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  • She Faked a Disappearance - Left $41,000 and a Warm Mug
    2026/10/30
    She Faked a Disappearance - Left $41,000 and a Warm Mug

    A faintly warm coffee mug and eleven dollars found on a pickup hood at 4:40 a.m. became the first clue in a disappearance that followed four calibrated wire transfers totaling $41,000. Who planned a flawless vanishing act-leaving a fed cat, an untouched phone, and a pattern of tiny habits that gave her away?

    In this episode, we trace the timeline from a routine literacy volunteer shift to a mid-sized city payroll breach, following the details that tied a woman’s steady habits to a precise financial theft and her staged absence. How did eleven lunches at the same counter and a two-dollar tip crack a plan that seemed perfectly executed?

    Person: Peggy Owens
    Location: Harwick
    Event: Four wire transfers totaling $41,000
    Date found: morning after disappearance (approximately 30 hours later)
    Investigator: Deputy U.S. Marshal Dennis Bennett

    - Mug and eleven dollars were found on the hood of a green Ford pickup at 4:40 a.m., mug still faintly warm.
    - Peggy Owens had worked 14 years in accounts receivable and lived 9 years at the same Nessen Avenue apartment.
    - Four fraudulent wire transfers were made from client escrow funds in one afternoon, totaling $41,000.
    - Peggy’s gray Nissan Sentra was located at a park-and-ride lot 7 miles from her apartment; her phone remained on her kitchen counter.
    - Peggy volunteered every Tuesday from 6-9 p.m. for 72 consecutive months at the Harwick Area Literacy Center without missing a session.

    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 Coat on the Fence: How Ruth Rice Vanished Without a Trace
    2026/10/29
    The Coat on the Fence: How Ruth Rice Vanished Without a Trace

    A dry-cleaning tag with the name Ruth Rice visible from ten feet away, a burgundy wool coat folded over a fence, and no footprints in the frost - a planned disappearance that left only a precise mise-en-scène. How does a thirty-one-year-old bookkeeper vanish from a courthouse hallway and leave a staged clue nine miles away that points in every direction but the truth?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a January morning discovery back through court hearings, bank freezes, and a rented storage unit - tracing the deliberate steps that preceded Ruth Rice's disappearance and asking what her preparations reveal about intent and escape.

    Person: Ruth Rice
    Date: January 10, 2019
    Location: Belden Self-Storage, nine miles south of the Saline County Courthouse
    Event: Coat found folded over fence with dry-cleaning tag showing name
    Case: Federal wire-fraud indictment for payroll skimming over twenty-two months

    - Coat found at 7:14 AM folded over chain-link fence with lining facing out and dry-cleaning tag readable from ten feet.
    - Frost around the coat was present but the coat itself was dry and there were no footprints in the frost.
    - Ruth Rice attended four pretrial hearings over fourteen months and monitored a third-floor alcove with a window latch showing repeated use.
    - Unit 14-C at Belden Self-Storage was rented eleven months earlier under the name Gerald Foss using a deceased infant's Social Security number.
    - The storage unit contained a change of clothes, a burner phone with no call history, $2,000 in banded twenties from a Texarkana credit union, and a printed northern bus schedule.

    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
  • She Kept One Habit - That's How Marshals Found Her
    2026/10/28
    She Kept One Habit - That's How Marshals Found Her

    She kept one Tuesday night ritual for nearly eleven years - trivia at a bar at 6:30 p.m. - and that habit is exactly what led federal marshals to a library computer four years after she vanished. A woman who diverted more than $340,000, moved through three states paying cash, and never reused a Wi‑Fi signal twice was caught because she showed up where she always showed up; how did routine become the thread that unraveled her disappearance?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a Tuesday trivia night to an arrest at a library computer and lay out how small predictable acts guided a federal marshal’s hunt - could a single weekly habit reveal a forty-six‑month fugitive?

    Person: Marcia York
    Case: embezzlement and disappearance
    Amount: $340,000+
    Duration: 46 months fugitive
    Date of disappearance: February 18, 2015

    - Marcia played trivia every Tuesday for nearly eleven years, with exactly three missed nights on record.
    - She diverted more than $340,000 from Dunlap and Sons using false invoices billed to a paper vendor called Westridge Supply.
    - She disappeared between 9:50 p.m, on February 17, 2015 and 4:00 a.m. on February 18, 2015, and an arrest warrant was issued on February 20, 2015.
    - A cash ATM withdrawal in La Crosse, Wisconsin occurred on February 19, 2015 and moved the case to federal jurisdiction.
    - On March 8, 2015 a pharmacy in Eau Claire recorded a cash purchase of an over‑the‑counter supplement by a woman in her fifties, matching Marcia’s medication needs without a prescription.

    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 Bowl, the Brindle Poodle, and the Twelve-Mile Collapse
    2026/10/27
    The Red Bowl, the Brindle Poodle, and the Twelve-Mile Collapse

    Cold evidence and a worn paw pad flipped a 28-day disappearance into a twelve-mile manhunt: a brindle-gray poodle with a microchip tied to a missing woman appeared two miles south of the Canadian border, while a red ceramic bowl labeled PORTER sat 40 feet from a back door with no paw prints around it-what was Beverly Stroud trying to signal, and who rode away from the airport lot that no manifest could place?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline from Beverly Stroud’s routine life and exact feeding schedule to the empty bowl, the microchipped dog, and the pickup truck that broke the trail; how did a federal report at 6:44 a.m. on November 8 change everything, and what did the placement of that bowl mean?

    Person: Beverly Stroud
    Date: October 11 (call to neighbor), October 12 (bowl found), November 8 (federal report)
    Location: 412 Aldermere Drive, Harwick, Minnesota
    Case: Missing person turned manhunt
    Event: Microchipped brindle-gray poodle found two miles south of the Canadian border

    - Porter was a standard poodle, four years old and seventy pounds, brindle-gray with paw pads worn through.
    - The red ceramic bowl labeled PORTER sat forty feet from the back door, empty and with no paw prints leading to or away from it.
    - Beverly had worked fourteen years as a senior data analyst at Hendricks Agricultural Partners and never missed a performance review in that time.
    - Beverly called neighbor Phil Norris on October 11 to say the house key wouldn’t be needed; the following morning the back gate was unlatched and the bowl was on the step.
    - A federal report arrived at 6:44 a.m. on November 8 reporting the dog found two miles south of the Canadian border, after Beverly had been missing twenty-eight days.

    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
  • Caught by Her Pill: The Fugitive Who Planned Every Detail
    2026/10/26
    Caught by Her Pill: The Fugitive Who Planned Every Detail

    Beneath meticulous planning and a forged DEA number, Melissa Jones was undone by a routine as ordinary as a daily pill-methimazole-and a library book with a visible barcode. She traveled over a thousand miles, paid cash for a thirty-day prescription, and lived under an alias for nearly three weeks before ordinary traces started to close the net; how did such careful planning still leave her vulnerable?

    In this episode, you’ll hear how a twenty-eight-year-old office manager from Glenfield, Ohio, vanished on September 21, 2019, assumed the name Laura Dent, and maintained everyday habits that would ultimately expose her location and identity-what small, everyday detail became the key to finding her?

    Person: Melissa Jones
    Age: 28
    Date first seen in Harwick: September 21, 2019
    Medication: methimazole, thirty-day fills
    Case agent: Deputy U.S. Marshal Kent Wells, assigned October 1

    - She was photographed at 6:45 AM on October 14, 2019, at the Sunrise Counter diner in Harwick, Nebraska.
    - The library book she carried had been checked out eleven days earlier in a state over one thousand miles east.
    - Her Tuesday morning calls to her sister Trish lasted almost exactly twelve minutes and had continued for three years without missing.
    - Doug Haines discovered approximately $90,000 redirected in Medicare billing, confronted Melissa, and suffered a fractured left cheekbone.
    - She used a DEA registration number belonging to a Cleveland physician who had retired in 2015 to fill a prescription at Phelps Drug.

    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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    19 分
  • The Painted Bowline: How a Knot Unraveled a Quiet Pharmacist's Flight
    2026/10/25
    The Painted Bowline: How a Knot Unraveled a Quiet Pharmacist's Flight

    A painted bowline on a seventeen-foot aluminum skiff started a manhunt: the dark red marine enamel was chalked at the edges and had weathered at least eighteen months, and the hull registration numbers were ground off-so why did a small knot tie to a quiet pharmacist trigger twelve days of pursuit that ended on a lake sixty miles away? What connection tied that old paint to a missing pharmacist and three overdose deaths?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the morning William Casey found the skiff on September 4, 2019, to the discovery that the painted knot predated the federal case; we cover the indictment, the disappearance, and the early investigative leads that raised the central question: how did that knot become the first thread in a twelve-day manhunt?

    Person: Judith Becker
    Date: September 4, 2019
    Location: Sarto River cutbank
    Case: Federal indictment filed in the Southern District of Indiana (late August 2019)
    Investigator: Deputy U.S. Marshal Clifford Nelson, 41 years old, 9 years in fugitive apprehension

    - William Casey called the Sarto Parish Sheriff's Department at 7:14 AM after finding the skiff three-tenths of a mile in on the eastern bank trail.
    - The skiff was 17 feet long with registration numbers ground off and a bow cleat painted with a dark red bowline knot.
    - The paint on the bowline was oxidized and chalked, indicating it had been exposed to at least one full Louisiana summer and was a minimum of 18 months old.
    - Judith Becker, age 54, was charged in an 11-count federal indictment alleging diversion of controlled substances over approximately six years and was served the indictment on August 28, 2019.
    - Becker failed to appear at her arraignment scheduled for September 10, 2019; her Orchard Terrace home was found locked and dark that day with the front garden freshly weeded in its usual pattern.

    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
  • Bungee Cord on the Bridge: The Laptop That Changed the Hunt
    2026/10/24
    Bungee Cord on the Bridge: The Laptop That Changed the Hunt

    Fear that someone close to the missing man knew more than they said hits first: a laptop, sealed and bungee-corded to a concrete piling above the Calvert River, was left intentionally dry and recoverable - why not drop it in the current? What the wiped drive secretly revealed about a chess account and a family tie changed the entire direction of the search.

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the August 4, 2019 morning discovery through the forensic recovery that tied a recovered username to a Nebraska relative, and we ask how a choice as small as securing a laptop to a bridge piling reframes who investigators believed they were chasing.

    Person: Dale Stevens
    Date: August 4, 2019
    Location: Mercer Road bridge, Calvert River, Nebraska
    Person: Keith Vogel
    Person: Julie Fisher

    - The laptop was found at 6:15 AM on August 4, 2019, bungee-corded twice to a concrete piling.
    - Dale Stevens turned 22 in 2019 and had rented a room on Delmar Street for just over one year.
    - An outside auditor, Steve Cho, found $214,000 routed through a shell account in late July 2019.
    - Stevens did not show up for work the Thursday after Cho's report; Telford County issued an arrest warrant that same afternoon.
    - Forensics recovered fragments linking Stevens’s Castellan Club username dvs1997 to an email address belonging to his great-uncle Walter Cobb.

    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
  • woman standing still in 95-degree heat holding eggs
    2026/10/23
    woman standing still in 95-degree heat holding eggs

    Heat already at 95°F, a woman freezes for four minutes in a Safeway parking lot holding a carton of eggs while another woman inside shops for peaches - one silent look would lead to a fourteen-month manhunt; what did that stare really reveal?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from July 9, 2019 that turned a routine grocery trip into the unraveling of a long fraud pattern, and we ask how patient surveillance and fabricated identities let a stranger live as someone else for months.

    Person: Robert Odum
    Date: July 9, 2019
    Location: Safeway parking lot, Milton Road, Flagstaff, Arizona
    Case: Identity fraud and long-term surveillance
    Status: Fourteen-month manhunt initiated

    - Time observed standing still at the automatic doors: 4 minutes
    - Temperature at the scene: 95 degrees Fahrenheit at 9:47 AM
    - Age of the woman at the doors: 37 years old
    - Age of Robert Odum at death: 61 years old
    - Duration of prior neighborhood surveillance before Robert's death: approximately 3 weeks

    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