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  • The Shoe She Used to Escape: How Pamela Outsmarted Her Captor

    The Shoe She Used to Escape: How Pamela Outsmarted Her Captor
    2026/11/01
    The Shoe She Used to Escape: How Pamela Outsmarted Her Captor

    A single size-eight orthopedic shoe jammed into a cellar door held open a two-millimeter gap for thirteen days - and it was the clue that saved a woman no one even knew to search for. How did a fifty-four-year-old home health aide turn a twelve-by-fourteen-foot concrete room into a place she could escape from, using nothing but patience, observation, and one Velcro-strapped shoe?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the moment Pamela York missed her daily photo proof-of-life to the discovery in the cellar, laying out what was found in her apartment, the early investigatory steps, and the overlooked evidence that later mattered. Which missed detail finally connected the people, the messages, and the shoe?

    Person: Pamela York
    Date: July 9, 2019 (disappearance); July 22, 2019 (cellar discovery)
    Age: 54
    Person: Kenneth Reynolds
    Location: Whitlow Lane duplex; Mercer Hollow Road cellar

    - Pamela missed her habitual 7:00 a.m. insulin photo to her daughter on the morning of July 9, 2019.
    - A text from a contact saved as "Ken" was received at 6:47 a.m. and marked read, thirteen minutes before the missed insulin.
    - Pamela's apartment door was closed and locked; her cell phone was plugged into the kitchen charger and her car remained in the driveway when a neighbor entered.
    - A single orthopedic shoe, size eight with a Velcro strap, was wedged in a cellar door gap and had been inside a locked cellar for thirteen days.
    - Kenneth Reynolds, age 47, had been introduced to Pamela about eight years earlier, had installed a ceiling fan in her bedroom eighteen months prior, and signed into volunteer searches with his phone number transposed three days after her disappearance.

    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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    16 分
  • She Tied Her Fate to a Sock - Nine Days, One Chance to Live

    She Tied Her Fate to a Sock - Nine Days, One Chance to Live
    2026/10/31
    She Tied Her Fate to a Sock - Nine Days, One Chance to Live

    A white athletic sock tied to a service gate held a near-dry marker message that led searchers beyond county lines - and a twenty-two-year-old had spent three of her nine missing days crafting it. How did a rationed strip of cardboard, a watch, and a routine gamble become the only trail to Ruth Sheridan, and who was waiting on the other side?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the morning Ruth disappeared to the discovery at the forest gate, following the evidence that connected a neighbor’s presence, cell-tower data, and a late-night vehicle to the missing-person investigation. Could the small details Ruth left behind be the clue that cracked the case?

    Person: Ruth Sheridan
    Date: June 5, 2011
    Location: Pickman Road, Mercer Falls, Tallen County
    Person: Robert Schmidt
    Person: Detective Amanda Donnelly

    - A white athletic sock was tied through a rusted yellow chain link at a service gate on June 14.
    - The sock contained a watch and a strip of cardboard with a message referencing a "blue metal building" and directions past a grain tower.
    - Ruth Sheridan had been missing for nine days when the sock was found; she had been missing since the morning of June 5.
    - Cell-tower data placed Robert Schmidt's phone near the Sheridan property between 10:00 PM on June 4 and 1:00 AM on June 5.
    - A dark blue Dodge Ram was seen parked about 200 yards past the forest access gate on Pickman Road before 6:00 AM on June 5 and was gone by 8:00 AM.

    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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    16 分
  • The Whistle, The Note, and How Larry Found His Way Out

    The Whistle, The Note, and How Larry Found His Way Out
    2026/10/30
    The Whistle, The Note, and How Larry Found His Way Out

    A fourteen-year-old delivery girl found a handwritten note pressed to the inside glass of an empty house naming a missing man, his captor, and a location mapped entirely by sound - a note that should not have existed. Who put that paper there, and how did it point rescuers to a room with no windows?

    In this episode, we tell what happened from the moment Larry Dempsey vanished to the discovery at 414 Oster Avenue and the sequence that led to a rescue, an arrest, and the reopening of two cold cases; how did sounds - a train, church bells, a noon industrial whistle, and a metal press - become Larry’s map out?

    Person: Larry Dempsey
    Date: May 16, 2011
    Location: Merritt, Indiana
    Person: Edward Sullivan
    Location: Calloway Flats Storage unit (back unit)

    - Larry was 38 years old and a licensed electrician with his own shop on Fenwick Industrial Drive.
    - Larry’s pickup truck was found parked correctly in front of the shop with keys on the seat and doors locked.
    - Denise Mills found the handwritten note at 414 Oster Avenue after Larry had been missing three days.
    - Edward Sullivan, age 44, registered as Tri-State Comfort Systems and rented a storage unit six weeks before Larry disappeared.
    - Larry identified a train to his west, church bells about four blocks away, an industrial whistle to the north at noon, and a nearby metal press two streets away.

    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 Left a Shoe: How a 61‑Year‑Old Outsmarted Her Captor

    She Left a Shoe: How a 61‑Year‑Old Outsmarted Her Captor
    2026/10/29
    She Left a Shoe: How a 61‑Year‑Old Outsmarted Her Captor

    Fear and cold calculation meet in a single pale blue canvas shoe left deliberately in the middle of a county road - laces tied, size seven, a folded note tucked under the tongue containing a partial license plate and a scar description. How did a sixty-one‑year‑old bookkeeper held in a dark basement manage to plan two escapes and leave the kind of precise evidence that forced a forensic examiner to stop and stare?

    In this episode, we tell what happened the night of April 6, 2011, and the eight days that followed, following Megan Doyle’s routine, the odd questions she asked before she vanished, and the small, methodical signals she managed to leave behind - enough to make investigators keep looking for answers. What did she see, who had been watching her, and how did one shoe become the key to a case?

    Person: Megan Doyle
    Date: April 6, 2011
    Location: County Road Seven, Varick County, Minnesota
    Status: Missing for eight days prior to discovery of the shoe
    Investigator: Dennis Weaver

    - Shoe found at 7:51 PM on the night of April 6, 2011, centered in County Road Seven
    - Shoe details: left foot, pale blue canvas, size seven, laces tied, folded note under the tongue
    - Note contents: partial license plate, physical description, and a thin diagonal scar on the inside of a left forearm
    - Megan’s routine: left Kellum around 2:00 PM every Wednesday, returned before 8:00 PM after visiting sister Barbara in Crestwick
    - Masonic Hall service door had a bent latch plate discovered April 9, indicating deliberate tampering prior to disappearance

    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
  • Found Behind the Fence: How Sharon Wrote Her Rescue in Ink

    Found Behind the Fence: How Sharon Wrote Her Rescue in Ink
    2026/10/28
    Found Behind the Fence: How Sharon Wrote Her Rescue in Ink

    A folded newspaper-sized piece of cardboard, blue ballpoint block letters, and a phone number stopped a deputy within three minutes - a runner missing three days had literally written her rescue. How did a 24‑year‑old accountant trapped in a storage unit manage to signal the outside world without ever leaving the unit, and what unanswered link points forty miles north to another woman who never got a sign?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning Rhonda Harris found the cardboard through the first deputy's response and the details Sharon later gave investigators, exploring how everyday objects and small routines shaped a desperate survival - and asking how the trail leads to another unresolved case.

    Person: Sharon Walsh
    Date: March 8-11, 2009
    Location: Eastgate Self-Storage, County Road 7
    Person: Rhonda Harris
    Investigator: Karen Hayes

    - Cardboard read "UNIT NINE. SHARON WALSH. BOWERS TOOK ME. MARCH EIGHT." with a phone number and was found at 7:55 AM.
    - Rhonda Harris, a line technician, called 911 three minutes after finding the sign; the first deputy was rolling within three minutes.
    - Sharon was 24 years old and had worked at Kessler Ag, carrying a ballpoint pen in her jacket pocket habitually.
    - Sharon had been pushed into unit nine just before 6:00 AM on March 8 and was inside from before sunrise until discovery on March 11.
    - The unit door had no interior handle; the latch mechanism was entirely on the outside.

    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 Left a Shoe Box: How Jennifer Outsmarted Her Captor

    She Left a Shoe Box: How Jennifer Outsmarted Her Captor
    2026/10/27
    She Left a Shoe Box: How Jennifer Outsmarted Her Captor

    The first sentence must grab you: a pink children's shoe box sealed with packing tape carried through a culvert held the only trace that Jennifer Price, zip-tied and cut, was still alive-her pencil letters pressed so hard they left impressions through the cardboard. How did a broken pencil, a water-rounded stone, and sixty-seven hours of ingenuity become the only lifeline between her and freedom?

    In this episode, we tell what happened from the moment Jennifer did not show up at the Elm Street Community Kitchen to the discovery of the shoe box at Ashford Pond, and how every small detail-phone records, a skid mark fragment, and a low-resolution traffic camera-added up to a single question: how did she engineer her own discovery and link her captor to another survivor?

    Person: Jennifer Price
    Event: Missing for sixty-seven hours before discovery
    Date: February 6-9, 2019
    Location: County Road 7 / Burns property / Ashford Pond culvert
    Person: Robert Burns

    - Jennifer did not arrive at the Elm Street Community Kitchen on Wednesday, February 6, 2019, and her son filed a missing persons report that evening.
    - Her last phone call was at 3:52 PM to a roadside assistance line that lasted 4 minutes and 12 seconds, reporting a breakdown at County Road 7.
    - A traffic camera captured a 2016 Ford F-250 at 3:38 PM heading east and the same truck heading west at 5:04 PM; the truck registered to Robert Burns, age 51.
    - Detective Teresa Jensen found a small fragment of black plastic about thirty feet into the tree line near a skid mark on County Road 7 that indicated Jennifer had been stopped, not broken down.
    - A pink Stride Rite children's size 4 shoe box sealed with clear packing tape was found by runner Curtis Williams at 6:41 AM on February 9, 2019, with the pencil-pressed message "STILL HERE. BURNS PROPERTY. 11."

    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 Key in the Lock: How a Wristwatch Saved a Vanished Man

    The Key in the Lock: How a Wristwatch Saved a Vanished Man
    2026/10/26
    The Key in the Lock: How a Wristwatch Saved a Vanished Man

    A still-running wristwatch tucked face-up inside a locked utility sub-panel became the single object that pulled a man back from the edge of disappearing completely; a parking structure camera had been broken since November and a master key gave one contractor access to every locked breaker box - how did that watch become the only answer to where Brian Walsh went?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a Tuesday morning receipt at Kepler's Diner to an empty, latched car on Level Three of the Crestview Street Parking Structure and trace the people, access logs, and small details that turned a routine missing-persons case into a puzzle. What sequence of planned moves left no visible trace except for a wristwatch in a district-locked panel?

    Person: Brian Walsh
    Date: January 10-14, 2009
    Location: Crestview Street Parking Structure, Level Three
    Person: Detective Shannon Russo
    Person: George Hicks

    - Brian Walsh was 31 years old and worked six years as an estimator at Pinnacle Flat Roofing.
    - Walsh paid at Kepler's Diner at 8:07 AM on Tuesday, January 10, 2009, and normally left by 8:10 AM.
    - Walsh's car was found with the key in the driver-side door lock turned to the open position, door latched, window up, and the phone screen facing up on the passenger seat.
    - The surveillance camera covering the section of Level Three where the car was found had been broken since November and the repair request remained in the maintenance log.
    - George Hicks had been inside Pinnacle Flat Roofing on December 29, 2008 and January 8, 2009 and carried a master key granting access to every utility sub-panel in the municipal district.

    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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    16 分
  • Locked from the Inside: How Lori Russo Left a Thread of Clues

    Locked from the Inside: How Lori Russo Left a Thread of Clues
    2026/10/25
    Locked from the Inside: How Lori Russo Left a Thread of Clues

    A house locked from the inside, a laminated bridge-card message that read "PAUL LEWIS TOOK ME. LORI RUSSO. I AM ALIVE. ASK HIM ABOUT THE STORAGE UNIT ON MARSH HOLLOW," and a prepaid phone call placed forty miles away a month before her disappearance-what could Lori have done to get that card out while still inside her home? Who knew her direct number and why was the utility corridor door at Calvary Redeemer Church easy to open without a key?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Lori Russo’s last bridge club on December 3, 2019, through the discovery of the card on December 9, and the investigative questions that center on the locked house and the church storage corridor. What sequence of small, traceable actions left a thread of clues pointing away from the front door?

    Person: Lori Russo
    Date: December 3-9, 2019
    Location: Calvary Redeemer Church fellowship hall and Lori’s home on Calloway Drive
    Status: Missing / disappearance with no forced entry
    Case: Laminated bridge club card found near emergency exit

    - Lori Russo was 52 years old and had worked 17 years as a licensed home-health aide at Hearthside Care Associates.
    - On December 3, 2019 she left bridge club at 9:15 PM and drove her green Subaru with a cracked left taillight home, arriving at 9:31 PM.
    - A prepaid phone call placed from a store 40 miles east of Sutter Falls in November reached Lori’s direct line at 1:49 PM and lasted 4 minutes 11 seconds.
    - The laminated bridge club card was found on December 9 in the locked fellowship hall; it was small, laminated, with block-printed letters and a pen pressed through the back.
    - Officers found Lori’s house with the deadbolt intact, garage locked from the inside, all windows latched, a full cold coffee carafe brewed at 6:15 AM, and her cat Biscuit unfed.

    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