Episodi

  • He Proposed to Four Women - The Pastor Never Suspected a Lie

    He Proposed to Four Women - The Pastor Never Suspected a Lie
    Oct 16 2026
    He Proposed to Four Women - The Pastor Never Suspected a Lie

    You will feel the slow, stomach-drop betrayal of small-town trust: a pristine photo in a drainage culvert, a paralegal and a dog groomer filing complaints the same morning, and a man who kept victims reduced to a single adjective in his spiral notebook - "generous." How did a church’s own goodwill become the perfect cover for romance fraud, and who finally pulled the thread?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of events that unfolded in Calverton from September 2018 through March 2019, showing how a newcomer used congregational trust to create multiple romantic cons and how two citizens brought the scheme to light. What did investigators find when they opened the storage unit and read the spiral notebook?

    Person: Amanda Foster
    Person: Paula Hensley
    Person: Angela Turner
    Person: Marcus Elgin Webb
    Date: March 9, 2019

    - A laminated photograph inscribed "For Amanda - always yours, R.G." was found wedged in a drainage culvert on March 9, 2019.
    - Angela Turner, a dog groomer, found the photo on Ridgeback Loop trail and brought it to the Calverton Police Department.
    - Paula Hensley, a paralegal, filed a fraud complaint against Ryan Gallagher at the same police department the same morning.
    - Marcus Elgin Webb, 43, attended Calverton Police Fellowship from September 2018 using the name Ryan Gallagher and had a 2013 wire fraud conviction in Georgia under a different alias.
    - Webb rented a storage unit in October 2018 in the name R. Gallagher, paid in cash, which remained unchecked until a March search warrant.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • He Thought He Found Love - She Was a Stolen Identity

    He Thought He Found Love - She Was a Stolen Identity
    Oct 15 2026
    He Thought He Found Love - She Was a Stolen Identity

    A man working nights and food pantry shifts fell in love with a profile built from stolen photos, and a rusted bolt in a zip-lock bag dragged a con into daylight: a river yielded dry love letters signed "Carla Simmons" and a dead soldier's portrait. How did a routine life, a scraped profile photo, and a prepaid debit account become the threads of a romance scam that ended with an arrest?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning a freezer bag surfaced on the Sable River to the discovery that the woman Howard Henderson loved was a fabricated identity. Listen to what connected a rural handyman, a stolen nurse's photos, and an eleven-day investigation that led to charges - and ask whether anyone who loves online is truly safe.

    Person: Howard Henderson
    Person: Stanley Porter
    Person: Amanda Dalton
    Location: Sable River below the grain elevator at Pettis Crossing
    Date: second Friday of February

    - The bag was found at 7:15 AM on the fourth trotline containing dry photographs and love letters.
    - Amanda Dalton called the Pettis County Sheriff at 7:22 AM the same morning.
    - Howard Henderson was 22 years old and worked for Ed Calloway Contracting servicing County Line Road.
    - Brenda Henderson, Howard's mother, died of a pulmonary embolism in late November two years before the river discovery.
    - Stanley Porter, 44 years old, was arrested eleven days after the bag was found.

    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 min
  • The Badge in the Field: How a Fake Engineer Took $11,200 from Peggy

    The Badge in the Field: How a Fake Engineer Took $11,200 from Peggy
    Oct 14 2026
    The Badge in the Field: How a Fake Engineer Took $11,200 from Peggy

    Suspicion blooms from a single misplaced object: a laminated ID badge for "Roger Richardson" found in a frozen Illinois cornfield led to a six-year trail across four states and $11,200 vanished from one woman's bank account. Who was the man on the badge, why did his fake identity end up in a Midwestern field, and how did Peggy Morgan come to trust him enough to send thousands?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that connect a county surveyor's discovery to online deception and financial loss, tracing the person-to-person interactions, digital traces, and small details that revealed the scam. How did everyday routines and one stock photo unravel a constructed life?

    Person: Peggy Morgan
    Date: January 2019 (badge found) and 2018 (relationship timeline)
    Location: Dunmore, Illinois; Calloway Township cornfield
    Amount: $11,200
    Search result: sunset photo appeared on 14 websites

    - A laminated ID badge for "Roger Richardson" was found face-up in a frozen cornfield in January 2019.
    - Peggy sent money eight times between October and December 2018, totaling $11,200.
    - The initial $140 request in October 2018 was described as covering a supply order for a Gulf platform.
    - Reverse-image search showed the sunset lock-screen photo on 14 separate websites, including stock photography libraries.
    - The profile photos belonged to a real mechanical engineer named Brad Forsythe in Aberdeen, Scotland, who had never created the dating profile.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • She Heard a Singaporean - 173 Calls, One Man, $47,000 Vanished

    She Heard a Singaporean - 173 Calls, One Man, $47,000 Vanished
    Oct 13 2026
    She Heard a Singaporean - 173 Calls, One Man, $47,000 Vanished

    Warm coffee, a ringing phone, and a wire transfer receipt for $47,000 were the first clues Pamela Clark found in an empty house on December 9, 2022 - but the voice that drew sixty-two-year-old Patricia Ward in came from a three-minute-and-forty-seven-second audio loop labeled "ambient SG clean." How did 173 calls over 14 months, a fabricated Singaporean persona, and a single IP address in Spokane convince a careful linguist to send nearly fifty thousand dollars - and who was really behind the sound file?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Patricia’s first LinguaLink lesson to the day she vanished, describe the content of her 216-page notebook and 173 sessions, and trace the digital evidence that led investigators to Spokane. What did the recordings, server logs, and a recovered WAV file reveal about the man she thought she loved?

    Person: Patricia Ward
    Date: December 9, 2022
    Sessions: 173 over 14 months
    Transfer: $47,000 dated four days before discovery
    IP address origin: Spokane, Washington

    - Patricia filled 216 pages in a spiral notebook during the 14 months of lessons.
    - The LinguaLink profile used 31 photographs taken from a real LinkedIn account without permission.
    - The ambient audio file recovered was 3 minutes and 47 seconds long and labeled "ambient SG clean."
    - Server logs subpoenaed in January 2023 showed every call originated from one IP address in Spokane.
    - Wayne Hansen, age 51, had been developing accent mimicry since at least 2012 and owned the hard drive containing the audio loop.

    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 min
  • A Widow Mails Her Flag: The Gail Holt Romance Scam

    A Widow Mails Her Flag: The Gail Holt Romance Scam
    Oct 12 2026
    A Widow Mails Her Flag: The Gail Holt Romance Scam

    Grief made her vulnerable and patience made him convincing: a military service flag folded at a funeral traveled from a widow’s closet to a park trash can after a scammer spent seven months pretending to love her. How did a man in Harrisburg turn a careful, routine life into a target and leave a flag discarded in Millhaven Creek Park?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Gail Holt from online courtship to loss of money and the discovery that exposed the fraud. You’ll hear how the scam began, the profile details that deceived her, and the investigative lead that changed everything - but what was the single detail that made this case different from every other fraud file?

    Person: Gail Holt
    Event: Military service flag found in park trash can
    Person: Leonard Pitts
    Person: Sergeant First Class Dennis Kraft
    Date: October 9

    - The flag was found by park maintenance worker Tom Barela just before 7:00 AM on November 13.
    - Gail Holt wired $1,800 on October 9 after seven months of online messages from the profile "SgtMichaelH83."
    - The fraudulent profile used photographs of Sergeant First Class Dennis Kraft while the scam was run by 41-year-old Leonard Pitts.
    - The scammer operated from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania using a laptop and three prepaid phones and had been active for at least three years.
    - Gail Holt was 26, a billing coordinator on Fenwick Street, who fed her Holland Lop rabbit Biscuit every morning at 6:15 and every evening at 5:50.

    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 min
  • She Finds a Sealed Envelope With No Stamp: The Edward Evans Case

    She Finds a Sealed Envelope With No Stamp: The Edward Evans Case
    Oct 11 2026
    She Finds a Sealed Envelope With No Stamp: The Edward Evans Case

    Fear that someone who knows your smallest routines can steal everything - a sealed envelope with no stamp led to a scam that emptied a curator's inheritance and used his Wednesday calls to time the fraud. How did a postcard and a forged postage ritual become the breadcrumb to a $112,000 loss?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a seventeen-year-old's discovery at a museum delivery slot to the fraud investigator's interview and the digital trail that tied a fake "Stanley Vickers" persona to a suspect in Scottsdale. What patterns and details allowed the con to appear legitimate, and where did the operation reveal itself?

    Person: Edward Evans
    Date: October 23, 2019
    Age: 48
    Loss: $112,000
    Investigator: Marcia Griffin

    - The sealed envelope addressed to Edward Evans had no stamp and was placed in the museum's delivery slot before 7 a.m.
    - Inside the envelope was a generic Adriatic-sunset postcard with the handwritten message "Thank you for loving me the way I deserved to be loved," and no signature or return address.
    - Forensic exam found trace adhesive on the flap consistent with a stamp removed by steaming, indicating a fabricated mailed appearance.
    - Contact began August 2018 via a professional networking platform with a persona claiming to be "Stanley Vickers," an Edinburgh-educated repatriation broker.
    - By the time Marcia Griffin interviewed Edward in October 2019, his father's inheritance, savings and brokerage account totaling $112,000 had been lost.

    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 min
  • She Wrote It Herself: The Megan Moore Romance Scam

    She Wrote It Herself: The Megan Moore Romance Scam
    Oct 10 2026
    She Wrote It Herself: The Megan Moore Romance Scam

    Fear that someone you trusted was never who they seemed: a woman in a four‑thousand person town lost $6,200 over six weeks to a long‑con game built from stolen photos and a spare house key-so why did she find an inscription she didn't remember writing? What connection links a picture frame found on a roadside, a dated handyman visit, and the dating profile that drained her bank account?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Megan Moore from a Heartland Match message to multiple transfers totaling six thousand two hundred dollars, and how routine records and one investigator's questions finally began to connect the pieces. How did a visiting odd‑jobs worker, a mountain photo lifted from a Spokane contractor, and careful bookkeeping by the victim all converge into a targeted scam?

    Person: Megan Moore
    Person: Amy Stein
    Person: Bruce Henley
    Amount: $6,200
    Date: second Tuesday of September

    - Megan moved to Briar Hollow three years before the scam and was 32 years old during the events.
    - Within 48 hours of creating a profile on Heartland Match in late June, Megan matched with the fake "Wade Coulter."
    - The first money transfer was $940, sent in late July through the app "Wade" recommended.
    - Amy Stein kept a notebook documenting at least 12 targets with columns for platform, first contact date, amount extracted, and status.
    - The mountain photo used on the fake profile was taken in 2017 and featured Bruce Henley's niece.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The Creston Mill Road Impostor: How a Diary Exposed 11 Identities

    The Creston Mill Road Impostor: How a Diary Exposed 11 Identities
    Oct 9 2026
    El impostor de Creston Mill Road: cómo un diario destapó 11 identidades

    A quiet journal found on a roadside led to a patient, three-year con that folded a food writer into a federal case and invoked a dead man's name-how did a leather notebook embossed with an olive branch and postmarked Roma Centrale become the key to unmasking 11 identities? The discovery on Creston Mill Road links a precise European hand, a blog called Margin & Salt, and messages from a man named Marvin Jensen into a question that only listening will resolve.

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of facts from the journal's discovery to the online correspondences and the life of the man who kept a Thursday routine for six years; we outline who found the journal, what it contained, and the interactions that followed-could a string of daily messages and a convincing online persona have been engineered to replace a real person?

    Date: August 14, 2021
    Person: Kent Rafferty
    Person: Robert Hunter
    Topic: Journal postmarked Roma Centrale, July 17, 2019

    - The journal was found on August 14, 2021, at the base of a utility pole on Creston Mill Road.
    - The first page of the journal was stamped Roma Centrale, dated July 17, 2019.
    - Robert Hunter drove Creston Mill Road every Thursday for six years to visit his aunt Norma Sievert.
    - Margin & Salt had 14,000 subscribers at the time Robert wrote for it.
    - A direct message from "Marvin Jensen" arrived in late March 2021 and began daily correspondence with Robert.

    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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    24 min