Episodi

  • The Cake on the Mailbox: How a Dish Fueled an Arson Trial

    The Cake on the Mailbox: How a Dish Fueled an Arson Trial
    Aug 9 2026
    The Cake on the Mailbox: How a Dish Fueled an Arson Trial

    The first thing anyone saw was a perfect two-layer cake in a vintage amber glass baking dish perched on a mailbox post while the house behind it was a gutted, smoking shell - and the dish showed no soot or cracks. A jury would later spend days on accelerant patterns, cell tower data and a backdated insurance endorsement, only for the case to hinge on a single inventory line: Item 31 - Vintage amber glass baking dish, replacement value $60, marked destroyed - so who put the cake on the mailbox and why?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from the November 4 morning discovery through the insurance adjuster’s internal note and the backdated policy change, and we follow the investigator who traced the seam between physical clues and underwriting decisions. How did a cake and a dish come to carry the weight of a criminal case and an insurer's exposure?

    Person: Julie Evans
    Date: November 4 (discovery at 6:47 AM) and November 3 (fire evening between 8:00-9:00 PM)
    Location: 2240 Dellwood Avenue, Carver Flats
    Case: Meridian Indemnity claim MI-7740-EV for $63,000 contents and $14,000 relocation
    Item: Item 31 - Vintage amber glass baking dish; replacement value $60; inventory listed as destroyed

    - Cake was a frosted two-layer cake with white icing and sugar roses resting in an amber glass baking dish with no soot or cracks
    - Fire cause: mineral spirits poured on subfloor near the water heater in a utility room off the kitchen, per burn-progression and 9-1-1 timing
    - Julie Evans had a policy taken out five months before the fire (policy MI-7740-EV) and filed a contents claim for $63,000 within 72 hours
    - Adjuster Kevin Marsh emailed underwriting on November 6 noting risk: "Policy taken out five months prior... Claimed contents value inconsistent with income profile" and flagged "Coverage gap - EV claim"
    - Meridian amended and backdated the deliberate acts exclusion on November 7 to apply upon a probable cause finding, with a note saying "Clarifying language. no material change."

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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
  • Sealed Bottle, Stolen Pills: How a Dispatch Log Exonerated an Innocent Man

    Sealed Bottle, Stolen Pills: How a Dispatch Log Exonerated an Innocent Man
    Aug 6 2026
    Sealed Bottle, Stolen Pills: How a Dispatch Log Exonerated an Innocent Man

    A sealed amber bottle of sixty clonazepam tablets labeled to a Crestline supervisor was found on the concrete meter pad two feet from Deborah Nall’s back door, despite the prescription fill date being September 9 and the lower unit vacant since July. How did a full, child-safe bottle end up at a murder scene and nearly send an innocent man to prison?

    In this episode, we tell the story of Deborah Nall, the forensic trail that began with a prescription bottle, and the overlooked dispatch log entry whose device ID mismatch ultimately cleared a suspect. What detail hidden in routine paperwork changed the course of the case?

    Person: Deborah Nall
    Date: September 9 (prescription fill date)
    Location: Fenner Lane, Calverton, Dellwick, Ohio
    Person: Raymond Fisher
    Event: Found sealed bottle of 60 clonazepam tablets on concrete meter pad

    - The bottle contained sixty clonazepam tablets with a fill date of September 9 and a child-safety cap still sealed.
    - Deborah Nall was thirty-one years old in autumn 2011 and had a seven-year-old daughter named Paige.
    - Raymond Fisher, age fifty-two, had been prescribed clonazepam since 2008 and refilled sixty tablets monthly.
    - Warren Green discovered and photographed the bottle at 8:40 AM on a Tuesday while walking the Calverton meter route.
    - Melvin Hansen, age thirty-eight, had temporary dispatch authority in August and later stole a month's supply of clonazepam from Fisher's truck in September.

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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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    18 min
  • The Orange Stake: How a Scale Exposed a Land Fraud Scheme

    The Orange Stake: How a Scale Exposed a Land Fraud Scheme
    Aug 4 2026
    The Orange Stake: How a Scale Exposed a Land Fraud Scheme

    When a single orange-flagged wooden stake appeared six inches inside a locked church fence, it set off a chain that would unravel a seven-year land scheme across three counties. A surveying map’s scale-printed as one inch = forty feet but drawn at one inch = fifty feet-meant parcels were about twenty percent larger than declared; how did that ratio go unnoticed for years?

    In this episode, we tell how routine property work and GIS overlaying exposed mismatched boundaries, and how one volunteer’s photograph led to questions that tied maps, a licensed surveyor, and a developer together. Who benefitted from the inaccurate scale, and how far did the scheme reach?

    Person: Gregory Porter
    Person: Pete Slagle
    Person: Earl Tucker
    Person: Clifford Phillips
    Event: Orange-flagged stake found inside locked church fence in September 2011

    - The stake was driven six inches inside the church fence and carried a laminated tag naming a parcel for Ridgeline Property Holdings.
    - Earl Tucker had been a licensed surveyor for twenty-two years and filed forty-one maps across three counties.
    - Three of Tucker’s maps stated a scale of one inch = forty feet but were actually drawn at one inch = fifty feet.
    - Parcels on those three maps were roughly twenty percent larger, with boundary lines falling eight to twelve feet short of physical landmarks.
    - Ridgeline Property Holdings, owned by Clifford Phillips (age forty-four), had twelve adverse-possession attempts and boundary disputes in county records.

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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 Typewriter in Evidence: How a Locker Held a Kidnapper's Secret

    The Typewriter in Evidence: How a Locker Held a Kidnapper's Secret
    Aug 2 2026
    The Typewriter in Evidence: How a Locker Held a Kidnapper's Secret

    A typewriter that had sat logged in a police property room since June 1994 apparently produced a ransom note in August 1997 demanding $50,000 while a nine-year-old was held in a storage unit four miles from her home - so how did a machine that shouldn't have been accessible end up at the center of a kidnapping case? Who used serial number 7714-DE-0093 to type the note, and what did discovery of that machine do to the prosecution's case?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline from the August 6 disappearance to the recovery of the girl on August 11, and follow the paper trail that led investigators to an Olympia Traveller de Luxe recorded in evidence since 1994. How did an evidence-room typewriter factor into the trial of Dennis Clark, and what collapsed once the defense located the machine?

    Person: Dennis Clark
    Event: Kidnapping of Amy Dewell
    Date: August 6-11, 1997
    Location: Harlan County, County Road Seven and Raymond Thorpe Trail
    Item: Olympia Traveller de Luxe, serial number 7714-DE-0093

    - Ransom demand specified $50,000 and was printed in Courier twelve-point on standard 80-pound white copy stock.
    - The ransom note was slipped under the Dewell front door before Thomas Dewell woke at 5:15 AM the morning after the disappearance.
    - A cooler containing $47,000 in banded cash, a prepaid cash phone, and a folded sheet matching the ransom note was found on August 9 at the half-mile marker of Raymond Thorpe Trail.
    - Amy Dewell, age nine and just out of third grade, was found dehydrated but physically unharmed in a storage building four miles from her home on August 11.
    - Dennis Clark had unsupervised access to the sheriff's property room as an evidence-processing contractor from March 1995 through October 1996, while the typewriter had been logged in since June 1994.

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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
  • Sealed Evidence Bag Found in River - Who Framed Michael Clark?

    Sealed Evidence Bag Found in River - Who Framed Michael Clark?
    Jul 30 2026
    Sealed Evidence Bag Found in River - Who Framed Michael Clark?

    A sealed evidence bag with its red tamper strip intact washed up in a river holding a Seiko watch stopped at 11:41 that had been logged into the Pembrook County Sheriff's evidence room months earlier - and that same watch was tied to a homicide that sent Michael Clark to prison for forty years. Who placed an unbroken evidence bag in the water, and what did it conceal about the fire that killed Teresa Ogle?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the May 19, 2003 house fire that killed Teresa Ogle through the arrest, trial, and conviction of Michael Clark, and we follow how one piece of evidence found in the river later altered the narrative. What did the sealed bag and the missing forensic steps mean for the verdict?

    Person: Teresa Ogle
    Date: May 19, 2003
    Location: 2218 Ashford Road, Granger, Pembrook County, Indiana
    Status: Convicted defendant sentenced to 40 years (Michael Clark)
    Event: Sealed evidence bag with Seiko watch found July 9, 2003

    - The sealed evidence bag was found by a fisherman on July 9, 2003 on the eastern bank of the Sutter River with its red tamper strip still intact.
    - The watch inside was a Seiko with a white dial and gold-tone bracelet, hands stopped at 11:41, and it was dry and unbroken.
    - Teresa Ogle, age 44, was found dead from smoke inhalation after her house burned to the foundation on the night of May 19, 2003.
    - Fire investigator Warren Pruett, with 31 years' experience, ruled the fire intentional based solely on visual observations and did not test for accelerant residue.
    - Michael Clark was arrested within two weeks, unable to post a $200,000 bond, tried starting October 14, 2003, and convicted on October 23, 2003 after 11 hours of jury deliberation.

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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 Surveyor's Pin That Sent Her to Prison

    The Surveyor's Pin That Sent Her to Prison
    Jul 28 2026
    The Surveyor's Pin That Sent Her to Prison

    A single hospital visitor badge, nailed to an oak with a surveyor's pin, became the hinge of a homicide case and sent a 22-year-old to prison; the badge was logged at 9:47 PM on May 31, 2014, but who actually entered that timestamp into the system - and why - remained unanswered. What did the badge really prove, and how did a later review of the archive reveal a dead man’s credentials filing the crucial entry?

    In this episode, we narrate the sequence of events from the badge found on June 11 to the trial and post-conviction review, tracing the timelines, personnel, and digital records that shaped the case. How did one misread piece of evidence lock someone up for years, and what changed when a private investigator took another look?

    Person: Jessica Rafferty
    Person: Warren Ogle
    Date: May 31, 2014
    Date: June 11, 2014
    Location: St. Agatha Regional Medical Center

    - The badge bearing the name Jessica Rafferty was logged at St. Agatha Regional Medical Center at 9:47 PM on May 31, 2014.
    - The badge was discovered pinned to a white oak tree on the edge of Gannett farmland and removed by county surveyor Douglas Coleman on June 11.
    - Warren Ogle, 47, facilities supervisor at St. Agatha, was found dead between 10:00 PM and midnight on May 31, 2014, from blunt force trauma at the base of a service stairwell.
    - The loading dock camera had been offline since May 28 due to a firmware update assigned to Warren Ogle.
    - On June 8, 2014, someone accessed the badge archive system and filed the entry using credentials that belonged to Warren Ogle, who was already deceased according to hospital personnel records.

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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
  • Recalled Test, Ruined Life: How a Hidden Advisory Freed the Wrongly Convicted

    Recalled Test, Ruined Life: How a Hidden Advisory Freed the Wrongly Convicted
    Jul 26 2026
    Recalled Test, Ruined Life: How a Hidden Advisory Freed the Wrongly Convicted

    A single color-change field test put a quiet mother behind bars and a negative lab result still couldn't stop the prosecution from charging her with fraud - how could forty-one small blue tablets and a misfiled advisory rewrite a life? Who missed the binder on a shelf that would have changed everything?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from discovery to conviction risk: the discovery of a ziplock bag behind 214 Voss Street, a positive field test for methamphetamine, a later laboratory negative, and the prosecutorial shift to a fraud theory that kept the case alive. What document sat unread until three days before trial, and how did it alter the outcome?

    Person: Beverly Wallace
    Location: 214 Voss Street, Weller, Mather County
    Date: May 9 (discovery of the bag)
    Item: Forty-one small blue tablets in a ziplock sandwich bag
    Test: Narco-Sure color-reaction field test (color-positive), followed by laboratory negative

    - The bag was found in a three-inch gap behind a cinder-block foundation and had been there approximately four months by forensic estimation.
    - Deputy Marcus Fell performed a Narco-Sure field test that produced a color-positive for methamphetamine within hours of the call.
    - The laboratory analysis later determined the tablets were a legal phenylethylamine-based dietary supplement, not a controlled substance.
    - The handwritten ledger contained a single column totaling approximately $4,000 across sixteen transactions and had no names or dates.
    - Three days before trial, a forensic document examiner's handwriting analysis of the ledger was submitted by a legal aid organization.

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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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    18 min
  • The Dry Drain, the Waterline, and the Unasked Phone Call

    The Dry Drain, the Waterline, and the Unasked Phone Call
    Jul 23 2026
    The Dry Drain, the Waterline, and the Unasked Phone Call

    A sixty-seven-year-old woman was found lying face up in a dry concrete culvert with a clear waterline eight inches above her body, her lungs full of chlorinated municipal water despite no nearby lake or river-how did she drown in a town with almost nowhere to drown? Who made the logged check-in call from her kitchen the morning before she died, and why was the back door unlocked contrary to her usual routine?

    In this episode, we present the sequence of events from the last phone call Margaret Hollins received to the forensic details that conflicted with the scene, and we follow the defense attorney who circled three overlooked facts that would change the case - can a single measurement in the report point to a very different explanation?

    Person: Margaret Hollins
    Date: April 9 (found at 7:15 a.m.)
    Location: Cutter Creek drainage corridor, Garrison, Kansas
    Cause: Drowning; lungs contained chlorinated municipal water
    Person: Shannon Stein (home health aide); last logged visit April 7 (entered at 9:10, departed at 11:47)

    - The waterline on the culvert walls was roughly eight inches above where Margaret's body lay.
    - Rainfall for the entire week before her death: 0.2 inches.
    - The nearest surface water is a livestock pond 43 miles northwest at the Featherstone cooperative.
    - The Sunrise Companion Services system logged Shannon Stein's departure call at 11:47 on April 7, using Margaret's landline.
    - Margaret's daughter, Tessa Hollins-Carr, last spoke to her on the night of April 7 and described her mother as compulsive about locking the back door.

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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