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  • The Dry Shoe in the Snow: How Frances Lawson Was Found and Forgotten

    The Dry Shoe in the Snow: How Frances Lawson Was Found and Forgotten
    2026/09/10
    The Dry Shoe in the Snow: How Frances Lawson Was Found and Forgotten

    A single navy blue canvas shoe, size seven and dry inside, stood upright on a snow-covered road that led nowhere useful - and forty feet into the trees lay Frances Lawson, found after a night that would baffle investigators for thirty-nine years. Who placed that shoe in the dark, and why did a cassette tape in a dead detective’s box finally crack the silence?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline from the November 5-7, 1983 roadside events to the 2022 trial, laying out the key moments, witness recantations, and the box of archival evidence that reopened the case - what did it take to move from an unresolved death to a conviction?

    Person: Frances Lawson
    Date: November 7, 1983
    Location: Route Nine Spur, Caldwell County, Ohio
    Event: Discovery of body and single shoe
    Case: 2022 conviction of Robert Henderson for aggravated murder

    - Frances Lawson was 38 years old at the time she was found on November 7, 1983.
    - The shoe found upright in the road was a navy blue canvas shoe, flat-soled, size seven, with the toe pointing north and the inside dry.
    - Frances’s 1979 Dodge Dart broke down on Route Nine around 8:15 p.m. on November 5, 1983 due to a cracked serpentine belt.
    - Two motorists, Arthur Pell and Dennis Fike, reported seeing the Dart and a woman talking to a man beside a dark-colored pickup the night the car stopped; both later recanted similar details on January 14, 1983.
    - In October 2022, Robert Henderson admitted he had been on Route Nine that night, admitted Frances Lawson got into his truck, and was later convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to life without parole.

    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 Purse in the Barn: How a Buried Car Broke a 19-Year Silence

    The Purse in the Barn: How a Buried Car Broke a 19-Year Silence
    2026/09/09
    The Purse in the Barn: How a Buried Car Broke a 19-Year Silence

    A dusty burgundy purse in a barn held a Kentucky driver's license, a pharmacy receipt dated October 14, 2003, and keys that fit a buried 2000 Chevrolet Malibu - but the car had been missing for nineteen years. Who buried the vehicle on farmland nobody searched, and why was the purse left on a collapsed shelf as if waiting to be found?

    In this episode, we tell how a routine fuse repair on June 2022 led to a buried car, the persistence of a brother who never stopped calling on Wednesdays, and the gaps between a police theory and a family's certainty - could a missing vehicle be the key to finally answering what happened to Cheryl Ann Evans?

    Person: Cheryl Ann Evans
    Date: October 14, 2003 (pharmacy receipt)
    Location: Dellwood Road farmland, Vance County, Kentucky
    Event: Discovery of burgundy purse and retrieval of 2000 Chevrolet Malibu (June 2022)
    Status: Missing since October 2003; car recovered from burial

    - At 9:47 AM on a June day in 2022, electrician Erin Ramsey opened the barn door where the purse was found.
    - The purse contained $43 in cash, a tube of lip balm, a Kentucky driver's license in Cheryl Ann Evans's name, a pharmacy receipt dated October 14, 2003, and car keys with a Chevrolet dealership tag.
    - Five days after the purse was reported, a backhoe pulled a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu from the rear gully of the same property.
    - Cheryl had called her brother Dennis every Wednesday at 9:00 PM for seven years straight; the last call was Wednesday, October 8, 2003, and she did not call on October 15.
    - Detective Vic Alderman declared the case inactive in January 2004, based in part on a $400 withdrawal on October 14, 2003, a lapsed storage unit contract, and the missing car.

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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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    21 分
  • Seawall Secret: How a Storm Revealed a 25-Year Murder

    Seawall Secret: How a Storm Revealed a 25-Year Murder
    2026/09/08
    Seawall Secret: How a Storm Revealed a 25-Year Murder

    A dry sneaker stood upright in a storm-breached seawall after a 14-foot surge peeled back two feet of granite - and inside a cavity the size of a closet officers found skeletal remains that had been sealed for 25 years. Who had been hidden behind fresh mortar three feet from a public walkway, and why did a single witness’s note about a second figure go unpursued?

    In this episode, we tell the facts of what happened on September 11, 2019 at Portavella's harbor path and trace the case back to the night Heather Marie Burns disappeared on September 14, 1994. How did a town of just under 4,000 live with an unresolved disappearance for decades, and what did a storm finally reveal?

    Person: Heather Marie Burns
    Date: Disappearance September 14, 1994
    Event: Storm breach and discovery September 11, 2019
    Location: Portavella harbor seawall, northern Oregon coast
    Status: Skeletal remains found sealed behind mortar

    - The sneaker found was a white-and-pink women’s sneaker, size seven, standing upright in a seawall breach.
    - The storm produced a 14-foot surge and tore a two-foot granite slab from the seawall.
    - The cavity behind the breach measured four feet deep, two feet wide, and eight feet vertical.
    - Heather left choir rehearsal between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. on September 14, 1994 and never returned; her 1989 dark-blue Honda Civic remained in the duplex lot.
    - A cannery worker, Joe Pittman, reported seeing a young woman near the seawall around 9:30 p.m. the night Heather disappeared and said someone else may have been with her; his statement was logged as "consistent but inconclusive."

    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 Upright Shoe: Why Move a Body and Leave a Marker?

    The Upright Shoe: Why Move a Body and Leave a Marker?
    2026/09/07
    The Upright Shoe: Why Move a Body and Leave a Marker?

    A single brown oxford stood upright in white caliche dust, toe pointing north and spotless while a body lay dragged nearby - why would someone carry a dead man's shoe thirty feet and plant it like a marker? The shoe linked a routine walking route to a mystery that would rewind three decades of files and a confession, leaving one stubborn question: who returned to place that shoe?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of discoveries, the routine that anchored the victim's last movements, and the forensic details that split the timeline between the clean shoe and the thirty-one-hour-old body. What did the gap in the cinder-block wall and the overturned Honda reveal about who moved Becker and why?

    Person: Ryan Becker
    Date: August 2022
    Location: Kessler Flats easement, Harmon County, New Mexico
    Status: Deceased; time of death estimated between 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM
    Event: Single brown oxford found standing upright thirty feet north of gap in cinder-block wall

    - The shoe was a single brown oxford, clean and without caliche dust, toe pointing north.
    - Lisa Bauer walked the corridor on the fourth Tuesday of every month for eleven years and found the shoe.
    - Ryan Becker was 49 years old and had worked as a land-rights attorney for nineteen years.
    - Becker's body was discovered approximately thirty-one hours after the estimated time of death.
    - Becker's white Honda Civic was found on a gravel turnout about a quarter mile north of Kessler Flats, facing south with a three-inch-cracked driver's-side window.

    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
  • Left at Dawn: The Ransom Note, The Juice Box, The Missing $42k

    Left at Dawn: The Ransom Note, The Juice Box, The Missing $42k
    2026/09/06
    Left at Dawn: The Ransom Note, The Juice Box, The Missing $42k

    A six-year-old in a white nightgown was left inside a church fellowship hall at 6:30 a.m. with an unopened juice box, $340 in mixed bills, and a folded blanket - and the kidnapper demanded $42,000 in non-sequential bills by phone the next morning. Who watched the mother's 7 a.m. walk, took the money at a midnight drop with no tire tracks or footprints, and then returned the child with that strange mix of care and cruelty?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Amanda Nelson's disappearance on July 8, 1991, through the ransom call, the midnight drop that yielded no trace of the cash, and the decades-long cold case that finally yielded a partial fingerprint match. How did three ridge segments lifted from a window sill become the thread that reopened a 28-year-old file?

    Person: Amanda Nelson
    Date: July 8-19, 1991
    Location: Morrow Falls, Oregon
    Case: ransom demand for $42,000; child returned
    Evidence: right index partial fingerprint - three ridge segments

    - Amanda was six years and ten months old when she disappeared on July 8, 1991.
    - The ransom call requesting $42,000 was received from a payphone on July 9, 1991, from Halsey Creek, 11 miles from Morrow Falls.
    - A bag containing the $42,000 was placed at the agreed drop at 11:40 p.m. on July 10, 1991, and was gone when investigators arrived; no vehicle, tire tracks, or footprints were seen.
    - The child was found by Thomas Harris at 6:30 a.m. on July 19, 1991, inside Calvary Lutheran's fellowship hall with $340 in mixed bills, a folded wool blanket, and an unopened juice box.
    - A partial fingerprint (right index, three ridge segments) taken from the fellowship hall window sill matched Carl Olson when resubmitted to the 2018 NGI database.

    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 Boot That Stood: How a Dog Found a Man Buried Ten Years

    The Boot That Stood: How a Dog Found a Man Buried Ten Years
    2026/09/05
    The Boot That Stood: How a Dog Found a Man Buried Ten Years

    A work boot standing upright in soft earth hid a human foot still articulated at the ankle - ten feet beyond, a body lay buried for ten years and five days. Biscuit the retriever pulled Donna Chu off a Kellerton trail on June 14, 2022, and what he found would unlock handwritten notes, a county database entry, and a missing-person file that had gone cold; who buried Ryan Gallagher so hurriedly and why is still unanswered?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of discoveries from the morning Biscuit led Donna into the tree line to the paper files in a county cabinet, tracing what was found at the Sutter Road farmhouse, the prior burglary notes, and the nearby co-worker connection that none had seen together; could those three separate records be the key to what really happened?

    Person: Ryan Gallagher
    Date: June 14, 2022
    Location: Curtis Baker Trail, Kellerton, Pate County, Missouri
    Status: Found buried after ten years and five days
    Person: Donna Chu

    - A brown leather work boot, size ten, was found standing upright with a human foot inside.
    - Biscuit the retriever led Donna Chu off Curtis Baker Trail on Tuesday morning, June 14, 2022.
    - Ryan Gallagher was last confirmed seen at the Pate County Food Pantry on Friday, June 5, 2012.
    - Ryan moved to Pate County in 2008 and was 52 at the time he went missing.
    - A 2010 burglary at the Sutter Road farmhouse noted a missing red metal toolbox and no ground disturbance under the rear window.

    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 Pawn Ticket That Finally Broke a Twenty-Year Silence

    The Pawn Ticket That Finally Broke a Twenty-Year Silence
    2026/09/04
    The Pawn Ticket That Finally Broke a Twenty-Year Silence

    A yellow pawn ticket, dry despite the body beneath it being in the river for forty-eight hours, sat in an evidence box for twenty years while a killer kept living an ordinary life. The ticket named a person and an address and matched a pawned Craftsman socket set-so why was that lead never followed until two decades later?

    In this episode, we tell the story of Cheryl Collins, the Wednesday-morning ritual she kept, the missing pawn ticket found on her chest, and the overlooked clues that waited in a small mill town for answers. How did a receipt from a pawn shop forty-seven miles away finally connect to her death?

    Person: Cheryl Collins
    Date: May 7, 2003
    Location: Winding Fork Road, Harwick
    Event: Pawn ticket for a nineteen-piece Craftsman quarter-inch socket set dated April 29, 2003
    Discovery: Body found face-up in the Sable River forty-eight hours after death

    - Cheryl Collins was 44 years old at the time of her death.
    - Her body was recovered by Karen Whitaker from the Sable River and was forty-eight hours postmortem.
    - The pawn ticket matched a transaction at Vance's Trade and Loan in Elkin Falls on April 29, 2003.
    - A blow to the left side of Cheryl’s skull was consistent with a heavy cylindrical object such as a pipe wrench.
    - A white pickup truck with a plumbing or waterworks decal was seen at the end of Cheryl’s driveway between 7:00 and 7:30 AM on May 7, 2003.

    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 Judge, the Paperweight, and the Lawyer Who Wouldn't Let Go

    The Judge, the Paperweight, and the Lawyer Who Wouldn't Let Go
    2026/09/03
    The Judge, the Paperweight, and the Lawyer Who Wouldn't Let Go

    A young judge found dead at the base of courthouse stairs, a glass paperweight from a locked room balanced in his lap, and a single yellow legal pad whose torn impression would sit unread for twenty-two years-what happened at 1:00 AM on April 14, 2001, and who ensured he never walked back from his mistake? This episode reveals the unsettling details that turned a private compromise into a fatal secret and left a case sealed in cold storage until a graduate student reopened it.

    In this episode, we narrate the concrete sequence of events, the documents recovered, and the investigative thread that lay dormant for decades, showing how a forgotten service door and an overlooked page reshaped the inquiry-can the impressions on a scrap of paper rewrite the story of a judge’s last hours?

    Person: Keith Owens
    Date: April 14, 2001
    Location: Halverson Municipal Complex north exterior, base of fire stairs
    Age: 28
    Object: glass paperweight from a locked room

    - The body was discovered at 7:40 AM by county surveyor Todd McCarthy.
    - Owens had been dead for at least six hours when found, and his judicial robe was zipped to the collar.
    - Owens was appointed to the Greer County district court bench in February 2000 at age 27.
    - On April 13, 2001, Owens wrote "GE - April thirteen - eight PM - chambers - re: Whitfield matter" on a yellow legal notepad and tore the page away.
    - The north service entrance door was propped open at 6:00 PM, left by maintenance worker Dennis Farr at 6:15 PM with no alarm or record.

    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