Episodi

  • The Ledger, The Cut Pages, and the Woman Who Vanished

    The Ledger, The Cut Pages, and the Woman Who Vanished
    Oct 20 2026
    The Ledger, The Cut Pages, and the Woman Who Vanished

    Fear and curiosity converge in a waterlogged ledger found eleven feet above the Burn River’s normal high-water mark - a township book from 1891 with four precisely cut pages and a name written over and over: Connie Donnelly. How did a ledger tied to a disputed Poor Commission loan travel to a shoulder hit only by the 1989 flood, and why do the official records erase Connie after October 1891?

    In this episode, you’ll hear a documented account of the ledger’s discovery, the entries that remain, and the gaps in the public record that a retired geography teacher named Gloria Zeller spent two years trying to understand. What do the cut pages, the township loan, and a rapid sale of the Donnelly farm together silently claim?

    Person: Nancy Reynolds
    Date: June 1989
    Location: Millrace Pike, eleven feet above the Burn River high-water line
    Person: Connie Donnelly
    Event: Patrick Donnelly found drowned at Cutter's Bend on June 19, 1891

    - The ledger was a Dunbar Township Poor Commission book dated 1891 with four pages cut out near the back.
    - The ledger sat on a road shoulder exactly eleven feet above the Burn River's standard high-water mark.
    - The 1989 flood crested at eleven feet and two inches, the highest on record.
    - Connie Donnelly was 28 years old in June 1891 and kept her father's farm books.
    - The Donnelly bottomland farm was sold in October 1891 to Edgar Trout for about half its assessed value.

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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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    24 min
  • The Seven Wreaths at Fenwick: Who Kept a Silent Promise?

    The Seven Wreaths at Fenwick: Who Kept a Silent Promise?
    Oct 19 2026
    The Seven Wreaths at Fenwick: Who Kept a Silent Promise?

    Cold rural mornings, a line of seven wreaths, and a missing family record - something in Fenwick felt like a promise left to the grass. A utility lineman found seven corn-husk wreaths with flat limestone centers on May 8, 2011, and by afternoon they were gone; the same pattern first appeared on May 17, 1936, after three Kern children died within eleven days. Who kept placing them every May for decades, and why are the children's names erased from the official records?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of the wreaths across eighty years, from the 1936 deaths on the Kern farm through the recurring spring placements and the 2011 discovery, piecing together township minutes, a schoolteacher's diary, and witness memories to ask whether a vow was kept in silence and secrecy. What connects the redacted township entry, the missing church register entries, and a thirteen-year-old boy's unspoken decision?

    Date: May 8, 2011
    Event: Discovery of seven wreaths on County Road 7
    Person: Lori Campbell
    Person: Frances Adler
    Person: Ronald Holt

    - At 6:41 a.m. on May 8, 2011, Lori Campbell photographed seven wreaths arranged in a perfect east-west line between County Road 7 and a fence.
    - On May 17, 1936, Walter Kern placed seven wreaths at the eastern bend of County Road 7, nine days after the third Kern child died.
    - Three Kern children died between late April and May 8, 1936, at ages nine, twelve, and fourteen, likely from fever.
    - The Kern farm of forty-two acres transferred to Osker County in October 1936 for one dollar.
    - A Fenwick Township board minute from September 1936 contains a single struck-through line referencing the Kern field and naming Pastor Albright and the county attorney.

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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 min
  • Four Even Rings: The Bell That Kept Erin's Secret

    Four Even Rings: The Bell That Kept Erin's Secret
    Oct 18 2026
    Four Even Rings: The Bell That Kept Erin's Secret

    The bell at Saint Anselm's rang four even times, then stopped - with the rope knotted inside a locked church and no mechanical explanation on record. Greaver's Hollow still warns children away from that church every April; what really happened the week Erin Tillman died, and why was crucial evidence removed before anyone looked?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events in early April 1913 in Greaver's Hollow, the discovery of Erin Tillman's body at the base of the belfry stair, the rapid official closure, and the odd actions taken inside the church afterward - and ask whether the truth was erased or simply overlooked.

    Person: Erin Tillman
    Date: April 5, 1913
    Location: Saint Anselm's Lutheran Church, Greaver's Hollow, western Virginia
    Coroner: Dr. Alton Webb
    Sexton: Curtis Prall

    - Erin Tillman was 22 years old when her body was found at the base of the belfry stair on April 5, 1913.
    - Coroner Dr. Alton Webb's report totaled two paragraphs, listing cause of death as a fatal fall and manner as accidental; the file was closed in four days.
    - The bell rope in use since 1901 was removed on April 7 on Reverend Cobb's order and disposed of by parishioner T. Nell before any official church examination.
    - Vestry minutes on April 16 recorded a motion to repair a loose riser board - the fourth step from the bottom - and the repair was completed on April 19.
    - Residents reported the bell ringing on its own the nights of April 11 and 12, settling into a pattern of four even rings with the rope hanging still on its iron hook.

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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 min
  • The Miller's Count: Why Eight Lines Hid a Town's Murder Ledger

    The Miller's Count: Why Eight Lines Hid a Town's Murder Ledger
    Oct 17 2026
    The Miller's Count: Why Eight Lines Hid a Town's Murder Ledger

    A cold notebook found on a utility pad with no footprints held a rhyme that matched eight deaths from 1891, and a town's nursery chant hid a ledger of killings. How did a children's rhyme become a sequence of deaths recorded by a nineteenth-century miller, and why did the pattern survive into 2011?

    In this episode, we follow how a meter reader discovered an open spiral notebook on Birch Hollow Lane and how local historian Lisa Anderson traced the Miller's Count rhyme to Silas Gould's papers and an 1891 parish register - and ask whether the rhyme was ever meant to be a map of deaths.

    Person: Jean Cooper
    Location: Birch Hollow Lane
    Date: March 14, 2011 at 8:40 AM
    Person: Vicki Rafferty
    Person: Lisa Anderson

    - A meter reader named Jean Cooper found an open spiral notebook on a utility pad at 8:40 AM on March 14, 2011.
    - The surrounding snow was unbroken with no footprints, tire tracks, or path leading to or from the pad.
    - The Miller's Count rhyme has eight lines and was known to every child in Keswick, recited by residents like Phil Dearborn.
    - Silas Gould, a miller who worked Sparrow Creek and died in 1892, had a handwritten draft of the complete Miller's Count with names written in the margins.
    - Lisa Anderson found an 1891 parish register listing eight deaths between January and August that matched the rhyme's stanzas in order.

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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 min
  • The House That Didn't Exist and the Tuesdays Beverly Kept

    The House That Didn't Exist and the Tuesdays Beverly Kept
    Oct 16 2026
    The House That Didn't Exist and the Tuesdays Beverly Kept

    A piece of land officially absent in county records sheltered a house and a network of names for more than a century, and a single index card reading "BEVERLY MEYER, TUESDAYS" was found tucked into its doorframe in February 2014; what was being protected on that parcel, and why did Beverly keep a stack of anonymous first-name cards tied mostly to Tuesdays?

    In this episode, we trace the records and people tied to an unmapped parcel on the western edge of Dellard, Wisconsin, a stack of index cards listing first names and weekdays, and a coroner's report from 1911 that Beverly Meyer carried for decades; how do these scattered documents fit together to reveal what the land and the house concealed?

    Person: Beverly Meyer
    Date: February 2014
    Location: Dellard, Waukesha County, Wisconsin
    Event: Discovery of index card and cadastral anomaly
    Document: Coroner's report dated March 1911

    - A surveyor named Kevin Stroud found a parcel with no cadastral number while remapping boundaries in February 2014.
    - A handwritten index card reading "BEVERLY MEYER, TUESDAYS" was photographed by church volunteer Connie Ford and filed as MISCELLANEOUS - UNRESOLVED.
    - Local historian Lloyd Fitzgerald published a report in spring 2016 that received seventeen downloads in its first year.
    - Church registry records list Beverly Meyer as the emergency contact for forty-three women between 1976 and 2003.
    - A photocopied Waukesha County coroner's report from March 1911 names Anna Brauer, age thirty-four, cause of death "SELF-INFLICTION" with a note "DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES OF LONG STANDING."

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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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    19 min
  • Locked Bridge, Missing Book: Who Silenced Howard Fleming?

    Locked Bridge, Missing Book: Who Silenced Howard Fleming?
    Oct 15 2026
    Locked Bridge, Missing Book: Who Silenced Howard Fleming?

    Cold and deliberate facts drown out whispers: a composition notebook was nailed to Linden Bridge's south beam in May 1892 and officially logged - then it vanished from the clerk's ledger weeks later; a locked bridge held an open notebook in January 2019 with its last entry dated one week earlier. How did physical evidence disappear twice from the same structure, and who benefited when Howard Fleming's story went quiet?

    In this episode, we lay out the documentary trail and the exact anomalies recorded across three centuries of official logs, diaries, and inquest notes to show what the records themselves reveal. Which specific entries and absences turned a local death into a long-running suppression?

    Person: Howard Fleming
    Date: January 7, 1892 (death)
    Location: Linden Covered Bridge, Halverson Township
    Event: Composition notebook recovered May, 1892
    Document: Mill log entry "H. Fleming absent without notice. Dock accordingly." (Jan 5, 1892)

    - The notebook found nailed to the south beam was recorded in the township clerk's ledger as "May, 1892" and then listed as leaving the office several weeks later.
    - The bridge is a 60-foot Town lattice structure accepted under township easement in 1953 and locked for bracing in November 2017.
    - Howard Fleming's grave lists birth 1867 and death January 7, 1892, with no cause or epitaph beyond dates.
    - Mill records show Fleming employed and reliable until a Jan 5, 1892 entry marking him "absent without notice" and docked.
    - Carpenter Silas Brandt discovered the nailed notebook while mounting lanterns in spring 1892 after a selectmen vote that passed 4 to 1.

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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 min
  • The Ledger from Hollow Street: Twelve Names That Shouldn't Exist

    The Ledger from Hollow Street: Twelve Names That Shouldn't Exist
    Oct 14 2026
    The Ledger from Hollow Street: Twelve Names That Shouldn't Exist

    A drowned ledger from 1893 lists twelve residents of Hollow Street, Pinebrook - a thorough household census written by hand, even though Hollow Street appears on no map or atlas from 1881 through 1937. Four of the twelve names were already buried nearly a year before the ledger's date; what was the ledger recording, and why did those dead people appear among the living?

    In this episode, we follow how a fisherman, a librarian, and a retired schoolteacher collated river-found photographs and church registers to trace the ledger's author and its surprising links to Pinebrook memory. We outline the ledger's contents, the discovery of burial entries that predate it, and the threads that led to the man who compiled it - but can these records explain why a non-existent street was catalogued as if it were real?

    Person: Scott York
    Person: William Rogers
    Person: David Romano
    Date: December 9, 2011
    Location: Cassell River, Pinebrook, Haddock County, Arkansas

    - The ledger was dated December 1893 and was cloth-covered and water-bloated when pulled from the Cassell River.
    - The ledger lists twelve residents of a street named Hollow Street with names, ages, occupations, and household relationships.
    - Four of the twelve names in the ledger match burial entries in the Second Baptist Church register from December 1892 through early 1893.
    - William Rogers was 67 years old when he received the ledger photographs and spent three years investigating them.
    - David Romano arrived in Pinebrook in spring 1889 at approximately 47 years old and rented a room above a grain merchant's warehouse on Cassell Street.

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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 min
  • The Holloway Well: Shoe on Stone, A Woman Never Found

    The Holloway Well: Shoe on Stone, A Woman Never Found
    Oct 13 2026
    The Holloway Well: Shoe on Stone, A Woman Never Found

    A child's leather shoe sat upright on a granite capstone over a sealed well that appeared on no map, in a county where Vicki Bell vanished 112 years earlier; the shoe was dry while the surrounding ground was wet-how did one small object break a century of silence? What scratched message was hidden under the capstone, and what lay locked eighteen feet down on a limestone shelf?

    In this episode, we trace the records, local warnings, and the single physical clue that reawakened a vanished woman's story. You will hear how parish notes, census entries, a lone newspaper notice, and a later surveyor's discovery converge on the same place-so what does the Holloway Well really conceal?

    Person: Vicki Bell
    Date: November 4, 1899
    Location: Spit Road, Pelham Township, Vass County
    Event: Missing person; chickens found dead November 8, 1899
    Person: Harlan Voss

    - Vicki Bell was recorded as age 31 and employed as a dry-goods clerk in the 1900 federal census.
    - Bell’s missing-persons notice ran once in the Pelham Courier on November 9, 1899, signed by her sister Edna Marsh.
    - Bell’s chickens were found dead of thirst on November 8, 1899, four days after she was last seen leaving Fenwick Brothers on November 4.
    - The Holloway Well’s capstone bore an inscription scratched on its underside discovered when the stone was lifted in November 2011.
    - The well contains a shelf of limestone approximately 18 feet underground where an object or detail was found locked in place.

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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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    23 min