エピソード

  • The Chair on Level Three: How a Forgotten Card Reunited Two Strangers

    The Chair on Level Three: How a Forgotten Card Reunited Two Strangers
    2026/09/10
    The Chair on Level Three: How a Forgotten Card Reunited Two Strangers

    A forgotten plastic garden chair and a four-word handwritten index card sat on an exterior landing in a closed parking garage for five months before reuniting an adoptee and her birth mother - one had searched five years, the other carried the secret for twenty-eight. How did a clerical discrepancy buried in placement records lead a supervisory maintenance technician to leave a silent message on Level 3 that changed two lives?

    In this episode, we follow the steps that connected Lisa McCarthy and Nora Stills: the adoption records, the county caseworker’s discovery, and the small, deliberate action left on a damp concrete landing that closed a thirteen-minute gap and a locked door. What exactly did the placement file reveal, and why did Nora choose to leave a card instead of a call?

    Person: Lisa McCarthy
    Person: Nora Stills
    Date: April 9, 2019
    Location: 4400 Meridian Boulevard, Level 3 exterior landing
    Status: Adoption reunion initiated after five years of searching

    - Lisa began searching in 2014 after Ohio partially opened adoption records and received the first name Nora, middle initial G, birth year 1964, and Cuyahoga County.
    - Lisa hired private investigator Vincent Chu in 2016 who worked six months, identified three candidates, and closed the file after the remaining match was deceased in 2007.
    - In October 2018, Sharon Thompson of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services reviewed Lisa’s placement file and found a clerical discrepancy listing an employment county that led to Nora.
    - Nora Stills, born 1964, had worked as a supervisory maintenance technician since 2008 and gave up a newborn daughter in 1991 at age 23.
    - On April 9, 2019, Nora used an active maintenance badge to access the third-floor exterior stairwell at 4400 Meridian Boulevard, sat in the plastic chair, and left an index card reading “I worked here too. Level 3, mornings. - L.”

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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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    22 分
  • Contractor Spots an Orange Raft: The Rescue of Marcus Dixon

    Contractor Spots an Orange Raft: The Rescue of Marcus Dixon
    2026/09/09
    Contractor Spots an Orange Raft: The Rescue of Marcus Dixon

    The flat gray Gulf hid an orange raft 48 nautical miles offshore and something inside was breathing after eleven days at sea - the official search had ended on day four and one body was already recovered. How did a septic-service contractor, a scrap of aluminum and a two-word note in a volunteer database converge to bring a presumed-dead man back to shore?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a routine morning run to Barrier Key to the discovery that reopened a twenty-two-year missing person case, asking how three separate systems failed and what finally bridged the gap between them.

    Person: Marcus Crane
    Date: March 22, 2019
    Location: 48 nautical miles offshore from Coosa Inlet
    Event: Della Ray sinking on March 10, 2019 with 41-knot winds and 12-14 foot waves
    Organization: Coosa Inlet Network founded in 2012

    - Megan Donnelly spotted the orange raft on the morning of March 22, 2019, twelve minutes from Barrier Key.
    - The man inside the raft had been adrift for eleven days and was severely dehydrated with a fever and an infected left arm.
    - The official Coast Guard search for the Della Ray ended on March 14, 2019, four days after the sinking.
    - Marcus had been listed in the Coosa Inlet Network with a two-word note "still looking" updated in November 2018.
    - The Della Ray sank on the night of March 10, 2019, in a storm with 41-knot winds and 12-14 foot waves; one body (Pete Varga recovered) and two passengers (Marcus Crane and Derek Tolliver) were listed as missing.

    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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    24 分
  • A Yellow Boot Stands Alone: The Jennifer Petersen Reunion

    A Yellow Boot Stands Alone: The Jennifer Petersen Reunion
    2026/09/08
    A Yellow Boot Stands Alone: The Jennifer Petersen Reunion

    Fear and grief collide in a marshy photograph: a single dry size four yellow rain boot stands upright in six inches of standing water after nine days of rain in Portervale mudflats - and that image pulls a reunification worker back into a fourteen-year-old missing-baby file. How did a lone child’s boot photographed by a shorebird photographer become the hinge that might reopen a case closed after a levee failure?

    In this episode, we follow the chain of events set off by Howard Williams’s photograph and the decisions Emily Cook made when she recognized Portervale as a place connected to a long-cold file. The episode covers the levee failure, the missing infant processed through emergency shelters, and the sealed adoption records that blocked a straightforward search - but can a single photograph change fourteen years of official closure?

    Person: Howard Williams
    Date: February 11, 2017
    Location: Portervale mudflats, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
    Person: Emily Cook, age 44
    Event: Levee failure at Portervale, September 2002

    - The photograph was taken before dawn on February 11, 2017, by Howard Williams on the mudflats outside Portervale, Louisiana.
    - The mudflats had six inches of standing water after nine days of continuous rain when Frame 47 captured a single yellow child’s rain boot.
    - The boot was size four and its interior was completely dry despite nine days of uninterrupted rain.
    - Emily Cook, age 44, ran Tidewater Reconnect and had reunited eleven families in five years before reopening the Portervale file.
    - The levee failure in September 2002 displaced more than 200 people and resulted in nine children processed without confirmed guardians; one infant later entered Crescent Child Placement Services.

    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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    24 分
  • A Recipe Card Falls from a Pocket: The Castañeda Sisters Reunion

    A Recipe Card Falls from a Pocket: The Castañeda Sisters Reunion
    2026/09/07
    A Recipe Card Falls from a Pocket: The Castañeda Sisters Reunion

    Cold, quiet, and six people, a three-year spreadsheet, and nine more days later - a laminated recipe card found in frozen mud would reconnect lives split at a border thirty years before. The card carried a photograph dated August 1989 and handwriting in two languages; how did it travel from a mother in Guatemala to a pocket in Ohio, and what did it finally prove?

    In this episode, we follow the path of a single object and the people it linked across decades. You will hear where the card was found, whose hands it had passed through, and the single clue that began to close a thirty-year gap: could this artifact be the missing link between Elena Castañeda’s daughters?

    Person: Elena Castañeda
    Person: April (April Adams)
    Person: Marisol (Mari Castañeda / Marisol Reeves)
    Date: August 1989 (photograph date-stamp)
    Event: Recipe card found January 11, 2019

    - The recipe card was found face-up in frozen mud at 6:40 AM on January 11, 2019.
    - The photograph sealed on the back of the card is date-stamped August 1989 and shows two girls against a concrete wall.
    - April was eight years old and Marisol was six in the August 1989 border photograph.
    - Mari discovered the laminated recipe card in 2016 inside her adoptive mother’s documents and carried it in her coat pocket on January 3, 2019.
    - A Columbus document researcher in 2017 identified a transcription error in an Oaxaca intake register where “Castañeda” had been recorded as “Castillo.”

    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
  • Lost Letters, a Mother's Decade-Long Impossible Reunion

    Lost Letters, a Mother's Decade-Long Impossible Reunion
    2026/09/06
    Lost Letters, a Mother's Decade-Long Impossible Reunion

    Snow uncovered forty-seven pale blue envelopes on December 11, 2013 - addressed in the same hand and lying in slush at Millhaven's mail processing center after having sat forgotten on a shelf for 4 years, 2 months, and 11 days. Who wrote them, why they never reached their destination, and what it would take to reunite them with the person who waited for each page are questions that only listening will answer.

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led a stack of letters to vanish into bureaucracy and resurface by chance, following the daily life of the woman who wrote them and the system that misplaced them. How did routine habits, a pre-printed envelope order, and a mail contractor's routing change produce a lost chain of correspondence?

    Person: Sherry Becker
    Event: Forty-seven pale blue envelopes found on December 11, 2013
    Location: Millhaven mail processing center
    Period: Letters mailed mainly 2003-2009 with a gap 2005-2007
    Case: Letters sat in a box for 4 years, 2 months, and 11 days

    - Sherry printed a bulk stack of pre-addressed envelopes to Keene Correctional Facility in 2003.
    - Sherry wrote monthly letters that reached Cody from 2003-2005, paused 14 months, then resumed 2007-2009.
    - Approximately 47 letters mailed between 2007 and 2009 were sent to an old address and went missing.
    - The undeliverable items were routed to the regional hub and placed under a metal shelving unit behind binders.
    - The stack remained forgotten in the Millhaven processing center for exactly 4 years, 2 months, and 11 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
  • The Lost Girl Who Kept Writing Her Own Rescue Letter

    The Lost Girl Who Kept Writing Her Own Rescue Letter
    2026/09/05
    The Lost Girl Who Kept Writing Her Own Rescue Letter

    A single index card fell from a ceiling panel and a handwritten note - "AB-neg / prior surgical contact, Mercy Ridge, approx. Nov, 2001" - began to unravel eighteen years of silence about a girl with no birth certificate and no family. How did a blood type and a surgeon's name, scrawled repeatedly on donation cards, become the only trail to a hidden past?

    In this episode, we follow how routine paperwork, a county records room, and a volunteer's curiosity connect a woman named Ruth Perry to a hospital file and a missing-child case, asking whether a stack of paper could finally answer who she really is.

    Person: Ruth Perry
    Event: motor vehicle crash approximately November 2001
    Person: Surgeon Jason Burke
    Location: Mercy Ridge Hospital
    Person: Donna Long

    - Ruth Perry was born around 1993, an estimate based on pediatric bone density after the crash.
    - The girl arrived at Mercy Ridge unconscious after a vehicle went 60 feet off a coast highway north of Halcott.
    - Surgeon Jason Burke was 34 years old and operated for 4 hours and 17 minutes.
    - Ruth wrote the same eight-word notation on at least 12 blood donation cards over 7 years.
    - A missing persons report filed by Karen Solis's sister Debra in December 2001 was withdrawn weeks later; Debra lived in Ashland, 40 minutes south of Halcott.

    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
  • Runner Spots Two Signs and Reunites a Mother and Daughter: The Vashti Crossing Story

    Runner Spots Two Signs and Reunites a Mother and Daughter: The Vashti Crossing Story
    2026/09/04
    Runner Spots Two Signs and Reunites a Mother and Daughter: The Vashti Crossing Story

    Fear and hope collide on an ordinary Ohio block: two handmade signs appeared in two windows on the same morning, displaying names that had been separated by war, bureaucracy and eleven years living four streets apart. What led a jogger to notice both signs, and how could a database, renaming and narrow streets nearly let a mother and daughter miss each other again?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that connect a 1997 wartime evacuation, a finalized 2001 adoption, and a chance encounter on a October morning in 2019 - and we follow the question that drove a mother to move across town and a daughter to keep one photograph for twenty-two years.

    Person: Kimberly Fisher
    Person: Teodora Petrescu / Teddy Brann
    Event: Evacuation of children in August 1997
    Date: Adoption finalized in 2001
    Location: Vashti Crossing, Ohio

    - A jogger named Karen Foster noticed two handmade signs on the same block in October 2019.
    - Teodora left on a bus with 41 other children in August 1997 and was placed with the Brann family in October 1997.
    - Kimberly crossed into the United States in autumn 1998 under the anglicized name Fisher.
    - The adoption record in 2001 listed no locatable living parents, leading to finalization that year.
    - Kimberly moved to Vashti Crossing in 2008 and searched for eleven years before the 2019 reunion.

    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 Wrote About Him Not Knowing He Was Alive: The MV Caldera Sound Reunion

    She Wrote About Him Not Knowing He Was Alive: The MV Caldera Sound Reunion
    2026/09/03
    She Wrote About Him Not Knowing He Was Alive: The MV Caldera Sound Reunion

    A forgotten paperback hidden behind a utility meter in Dunmore, New Hampshire revealed a 211-page survivor memoir six years after a North Atlantic cargo ship sank; one of its two raft companions had been carrying the book - unread - and the other had written about a raft companion only as "M." Who finally bridged the silence between two people who each believed the other was dead?

    In this episode, we tell how a utility meter reader found Eighteen Hours in a weathered housing and how a phone call and an email eventually closed a six-year gap. Listen to the timeline from the September 11, 2013 sinking to the September 4-6, 2019 reunion and the surprising details that made it possible.

    Person: Mark Wagner
    Person: Claire Hensley
    Date: September 11, 2013 - September 4-6, 2019
    Location: North Atlantic / Dunmore, NH / Aberdeen, Scotland
    Case Status: Resolved - both survivors located and reunited

    - The paperback Eighteen Hours found inside a utility housing had 211 pages.
    - Heather Barrett opened the housing at 14 Kellner Court, Dunmore, New Hampshire on September 6, 2019.
    - Thirty-seven people were aboard the MV Caldera Sound the night it sank; twenty-two survived.
    - The sinking began just before 3:40 AM due to a generator fault that flooded the engine room and a jammed lifeboat davit.
    - Mark carried an unopened copy of Eighteen Hours to bowling nights and later hid it behind the meter at his own address.

    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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    3 分