Episodi

  • The Photo in the Garage Window That Nobody Told Her About

    The Photo in the Garage Window That Nobody Told Her About
    Oct 12 2026
    The Photo in the Garage Window That Nobody Told Her About

    A photograph taped to a garage window and a Missing Child flyer dated February 14, 1988 sat unseen for decades - the boy in the portrait was moved that night and later adopted under a different name. Who kept the secret, and why did Patricia never tell her own daughter Sharon about Daniel Croft?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline found in Patricia Gallagher’s notebook, the stack of letters and the missing-child flyer left in the Dellwood Road garage, and the chain of events that moved an eight-year-old from Harwick to Renford and into adoption - can the pieces in the garage finally answer what Patricia chose to hide?

    Person: Patricia Gallagher (later Patricia Bishop)
    Person: Sharon Bishop
    Person: Daniel Croft (later Daniel Alderman)
    Date: February 14, 1988
    Location: Dellwood Road, outside Harwick

    - On March 5, 2019 at 9:40 a.m., Amanda McCarthy parked at the end of Dellwood Road and found a school portrait taped to the inside garage window.
    - The Missing Child flyer in the window is dated February 14, 1988 and marked the boy as age eight.
    - Patricia filed a missing child report the morning after she brought Daniel to the Gallagher property, listing him as Daniel Croft, age eight.
    - By June 1989 Patricia received a letter from the boy in Renford saying he was fine and that he missed the cat; letters continued for years.
    - Daniel Croft was legally adopted in 1990 by the Alderman family, took the name Daniel Alderman, and by 2017 uploaded his DNA to a consumer genealogy database.

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

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    24 min
  • The Locket That Rewrote a Family: Secret Mother, Hidden Child

    The Locket That Rewrote a Family: Secret Mother, Hidden Child
    Oct 11 2026
    The Locket That Rewrote a Family: Secret Mother, Hidden Child

    A worn sterling silver locket bought at a pawnshop in Dellard unlocked a sixty-three-year secret: inside, a photograph of Norma Holmes holding an infant and an inscription reading "For Lily. So she remembers." Who wrote that note, and why was Norma's image tucked into a shoebox that belonged to a man who never remarried?

    In this episode, we follow the chain of people and objects that connect a pawnshop, a storage unit and a three-page letter found in a box - tracing how a single call to a niece set off DNA tests, family searches and the discovery of a buried story. How did a locket, a shoebox and an 81-year-old trucker’s files become the threads that pull two families together?

    Person: Glenn Holmes
    Person: Gina Perry
    Person: Bev Ostrander
    Person: Pete Ostrander
    Date: February 2019

    - The locket was placed on the pawnshop counter by Bev Ostrander on a Tuesday in February 2019.
    - Glenn Holmes was 53 years old and had run the pawnshop for 11 years when he found the locket.
    - Bev Ostrander was 58 and had brought the locket from her late father Pete Ostrander’s belongings.
    - Within six weeks of the locket arriving, a consumer DNA test showed Bev and Glenn shared 23% of their genetic material.
    - The shoebox that held the locket also contained a three-page handwritten letter found eight weeks after the locket surfaced.

    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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    25 min
  • The Paper on the Mailbox That Revealed a Sister's Secret

    The Paper on the Mailbox That Revealed a Sister's Secret
    Oct 10 2026
    The Paper on the Mailbox That Revealed a Sister's Secret

    A single hospital intake sheet frozen to a mailbox in eleven-degree weather exposed a blue-ballpoint note: B-negative - a blood type that did not fit the family story and pulled apart fifty-one years of silence. How can one lost page force a sister to rethink every private assumption she has lived with?

    In this episode, we follow how a morning delivery, a barnacled piece of paper, and quiet reckoning upend a family’s tidy records; listen to what Erin Carter discovers and the question that refuses to let her rest: who kept this secret, and why?

    Person: Erin Carter
    Person: Wendy Gray
    Date: January 18, 2022
    Location: 44 Aldercroft Drive, Varnell, Ohio
    Event: Hospital admission paperwork found on mailbox

    - The temperature was eleven degrees the night the paper bonded to the metal mailbox post.
    - Pamela Bowers, age 16, found and placed the loose intake form on top of the morning paper.
    - The intake form bore Wendy Gray’s name and had "B-negative" written in the blood type box in blue ballpoint.
    - Erin Carter had lived at 44 Aldercroft Drive for nineteen years and is 54 years old.
    - Erin’s consumer ancestry kit health panel from spring 2021 had estimated her blood type as O-positive.

    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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    23 min
  • The Buried Deeds: Why My Grandfather Vanished and Returned Different

    The Buried Deeds: Why My Grandfather Vanished and Returned Different
    Oct 9 2026
    The Buried Deeds: Why My Grandfather Vanished and Returned Different

    Fear that a family story is a lie and the thrill of discovery collide: a metal box dug up from a county road in December 2011 held two property deeds with identical handwriting and birth date but different surnames - and a grave marker that commemorated a man who was later found alive under another name. Who buried the box in the mid-to-late 1980s, and why does one word - "unknown" - sit at the center of what Beverly Thorpe uncovered?

    In this episode, we follow Beverly as she turns Kathleen's one hour and forty minute confession into records, receipts and photocopies, tracing land deeds, payment receipts, and a state crime lab handwriting comparison to ask how one man could live as two people for decades. What did the documents really reveal about Robert Gerald Oakes and his life as Robert D. Whitmore?

    Person: Beverly Thorpe
    Person: Kathleen Barnes
    Person: Robert Gerald Oakes / Robert D. Whitmore
    Date: December 2011 (metal box surfaced)
    Date: mid-to-late 1980s (box buried according to soil and corrosion analysis)

    - A metal box surfaced from a county road in December 2011 after a grader pass.
    - Two property deeds in the box share the same physical description and date of birth: March 3, 1931.
    - The 1974 deed lists buyer as Robert D. Whitmore for twelve acres in Cass County; the 1976 deed lists buyer as Robert D. Oakes for eight acres in Renner County.
    - A state crime lab handwriting comparison found the signatures on both deeds were the same hand.
    - The box was buried sometime in the mid-to-late 1980s, within a few years of Robert D. Whitmore's death in Cass County.

    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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    26 min
  • The Hidden Birth Record That Rewrote Her Whole Family History

    The Hidden Birth Record That Rewrote Her Whole Family History
    Oct 8 2026
    The Hidden Birth Record That Rewrote Her Whole Family History

    Fear that everything you thought you knew about your family could be wrong: a King James Bible pulled from four inches of standing water under house floorboards contained a handwritten entry that names a child nowhere else in public records. How did one home baptism, recorded on March 14, 1941, remain hidden under a house for decades-and what does it mean for the woman who thought she knew her mother’s origin story?

    In this episode, we follow how a county utility worker’s routine repair led a records coordinator to an oversized 1922 family Bible and a single entry that contradicts every official record Donna Lawson had searched. Listen to how the discovery of “Agnes born, fourteenth of March, 1941 - Baptized in the home” forces a rethinking of birth records, church registers, and family secrecy.

    Person: Carl Phillips
    Person: Roy Meyer
    Person: Donna Lawson
    Date: March 14, 1941
    Location: Alderton

    - The Bible was found on a Tuesday morning in November 2011 beneath an empty house in Alderton.
    - The Bible is a nine-pound King James printed in 1922, wrapped in muslin and resting in four inches of standing water.
    - Roy Meyer died in September 2011 at age eighty-three and had lived in the house since 1964, buying it from his uncle for one dollar.
    - Donna Lawson was thirty-eight when she claimed the Bible; her mother Vivian Lawson died in 2003.
    - The Bible’s interior lists seven dates; the fifth entry reads “Agnes born, fourteenth of March, nineteen forty-one. Baptized in the home,” a birth that appears in no county or church records.

    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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    28 min
  • The Check in the Mud: How a Family Hid a Man for 22 Years

    The Check in the Mud: How a Family Hid a Man for 22 Years
    Oct 7 2026
    The Check in the Mud: How a Family Hid a Man for 22 Years

    Something wet and sodden on a Tuesday morning turned out to be a union pension check for $411 made out to a man legally recorded as dead for 22 years - and it had been arriving every month without anyone stopping it. How did a sealed casket, a doctored death certificate, and eleven months of unopened checks end up revealing a family secret in Harwick, Ohio?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery that began with a runner finding an envelope on Millhaven Road and trace how a false death certificate, forwarded mail, and a long-running pension payment kept a disappearance hidden. What choices and records allowed Eugene Crawford to be declared dead on paper while payments continued for decades?

    Date: October 14, 2019
    Location: Millhaven Road, Harwick, Ohio
    Person: Eugene Crawford
    Amount: $411 per month
    Duration: 22 years

    - Julie Campbell found the envelope at 6:15 a.m, during her regular Tuesday run.
    - The check found in the mud was soaked and addressed to Eugene Crawford, who was legally recorded as having died in October 1997.
    - The pension fund had been sending automatic monthly checks of $411 to Eugene Crawford for at least 22 years.
    - Dawn Crawford maintained a P.O. box and opened a bank account in her father's name to forward the pension checks for at least the first 15 years.
    - Eleven pension envelopes were left unopened on the Harwick kitchen table after Vera Crawford moved to an assisted-living facility in spring 2019.

    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
  • The Hidden Birth Certificate That Rewrote a Family's Life

    The Hidden Birth Certificate That Rewrote a Family's Life
    Oct 6 2026
    The Hidden Birth Certificate That Rewrote a Family's Life

    A faded green birth certificate folded into quarters was found on a Millbrook porch on September 11, 2022 - embossed seal intact, brown at the edges from decades hidden inside a floor. The paper named Susan Mason, born March 4, 1961, and listed Margaret Mason as mother, a discovery that forced a family to ask how and why a document that should not have existed was nailed into their joists; who was Susan, and why did Dorothy O'Brien keep silent for more than sixty years?

    In this episode, we follow how a meter reader's photograph reached Patricia O'Brien and set her son Thomas on a path through a sold house, renovation reveal, and family memory, as they try to reconcile a birth certificate’s details with a lifetime lived at 414 Garrison Avenue. What does the certificate actually change about a family story that had seemed settled?

    Person: Patricia O'Brien
    Person: Thomas O'Brien
    Person: Dorothy O'Brien
    Date: September 11, 2022
    Location: 414 Garrison Avenue, Millbrook, Indiana

    - The document was discovered on the back porch of 414 Garrison Avenue on the morning of September 11, 2022.
    - The birth certificate names Susan Mason with a birth date of March 4, 1961 and lists Margaret Mason as mother.
    - Dorothy and Robert O'Brien moved into 414 Garrison Avenue in 1958 and Dorothy died in 2021; Patricia sold the house in spring 2022.
    - Kevin and Angela Park moved into the house in July 2022 and found the document beneath two layers of flooring during renovations in early September 2022.
    - Cheryl Burke, a meter reader for Hendricks County Utilities for eleven years, photographed the certificate and a neighbor, Evelyn Marsh, texted the photo to Patricia O'Brien.

    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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    26 min
  • The Photo, Two Thomases, and the 76-Year Secret on Her Nightstand

    The Photo, Two Thomases, and the 76-Year Secret on Her Nightstand
    Oct 5 2026
    The Photo, Two Thomases, and the 76-Year Secret on Her Nightstand

    Fear that the person you loved kept a life-sized secret for 76 years starts with a photograph and a name: Thomas, Camp Shelby, July 1943. A telegram never sent, a different Thomas on a grave, and a woman who never explained why a soldier from Biloxi signed "For my Iris, always" - what did Iris keep, and why did she never tell?

    In this episode, we follow the small discoveries that turned a parish volunteer's quiet morning into a family mystery, as a granddaughter pieces together dates, service records, and a folded telegram to ask who the man in the frame really was and what that answer means for a life lived in Morrow, Ohio.

    Person: Iris Marie Marie
    Person: Thomas Henry Whitfield
    Person: Thomas Calhoun
    Date: July 1943
    Location: Camp Shelby

    - The photograph sat on Iris's side table for 76 years.
    - Thomas Henry Whitfield entered Army service in March 1944 and married Iris in April 1945.
    - The inscription on the photo read "For my Iris, always - Thomas, Camp Shelby, July 1943."
    - A Western Union telegram dated September 1943 addressed to Vera Calhoun in Biloxi said "Thomas alive stop wounded stop furlough approved stop come home stop" and was never sent.
    - Peggy Phillips was born around 1971 and discovered the discrepancy after visiting Iris in August 2019.

    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