A Simpler Time True Crime

One night in the spring of 1981, a North Dakota teenager didn’t come home. Sometimes when it feels like someone has vanished into thin air, there are very few leads to go on. And for many of the decades that followed, that’s how this case appeared to people outside the local area. There was one clear last sighting of Barb, and then she was gone. But as the case was revisited and looked at more clo...

An arrest has been made in the 1991 Killing of Cindy Wanner. Here you'll hear the original episode plus the updates.  A mother is making a little extra money by cleaning her sister's house in an upscale neighborhood. She is feeding her eleven-month old daughter cereal in her high chair while cleaning each room. Somewhere in a small forty-five minute window, someone would gain access to the house a...

From 1986 to 1990, a small community in Louisiana was shaken by a series of disappearances involving teenage girls and young women. By 1990, after multiple cases happened close together, people began to notice patterns. Some of the victims shared similar appearances. A few were last known to be using a phone, including public payphones, around the time they vanished. Some were the teenage daughter...

Hi A Simpler Time True Crime Podcast Listeners! This week I'm sharing an investigative podcast with you that my friends over at Fire Eyes Media have been working so hard on. Please check out episode 1 today and then go susbscribe to their podcast.  Introducing the new long form investigative podcast from the team behind Missing in Hush Town, Secrets Beyond the Sacramento River. Subscribe now where...

On November 1, 1999, Dayton Police Officer Kevin Brame spent an unexpected evening with his two sons and his family. His estranged wife had called to say the boys were hoping to see him, and he never passed up a chance to be with them, especially as everyone was adjusting to life during the separation. He got the boys home in time for baths and bed on a school night, and stayed a little while to s...

This Episode is Part 2 of the Molly Bish case. If you haven’t already listened to part 1, go back and do that now or this won’t make a lot of sense. In part 1 we discussed Molly, the days leading up to her abduction, the aftermath of the search, and the work her family is done to not only find resolution in her case but to help other families as well. We left off in May of 2003, with a hunter find...

Its June of 2000 and sixteen-year-old Molly Bish is on day eight of her new job. Fulfilling the role her brother held the summer before, she’s the lifeguard at the local pond in her tiny New England town. In the short window of time between her mother dropping her off and the first kids arriving for swim lessons that day, Molly disappears. When a large-scale search of both the water and nearby lan...

In the late summer of 1973, a graduate student is living alone in an off-campus apartment, taking summer classes to get ahead. She’s well known on campus, the kind of person who’s involved in everything. She’s also a gifted musician with a lot going for her. After a day spent socializing, her night ends with a short walk home, what should have been just a 60 foot stroll across her apartment courty...

On an early spring evening in 1998, a young soldier returns home on leave, visiting his family for the first extended time since enlisting in the U.S. Army. He’s back in the Bronx neighborhood where he grew up, a place where he had already begun to defy expectations and set his life on a different path.  Late on a Friday night, he heads out and cuts through the same local park he passed through co...

Its May 2004 in Aurora, Colorado and a 53-year-old man is starting a fresh chapter of his life. To help keep up with expenses, he rents out a basement apartment within his townhome.  After his most recent roommate moves out, he places an ad to fill the space. Things look promising when he identifies someone interested in the place who even puts money down and signs a rental agreement. But when the...

In the early summer of 2001, a young man just weeks away from his twentieth birthday was called into work early at the restaurant where he worked. His car was in the shop, so he arranged a ride with a female coworker. They agreed to meet at the local high school before heading to their shift together. Jason left home to meet her. He never made it. No one reported seeing a struggle. Nothing appeare...

In the fall of 1997, a college senior says goodbye to her mother and heads out for the evening, planning to spend a little time with friends cruising around her small hometown. But when her curfew comes and goes without a call, her family immediately knows something is wrong. After a sleepless night spent searching and calling friends, her mother and stepfather contact police. Then Erica’s car is...

In late January of 1968, an Iowa State University freshman was hoping to make her way home to Evanston, Illinois for the weekend. She had planned to ride back with her boyfriend, but when those plans fell through, she needed another way home. Rather than thumbing a ride along the side of the highway, students on campus had something a little more organized. A ride board where people could offer ri...

On January 7th, 1996, a historic storm moved into the Northeastern United States, and first responders across the region began preparing for what they knew could be a long and unpredictable night. When Thomas Dorr received a call from the firehouse where he volunteered in his town, he told them he would head in and stay overnight to help if needed. But Tom never made it to the firehouse. A search...

In February of 1983, young mother Ora Owens woke up to every woman’s worst nightmare. A man standing over her bed watching her as she slept as she is home alone with her children. After leaping out of bed to try to run for help, the stranger caught up to her, dragging her back into her bedroom and violently attacking her. In the middle of the attack, her four-year-old son Mitchell walked in. He br...

I first came across Detective Robert Klein while covering the 1996 murder of Jasmine Porter. Detective Klein was the lead investigator on her cold case, and more than two decades later, he was the one who put the handcuffs on her killer. Recently retired from the NYPD after an accomplished career that included reaching the rank of Detective First Grade, Detective Klein joined me to talk about what...

On a holiday weekend in 2003, a woman was working overtime to get a project across the finish line for her employer. When her digital footprint trailed off and loved ones failed to hear from her, both her friends and colleagues grew concerned. Concern that was merited when a grisly discovery in the nearby Green River revealed she had met a horrific end to her life. Those closest to her believe the...

On a summer night in 1988, an eight-year-old girl and her mother were at a neighborhood laundromat near their home, sitting together and talking while their first load of laundry finished. As they talked, they barely registered the movements of a man who entered the laundromat and passed through their line of sight. Moments later, he attacked them without warning. Injured and terrified, they manag...

It’s not every day that a town of just six thousand people becomes known for so many strange and unlikely things. Snowflake, Arizona, named after Erastus Snow and William Flake, is often described as the most Mormon town west of the Pecos. But in sharp contrast to its religious roots, it is also home to one of the largest cannabis cultivation operations in the country. It is the place where Travis...

“There is no actual physical injury, is there, other than some bruising? I am not suggesting that bruising is nice, but there is no disfigurement. There are no broken bones. There are no serious physical injuries, are there?” Those words were spoken by Criminal Court Judge Lorin Duckman at a bail hearing for the man who had been relentlessly stalking and abusing Galina Komar. Galina was present in...

I want to be transparent about this case from the start. While it is technically unsolved, there is a strong and consistent understanding of who is responsible. This is less a whodunit and more an opportunity to walk through our criminal justice system and examine how, over the course of decades, one man was able to manipulate outcomes in his favor. Shorter sentencing, public sympathy, and ultimat...

A fifth grader comes home from school in 1991 expecting to see his mother but instead is greeted by an empty home and a terrifying scene. Everything from the home pointed to foul play for the mother. Other clues made it seem like aspects had been staged to make the scene look like something that it wasn’t. On the day of Deborah’s disappearance, she was supposed to be meeting with her husband to fi...

In September of 1968, a young saleswoman named Carol was traveling through Indiana, selling encyclopedias for a company based in Indianapolis. She was part of a small crew made up of another black woman and two white men. That day, their route brought them to Martinsville, Indiana, a town that was already known among Black travelers as a dangerous place to be. As the term was better adopted over t...

In January of 2002, a college student is home in Texas for winter break, just days away from returning to school. Like she does nearly every morning, the avid runner laces up her shoes, grabs her Walkman, and heads out on her familiar four-mile route through her family’s quiet subdivision. Neighbors see her along the way. Her movements are accounted for. One neighbor even places her less than a fo...

A treasured pediatrician from Tennessee spends the night out at an NBA basketball game. She calls her mom from the game and mentions to her that she isn’t feeling well. After she gets home, she hosts a couple of girlfriends at her place to finish out the evening as a quiet night in before heading to bed. What happens to her after they leave her home is a mystery, but her family began to worry when...