Secret Passage Podcast

Three men were inside the house. Their guest was stabbed to death. And nearly 20 years later, his murder remains unsolved. On August 2, 2006, 32-year-old attorney Robert Wone stayed overnight at the Washington, D.C., home of his longtime friend Joseph Price. Also living in the house were Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward. Within approximately 90 minutes of Robert's arrival, a 911 call reported that h...

Christa Pike was 18 when she participated in the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was 20 when she was sentenced to death. Now, at 50, Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026. The murder of Colleen Slemmer was extraordinarily cruel. She was lured into the woods, tortured and killed by a group that included Pike and her boyfriend. Pike later bragged about the...

She woke up in a hospital with pine needles in her hair, her underwear missing, and no memory of how she got there. In 2015, Chanel Miller attended a fraternity party at Stanford with her younger sister. The next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital and learning that she had been found unconscious behind a dumpster while Brock Turner sexually assaulted her. Two bystanders intervened, c...

A teenage girl was sexually assaulted at a party. People knew it was happening. They took photos. They made videos. They joked about it. They posted about it online. And almost no one stepped in. In 2012, a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, was sexually assaulted by high-school football players Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond while she was severely intoxicated and unable to consent. But what...

Everybody in this love triangle was lying. One of them ended up dead. In this installment of Moms Behaving Badly , Dana and Jacky dive into the bizarre TallHotBlond case. Middle-aged husband Thomas Montgomery reinvented himself online as a young Marine named "Tommy" and fell for 17-year-old "Jessi." But Jessi wasn't Jessi. She was Mary Shieler—the teenager's own mother—using her daughter's identit...

What happens when the person your child turns to for protection is secretly the person hurting her? In this episode of Secret Passage: Moms Behaving Badly: Mom, Bully, Stalker , Dana and Jacky examine the bizarre and deeply disturbing case of Kendra Licari , the Michigan mother who secretly sent anonymous, harassing messages to her teenage daughter Lauryn and Lauryn's then-boyfriend, Owen. For mon...

Lindsay Clancy killed her three young children. But was she a calculating murderer—or a mother experiencing a catastrophic psychiatric break? Dana and GenXJacky examine the medication timeline, warning signs, mental-health treatment, Patrick Clancy's role, social-media misinformation, and the hardest question of all: what does justice look like in a case like this? Postpartum depression and postpa...

Who was the real Jodi Arias? Host Dana Vespoli and therapist Gen X Jacky explore the complicated relationship between Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander through the lenses of psychology, attachment, identity, religion, sexuality, rejection, and deception. From Jodi's "chameleon" qualities and conflicting stories to disputed psychological testimony and allegations of abuse, Dana and Jacky ask what we...

What could drive two seemingly ordinary teenagers to brutally murder someone they knew—and why did they appear to treat it like the making of a horror movie? In this episode of Secret Passage, Dana and Jacky examine one of the most disturbing adolescent murder cases in recent history: the killing of Cassie Jo Stoddart by classmates Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik . Together, they go beyond the head...

Skylar Neese and the Complexities of Juvenile Justice: A Deep Dive into a Tragic Case Join us as we explore the disturbing case of Skylar Neese, a 16-year-old girl whose murder by her friends Sheila Eddy and Rachel Shoaf shocked a community and ignited debates on juvenile culpability and sentencing. We discuss the social, psychological, and legal factors intertwined in this case, highlighting the...

In this episode of the Secret Passage Podcast we unpack the Mackenzie Shirilla case. We examine the 2022 crash in Strongsville, Ohio, where 17-year-old Mackenzie drove 100 mph into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend Dominic and friend Davion.  We explore her influencer ambitions, reckless lifestyle, and the bigger cultural issues of social media narcissism, substance use, and permissive parenting...

In Part 2 of our deep dive into the Toolbox Killers, we follow Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris from their unlikely prison friendship to the shocking trial. Prosecutor Stephen Kay presents devastating evidence—including the customized Murder Mac van, torture tools, victim Polaroids, and the horrifying 17-minute audio recording of Lynette Ledford's final moments—while Bittaker sits in court with ch...

In the summer of 1979, sunny Southern California hid a nightmare. This week we dive into the disturbing story of the Toolbox Killers, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, who turned a customized "Murder Mac" van into a mobile chamber of horror. We discuss the abduction of 16-year-old Cindy Schaefer near Redondo Beach, setting the stage for a meticulously planned spree of rape, torture, and murder tar...

In this episode, we dive into the heartbreaking murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand in Paradise, Texas. On November 30, 2022, Athena was playing outside her home when she was abducted by Tanner Horner, a delivery driver dropping off a package. What followed was a horrific ordeal captured in part by audio from inside the truck, revealing a young girl who fought bravely for her life before being...

In this episode we unpack the disturbing case of Haley Beck, a 27-year-old teacher at Centennial High School in Peoria, Arizona, who groomed and sexually abused a star football player. We examine how her behavior blurred lines in the classroom and the troubling silence from the parents, teachers, coaches, and students who witnessed it. Ultimately, we confront the clear abuse of power and trust, ex...

In Part 2 of our series on JFK Jr. and the Kennedys, we unpack the tragic July 16, 1999 plane crash that claimed the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette. We explore the reckless decisions behind the preventable disaster—including flying at night over water without a flight plan, with an injured foot and medication in his system. We push back on th...

In this episode we take a break from true crime to explore the enduring fascination with JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. We dive into our Gen X nostalgia for 1990s New York, the Camelot mythology, and the Kennedys as America's version of royalty, while unpacking fame, generational trauma, and the real people behind the myths. From John's charismatic yet complicated life under constant public...

In this episode, we discuss the civil lawsuit filed by Aidan Romain against Harvard-Westlake School, alleging racial harassment and sexual abuse on the elite water polo team. A talented Black athlete who joined as a freshman varsity standout, Aidan endured repeated incidents that school officials failed to address or report, despite multiple complaints. We explore the culture of silence at prestig...

In this episode we finish our two-part series on Jeffrey Epstein, tracing his improbable rise from a humble Brooklyn background to elite circles. We lay out a timeline of his career, crimes, controversial plea deal, and death, while expressing profound exhaustion with the endless speculation and moral panic surrounding the Epstein Files. We focus on verifiable corruption, exploitation of girls and...

In the winter season finale of the Secret Passage Podcast, we lay the groundwork for a multi-part deep dive into the Jeffrey Epstein files. In this episode we look back to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and explore the 2016 Podesta email leaks that sparked Pizzagate, the strange coded references to "pizza" and "grape soda," Anthony Weiner's laptop discoveries, and the broader tensions between transp...

In this episode of the Secret Passage Podcast, we dive into the chilling disappearance of Brian Shaffer, a 27-year-old medical student who vanished without a trace after a night out at the Ugly Tuna Saloona bar in Columbus, Ohio, on March 31, 2006. Captured on CCTV chatting with friends and two women just before 2 a.m., Brian walks out of frame—yet he's never seen leaving the building on any foota...

In the final episode of our Madeleine McCann series we examine the media frenzy surrounding the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine. We trace the coverage's dramatic shifts—from initial sympathy to later waves of suspicion, tabloid accusations against the parents, and sensational leaks that fueled moral outrage and pack-journalism tactics. Drawing parallels to the JonBenét Ramsey case,...

In part two of our three-part Madeleine McCann series we examine the main theories regarding the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine from her family's apartment at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Building on the case overview in part one, we look at theories including parental involvement (accidental death and cover-up), burglary gone wrong, organized child trafficking,...

In the first installment of our three-part series on the Madeleine McCann case we revisit the heartbreaking disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. We explore the eerie parallels with the JonBenét Ramsey case, the parents' routine checks on their sleeping children while dining nearby at the tapas bar, the immed...

In the final episode of our three-part series on the JonBenét Ramsey case, we reflect on our emotional journey, share our final conclusions based on the available evidence, and look at the media's role in the case. We unpack how early police leaks, media sensationalism, and confirmation bias shaped public perception. Disturbingly, the media played a role in objectifying a six-year-old girl, vilify...