A single bone found on Albuquerque’s West Mesa led investigators to a discovery no one was prepared for. Over the following days, the desert revealed the remains of eleven women and one unborn child. This episode traces the years before that moment, the women whose lives were taken, and the long search for clarity that has yet to bring closure. It is a story shaped by vulnerability, systemic failure, and a landscape that held its silence for far too long.

This is the Case of the West Mesa Bone Collector

Follow along on Instagram and tiktok at @downthecrookedpath Share your thoughts or your own theories by emailing crookedpathsocial@gmail.com

Life has a way of throwing curveballs, and this week it definitely did. Between health, schedules, and the general chaos of being human, we weren’t able to finish our regular episode in time.

But we didn’t want to leave your feed empty, so today we’re sharing a sister‑podcast crossover from Canadian Creepies: the strange little tale of Jacko the Ape. It’s weird, it’s folkloric, and it’s exactly the kind of odd Canadian mystery we love.

Thank you for your patience, your messages, and your support while we catch our breath. We’ll be back next week with a full, brand‑new Down the Crooked Path episode.

Until then… enjoy this curious detour into Canadian lore.

In this episode, we dive into one of the most controversial modern possession cases ever documented: the story of Julia, the woman psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gallagher publicly claimed was genuinely possessed by a demonic entity. Gallagher, a trained medical professional and skeptic by nature, became convinced that Julia’s case defied every psychiatric explanation he knew.

We explore:

• Who Dr. Richard Gallagher is and why his opinion carries weight
• The background of Julia and how she came under Gallagher’s care
• The disturbing phenomena reported during her evaluation
• Why Gallagher believed this case crossed the line from psychological to supernatural
• The ongoing debate between medical science, religious interpretation, and the unexplained

Have your own theories, episode suggestions, or a strange story you want us to cover? Email us at crookedpathsocial@gmail.com.

Follow along on TikTok and Instagram: @downthecrookedpath

On a rainy January night in 1982, 19‑year‑old Lisa Au left her boyfriend’ in Kailua and began the short drive home. She never arrived. What followed was one of Hawai‘i’s most haunting and consequential missing‑person cases — a story that reshaped public trust, changed policing practices, and left a family searching for answers that never came.

• A clear, chronological retelling of Lisa Au’s last known movements
• How the severe rainstorm affected the search and investigation
• The discovery of her car and the early theories that emerged
• The role of public pressure, media coverage, and community fear
• The long‑term impact of the case on Hawai‘i law enforcement

I greatly apologize If I have pronounced any names wrong. I did try hard to research pronunciation before recording

Mount Shasta has a reputation that stretches far beyond its trails. People come here for the scenery, but the stories that surround this mountain go in every direction. In this episode, we look at the documented disappearances, the search efforts that followed, and the conditions that made those cases so difficult to resolve. We also explore the stranger accounts tied to the area: the claims of hidden cities beneath the mountain, the Bigfoot reports, and the well‑known “robot grandma” encounter that has circulated for years.

In this episode:

• Documented missing‑person cases on Mount Shasta
• Search and rescue details and environmental conditions
• Claims of hidden or ancient civilizations beneath the mountain
• Bigfoot reports connected to the region
• The “robot grandma” encounter and how it entered local lore
• How these stories have shaped the mountain’s reputation

Sorry this episode was delayed. I was unwell this week.

A corner of the internet once promised something unthinkable: a place where anyone could hire a killer with a few clicks. It called itself Besa Mafia, and for a brief, chaotic moment, it became one of the most infamous “hitman‑for‑hire” sites on the dark web. But behind the ominous branding and whispered rumors was something far stranger and far more human than a criminal empire.

We explore:

• How Besa Mafia rose to notoriety as the “dark web’s most dangerous hitman site”
• Why so many people fell for a service that never actually existed
• The real‑world investigations and arrests that followed

In 1897, Zona Heaster Shue was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Her death was ruled natural. Her husband insisted on a quick burial. And the case should have ended there. But it didn’t. Because Zona’s mother, Mary Jane, claimed her daughter came back from beyond the grave to tell her she’d been murdered.

This episode breaks down what really happened inside that house, what Mary Jane knew that she shouldn’t have known, and the ghost story printed on the front page of The Greenbrier Independent that may have shaped everything that came next. We explore the miscarriage theory, Trout Shue’s history, the bloody sheet, and the possibility that the wrong person could have been blamed. And we look at how Trout’s own testimony — not the ghost — ultimately sealed his fate.

This episode includes discussion of:

• Death
• Domestic violence
• Pregnancy loss
• Racial bias in 19th‑century Appalachia

Percy Fawcett: The Explorer Who Walked Into the Amazon and Never Returned

In 1925, legendary explorer Percy Fawcett set out with his son and his son’s best friend to find a lost city he called “Z.” They walked into one of the most unforgiving regions of the Amazon rainforest and vanished without leaving a single confirmed trace behind.

This episode breaks down the theories that have followed the case for nearly a century. You will hear about the belief that Fawcett reached a hidden community he had written about for years. You will also hear the idea that he crossed into something stranger, such as a portal or a shift in time. We look at the possibility of conflict with an isolated tribe, along with the very real dangers of the Amazon itself, including starvation, sickness, predators, and exposure.

We also explore the quieter theory that Fawcett and his team may not have died at all. Some believe they could have joined a remote community and lived out their lives far from the world they left behind.