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  • The Hidden WWII Photograph That Unraveled a Family Secret

    The Hidden WWII Photograph That Unraveled a Family Secret
    2026/07/25
    The Hidden WWII Photograph That Unraveled a Family Secret

    Fear and curiosity collide when a hidden war photograph appears behind a portrait hung for more than sixty years - the inscription names a different man and a different bomb group from the one on the family records. How did a picture of Walter Allen Pruett, 379th Bomb Group, end up behind Walter Bailey’s portrait, and what did Walter Bailey know for decades without ever saying?

    In this episode, we tell the story of how a fallen picture frame discovered by a teenage paper delivery girl forced a daughter to reopen a lifetime of quiet facts and unanswered questions. Listen as the household objects, military papers and two conflicting unit names point to a mystery about identity and loyalty that only the family can begin to explain.

    Person: Walter Bailey
    Person: Walter Allen Pruett
    Event: Photograph found on August 14, 2019 at 6:15 AM
    Date: Walter Bailey born in 1922; discharged and home in 1946
    Service: Walter Bailey flew 31 missions and received the Distinguished Flying Cross

    - The portrait had hung in the hallway for more than 60 years before falling.
    - The hidden photo’s inscription read “Walter Allen Pruett, 379th Bomb Group, Kimbolton, England, 1944.”
    - Walter Bailey enlisted in 1942 and trained as a bombardier in Texas and Nebraska.
    - Walter Bailey was assigned to the 381st Bomb Group out of Ridgewell, Essex, and flew 31 missions.
    - A 1988 certificate from the 379th Bomb Group Survivors’ Association was issued in Walter Bailey’s name.

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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 Photo, the Hidden Hand, and the Brother Who Never Knew

    The Photo, the Hidden Hand, and the Brother Who Never Knew
    2026/07/24
    The Photo, the Hidden Hand, and the Brother Who Never Knew

    The idea that a small hand half-hidden in a 1951 Gallia County photograph could hold a seventy-year secret is unsettling and precise: a child erased from records, two graves four hours apart, and a stack of surviving documents that changed everything. Who decided to erase him, and why did the truth cross state lines only after so many deaths?

    In this episode, we follow how a routine genealogy alert and a shared 1,700 centimorgan DNA match connect a woman in Dunmore, Ohio, to a man buried in Harlan County, Kentucky, and how a single unsigned letter reshaped family stories. What emerges when inherited silence meets modern DNA evidence?

    Person: Valerie Miller
    Person: Gregory Vaughn (born Paul, December 1947)
    Location: Gallia County, Ohio
    Location: Harlan County, Kentucky
    Event: DNA match of 1,700 centimorgans indicating half‑siblings

    - A photograph taken around 1951 in Gallia County shows a girl about three years old with a small hidden hand behind an open door.
    - Pauline Miller, the photographed girl's daughter, died in March 2018 at age sixty-nine and had believed she was an only child.
    - Gregory Vaughn was born in December 1947 in Gallia County and was baptized with parents recorded as Ernest and Helen Garrett.
    - Valerie Miller uploaded her DNA in April 2019 and received an obituary alert for Gregory Vaughn in July 2019 that led to a phone call with his daughter.
    - The DNA comparison showed 1,700 centimorgans shared between Gregory Vaughn and Valerie Miller, consistent with a half‑sibling relationship.

    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 Photo That Proved a Dead Man Lived a Secret Life

    The Photo That Proved a Dead Man Lived a Secret Life
    2026/07/23
    The Photo That Proved a Dead Man Lived a Secret Life

    A utility worker finds a sealed photo clipped behind a junction box - the man smiling in the picture, Raymond Cutler, has a death certificate dating his drowning to June 22, 1988, yet the photograph leads to names and paperwork that exist in 2019. How could a man declared dead for 31 years leave traces that pull an eighty-one-year-old grandmother, a twenty-eight-year-old title examiner, and a long-buried secret back into the light?

    In this episode, we follow the chain of discoveries that begin with a photograph at 4 Culver Lane and end with a confession kept silent for decades. Listen as property records, a phone call on June 16, 2019, and a grandmother’s memory reveal why Raymond disappeared and who helped him - and what happens when those facts finally surface.

    Person: Raymond Cutler
    Date: June 22, 1988
    Location: Aldermere Creek
    Person: Valerie Lawson
    Date: June 11, 2019

    - A utility worker named Randy Parker found a photograph sealed in a zip-lock bag clipped to the back of a junction housing at 4 Culver Lane on June 11, 2019.
    - Raymond Cutler’s death certificate records a drowning at Aldermere Creek on June 22, 1988, with one witness and no body recovered.
    - Pauline Cutler was four months pregnant in June 1988 and later raised their daughter, Valerie, who was adopted at age six by Tom Lawson.
    - Debra Andrews, Raymond’s mother-in-law, received a letter in 2017 stating Raymond was ill and had arranged for someone to learn the truth.
    - Valerie, working as a title examiner in 2019, found the registered owner of 4 Culver Lane listed as Marsh Creek Properties with the nominal holder named Raymond Delmar.

    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
  • A Runner Finds a Dead Man's Secret Marriage: The Thomas Fenner Case

    A Runner Finds a Dead Man's Secret Marriage: The Thomas Fenner Case
    2026/07/22
    A Runner Finds a Dead Man's Secret Marriage: The Thomas Fenner Case

    Fear and disbelief: a cardboard box on bench number two held 31 envelopes postmarked 1961-1963 that revealed Thomas Fenner had a marriage certificate to Rachel Ann Ann-despite his family believing his only wife was Constance Pelham Fenner. How did those folders travel three blocks from his home, and why was there no dissolution record for a 1961 marriage?

    In this episode, we follow how a morning runner's discovery turned a closed estate into an open question about a hidden marriage. The episode traces the documents found, the certified notice from the county clerk, and the gaps that leave Laura wondering what else she never knew about her father.

    Person: Thomas Fenner Fenner
    Date (death): February 2018
    Person (daughter/executor): Laura Edwards
    Date (box found): May 9, 2019
    Document: 31 envelopes postmarked April 1961-December 1963

    - The box contained 31 envelopes rubber-banded together, with postmarks from April 1961 to December 1963.
    - All envelopes were addressed to Rachel Ann at Brevard Court, Dellmont, with a Crestfield P.O. box return address.
    - Thomas Fenner died in February 2018 at age 81 and left a will and a fireproof lockbox under his bed.
    - Laura Edwards, age 54, opened the lockbox and found a will, a 1972 savings bond, military discharge papers, and a photo of Constance.
    - On May 22, 2019, Deputy County Clerk Sylvia Pate sent a certified letter confirming a genuine marriage certificate for Thomas Fenner Fenner and Rachel Ann Ann dated April 14, 1961.

    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
  • A Stranger's Face Behind the Gas Meter: The Bowers-Bennett Switch

    A Stranger's Face Behind the Gas Meter: The Bowers-Bennett Switch
    2026/07/22
    A Stranger's Face Behind the Gas Meter: The Bowers-Bennett Switch

    A single framed school photograph leaning against a gas meter unravels a three-decade secret: two men born fourteen hours apart at the same rural hospital may have been switched at birth. Who placed the picture there, and how did two mothers' silences shape the next thirty years of two families' lives?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery on April 9, 2019, and trace back to events at the Calvary Ridge Community Medical Center on the night of April 3-4, 1989. You will hear how small inconsistencies-eye color, a handwritten bassinet note, and an old photograph-raise the question of whether two boys were swapped, and what two women chose not to say.

    Person: Earl Bowers
    Date: April 3, 1989, 11:47 PM (birth)
    Person: Edward Bennett
    Date: April 4, 1989, 1:22 PM (birth)
    Location: Calvary Ridge Community Medical Center
    Event: Two bassinets moved during a night cleaning in 1989

    - Dale Perry found a framed school photograph propped against the Bowers gas meter on April 9, 2019.
    - Earl Bowers was born at 11:47 PM on April 3, 1989, in the rural hospital.
    - Edward Bennett was born at 1:22 PM on April 4, 1989, approximately fourteen hours after Earl.
    - Diane Bennett first noticed her son's pale grey eyes in 1992 when he was three years old.
    - A records clerk, Bette Odom, showed Diane a handwritten delivery log entry noting two male bassinets were moved during a room cleaning on that night in 1989.

    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 Baby Buried Under 'Foster' Wasn't Ours - A Father's Letter

    The Baby Buried Under 'Foster' Wasn't Ours - A Father's Letter
    2026/07/22
    The Baby Buried Under 'Foster' Wasn't Ours - A Father's Letter

    The smallest sentence changed everything: a seventy-one-year-old woman, dying in a hospital bed, said twice with steady voice, "The baby they buried wasn't mine," and her daughter carried those nine words into an empty house and two weeks later found a sealed envelope that had been hidden for fifteen years. What did the four-page letter found behind hymnals reveal about a grave dug in 1973, a secret pregnancy, and a family built on an unspoken arrangement?

    In this episode, you will hear the sequence of events around Jessica Foster's final words, the discovery of a manila envelope at St. Anthony's Catholic Church, and the contents of the handwritten letter her husband Paul left but never delivered. How did that letter reshape what Jessica's children thought they knew about their family?

    Person: Jessica Foster
    Person: Paul Foster
    Location: Crestline, Crawford County, Ohio
    Date: 1973 (hospital arrangement) and 2019 (discovery and aftermath)
    Event: Four-page handwritten letter found behind hymnals

    - Jessica Foster said "The baby they buried wasn't mine" twice while dying of a pulmonary embolism at age seventy-one.
    - The manila envelope addressed "JESSICA" was found behind hymnals printed in the 1980s at St. Anthony's Church after sitting there for fifteen years.
    - Paul Foster died of a heart attack in 2004 and had left a four-page handwritten letter in blue ink folded once inside the envelope.
    - The letter describes an affair beginning around autumn 1970 and a pregnancy in October 1972 involving a woman named Margaret Aldiss, aged twenty-two, diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
    - Brian Foster was forty-seven in 2019 and received the call about the letter from parish secretary Diane Poole the same day retired machinist Gregory Bowers found the envelope.

    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
  • He Left a Baby Shoe at the Trail-She Hid the Other for 72 Years

    He Left a Baby Shoe at the Trail-She Hid the Other for 72 Years
    2026/07/22
    He Left a Baby Shoe at the Trail-She Hid the Other for 72 Years

    A single ivory baby shoe, monogrammed E.A.M., left on a frozen culvert in 2019 led to a cedar box in an attic and forty-three letters that had been hidden for seventy-two years; who left the shoe, and why did a mother keep the rest of the story silent for decades? What would a bundle of letters signed G.S. and unsent drafts in Eloise Harding’s handwriting finally reveal about a secret from 1940s Ohio?

    In this episode, we follow the steps from a nature trail to a colonial house on Breck Hill Road as a daughter clears her late mother’s home and uncovers a locked box, bundles of correspondence, and drafts that name a man and outline an ultimatum; what motive, what promise, and what absence shaped the choices kept in that attic for seven decades?

    Person: Eloise Harding
    Date: February 9, 2019
    Location: Kellner Creek Nature Preserve / Breck Hill Road, Linden Falls, Ohio
    Case: Forty-three letters in a cedar box with initials E.A.M.
    Author: thirty-five letters signed G.S.; eight draft pages in Eloise’s handwriting

    - A golden retriever named Pilot found a single ivory leather baby shoe on a frozen culvert on February 9, 2019.
    - The shoe bore the monogram E.A.M. stitched in pale blue thread and appeared roughly seventy years old.
    - Eloise Harding died in November 2018 at age eighty-eight and lived alone on Breck Hill Road in Linden Falls, Ohio.
    - Sarah Harding found a cedar box in the attic in the first week of February 2019 containing forty-three letters bundled with fused rubber bands.
    - Thirty-five envelopes were addressed to a Zanesville post office box and signed with the initials G.S.; eight unsent draft pages were in Eloise’s handwriting.

    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 Coat, the Card, and the Woman Who Was Never There

    The Coat, the Card, and the Woman Who Was Never There
    2026/07/22
    The Coat, the Card, and the Woman Who Was Never There

    Cold water hid a careful gesture: a folded coat draped over a submerged branch in the Keswick River, forty feet from the east bank, with an index card sealed in a plastic bag that read PATRICIA ANN WELLER, BORN MARCH FOURTH, NINETEEN SIXTY-THREE - a name absent from every public record and missing persons list. Who wrote that card, why was it preserved against the river, and what secret stretched back nearly sixty years that connects a coat, a storage tub, and a DNA result?

    In this episode, we follow how a coat found by a trotline fisherwoman in January 2022 set off a quiet unraveling in a small Indiana town, from a sheriff’s substation log to a consumer DNA match that didn’t make sense. The story traces the ordinary rhythms of a family in Paloma, the discovery of an impossible half-sibling match, and the storage tub that may hold the answers - but who does the card name, and why was it kept?

    Person: Sherry Snyder
    Location: Keswick River, forty feet from east bank
    Date: January 2022 (coat found); December 2022 (DNA result opened); October 2022 (DNA test taken)
    Case: Index card reading PATRICIA ANN WELLER, BORN MARCH FOURTH, NINETEEN SIXTY-THREE
    Event: DNA match showing forty-one percent shared DNA between Lauren Schmidt and Karen Carlson

    - The coat was folded deliberately and placed on a branch forty feet from the east bank of the Keswick River.
    - The index card was sealed inside a small plastic bag and written in block capitals with the name and birthdate.
    - No record of Patricia Ann Weller exists in Tilden County missing persons reports or Indiana state death records.
    - Lauren Schmidt’s consumer DNA test was mailed in October 2022 and opened in December 2022, revealing a 41% DNA match.
    - Karen Carlson, the top match, is a fifty-eight-year-old retired librarian in Fort Wayne, listed as a predicted half-sibling.

    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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    28 分