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  • The Honey Jar Between His Feet: How Arsenic Hid in Plain Sight

    The Honey Jar Between His Feet: How Arsenic Hid in Plain Sight
    2026/07/25
    The Honey Jar Between His Feet: How Arsenic Hid in Plain Sight

    A man in dress slacks was found on a frozen embankment at 6:22 AM with no coat, no shoes, and a sealed jar of honey standing upright between his feet-details that turned an apparent natural death into a mystery about something sweet and invisible. What was in the honey that turned months of liver failure into a case that would not be closed?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the first symptoms through the discovery on the Mineral Creek towpath and the early autopsy findings, tracing how one persistent detail kept the death from remaining ruled natural causes: what role did that jar of honey play?

    Person: Jerry Jones
    Date: December (third Tuesday), 2019
    Location: Mineral Creek towpath, half-mile marker
    Medical Examiner: Dr. Frank Ibarra
    Consulting Pathologist: Donald Gallagher

    - Jerry Jones was 47 years old and had managed commercial properties for two decades.
    - Jerry moved into an in-law suite on his brother Thomas's property in Sable Crossing four years before his death.
    - Jerry reported fatigue, nausea, tingling hands, and yellowish skin over eight months and saw Dr. Sandra Muth six times.
    - The runner who found the body, George Morgan, called 9-1-1 at 6:22 AM after discovering the scene.
    - The jar of honey at the scene contained about two inches of amber liquid and had its lid screwed tight.

    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 Garden Pot That Poisoned a Mother-How Laura Killed Slowly

    The Garden Pot That Poisoned a Mother-How Laura Killed Slowly
    2026/07/24
    The Garden Pot That Poisoned a Mother-How Laura Killed Slowly

    The ordinary backyard became a killing ground: a ceramic pot sat on a gas meter for eleven days and a homemade herb bed fed a woman food she trusted until her body collapsed. Toxicology, garden soil and a detective with agricultural experience point to a slow, domestic poison-how did a caregiver’s kitchen harvest turn into a fatal exposure?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from first fatigue to death, the people who noticed what changed, and the medical clues that didn’t add up, closing on the question that haunts every neighbor and clinician: was Sharon poisoned by what she ate at home?

    Person: Sharon Olson
    Date: November 14, 2019
    Location: Dearing General Hospital neurological unit
    Person: Laura Fitzgerald
    Event: Ceramic pot left on gas meter for eleven days

    - Sharon Olson was 31 years old at the time of death.
    - The ceramic pot had been sitting on the north wall gas meter for eleven days.
    - Sharon died on November 14, 2019 after eleven days in hospital.
    - Laura Fitzgerald began caregiving for the Olsons in February 2018 and worked up to four days a week by July 2019.
    - By late August 2019 Sharon reported persistent fatigue, and by October had anemia and elevated liver enzymes.

    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
  • Breakfast for the Dead: How a Bowl Exposed an Arsenic Killer

    Breakfast for the Dead: How a Bowl Exposed an Arsenic Killer
    2026/07/23
    Breakfast for the Dead: How a Bowl Exposed an Arsenic Killer

    A steaming bowl of oatmeal sat precisely at the head of an otherwise empty kitchen table-spoon across the rim, folded napkin, a glass of apple juice with fresh condensation-though the man who always occupied that chair had been dead for eleven hours. The forensic detail of a prepared breakfast would later point a toxicologist to Pallister, Pennsylvania, and unravel months of low-level arsenic exposure; but who had been dosing the meals, and why did the pattern go unnoticed until a lodger collapsed in an ER with symptoms he'd seen someone else die from?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the unattended death and the untouched evidence bag to the hospital lab that flagged inorganic arsenic and a patient who described watching similar symptoms in another man. We cover the boarding house routines, medical visits, and the sequence of events that raised the question: how did chronic arsenic accumulation happen inside a house where no one cooked for themselves?

    Person: Gordon Johnson
    Age: 53
    Location: Pallister, Pennsylvania
    Date of death (approximate): October 10, 2011
    Toxicology finding: Inorganic arsenic (chronic, low-level exposure)

    - The oatmeal bowl was discovered steaming at the head of the table eleven hours after Gordon Johnson's death.
    - Gordon Johnson had been a machinist and lived in the Creekside Lane boarding house for four years and three months.
    - The boarding house owner, Eric Campbell, was 48 years old and cooked all meals for lodgers for six years.
    - Barbara Stills kept a handwritten health diary logging blood pressure, symptoms, and food, and had been a lodger for eight months.
    - Forty-one days after Johnson's death, on November 18, 2011, lodger Ted Sorrento (age 41) arrived at Pallister General with acute nausea and was found to have chronic inorganic arsenic exposure.

    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 IV Bag in the Woods: How a Volunteer Became a Quiet Killer

    The IV Bag in the Woods: How a Volunteer Became a Quiet Killer
    2026/07/22
    The IV Bag in the Woods: How a Volunteer Became a Quiet Killer

    A discarded glass IV bag was found three miles from the nearest hospital in Calloway State Forest - tube cut clean, no label, no clinic stamp - yet it linked to a death where the body had been buried three weeks earlier. Who was the volunteer whose visits coincided with multiple hospice deaths, and what did that unlabelled bag reveal about how those deaths were caused?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning Nicole Wright found the IV bag on September 11, 2019, through the discovery of overlapping volunteer visits and a receipt for potassium chloride, to the toxicology results that tied evidence to a patient. What patterns in volunteer logs, handwriting, and pharmacy records point to a single disturbing variable?

    Person: Nicole Wright
    Date: September 11, 2019
    Location: Calloway State Forest
    Person: Ronald Larsen
    Person: Carl Mills

    - The IV bag was found three miles from the nearest hospital in a drainage culvert with the tube cut clean and no label.
    - Nicole Wright found the bag while walking her greyhound, Pepper, and reported it the same morning.
    - Ronald Larsen had been buried for three weeks by the time the IV bag was connected to his death.
    - Four patients died between January and August 2019, each within 48 hours of the same volunteer's visit.
    - A receipt dated July 3, 2019, showed a purchase of potassium chloride solution from a veterinary supply company in Indiana.

    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 Quiet Powder: How a Kitchen Canister Hid Two Poisoned Women

    The Quiet Powder: How a Kitchen Canister Hid Two Poisoned Women
    2026/07/21
    The Quiet Powder: How a Kitchen Canister Hid Two Poisoned Women

    A sudden detail - the crown of a drowned woman's hair remaining dry - hid a trace that would later link two closed deaths to arsenic-laced powder in a kitchen canister. How did a labeled ceramic jar on a counter go untested while one toxicologist’s single question reopened two seemingly unrelated cases?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from an Edlin river recovery to a medical seminar in Pallerton, tracking the missed clues, preserved autopsy samples, and the toxicology finding that changed everything. What did tissue and nail testing reveal about Frances Holt - and who else was already gone?

    Person: Frances Holt
    Date: August 9, 2013
    Location: Lower Reach, Morrow River
    Person: Margot Finch
    Date: September 2011

    - Frances Holt was 28 years old when her body was found floating about 40 yards from the Edlin boat launch.
    - The crown of Frances’s hair was dry despite her body being face-down in moving water.
    - A white-glazed ceramic canister with a small bird and Frances’s handwriting was on her kitchen counter and was not tested initially.
    - Margot Finch, 31, died in September 2011 in Hessler; her death was ruled cardiac arrhythmia and a protein powder container was discarded without testing.
    - Frances’s liver contained 4.1 micrograms of arsenic per gram of tissue, about eight times expected background levels.

    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
  • The Teapot on the Stone: How Thallium Silenced Diane Carlson

    The Teapot on the Stone: How Thallium Silenced Diane Carlson
    2026/07/20
    The Teapot on the Stone: How Thallium Silenced Diane Carlson

    A ceramic teapot, still faintly warm, was found 43 feet from Diane Carlson’s back door on July 14, 2017 - nine days after she died. Her symptoms over months - weight loss of 9 pounds, hair loss, numbness and the sensation of wearing phantom gloves - pointed to chronic low-dose thallium poisoning; who put that teapot on the stone and why remains the question.

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from routine afternoons of tea to a puzzling decline in health, the observations of her longtime physician, and the toxicology lead that unfolded after her death. How did a banned poison, a neighborly tea ritual, and a slow unraveling of symptoms converge to form a case a jury later decided?

    Date: July 14, 2017
    Person: Diane Carlson
    Location: Fenwick Road, Aldine County
    Age: 54
    Physician: Dr. John Clark

    - The teapot was found on a flat stone 43 feet from Diane’s back door.
    - Diane had used the same cream-colored teapot nearly every afternoon since around 2006.
    - She lost 9 pounds between March and June 2017.
    - Diane called her doctor on July 3, 2017 reporting numbness from fingertips to wrists and heaviness in her legs; she died two days later.
    - The medical examiner ordered a toxicology panel after noting "alopecia" in the physician’s notes and before the family completed cremation paperwork.

    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 Kettle Capsule: How a Caregiver Turned Medicine Deadly

    The Kettle Capsule: How a Caregiver Turned Medicine Deadly
    2026/07/20
    The Kettle Capsule: How a Caregiver Turned Medicine Deadly

    A single pale yellow capsule fused into the mineral scale of an electric kettle became the hinge that flipped a medical mystery into a criminal inquiry: a 22-year-old woman recorded as dying of acute multi-organ failure after months of fatigue, hair loss, neuropathy and cardiac arrhythmia. Who placed extra medication into a home where a caregiver had keys, and how did refill records at a local pharmacy reveal the answer?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from initial symptoms and hospital visits through a pharmacist’s phone call and a detective’s request to the state medical examiner, laying out how small anomalies - a photograph, refill rhythms, retained tissue samples - led investigators to ask whether prescription quantities and caregiving access explained Jean Baker’s death.

    Person: Jean Baker
    Date: June 2 (date of death)
    Location: Dunnmore Road house, Renner County
    Profession: Certified nursing assistant (Troy Mason) - 38 years old
    Medical finding: Death certificate listed acute multi-organ failure

    - Jean Baker was 22 years old and died on June 2 with a death certificate listing acute multi-organ failure.
    - Patricia Baker had been diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s three years earlier and lived in the same Dunnmore Road house.
    - Troy Mason, a 38-year-old certified nursing assistant, worked four weekday mornings and was given a house key by the family.
    - Pharmacist Karen Roberts noticed Patricia Baker’s prescriptions were refilling at 1.5 times the prescribed rate and called the Renner County Sheriff on June 14.
    - Detective Ed Farris requested retained tissue samples from Caldwell Regional, and toxicology results were sent to the state medical examiner, a process that took twelve 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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    17 分
  • The Jar in the Well: How a Photo Exposed Two Arsenic Deaths

    The Jar in the Well: How a Photo Exposed Two Arsenic Deaths
    2026/07/20
    The Jar in the Well: How a Photo Exposed Two Arsenic Deaths

    A single photo of a quart jar labeled "WELL" changed two deaths from private tragedies into a criminal inquiry: the jar sat in a precisely hollowed gap in a well cover and tested with arsenic concentrations far higher than the well water. Who left a new-lidded mason jar in a hidden shelf at well-cover height, and how did that one image become State's Exhibit Fourteen?

    In this episode, we follow the chronology from a birder's May 14 photograph to the sheriff's office securing the jar the next morning, laying out how four generations of Dixon family water and two unexplained fatalities converged around that jar and the question it raised.

    Person: Douglas Dixon
    Date: May 14 (photo taken); May 15 (jar seized); June 22 (Douglas died)
    Location: Renner Township, Kellum County
    Cause: Inorganic arsenic detected in jar

    - A birder, Ross Draper, photographed the quart jar on May 14 while documenting bobolinks at the Dixon back pasture.
    - The jar was one quart, with a new lid and a black-marker label reading WELL.
    - The jar sat in a precisely hollowed cavity in the well cover, sized for a one-quart mason jar with fresh, pale wood shavings.
    - The jar's liquid tested at arsenic concentrations many times higher than the well water drawn from the same source.
    - Douglas Dixon was admitted with acute gastrointestinal distress and peripheral neuropathy and died on June 22, fourteen days after admission.

    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