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  • The Pastor Who Faked a Seminary - How One Photo Exposed Her Truth

    The Pastor Who Faked a Seminary - How One Photo Exposed Her Truth
    2026/07/26
    The Pastor Who Faked a Seminary - How One Photo Exposed Her Truth

    A single photograph taken on April 9, 2019, would unspool eight months of undiscovered fabrication: a laminated seminary diploma on a church secretary's table that led to every credential the pastor presented being confirmed as fabricated. How did a pastor with no legitimate degrees, an eleven-dollar seal and a desktop publishing program run a thriving congregation for months before one photo ended it?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events inside Calvary Ridge Community Church and the external checks that could have stopped the fraud earlier, outlining who noticed what, when, and why the congregation never verified credentials - and asking how one overlooked flag remained untouched for months.

    Person: Crystal Ann Pruitt (known at church as Crystal Ann Reynolds)
    Date: April 9, 2019
    Location: Calvary Ridge Community Church, Denton Falls, Ohio
    Compensation: $44,000 per year plus a housing stipend
    Group size: 14 regular attendees in the grief support group by December 2018

    - On April 9, 2019, Donald Hansen photographed a laminated seminary diploma left on the church secretary's table.
    - Within 72 hours of that photograph, every credential the pastor had presented to the congregation was confirmed as fabricated.
    - Crystal was 29 years old and had entered foster care at age nine after losing her parents.
    - Five members sat on the search committee; four voted yes and one (Barbara Vance) voted no when hiring Crystal.
    - By October 2018 Calvary Ridge had added 31 new members and by December Crystal had launched a grief support group with 14 regular attendees.

    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
  • A Dog Finds Five Fake Lives: The Gail Rice Fraud Case

    A Dog Finds Five Fake Lives: The Gail Rice Fraud Case
    2026/07/25
    A Dog Finds Five Fake Lives: The Gail Rice Fraud Case

    Fear that your neighbor's medals are lies: five laminated military IDs, sealed in a waterproof freezer bag, sat hidden in blackberry canes for roughly fifteen weeks until a basset hound pulled them out - and those cards unraveled an entire false identity. What did those five documents claim, and who profited from them?

    In this episode, we walk through the discovery, the local trust that enabled it, and the documents that triggered an audit and a fraud inquiry - could a single set of fake credentials really fund one woman's consultant fees?

    Person: Gail A. Rice
    Date found: second Saturday of March 2023
    Location: reservoir trail, Pratt's Mill, Duvall County
    Amount: $31,000 paid to Rice in consulting fees
    Grant total: $114,000 awarded to the veterans' wellness program

    - The freezer bag remained in the blackberry canes from late November 2022 to mid-March 2023, about fifteen weeks.
    - Bruce Whitfield photographed the gallon-sized zip-lock bag and handed it to Deputy Sandra Obi.
    - Gail Rice moved to Pratt's Mill in 2012 and worked as a patient liaison at Duvall County Regional Medical Center by 2015.
    - Rice claimed twenty-two years of service and deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, but official records show enlistment in 1989 and an honorable discharge in 1993.
    - Rice co-wrote the grant proposal that secured $114,000 in state funding; $31,000 of that amount was paid back to her as consulting fees.

    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
  • She Printed an $11M Heir - The Girl Who Faked a Fortune

    She Printed an $11M Heir - The Girl Who Faked a Fortune
    2026/07/24
    She Printed an $11M Heir - The Girl Who Faked a Fortune

    Fear and fascination collide when a 22-year-old print shop worker turns hotel stationery into an $11 million lie - and drops the evidence in a creek less than four hours after printing it; who was she really and how close did she come to vanishing into a fabricated fortune?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of actions and artifacts that built the deception, from a flash drive and six reams of specialty paper to a warm portable inkjet and a zip-lock sleeve found in Hatchee Slough - could a bed-and-breakfast and a printer on a desk be the final clue that unraveled everything?

    Person: April Catherine White
    Date: February 11, 2016
    Location: Hatchee Slough / Maren's Crossing
    Job: Print shop employee
    Town: Maren's Crossing, Wentworth County

    - Forty sheets of cream hotel stationery, each a forgery, were found sealed dry in a zip-lock sleeve inside a mesh bag pulled from Hatchee Slough.
    - The mesh bag had been in the water less than four hours when fisherman William Casey found it on the morning of February 11, 2016.
    - April White was 22 years old and had no criminal record, no college degree, and no prior connection to the Alderton family.
    - She produced a Connecticut college transcript, a law firm reference letter, and a Social Security card while staying three weeks in a budget motel in Columbus in summer 2015.
    - Within six weeks of arriving in Maren's Crossing she attended four dinner parties, two galas, and a private mansion tour while paying for her bed-and-breakfast room entirely in 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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    20 分
  • She Wasn't a Doctor - But Nobody in Town Knew Why

    She Wasn't a Doctor - But Nobody in Town Knew Why
    2026/07/23
    She Wasn't a Doctor - But Nobody in Town Knew Why

    Trust collapsed quietly: a framed medical diploma was planted face-down in frozen dirt with no footprints, a name - Julie Anne Callahan, M.D. - that no medical school could confirm, and a town of 4,000 that had relied on her care for six years. How did a woman using a forged Stratfield diploma and a false identity become the sole full-time provider in Grover Flats without anyone ever asking the right questions?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the diploma found on January 11, 2014 through the hiring in winter 2008 and the small, persistent doubts that built inside the clinic - the odd prescription notation, anachronistic exam techniques, and a nurse’s five-month notebook of unease - to ask whether systems meant to protect patients were designed to detect this kind of fraud.

    Person: Julie Anne Callahan (real name Julie Anne Rader)
    Location: Grover Flats, Nebraska
    Date found: January 11, 2014
    Clinic hiring: Winter of 2008-2009
    Population: roughly 4,000

    - Diploma discovered face-down in frozen dirt behind the clinic with no surrounding footprints.
    - Grover Flats Medical Clinic had been without a full-time physician for eleven months before Julie arrived.
    - Julie worked at the clinic as the sole full-time provider starting by January 2009 and served the town for six years.
    - A pharmacy noted an unusual prescription abbreviation "QID" in spring 2012 that the pharmacist had never reported.
    - A licensed practical nurse logged clinical concerns in a personal notebook over five months beginning August 2013.

    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 Seven Fake Lives of the Woman Who Comforted the Dying

    The Seven Fake Lives of the Woman Who Comforted the Dying
    2026/07/22
    The Seven Fake Lives of the Woman Who Comforted the Dying

    The thought of a trusted hospice chaplain who held the hands of the dying - and who turned out to be using seven different fabricated credentials - chills the spine. Seven laminated IDs, one face, and six years of bedside trust at Cedarfield Hospice: how did no one file a complaint, and what did those cards really hide?

    In this episode, we tell the documented story of Patricia Brooks from the shed discovery to her years at Cedarfield Hospice, covering the legitimate and bogus credentials she used and the people who remember her work; could warm bedside care coexist with deliberate identity fraud?

    Person: Patricia Brooks
    Event: Discovery of seven laminated cards
    Date: December 9, 2011
    Location: shed at Cedarfield Hospice (Ohio)
    Period: six years and four months employed as staff chaplain

    - The temperature in the shed was 19 degrees Fahrenheit when Howard Sharp found the seven laminated cards.
    - Patricia completed a 40-hour Clinical Pastoral Education unit supervised by Robert Marsh.
    - She paid $35 to the Universal Life Ministry and received an ordination certificate by mail.
    - One fabricated card used the license number of a real Indiana social worker whose license was inactive since 2001.
    - Patricia worked as Cedarfield Hospice staff chaplain for six years and four months with no formal complaints filed.

    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 Fake Investigator Found His Own Credentials on a Rock

    The Fake Investigator Found His Own Credentials on a Rock
    2026/07/21
    The Fake Investigator Found His Own Credentials on a Rock

    Fear that the person who signs an expert's report could be a complete fabrication - and that you only notice because of a laminated card on a rock - starts this story. A credentials card belonging to "Roger West" was found bone dry on a rock 600 feet from the nearest road at 7:42 AM on November 4, 2015; how did it get there, and what did that discovery unravel about an industry that accepted him for nearly a year?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that began with a chance discovery and expanded into a web of fabricated credentials, questioned methodology, and slow procedural unspooling. We describe how West created a professional identity, how he was hired for 22 cases, and why a routine credential check raised the single question that changed everything: was he ever who he claimed to be?

    Person: Roger West
    Date: November 4, 2015
    Location: Callerton Reservoir, Callerton County, Ohio
    Cases: 22 cases between January and October 2015
    Fees: $62,000 in contracted fees

    - A laminated credentials card for Roger West was found on a rock 600 feet from the nearest road at 7:42 AM.
    - Roger West was 24 years old in autumn 2015 and lived on Fenwick Road with his mother.
    - Between ages 17 and 22, West set 11 fires he later studied; none were officially attributed to him.
    - From January to October 2015 West was hired by Meridian Casualty, Pellham, and Four Rivers Mutual.
    - Emily Lewis, a licensed investigator with 11 years’ experience, requested a NAFI credential check after finding West’s reports methodologically backwards.

    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 Fabricated Case That Unraveled a Beloved True-Crime Voice

    The Fabricated Case That Unraveled a Beloved True-Crime Voice
    2026/07/20
    The Fabricated Case That Unraveled a Beloved True-Crime Voice

    Fear and betrayal: a podcast that built 200,000 regular listeners, 41 episodes and a sixty-three-document archive collapsed because one notebook entry and one mismatch in a frost date exposed a web of invented names and places - including a nonexistent Harwick County and a return address from Kellum Falls, Indiana. How did a show praised as meticulous sustain three seasons without a single verifiable fact, and who finally forced it to stop?

    In this episode, we trace the sequence of events that led from a paper route notebook entry to a public, 16-page analysis that prompted Terrace Audio to suspend Cold Meridian, and we ask whether fabricated storytelling can ever be contained once listeners have invested. What exactly did the civil engineer from Dayton find, and why did his persistence matter more than journalists or officials?

    Person: Sherry Perry
    Event: Launch of Cold Meridian in September 2017
    Listener count: 200,000 regular listeners
    Episodes: 41 episodes across three seasons
    Document: 16-page analysis published June 2020

    - On October 3, 2019 at 6:15 AM a 14-year-old named Lauren Morgan noted a padded envelope on Selden Court with return address Kellum Falls, Indiana.
    - Cold Meridian produced a sixty-three-document source archive including police reports and a coroner’s preliminary for a county not found in Missouri records.
    - Season Two Episode Six referenced a culvert photo dated October 9, 2003 that allegedly showed frost, conflicting with mid-Missouri records showing first measurable frost on October 22, 2003.
    - Donald Olson, a 48-year-old civil engineer from Dayton, maintained a desktop document of notes and filed repeated public records requests over 18 months with no matching records found.
    - Terrace Audio suspended Cold Meridian within 48 hours of Olson publishing his 16-page analysis in June 2020.

    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 Badge in Gravel: How a Fake Therapist Vanished Into Trust

    The Badge in Gravel: How a Fake Therapist Vanished Into Trust
    2026/07/19
    The Badge in Gravel: How a Fake Therapist Vanished Into Trust

    A single faculty badge found face-up in gravel started a fourteen-month chain that left 43 families and a licensing board asking how harm can be measured when the person who caused it was skilled enough to be indistinguishable from a real clinician. How did a missing department record and a careful set of forged credentials let someone build a private practice and publish a paper that fooled peers?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the badge in the gravel to the discovery of a meticulous spiral-bound notebook, the papers that carried a false Harwick University affiliation, and the gap in record-keeping that Sandra Lawson exploited. What exactly did she do to make trust look authentic, and where did the system fail?

    Person: Sandra Lawson
    Location: Harwick University (Department of Applied Behavioral Sciences dissolved)
    Duration: approximately fourteen months of active deception
    Clients: 43 active private-practice clients
    Rate: $80 per hour

    - The badge found by Bruce Coleman read "Dr. Sandra Lawson" and listed the issuing institution as the Department of Applied Behavioral Sciences at Harwick University.
    - The Harwick department had been dissolved seven years earlier and its historical records were not centrally indexed.
    - Sandra spent significant time in university libraries studying graduate-level clinical psychology texts, licensing regulations, supervision hour requirements, and academic formatting.
    - Within eight months of opening her private practice, Sandra had 43 active clients and charged $80 per hour.
    - A twelve-page paper by "Sandra J. Lawson, M.S., licensed clinical counselor" was published in a small regional journal and later used in a graduate seminar with an affiliation listing Harwick University.

    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