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  • She Wrote "Thank You, Uncle Earl": The Earl Rice Romance Scam

    She Wrote "Thank You, Uncle Earl": The Earl Rice Romance Scam
    2026/10/29
    She Wrote "Thank You, Uncle Earl": The Earl Rice Romance Scam

    A quiet Midwestern life was pierced by a single card that read "Thank you, Uncle Earl" and a truck that didn't move - small clues that would unravel eighteen months of daily messages and fourteen wire transfers. How did a dock manager in Corrigan end up sending thousands to a supposed missionary who used stolen photos and patient persuasion?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the first FaithLink message to the final unraveling, showing how routine details and slow escalations turned into a romance scam that had already ruined lives in other states before reaching Corrigan - what finally exposed the scheme?

    Person: Earl Rice
    Date: April 14, 2022
    Location: Corrigan, Missouri
    Platform: FaithLink
    Amount: fourteen wire transfers totaling multiple thousands

    - First suspicious item: a card postmarked Chicago with no return address found April 14, 2022.
    - Initial wire transfer: $340 sent in February 2021 for "pump parts for a well."
    - Duration of contact: eighteen months of daily messages and long audio recordings.
    - Number of transfers: fourteen wire transfers over fourteen months after the first.
    - Scammer identity tactics: profile used photos belonging to Chris Avery of Knoxville and presented as "Jason Padgett."

    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 Photo That Proved She'd Been Watched for Years

    The Photo That Proved She'd Been Watched for Years
    2026/10/28
    The Photo That Proved She'd Been Watched for Years

    Fear that someone you trusted was never who they seemed-April Dempsey found a crisp photo of herself on a boat despite never having been on one, and that single image pointed to years of patient surveillance across three states. Who built the rotating cast of men to play one identity, and why was a remote manager orchestrating every intimate message?

    In this episode, we present the events that followed the discovery of that photograph and how ordinary details-a church storage room, a contractor’s signature, a phone voice-became the threads of a larger scheme; what did investigators find when they followed that photograph?

    Person: April Dempsey
    Age: 44
    Job: Occupational therapist at Sunrise Wellness
    Date found: a Wednesday morning in March (the 14th referenced)
    Money lost: $4,200

    - A five-by-seven print photograph of April Dempsey was found tucked in a stack of folded chairs in a church storage room.
    - The photograph showed April smiling on what appeared to be the deck of a small boat, despite her having never been on a boat.
    - The photograph was found by Harvey Burke and shown to facilities manager Raymond Carter on the morning after it was discovered.
    - Raymond Carter connected the photograph to a contractor named Jason who worked on the church’s rear drainage the previous autumn for three days.
    - Investigators determined the fraud ran across three states and involved at least nine other women no one had yet found.

    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
  • She Finds Her Own Face on a Tree: The Marcia O'Connor Case

    She Finds Her Own Face on a Tree: The Marcia O'Connor Case
    2026/10/27
    She Finds Her Own Face on a Tree: The Marcia O'Connor Case

    A framed 5x7 photograph of a laughing woman in a hospital gown sat four feet up in a sycamore on Pinewood Spur with the words "I was real" written across the glass - a photo of a woman who had never been on that trail. Who had that exact hospital image of Marcia O'Connor and why was it left in a place she never visited?

    In this episode, we lay out how a routine wellness app match led from precise dietary notes and clinical guidance to a photograph wedged in a tree, and we follow the investigators who tried to bridge that gap between online intimacy and a physical message; what did the photograph mean and who placed it?

    Person: Marcia O'Connor
    Date: last Tuesday of February 2023
    Location: Pinewood Spur, Halverton, Ohio
    Case: photograph found in sycamore with message "I was real."
    Topic: NutriPath consultant "Charles Barrett" and patient interactions

    - The photograph was a five by seven inch silver-framed print placed four feet off the ground in a sycamore tree.
    - Three words, "I was real," were written across the glass in erasable marker and had run slightly from the cold.
    - Marcia O'Connor was 28 years old in autumn 2021 and worked as a billing coordinator at a pediatric dental practice.
    - Marcia lost 22 pounds over several months and was diagnosed in October 2021 with non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
    - Charles Barrett's NutriPath account had been active 14 months before Marcia joined and had been matched with 11 users, six of whom transferred money.

    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 Dry Badge: How a Fake UN Widower Stole $211,000 from Angela

    The Dry Badge: How a Fake UN Widower Stole $211,000 from Angela
    2026/10/26
    The Dry Badge: How a Fake UN Widower Stole $211,000 from Angela

    Fear and disbelief: a dry UN lanyard snagged above a freezing Missouri river became Exhibit Seven and unravelled a romance scam that siphoned $211,000 from a grieving widow-how did one badge, never wet, point so precisely to a stranger's lies?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a January 14, 2019 discovery to the months of messages and wired money that preceded it, detailing how a fabricated United Nations identity on a faith-based dating site led to sustained financial loss and a fourteen-month silence before questions were asked; could a river snag really expose a calculated fraud?

    Person: Angela Evans
    Date: January 14, 2019
    Location: Cassidy Fork, Cassidy County, Missouri
    Amount: $211,000
    Platform: HopeMatch

    - The badge and lanyard were found dry on January 14, 2019 at 4:45 AM while the river was running at 4.2 feet and the temperature was 31 degrees.
    - Angela Evans’ husband, Clint Evans, died in March 2016 at age 58; Angela was 53 at the time.
    - Angela held four certificates of deposit at Aldermoor Savings and Loan, each valued between $60,000 and $90,000.
    - The first wire transfer from Angela occurred in February 2018 for $3,000 after contact began in October 2017.
    - The face used in the fake profile belonged to Warren Ogle, a retired contractor from Flagstaff, Arizona, whose photos were taken from his 2015 Facebook account.

    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
  • She Sent Money to a Ghost: The Diane Bailey Case

    She Sent Money to a Ghost: The Diane Bailey Case
    2026/10/25
    She Sent Money to a Ghost: The Diane Bailey Case

    Fear of being fooled by someone you think you know: a tournament chess set arrives at Diane Bailey’s door, a man’s voice fills her nights for months, and eight days after a frozen chessboard is found in a culvert, an arrest follows - how did a romance that began on a correspondence chess platform become an eleven-year fraud case?

    In this episode, we tell how messages, voice calls, a mailed chess set and one reverse-image search connected a twenty-two-year-old insurance worker to a forty-six-year-old arrested in Elford, and why a clerical parcel mistake led a surveyor to the board that became evidence; how did routine chess moves turn into offshore transfers and a conviction?

    Person: Diane Bailey
    Person: Dean Keller
    Date: December 11 (survey discovery)
    Location: Whitmore Street, Elford
    Sentence: eleven years

    - Diane Bailey created an account on a correspondence chess platform in the second week of September at age 22.
    - Diane received a tournament-quality Staunton chess set mailed from a UPS Store on Bellman Avenue in Covington.
    - Nancy Thompson photographed a chess set laid on a vinyl roll-up board in a drainage culvert at 8:40 AM on December 11 with three moves played.
    - Dean Keller was arrested eight days after the culvert discovery on Whitmore Street in Elford.
    - Sharon Morris ran a reverse-image search that matched Keller’s sent photo to Paul Whitfield’s LinkedIn image in under four minutes.

    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 Red Shoe: How a Lost Oxford Unmasked a Heartbreak Scam

    The Red Shoe: How a Lost Oxford Unmasked a Heartbreak Scam
    2026/10/24
    The Red Shoe: How a Lost Oxford Unmasked a Heartbreak Scam

    The quiet discovery of a single size eleven brown oxford in wet soil set off the unravelling of a romance scam that stole $41,000 from a cancer survivor - but how did one abandoned shoe expose months of deliberate deception? Which small detail turned a seeming friendship into a calculated betrayal?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the morning the shoe was found through the months of online contact and in-person meetings, detailing how an apparent fellow survivor inserted herself into Rebecca Smith’s life and what the red post on Copperhead Ridge revealed about timing and intent.

    Person: Rebecca Smith
    Location: 412 Linden Creek Road, Harlan County, Tennessee
    Date found: Tuesday morning in November 2019
    Amount taken: $41,000
    Online group: Lymphoma Survivors: Moving Forward (about 200 members)

    - A septic technician named Kimberly Phillips found a single size eleven brown leather oxford beside a maintenance panel on Linden Creek Road at 7:40 AM.
    - Rebecca Smith turned 38 in autumn 2019 and had been in remission from non-Hodgkin lymphoma for two years when the fraud occurred.
    - Rebecca walked three miles each morning at 6:15 AM to a trailhead marker known as the red post on Copperhead Ridge and kept a diary of every walk.
    - The Facebook group Lymphoma Survivors: Moving Forward launched in June 2019 and had about 200 members; Kathleen York created her account in March 2019.
    - The woman using the name Kathleen York arrived at the red post in a white Subaru Forester and had scouted the trailhead by parking there on consecutive mornings before meeting Rebecca.

    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 Letters in the Marsh: How "Paul" Stole Alice's Heart and Identity

    The Letters in the Marsh: How "Paul" Stole Alice's Heart and Identity
    2026/10/23
    The Letters in the Marsh: How "Paul" Stole Alice's Heart and Identity

    Fear that the person who loved you might be a lie: a plastic tote, two years of airmail letters, a laminated photo taped to the lid reading "For Alice. So she knows I am real." Who was the man signing himself Paul Carlson, and why did the compass rose on every last page matter? What did a reverse image search and a mail-forwarding trick finally reveal?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery at Cutter's Marsh and trace the correspondence that began in spring 2019 and continued for more than two years, the small town ties that made Alice trust the letters, and the evidence that unmasked the writer - but how did he build such convincing proof?

    Person: Alice Chambers
    Person: Vincent Dray
    Date: March 4, 2022
    Location: Cutter's Marsh, near Dellmore, Indiana
    Duration: Letters arrived every three weeks for more than two years

    - At 6:00 a.m. on March 4, 2022 a birdwatcher named Holly Burns found a half-sunken plastic tote in Cutter's Marsh containing two years of letters.
    - The letters began in spring 2019 and were sent on thin airmail paper with a compass rose drawn in the lower right corner of the last page.
    - The correspondent signed as "Paul Carlson," claimed to be a 44-year-old civil engineer in East Africa, and sent a laminated photograph taped to the container with the inscription "For Alice. So she knows I am real."
    - Alice Chambers was 63 years old in 2021, had lived in Dellmore for 27 years, and volunteered weekly with a local literacy program for 11 years.
    - A reverse image search performed by Alice's friend Sherry Hunt matched the photograph to Tom Brewer, a 44-year-old civil engineer from Boise, Idaho, revealing that "Paul Carlson" did not exist.

    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
  • The Shoebox Full of Crossed-Out Faces: How Kent Lost $10,000

    The Shoebox Full of Crossed-Out Faces: How Kent Lost $10,000
    2026/10/22
    The Shoebox Full of Crossed-Out Faces: How Kent Lost $10,000

    Fear tightens like a noose when you realize the person who loved you may not exist: forty-one photographs of the same man, every face crossed out in red, found in a recycling bin on September 11 - and a romance that cost Kent Baker $10,000. How did a profile claiming to be a deaf architect in Scotland turn a landscaping forum post into a months-long deception, and who finally made the mistake that cracked the operation?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning Leon Price discovered the shoebox to Detective Kimberly Sanders reconnecting it to earlier victims, tracing how the scam used public images, a fabricated disability, and patient attention to build trust. What single error pulled a local romance fraud case into view?

    Person: Kent Baker
    Date: September 11 (discovery of shoebox)
    Person: Leon Price
    Person: Detective Kimberly Sanders
    Amount: $11,000

    - Leon Price found a shoebox with forty-one photographs at 6:40 a.m, on September 11.
    - Each of the forty-one photographs showed the same man's face crossed out in red.
    - Kent Baker was 26 years old and lived at 414 Dunmore Terrace for three years.
    - The fake profile identified as James Young used photographs of Doug Haas, an architect from Portland, Oregon.
    - Eleven months before Kent's discovery, Evelyn Trask reported losing $11,000 to a man she never met in person.

    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