Mile Higher

Today we're joined by Vanessa Diaz and Joe Trussell to discuss the case of their daughter, Megan Trussell. Megan was a freshman at the University of Colorado in Boulder when, following an argument with her roommate, she left her dorm room one night and disappeared under very mysterious and disturbing circumstances. However, from the jump, investigators and officials at the university botched the investigation. A few days later, her body was found off the side of the highway inside Boulder Canyon. Investigators immediately ruled Megan's death a suicide despite numerous suspicious circumstances. After the Colorado Bureau of Investigation reviewed the case and upheld the initial findings, Vanessa and Joe now feel they must take matters into their own hands to seek justice for their daughter and get to the bottom of what actually happened that fateful night of February 9, 2025.

Two days after Mica served her husband, Pastor John Paul Miller, with divorce papers, she was found dead in a heavily forested area hours away from her home. Based on the scene, and the fact that Mica had purchased a gun en route to the location, investigators almost immediately ruled the case a suicide. However, as details about her marriage with JP came to light, people soon learned that Mica had been trapped in a relationship rife with sexual abuse, spiritual manipulation, and threats of violence. All of this culminated in some of her final words to loved ones: "If anything happens to me, JP did it."

It’s May 2019, and the medical staff at Treliske (Treh-lisk) Hospital in Cornwall have just received a notice: their colleague, vascular surgeon Neil Hopper, is being rushed to their facility. Following a week in which he suffered from cold sweats and a fever, Neil’s feet became septic, and his team thought he would have to lose them. And while his colleagues felt awful for him and expected him to be depressed about the loss, Neil seemed to be in good spirits. He was upbeat, hopeful, and didn’t even seem to miss his legs. This shocked everyone, and they thought that he was just making the best of a bad situation. In reality, losing his legs is exactly what Neil Hopper wanted all along.

On May 7th, 2011, Anita Turner placed an emergency call near Bournemouth in the United Kingdom. Her son, Elliot, had discovered his girlfriend, Emily Longley, dead in bed. However, as the investigation went on, law enforcement soon learned that Emily had been involved in a horrific relationship with Elliot Turner, and he had threatened to kill her for months. What followed was a search for clues, a bugged home, and even potential assistance from Elliot’s parents; the question remained: what happened to Emily Longely?

On the night of March 12, 2011, in the quiet San Diego suburb of Mira Mesa, paramedics were dispatched to the home of Karina and David Ditto in response to Karina falling down the stairs. When they arrive, paramedics are surprised to find Karina is suffering from cardiac arrest – a strange anomaly for a fall victim. It’s clear this isn’t the scene of some accident but rather a heated domestic dispute. When Karina passes away from her injuries, David Ditto is quickly arrested once investigators learn how she actually died.

On June 28th, 2007, Paige Birgfeld was returning to her home in Fort Collins from a date with her ex-husband. However, as the hours ticked on, it became clear that somewhere along the road, Paige had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. But how did this upstanding single mother find herself in the position to go missing? As investigators would soon find out, Paige led a secret double life, one that introduced her to a slew of unsavory individuals. Following her disappearance, a burning car, and scattered notes, the question on everyone's minds was: what happened to Paige Birgfeld?

For many in London, the Tara Yoga Center seemed a friendly, welcoming environment for those seeking spiritual enlightenment. However, they would have no idea that its larger organization, MISA, was founded by an international criminal wanted for crimes related to sex trafficking, sexual coercion, and cult practices. His name was Gregorian Bivolaru, and for decades, he used his status as a spiritual guru to recruit young women for his own sexual pleasure and hold them in sex slavery to enrich his organization.

Shortly after a whirlwind romance, Ian Diaz and his new wife, Angela, began receiving disturbing messages from an unknown email, claiming to be someone named “Lilith.” These emails threatened Angela, their unborn twins, and even claimed to be finding strange men to assault her. Once the authorities were involved, they turned their attention to Ian’s ex, Michelle Hadley, who had sent Ian strange emails in the wake of their breakup. But following an insane turn of events, including fake cancer, wrongful imprisonment, and abuse of power, the question remained: Who was Lilith?

In May 2001, college intern Chandra Levy was preparing to return to her home in Northern California after living in DC for half a year. However, after her parents didn’t hear from her for several days, they reported her missing to the Metropolitan Police. When the police entered Chandra’s apartment, they found notes from the building’s management scattered across the floor and a voicemail full of messages. While most of the messages were from her parents, two were from Congressman Gary Condit, asking when he could see her again. Those messages were placed on May 1st, the last day Chandra was seen alive. What followed was over two decades of political scandal, false confessions, and loose threads that led nowhere. All of this, and the question still remains: what happened to Chandra Levy?

For Brian and Lynette Hooker, a life at sea had always been the goal. Over the past few years, they documented their travels aboard their sailboat, named Soulmate. However, under the surface, there were allegations and instances of domestic violence, sometimes even fueled by alcohol aboard the cramped nautical spaces. That’s why, in April of this year, 2026, it was very suspicious when Brian washed up alone in a dinghy. He said that Lynette had been tossed from the small boat and was last seen swimming away. But as the search-and-rescue team and Lynette’s family noticed inconsistencies in Brian’s story, they suspected that something far more sinister had taken place.

In the early morning hours of February 20th, 2025, a five-year-old girl in Carrollton, Georgia, woke up and discovered a truly horrific sight: her parents, 45-year-old James Brock and 41-year-old Kristin Brock, had been shot to death in their bedroom. The girl rushed to her sister’s room just down the hall, where 16-year-old Sarah Grace Patrick called the police, alerting them that her parents were dead. The home had no signs of forced entry, and the murder weapon was unrecovered. In the months afterward, Sarah Grace made several suspicious choices- delivering a bizarre eulogy, posting dozens of grief-filled videos on social media, and reaching out to true crime creators, telling them her parents’ case would be “a big hit.” This, and several unknown pieces of evidence, made investigators wonder: Did Sarah Grace Patrick murder her mother and stepfather in cold blood?

In March 2022, Utah mom and realtor Kouri Richins called 911 after finding her husband, Eric, dead in their bed. For a year, she played the grieving widow, even publishing a children’s grief book about his death. Then, investigators uncovered fentanyl, secret affairs, and a trail of deleted messages. In this episode, we dive into the night Eric died, the hidden motives, and the courtroom showdown that decided whether Kouri Richins is a murderer.

While we’ve covered a number of missing-person cases, almost always, the last time the victim is seen is also the last time they’re heard from. However, that wasn’t the case with Frauke Liebs, who disappeared in June 2006, after watching a World Cup game with her friends at a bar in Paderborn, Germany. Over the next several days, her friends and family would receive cryptic calls from Frauke, each time claiming she was headed home. Years later, following the strange communications, unknown movements, and a potential connection to two of Germany’s most prolific serial killers, the question remains: What happened to Frauke Liebs?

While we’ve certainly covered many parents who are also criminals, I’m sure we can all name a few parents who should have been held culpable for their poor parenting. These cases run the gamut from those who tried far too hard to be the cool parents (and trying to live out their High School years again), to parents who tried to involve their children in harebrained schemes. These are some cases where the parents weren’t just criminals, but were criminals in the way they parented.

Faith Hedgepeth was a bright, bubbly young woman who had become a friendly face at both her college, UNC, and her hometown. On campus, she was often seen walking around with her best friend, Karena, and the two grew closer once they moved in together. But after Karena returned home one morning to find that Faith had been brutally murdered, the entire community was gripped with shock, grief, and mystery. After investigators found DNA and a cryptic note at the scene, interviewed and tested nearly 1,800 people, the question remains: who murdered Faith Hedgepeth?

For many, the double murder case that put Makcenzie Shirilla behind bars to serve a life sentence comes as one of the most shocking true crime cases in recent memory. Driving on an obscure road in her small town of Strongville, Ohio, Mackenzie slammed her vehicle into the side of a building at nearly 100 MPH, immediately killing her passengers, Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. While the case garnered much attention at the time, it has recently reentered the public conversation following Netflix’s documentary, The Crash. So today, we’re reexamining the case, looking at new evidence, body cam footage, text messages, and jail cell confessions in an attempt to provide the most complete picture of Mackenzie and her crimes.

On the surface, Gerard Baden-Clay and his wife Allison had it all. A successful luxury property business, a beautiful young family, and a prestigious family lineage tracing back to the founder of the Boy Scouts. However, in reality, Gerard had woven a web of lies, affairs, and massive loans, all without his family even knowing. However, when it all started crashing down around him, Gerard decided the easiest way out was to kill his own wife. What followed were only more pathetic lies, appeals, attempts to hide the answer to this question: what happened to Allison Baden-Clay.

Lisa Dorrian was a bright, beloved young woman spending her early 20s in her hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland. However, in early 2005, her family noticed a shift in their daughter once she began hanging out with a new friend group, and her weekend activities changed from light partying to heavy drug use. Following a strange party in a caravan park, Lisa reportedly ran off into the night, never to be seen again. Now, over 20 years later, the theories range from drug debts to paramilitary organizations, and the question remains: what happened to Lisa Dorrian?

On the surface, Victoria Cillier’s life seemed to be picturesque. She had just given birth to her second child with her husband, Emile, and the couple had planned a skydiving excursion for Victoria. However, little did she know that her husband had been marred by debt and affairs, and that he could see only one way out. When Victoria’s parachute malfunctioned, she plummeted 4,000 feet to the ground. Upon inspection, it quickly became clear that this was no freak accident; this was an attempted murder. And even worse, it was the second attempt that week.

By 2015, Peter Madsen had become an eccentric celebrity, known as a mad scientist who had not only built the world’s largest civilian submarine, but was working on a rocket that could bring him into space. This attracted the attention of numerous journalists, including Kim Wall, whose work focused on the extreme and eccentric across the world. However, for all his fanfare, Peter was harboring a deep secret: an obsession with violence, torture, and a hatred towards women. He would enact those fantasies on Kim while they were underwater in his submarine, with no one around to know the truth. In the years, since, Peter has changed his story numerous times, tried to assign blame to others, and even attempted a daring jail escape. Yet, the question still remains: what happened to Kim Wall aboard the Nautilus Submarine?

Following the publication of the book Sybil, the general public became fascinated with Dissociative Identity Disorder (then known as Multiple Personalities). However, nothing would capture this attention more than the case of Billy Milligan, who, after raping several women on the campus of Ohio State University, became the first person to plead insanity due to DID successfully. What followed was public scrutiny and attention, asking if he was simply faking the whole thing to avoid consequences, or if he truly had to contend with 24 distinct, unique personalities. But the story didn’t end there: there were novels published, movies in talk, and even a cross-country escape, all pointing to the question: what's the truth behind the many identities of Billy Milligan?

The American landscape is littered with ghost towns. One of the earliest settlements in the United States was abandoned without a trace of the settlers, sparking perhaps the first mystery in American history: what happened to the Roanoke colony? Among other places with roaring underground fires, abandoned school buses, and locations wiped from memory entirely. Today, we’re going to talk about all this and more and try to answer the question: what makes a place vanish?

Today, the fear of hacking into our government’s sensitive digital information is one of the country’s top national security priorities. However, what if the largest U.S. government hack in history wasn’t perpetrated by a foreign adversary, but a regular guy with his home computer in London? Gary McKinnon, using off-the-shelf, legal software, was able to hack dozens of Government computers, some even located in the Pentagon. His goal: to spread his political message of anti-imperialism and search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. But what followed his hacks was a decade in which he feared extradition and a life behind bars in the United States. Still, the question remains: what did he find?

In the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gretchen Anthony’s life had undergone some big changes. She had just filed for divorce from her second husband, David Anthony, and changed the locks after he showed up one night ranting about the end of the world. However, her friends and family were disturbed when she texted them, telling them she had been diagnosed with the virus. However, her texts didn’t sound like Gretchen had written them; in fact, they sounded more like David. What followed was a cross-country chase, a scuffle with police, and the ever-present question: where was Gretchen Anthony?

While the Bible appears to be the complete written record of the Christian faith, there are multiple books of the Apocrypha that have not been included in the classic Western Bible. The most famous of these is the book of Enoch, which sheds light on the mysterious Bible character. Why was this book taken out of the Bible? Was it due to differing views on doctrine, or maybe because The Book of Enoch contains information on Ancient Aliens, Giants, and advanced Civilizations thousands of years ago?

Throughout the 20th century, the general public was entranced by stories of Alien abduction. For one man, Budd Hopkins, these weren’t just the odd paranormal occurrence but a field of science worth studying. The only problem was verifying the claims of those he was speaking to. However, that changed when he met Linda Napolitano, A New Yorker who might have had the most important abduction in history: Linda was taken from her high-rise Manhattan Apartment, and was witnessed by 23 onlookers.

Suchir Balaji was an extremely bright young software engineer. Straight out of college, he joined OpenAI and wrote some of the original code responsible for ChatGPT. However, as the company enjoyed success and massive press coverage, Suchir became concerned about some of its practices regarding plagiarism. After he left the company, Suchir became a whistleblower and joined a massive lawsuit against the company. As his fame grew, Suchir’s family was shocked to find him dead in his apartment in an apparent suicide. But, due to his high-profile nature as a whistleblower, his family and many others online have asked the question: Was Suchir murdered?

Twins Danette and Jeannette Millbrook were well-known in their Augusta, Georgia, community as sweet teenagers who adored their mother, Miss Louise. However, on one fateful Sunday in 1990, Jeannette and Dannette walked across town to get bus money for school. However, that would be the last time they were ever seen again. With police misconduct, a mysterious dumping ground, and confessions from associates of their criminal father, the question remains: where are the Millbrook twins?

When Police arrived at the scene of Tiffiney Crawford’s home, they believed they were entering into a routine suicide investigation. Her husband, Jason Crawford, had called 911, explaining that Tiffiney had been shot, though he wasn’t willing to say who had shot her. However, as others investigated, it became clear that this was much stranger than it initially seemed: Tiffiney had been killed by two gunshot wounds to the head. As the investigation continued, they learned of infidelity, violence, and a potential cover-up that led to the question: What happened to Tiffiney Crawford?

Most of us had a fantasy growing up of having a Toys R Us all to ourselves. Bikes to ride in the aisles, video games to play until the sun came up, and as much candy as you could eat. However, one man, Jeffrey Allen Manchester, got to live this fantasy as an adult. Only, he had just escaped from prison. After robbing nearly 45 McDonald’s and cutting out of jail, Jeff evaded the cops by living in the walls of a Toys R Us and the Circuit City next door, passing the time by playing with toys, spying on the employees, or going to church. But just how did a prolific criminal not only escape from jail, but live out the dream of every kid in America while doing it?

Life seemed to be ideal for Yvonne Baldelli. She had just left her successful management job and moved to Panama with her ex-marine boyfriend, Brian Brimager. To her family in the States, Yvonne’s island life seemed picaresque, with descriptions of walks on the beach and playing music at local bars. But when those happy emails stopped, Brian returned to the U.S. and married a new woman within two weeks. The only question: where was Yvonne?

Since the dawn of time, just about every culture on earth has asked the question: What happens after you die? While many religions and faiths propose some form of afterlife, many also believe in reincarnation. And for those at the University of Virginia’s Department of Perceptual Studies, children in particular are susceptible to remembering elements of their past lives. From WWII bombers to Titanic victims, today we’re going over a few of these stories and asking the question: Can you remember your past life?

Molly McLaren’s life was very promising. As a college student with a keen interest in fitness and nutrition, she had amassed a following on social media through honest posts about her struggles with mental health and wellness, and for inspiring others to live life to the fullest. But after she met a man named Joshua Stimpson on Tinder, that same honesty and struggles with mental health were used against her as he stalked and harassed her on the internet and in real life. Only two weeks after they broke up, Josh stalked her to her gym and murdered Molly in broad daylight. This raises the question: how well do you know the people you meet online?

In 2023, the small town of Korumburra in Australia was shocked when 4 of its most well-respected community members were poisoned and on the edge of death. The murder weapon? A beef wellington cooked by their daughter, Erin Patterson. What followed was years of tracking cell-phone towers, foraging, and a web of lies that asked the question: Did Erin Patterson poison her own family with death cap mushrooms?

In March of 1982, Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe was experiencing the blizzard of the century. Ski Patrol members were bombing the hill, blind firing in whiteout conditions to prevent a massive buildup. However, when a wall of ice hit the ski terminal building at the base of the mountain, everyone asked how could this happen? Who was buried beneath? Is anyone still alive underneath the snow?

Perhaps the most useful invention in the 20th century didn’t come from a famous scientist but, maybe, a guy in his garage. Stanley Meyer claimed to have constructed the first engine that ran solely on water, and even said that it could get you from New York to LA with only 22 gallons. However, Stanley mysteriously dies while at lunch with investors, saying with his last words, “They poisoned me!” Now, over 20 years later, the question remains: Was Stanley Meyer killed for threatening the oil industry? How realistic was his invention? And where is the water car now?

When Real Housewives premiered the first season of their Salt Lake City installation, soon, the only cast member everyone was talking about was Mary Cosby. The outsized character rose to prominence as the leader of her grandmother’s church, Faith Temple Ministries, and sparked even more conversation when it was learned she didn’t just take her grandma’s church; she took her husband, too. However, Mary and her Step-Grandfather/husband, Robert Cosby, were soon under fire, following testimony from former church members that alleged spiritual, financial, and physical abuse by the church leaders. All of these conversations led to one question: Is Mary Cosby running a cult?

On December 29, 1999, Lauria Bible visited the home of her best friend, Ashley Freeman, to celebrate her 16th birthday. The two had been inseparable since they were little girls, and the two families were very friendly with one another. But after the Freeman family's home was set on fire that night, police were able to locate the body of Ashley’s mother and determined that she had been murdered. However, the Sheriff’s Office seemed to drop the case completely, perhaps due to issues with the Freeman family. This led to Lauria’s family investigating the case for nearly 20 years, following leads to cartel leaders, abandoned mines, and known meth cooks to try and answer the question: what happened to Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible?

In the small town of Florence, Colorado, the morticians became trusted individuals and pillars of the community. Perhaps the most respected were Charles Giebler, Anthony Wright, and Byron Griffy. But after Byron was found dead under mysterious circumstances, the town was soon caught up in a web of Charles and Anthony’s lies, deceit, manipulation, and maybe even murder. Everything pointed to the question: Who killed Byron Griffy?

For Ajike Owens, her small community in Ocala, Florida, supported her young family as her children would regularly play together in a nearby open space. However, that all changed when the “perfect neighbor,” Susan Lorincz, moved in and began harassing the children with slurs, threats, and dozens of 9-11 calls. This continued to escalate until eventually, Susan shot Ajike in cold blood. The tragic killing would garner international attention, and soon, it called into question everything from police response, stand your ground laws, and, of course, racism at large in the United States.

When 24-year-old Danyé Jones was discovered hanging from a tree in St. Louis County, local police quickly labeled it a suicide. But his mom, Melissa, a fierce frontline activist from Ferguson, had a different story to tell. Her viral post stirred up headlines, alleging her son didn't take his own life but was lynched. Despite efforts to challenge the suicide ruling and seek transparency, authorities maintained their position. The case remains unresolved, leaving unanswered questions about the circumstances surrounding Danyé Jones's death and the pursuit of justice in Ferguson.

Grace Millane was about to celebrate her birthday abroad, having spent months traveling through South America before exploring Auckland, New Zealand. However, when her family back home in the UK hadn’t heard from her in weeks, they contacted the police in New Zealand. What followed was a strange Tinder date, a hidden identity, and thousands of hours of CCTV footage that all tried to answer the question: what happened to Grace Millane?

For many, the landmark 2006 documentary The Secret was their first introduction to new age spiritualism and the law of attraction. This turned many of the Self-Help gurus featured in the documentary into overnight celebrities, including James Arthur Ray. From his “rockstar,” style seminars and in your face attitude, James rose to prominence by giving his attendees immense challenges, pushing them to breakthrough. But when a sweat lodge ran by James killed three people, the question remained: was he at fault? Did his teachings lead to this? Would he ever face justice or apologize?

It’s May of 2000, and Antarctica is deep into its over 7-month winter. At the Amundson-Scott base, only the toughest researchers and workers remain to conduct their studies within the continent’s constant dark. Scientist Rodney Marks was one of them and was now spending his second whole winter on the ice. However, one night, he fell gravely ill and soon died without anyone knowing why. When his body was retrieved months later, and it was determined he was poisoned, questions arose around the circumstances, lifestyle, and possible motives for the only possible murder in Antarctic history.

In the early morning hours of September 13th, 2013, Tiffany Whitton was shopping with her boyfriend, Ashley Caudle, when two loss prevention associates approached her. They informed her that they had seen her shoplifting on CCTV. Her next response? She ran off, and what’s even stranger is that she was never seen again. In a case filled with drug addiction, lies, and multiple arrests, the question remains: where is Tiffany Whitton?

Halloween is typically reserved for a different, more primordial form of evil. A time when the problems of this world are forgotten as we linger with the ghouls and goblins of the next. But what about the goblins of this world? Would we recognize them if we saw them ourselves? Would the monsters of this world wield evil weapons? Or would they be weird guys obsessed with esoteric political theory? Would they know dark magic, or did they simply get their start in evilness by coding B2B SAS? Are any of their hairlines actually real? On this Halloween episode, we dive into the backstories of 4 of our most evil billionaires: Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel.

For many, Halloween is the one time of year when you can shed your skin and become another person, engaging in activities you would never even consider throughout the rest of the year. But some people take that as an excuse for cranking things up to eleven and wreaking havoc and chaos on their communities. Today, we’re looking at Halloween gone wrong: from over-the-top pranks to myths and legends, and even some crimes committed in the name of the Halloween spirit.

In 2018, Karlie Gusé was getting her school life back on track. She had spent the summer with her new boyfriend and had been introduced to marijuana. After she had been caught using weed on school campus, she was put into mandatory counseling sessions and a program to get her back on track. And while she was doing very well for nearly two months, that all changed when she smoked weed while at a small gathering with friends. She entered a state of psychosis, and her family thought it would be best if she slept it off. But when they woke up the next morning, Karlie was nowhere to be seen. Following years of searches, missing posters, and misinformation, the question remains: where is Karlie Gusé?

Everyone knows about the Dyatlov Pass Incident, but what if we told you there’s another, more mysterious incident that took place in Siberia’s Khamar-Daban mountains in 1993? On a seemingly routine hike, suddenly, six experienced students began convulsing, tearing at their clothes, and even bleeding out of their eyes. What’s more mysterious is that one survivor saw it all and disappeared shortly afterwards. Were they subjected to a secret military test? Experienced something paranormal next to the world’s oldest lake? Or something even more sinister on this lonely mountain pass?

After years of being independent in Miami, 31-year-old property manager Aileen Seiden was living happily when she reconnected with an old friend from High School, Zachary Abell. While the two became romantically involved, Zach refused to leave his other girlfriend, Christina Araujo. While Zach convinced Aileen to join their relationship, she was unaware that both of them had extremely violent tendencies. What followed was years of abuse within this throuple, a two-week road trip, a mysterious hotel room, and a question: who killed Aileen Seiden?

In the world of scammers, fraudsters, and snake-oil salesmen, one stands out: Pastor David E. Taylor. Known as the Face-to-Face Apostle, David has claimed to speak to Jesus in person while his ministry amassed a following that gave him over $50 million. But, on August 27th, 2025, he and his director, Michelle Brannon, were arrested on charges of money laundering, forced labor, and allegations of human trafficking. For over ten years, David operated an abusive scheme using unpaid call-center workers to scam thousands of people in exchange for miracles. How did one man go from an apostle of God himself with a Presidential Achievement Award to the subject of a massive FBI Raid?

For years, the quiet community of Gateway in Arkansas was terrorized by its police chief, Grant Hardin. A volatile man, Grant was known for chasing down residents, pointing service weapons at them, and constantly responding with violence. Following his resignation, Grant’s story took a dark turn that involved murder, an unsolved 20-year-old crime, and even a daring prison escape that left his victims wondering: Where is Grant Hardin?

For some of New York City’s most successful residents, Dean Faiello became a sought-after dermatologist. He had good looks, a ton of money, and was able to charm just about anyone. But, after he was busted for using prescriptions to fund his own drug habit, it was revealed that he was never even a doctor in the first place, and was using hazardous equipment to perform cosmetic surgeries he didn’t understand. Amidst all of this, one of his patients, 35-year-old Maria Cruz, went missing. What followed was a web of lies, even more fraud, and a disturbing discovery hidden inside the concrete of his old home.

In 1978, the small enclave of Speedway, Indiana, had been rocked by crime, murder, and bombings. But Ruth Shelton, Daniel Davis, Mark Flemmonds, and Jayne Friedt were just clocking in for a closing shift at their local Burger-Chef on the evening of November 17th, 1978. When another employee found the shop open and the employees missing, he called the police. What began as a kidnapping investigation turned into a more grisly affair when their bodies were found in a rural field three days later. After nearly 50 years of tips, witnesses, and false confessions, the question remains: who committed the Burger-Chef murders?

For many parents, IVF and sperm donations have allowed countless families the dream of finally having children. But, with laws surrounding donations being nonexistent internationally, many men have taken advantage of the system and become serial donors. None more so than Johnathon Jacob-Meier, a Dutchman who is estimated to have anywhere between 1,000 and 3,000 children across the world. What drives these men to donate, real charity, sexual kinks, or a narcissistic belief that the world should be filled with their genetics?

For hundreds of thousands of tourists each year, the sandy beaches on the island of Koh Tao provide some of the best diving, relaxing, and partying Thailand has to offer. That was the goal of British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller when they met one another on the island in September of 2013. However, after the pair were found murdered on Sairee Beach just outside of their hotel, numerous questions came up surrounding the involvement of police, potentially innocent people getting framed, torture, and the little-known Koh Tao Mafia pulling the strings.

On May 1st, 2023, a plane carrying Magdalena Mucutuy and her family crashed into one of the most remote sections of the Colombian Amazon. After the plane was discovered over a week later, it was found that her children were still alive and at the mercy of the dangerous jungle. What followed was nearly 40 days of searching, the military working with indigenous tribes, and hundreds of people combing the brush trying to find and save the lost children of the Amazon.

Chances are, you or your family has a box of Celestial Seasonings somewhere in your house. Easily the highest-selling tea brand of all time, Celestial Seasonings has come a long way since founder Mo Siegel and his friends were picking herbs in the Rocky Mountains. But the truth behind the brand is that it has its roots in a strange early 20th-century cult, involving everything from Jesus, Aliens, and Corn Flakes. The cult is named Urantia, and it has come under fire recently for having some extremely controversial takes on race and the foundations of humanity that followers might still believe to this day.

In 1994, Mexican Scientist Jacobo Grinberg was at the height of his career. His studies, which focused on the scientific elements of paranormal and psychic phenomena, had gained international recognition as he studied the brain waves of shamans, healers, and other practitioners of indigenous cultures. That’s why it shocked everyone that he disappeared only two days before his birthday. Could it have been the CIA, which was interested in the military applications of spiritual work? Could Jacobo have suffered a mental break following heavy use of psychedelics? Or could a rival and cult leader have convinced someone close to him to get rid of the famous doctor?

Since the 1970s, Northern California’s Humboldt County has been a major weed distributor across the country. When Medical marijuana was legalized in the 90s, this created a “green rush” of traveling workers, profitable farms, and more dangerous people looking to turn a buck on the grey and black markets. An area known as Murder Mountain had a reputation for violence and more dangerous individuals. Following the 2012 disappearance and murder of Garret Rodriguez, the mountain would soon be filled with more crime, a lack of investigation, and outlaw justice.

In August of 2012, Katelyn Markham seemed to have a flourishing life ahead of her. Just days away from her 22nd birthday, Katelyn was about to graduate from Art School and had planned to move to Colorado with her longtime fiancé, John Carter. However, one night after John left Katelyn’s house, she simply disappeared without a trace. What followed was over a decade of false leads, lies to investigators, and strange coincidences that all tried to answer the question: What happened to Katelyn Markham?

By the time Stephen Callahan was about to turn 30, his life needed direction. He had spent his 20s designing sailboats but found himself in a failed marriage and with little to no money. Looking for clarity, Steve took what he had left to build Napoleon Solo, a small sailboat capable of crossing the Atlantic. Steve made the passage without incident on his first voyage, from the Caribbean to England. However, on his return trip, Steve hit something during a rough storm, and his ship sank in the middle of the night. Now, surviving only off of a small life raft and the winds, Steve was forced to survive for 76 days in the middle of the Atlantic, eating only what he could fish and drinking water he could purify, all while trying to keep his mind sane.

On June 18th, 2023, the Titan Submersible operated by Oceangate Expeditions lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince, while on a commercial dive to visit the Titanic wreck. Hours later, the Polar Prince alerted the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, and the search was on to locate the Titan’s pilot and Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush, along with four other passengers. The imploded remains of the submersible were found on the ocean floor just a short distance away from the Titanic itself. Since then, dozens of ex-employees, submersible specialists, and friends of Stockton have come out since the disaster and pointed to his narcissism, debt to investors, and insistence on an experimental carbon fiber hull that ultimately killed Stockton and his passengers. On top of that, there's even a theory that Stockton knew the sub was going to implode, and wanted to take people down with him.

During the winter of 1996, 16-year-old Damien Nettles seemed to have it all: a close, loving family, friends and bandmates he saw most days, and an excellent academic career that he hoped one day would turn into a job in Marine Biology. However, being situated on the Isle of Wight just off the mainland of England, Damien and his friends had become associated with some of the most notorious drug traffickers and dealers in the island’s history. In November of 1996, Damien was last seen on CCTV cameras acting strangely before he disappeared forever. Now, nearly thirty years later, his family is still asking the question: What happened to Damien Nettles?

Australian Elly Warren had a bright future ahead of her when she volunteered to work with a marine biology organization based out of Mozambique in November 2016. As a seasoned solo traveler, even at the age of 20, Elly had already been across the world and had made friends with locals and colleagues alike. However, that all changed when she was found dead outside of a public toilet block in the tourist town of Tofo. What followed was years of police cover-up from both Mozambican and Australian authorities, independent investigations into the nature of her death, and her father’s tireless search for answers in Elly’s still-unsolved murder.

The 70's were a crazy time to be alive. Between the war in Vietnam, dozens of political assassinations, and hundreds, if not thousands, of domestic bombings, it seemed as though you couldn't go a day without some new form of armed, radical action. However, the most famous came when, in 1974, Patty Hearst, who was raised in ultra-rich high society, was kidnapped by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The country watched as she sent messages to her family, and police instigated a massive manhunt. However, no one expected that Patty herself would rob a bank in Northern California alongside her kidnappers, and those images would go on to live in infamy. What followed was years of bombings, shootouts, and brainwashing. Still, no one knows the answer to what actually happened to Patty Hearst?

In the summer of 1996, 31 year old Blair Adams seemed like he had gotten his life together. He had a successful job working for a family construction company, done work overseas, and had even gotten completely sober after attending weekly AA meetings. However, out of nowhere, that all changed. He stopped showing up to meetings, quit his job, and took all of his saved cash and valuables out of the bank. When asked why he did this, Blair said someone was going to kill him. This led to bizarre decisions, international travel in a rented car, and a 7 hour road trip that ended at a truck stop in Knoxville, Tennessee. The question still remains: what happened to Blair Adams?

At 8 AM on September 10th, 1999, Kathy Semansky called the police. Her coworker, Girly Chew Hossencofft, was ten minutes late for her shift at a Bank of America branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Kathy knew something was wrong. Her soon-to-be ex-husband, Diazien (Die-Zen) Hossencofft, had not only abused Girly but had tricked several women into believing he was a 400-year-old alien who had injections that could secure eternal youth. What followed was a police search across state lines, ninja swords, diy blood transfusions, and allegations of cannibalism. Still, the question remains: what happened to Girly Chew Hossencofft?

Throughout history, there have been miraculous tales of survival in the harshest environments. However, none may be more intense than that of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed on Friday, October 13th, 1972. For 72 days, the survivors of the crash survived in -30 degree weather using scavenged pieces of luggage, improvised sunglasses, and sleeping bags made from the airplane wreckage, and, most famously, ate the bodies of the dead to avoid starvation. While their story of survival has become famous for the cannibalism involved, it is also a story of how much a person can overcome even the steepest of obstacles to survive.

Dozens of geniuses have fundamentally changed our understanding of the world around us, and a select few have even developed working “Theories of everything” that use mathematics and physics to describe the nature of our reality, our consciousness, and our universe. What if there was a guy among us with the highest measured IQ in the world and a working metaphysical theory of everything? What if he wasn’t a respected academic but a former bouncer and current horse farmer in Missouri? What if he believed in god and his own form of science in equal measure, and a few other, more unsavory theories about the earth? Meet Christopher Michael Langan, who, at the age of 73, still claims to be the most intelligent man in the world, with a reported IQ of between 195 and 200. He has spent the past 30 years dedicated to the Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe, the only theory of everything that goes beyond physical science to explain the nature of existence itself. However, his theory has co

Bethany Leidlein thought she had found a community of like-minded individuals when she began her Junior year at Southwestern College near Austin, Texas. The community, run by the charismatic Tyler Deaton, met regularly to discuss their favorite fantasy novels, such as Narnia and Harry Potter, and prayed together. However, once Tyler got involved with the International House of Prayer, a Christian end times sect, their little college community turned into a full-fledged cult. Things would only get worse until 2012, when Bethany died under suspicious circumstances only weeks after getting married to Tyler. Following a bizarre confession from another group member, it was alleged that the group wasn’t just obsessed with preparing for the rapture, but engaged in sex rituals, drugging of other group murders, and maybe even murder.

For many in the West, Yoga’s ancient roots have been taken and twisted by scam artists, woo-girl bosses, and capitalist marketers using spiritual liberation as a selling point. Perhaps none have been more successful in this line of work than Katie Griggs. After celebrity endorsements from Alicia Keys, Kate Hudson, and Russell Brand skyrocketed her to fame, it was revealed that Katie was engaged in activities not exactly associated with light and love: scamming customers, verbally abusing staff, and spreading far-right conspiracy theories. So, what’s the truth about Katie Griggs? An earnest guru who just wanted to spread teachings as a devoted disciple? Or a con artist who used Yoga as a way to scam hundreds of people?

Over-the-top violence and shame, dramatized into an absurd religious haunted house, traumatized evangelical youth for decades— all in the name of Jesus. In this episode, we dig into the bizarre and disturbing theatrical violence portrayed in Christian hell houses and the vulnerable indoctrination that comes along with them. The moralistic goal of these haunted attractions might not be as pure as the evangelicals claim…

Nichol Olsen, a 37-year-old mother of three, had finally achieved what many would call her “dream life”, Nichol had made a life for herself as a successful hairstylist and business owner. Around 2017, she moved in with her wealthy boyfriend, Charlie Wheeler, who owned a massive estate in the Anaqua Springs neighborhood near San Antonio, She lived with her two daughters, Alexa Montez, who was 16, and London Bribiescas, who was 10. While their life seemed like a “fairytale romance” to those outside of the relationship, there was a hidden tension between them that would culminate on January 10th, 2019.

Throughout history, objects, structures, and stories have intrigued and enticed us to wonder where we really came from. On today’s episode, we cover underground structures found beneath the Pyramids of Giza, the mysterious origin of the shroud of Turin, and the esoteric writing known as the emerald tablet that may have created modern science as we know it. Are these objects and theories real, or is believing an act of faith?

Last year, we covered P-Diddy after massive homeland security raids targeted his Florida and California homes. At that point, Diddy had been the subject of at least two lawsuits: one by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who produced Diddy’s latest album, Love: Off the Grid, and another by his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

Death is no stranger to many national parks across the country. Visitors often succumb to the elements, an accident, or animal activity, or are even victims of a crime. While cases in national parks can go unsolved for decades, most of the time, investigators can typically piece together what happened due to the remote nature of the environments involved. However, that was not the case for Jordan Grider, a 29-year-old nomad who made a habit of camping in the country's most remote places. In October of 2018, he set up camp along the Sioux Hustler Trail in the Boundary Water region of northern Minnesota, extremely close to the border with Canada. Months later, in April of 2019, investigators finally found his camp in a remote region near a Beaver pond. The scene, which included torn pieces of clothing, scattered bones, and a blood-soaked sleeping bag, confuses investigators and his family to this day.

Every year brings significant discoveries, and 2024 was no different. This week, we dive into noteworthy breakthroughs, from super-earths and water on Mars to cancer vaccines and super-powered AI. The identity of Jack the Ripper and a revolutionary new treatment for HIV: Are these discoveries here to stay, or are they just headlines meant to grab our attention?

On January 20th, 2025, Border Patrol Agent David Maland was shot and killed while in a standoff with Milo Youngblut and Ophelia Baukholt. Ophelia was killed in the exchange, and Milo was quickly rushed to hospital and survived. After Law Enforcement searched their vehicle, they found cell phones wrapped in tin foil, riot gear, hollow-point ammunition, and a pistol registered to Michelle Zajko, whose parents were murdered in an unsolved double homicide on New Year's Eve, 2022. More than that, they found that Milo had filed a marriage license with a man in Washington named Audere (Aw-Dare), who, only days later, would be charged with the murder of Curtis Lind, a landlord in Vallejo. Curtis himself had been stabbed by a samurai sword in 2022 by his tenants, Emma Borhanian, Somnulence Logencia, and Suri Dao. At the center of all of these murders was a mysterious figure known as Ziz, a programmer in her 30s who had come out of Silicon Valley’s Rationalist community. What followed were stran

If you’ve been on social media for more than 20 minutes in the past two years, chances are you know about Bryan Johnson, the tech millionaire in Silicon Valley intent on living forever. For most of his career, Bryan has been an unassuming CEO in the style of early Jeff Bezos. He has been documenting every moment of his process on social media, including the 100 pills he takes every day, constant red light therapies, experimental gene therapy, plasma swaps with his son, and nighttime boner monitoring. However, while a lot is known about his current obsession to live forever, less is known about his early life, time with the Mormon church, scandals with an ex-partner, ideologies, or even his motivations behind wanting to live forever.

As of February 2000, High School sweethearts Nick Kunselman and Stephanie Hart-Grizzell had been together for two years and, by all accounts, were madly in love and wanted to stay together forever. The two had survived the Columbine school shooting only 10 months prior in April 1999, and by all accounts, their shared experience had only made the two grow closer. However, early in the morning on Valentine’s Day in the year 2000, Stephanie and Nick were discovered murdered at the Subway location Nick worked at in Littleton, Colorado. For a community still healing from one of the most infamous mass shootings in history, their murders only made that wound deeper. And what’s worse, their murders are still unsolved to this day.

On a July night in 1983, 13-year-old Mary Louise Day disappeared from her family’s home on a military base in Seaside, California. As her siblings grew older, they began to ask questions of their parents about what had actually happened to their older sister, but they were met with a refusal even to say Mary’s name. In 2002, Seaside police finally looked into the case and discovered that William Houle, Mary’s stepfather, may have done something to the little girl and kept it a secret for 19 years. Then, just as investigators were building their case, a routine traffic stop in Phoenix, Arizona, turned the entire case on its head: Mary Day was alive.

Steven Clark was born in Colchester, Essex, near London, on the 30th of August, 1969. His parents, Doris and Charles Clark, had met while serving on the police force in Cleveland, a subregion of Yorkshire with jurisdiction over Marske , Saltburn, Redcar, and other small beachside communities. The name Cleveland originally means (quote) “cliff-land,” as numerous, massive cliffs overlook the beaches at Saltburn and Marske. Despite a difficult childhood, Steven was an outgoing and adventurous young man, which made his sudden disappearance all the more unsettling. The following years have done nothing but add to the mystery and beg the question; where is Steven Clark?

In October of 2007, the small suburban community of Bolingbrook, Illinois, was the subject of nationwide attention when 23-year-old mother of four, Stacy Peterson, went missing. While search teams spent countless hours searching woods, lakes, and other potential areas of interest, one man remained at the center of the search: her 49-year-old police officer husband, Drew Peterson. Drew became a mainstay of the media coverage throughout Stacy’s disappearance. He gave countless interviews where he professed his innocence and claimed that Stacy had run off with another man. And while investigators couldn’t find enough evidence to tie him to Stacy’s disappearance, they did reopen the case of Drew’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, who died suddenly in her bathtub in 2004.

Throughout human history, we have attempted to answer several core questions about our existence. Where did we come from? What is our purpose? And perhaps, most important, what happens to us after we die? We have attempted to answer this central question through various means: religion points to the idea of an afterlife, spirituality looks to reincarnation and the concept of the karma of our past lives, and science looks at electricity in our brains, projecting images in our last moments of consciousness. The latter is one of the theories behind the phenomenon known as a Near-Death Experience, or NDE. But what if... what if Dannion Brinkley has the answer to all of these questions? We set out to find the answer to who he is and why he knows what he says he does.

As of July 2022, Denisha Montgomery-Smith had been stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany, with the 139th Military Police Company for three months of her nine-month rotation. The rotation had been largely uneventful, and on July 19th, Denisha went to a waterpark/theme park with five of her colleagues, including her bunkmate in the barracks. That evening, after returning from the water park, Denisha frantically facetimed her family, telling them that her group had assaulted her on the drive home. Her body was covered in bruises, scratches, puncture wounds, and even burn marks. She reported the assault to the military Criminal Investigation Division (CID) the next day but was urged not to file an official report.

Kelley Brannon had been living a nomadic lifestyle throughout her 20s and 30s. Spending months on the road, traveling from bar to bar and performing in various punk acts and her own one-woman band. Kelley had made tons of friends across the country and was involved in numerous protests throughout the 2010s, from Occupy Wall Street to being at the frontline of Standing Rock protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Kelley was a known activist, musician, and artist in numerous fields. So why has there been no sign of her for years?

On Wednesday, November 13th, 2024, a Joint House Oversight Committee was convened regarding the phenomenon of UAP and government accountability surrounding its secrecy. This comes over a year after retired Major David Grusch testified before a similar committee. Grusch, who was formerly a member of the previously secret Pentagon program called The UAP Task Force, alleged that not only did the government have a hidden crash retrieval program, but that we had reverse-engineered the UAPs for our own military and scientific advancements and had also recovered (quote) “Non-human biologics” from the crash sites. But... Did we learn anything new?

“Buffalo,” Jim Barrier was a Las Vegas icon. His flashy style, kind heart, and successful businesses had pushed him to celebrity status among Vegas locals. Jim’s close friend, journalist, and former city councilman Steve Miller said (quote), “Vegas is Liberace, Elvis, and Buffalo Jim". Jim was even an outspoken critic and opponent of the Mafia in Las Vegas, who many had said had left the town in the 1980s, but Jim fought against them and their continued reign over street-level crimes. But to understand what actually happened to Buffalo Jim, we need to go back and understand Jim’s early life, coming to Las Vegas, and the Mafia’s deep connection to Sin City.

The small town of Duncan on the heavily forested Vancouver Island in Canada was the kind of small town where you knew everyone. If you walked through the downtown area on any given day, chances are you’d run into someone you knew. So, it made sense that in 1980, everybody knew about Granger Taylor, the soft-spoken “Industrial Archaeologist” who lived on his parent's farm in the woods and spent his days restoring old vehicles. But this made it all the more mysterious when one day; Granger taped a note to his parent's door, told his best friend he was meeting aliens and vanished into the thick of an intense storm, never to be seen again.

November 24th, 1971, was a routine, busy day at Portland International Airport. As it was Thanksgiving day, hundreds of passengers made their way through the airport, many purchasing their tickets at the counter, hoping to make it home for the holiday. Little did they know, that they were going to be sharing that plane with the most famous (or infamous) hijacker of all time. The one and only unsolved hijacking in American aviation history; Dan, or DB, Cooper.

Bart and Krista Halderson lived ideal lives in a beautiful suburb outside Madison, Wisconsin. They were deeply involved in their family, and their two boys seemed happy and successful. However, their 23-year-old son Chandler seemed broke despite a high-paying internship and an impending move to Florida to work for SpaceX. But after a call to Chandler’s college revealed that he hadn’t been telling the truth, both Bart and Krista went missing before pieces of their bodies were found scattered across Wisconsin. Everyone surrounding the Haldersons learned about Chandler’s web of lies and the lengths he would go to to cover them up.

Rural America has been full of folklore, tall tales, and cryptids since its beginning. Whether attributed, falsely sometimes, to Indigenous stories of strange creatures and giant animals, or sometimes the result of new animals unfamiliar to early settlers, or tales of jackalopes, snipes, and hundreds of other odd creatures that were in the stories of early settlers around their campfires. However, many of these stories don’t just exist in the historical tales of early America; some have the staying power to exist even today. The Jersey Devil still haunts the meadowlands; Bigfoot is somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and, most famously, Mothman still chases down drivers to this day.

Judy Rawlings was born in 1985 and grew up in Sophia, a tiny community near Asheboro, North Carolina. Her mother, Tammy, and her sister, Tiffany, said that Judy was (quote) “The sweetest sister anybody could ask for” and was the clown of the bunch to keep everybody happy. On the morning of October 2nd, 2001, Tammy left their home for a Doctor’s Appointment in Greensboro, around thirty minutes away. She would be reported missing and found some time later, begging the question, what happened to Judy Rawlings?

Nori Amaya was born on September 9th, 1971, in El Salvador. Not much is known about her early life or even her parents' names. We know that her mother would remain a constant in her life, but it’s unclear if her father was involved in her childhood in El Salvador. Two years later, her younger brother Carlos was also born. What is known about Nori, was the bizarre and disturbing circumstances of her discovery by her own brother in a Washington DC apartment. More than a decade later, still very little is known about Nori's death and even less is known about the events that led to it, prompting the question; what happened to Nori Amaya, the Salsa Queen of Washington DC?

Folk tales, true or not, have entertained us since we first started telling stories. You might think that because we live in an age where everyone is connected and the paranormal can be fact-checked, we don’t have any modern folk tales, but you’d be wrong. Remember when we were all scared of the secret society of clowns that were going to rampage across the U.S. in 2016? Or ever heard of the radioactive green man who still walks down desolate Pennsylvania Highways to this day? Tall tales of the paranormal still surround us. And what’s strange: some may even be true.

Patricia “Patti” Adkins was born on May 4th, 1972, near Marysville, Ohio. Not much has been reported about her early life. We know she had a brother and two sisters, Marcia and Jeanine, with whom she was extremely close. One night, after planning to go out of the country to Canada with a man from work, Patti mysteriously vanished and has not been seen since. In this episode we discuss the strange happenings and coincidences around her disappearance and try to answer the question; where is Patti Adkins?

In 1995, Mike “Mad Man” Marcum was tinkering with a homemade Jacob’s Ladder at his home in King’s City, f, when he accidentally created a vortex using a modified CD laser pointed at the object. After modifying the test, stealing power generators, and constructing a larger version, Mike became famous when he appeared on Art Bell’s “Coast to Coast” to speak about his invention. But then, after telling Art he was 30 days away from creating his working time machine, Mike Marcum wasn’t heard from for 15 years. What happened to the Mad Man? Did he invent time travel? And in what ways are theoretical physicists working now to understand time and how we can manipulate it?

We’ve covered many cases where someone has disappeared into thin air. Most of the time, it happens during a normal day or a night out with friends. But in the case of Prisma Reyes, who went missing on April 17th, 2019, the day was anything but normal.