On August 14, 1987, police entered Kai Lama.

But getting the children out was only the beginning.

In Part II of The Family: The Children Behind the Gate, Case follows what happened after authorities intervened in the world created by Anne Hamilton-Byrne: the struggle to untangle the children's identities, the investigation that followed, the search for Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne, their extradition back to Australia, and the surprisingly narrow criminal outcome that followed years of allegations from survivors.

But this story doesn't end in a courtroom.

We also look at the civil fight for accountability, the complicated reality of leaving a controlled environment, and the very different lives survivors built after The Family.

Because opening the gate was one thing.

Reclaiming the right to decide who you are was something else entirely.

Content Warning: This episode discusses child abuse, manipulation and control, food deprivation, physical punishment, drug administration, and the aftermath of childhood trauma.

Sub-Basement Six is a victim-centered true crime and dark history podcast. Allegations, survivor accounts, criminal findings, and civil proceedings are identified separately throughout the episode.

What happens when the adults around a child control not only the rules—but the truth about who that child is?

In The Family: The Children Behind the Gate — Part I, Case goes inside the world created around the children raised within Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s Australian group, The Family.

Through survivor accounts, we explore the children’s understanding of family and identity, the adults surrounding Anne, the different ways children came into the group, and daily life at Kai Lama near Lake Eildon, Victoria.

Survivors describe manipulation and control, food deprivation, physical punishment, medication and drugs, separation from close relationships, and fear of the outside world.

And eventually, some of those young people began speaking.

This story does not begin with Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

It begins with the children.

Content note: This episode discusses child abuse, manipulation and control, food deprivation, physical punishment, drug administration, and other mistreatment of children.

Part II continues with the August 1987 police intervention, the investigation that followed, Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne’s eventual arrest and extradition, the criminal case, later civil proceedings, and the lives survivors built afterward.

I’m Case, and this is Sub-Basement Six.

I’ll meet you downstairs.

The night before Nelson Rehmeyer was killed, two of the people involved in his death stayed overnight in his home. The following evening, they returned with a third person. Nelson let them in again.

In November 1928, the sixty-year-old Pennsylvania farmer became the target of men who blamed him for their misfortunes. Their explanation involved a hex, a lock of hair, and a book called The Long Lost Friend.

In this episode of Sub-Basement Six, Case examines Nelson’s life, the events leading to his murder, and the evidence presented against John Blymire, John Curry, and Wilbert Hess. Along the way, we explore Pennsylvania Dutch powwow traditions and how the later “witchcraft” framing shaped the story remembered as Hex Hollow.

Behind the name is Nelson Rehmeyer, a man who should have been safe in his own home.

Content note: Discussion of murder, a fatal assault, arson, burn injuries, and child loss.

In August 1990, Gainesville, Florida, was preparing for the beginning of another college semester when five young people were murdered over the course of just a few days.

Their names were Sonja Jane Larson, Christina “Christi” Powell, Christa Leigh Hoyt, Tracy Inez Paules, and Manuel “Manny” Taboada.

The murders terrified a college town and launched an enormous investigation—one involving a wrongly suspected young man, an overlooked cassette tape, connections stretching back to Shreveport, Louisiana, and eventually, Danny Rolling.

But years later, the case would become connected to another name:

Ghostface.

Scream writer Kevin Williamson has described watching a television program about the Gainesville murders while housesitting, becoming frightened after discovering an open window, and later sitting down in the middle of the night to begin writing the opening scene that would eventually become Scream.

But Scream wasn't the story of the Gainesville murders. Danny Rolling wasn't the “real Ghostface,” and these five victims weren't characters waiting to inspire a horror movie.

In this episode of Sub-Basement Six, Case goes behind the horror to separate fact from pop-culture mythology, follow the investigation that ultimately identified the killer, and—most importantly—remember the five lives at the center of the story.

Because Ghostface is fictional.

They weren't.

Content warning: This episode discusses murder, sexual violence, home invasion, and violence against young adults. Some details may be disturbing.

If Spotify gives you a shorter summary/preview field, I'd use:

Before Ghostface became a horror icon, five young people were murdered in Gainesville, Florida. Case examines the 1990 Gainesville murders, the investigation that led to Danny Rolling, and the real—and often misunderstood—connection between the case and Scream.

“Let me let you in on a little secret… Ghostface isn’t real either.”

Before there was Woodsboro, Sidney Prescott, or the question “What’s your favorite scary movie?”—there was Gainesville.

Five young people lost their lives in August 1990. Their story would later become connected to one of the most recognizable horror franchises in history.

But behind the horror is a very real story.

🎙️ Behind the Horror: Before Ghostface — The Gainesville Murders

Tomorrow at 7:00 AM on Sub-Basement Six.

Ghostface is fictional. They weren’t.

For months, 32-year-old mother Dorothy Jane Scott received disturbing phone calls from a man she couldn’t identify. He claimed to love her. He threatened her. He seemed to know where she was, what she was doing, and even what she was wearing.

Then, shortly after midnight on May 29, 1980, Dorothy walked into the parking lot of UCI Medical Center to retrieve her car for two coworkers.

Her car came back.

Dorothy didn’t.

Hours later, her white Toyota station wagon was found burning in a Santa Ana alley. In the weeks and years that followed, mysterious calls continued—including one from a man who claimed responsibility and appeared to know details that had never been made public.

More than four years later, Dorothy was finally found. But the identity of the person who killed her—and the man behind those terrifying phone calls—remains unknown.

In this episode of Sub-Basement Six, we go back to the contemporary reporting and surviving law-enforcement records to separate what is documented from what has been repeated for decades, while keeping the focus where it belongs: on Dorothy, the young son who waited for his mother to come home, and the family left without answers.

The homicide of Dorothy Jane Scott remains an open case. Anyone with information should contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Department through its current official cold-case channels.

Months before Jodi Huisentruit disappeared, she contacted the Mason City Police Department to report that someone had been following her in a pickup truck.

But when we compare the original police record with later accounts of that encounter, an important detail doesn't match.

In Part 3 of our Jodi Huisentruit series, we return to October 1994 to examine what Jodi reported, her later conversations about personal safety, and the self-defense workshop she attended before her disappearance on June 27, 1995.

Together, we'll look at the questions those earlier incidents raised, what the available evidence can—and cannot—connect to the morning she vanished, and how investigators began sorting through the information that followed.

This isn't about forcing a theory to fit. It's about understanding Jodi's experiences, following the documented evidence, and keeping her story at the center of the investigation.

If you have first-hand information about Jodi Huisentruit's disappearance, please contact the Mason City Police Department.

At a little after four in the morning on June 27, 1995, Jodi Huisentruit answered a phone call from her coworker at KIMT-TV. She was running late for work and said she was coming in.

She never arrived.

In Part 2 of our Jodi Huisentruit series, we follow the morning she disappeared—from the unanswered calls at KIMT to the police welfare check at her Mason City apartment. We examine the belongings found near her red Mazda Miata, witness reports of screams and a white van, and the search that expanded into the surrounding neighborhood and along the Winnebago River.

Drawing on an original police dispatch record, archival news-conference footage, and witness accounts, Case walks through what is documented, what remains uncertain, and the questions left behind by those first hours.

If you have information about Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance, please contact the Mason City Police Department.

Sub-Basement Six with Case — Jodi Huisentruit, Part 2.