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  • The Bowling Shoe That Alone Brought Her Home

    The Bowling Shoe That Alone Brought Her Home
    2026/07/28
    The Bowling Shoe That Alone Brought Her Home

    A single upright bowling shoe was found pressed into a padlocked industrial fence at 6:15 a.m., laced and deliberately placed though no houses stood within a quarter mile; that shoe would trigger an investigation that uncovered a loosened battery terminal, eleven days of Thursday-night routines, and a woman who mapped her location by sound. What exactly did that shoe mean, and how did it lead investigators to where she was held?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the Thursday night Sharon Burns left Canfield Lanes with a 14-pound burgundy bowling ball to the discovery of a shoe in a fence, and we follow the clues-her dead car, a white Dodge Ram, and the sounds she used to orient herself-to the question of how those details revealed her location.

    Person: Sharon Burns
    Date: May 1, 2014
    Location: Canfield Lanes parking lot, Parnell, Ohio
    Vehicle: White Dodge Ram
    Object: Single upright bowling shoe found at 6:15 a.m. in a padlocked industrial fence

    - Sharon Burns was 44 years old and had bowled Thursday nights for 11 years.
    - She rolled a 168 that night and carried a 14-pound burgundy bowling ball and her bag when she left.
    - Her Honda Civic sat in the Canfield Lanes lot for four days with doors locked, purse on the passenger seat, and phone on its charger.
    - A quarter-turn loosened on the negative battery terminal was later found, causing a slow drain.
    - The Delvane Cold Storage was located roughly 40 feet from a railroad spur whose freight trains passed at approximately 90-minute intervals.

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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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    21 分
  • The One Shoe on Oleander Spur - How She Escaped the Van

    The One Shoe on Oleander Spur - How She Escaped the Van
    2026/07/27
    The One Shoe on Oleander Spur - How She Escaped the Van

    A single gray-and-white trail shoe, laced and upright, was found on the frost of Oleander Spur at 6:00 a.m. on April 14, with no second shoe and no footprints - a chilling marker of a twelve-day gap that ended with Amanda Padgett being found alive at 9:41. How did a woman who never missed weekly dinners with her 81-year-old grandmother vanish from a monitored parking lot and reappear days later?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Amanda leaving Oleander Spur at 5:40 p.m. on April 2 to deputies finding her parked car and casserole untouched the next morning, and we trace the investigative leads that connected a disabled camera feed, a missing badge exit, and a dark van on Oleander Spur - what exactly bridged those minutes when the footage went dark?

    Person: Amanda Padgett
    Date: April 2 (disappearance), April 14 (shoe found), April 3 (car found)
    Location: Oleander Spur parking lot; Oleander Spur; Pelham site storage shed
    Investigator: Detective Carl Holmes
    Witness: Sandra Pruitt (saw dark van at ~6:15 p.m.)

    - Amanda badged out of the Oleander Spur lot at 5:42 p.m. on April 2 and never arrived at her 6:00 p.m. dinner with her grandmother.
    - The parking-lot camera feed recorded her badge at 5:42 p.m., then went dark for 47 minutes consistent with a commercial signal disruptor.
    - Badge records show 41 people accessed the lot that day; electrician Frank Davis badged in at 4:58 p.m. and had no recorded exit.
    - A field technician reported seeing Davis beside an unmarked dark green cargo van in the lot’s back row, the only area without camera coverage.
    - A resident reported a dark van traveling north on Oleander Spur at approximately 6:15 p.m, on April 2, 33 minutes after the feed interruption.

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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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    18 分
  • The Wallet on the Transformer: How a Routine Walk Turned Into Kidnap Nightmare

    The Wallet on the Transformer: How a Routine Walk Turned Into Kidnap Nightmare
    2026/07/26
    The Wallet on the Transformer: How a Routine Walk Turned Into Kidnap Nightmare

    A dry brown bifold wallet was found spine-up on a transformer housing twelve miles from where David Adams was last seen, with $43, two credit cards, a driver's license and a torn strip of paper with four words and an address. A dark full‑size pickup was seen parked with lights off near his route before dawn-who placed the wallet, and why was it left so carefully?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from David Adams’s habitual morning walk and the discovery of the wallet to the threads that tied a contractor’s email and a dark Dodge Ram to the case, asking whether a single deliberate object could be the clue that brings a vanished man back.

    Person: David Adams
    Date: March 6, 2019 (missing reported March 6)
    Location: Cutter's Mill Road to decommissioned Brennan grain elevator
    Person: Wade Cook
    Person: Howard Bell

    - Wallet contents: $43 cash, two credit cards, one driver's license, and a torn strip of brown paper with four words and an address.
    - Wallet distance: Found twelve miles from the last place David Adams was seen alive.
    - Daily routine: David left for his walk at 6:45 AM and was home by 7:30 AM, calling friend Pete at 8:00 AM on M/W/F.
    - Sighting: Neighbor Beth Prentiss saw a dark full-size pickup parked with lights off at 5:50 AM on March 6 for about one minute.
    - Document: An email dated February 22, 2019, from Wade Cook to David Adams referenced a parcel on Sycamore Trace Road and Howard Bell, found in David’s house March 8.

    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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    17 分
  • She Left a Credit Card Clue - How Cynthia Escaped Her Captor

    She Left a Credit Card Clue - How Cynthia Escaped Her Captor
    2026/07/25
    She Left a Credit Card Clue - How Cynthia Escaped Her Captor

    A credit card pressed into birch bark two hundred yards past a footbridge became the single thread that unraveled a locked-room captivity; on the signature strip Cynthia wrote an address, her name, and seven words: "She is here and she is alive." How did a twenty-two-year-old trapped inside a padlocked smokehouse engineer her own rescue with a pen left by the person who had taken her?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the morning Cynthia missed a twenty-six-month volunteer routine to the moment investigators were stunned by the impossible clue, following the search operations, the suspect's role in coordinating volunteers, and the method Cynthia used to escape - could one small pen and precise planning really be enough to break a locked confinement?

    Person: Cynthia Wilson
    Date: January 30, 2019 (disappearance) and February 11, 2019 (credit card found)
    Location: Hatcher Creek trail and 4418 Burrell Trace Road
    Status: Rescued by her own actions
    Case: Portnam County abduction involving a converted smokehouse

    - Cynthia worked twenty-six hours a week and volunteered Wednesday mornings for twenty-six months straight.
    - Her car stalled at a gravel pull-off about ten minutes after she left at 6:20 AM on January 30, 2019.
    - The credit card was found two hundred yards past a footbridge on Hatcher Creek trail with the handwritten address 4418 Burrell Trace Road and seven words.
    - The smokehouse window was approximately eight feet off the ground and had one exterior plywood panel that was slightly loose.
    - Cynthia tested the wind and dropped torn fabric pieces over approximately thirty-two attempts before successfully using boxes to reach the gap and pass the credit card out.

    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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    27 分
  • He Wrote "DRAP" on a Library Card - How Terry Outsmarted His Captor

    He Wrote "DRAP" on a Library Card - How Terry Outsmarted His Captor
    2026/07/25
    He Wrote "DRAP" on a Library Card - How Terry Outsmarted His Captor

    Cold fingernail scratches on a laminated library card were the single clue that brought Terry Sullivan home: four letters - D R A P - pressed into plastic found on a parking-structure floor after a freezing night. The card sat there after seventy-two hours of disappearance, a calculated breadcrumb from a man held in darkness; how did he know to leave that exact message where someone would read it?

    In this episode, we follow the seventy-two hours between a man walking east on Depot Road at 18:11 and a detective reading a name off a library card, tracing Sullivan’s routines, the van that stopped for 24 minutes, and the hidden room behind a garage wall that kept him alive. How did Sullivan, coached by habit and urgency, outthink the person who abducted him?

    Person: Terry Sullivan
    Date: January 6-8
    Location: Crestfield (Depot Road; 14 Westbrook Court)
    Status: Found alive after 72 hours
    Detective: Darlene Turner

    - Sullivan left Kessler Group at 17:40 on January 6 and reached the pharmacy at 18:04.
    - Surveillance recorded him walking east on Depot Road leaving the pharmacy at 18:11 and a dark van arriving at 18:17.
    - The dark van remained by the stairwell for exactly 24 minutes and departed at 18:41.
    - The holding room measured approximately 3.6 meters by 4.3 meters and contained a cot, a portable heater, a 19-liter water jug, and a chemical toilet.
    - Sullivan was thirty-eight years old, divorced, and made a weekly Wednesday call to his twelve-year-old daughter Cassie at 8 p.m.

    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 Dry Notebook: How Edward Cooper Escaped a Basement Captor

    He Left a Dry Notebook: How Edward Cooper Escaped a Basement Captor
    2026/07/25
    He Left a Dry Notebook: How Edward Cooper Escaped a Basement Captor

    A dry pocket spiral notebook was left on a frost-covered church lot with six block-capital words: "EDWARD COOPER - ALIVE - BASEMENT - RALPH JOHNSON - DROVER LAKE ROAD - CALL LORI." A sixty-two-year-old retired land surveyor had been missing for three days, and that single note led officers to find him alive behind a padlocked hatch-so how did he get that message into a donation dropbox a quarter mile away?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Edward Cooper’s routine disappearance after leaving for chess club to the discovery of the notebook and the police response; we trace the small, precise survival choices he made-like using a found pen and notebook and noticing an unclicked padlock-to get help, and we ask how those choices changed the outcome.

    Person: Edward Cooper
    Age: 62
    Date: December 8-11 (missing period and discovery)
    Location: Drover Lake Road (converted agricultural structure) and Redeemer Lutheran on Marsh Road
    Responder: Sergeant Lori Underwood

    - Edward’s car was found in the rear lot of The Kettle with doors locked and his phone screen cracked on the floor under the driver’s seat.
    - On November 27 Edward had written “Drover Lake Road - survey consult - R.J.” in his paper calendar.
    - Kimberly Doyle discovered the dry spiral notebook just before 8:30 AM on December 11 on a frost-covered lot at Redeemer Lutheran.
    - The notebook’s front-cover message contained six block-capital items including “ALIVE,” “BASEMENT,” and “CALL LORI.”
    - Police arrived within twenty minutes of the call and obtained a warrant within an hour, finding Edward in a concrete basement behind a hatch whose padlock arm was threaded but not clicked.

    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
  • Found Alive in Frozen Leaves: The Badge That Opened a Door

    Found Alive in Frozen Leaves: The Badge That Opened a Door
    2026/07/25
    Found Alive in Frozen Leaves: The Badge That Opened a Door

    Cold, isolated, and found alive with a single folded paper pressed to his chest - a man discovered in frozen leaves survived long enough to clutch a toll receipt that would reshape an investigation; how did a warehouse badge vanish, a door register a swipe without opening, and a receipt become the key piece that led to prison? What exactly did that folded paper reveal?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Russell Sawyer’s last recorded moment at 4:52 p.m. on November 10 to his discovery days later in Kessler County, Indiana, and detail the anomalies investigators uncovered about his missing ID card, the exit-only badge reader, and the unattended Honda Civic - could a toll receipt and an access log explain where he was taken?

    Person: Russell Sawyer
    Date: November 10-14
    Location: Delmar Road, Vance, Illinois; Morrow Creek, Kessler County, Indiana
    Status: Found alive on November 14; later referenced as linked to a conviction
    Event: Missing person with missing laminated warehouse badge and a folded toll receipt found with him

    - Last confirmed camera image: 4:52 p.m. on November 10 at the warehouse loading dock bay-door camera.
    - Badge reader log: Russell’s ID card recorded at 6:18 a.m, on November 11, 17 hours after last camera sighting.
    - Vehicle status: Russell’s Honda Civic remained in the warehouse lot, never moved after November 10.
    - Discovery details: Found face down in frozen leaves on November 14 with raw wrists and a folded toll receipt pressed to his chest.
    - Witness who found him: Pepper, a border collie, led owner Susan Cox to the drainage culvert where he lay.

    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
  • The Library Book That Kept a Kidnapper's Secret and Saved a Man

    The Library Book That Kept a Kidnapper's Secret and Saved a Man
    2026/07/25
    The Library Book That Kept a Kidnapper's Secret and Saved a Man

    A soaked paperback wedged eighteen inches below the Musket Fork's surface emerged perfectly dry and sealed, bearing a handwritten inscription: MUSKET FORK EAST BANK REEDS. ALAN SLATER. ALIVE. PLEASE. How did a library book survive submerged mud and become the single clue that saved a life?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a missing library worker’s last known routine call to the discovery that shifted a cold case into a rescue, asking how a checked-out field guide, repeated van sightings, and one precise due date connected to a murder years earlier.

    Person: Alan Slater
    Date: October 14, 2011 (book recovered); October 5-6, 2011 (missing report)
    Location: Musket Fork, eleven miles south of Pryor Falls; Pryor Falls Public Library, Mercer Road
    Case: Missing person leading to murder solved by evidence in a sealed book
    Investigator: Detective Steven Gardner

    - The book was found at 6:47 AM on October 14, 2011, wedged in a submerged branch eighteen inches below the surface.
    - Alan Slater had been missing since his regular Wednesday call at 10:15 PM did not occur on October 5, 2011; his sister reported him missing on October 6.
    - Alan checked out a large-format field guide to mid-Atlantic trees on September 19, 2011, with a due date of October 14, 2011.
    - Surveillance showed a white van owned by Vernon Murphy appeared nine times near the library’s rear alley over six weeks, with mud obscuring its license plates from the southern camera angle each time.
    - Connie Callahan, a trotline runner on Musket Fork for nearly twenty years, pulled the intact, unwrinkled book from the river and called 9-1-1 before reaching shore.

    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