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  • - audiences assume it's Cole's escape artifact

    - audiences assume it's Cole's escape artifact
    2026/09/10
    - audiences assume it's Cole's escape artifact

    A single shoe buried in a ditch for seventeen months survived two winters and a new park trail before a rescued greyhound named Pip found it; inside was a folded three-line note with four words - not me, wrong man - and a partial license plate that would tie into a second abduction three days later. How did a wrong message and a photographed shoe lead to a man being taken from his doorway and held for ninety-four hours?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the shoe's discovery to the mistaken-door abduction, laying out who was involved, where items were found, and what that note and a vanished man reveal about motive and error. Why did a woman targeting one neighbor end up taking Vernon Cole instead?

    Person: Vernon Cole
    Date: March 3-7, 2021
    Location: Halverson, Pacific Northwest
    Event: Abduction and ninety-four hour captivity
    Item: Size 10½ left brown leather Oxford with folded note

    - The shoe had been in the drainage ditch for seventeen months before being found.
    - Pip, a rescue greyhound, pulled the shoe from a drainage ditch east of Halverson on the morning of March 3, 2021.
    - The folded note inside the shoe contained three lines including the phrase "not me, wrong man."
    - Vernon Cole left for his daily one-mile walk at 6:40 AM and touched the iron wheel at approximately 7:02 AM on March 4, 2021.
    - Darlene West knocked on Cole's door at 4:00 PM on March 4, 2021, and he was held for ninety-four hours.

    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 Built His Escape: Nine Days Locked In A Cinderblock Shed

    He Built His Escape: Nine Days Locked In A Cinderblock Shed
    2026/09/09
    He Built His Escape: Nine Days Locked In A Cinderblock Shed

    Fear spikes when a familiar face vanishes from a small town: a retired shop teacher disappears after leaving a half-drunk cup of coffee, and eight days later deputies pry open a cinderblock shed to find him alive. How did a 62-year-old man survive nine days inside a flooded property with only a handmade wallet as his message - and who was waiting on his usual route?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the morning Mark Hunt failed to show for his pantry shift to the discovery at Armstrong Farm, laying out the timeline, the local leads, and the single object that connected a missing man to a remote shed. What did the handwritten seven-digit message carried on a trotline reveal about his ordeal?

    Person: Mark Hunt
    Age: 62
    Date: February 10, 2019
    Location: cinderblock shed at Armstrong Farm, Soline County
    Event: found conscious after nine days

    - Mark Hunt was a retired shop teacher with 31 years teaching experience.
    - He missed his Tuesday pantry shift on February 1, 2019, after four years of perfect attendance.
    - Deputies opened the shed at 1:47 PM on February 10, 2019, and found him sitting upright on a wooden pallet.
    - A wallet containing seven handwritten digits had traveled about sixty yards through a flooded drainage ditch into the Soline River and onto a fisherman’s trotline.
    - A neighbor reported a dark older truck parked on Quarry Road the night before his disappearance; investigators located that truck eight days later.

    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
  • She Wrote His Plate: The Mitten That Broke Her Captor

    She Wrote His Plate: The Mitten That Broke Her Captor
    2026/09/08
    She Wrote His Plate: The Mitten That Broke Her Captor

    Fear spikes when a small, deliberate act breaks a predator's secrecy: a dry wool mitten tucked inside a drainage pipe carried two words that named a man and a partial license plate, and that mitten turned a five-day disappearance into a solvable trail. How did Frances Larsen, twenty-four and held in the back of a Transit, fashion her own breadcrumb that would be found by a county surveyor days later - and what did those two words start?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Frances's routine disappearance to the discovery that reopened the case, following the objects she used and the exact moments that mattered; can a mitten, tape, and a pen be enough to reveal a captor?

    Person: Frances Larsen
    Age: 24
    Date missing: January 9 (five days before January 14)
    Finder: William Cook
    Vehicle partial plate: KBW

    - Frances was held in the back of a dark blue Ford Transit driven by Clifford Russo, age 38.
    - She wrote "KBW" and "CLIFFORD" by feel with a blue Bic pen on a right-hand wool mitten.
    - The mitten was pushed through a three-inch gap in the Transit rear door and landed inside a drainage pipe.
    - The mitten was found dry thirty centimeters inside the pipe on January 14 by county surveyor William Cook.
    - Russo logged 2 hours and 40 minutes on December 30 in Veldran's third-level parking for a drainage issue.

    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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    16 分
  • Left in the Mud: The Ash Note That Kept Her Alive

    Left in the Mud: The Ash Note That Kept Her Alive
    2026/09/07
    Left in the Mud: The Ash Note That Kept Her Alive

    A frozen pair of eyeglasses threaded with a strip of paper and a four-word message written in ash saved a woman held underground for five days - but the note could only be applied through a basement door gap with something as thin as a matchstick. Who wrote those words, and how did a septic-service contractor’s hesitation become the difference between life and death?

    In this episode, we tell the story of the Sherry Burke case, how a routine errand turned into an abduction, and how information became the only tool she had while held in a basement. How did a man convince himself she had seen something she never did, and what did the ash-written note actually say?

    Person: Sherry Burke
    Age: 48
    Date: December 4, 2014 (last seen), December 9, 2014 (glasses found)
    Location: Harwick Mill Road, Tatum County
    Person: Gordon Hoffman

    - Sherry Burke was held underground for five days.
    - The ash note contained four words and a direction.
    - The note was written with fireplace ash and cooking oil, likely applied with a matchstick or sliver of wood.
    - George Griffin found the eyeglasses on the morning of December 9, 2014, while servicing a septic line.
    - Sherry's silver Subaru was left at Hartley's Grocery with keys on the ground and a grocery bag in the back seat for almost twenty hours.

    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
  • Dry Shoe, Running Engine: How a Receipt Saved Sandra Sullivan

    Dry Shoe, Running Engine: How a Receipt Saved Sandra Sullivan
    2026/09/06
    Dry Shoe, Running Engine: How a Receipt Saved Sandra Sullivan

    A dry canvas sneaker standing upright on the passenger floor and a toll receipt timestamped 11:47 p.m. were the first clues in a disappearance that unfolded across two counties - and those two small facts turned a routine missing-person into a race against time. Who left the shoe and why did a two-dollar-and-twenty-five-cent receipt become the hinge of the investigation?

    In this episode, we lay out the scene from the moment Sandra Sullivan left her apartment through the first eight days of the search, following the physical trace left in her running Nissan and the volunteer response that converged on Harmon State Forest. What did the receipt and the impossible dry shoe reveal about the night of November 13, 2019?

    Person: Sandra Sullivan
    Age: 32
    Date: November 13, 2019
    Location: Harmon State Forest, 9 miles east of Harmon State toll plaza on Interstate 78
    Item: Toll receipt timestamped 11:47 p.m., amount $2.25 (cash)

    - Sandra was last seen leaving her Glenpark apartment at 7:50 p.m, on November 13, 2019.
    - A passerby named Jerry Williams found Sandra’s gray Nissan with the engine running and door open at 8:40 a.m. the next morning.
    - The passenger shoe was a women’s canvas sneaker approximately size seven, standing upright on a dry floor mat despite overnight rain.
    - A paper toll receipt from the Harmon State booth for $2.25 in cash was found in the passenger door pocket.
    - Three hundred volunteers rotated through the search over forty-eight hours, coordinated from the Fenwick search center.

    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
  • Locked Storage, Hidden Vent: How Rhonda's Library Book Led to Survival

    Locked Storage, Hidden Vent: How Rhonda's Library Book Led to Survival
    2026/09/05
    Locked Storage, Hidden Vent: How Rhonda's Library Book Led to Survival

    A late library book, a ballpoint pen and seventeen written words turned a routine overdue notice into the single clue that saved a missing woman’s life. Rhonda Richardson was fifty-three, missing twelve days, and found because a volunteer’s storage units and a ground-level vent intersected in a place no building plan showed - but how did that library book end up inside a locked commercial storage basement?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Rhonda’s last known routine - a paper calendar entry and a Tuesday trip to Mercer Street library - through the community search and the puzzling volunteer log that pointed Detective Gregory Young toward Crestfield Avenue, asking whether everyday habits and unnoticed access points concealed a deliberate hiding place.

    Person: Rhonda Richardson
    Age: 53
    Date first reported missing: October 15, 2011
    Location last seen leaving: toward Mercer Street library at approximately 2:30 PM
    Volunteer who had storage key: Neil Patterson, logged 6 hours over 3 days

    - Rhonda missed her standing Wednesday call at 9:00 PM after eleven years without exception, prompting Brenda to call police at 9:47 PM.
    - Her phone was found the next morning in a gutter on Prescott Street with a cracked screen and dead battery, four blocks from her apartment.
    - Detective Gregory Young was assigned to the case on October 16, 2011 and used the phone, route, and calendar as primary leads.
    - Neil Patterson, age 41, logged six hours of volunteer search time and ran two storage units at Harwick Self-Storage on Crestfield Avenue.
    - The back cover of the overdue library book contained seventeen words that accurately described Rhonda’s location inside a locked commercial storage facility basement.

    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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    16 分
  • The Mason Jar Clue: How a Quiet Routine Bent Into Kidnapper's Plan

    The Mason Jar Clue: How a Quiet Routine Bent Into Kidnapper's Plan
    2026/09/04
    The Mason Jar Clue: How a Quiet Routine Bent Into Kidnapper's Plan

    Cold evidence on a county road: a pristine Mason jar placed in a shallow dimple with a hand-drawn map and seven-word note that preceded the discovery of a woman alive in a cabin - how did someone place a sealed, dust-free jar on Cutler Basin Road within an hour of being found and know exactly where Cheryl Taylor was hidden? What did that careful placement reveal about who had access and who had been allowed to place it?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from Cheryl Taylor’s disappearance through the jar discovery and the clues it contained, describing the timelines, the evidence found at the car and on the road, and the decisions investigators made as they followed that single, clean object to a cabin; could the jar’s condition and contents point to a planned handoff rather than a random act?

    Person: Cheryl Taylor
    Date: September 10 (missing reported) and September 19 (jar found)
    Location: Cutler Basin Road near Garrison Flats
    Status: Found alive in a cabin four days after jar discovery
    Investigator: Diane Bowers

    - Cheryl Taylor had been missing for thirteen days before the jar was found.
    - The Mason jar contained a folded paper with a four-room L-shaped floor plan and a woodstove symbol.
    - The other side of the paper bore seven words in block capitals: MY NAME IS CHERYL TAYLOR. I'M ALIVE.
    - Forensics estimated the jar had been placed within approximately one hour before Paula Duncan found it at 6:15 AM on September 19.
    - A ransom note demanding $240,000 in cashier's checks was sent to Cheryl’s daughter Kristen with a drop deadline of September 18; no one came to the monitored drop.

    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
  • Tied to a Lawnmower: How He Scratched a Van's Secret into Vinyl

    Tied to a Lawnmower: How He Scratched a Van's Secret into Vinyl
    2026/09/03
    Tied to a Lawnmower: How He Scratched a Van's Secret into Vinyl

    He woke at 2:40 a.m. with raw wrists, bleeding fingernails, and four characters scratched into a vinyl seat cushion - but no blood on the floor and no sign of struggle. The rope on the lawnmower had one end worked free and the other cut cleanly; what did those two contradictory ends mean for the night he survived?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from a truck breakdown on Route Nine-Connector to a white van offering help, to a man named Roger Riley regaining consciousness in a dark garage tied to a riding mower, and ask how a single meter log and a tiny carved message would reshape the story.

    Person: Roger Riley
    Age: 28
    Location: Hooper Mill Road / Route Nine-Connector area
    Date: August 18-19, 2011
    Occupation: Dispatch coordinator for Braddock Site Services

    - Vehicle broke down at approximately 6:40 p.m. on August 18, 2011, about 1.5 miles south of Hooper Mill Road.
    - White Ford utility van driver identified as Grant Bauer, age 36, tenant living roughly four miles east of town center.
    - Patrice Nolan called Roger at exactly 8:00 p.m.; call went to voicemail and a second call twenty minutes later also reached voicemail.
    - Power outage began at 9:47 p.m., attributed later to storm activity affecting Hooper Mill Road area.
    - Roger regained consciousness at 2:40 a.m. on August 19 with wrists bound to seat-mounting frame and ankles tied to front axle of a riding lawnmower.

    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