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  • The Funeral Director Who Sold Graves-and Stole Bodies

    The Funeral Director Who Sold Graves-and Stole Bodies
    2026/07/26
    The Funeral Director Who Sold Graves-and Stole Bodies

    When a bronze funeral-home plaque turned up tied to a man's wrist in eleven feet of Tanner Creek, Kellbrook's quiet trust cracked wide open: a man buried eighteen months earlier was found in the water, a coffin lid marker with "MERCER & SONS FUNERAL HOME, KELLBROOK, EST. NINETEEN SIXTY-ONE" clutched to his arm, and an empty coffin later exhumed at Founders' Rest. How many burials at Mercer & Sons were never actually where families believed, and who profited from keeping that secret?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of discoveries from the creek to the funeral home office and the county commission, tracing the documents, payments, and people that connected Mercer & Sons, Founders' Rest Cemetery, and the Parks and Cemetery Commission. We ask whether routine civic trust masked a scheme that left at least some graves empty and probe the question: who authorized the continuity of care that families were told would protect their loved ones?

    Person: Donald Reese
    Date: November 9, 2014
    Location: Tanner Creek; Founders' Rest Cemetery
    Person: Leon Fleming
    Person: Robert Gage

    - Donald Reese was forty-one and had been buried in April 2013 before his body was found in Tanner Creek on November 9, 2014.
    - The bronze plaque found tied to the man's left wrist was engraved "MERCER & SONS FUNERAL HOME, KELLBROOK, EST. NINETEEN SIXTY-ONE."
    - Mercer & Sons' contract with Founders' Rest Cemetery was renewed annually with Robert Gage's signature from 2003 through 2014.
    - The funeral home offered a "Continuity of Care" package with an annual renewal fee of $950 and enrollment fees ranging between $800 and $1,800.
    - An office manager, Amy Parker, found a handwritten folder on Fleming's desk listing twelve names with plot locations, with two of the names marked "done."

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    26 分
  • The Zone: The Pellmore Extortion Racket

    The Zone: The Pellmore Extortion Racket
    2026/07/26
    The Zone: The Pellmore Extortion Racket

    An eight-inch boundary correction led a county surveyor to a buried steel box containing fourteen months of dispatch logs that named businesses, letter codes and monthly dollar amounts from $200 to $1,200 - and a handwriting match that did not point to the towing company owner. Who kept the records, who ordered them buried, and why does that contradiction matter?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and early file-building around a pattern of payments and retaliation in a small commercial zone, the people named in the logs, and the questions that set off an Economic Crimes inquiry: was this an organized extortion racket tied to the non-emergency tow contract?

    Person: Glenn Rice
    Person: Cheryl Mills
    Person: Roger Talley
    Location: Venable Commercial Drive
    Case: dispatch logs August 2005-October 2006

    - Date found: a Tuesday morning in October 2007 when surveyor Jason Simmons re-staked a property line.
    - Period covered by logs: 14 months, from August 2005 through October 2006.
    - Dollar amounts recorded ranged from $200 to $1,200 per month beside business codes.
    - Tow rate difference: businesses coded D had vehicles towed roughly six times the rate of businesses coded C.
    - Contract renewals: Roger Talley signed uncontested non-emergency tow contract renewals for Crestline from 2001 through 2007.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • Contractor Finds Cash Envelopes Hidden at an Elementary School: The Short Delivery Racket

    Contractor Finds Cash Envelopes Hidden at an Elementary School: The Short Delivery Racket
    2026/07/26
    Contractor Finds Cash Envelopes Hidden at an Elementary School: The Short Delivery Racket

    A contractor found forty-one sealed, hand-labeled envelopes full of cash tucked near a utility wall at an elementary school - part of a fourteen-year protection racket inside the public school system that totaled an estimated $900,000 to $1.1 million. Who designed the system, who protected it from inside the district, and how did a Tuesday delivery tear the scheme open?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the September morning when Marvin Anderson’s box split open to the investigation that traced payments, contracts, and handwritten ledgers across schools and districts. The episode covers the roles of Slater Educational Supply, its collections operation, and the district official whose approvals kept the system running - but how did the gray Chevrolet sedan and its driver figure into the exposure?

    Person: Marvin Anderson
    Person: Warren Slater
    Person: Leon Whitley
    Person: Robert Haines
    Date: early September 2011

    - Forty-one sealed envelopes fell from a cardboard box when Marvin Anderson moved it at 8:40 AM on a Tuesday.
    - Warren Slater’s company, Slater Educational Supply, operated for nineteen years and held contracts with sixty-three schools.
    - Collections entries spanned eleven years and covered forty-seven schools across five districts in a handwritten ledger.
    - Investigators estimated total payments from the scheme between $900,000 and $1,100,000.
    - Robert Haines, Deputy Superintendent for Operations, had signed every Slater contract renewal from 2001 and directed annual payments of $8,000 to $12,000 to a shell company in his wife’s maiden name.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 分
  • The Loyalty Cards That Unmasked Grover Falls' Secret Extortion Ring

    The Loyalty Cards That Unmasked Grover Falls' Secret Extortion Ring
    2026/07/26
    The Loyalty Cards That Unmasked Grover Falls' Secret Extortion Ring

    A birdwatcher found fifteen pristine laminated loyalty cards in creek mud after a flood-cards that should have been ruined but were dated within the past year. Those cards tied to a discontinued loyalty program and a web of monthly payoffs that funneled about $2.3 million a year; how did a neighborhood bar’s plastic tabs become the thread that unraveled eleven years of city corruption?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of discoveries and connections that linked Kettner's Bar, Tidemark Services, the DLRA, and dozens of small businesses across Grover Falls, asking how routine bookkeeping and a forgotten card program kept a secret extortion system running for years.

    Person: Harvey Hunter
    Person: Alan Peterson
    Person: Kimberly Whitfield
    Event: Discovery of fifteen laminated loyalty cards
    Amount: approximately $2.3 million per year

    - Harvey Hunter found fifteen laminated cards fanned in creek mud on the morning of August 11, 2009.
    - Grover Falls population is approximately 80,000 and included a Tuesday-evening bookkeeping class attended by eleven people.
    - Alan Peterson held 49% of Sabel Distribution and owned Kettner's Bar and Tidemark Services; he was 51 years old at the time.
    - Court records showed 47 small businesses were part of the arrangement, with monthly payments from $300 to $2,200 per business.
    - Forensics confirmed the fifteen cards had been laminated within the last 12 months and the physical cards were officially discontinued in 2006, though the system remained active at least through 2008.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    26 分
  • The Bid Sheet Found at Dawn That Exposed a Fire-for-Profit Ring

    The Bid Sheet Found at Dawn That Exposed a Fire-for-Profit Ring
    2026/07/26
    The Bid Sheet Found at Dawn That Exposed a Fire-for-Profit Ring

    The morning after a warehouse burned to its slab, a laminated two-page demolition bid dated the day before the blaze was found sitting untouched on a drum - and it would unravel a scheme that used inside information, controlled timing, and fire to erase businesses. How did a fifteen-year-old cyclist and a single bid sheet expose a machine that had dismantled four properties in eighteen months?

    In this episode, we follow the chain of people and documents that linked pre-public permitting data to on-site assessments and a demolition company, tracing the sequence that led from a dated bid to a pattern of suspicious fires. What connections between a county plan examiner, a materials broker, a real-estate consultant, and Anchor Demolition does that bid sheet reveal?

    Person: Duane Tucker
    Date: July 9
    Location: Morrow Industrial Supply, Kellerton Industrial Corridor
    Case: Four properties in eighteen months
    Investigator: Roy Romano

    - At 6:14 AM on July 9 a 15-year-old delivery rider, Duane Tucker, found a laminated two-page demolition bid on a drum at the Morrow Industrial Supply fire scene.
    - The bid was dated July 5 for a building that burned on July 6; owner Ted Morrow never authorized the bid or contacted the company listed.
    - Fire crews reported the July 6 blaze burned the building to its concrete slab in under four hours with an accelerant pattern described as deliberate and experienced.
    - Roy Romano authenticated the laminate-protected bid within a week and identified the company name on the cover sheet as Anchor Demolition.
    - Investigators linked a pattern: Morrow Industrial Supply was the fourth property to follow the same sequence over an eighteen-month period involving pre-public permit data and site assessments.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • Credit Card, Concrete Slab, and the Laundromat Graveyard

    Credit Card, Concrete Slab, and the Laundromat Graveyard
    2026/07/26
    Credit Card, Concrete Slab, and the Laundromat Graveyard

    An ordinary credit card found face up in a freshly paved alley cracked open a nearly decade-long racket in Carthage, Ohio - and a drainage permit that read like a clean alibi hid something far darker. How did Patrice Nolan’s Visa, barely degraded, end up inches from a concrete slab poured eight months earlier, and what did ground-penetrating radar reveal next?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that began the second week of June 1994 when Glenn Olson unearthed the card, and how that single discovery revived a missing-persons case closed as “no foul play suspected.” The episode follows the people, places, and permits tied to Delmar Road and asks whether the laundromat’s unremarkable facade concealed a criminal enterprise.

    Person: Patrice Nolan
    Date: Second week of June 1994
    Location: Alley behind Delmar Wash, Delmar Road, Carthage, Ohio
    Status: Missing (reported July 1993; file marked inactive after 60 days)
    Person: Glenn Olson

    - Glenn Olson, age not stated, found Patrice Nolan’s credit card while cutting a drainage channel on a Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. when it was 85 degrees.
    - The concrete slab next to where the card was found had been poured eight months earlier with a permit listing the purpose as drainage improvement.
    - Patrice Nolan was reported missing in July 1993 after her roommate Amy Cord returned to an empty apartment with Nolan’s belongings left behind.
    - Lieutenant Dan Roper wrote “no foul play suspected” in the initial report within the first week of Nolan’s disappearance.
    - The second floor above Delmar Wash hosted an illegal card game since the late 1980s, accessed through a rear service corridor and a steel door, with no street-facing windows.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 分
  • Accountant Finds a Box That Brings Down a Small-City Racket: The Lakeview Logistics Case

    Accountant Finds a Box That Brings Down a Small-City Racket: The Lakeview Logistics Case
    2026/07/26
    Accountant Finds a Box That Brings Down a Small-City Racket: The Lakeview Logistics Case

    The discovery of a box with forty-one identical invoices stamped PAID for exactly $412 set off a chain that toppled a local fraud network in a logistics town. How did a single unpaid question from a truck driver and one dispatcher's dated notepad unravel thirty-one months of schemes hidden behind the name Lakeview Logistics Consulting?

    In this episode, we tell how a utility lineman found the box, how a dispatcher’s routine notes and a truck driver’s question led to a federal case, and how a small-city freight cooperative was used to bill carriers $412 for a supposed regulatory compliance assessment. What patterns in the paperwork and community relationships finally exposed the scheme?

    Person: Vicki Harrison
    Date: May 2011
    Location: Calloway Rail Yard, Denton Falls
    Organization: Calloway Rail Cooperative
    Amount per invoice: $412

    - Forty-one invoices were inside the box, each stamped PAID in red ink.
    - Every invoice listed the billing entity as Lakeview Logistics Consulting and contained no company address or contact name.
    - Lakeview invoices charged exactly $412 and described a "regulatory compliance assessment."
    - The scheme operated beginning in January 2008 and continued for thirty-one months before collapse.
    - Peggy Price kept a dated notepad logging calls and conversations that became a key document in the federal case.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    25 分
  • The Union President, the Storm Drain Ledger, and $3.4M Missing

    The Union President, the Storm Drain Ledger, and $3.4M Missing
    2026/07/26
    The Union President, the Storm Drain Ledger, and $3.4M Missing

    A storm drain held a dry, spiral-bound ledger whose pages had somehow avoided three days of April rain and would unravel $3.4 million missing from a union pension over twelve years. How did an ordinary line item called "administrative overhead - document storage" and a mound of routine payments hide a scheme that quietly shrank 1,400 retirements by an average of 8%?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery that set investigators moving backward through years of routine bookkeeping, pension audits, and certified checks to ask how a system of everyday trust could be weaponized so effectively. What single move finally broke the machinery and revealed where the money had gone?

    Person: Larry Foster
    Person: Frank Odom
    Person: Gail Henderson
    Person: James Loftus
    Amount: $3.4 million

    - The ledger was found at 6:40 AM on April 9, 2011, four miles into Earl Gardner's run through Kellerman Park.
    - Local 228 had roughly 1,400 members whose pensions were reduced by an average of 8% by November 2011.
    - Gail Henderson was hired in spring 1992 and maintained two sets of books for over eleven years.
    - The ledger storage expenses were logged as "administrative overhead - document storage" at $400 to $600 per month.
    - Nine contractors paid Riverside Advisory Group a combined $42,000 per month in certified checks beginning February 2011.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 分