Episodi

  • The forged signature that bought a killer twenty-five years

    The forged signature that bought a killer twenty-five years
    Oct 15 2026
    A forged signature at a care home and a pristine left shoe in the mud put a pharmacist’s disappearance on the wrong track - how did that expose them?

    The forged signature that bought a killer twenty-five years

    In this episode, we follow the chain of small, specific details that shaped a quarter-century investigation into Kathleen Stewart’s disappearance: a single upright shoe, a falsified Sycamore Gardens sign-in, and a pharmacy alarm that misdirected detectives. How did those clues steer investigators away from the truth and who used them to buy time?

    Person: Kathleen Stewart
    Date: April 3-9, 1996
    Location: Greenfield Pharmacy, Dellwood; Sycamore Gardens; Vernon Wells Trail
    Person: Brian Dempsey
    Event: forged visitor signature at Sycamore Gardens

    - A single left shoe, size seven, found standing upright in April mud nine feet off the path with a clean sole.
    - Kathleen Stewart closed Greenfield Pharmacy at ~6:30 p.m. on April 3, 1996 and never arrived at her weekly Wednesday visit to Sycamore Gardens.
    - A 6:48 p.m. entry in the Sycamore Gardens visitor log showed “Kathleen Stewart” with no exit and handwriting later identified as forged.
    - A 9:14 p.m. alarm at the pharmacy’s north service door became the focal point for a robbery theory that dominated the investigation.
    - Brian Dempsey, a Medline delivery driver whose Wednesday route matched Kathleen’s circuit, was unknown to Dellwood PD at the time and had access-related documents later stored in a false-bottom tote.

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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
  • The HVAC tag that proved the technician kept her key

    The HVAC tag that proved the technician kept her key
    Oct 14 2026
    A green HVAC inspection tag found in creek mud ties a vanished key to a farmhouse and a teacher's murder-how did that expose them?

    The HVAC tag that proved the technician kept her key

    In this episode, we follow the evidence trail from a green-and-white HVAC inspection tag found six inches into Aldren Creek to the forgotten work order hidden in a banker's box. The episode covers the people, records and decisions that connected a routine furnace service to a decades-old murder inquiry and asks how a retained key mattered to the case.

    Person: Victim: Christine Baker
    Person: Witness: Sandra Moore
    Person: Technician: Eric Morris
    Date: Body discovered: March 9, 1984
    Location: Cutter Road farmhouse, Aldren Creek

    - A Harlow County HVAC inspection certificate dated November 1982 was found pressed into the creek mud six feet from the body.
    - The furnace service was paid and filed under landlord Tom Waverly’s name, not the tenant's, and the work order sat in county storage.
    - Detective Ray Solis logged the tag in 1984 while pursuing other leads, including fingerprints on the back door belonging to ex-boyfriend Paul Greer.
    - A 2019 cold case review by Denise Petersen uncovered the WAVERLY RENTALS box and a work order noting: “key retained - follow-up inspection pending; coordinate with tenant.”
    - The technician listed on the work order, Eric Morris, had kept a key to the Cutter Road farmhouse after the November 1982 service.

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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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    16 min
  • The tow-truck operator who waved Heather off and never left

    The tow-truck operator who waved Heather off and never left
    Oct 13 2026
    A county tow-truck operator finishes a call at milepost 38, then waves a Meals on Wheels driver off three miles away - how did that expose him?

    The tow-truck operator who waved Heather off and never left

    In this episode, we follow the thread connecting a missing Meals on Wheels volunteer, a decades-long string of calls from her son, and a dispatch log that refused to be destroyed. What do a five-minute gap, a county contractor badge, and an empty tow truck say about that night?

    Person: Heather Hunter
    Date: February 9, 1991
    Location: Route Seven, milepost 38; Meals on Wheels depot
    Person: Kevin (son)
    Person: Warren Wallace

    - Heather signed out of the depot at 8:14 p.m, after completing her Saturday route.
    - A county tow-truck unit signed off an assist at milepost 38 at 8:09 p.m. the same evening.
    - The depot sat 3.1 miles from milepost 38 - a five-minute window separates the two timestamps.
    - Warren Wallace was a county roadside-assistance contractor with a marked truck, uniform, and badge.
    - Kevin called the department roughly once a month for thirty-one years, creating a log that preserved a memo leading investigators back to the dispatch record.

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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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    15 min
  • The Polaroid Sequence That Revealed How His Glove Framed Murder

    The Polaroid Sequence That Revealed How His Glove Framed Murder
    Oct 12 2026
    A Dellwood foreman’s wallet sealed in a concrete utility cap-how did a set of Polaroids expose who placed it there?

    The Polaroid Sequence That Revealed How His Glove Framed Murder

    In this episode, we follow how a routine discovery by a septic-service owner became the hinge of a thirty-year cold case. The episode covers the sequence of events from the discovery at Millrace Road to the reopening of the evidence box and asks what those six Polaroids and one missing left glove can reveal.

    Person: Stanley Cooper
    Date: January 11, 1973
    Location: Four Millrace Road, Dellwood, Indiana
    Event: Wallet and single right-hand glove found sealed in concrete utility cap
    Person: Kenneth Padgett

    - Kenneth Padgett, a forty-seven-year-old septic and well service owner, found the wallet and glove when he pried open the sealed utility cap and took six Polaroids in nine-degree weather.
    - The wallet contained a laminated ID for Stanley Cooper and seventeen dollars in cash; Cooper had been reported missing forty hours earlier.
    - Cooper, a forty-four-year-old foreman at Harlan Fabrication, was last seen January 9 at 6:14 p.m. leaving work with his coat, keys, and only his right-hand glove.
    - Detective Roy Fenwick processed the evidence in 1973, labeled the box Cooper S./73, kept it at retirement, and the box passed to the Dellwood Police Department after his death.
    - In January 2003, cold-case detective Janet Dempsey found the box, spread Padgett’s six Polaroids in order, noted fresh mortar sealing the cap, and pulled the contractor records for four Millrace Road.

    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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    18 min
  • The Paint Can That Left the Back Door Open and Buried Her

    The Paint Can That Left the Back Door Open and Buried Her
    Oct 11 2026
    A highway photographer finds a jaw half-buried in frozen clay-how did that photograph expose the gap in a missing art teacher’s case?

    The Paint Can That Left the Back Door Open and Buried Her

    In this episode, we trace how a single telephoto image reopened the case of Cynthia Carter and spotlight the investigative choices that left a crucial back entrance unexamined. What decisions and blind spots kept a gravel yard, a paint-can-propped door, and a contractor off the record for decades?

    Person: Cynthia Carter
    Date: December 9, 1991 (last seen); March 4, 2023 (photograph)
    Location: Millgate, Harlen County; gravel yard on Route Nine
    Person: Detective Ron Mabry
    Person: Clifford Dalton

    - Photographer Bruce Barnes was shooting soil erosion from a highway embankment when his telephoto lens captured a human jaw half-swallowed by frozen clay.
    - Cynthia Carter, a 28-year-old elementary art teacher, attended a ceramics class the night she disappeared and was never seen again after leaving the community center.
    - The duplex where Cynthia lived had a front door with a key held by her boyfriend Marcus Webb, and an unattended rear utility door propped open with a paint can by the upstairs tenant.
    - Detective Ron Mabry’s original canvass focused on front-door access and social acquaintances, producing three years of investigation centered on Marcus Webb while other leads remained unexplored.
    - HVAC contractor Clifford Dalton serviced both the duplex and the private gravel yard-locations connected by lay of the land-but his name does not appear in the 1991-1994 investigative record.

    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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    16 min
  • The Reading Glasses That Caught Morning Light and Broke a Case

    The Reading Glasses That Caught Morning Light and Broke a Case
    Oct 10 2026
    A boy finds reading glasses in a storm drain-could that stray clue link a librarian's routine to a 1982 death and decades of questions?

    The Reading Glasses That Caught Morning Light and Broke a Case

    In this episode, we follow the small, specific details that shaped a decades-old investigation: a pair of reading glasses found under a road, a retired librarian’s fixed morning routine, a misplaced cassette tape, and witnesses who changed their stories. How did those fragments of evidence and timing expose what had been overlooked?

    Person: Donald Powell
    Date: November 11, 1982
    Location: Orchard Creek Road, Harwick Falls, Ohio
    Person: Melissa Smith
    Event: Witness recantations filed February 28, 1983

    - At 6:22 a.m. Donald Powell, age 14, looked down a storm drain grate and saw reading glasses upright on a concrete ledge eight feet below.
    - Melissa Smith, 57, a retired school librarian who fed a neighbor’s cat every morning at 7:00, was found dead in a drainage culvert and had been there since the night of November 9.
    - Kelly Callahan, a self-employed HVAC technician, was logged forty minutes late to his first job on November 9 with no explanation recorded.
    - Dennis Albright, Melissa’s neighbor, was arrested in December 1982 and had charges dropped after two witnesses, Patrice Owens and Tom Vesper, filed affidavits recanting their statements forty minutes apart on February 28, 1983.
    - A cassette tape logged with assistant prosecutor Gerald Sims’s initials was boxed as “miscellaneous,” taken from the office, and stored in a garage for forty-one years without follow-up disclosure.

    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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    16 min
  • The Day‑Timer entry that sent Mark Price to inherit

    The Day‑Timer entry that sent Mark Price to inherit
    Oct 9 2026
    A buried Day‑Timer entry links a missing paralegal to a hastily probated will - how did that appointment expose Mark Price?

    The Day‑Timer entry that sent Mark Price to inherit

    In this episode, we follow the discovery of Pamela Barrett’s Day‑Timer and the documents and decisions that surrounded her disappearance in 1991. The episode outlines the appointment entry, the probate change eight days later, and the investigative gaps that left key questions unanswered.

    Person: Pamela Barrett
    Date: October 11, 1991
    Location: Dellwood, Harkin County
    Person: Mark Price
    Event: Probate filed eight days after disappearance

    - A county road-grader unearthed a metal strongbox containing Pamela’s Day‑Timer 28 years after she vanished.
    - Pamela, a 23‑year‑old paralegal known for meticulous notes, wrote “7pm - MP’s house, bring Whitfield files” on the night she disappeared.
    - Detective Lou Mabry closed the case as a voluntary missing person after 72 hours, citing a $4,200 credit‑line without subpoenaing Price’s records.
    - Gerald Barrett’s 1989 handwritten will named Pamela sole heir to roughly $340,000; a different will naming Mark Price surfaced in probate eight days after Pamela vanished.
    - Mark Price, Pamela’s supervisor who handled Whitfield files and had a confirmed 4:51 p.m. call to her the day she went missing, collected the estate.

    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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    16 min
  • The contractor badge that let him reach Pier Four at 4:58

    The contractor badge that let him reach Pier Four at 4:58
    Oct 8 2026
    A contractor badge lets a man reach Pier Four before dawn the same morning a harvester vanishes; how did that access expose him?

    The contractor badge that let him reach Pier Four at 4:58

    In this episode, we follow the timeline and records around a disappearance that was closed as accidental, then reopened by an impossible discovery. We trace who was at Pier Four the morning Gordon Slater walked away from home, and what a contractor badge and a timestamp eventually forced investigators to ask.

    Person: Gordon Slater
    Date: September 9, 2003
    Location: Pier Four
    Person: Randy Collins
    Event: Access badge used at 4:58 AM

    - Gordon Slater left before dawn on September 9, 2003, and was last seen walking toward Pier Four at about 5:00 AM.
    - Pier Four was an active construction site under contract to reinforce its north face; access was controlled by a port authority badge system.
    - Randy Collins, hired that summer as a contractor, badged into Pier Four at 4:58 AM-his shift did not begin until 8:00 AM.
    - The original missing-persons file was closed in February 2004 as accidental drowning with no body recovered and no port-access logs reviewed.
    - Eighteen years later a storm exposed a sealed cavity in Pier Four containing a skeleton, a thermos, and an upright rubber boot, prompting investigators to reexamine access and timelines.

    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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    15 min