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  • Buried Library Card, Delivery Driver, and the Vanished Radiology Tech

    Buried Library Card, Delivery Driver, and the Vanished Radiology Tech
    2026/07/26
    Buried Library Card, Delivery Driver, and the Vanished Radiology Tech

    A waterproofed library card survived nearly three decades underground, deliberately placed in a bag at a burial site found November 9, 2019 - a trace that would ultimately reopen a 28-year disappearance. Who buried the card beside a body arranged face-down with hands under the chin, and why was a delivery driver on the same road the morning Rachel Vogel vanished?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Rachel Vogel's routine life and disappearance on November 11, 1991 through the decades-long investigation, the overlooked note about a Braddock Food Supply delivery truck, and the 2019 excavation that confirmed Rachel's identity. How did a septic worker's discovery and a retired evidence tech's genealogy work finally connect the dots?

    Person: Rachel Vogel
    Date: November 11, 1991 (last confirmed purchase), November 9, 2019 (burial discovered)
    Location: Fenner Street (home), Aldis Road (coffee shop), Cutter Road property outside Valdeen (burial)
    Status: Identified by dental records after 28 years
    Event: Braddock Food Supply delivery truck logged 41 extra miles on November 12, 1991

    - Rachel Vogel was 38 years old and worked as a radiological technician on weekdays from 7:00 a.m, to 3:00 p.m.
    - Her last confirmed purchase was a receipt stamped 7:42 a.m. on November 11, 1991 at a coffee shop on Aldis Road.
    - Three missed shifts prompted her supervisor to report her missing on November 14, 1991 after she failed to show for work Tuesday through Thursday.
    - A note in Detective Walt Seaver's files recorded that a Braddock Food Supply vehicle logged 41 more miles than its documented route on November 12, 1991.
    - On November 9, 2019, a septic tank worker found a depression; excavation revealed a mostly intact skeleton in a waterproofed bag and a library card preserved in a bag at the site.

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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
  • The Man Who Drove Her Home: The Earring That Broke Thirty Years Silence

    The Man Who Drove Her Home: The Earring That Broke Thirty Years Silence
    2026/07/25
    The Man Who Drove Her Home: The Earring That Broke Thirty Years Silence

    A sealed evidence bag, amber with age and labeled with a legible property number, turned up in leaf litter at Calloway Reservoir three decades after Michelle Vogel was killed - and the earring inside once belonged to a case that never left Merritt County evidence storage. How did an item tied to a thirty-year-old strangulation case end up buried miles from the file that said it never left the evidence room?

    In this episode, we tell the facts of Michelle Vogel's disappearance and death, the stray earring found on April 9, 2019, and the gaps in the original investigation that kept answers from the people who wanted them. What did that mismatched driver's seat and the evidence tag really mean for a case that had gone cold?

    Person: Michelle Vogel
    Date: October 11, 1989 (last seen); October 17, 1989 (body found)
    Location: Grover Falls, Ohio; body found in drainage culvert off County Road 14
    Status: Cause of death manual strangulation; case remained unresolved for decades
    Event: Earring found April 9, 2019 at eastern edge of Calloway Reservoir in sealed evidence bag

    - Michelle was 37 years old and worked as a billing coordinator at Merritt County General Hospital for eleven years.
    - She called her mother at 11:03 p.m. on October 11, 1989 and spoke for 22 minutes; that was the last time Elaine Vogel heard her voice.
    - Michelle’s car was found six days after she disappeared with keys in the ignition, purse on the passenger seat, and the driver’s seat pushed back approximately four inches.
    - Her body was discovered on October 17, 1989, having been at the site for most of the six days since she disappeared.
    - On April 9, 2019, Laura Cooper found a sealed plastic evidence bag containing a small gold hoop with turquoise inlay at Calloway Reservoir; the handwritten property number on the tag was still legible.

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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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    20 分
  • The Thorn Birds, the Bite Marks, and the Woman Who Lied for Decades

    The Thorn Birds, the Bite Marks, and the Woman Who Lied for Decades
    2026/07/24
    The Thorn Birds, the Bite Marks, and the Woman Who Lied for Decades

    A paperback copy of The Thorn Birds was found balanced in the fingers of a dead woman's hand; the book had never belonged to her and it took thirty-one years for that detail to begin making sense. Bite-mark casts made in 1979 were sealed in a freezer for twenty-seven years before a routine photograph revealed a distinctive tooth irregularity that reopened everything - who placed the book there, and why did no one ask about the bowling scorecard?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from the unlocked door Holly Whitaker pushed open on September 9, 1979, to the long-forgotten dental casts photographed in 2007, tracing the overlooked clues and missed interviews that left key questions unanswered: who in Jean Tillman's circle was absent the night she disappeared, and who had the bite pattern that matched the casts?

    Person: Jean Tillman
    Date: September 9, 1979
    Location: Apartment 414, Callum Street, Drenner, Ohio
    Evidence: Eight bite marks with plaster casts made by Dr. Steven Marsh
    Person: Linda Stein

    - Jean Tillman was twenty-four years old and had been dead for approximately six hours when found on September 9, 1979.
    - Holly Whitaker, age fourteen, discovered Jean holding a paperback copy of The Thorn Birds that Jean had given away four months earlier.
    - Dr. Steven Marsh cast three bite marks on Jean’s left forearm and right shoulder and noted a rotational irregularity in the upper left lateral incisor.
    - The plaster casts remained in a Harlan County evidence freezer from 1980 until they were photographed in 2007 - twenty-seven years later.
    - The Tri-County Lanes bowling scorecard shows Jean missed league night on September 5, 1979, the same night L. Stein was recorded absent.

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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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    20 分
  • The Mailman's Secret: How a Timex and a Logbook Broke Silence

    The Mailman's Secret: How a Timex and a Logbook Broke Silence
    2026/07/23
    The Mailman's Secret: How a Timex and a Logbook Broke Silence

    Something in an apartment that looked untouched became the key to a twenty-three-year-old disappearance: Gail Burke’s Timex Ironman was missing, a logbook showed a “Tate” signed in as water softener service for a unit that needed no repair, and a scratched watch crystal later changed everything - who was the mail carrier who would have been recognized by Gail the moment she opened the door?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from the unlocked apartment and the missing watch to the logbook entry and the medical examiner’s note, and track how those details kept the case alive across decades; can a single signature and a scratched watch finally answer who signed in that day?

    Person: Gail Burke
    Date: August 7 (at 5:17 p.m. emergency call)
    Location: Dellard
    Age: 49
    Occupation: Licensed practical nurse at Dellard Community Clinic

    - Gail’s keys were on the kitchen counter, her purse with $43 was on the couch, and the door was unlocked when her brother Carl found the apartment.
    - Carl called 911 at exactly 5:17 p.m. after Gail failed to arrive at Lake Rennick and did not call.
    - Gail had worn the same Timex Ironman watch every day for eleven years; the watch was missing and had a small scratch on the crystal.
    - The building logbook showed an entry between noon and 3 p.m. on August 7 signed “Tate” listed as water softener service for Gail’s unit, though the unit had been replaced and needed no repair.
    - Dr. Linda Cho documented a ligature mark on Gail’s left wrist in the autopsy report, photographed and noted separately from the cause of death.

    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 Shoe on the Ice Machine: How One Sneaker Cracked a 30-Year Murder

    The Shoe on the Ice Machine: How One Sneaker Cracked a 30-Year Murder
    2026/07/22
    The Shoe on the Ice Machine: How One Sneaker Cracked a 30-Year Murder

    A single white canvas sneaker, balanced heel-down on a padlocked ice machine four feet off the ground, pointed to a deliberate act that baffled investigators for thirty years - how did Amanda Murphy's shoe end up there while her body lay twenty feet away in a service corridor? Who stood on that machine to redirect the rear camera, and why did the partial shoeprint sit misfiled for fifteen years before anyone noticed?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the discovery on July 9, 1993 through decades of misfiled evidence, administrative reviews, and a late reexamination that revealed the camera’s angle and the shoeprint’s significance; what finally connected the sneaker to a living suspect after thirty years?

    Person: Amanda Murphy
    Date: July 9, 1993
    Location: rear service entrance and dumpster bay behind Hartwell Grocery, Carverton
    Investigator: Detective Alan Pruitt
    Evidence: white canvas sneaker and partial shoeprint on ice machine lid

    - Amanda Murphy was thirty-one years old when her body was found twenty feet from the ice machine.
    - The ice machine stood four feet off the ground, placing a person on it at the same height as the exterior camera lens.
    - The body was discovered at first light after Gordon Foster spotted the shoe and called patrol.
    - The partial shoeprint photograph was misfiled under a different case number and sat unread for fifteen years.
    - The camera recorded to VHS with a seventy-two-hour overwrite cycle, so tapes from the relevant period were blank when sought.

    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 Shoe in Cord Creek That Refused to Let Her Go

    The Shoe in Cord Creek That Refused to Let Her Go
    2026/07/21
    The Shoe in Cord Creek That Refused to Let Her Go

    Fear tightens when an ordinary running route yields a decades-old navy pump standing upright in packed creek clay - with a snowflake glass charm sealed inside containing dried lavender. That shoe matched one taken from a missing woman's home in 2001, but how did its mate end up forty feet from the back of a house after eighteen years of flooding, and what secret did a small charm hold?

    In this episode, we trace the timeline from the June 14, 2019 discovery to the long-unsolved disappearance in June 2001, following the detectives, a retired investigator, and a daughter who recognizes a bracelet from an old photograph; can the recovered shoe and its opened charm finally answer what happened to Karen Allen?

    Person: Karen Allen
    Date: June 20, 2001 (last confirmed call)
    Location: 214 Cord Lane
    Event: Navy pump recovered from Cord Creek on June 14, 2019
    Person: Detective Amy Voss

    - The navy pump was found upright in packed clay forty feet from the rear of a house on Cord Lane.
    - Inside that shoe was a snowflake-shaped glass charm containing dried lavender sealed by clay.
    - The shoe's mate had been in the Creswick County evidence freezer since 2001, recovered from Karen Allen's laundry room.
    - Karen Allen was 53 in summer 2001 and worked eighteen years as a billing coordinator at Harlow Medical Group.
    - Karen made her last confirmed phone call to her daughter on June 20, 2001 at 6:47 p.m.

    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
  • Handwriting in a Parish Ledger That Cracked a 39-Year Murder

    Handwriting in a Parish Ledger That Cracked a 39-Year Murder
    2026/07/20
    Handwriting in a Parish Ledger That Cracked a 39-Year Murder

    The idea that a single photographed line in an Irish parish birth register could unspool a four-decade mystery is chilling: a bone-dry handbag left after two days of rain, a pickup truck idling forty yards for twenty-two minutes, and a confession that ended 39 years of silence-how did a genealogy photo connect to a murder in Ohio? What specific link in that parish ledger finally pointed investigators to a 71-year-old man in Calverton?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of ordinary decisions and unexpected evidence that tied Sharon Barnes’s 1983 death to a lead born overseas, tracing the timeline from the handbag on Birchfield Road to the consumer DNA and storage-unit discovery that produced a confession. How did handwriting and an emigrant’s daughter trigger the breakthrough?

    Person: Sharon Barnes
    Date: May 14, 1983
    Location: Birchfield Road, Harwick, Ohio
    Age: 44
    Outcome: Confession; identification of a 71-year-old man in Calverton, Ohio

    - Handbag found by Frances Nelson at 7:15 a.m. on May 14, 1983, with clasp closed and contents intact.
    - Medical examiner estimated time of death between 36 and 50 hours before discovery, placing death during night of May 11-12, 1983.
    - On April 30, 1983 at 6:18 p.m., Sharon’s car stalled on Meridian Loop and a dark older pickup truck idled about 40 yards behind her for 22 minutes.
    - The handbag was bone-dry after two straight days of heavy rain in Harwick, inconsistent with being left earlier.
    - A woman in Ireland photographed a church birth register page for genealogy work, which later became the connection that helped solve the 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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    18 分
  • Cold Hair, Hidden Locker: How 29 Years Named a Killer

    Cold Hair, Hidden Locker: How 29 Years Named a Killer
    2026/07/19
    Cold Hair, Hidden Locker: How 29 Years Named a Killer

    The thrill of a cold case closing arrives with a single, unlikely detail: seven root-attached hair follicles, clenched in a victim’s fist, removed from evidence, and preserved by accident for 29 years before they yielded a name. How did a rusty garage and a detective’s boxed memories turn into the thread that finally tied a killer to a place no one suspected?

    In this episode, we follow the chronological path of the Susan Schultz case from discovery to genetic genealogy - the scene where her body was found, the missing evidence, the detective who kept the file and the envelope, and the lab work that opened a new lead. What did those seven hairs reveal, and who did the DNA point to?

    Person: Susan Schultz
    Date: April 14, 1989
    Location: Hollowtree Creek trailhead, Portsmith, Ohio
    Case: Homicide (manual strangulation) with defensive wounds
    Evidence: Seven root-attached hair follicles found clenched in victim’s right fist

    - Time found: 7:52 AM on April 14, 1989, by Jerry Erickson
    - Victim age: 28 years old at time of death
    - Evidence log: Hair logged into evidence the same day, placed in a paper bag labeled "SCHULTZ / HAIR / 04-14-89"
    - Missing period: Hair envelope absent from evidence locker and later found in retired lead detective Ed Kowalski’s garage for 29 years
    - Genetic breakthrough: One follicle yielded an autosomal DNA profile sent to a public genealogy database in spring 2018

    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