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  • Disconnected for Eleven Years, the Payphone Called - Check the Water

    Disconnected for Eleven Years, the Payphone Called - Check the Water
    2026/11/02
    Disconnected for Eleven Years, the Payphone Called - Check the Water

    A dead payphone rang at 4:30 PM on May 3-seven rings from a handset with no wire, no network, and a woman’s voice saying, "The water is still running. Check the water." Who wired a disconnected phone to deliver that exact, life-saving message eleven years after the line was cut?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that led a routine maintenance visit to intersect with a deliberately reactivated payphone, tracing the people, the failing infrastructure, and the timing that made the warning possible. How did a battery, a rerouted circuit, and three quarters become the only thing keeping a motel from flooding?

    Person: Bruce Brown
    Person: Pat Devlin
    Location: Meridian Sands Motel, Route Nine West, four miles outside Caliche Flat, Nevada
    Date: May 3 (phone rang at 4:30 PM); phone disconnected March 2009; copper removed summer 2011; Pat rewired fall 2013; motel closed 2012
    Event: Payphone rang seven times and delivered the message "The water is still running. Check the water."

    - The payphone rang seven times at approximately 4:30 PM on May 3.
    - The motel had twelve units, all shuttered, with plywood on the windows and a faded vacancy sign.
    - The phone had been disconnected in March 2009 and the copper wire pulled in summer 2011.
    - Pat Devlin rewired the phone in fall 2013 using a car battery, two-conductor wire, and left three quarters in the coin return.
    - Bruce Brown returned the next morning and found standing water in the valve vault behind Unit Nine and a leaking galvanized pipe beneath the laundry room slab.

    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
  • The Folder That Predicted April 15 - Found in a Dry Basement

    The Folder That Predicted April 15 - Found in a Dry Basement
    2026/11/01
    The Folder That Predicted April 15 - Found in a Dry Basement

    A manila folder, completely dry and propped four inches above a past waterline, contained four typed pages written in the future tense describing events of April 15 - yet it was found on April 19. The folder named graduate student Lisa Vaughn and referenced details only someone present could have known; who printed those pages and why they predicted a date remains unanswered.

    In this episode, we trace the chain of access and actions in Halverson University's Sub-Level C, from keycard entries and restricted archival boxes to a logged printer job, and ask how a document printed on April 13 could read like a script for April 15.

    Person: Lisa Vaughn
    Person: Marcus Teel
    Location: Sub-Level C, Halverson University basement
    Date: April 13 (printer job); April 15 (events described); April 19 (folder found)
    Device: Brother HL-22270DW printer (job logged 18:06 on April 13)

    - The folder was found on April 19 in Sub-Level C, resting four inches above a waterline stain from a prior flood.
    - The folder contained four typed pages written in third person and future tense describing events dated April 15.
    - A keycard belonging to Edwin Marsh was used to access Sub-Level C on the night of April 11 at 22:22, with 22 minutes logged inside.
    - Box 108-V was photographed by Lisa during her first archival visit in February and contained a list with one name in different ink.
    - A four-page document was printed from the graduate history office on April 13 at 18:06 using a guest credential on a Brother HL-22270DW.

    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 Woman Who Vanished Without Leaving a Single Return Print

    The Woman Who Vanished Without Leaving a Single Return Print
    2026/10/31
    The Woman Who Vanished Without Leaving a Single Return Print

    Fear of the unknown and the impossible hook the moment you see boot prints leading to a railing, two handprints pressed into frost - and then nothing returns. A photograph taken at 5:47 a.m. on March 9, 2011, shows a trail that ends at the river; why did sixty-one passengers sleep through what left no sign of a return?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from boarding to disappearance, the photograph that became evidence, and the personal details that made Angela Murphy’s absence impossible to explain. What do the photographs, the preparations she left behind, and the unknown man in her life tell us about what really happened?

    Person: Angela Murphy
    Date: March 9, 2011
    Location: Morrow Queen rear deck; docked at Pella's Landing
    Photographer: Scott Petersen
    Search: Three days of river searches with divers over a two-mile corridor

    - Photograph taken at 5:47 a.m. shows boot prints walking to the stern railing with two handprints pressed into the frost.
    - Sixty-one passengers boarded; the gangway turnstile recorded sixty exits, leaving one person unaccounted for.
    - Angela Murphy was 54 years old and worked 19 years as a billing coordinator at a regional orthopedic clinic.
    - Angela left detailed written instructions for Copernicus, her 14-year-old diabetic orange tabby, including the vet emergency number and insulin pen location.
    - Last confirmed sighting before disappearance: bought tea and a blueberry muffin at 9:50 p.m. from gallery employee Chris Yount while carrying a blue-covered novel and a cat-print tote.

    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
  • The Locked Cistern: How 4,000 Gallons Appeared Overnight in Drought

    The Locked Cistern: How 4,000 Gallons Appeared Overnight in Drought
    2026/10/30
    The Locked Cistern: How 4,000 Gallons Appeared Overnight in Drought

    Fear and relief collided on a dry Nevada plateau when a sealed cistern suddenly held 4,000 gallons of crystal-clear water in the third year of a drought - and there were no tracks, no hose, and an untouched padlock. Who moved thousands of gallons without leaving the signs you’d expect, and why did the smallest details - a shifted tote and circular depressions in the mud - end up telling the story?

    In this episode, we tell what happened the morning a delivery driver found the cistern full, trace the people and actions that followed over eight months, and follow the single handwritten clue that changed everything. What did one former hired hand do that no one asked him to, and how did investigators piece together the evidence?

    Person: Donna Novak
    Person: Phil Sorensen
    Date: February 14, 2011
    Location: Smoke Flat, Harla County, Nevada
    Event: Cistern found full of 4,000 gallons of water

    - The cistern contained four thousand gallons of clear water when found on the morning of February 14, 2011.
    - The property had received less than two inches of rain on the plateau since the previous November.
    - Phil Sorensen made four trips from a rented flatbed between about 11:00 PM and close to 3:00 AM on the night of February 12, 2011.
    - The intermediate bulk containers used hold one thousand liters each and left circular depressions roughly eight inches in diameter spaced four feet apart.
    - The padlock and hasp on the cistern were intact and undamaged when inspected on February 17, 2011.

    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 Night a Dead Mill Wove Its Own Ghostly Loom

    The Night a Dead Mill Wove Its Own Ghostly Loom
    2026/10/29
    The Night a Dead Mill Wove Its Own Ghostly Loom

    A dead factory seemed to run itself at 4:51 AM - a five-story textile mill with no power and no machines making the unmistakable knock and pull of a draw loom in 14°F air. Who heard that impossible sound, and what buried records and a water-stained notebook would reveal after six weeks and three visits?

    In this episode, we trace the path from a snowplow driver's late-night report to a county records technician who pulls a decades-old inspector's note and a former worker's notebook to ask why floor joists once vibrated like running looms. Can a forgotten vibration, a single inspection report, and one man's entries explain the noise on Carver Street?

    Person: Ryan Fleming
    Date: January 9, 1994, 4:51 AM
    Location: Calloway Textile Mill, north end of Carver Street, Braddock Falls
    Temperature: 14 degrees Fahrenheit
    Document: March 1971 building safety inspector notation by Walter Pruitt

    - Ryan Fleming stopped his snowplow and listened to a rhythmic loom sound at 4:51 AM on January 9, 1994.
    - The Calloway Textile Mill had been decommissioned in 1962 and power severed in November 1963.
    - Machinery removal at the mill occurred across 1964 and 1965, leaving only bolt circles in concrete floors.
    - A March 1971 inspector's note recorded "vibration in the floor joists, second story, origin unclear" with no recorded follow-up.
    - Henry Osgood's 1959 notebook entry noted "Sub-floor resonance noted again. Foreman says it's the Kessler pipe run underneath. Nobody checked."

    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
  • Warm Coffee, No Footprints: The Diner Cup That Returned Mystery

    Warm Coffee, No Footprints: The Diner Cup That Returned Mystery
    2026/10/28
    Warm Coffee, No Footprints: The Diner Cup That Returned Mystery

    A steaming ceramic cup with a retired yellow-and-blue logo sits on a locked diner's back step at 6:45 a.m., in eleven degrees below freezing - and there are no footprints in the fresh snow. The cup had been stored for five years, then disappeared from a locked storage tote only to reappear warm; who walked through locked doors and why?

    In this episode, we tell the chain of events from the moment the utility worker found the cup to how a photograph and questions pulled a seventy-one-year-old man into four decades of silence. Follow the vanished cup from a converted hardware warehouse to the diner booth where a stranger ordered the exact same breakfast as a man who'd kept a weekly routine for thirty-one years - but who, if anyone, used the known keypad code?

    Person: Raymond Carter
    Person: Troy Hoffman
    Person: Elaine Stover
    Location: Sunrise Diner, corner of Calloway and Route Nine, western North Carolina
    Date: December 4, 2009

    - Temperature recorded at discovery: eleven degrees below freezing
    - Time the utility worker stopped: 6:45 a.m.
    - Diner opening year: 1971
    - Years the logo had been retired: 5 years (retired in 2004)
    - Number of people who knew the diner's rear door keypad code in December 2009: three

    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
  • máximo. OPENING. No revelar la concavidad todavía

    máximo. OPENING. No revelar la concavidad todavía
    2026/10/27
    máximo. OPENING. No revelar la concavidad todavía

    Cold and wrong: a three-and-a-half-inch photo of a person in an orange jacket appears on a trailhead lot, crouching two hundred feet over a canyon with nothing beneath them. A retired civil engineer who reads structures found it on November 14 at 6:15 a.m. - who printed that frame before the photographer ever saw it, and why, is the question that won’t let go.

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline of that photograph and the people tied to it, from the graduate student who took the image to the man who found it, and the curious gap between film drop-off and discovery. What was Erin Barrett photographing at Kellner Pass, and who ordered a single print of frame seventeen before she ever picked up her roll?

    Person: Erin Barrett
    Person: Gregory Mason
    Date: November 14 (photo found at 6:15 a.m.)
    Location: Kellner Pass trailhead parking lot
    Equipment: Nikon L35AF with Fuji 400 film

    - The photograph measures three and a half inches wide.
    - Gregory Mason was 61 years old and found the photo at 6:15 a.m.
    - Erin Barrett was 24 years old and had been in Sutter Falls for three weeks.
    - The film was dropped at the drugstore kiosk on November 9 at 9:47 a.m.; a single print of frame 17 was purchased at 11:53 a.m. the same day.
    - The drop box later contained 23 prints when Erin picked them up at 2:15 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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    22 分
  • The Secret Visitor Who Left Chrysanthemums at Plot 7-C

    The Secret Visitor Who Left Chrysanthemums at Plot 7-C
    2026/10/26
    The Secret Visitor Who Left Chrysanthemums at Plot 7-C

    Cold water, freshly cut stems, and chrysanthemums placed at a grave that official records said had been visited by no one for thirty-seven years - who would drive twelve miles and pay in cash to leave flowers at plot 7-C? The pattern points to a weekly Monday in late October, and one question won't leave the county: why that specific date?

    In this episode, we follow the discoveries, the townspeople who noticed them, and the reporting that connected a mystery visitor to Harold James Wick - but the motive that explains the timing remains the puzzle you will want answered.

    Person: Harold James Wick
    Date: Died November 22, 1974
    Location: Alderton Township Cemetery, Packard Mill Road, Dunmore County, West Virginia
    Reporter: Sarah Morgan
    Witness: Jim Petty

    - Harold James Wick farmed 83 acres and died at age 73 on November 22, 1974.
    - Jim Petty found jars with chrysanthemums at plot 7-C in approximately October 2008 and October 2009.
    - Scott Fisher spotted a jar on a Tuesday in the third week of October 2011 after 11 years walking his meter route.
    - A woman bought chrysanthemums in cash at Dunning's Blooms on Monday, October 20, 2011, one day before Fisher's discovery.
    - Tri-County Transport's dispatcher Al Hensley recalled the woman taking a round trip to Alderton and back and always paying cash.

    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