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  • The Garden Guest Who Served Poisoned Tea and Two Graves

    The Garden Guest Who Served Poisoned Tea and Two Graves
    2026/09/10
    The Garden Guest Who Served Poisoned Tea and Two Graves

    A sweet, green smell at 5:40 a.m. led a 14-year-old paper carrier to a storm door left open and, hours later, a man dead on the kitchen floor with a bowl of tea-colored liquid and torn leaves - tests would later show aconitine. A widower and landscaper, David Collins spent months with unexplained gastrointestinal decline before collapsing; his wife's similar earlier illness and a mysteriously present monkshood plant raise one central question: who brought the poison into their lives?

    In this episode, we walk through the sequence of events from that morning discovery to the medical findings and the people connected to the Collins household, following the clues that link long-term exposure, an herb grower who visited daily, and a single unrecorded plant - could a trusted helper have been the delivery method for a slow-acting toxin?

    Person: David Collins
    Date: Morning discovery at 5:40 a.m.; pronounced dead at 7:02 a.m.
    Age: 44
    Toxin: Aconitine detected in liquid and tissue
    Location: Collins house, Sycamore Bend

    - The storm door at the Collins house was standing open at 5:40 a.m. when Earl Lewis, age 14, noticed a sweet, green smell and did not enter.
    - David Collins was found unresponsive on the kitchen floor and pronounced dead at 7:02 a.m, at Sutter Valley Medical Center.
    - A ceramic mixing bowl on the counter contained a tea-colored liquid and a scatter of torn green leaves; forensic tests confirmed aconitine in that liquid.
    - David had months of nausea, stomach cramps, and hand tingling in 2011 with diffuse mucosal irritation found by gastroenterologist Brian Sato; no structural cause was identified.
    - A monkshood plant was identified in the Collins raised herb bed within 48 hours of David's death but did not appear in Donald Rice’s meticulous sales and inventory records.

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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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    16 分
  • The Landlord's Tea: How a Cup Slowly Killed Crystal Thorpe

    The Landlord's Tea: How a Cup Slowly Killed Crystal Thorpe
    2026/09/09
    The Landlord's Tea: How a Cup Slowly Killed Crystal Thorpe

    Cold and clinical details hide a slow, deliberate violence: a pair of wiped reading glasses found upright in nine-degree snow carried no frost, and a ceramic tea canister held wet loose leaves that later tested positive for plant-derived pyrrolizidine alkaloids - so how did a cup of tea kill a young billing coordinator over months without immediate suspicion?

    In this episode, we tell the timeline from the morning the glasses were found to the lab confirmation in Columbus, laying out how symptoms evolved, who lived at 414 Sutter Hollow Road, and how one environmental health investigator connected two collapsing livers back to a single canister of tea - could the landlord’s habits explain the pattern of poisoning?

    Person: Crystal Thorpe
    Age: 28
    Location: 414 Sutter Hollow Road
    Date found (glasses): February, 6:20 a.m.
    Lab result date: January 2

    - Glasses found upright in a snow berm at 6:20 a.m., temperature nine degrees, with no footprints nearby.
    - Crystal Thorpe died on October 14 after admission on October 5 with progressive hepatic failure; initial death certificate listed autoimmune hepatitis.
    - Dennis Sproat moved into Crystal’s former room within three weeks and showed jaundice by December.
    - Environmental health investigator Bruce Tillman collected a blue glazed ceramic canister from the shelf above the door in the front upstairs room.
    - State lab in Columbus reported the loose tea contained pyrrolizidine alkaloids on January 2.

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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
  • Volunteer Leaves an IV Bag at a Dead Woman's Door: The Last Visitor

    Volunteer Leaves an IV Bag at a Dead Woman's Door: The Last Visitor
    2026/09/08
    Volunteer Leaves an IV Bag at a Dead Woman's Door: The Last Visitor

    A single IV bag, placed on a concrete pad six days after a patient's death, contained a lethal concentration of potassium chloride - enough to stop a fragile heart within hours. Who left a prepared, deliberate dose at the doorstep of a woman already cremated, and what did investigators uncover when they traced one volunteer’s visits across two years of hospice care?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the bag’s discovery on September 11, 2019 to the search of a volunteer’s home six days later, and we outline the evidence that linked that IV to a cache of pharmaceutical-grade potassium chloride and handwritten IV diagrams. How did the volunteer logs, neighbor statements, and lab results diverge to raise the question of what really happened inside those quiet homes?

    Date: September 11, 2019
    Person: Amanda Whitley
    Location: 412 Sycamore Reach
    Status: Cremated
    Case: Harwick County investigation

    - The IV bag was found at 9:42 AM on September 11, 2019, six days after Amanda Whitley died on September 5, 2019.
    - Laboratory analysis showed the saline in the IV bag was adulterated with potassium chloride at a concentration sufficient to stop a compromised heart within hours.
    - Volunteer Ralph Barnes registered with the hospice Comfort Care Program in early 2017 and was 51 years old at the time.
    - A search of Barnes’s home on September 17, 2019, found pharmaceutical-grade potassium chloride powder locked in a metal box, two empty IV bags, and a spiral notebook with hand-drawn IV flow-rate diagrams.
    - Hospice records showed Barnes’s visitor log for Whitley contained only scheduled visits with no unscheduled visits recorded, despite a neighbor reporting Whitley left her side door unlocked for Barnes who sometimes came outside scheduled hours.

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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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    17 分
  • Thursday Coffees, Tiny Vials: How Thallium Hid in Plain Sight

    Thursday Coffees, Tiny Vials: How Thallium Hid in Plain Sight
    2026/09/07
    Thursday Coffees, Tiny Vials: How Thallium Hid in Plain Sight

    A lunch bag wedged under a culvert hid eleven glass vials; one still held a clear, faintly yellow liquid later identified as pharmaceutical-grade thallium sulfate - a sub-lethal but cumulative dose meant to build. Who wrote "Thursday - S.M." on the tape and how did a young woman’s mounting neuropathy, hair loss, and organ failure go unrecognized as poisoning until a runner looked down into Holloway Creek?

    In this episode, we tell what was found in the creek, how those findings intersected with a twenty-three-year-old woman's unexplained decline and death, and how a toxicologist’s review brought the pieces together to ask whether a pattern of Thursday coffees concealed a slow, deliberate poisoning.

    Person: Shannon Miller
    Date: August 1, 2011 (death); August 14, 2011 (bag found)
    Location: Holloway Creek under a concrete culvert; Dunmore, Pennick County
    Case: unexplained multi-organ failure reclassified after toxicology
    Toxin: pharmaceutical-grade thallium sulfate solution

    - A runner found a green-and-white insulated lunch bag wedged under a concrete culvert on August 14, 2011, six inches submerged.
    - Inside were eleven glass vials with red rubber septa; ten empty and one containing a clear, faintly yellow liquid.
    - The outer pocket had white first-aid tape labeled in blue ballpoint: "Thursday - S.M."
    - Shannon Miller, age 23, died on August 1, 2011, with reported multi-organ failure and had experienced peripheral neuropathy, GI distress, profound fatigue, abnormal liver enzymes, and hair loss in the weeks before death.
    - Laboratory analysis identified the vial’s contents as pharmaceutical-grade thallium sulfate at a concentration described as sub-lethal per dose but cumulative.

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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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    19 分
  • She Called It the Nicest Part of Her Day: The Janet Holt Case

    She Called It the Nicest Part of Her Day: The Janet Holt Case
    2026/09/06
    She Called It the Nicest Part of Her Day: The Janet Holt Case

    A quiet ritual of morning tea ended with Janet Holt collapsed on her kitchen floor and two mugs left aligned, each a third full of pale amber liquid. Medical tests first labeled her death a natural cardiac arrhythmia, but subtle signs - weight loss, liver inflammation, peripheral neuropathy and a negative toxicology - left one central question: what hidden cause produced months of decline and a closed case that some would soon reopen?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline from Janet’s new ritual with neighbor John West to the morning Shannon Davis found her, outlining the medical findings, neighbor accounts, and procedural steps that followed; can the pieces - the Darjeeling tea ritual, the subtle lab abnormalities, and the closed file - be reconciled?

    Person: Janet Holt
    Date: July 9, 2014
    Location: 14 Birch Hollow Lane, Portwell
    Age: 38
    Medical examiner: Dr. Felix Strand

    - Two ceramic mugs were on the kitchen table, each roughly one-third full, with handles aligned and a tea bag wrapper folded twice weighted with a small river stone.
    - Shannon Davis called 9-1-1 at 8:47 AM on July 9, 2014, after finding Janet on the kitchen floor and did not touch the mugs.
    - Janet reported fatigue beginning in late winter 2014, lost 11 pounds by July, and did not attend a scheduled six-week follow-up appointment.
    - Dr. Felix Strand’s autopsy found pulmonary edema, hepatic inflammation, and peripheral neuropathy; preliminary cause listed as cardiac arrhythmia pending toxicology.
    - Standard toxicology reported negative on July 14, 2014, and the case was classified as a natural death and closed.

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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 Spoon on the Stove: How a Daughter Poisoned Her Mother

    The Spoon on the Stove: How a Daughter Poisoned Her Mother
    2026/09/05
    The Spoon on the Stove: How a Daughter Poisoned Her Mother

    A wooden spoon resting across a simmering blue stockpot became the thread that unraveled a quiet death: Gina Murphy, 62, found dead on a June Thursday with a pot on a low flame though she hadn’t cooked in months. Why did tissue samples and a pharmacist’s notes about early digoxin refills, plus a late-night kitchen light seen from across the street, turn a routine caregiving map into a murder investigation?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events and the concrete details that shifted a closed death certificate into a criminal case, tracing who noticed what and when - and asking how many missed warnings allowed a lethal dose to go undetected.

    Person: Gina Murphy
    Age: 62
    Location: 111 Keller Street, Draper, Tennessee
    Medication: Digoxin with persistent low potassium requiring daily supplements
    Witness: Troy Hamilton found the body on a Thursday morning in late June 2019

    - The blue enamel stockpot was found on a low flame with a long-handled wooden spoon across the rim.
    - Gina had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure in April 2018 and lost 21 pounds over the following year.
    - She received meal deliveries on Tuesdays and Fridays and relied on daughter Amy Owens to visit Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:00 pm, staying two to three hours.
    - Pharmacist Deborah Oates noted Gina’s digoxin refills arriving 8-10 days early starting in May 2019 and called the cardiologist’s office; the message was not returned before Gina’s death.
    - Neighbor Ed Carrigan observed Gina’s kitchen light on around 11:15 pm on Wednesday, June 19, 2019, a night he was home though he usually was away that day.

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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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    19 分
  • The Mug on Coldwater Ridge: How a Trail Cup Exposed an Arsenic Killer

    The Mug on Coldwater Ridge: How a Trail Cup Exposed an Arsenic Killer
    2026/09/04
    The Mug on Coldwater Ridge: How a Trail Cup Exposed an Arsenic Killer

    A ceramic coffee mug sat upright on a rock six inches off the Coldwater Ridge hiking trail containing a saturated arsenic trioxide solution in distilled water - enough to kill a person. Seven months earlier a 78-year-old woman from a nearby 40-acre property had died with cardiac failure on her death certificate; why were these two facts connected?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of discoveries from a hiker’s call about an odd mug to lab confirmation and the medical and environmental records that linked people, a well, and contaminated water. How did routine medical visits, elevated arsenic blood levels, and a county well advisory converge into a hidden story revealed by a cup on a trail?

    Person: Edna Crale
    Age: 78
    Location: 40-acre property near Coldwater Ridge
    Date of mug discovery: May 11, 2019
    Lab finding: saturated arsenic trioxide solution in distilled water

    - The mug was found six inches off the hiking trail, placed upright on a rock.
    - The lab described the mug’s contents as a saturated arsenic trioxide solution in distilled water.
    - Edna Crale died October 3, 2018, with cardiac failure listed on the death certificate.
    - Norman Phillips, age 26 in 2018, had elevated blood arsenic reported on June 28, 2018.
    - The Crale property well measured 0.04 mg/L arsenic on July 3, 2018, four times the EPA limit of 0.01 mg/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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    16 分
  • Una pescadora sacó del río un colgante hospitalario limpio - no parecía perdido, parecía colocado

    Una pescadora sacó del río un colgante hospitalario limpio - no parecía perdido, parecía colocado
    2026/09/03
    Una pescadora sacó del río un colgante hospitalario limpio - no parecía perdido, parecía colocado

    A hospital call pendant, cream plastic with a red oval button and a braided nylon cord, was pulled from the Cannaugh River clean and untangled five days after its owner died - and investigators later found a hidden seam containing evidence that linked back eighteen months and uncovered a second death. How did a device from a Crestview Regional Medical Center room end up clean in a river, and what did its seam reveal about two patients who never should have died?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from the pendant’s recovery through the hospital investigation and toxicology results, describing the patients, the clinical course, the actions of staff and investigators, and the unanswered questions that turned a medical mystery into a suspected poisoning.

    Person: Judith Clark
    Date: April 14, 2017
    Location: Cannaugh River / Crestview Regional Medical Center
    Person: Angela Weaver
    Result: Blood arsenic 412 micrograms per liter

    - A pendant described as cream plastic with a red oval button and a braided nylon cord was snagged on a palangre line before dawn on April 14, 2017.
    - The pendant had been in a patient’s room at Crestview Regional Medical Center five days earlier and was found clean, not waterlogged or tangled.
    - Angela Weaver was admitted to Crestview on March 23, 2017, and died on April 9, 2017, after 22 days of hospitalization.
    - A heavy metals panel returned April 13 showed Angela Weaver’s blood arsenic level at 412 micrograms per liter (reference

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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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    17 分