The Last Trip

In the early hours of April 21st, 2007, 22-year-old Paul Carter vanished somewhere between Portsmouth, England, and St. Malo, France. He boarded the overnight ferry with his workmates - but by morning, Paul was gone.  No one saw him leave. No one heard a thing. The sea was calm. The alarms stayed silent. Did he go overboard unnoticed? Some believed he walked off into the fog of St. Malo. Others ar...

We’re diving into one of the most perplexing travel mysteries in recent history — the disappearance and tragic death of Judy Smith. In April of 1997, Judy traveled to Philadelphia with her husband, a routine trip that took a bizarre turn when she vanished without a trace. Five months later, her remains were discovered hundreds of miles away in the rugged mountains of North Carolina. How did a lovi...

He was young, ambitious, and heir to one of the most powerful families in American history.  But Michael Rockefeller wasn’t chasing money, politics, or prestige.  He was chasing meaning… Art. Culture. A sense of connection that no trust fund could buy. In 1961, the 23 year old Harvard graduate vanished off the coast of what is now Indonesia - just moments after saying he thought he could make it t...

A road trip gone wrong.  A young mother driving alone.  A motel room untouched — and a rental car abandoned, hazard lights still blinking on a desolate Pennsylvania highway. In April 1994, 23-year-old Karen Denise Wells left Oklahoma for New Jersey.  She never arrived.  Somewhere between a late-night fast food stop and her motel, Karen disappeared — leaving behind a trail of unsettling clues, myst...

Tom and Eileen Lonergan set off for what should have been an unforgettable day diving the Great Barrier Reef - clear skies, calm waters, and a boat full of tourists just like them. But when the dive boat returned to the shore, no one noticed they were missing. Not at first.  Not for two whole days, until it was discovered their belongings were still on the boat - wallets, passports, towels… untouc...

When we talk about travel nightmares, we often picture what lurks outside - dark alleys, strangers with bad intentions, stories that begin with a missed train or a wrong run. But sometimes… the danger is already inside. Today, we’re opening the door on something even more haunting: fire.  Sudden. Consuming, Unforgiving. Because for some travelers, the scariest part of their journey wasn’t a distan...

When we pack our bags and check into a hostel, we’re chasing adventure. A new city, a bunk bed, the promise of strangers who might become friends - or at least someone to split a cab with. And honestly? I love staying in hostels.  I’ve stayed in them all over - tiny ones in coastal towns to big ones in the heart of cities. They’re chaotic, friendly, weird, and wonderful. And for the most part, the...

Today on The Last Trip, we’re diving into the darker side of travel with someone who knows exactly where the bodies are buried - literally and figuratively. Dawn Barclay is an award - winning travel journalist with a knack for uncovering  the truth behind paradise.  You might know her from her groundbreaking guide Traveling Different, which helps neurodiverse families navigate the chaos of vacatio...

It was a quiet spring morning in Idyllwild, California - April 7, 2017 - when 25 year old David O’Sullivan put on his backpack, stepped onto the Pacific Crest Trail, and vanished. The Irish hiker had come to America chasing a dream: to walk from Mexico to Canada, alone, through some of the country’s wildest landscapes. The day before, he’d sent a brief email from the town’s small library - his las...

She was known as “Shark Girl” - a fearless underwater photographer who swam with predators most of us only dare to watch on TV.  At 48, Valerie de la Valdene had it all: a career that earned her a spot in the Women Divers Hall of Fame, features on Shark Week, a culinary education under a world-renowned chef, and the kind of wealth that came with a prestigious family name. But in June 2014, Valerie...

On April 15, 2005, District Attorney Ray Gricar took the day off, got in his car, and set out on a quiet road trip—just a short drive to clear his head. But he never came home. His car was later found abandoned, his wallet and phone missing, and his laptop destroyed and dumped in a river. And then... nothing. In this episode, we explore the mysterious disappearance of Ray Gricar—a seasoned prosecu...

In September 2019, a yellow Jeep Wrangler was found abandoned at a remote trailhead on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Everything inside looked normal—except the woman who rented it, Lucy Schuhmann, was missing. The 48-year-old traveler from Louisville, Kentucky, had come to the island alone, seeking peace and nature. She checked into a rental near Coral Bay, unpacked, and then vanished. Her...

A 62-year-old man boards a plane—but his travel path makes no sense. Charlotte. Austin. Dallas. And finally… Cancun. When Robert Cantrell lands in Mexico, he clears customs—but never makes it to baggage claim. Days later, he reappears—shoeless, confused, and unable to remember his own name. A journalist finds him. Then he disappears again. Was he lost, drugged, or targeted? A voicemail, a detentio...

Money, power, and mystery—three ingredients for a disappearance that still haunts the Pacific. Larry Hillblom, co-founder of DHL, built a shipping empire and amassed a fortune. Yet, he chose to live in secrecy on a remote Pacific island, surrounded by scandal and whispers of something darker. In 1995, his small plane crashed near Saipan. Wreckage was found. Bodies recovered. But Hillblom? Gone. No...

Annie and Robin Korkki set out on the trip of a lifetime - a luxurious island getaway in paradise. But on the morning of September 22, 2016, their dream vacation came to a chilling end.  After a day of drinking and laughter at an exclusive resort in Seychelles, the sisters were escorted back to their villa by their personal butler. But they never stepped outside again. When hotel staff finally ent...

A yoga retreat in paradise turned into a chilling mystery when Taylor Casey, 41, vanished from the Sivananda Ashram on Paradise Island on June 19, 2024. Last seen that evening, she was gone by morning—leaving behind only one clue: her phone, later found in the ocean. In this follow-up to Episode 45, we speak with Taylor’s mother, Colette Seymore, and her close friend, Emily, who are still searchin...

One moment, 66 year old Raymond Ashcroft was walking through the legendary ruins of Tikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.  The next? He was gone.  No struggle. No witnesses. Just… silence. Authorities launched a desperate search within a half hour of his disappearance.  But Raymond? He had disappeared into the shadows of history, just like the ancient Maya who once...

In early 1959, nine hikers set out on a skiing expedition across the northern Ural Mountains—Igor Dyatlov, Yuri Doroshenko, Lyudmila Dubinina, Georgiy Krivonishenko, Alexander Kolevatov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin, Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, and Semyon Zolotaryov. Their journey would end in one of the most chilling and perplexing mysteries in modern history. On the night of February 1s...

In Episode 56, we walked through the timeline of Skye Budnick’s disappearance, sharing the details made public by investigators and her family. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, or need a refresher, we recommend going back before diving into this one. In this episode, I’m joined by Skye’s sister, Megan Lebron, for a deeper look into who Skye was, the challenges her family has faced in t...

In November 2024, what started as a fun night out in the party town of Vang Vieng turned into a horrifying nightmare.  Six tourists from around the world never woke up. Others barely escaped with their lives.  At first it seemed like a tragic accident, a case of tainted alcohol, poisoning unsuspecting travelers in the party town of Vang Vieng, Laos. But as the details emerged, the story took a dar...

On August 21st, 2024, we released Episode 41, the case of Ryan Roth. In that episode, I walked you through the timeline of events and shared the details investigators made to the public.  In this episode, I’m joined by Ryan’s uncle, Sean Flynn, as we take a deeper look at who Ryan was before his alleged suicide, why Sean is searching for him, any new updates in the case - and where Ryan might be n...

Sarah Papenheim was young, talented, and full of life - a gifted blues drummer from Minnesota with dreams of making a difference.  She traveled halfway across the world to study psychology in the Netherlands, never imagining that the person she shared an apartment with would become her worst nightmare. It was a quiet December afternoon in 2018 when everything changed. There was a brutal attack, a...

Antoine Herran was 28 years old when he left France for what was meant to be a 3 week vacation in Australia in April of 1998.  On the day he was supposed to return home,he reportedly jumped off The Gap, a series of towering cliffs near Sydney. Authorities later recovered a body they believed to be his. However, when Antoine’s family arrived in Australia, they were stunned to find out the body did...

On March 20, 2024, we released Episode 19, which covered the tragic case of Jason Cortez. In that episode, I guided you through the timeline of events and shared the publicly available details from investigators. In this episode, I’m joined by Jason’s father, Candelario Cortez, to delve deeper into Jason’s life, the challenges his family has endured since his heartbreaking murder, and any new deve...

Travis Sackett was an experienced traveler with a passion for service.  He dedicated years to volunteering with AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, working in Peru and Guatemala, and most recently, lending a hand in Ecuador. In February 2021, just two months into his stay in Ecuador, Travis set out on what should have been a routine hike. The trail wasn’t particularly challenging, and witnesses report...