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  • Meter Reader Finds Body in the Gap: The Ralph Green Case

    Meter Reader Finds Body in the Gap: The Ralph Green Case
    2026/07/26
    Meter Reader Finds Body in the Gap: The Ralph Green Case

    Cold air, a three-foot gap, and a body found beside a fuel pump: Ralph Green was discovered on February 9, 1987, after disappearing from a travel plaza where he’d been twelve minutes from home; why did a male DNA profile on the pump handle sit frozen for 34 years before anyone could match it?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from the morning Howard Casey found Ralph to the stalled investigation that followed, the grand jury that returned no indictment, and how a preserved swab - item fourteen - became a renewed lead decades later; can modern DNA finally answer what happened between 11:15 p.m. and 7:45 a.m.?

    Date: February 9, 1987
    Person: Ralph Green
    Location: Sable Creek Travel Plaza
    Case: Unsolved death (cold since 1988)
    Item: One cotton-tipped applicator (item fourteen)

    - Ralph Green was 48 years old and had been a long-haul driver for 19 years.
    - Howard Casey found the body at 7:45 a.m., after unlocking the gate and going to read the utility panel.
    - Ralph was last seen alive inside the plaza at approximately 11:15 p.m, on February 8, 1987.
    - A swab taken from the secondary pump handle beside the body in 1987 returned a male DNA profile insufficient for database comparison at the time.
    - The sealed swab (item fourteen) was sent to the state lab in February 2021 and produced a complete STR profile that did not match CODIS.

    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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    20 分
  • Killer Mails a Catalog: The Carol Tucker Case

    Killer Mails a Catalog: The Carol Tucker Case
    2026/07/25
    Killer Mails a Catalog: The Carol Tucker Case

    A sealed evidence bag sat in a property room for twenty-nine years, holding a seed catalog folded to a page of heirloom tomatoes with three varieties circled and a margin note reading "back row, eighteen inches." The catalog was addressed to someone no investigator had ever heard of - a detail missed in 1994 that reopened the case in 2023. Who wrote that note and why did it crack the investigation three decades later?

    In this episode, we tell how a mislabeled catalog, a retired postal worker's curiosity, and a genealogist's persistence pulled a cold case back into light, asking whether a small scrap of paper can point to the person who killed Carol Tucker.

    Person: Carol Tucker
    Date: January 9, 1994
    Location: Caldwell Pike, Prentiss County
    Status: Identified in September 1994 after dental match
    Event: Body found frozen in roadside ditch, strangled

    - The seed catalog was sealed in evidence and sat untouched for twenty-nine years.
    - The catalog page showed three heirloom tomato varieties circled in blue ballpoint pen.
    - The margin note read "back row, eighteen inches" in a looping, careful hand.
    - Carol Tucker was thirty-two years old and last seen in January 1994; she kept a garden notebook with row diagrams.
    - A retired postal worker, Vernon Romano, found the catalog in January 2023 while waiting at the sheriff's office.

    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
  • Dog Finds a Tooth in a Bottle: The Brenda Vaughn Case

    Dog Finds a Tooth in a Bottle: The Brenda Vaughn Case
    2026/07/24
    Dog Finds a Tooth in a Bottle: The Brenda Vaughn Case

    A dog named Rascal found a bleached prescription bottle in a culvert containing a single human molar sealed for thirty years - the fracture pattern later read as blunt-force extraction. How did a tooth buried in mud and winter cycles become the one hard clue that re-opened a three-decade-old death?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of discoveries and records that reconnect a 1992 death to new forensic findings, tracing the mundane rhythms of the victim’s life and the gaps that kept the case cold. What three separate silences converged on a single name only after a tooth resurfaced?

    Date: December 3, 1992
    Person: Brenda Vaughn
    Location: Creek drainage four miles east of Pallister; Creekside Nature Trail; Warwick Street house
    Status: Remains recovered April (following disappearance); cause of death blunt-force trauma
    Event: Tooth found December 9, 2023 in amber prescription bottle

    - A dog named Rascal stopped at a culvert on December 9, 2023 and led owner April Thompson to a small amber prescription bottle sealed by seasons.
    - The bottle contained a single human molar with root intact and a hairline fracture along the mesial face.
    - A forensic odontologist noted the fracture pattern was consistent with blunt-force extraction, reclassifying the find from found property to evidence eight days after discovery.
    - Brenda Vaughn, age 53 in December 1992, disappeared the night of December 3, 1992; officers found an open back door, a boiled-dry pot, and a blood smear in her house.
    - Her remains were recovered in April 1993 in a creek drainage four miles east of Pallister and identified by dental records; original investigative evidence included a male DNA profile that did not match databases.

    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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    21 分
  • The Folded Jacket, The Licked Stamp, and a 30-Year Lie

    The Folded Jacket, The Licked Stamp, and a 30-Year Lie
    2026/07/23
    The Folded Jacket, The Licked Stamp, and a 30-Year Lie

    The quiet facts of a routine morning - a folded jacket, an upright thermos, a work truck left unlocked - turned into a frozen river and a murder that sat unsolved for decades. A single licked stamp on a handwritten note, preserved untouched for twenty-eight years, would become the hinge of this case; who sent the note and what it meant stayed unanswered until investigators reopened the file. What did that stamped envelope hide, and how did it change everything?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from November 3, 1993, through the discovery on November 9, the preserved evidence that waited in a manila folder for nearly three decades, and the leads that failed to produce charges - all to ask whether the smallest detail can finally point to the truth. Which piece of the old evidence was the key no one had seen?

    Person: Kenneth Reed
    Date: November 3, 1993 (last confirmed sighting); November 9, 1993 (body recovered)
    Location: Whitmore, Indiana; Carlow River (recovered ~2 miles south of Route 7 bridge at Stillwater Crossing)
    Status: Case cold by end of 1994; evidence preserved for 28 years
    Cause of death: Blunt force trauma to posterior skull followed by drowning

    - Reed was 44 years old at the time of his disappearance and worked as a maintenance supervisor at Archer Print Solutions.
    - Reed's truck was seen in the Archer Print lot at 7:15 AM on November 3, 1993, with thermos upright and lighter jacket folded on the seat.
    - Cheryl Reed received a handwritten note three days after the disappearance reading "He is fine. Give it two weeks." postmarked Garfield Township, nine miles from Whitmore.
    - Reed's body was found November 9 in 29°F air, wearing a canvas jacket, one leather boot, wrists bound with orange baling twine, and a cinder block tied to his ankles.
    - Medical examiner estimated Reed had been submerged between 72 and 96 hours before recovery, placing entry into the river between November 5 and November 7.

    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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    18 分
  • The Watch on the Concrete: How a 31-Year Secret Unraveled

    The Watch on the Concrete: How a 31-Year Secret Unraveled
    2026/07/22
    The Watch on the Concrete: How a 31-Year Secret Unraveled

    A woman’s watch found on a hidden concrete pad returned a thirty-one-year-old disappearance to daylight: the crystal unbroken, the clasp latched, the second hand stopped at 43 seconds - but no one had reported a permit or structure there. What left a parking lot with Monica Wagner and came back without her, and why did a county surveyor find the pad only in 2023?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of facts from Monica’s last confirmed call at 5:15 p.m. in October 1992 to the surveyor’s discovery in late March 2023, tracing the physical evidence, witness records, and the anomalies that never fit a tidy theory. How did concrete chips, a mismatched seat position, and a stopped watch become the pulse of a stalled case?

    Person: Monica Wagner
    Date: October 1992 (disappearance)
    Location: Caldwell-Fitch parking lot, Harlowe
    Discovery Date: Late March 2023 (concrete pad and watch)
    Investigator: Detective Frank Sorrell

    - Monica was 28 years old at the time she disappeared and had been born around 1964.
    - Last confirmed contact was a phone call at approximately 5:15 p.m, with Kevin Delaney, her boyfriend of three months.
    - Monica’s tan sedan was found the following Monday with her purse on the passenger floor and the driver’s seat positioned eight inches further back than she habitually set it.
    - Detective Sorrell photographed a partial size 11-12 work-boot print in oil-softened asphalt at the drainage gutter and collected white-painted concrete chips not matching the property.
    - On the concrete pad found in 2023, the wristwatch’s second hand had stopped at 43 seconds and the clasp remained latched - the watch had been a 25th birthday gift from Monica’s mother.

    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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    17 分
  • The Freezer That Kept a Killer's Secret for 37 Years

    The Freezer That Kept a Killer's Secret for 37 Years
    2026/07/21
    The Freezer That Kept a Killer's Secret for 37 Years

    The first smell led Judith Roberts to a cream-colored Kenmore chest freezer in a detached garage on September 11, 2019, where partial skeletal remains lay wrapped in black polyethylene and secured with gray duct tape; tucked between the sheeting and the freezer wall was a brown leather wallet containing $43, a readable Hoosier Lottery scratch ticket, a Decker County library card, and an Indiana driver's license for Michael Brooks. Who kept that freezer running for thirty-seven years, and why did they finally stop?

    In this episode, we take you through the timeline from Michael Brooks’s last known night out on September 6, 1979, to the discovery in 2019 and the cold-case file that resurfaced, following the single strange canvass note about a “contractor type” who returned twice asking to be let into the garage - a detail that was filed away and forgotten until it reemerged decades later. Could that overlooked notation be the thread that unravels what happened to Brooks?

    Person: Michael Brooks
    Date: Last seen September 6, 1979
    Location: 1979 Holt Road, Calverton, Indiana
    Status: Remains discovered September 11, 2019
    Investigator: Detective Herb Malone

    - The freezer was unplugged and found in the corner of a detached garage on September 11, 2019.
    - The wallet inside contained exactly $43 in cash and a readable Hoosier Lottery scratch ticket.
    - Michael Brooks’s Indiana driver’s license in the wallet was issued in 1978 and listed his age as 55.
    - Michael Brooks was last seen at Patton’s Tap around 9:00 PM on Friday, September 6, 1979.
    - A neighbor told investigators in 1979 about a “contractor type” who returned twice asking to be let into the garage, a note that remained unpursued for forty years.

    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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    20 分
  • The Ridgeline Cup: The Paper Cup That Broke A Thirty-Year Alibi

    The Ridgeline Cup: The Paper Cup That Broke A Thirty-Year Alibi
    2026/07/20
    The Ridgeline Cup: The Paper Cup That Broke A Thirty-Year Alibi

    A single paper cup sat in an evidence locker for twenty-nine years - sixteen ounces, a cardboard sleeve, a translucent plastic lid stamped Ridgeline Fuel & Go, Store number seven - yet it pointed investigators forty-two miles the wrong way until new science made it meaningful. How did a disposable cup become the only thread that could unravel a three-decade-old disappearance and murder?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of evidence and memories tied to Laura Farrell: where she was last seen, what was found at the scene, and how one overlooked item ultimately reshaped the case. What exactly did the cup reveal that all those years of interviews and suspicion could not?

    Person: Laura Farrell
    Date: August 8, 1992
    Location: Dellwood Nature Preserve, eastern trail corridor
    Cause: Manual strangulation
    Item: 16-ounce paper cup, Ridgeline Fuel & Go, Store number seven

    - Laura Farrell was 22 years old and lived on Cutter Road when she disappeared on the evening of August 8, 1992.
    - Laura was last seen at a gas station on Rutter Avenue around 7:00 PM wearing jeans and a white T-shirt.
    - Laura’s Honda Civic was found parked at a rest area on Millhaven Road the night she vanished.
    - The paper cup was logged on August 9, 1992 as "possible debris, retain" and found about 30 feet from Laura’s body.
    - Ridgeline Fuel & Go Store number seven, printed on the cup, was located on Depot Road in Calverton, 42 miles northeast of Dellwood.

    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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    18 分
  • The Freezer on Birchwood Lane: The Name That Took 32 Years

    The Freezer on Birchwood Lane: The Name That Took 32 Years
    2026/07/19
    The Freezer on Birchwood Lane: The Name That Took 32 Years

    A quiet July morning turned into a cold, mechanical discovery: a running chest freezer on a front lawn, an open lid, and a bare left foot that would mark the start of a 32-year unanswered question - who was "Paul," the single penciled name on Gloria Lawson's kitchen calendar? What did a half-pound-of-precision pet routine, an emptied 20-cubic-foot freezer, and a collar-sized scrap of fabric preserved in evidence since 1991 ultimately reveal about her death?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of facts found at 4418 Birchwood Lane and the persistent gaps that outlasted the lead detective's career. We follow the scene details, the timed phone records, and the small notations that became the case's center: is "Paul" a clue, a red herring, or the last missing piece?

    Person: Gloria Lawson
    Date: July 14, 1991 (discovery); estimated death between July 11 evening and early July 12
    Location: 4418 Birchwood Lane
    Status: Case unresolved for 32 years; name "Paul" noted in pencil on kitchen calendar
    Investigator: Lead detective Ed Kaminski, age 41 in summer 1991

    - A 15-year-old paper carrier, Melissa Evans, discovered the running compressor and called 9-1-1 at 6:20 a.m.
    - The Kenmore chest freezer held approximately 20 cubic feet and had been emptied before Gloria's body was placed inside.
    - Gloria weighed cat food to a quarter pound each and fed two cats daily at 5:45 a.m.; their bowls held dried food from at least two days earlier.
    - The calendar entry read "Paul - seven p.m." in pencil, circled by Detective Kaminski and left without any matching phone record or last name.
    - Drag marks from the kitchen threshold to the front door showed a single point of contact at the shoulders, indicating one person moved the body.

    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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    16 分