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  • The Shoe on the Trotline: Coin-Sized Bruise That Broke Delray

    The Shoe on the Trotline: Coin-Sized Bruise That Broke Delray
    2026/09/10
    The Shoe on the Trotline: Coin-Sized Bruise That Broke Delray

    A single white canvas sneaker, size seven, with a seam repaired in purple thread turned up on a trotline before dawn on May 14, 1989 - dry inside, with no waterline, as if set there hours earlier. A half-dollar-sized contusion above Crystal Draper’s right ear was noted in the autopsy addendum but omitted from the official accident narrative for twenty-six years; how did that coin-sized bruise vanish from the record?

    In this episode, we follow the evidence left in plain sight and the details that were never shared with the family as the case moved from accidental drowning to unanswered questions. We trace the shoe, the autopsy addendum, and the soil samples that point to a different spot on the creek - could a missed bruise and a single shoe rewrite what happened to Crystal Draper?

    Person: Crystal Draper
    Date: May 13-14, 1989
    Location: Sycamore Fork, near Orchard Trace Road, Delray, Indiana
    Age: 54 years
    Investigator (re-examination): Heather Coleman

    - The shoe found on the trotline was a white canvas sneaker, size seven, with a seam repaired in purple embroidery thread.
    - The shoe’s interior was dry with no mud, no waterline, and no swelling of the canvas, suggesting it had been placed in the river within hours.
    - Dr. Arnold Quist’s supplemental autopsy addendum described a contusion on the posterior right parietal region above and behind the right ear.
    - Two 1989 autopsy photographs clearly show a swelling roughly the size of a half-dollar above and behind Crystal’s right ear.
    - Soil samples collected in May 2015 from beneath a replaced plank on the wooden footbridge matched particulate matter embedded in Crystal’s clothing and matched a point 440 meters upstream, not the east bank where her body was found.

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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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    20 分
  • The Shoe, The Key, and the Secret They Hid Nineteen Years

    The Shoe, The Key, and the Secret They Hid Nineteen Years
    2026/09/09
    The Shoe, The Key, and the Secret They Hid Nineteen Years

    A canvas shoe stood upright in an Illinois field for nineteen years with a brass house key tied inside its tongue - a detail that finally reopened a cold case and asked a single chilling question: who hides a key in a shoe and walks away? What that shoe, a size seven left, and a missing house key reveal about Kathleen Powell's last hours is a mystery that refuses to settle.

    In this episode, we present the chain of events from the morning the shoe was found through the original investigation and the fresh eyes that turned the file over, asking whether the answers were missed rather than lost. Hear how routine details - a pharmacy receipt, a Thursday visit, and a parenthetical note in a case file - became the threads that might tie a nineteen-year-old disappearance back to a person who knew more than they said.

    Person: Kathleen Powell
    Date: April 14 (evening she disappeared) and April 9 (shoe found)
    Location: Tanner Creek Road pullout; Sutter Road; Corder Avenue facility; Illinois field
    Status: Remains found October following disappearance; cause of death blunt-force trauma
    Detective: Troy Mitchell

    - Shoe found upright in dirt on April 9 at 7:45 a.m., canvas discolored but not rotted.
    - Shoe was size seven, left foot, sole still flexible after nineteen years.
    - Brass house key threaded through the shoe's tongue on a short orange cord, laces tied in a neat bow.
    - Kathleen signed into Corder Avenue at 5:58 p.m. and signed out at 7:40 p.m. on April 14; her car was found the next morning on a gravel pullout four miles from the facility.
    - Detective Carl Briggs noted the missing house key in the original file; Briggs retired and kept the Powell case folder until his death.

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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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    20 分
  • The Watch in the Septic Shaft: Who Buried Dawn Fisher?

    The Watch in the Septic Shaft: Who Buried Dawn Fisher?
    2026/09/08
    The Watch in the Septic Shaft: Who Buried Dawn Fisher?

    A gold-toned dress watch sat four feet below ground on a concrete shelf inside a septic access shaft, its hands frozen at eleven minutes past two - and the opening above measured only eight inches across. How did a watch with a distinctive nick, given to Dawn Fisher on her thirtieth birthday, end up in a deliberate, dry chamber on a rental property thirty-one days after her disappearance?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Dawn Fisher leaving her Crestwick Drive home on March 12, 2003, to the watch being discovered during a routine septic inspection a year later, and the investigative dead ends that followed. What does that watch tell us about who had the skill and access to use that shaft, and why couldn't it convict the person who knew the system best?

    Person: Dawn Fisher
    Date: March 12, 2003
    Location: Aldermoor Lane septic access shaft
    Case: Watch found March 2004 after renter vacated 31 days post-disappearance
    Person: Frank Rafferty

    - Dawn Fisher left her house at approximately 6:15 AM and her phone pinged a tower on Millrace Road at 6:22 AM on March 12, 2003.
    - The shaft opening above the concrete shelf measured eight inches across, narrow enough for a forearm.
    - The watch was found on a dry concrete shelf four feet below ground during a septic inspection in March 2004.
    - The watch’s hands stopped at 2:11 and the crystal was uncracked when photographed with a disposable camera.
    - Tenant Frank Rafferty vacated the Aldermoor Lane property 31 days after Dawn’s disappearance, forfeiting a $600 deposit and citing a job opportunity.

    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
  • The Technician Who Knocked Twice: A Quiet Life, Brutally Taken

    The Technician Who Knocked Twice: A Quiet Life, Brutally Taken
    2026/09/07
    The Technician Who Knocked Twice: A Quiet Life, Brutally Taken

    A routine Tuesday rescheduled to a safety inspection, a woman with $47 in her wallet and every key in place, and a 23-minute visit that became the last ordinary thing she ever did - how do you kill a quiet, careful life without taking anything? For five years a missing name and a paper routing sheet hid the one clue that would reopen the case: who was G. Brennan, and why was a third technician erased from records?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Linda Whitaker’s steady six-year volunteering routine to the February 7 technician visit and the body found two days later, tracking the small administrative errors and overlooked names that stalled the investigation. What detail in the file finally pointed investigators back to the house and toward the person who returned after the technician left?

    Person: Linda Whitaker
    Date: February 9, 2019 (body found); death estimated between February 7, 6:00 PM-midnight
    Location: Millhaven Road ditch, Ardell County
    Age: 62
    Work Order Name: G. Brennan

    - Linda’s wallet contained exactly $47 in cash and all her credit cards when her body was found.
    - The technician who signed in at 3:48 PM and out at 4:11 PM spent 23 minutes inside Linda’s home on February 7.
    - Linda had volunteered every Tuesday for six consecutive years without missing a single shift until she called in absent on February 5, 2019.
    - Linda’s gray four-door sedan was found February 10 in a Pelham strip mall parking lot eight miles from the body location.
    - The pharmacy camera covering the strip mall corner where the car was parked had been nonfunctional for three weeks before the car was discovered.

    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 Glove That Stayed Silent for Thirty-One Years

    The Glove That Stayed Silent for Thirty-One Years
    2026/09/06
    The Glove That Stayed Silent for Thirty-One Years

    Cold alley, a neatly placed men's dress glove, and a fourteen-year-old paperboy who ran four blocks to the police - the scene waited thirty-one years for its loudest clue. The glove was a right-hand chocolate brown leather, size large, laid on Sherry Sharp's chest; could a misfiled evidence box and forgotten delivery records finally tell who put it there?

    In this episode, we follow the chain of events from the January 9, 1973 discovery through the original investigation and the decades it lay dormant, asking whether the misplaced evidence and the documents found in the same box change everything we thought about the case.

    Person: Sherry Sharp
    Date: January 9, 1973
    Location: Alley behind Prater Street, Hollins Ferry
    Finder: Kent Donnelly, age 14
    Evidence Box: HF-73-009

    - The glove was a men's dress glove, right hand, chocolate brown leather, size large, with no manufacturer's label and no recoverable fingerprints.
    - Sherry Sharp was 24 years old and worked the lunch and dinner shifts at the Fieldstone Grill; she planned to return to college in fall 1974.
    - Kent Donnelly ran four blocks to the police substation on Mead Avenue after finding Sherry because his bicycle chain had slipped.
    - Detective Clyde Ostrander interviewed 41 people and listed 11 suspects, underlining Ray Pruitt's name twice; Pruitt had been Sherry's boyfriend until October 1972.
    - In summer 2003 the evidence box HF-73-009 was found misplaced; inside were the glove sealed in its original bag and Callum Brothers Supply delivery records never previously read.

    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
  • Library Card in Clay: Murder, a Missing Wrench, and a 32-Year Silence

    Library Card in Clay: Murder, a Missing Wrench, and a 32-Year Silence
    2026/09/05
    Library Card in Clay: Murder, a Missing Wrench, and a 32-Year Silence

    A human femur turned up in clay during a road expansion, pressed with a laminated library card dated December 1987 - a card that should not have survived thirty-two years underground. How did laminate and ink remain legible, and why did Rebecca Hamilton, a 49-year-old teacher with rigid routines, end up in that clay?

    In this episode, we lay out the facts recovered from the scene, the household evidence found on Fulton Street, and the cold-case file that a sheriff’s detective kept for years, asking whether the anomalies in Rebecca’s disappearance point to accident, foul play, or something else.

    Person: Rebecca Hamilton
    Date: December 4, 2019 (bone discovery) / December 10-11, 1987 (disappearance)
    Location: Fulton Street house and Route 9 expansion, Granton County, Ohio
    Status: Cold case reopened; remains identified by library card pressed to femur
    Detective: Harvey Marshall (picked up file in 2014)

    - The laminated library card found pressed to the femur bore the name Rebecca Hamilton and an expiration stamp of December 1987.
    - Rebecca was 49 years old in December 1987 and had taught remedial reading at the Granton County Adult Learning Center for 11 years.
    - Neighbor Leon Pruitt discovered Rebecca’s back door open six inches on the morning of December 11, 1987; her coat and purse were inside.
    - A coffee mug with a dried evaporation ring was found on the kitchen counter, indicating she had left mid-drink the previous evening.
    - Detective Harvey Marshall placed Rebecca’s file in the bottom drawer in 2014 and noted three unexplained anomalies in the case.

    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 Dry Shoe at Dawn: How a Storm Hid a Killer's Return

    The Dry Shoe at Dawn: How a Storm Hid a Killer's Return
    2026/09/04
    The Dry Shoe at Dawn: How a Storm Hid a Killer's Return

    A single dry navy-blue woman's dress shoe, size seven, sat on a field frozen under six millimeters of ice while everything else was sealed - and it had been placed after the storm ended. Who returned to Fenner Road after dawn, leaving that impossible shoe and vanishing into a thirty-year silence?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the morning the shoe was found through the ensuing investigation and trial, and trace the unanswered question of who came back to the scene after sunrise and why.

    Person: Holly Evans
    Date: November 4, 1982
    Location: Fenner Road / Quill Street, Dellwood
    Age: 31
    Case: Missing person turned homicide investigation

    - The ice storm began at 10:00 PM on November 3 and left six millimeters of ice across the field by 7:15 AM on November 4.
    - The shoe was a navy-blue low block heel, size seven, completely dry with no ice crystals on the leather.
    - Alan Allen logged the discovery call at 7:22 AM after descending a power pole on Fenner Road.
    - Two witnesses placed a white pickup on Fenner Road around 8:00 PM on November 3 and described a heavyset man nearby.
    - On June 14, 1983, both witnesses submitted written retractions saying they had been pressured to be more definite.

    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 Wallet in the Ditch: How a Will Hid a Murder

    The Wallet in the Ditch: How a Will Hid a Murder
    2026/09/03
    The Wallet in the Ditch: How a Will Hid a Murder

    The same four-mile loop, the same 5:45 start, and a leather wallet half-buried in a four-foot-wide, six-foot-deep drainage cut changed everything: inside was a library card for Frances M. Marion and books due October 15, 1995 that were never returned. How did a missing will, a $340,000 bank withdrawal, and a wallet in a ditch connect to a disappearance that lasted 26 years?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from Frances Marion Marion’s last known actions through the aftermath at Tallow Creek Aggregates and the discovery behind the industrial park, asking how a legal document and a buried wallet could expose a long-hidden crime.

    Person: Frances Marion Marion
    Date: October 14, 2021
    Location: drainage corridor behind Tallow Creek industrial park
    Event: library books due October 15, 1995 listed as lost
    Amount: $340,000 withdrawn from Douglas Tate’s savings account in February 1996

    - Frances was 53 years old in autumn 1995 and had been office manager at Tallow Creek Aggregates for 11 years.
    - Douglas Tate died on September 29, 1995 of a cardiac event and had signed a will naming Frances sole beneficiary in May 1995.
    - Frances checked out three library books on October 1, 1995 with a due date stamped October 15, 1995 and never returned them.
    - Patricia Odem, Tate’s accountant, called Frances on October 3, 1995; Frances told her she needed to “get out of Harwick quickly.”
    - In February 1996, Mark Ramsey liquidated Tate’s savings account-approximately $340,000-in a single transaction, and the property sold two months later for $290,000.

    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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    22 分