On November of 1999, a 24-year-old woman named Cherica Adams made a 911 call from a dark road in Charlotte, North Carolina. She had been shot four times. She was eight months pregnant. And before the call ended, she told police exactly who was responsible.

That name was Rae Carruth — a first-round NFL draft pick for the Carolina Panthers.

In this episode, we take a step back and look at the full picture — how it all came together, how it fell apart, and what happened in the years that followed.

This is one of the most infamous true crime cases in North Carolina history — and one of the darkest moments connected to the NFL.

The Hidden Pine Lodge

If you want to support the podcast and be part of something a little more hands-on, check out The Hidden Pine Lodge over on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/c/TheHiddenPineLodge

It’s a growing community built around the same things you hear on the show — hiking, fly fishing, gardening, books, and just getting out and doing something with a little more purpose behind it.

You’ll also get access to our private Discord, where we’ve got a book club, bird club, and a place to actually connect with people who are into the same things.

It’s $4 a month, and it helps keep the podcast going while building something bigger around it.

In October 2006, one of the most disturbing crimes in New Orleans history unfolded in the heart of the French Quarter.

Zack Bowen, an Iraq War veteran, and Addie Hall were known throughout the Quarter’s late-night bar scene. Friends described them as inseparable, passionate, and chaotic—two people drawn together by the intensity of post-Katrina New Orleans. But behind the music, the drinking, and the romantic mythology that surrounded them, their relationship was spiraling toward violence.

On the night of October 4, 2006, inside a small apartment above a Voodoo shop on North Rampart Street, Zack Bowen strangled Addie Hall to death. What followed shocked even seasoned investigators. In the days after the murder, Bowen dismembered her body, left a written confession inside the apartment, and spray-painted messages across the walls.

Twelve days later, after a drug-fueled spiral through the French Quarter, Bowen walked to the roof of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel and jumped to his death.

In this episode of The Southern Blueprint Podcast, we examine the full story behind the Zack Bowen and Addie Hall case—from their first meeting in the Quarter’s bar scene, to the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, to the disturbing confession that revealed what happened inside that apartment.

This episode explores the timeline, the investigation, the myths surrounding the case, and the lasting impact the tragedy had on the people who survived it.

Topics covered include:

• The relationship between Zack Bowen and Addie Hall

• Life in the French Quarter after Hurricane Katrina

• The events leading up to the October 2006 murder

• Bowen’s confession and the crime scene investigation

• The suicide at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel

• The aftermath for their families and children

If you enjoy deep-dive Southern true crime stories, be sure to subscribe to The Southern Blueprint Podcast and join our Patreon: The Hidden Pine Lodge for more stories from the history, culture, and darker corners of the South. It's a great way to support the work and the show!

Somewhere in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a fortune may still be waiting.

The Beale Treasure is one of America’s most enduring unsolved mysteries — a story of buried gold, encrypted messages, and a man named Thomas J Beale who vanished without a trace. First made public in an 1885 pamphlet known as the Beale Papers, the story describes a massive cache of gold and silver hidden in Bedford County, protected by three complex ciphers. Only one of those ciphers has ever been decoded — and even that solution is hotly debated.

In this episode of the Southern Blueprint Podcast, we dig into the full history of the Beale Treasure: what the original documents actually say, how the ciphers work, why elite cryptographers and intelligence analysts took them seriously, and the red flags that suggest the story may be a hoax. From frontier timelines and missing records to modern treasure hunts and competing theories, this episode explores why the Beale mystery refuses to fade.

Hoax, hidden vault, or something in between — the Beale Treasure remains one of the great unanswered questions in American history.

For more info, additional content, and access to our private community, head over to our Patreon called the Hidden Pine Lodge. It's only $4 a month and it helps fund the show and it's just a whole lotta fun!