The Silver Linings Handbook

Disappearances can happen to anyone at any time. Ed Dentzel, the host of the Unfound podcast and an expert on missing person cases, joins us for Part 2 of my interview with him. In this episode, Ed discusses disappearance profiles, the role of victimology in solving missing person cases and the link that we discover in the conversation between Ed's life and why he is so interested in disappearance...

Ed Dentzel is a man of many trades. Trained as a classical pianist and a high school football player, he worked as an actor on Star Trek: The Experience , was a writer and held many other jobs before starting a podcast in 2016 focused on missing persons cases. In his time on his podcast, Unfound , Ed has covered approximately 300 cases and has become an expert in why people go missing and is acute...

One of the greatest challenges for small local law enforcement agencies like those in the Jon Benet Ramsey and Delphi cases is that they are not accustomed to complex criminal cases. One of the challenges for large agencies is that they can become apathetic and overwhelmed with data. Scot Thomasson, a veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms and Explosives, known as the ATF, joins me to...

Lisa Sugarman lived her whole life believing her father had died when she was a child as a heart attack. Three decades later, she found out he died of suicide. Lisa joins us to discuss her grief over losing her father "twice" and her efforts to promote suicide prevention. Fill out our Listener Survey at: https://bit.ly/slhwinter25survey Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com Check out th...

Monte Fronk's daughter went missing at 16, was sex trafficked, and then rescued in a raid in St. Paul, Minnesota. Just as Monte's daughter was beginning to get her life back together again, she was murdered by her boyfriend, who gunned the 24-year-old down in their Brooklyn Park apartment. Her body was found in the same room as her 23-year-old boyfriend, who committed suicide. Nada's death in May...

Bob Aellis has beautiful memories of growing up in New York doing things like going to the zoo with his dad. But when his father died and his older brother, William, returned home, Bob’s life became a hellscape, he says, as years of sexual abuse by William began. Later, Bob would find out that William had abused many children in the neighborhood and five decades later, he would realize that other...

George Ackerman, a police officer, attorney and PhD. in criminal justice, felt like his life was thriving. He had started his family, and they were living an idyllic life. Then, his mother became sick. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. George discusses what he hopes for others and wishes he knew, when it came to being a caretaker as a loved one slips away. Fill out our Listener Survey at...

Bill Thomas, a victims' advocate and host of the Mind Over Murder  podcast, joins to share his deeply personal journey as the brother of Cathy Thomas, one of the victims of the infamous Colonial Parkway murders. Bill reflects on the investigation, the challenges faced by victims' families and the importance of finding answers, even decades later. We talk about the complexities of true crime a...

We made it through another year. We step back and take a look at what we learned from the more than 50 guests we had on the podcast this year. In this episode, we get to hear some of the best thoughts, observations and advice from Gilbert King, John Mitchell, Jerry Colonna, Julie Murray, Bruce Maitland, Bill Gilmour, Julia Cowley, Allison Dickson, Brett Talley, Alice LaCour, Kevin Greenlee, Áine C...

In this bonus episode from the Minneapolis True Crime Podcast Meetup in early December, I sat down with Jim Schmidt, the father of Gabby Petito, to discuss domestic violence. Right before our discussion, I received a message from a friend who let me know that she was experiencing domestic violence. Jim's response is an example of the powerful and deeply personal work that the Gabby Petito Foundati...

My listeners are why I am here. You mean the world to me. This episode is one where I give you the chance to share your thoughts. This year, I had an intimate conversation with two listeners to share their perspectives on podcasts, community, growth, grief, love and what struck them most this year. Contact me at silverliningshandbookpod@gmail.com Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at: h...

For the holidays, we wanted to release some bonus episodes that were originally released on Patreon as a holiday treat. In this episode, I talk with Kristina Byington, the cousin of murder victim Anita Byington, about how people can engage victims' family members with empathy in the face of exoneration efforts for convicted murderers and others who have been found guilty of crimes against their lo...

For the holidays, we wanted to release some bonus episodes that were originally released on Patreon as a holiday treat. In this episode, I discuss empathy, vulnerability and the Bright Side of True Crime with Jason Usry, a podcaster and host of Santa Maybe, a Criminal, a true crime satire podcast, and Missing in a Moment , a podcast on missing persons. To join our Patreon for ad-free and early epi...

The brutal attack in 1998 on Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, shocked the American conscience, bringing attention to crime against gender and sexual minorities. A lot has changed since 1998, but the battle continues to bring awareness to cases involving LGBTQ+ people. We are joined by C.J. Johnson, the host of the Beyond the Rainbow  podcast, to discuss her efforts to bui...

Have you ever wondered whether someone is lying to you? Have you ever wondered whether you may be being too skeptical when someone may be telling the truth? Jack Fox, the host of Never a Truer Word,  believes you can find the answers in what you know about the person and their words. Jack often explores true crime cases and celebrities. But he also believes that his approach can be applied to...

On June 30, 2010, Phil DiMartino, a beloved colleague and friend, left his office in San Fransisco to go out for the night in the Castro District. He never returned. Days later he was found dead by a worried colleague. When he was found, San Francisco police thought they might have a serial killer on his hands. FBI Profiler Julia Cowley was brought in to profile the unknown subject responsible for...

Former FBI Profiler Julia Cowley, the host of The Consult podcast, joins Allison Dickson of Vintage Villains and I in the final installment our series on the 1979 disappearance of Christina White and the Lewis-Clark Valley serial killings centered on Idaho and Washington State and that potentially span from California to Chicago to North Carolina. We analyze the profile of the unknown killer and t...

Anton Treuer, the son of a Holocaust survivor and an Ojibwe mother, has a great many hopes and dreams - ones of healing, thriving and even an America that can learn things to make it stronger from the success of Native Americans and other minorities. Anton, a professor and expert on the Ojibwe culture and language, joins Jayson to discuss the story of the Ojibwe people and what we can all learn. F...

In this bonus episode from the Minneapolis, Minnesota True Crime Meetup, Jayson and listeners talk with retired FBI Profiler Julia Cowley, the host of The Consult podcast, about clues about the United Health shooter, warning signs in relationships for domestic violence and a wide variety of other topics. We also discuss the real-life experience of working in the FBI’s famed Behavioral Analysis Uni...

In the third part of our series on the Lewis-Clark Valley Serial Killer, the search for a killer has expanded beyond the 1979 disappearance of Christina White and to murders that started in 1963 in Chicago and include mysterious drownings in North Carolina and California and three murders and one additional disappearance in the Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington area. Allison Dickson and I...

A young college student named Anita Byington went out with friends one night in 1991 in Austin, Texas. She was murdered and a year later a man was convicted for her killing. After two decades, that man was released and is not seeking exoneration. Anita's cousin, Kristina joins us, to discuss what it's like to be a victim's family member, what it's like to find the sense of peace only to have it ta...

Christina White was missing for four years before the first big clues emerged into her disappearance that would raise questions about whether there was a serial killer operating in the Lewis-Clark Valley and beyond. In this episode, with Allison Dickson of Vintage Villains, we explore Christina's disappearance, a 1963 murder of an 8-year-old in Chicago, a mysterious attempted break-in at a mortuar...

"To lose thee is to lose myself," John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost . But what happens when you lose both? Alma Thomas lost her teenage son to a sudden heart attack at the age of 18 and then a few years later lost herself to a stroke. Alma, an author, was given a 1 percent chance of survival by doctors. She survived and says she has thrived. Alma says in this interview that part of what drove her...

How does a 12-year-old girl disappear from her best friend's house on the day of the local fair? Who could be responsible her going missing? Why was her homework found miles away on the farm where that same best friend kept her horse? And how did the case of Christina White's disappearance become the lynchpin to discovering that a serial killer was lurking in the Lewis-Clark Valley of Idaho and Wa...

Actor Alec Baldwin was on trial for involuntary manslaughter in July. Then, he wasn't. We are joined by Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, the special prosecutor who resigned from the case out of concerns about the prosecution withholding vital information from the defense. We discuss the case, Erlinda's decision, the special obligation prosecutors have to justice and how her family's immigration from Nicara...