgan was a Tucson escrow agent who claimed he had become entangled with organized crime and powerful financial schemes. After returning home from a bizarre kidnapping filled with paranoia and cryptic warnings, he disappeared again. His body was later found under suspicious circumstances, along with a marked two dollar bill that seemed to hint at hidden messages. Was Chuck silenced for what...

Sneha Anne Philip was last seen shopping in Lower Manhattan on September 10, 2001. The next morning, the attacks on the World Trade Center reshaped the world and Sneha disappeared into the chaos. Some believe she rushed out to help and died in the collapse. Others think she vanished before the towers fell. Her case remains one of the most haunting missing person mysteries connected to 9/11, filled...

Jennifer Kesse disappeared from her Orlando condo complex in January 2006, leaving behind a locked apartment and no sign of struggle. Surveillance footage later showed an unknown person abandoning her car, but the suspect’s face was obscured at every frame. Jennifer was cautious, responsible, and building a promising future. Her sudden disappearance in broad daylight remains one of Florida’s most...

Before Sarah Turney and Kourtney Nichole reported on crime, they both experienced it and know how it can shatter a family. Now, they’re bringing those meaningful perspectives to The Final Hours, a true crime series that puts the magnifying glass on the final hours before someone goes missing. From final conversations, to the last known steps, to red flags and red herrings, Sarah and Kourt understa...