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  • Forger Holds Her Own Diploma to the Light: The Amanda Phillips Case

    Forger Holds Her Own Diploma to the Light: The Amanda Phillips Case
    2026/10/27
    Forger Holds Her Own Diploma to the Light: The Amanda Phillips Case

    A quiet rural town trusted a woman for three years and four months whose diploma, medical license, and name were all fabrications - yet many of her clinical decisions were sound and some described as genuinely good. How did Amanda Phillips hold Dellbrook’s health in her hands while living a life built from forged credentials, and what does “real” mean when patients received care that helped them?

    In this episode, we tell the story of what happened in Dellbrook, Tennessee from the late summer of 2015 through January 2019: how a thirty-year-old who taught herself medicine became the town’s only physician, how her forgeries were made and used, and the unresolved question of where competence ends and deception begins.

    Date: January 9, 2019
    Location: Dellbrook, Tennessee
    Person: Amanda Phillips (alias)
    Duration: 3 years and 4 months
    Age: 30

    - The clinic’s side door was found open four inches at 5:47 AM when 14-year-old Melissa Rogers passed on January 9, 2019.
    - Amanda arrived in late summer 2015 and served as Dellbrook’s only physician until federal agents entered the clinic on January 13, 2019 (four days after Melissa spotted the open door).
    - She created a fake framed medical diploma using design software and specialty paper purchased from a commercial printer in Memphis.
    - The Tennessee medical license she displayed used the real license number of a retired physician, modified and laminated; under magnification the seal was slightly imperfect.
    - For approximately six years before Dellbrook she taught herself medicine, practiced suturing on grocery-store chicken skin, enrolled in online clinical courses, and spent roughly two years working in Nashville under the name Amy Phelps.

    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 Faked a Chaplain's Life for Eleven Years: The Gina Williams Case

    She Faked a Chaplain's Life for Eleven Years: The Gina Williams Case
    2026/10/26
    She Faked a Chaplain's Life for Eleven Years: The Gina Williams Case

    A dry laminated credential card found after a snowplow in December 2019 exposed a decade-long deception: Gina A. Williams served as Cedarview Hospice's interfaith chaplain for eleven years with fabricated seminary and certification details. How did a woman who faked every credential become the bedside presence for 200 to 300 dying patients, and what did those patients actually receive?

    In this episode, you'll hear the facts of Gina Williams' path from caregiver to impostor and the investigative trail that followed, from the first licensing audit in 2012 to the discovery of the card in 2019 - but can investigators and families truly determine whether any patient was harmed?

    Person: Gina A. Williams
    Location: Cedarview Hospice and Palliative Center
    Date (card found): December 11, 2019
    Duration of employment: Eleven years
    Estimated patients present at deaths: 200 to 300

    - The laminated credential card was found under a drainage ditch after a snowplow on December 11, 2019.
    - Gina Williams cared for her mother Dolores for six years before Dolores died in April 2008.
    - Williams submitted fabricated credentials in fall 2008 and was hired as Cedarview's interfaith chaplain.
    - A licensing board audit flagged the Covenant Fellowship of Pastoral Ministries as unlocatable in spring 2012.
    - Two patients' daughters later named their children after Gina and families continued sending Christmas cards to her old 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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    18 分
  • She Faked the Badge: How a Filing Cabinet Built a Fraud Empire

    She Faked the Badge: How a Filing Cabinet Built a Fraud Empire
    2026/10/25
    She Faked the Badge: How a Filing Cabinet Built a Fraud Empire

    The moment a gold-foil seal caught a utility worker's eye on a corrugated metal wall, an ordinary meter check would eventually expose 114 fake fire investigations spanning three states-built from a filing cabinet, a retired mentor, and a laminated forgery. How did a woman with no degree, no license, and access to an unlocked lateral file cabinet turn paperwork into a nine-year fraudulent career?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from a Tuesday in November to the discoveries behind a missing frame and a bolted fireproof box. You will hear how access to volunteer training records, a retired fire marshal’s tutoring, and a stolen certification combined into a scheme that only investigators could untangle.

    Person: Judith A. Lewis
    Event: Fenner Road fire
    Person: Everett Strang
    Person: Patrick Morse
    Number of investigations: 114

    - The framed certificate was mounted with four clean screw-holes on corrugated metal and later removed, leaving the holes.
    - Lewis worked 14 months at the Bremer County Volunteer Fire Association with daily access to an unlocked lateral filing cabinet containing records dating to the early 1980s.
    - After leaving, Lewis moved 70 miles east to Marsden and studied for roughly a year, meeting Everett Strang for 18 months of mentoring.
    - Lewis obtained Patrick Morse’s original certification by claiming to be his executor and used it to create a laminated replica indistinguishable from the original at three feet.
    - Investigators found the original certificate, the replica, and a handwritten lamination guide in a fireproof lockbox bolted to the closet floor of Lewis’s Ackley Avenue apartment.

    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
  • She Faked a Detective, a Town - How 300,000 Believed Her

    She Faked a Detective, a Town - How 300,000 Believed Her
    2026/10/24
    She Faked a Detective, a Town - How 300,000 Believed Her

    A single fake gravestone in a park led to a web address that read "None of this is real" - but by then three hundred thousand weekly listeners already believed a disappearance, a detective, and an entire county that never existed. How did one woman, working from a walk-in closet, teach herself the "architecture of belief" well enough to fool devoted fans, a podcast network, and people who drove across state lines?

    In this episode, we follow how Jennifer Lane built Harmon Road from notebooks and public templates, the tactics she used to mimic investigative language and evidence, and the moment her fiction leaked into the real world. What pushed thousands from curiosity to conviction, and who finally found the exit she left in the weeds?

    Person: Jennifer Lane
    Event: Launch of Harmon Road podcast on February 1, 2017
    Location: Crestfield, Ohio (walk-in closet studio)
    Audience: 300,000 weekly listeners by end of season two
    Group: Facebook membership reached 11,000

    - A fourteen-inch dark gray resin headstone marked "Detective Warren Cale" was placed in Millhaven Park and sat there for three weeks.
    - Jennifer Lane completed four notebooks in Portland, each divided into "what the listener hears" and "what the listener feels."
    - By the end of season one, 4,000 people were paying Jennifer on Patreon.
    - A mid-tier podcast network licensed Harmon Road after season one and Jennifer appeared on a Nashville true-crime panel.
    - Nora Fitch, Warren Cale, and Harmon County were fabricated; county geography was modeled from three real Ohio counties.

    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 Day a Recycled Nameplate Exposed a Fake Child Psychologist

    The Day a Recycled Nameplate Exposed a Fake Child Psychologist
    2026/10/23
    The Day a Recycled Nameplate Exposed a Fake Child Psychologist

    A chill of betrayal: a laminated office placard found in a recycling bin revealed that a trusted child psychologist, listed as Shannon Riley, PhD, had fabricated transcripts, a clinical license, and fourteen published articles - many parents and a university never checked. How did one recycled nameplate unravel a decade of deception and what did a doctoral student's missing citations finally force people to confront?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the placard discovery through the academic and clinical threads that held the deception together, showing how routine trust and absent verification let a fake credential persist. What happens when waiting-room reassurance proves hollow?

    Person: Shannon Riley, PhD
    Location: Denton, Ohio
    Institution: Harmon University
    Event: Placard discovered in recycling bin
    Discoverer: Cheryl Hill, doctoral student

    - The placard was found in a recycling bin at fourteen Weller Drive in September 2011.
    - Riley arrived in Denton in autumn 2001 at age forty-five and opened a private practice within a year.
    - She worked one week (seven days) in a clinical psychology training program in 1989 and withdrew before the second week.
    - Harmon University hired her as an adjunct in 2004 and promoted her to a full departmental role in 2007.
    - Riley ordered the laminated, UV-coated nameplate in 2007 from a commercial sign shop in Columbus and paid 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
  • How a 23‑Year‑Old Faked a Lawyer's Life and Ruined Real Cases

    How a 23‑Year‑Old Faked a Lawyer's Life and Ruined Real Cases
    2026/10/22
    How a 23‑Year‑Old Faked a Lawyer's Life and Ruined Real Cases

    A retired postal volunteer found a laminated Ohio Supreme Court bar certificate and a legal pad full of phonetic Latin notes in a supply closet - and those two objects revealed that a 23-year-old with 18 community-college credits had been deciding real labor cases for nineteen months. How did she use a shoebox of her brother’s credentials, a forged address-update letter, and perfect punctuality to impersonate an arbitrator and affect 22 real decisions before being unmasked?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from the discovery in August 2011 to the months of hidden rulings, describing how she set up her identity, the methods she used to learn legal language, and the moment a wrong door began the unraveling. How did one supply closet item expose a scheme that altered overtime pay, city contracts, and union rights?

    Person: Kelly Thompson
    Person: Kevin Dale Thompson
    Date: August 2011
    Location: Lakemont, Ohio
    Case: 22 arbitration decisions over nineteen months

    - A laminated Ohio Supreme Court bar certificate issued in 1981 bore the name Kevin Dale Thompson and was found in a supply closet.
    - Kelly Thompson had 18 community-college credits and worked part-time at a copy center before impersonating an arbitrator.
    - She used Kevin’s original bar number and a forged address-update letter to place her name on the active roster.
    - She presided over 22 cases and filed decisions on time for nineteen consecutive months.
    - The scheme was uncovered when Ross Richardson photographed the certificate and a yellow legal pad with phonetic notes in August 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 Wine Bottle in the Dirt That Exposed a False Sommelier

    The Wine Bottle in the Dirt That Exposed a False Sommelier
    2026/10/21
    The Wine Bottle in the Dirt That Exposed a False Sommelier

    A hidden wine bottle worth $400-$600 sits upright in a sycamore root on an unmapped trail outside Portland - a careful placement that later unravels a celebrated sommelier's life. How did a single 1996 Domaine Leflaive bottle buried in July soil become the hinge that exposed years of deception?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of moments and people connected to that bottle and the man at the center of the story to see how small inconsistencies grew into a pattern. What chain of near-misses and verifiable details finally pushed suspicion into full investigation?

    Date: July 2014
    Person: Chad O'Connor
    Location: Ridgeback Loop, Portland, Oregon
    Wine: 1996 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru
    Value: $400-$600

    - Chad O'Connor found the bottle at 7:15 AM on a Tuesday morning in the third week of July 2014.
    - The bottle stood upright in the hollow of a sycamore root with no footprints around it except Chad's.
    - Paul Walsh arrived in Portland in winter 2010 at age 34 and was hired after a 90-minute interview at Ardent.
    - Walsh presented a Court of Master Sommeliers diploma dated 2004 that was later identified as a high-quality reproduction.
    - Donna Pfeiffer recognized inaccuracies in Walsh's Burgundy apprenticeship story in April 2013 but did not raise them publicly until 14 months 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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    17 分
  • She Published Their Deaths - Why Forty-Seven Were Thrown In River

    She Published Their Deaths - Why Forty-Seven Were Thrown In River
    2026/10/20
    She Published Their Deaths - Why Forty-Seven Were Thrown In River

    Cold certainty: forty-seven perfectly dry obituaries, sealed in a Ziploc weighted with local limestone, drifted against a bend in the Cassidy River - each one naming a living person. Who would publish one fake obituary, and why were forty-seven placed in the water together?

    In this episode, we follow how a morning catch turned into a criminal puzzle and trace the chain from a river bank to a local newspaper's obituary desk. What motives and systems allowed one reporter to publish one hundred twelve fabricated obituaries and raise tens of thousands of dollars before anyone noticed?

    Person: Leon Stein
    Date: June 19, 2014
    Person: April Cook
    Case: 112 fabricated obituaries published 2004-2014
    Amount: $182,000

    - Leon Stein found a sealed Ziploc bag with forty-seven obituaries about 400 meters south of the Route Nine bridge on the Cassidy River.
    - The bag contained obituaries cut from the Harwick Courier-Dispatch, all perfectly dry and sealed from the inside with packing tape, on a morning when the water temperature was 61°F.
    - April Cook, age 61 in summer 2014, had worked the obituary desk since 2003 and published one hundred twelve fabricated obituaries between 2004 and 2014.
    - Cook submitted obituaries through a fictitious funeral home named Calloway & Sons and paid column fees in cash via the paper’s drop-box.
    - Cook solicited donations through the Harwick Courier Fund, raising a total of $182,000 over fourteen months of final accounting.

    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