Episodi

  • The Pristine Envelope: Why One Payroll Was Left at a Murder Scene

    The Pristine Envelope: Why One Payroll Was Left at a Murder Scene
    Aug 9 2026
    The Pristine Envelope: Why One Payroll Was Left at a Murder Scene

    The thought of a single sealed payroll envelope left pristine in a pool of blood creates a chill: thirty-six years of unanswered questions began with that one unmarked object. Who stood over a dying man and placed that envelope in his hand with such care that not one drop touched it - and why was that envelope the only one left?

    In this episode, we present the known facts of the March 9, 1971 payroll murder and the empty envelope that obsessed investigators for decades, following the timeline from the night shift at Meridian Industrial Payroll to the moment the pristine envelope was found in Gary Holmes's palm. What does the untouched envelope reveal about planning, motive, and a secret never spent?

    Person: Gary Holmes
    Date: March 9, 1971
    Location: Alley behind Meridian Industrial Payroll on Pratt and Dunmore, Kearns, Ohio
    Event: Payroll robbery and murder involving approximately $52,000 in sorted envelopes
    Status: Cold case re-opened decades later with confession and storage unit evidence

    - Holmes was 26 years old and had served two years in the Army, leaving service in 1965.
    - Approximately $52,000 in sorted envelopes sat ready for morning delivery on March 9, 1971.
    - The Dunmore Fabrication batch was numbered one through eight; envelopes 1-7 were missing while envelope 8 was found in Holmes's hand.
    - Holmes was shot once in the chest with a .38-caliber round; the envelope in his hand had no blood on it while blood was everywhere else.
    - Forensics found a lateral gouge at knee height on the exterior rear door frame consistent with a metal pipe or bolt used to hold the door ajar from outside.

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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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    22 min
  • Connie Ables' hand, said Brenda was a wonderful woman

    Connie Ables' hand, said Brenda was a wonderful woman
    Aug 8 2026
    Connie Ables' hand, said Brenda was a wonderful woman

    Cold snow, a warm hardcover ledger, and three deaths recorded as ordinary heart failure: a snowplow operator found a green book in a culvert at 4:20 AM and its pages were warm to the touch-so why had a pharmacy ledger been kept in an attic for sixteen years and what secret did its circled initials hide?

    In this episode, we walk through the discovery on Garnet Mill Road, the entries in Fitzgerald's Family Drug ledger, and how those pages linked a Dellbrook pharmacist to three cardiac deaths between 2002 and 2003; what did the circled "r" marks and personal deliveries really mean?

    Person: Brenda Sheridan
    Date: February 2003
    Location: Dellbrook, Ohio
    Event: Ledger found in a culvert on Garnet Mill Road
    Case: Three deaths listed as cardiac arrhythmia/hypertensive heart disease

    - The ledger was found by snowplow operator Roger Harrison at 4:20 AM on a Wednesday in February 2019.
    - Overnight snowfall measured eight inches and the temperature was eleven degrees when the ledger was discovered.
    - Fitzgerald's Family Drug had closed eleven years before the ledger was found; the book was embossed with FITZGERALD'S FAMILY DRUG, DELLBROOK, OHIO.
    - Detective Gina Underwood counted seven customers marked with a lowercase circled "r" across roughly four years of entries.
    - Three of the seven circled-"r" customers died between 2002 and 2003, each death recorded as cardiac causes and none initially investigated.

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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 Key in Her Fist: How Three Silences Cracked a Cold Case

    The Key in Her Fist: How Three Silences Cracked a Cold Case
    Aug 7 2026
    The Key in Her Fist: How Three Silences Cracked a Cold Case

    A dead woman with a brass key braided on a red cord in her clenched hand - a locker key that had been returned eight months earlier and a body found under a transformer with no sign she’d died there. Who held the missing pieces for nineteen years, and why did three silences finally break together to solve Denise Schmidt’s murder?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline, the initial investigative missteps, and the three separate silences that ultimately revealed the truth: an eight-year-old witness told to be quiet, a dying inmate who decided to speak, and a woman who carried a secret for nearly two decades - but what happened on Vestry Avenue that night that connected them?

    Person: Denise Schmidt
    Date: January 9, 2003
    Location: Vestry Avenue commercial laundry (rear, beneath transformer)
    Age: 31
    Investigator: Detective Paul Stearns

    - Body discovered before 7:00 AM on January 9, 2003 beneath metal housing of a transformer.
    - Brass locker key found in Denise’s right hand on a braided red cord, belonging to a recreation center locker returned eight months earlier.
    - Denise was last seen entering her building at Garfield Terrace at approximately 6:15 PM on January 8, 2003 with grocery bags.
    - Detective Paul Stearns actively investigated the case for 14 months and retired in 2009 with the file unsolved.
    - Delivery log showed driver Sarah Hunter approached the rear loading dock on Tanner Street alley three times between December 28 and January 6.

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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 Consul's Sealed Envelope: What Kept Rhonda's Killer Hidden?

    The Consul's Sealed Envelope: What Kept Rhonda's Killer Hidden?
    Aug 6 2026
    The Consul's Sealed Envelope: What Kept Rhonda's Killer Hidden?

    A sealed envelope sat untouched for forty years while a woman’s disappearance remained a sixty-hour mystery: Rhonda Long was last seen at 8:40 p.m. on December 8, 1983, and a canvas bag with her name on a slip was found standing upright in a drainage ditch three days later. What was kept inside that envelope, and why did vital information about a faulty back door latch stay hidden for decades?

    In this episode, we follow the documents, the neighbors, and the single file that reopened the case after nearly four decades. We trace Rhonda’s last confirmed sighting, the items found in the ditch, and the invoice that pointed to a known technician-could that overlooked service record explain how a locked-door habit was defeated?

    Person: Rhonda Long, age 53
    Date: Last seen December 8, 1983; canvas bag found December 11, 1983
    Location: Mesquite Fork Lane, Presidio Flats (near Rio Salado levee path)
    Case: Missing person / disappearance investigated by Sheriff Clive Odom
    Document: Plateau Home Services invoice listing technician Michael Armstrong (work completed October 1983)

    - Jean Harris found a standing canvas bag in a dry drainage ditch on the morning of December 11, 1983.
    - Inside the bag were bifocals, a Mexican Social Security booklet with another name, $42 in cash, a broken blue-bead rosary, and a slip reading "Rhonda Long" with a phone number.
    - Dennis Frias saw Rhonda's Datsun turn into her driveway at 8:40 p.m. on December 8, 1983-the last confirmed sighting.
    - Michael Armstrong had worked at Rhonda’s house in October 1983 and noted the back-door latch failed to catch when frames shifted.
    - Patricia Soto kept a green accordion file of reports and clippings for 36 years and her daughter Cassandra mailed it to retired investigator Eugene Vickers in spring 2022.

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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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    22 min
  • The Watch Under the Meter: How an "Accident" Hid a Murder

    The Watch Under the Meter: How an "Accident" Hid a Murder
    Aug 5 2026
    The Watch Under the Meter: How an "Accident" Hid a Murder

    Dry beneath two days of Ohio rain, a stainless steel wristwatch with a brown leather band was found tucked under a gas meter - dated to a fire ruled accidental eighteen years earlier. The watch was logged as recovered near the utility room door after that fire, never delivered to next-of-kin, and resurfaced untouched; how did it travel from inside a burned unit to sheltered soil without being noticed? What secret did the meter hide?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and the documents that reopened a closed file, laying out the timeline, the people involved, and the small inconsistencies that matter most. We ask whether an official visit two days before the fire, missing from the investigator’s report, changes everything.

    Person: Megan Taylor
    Date: November 14, 2003
    Location: 414 Holloway Avenue, Cresswick
    Status: Fire ruled accidental; file closed in 2003, revisited in 2021
    Person: Curtis Sawyer

    - Watch recovered by Curtis Sawyer at 9:14 AM from under the gas meter; stainless steel face, brown leather band, crystal uncracked.
    - Watch had been officially documented 18 years earlier as recovered near the utility room door after the November 14, 2003 fire.
    - Megan Taylor was 44 years old and had lived at 414 Holloway Avenue for 11 years at the time of her death.
    - Fire units were called at approximately 3:47 AM on November 14, 2003; official cause of death was smoke inhalation and thermal injury.
    - Gas company service record dated November 12, 2003 lists technician H. Parker for a meter inspection after a reported gas smell; no leak found.

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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
  • Dry Key, Wet Wallet: The Brauer Pond Contradiction Revealed

    Dry Key, Wet Wallet: The Brauer Pond Contradiction Revealed
    Aug 4 2026
    Dry Key, Wet Wallet: The Brauer Pond Contradiction Revealed

    A single impossible detail cracked the case file open: a waterlogged wallet in a drainage culvert and, placed on top of it, an entirely dry rental car key fob - five days after the last rain. How did one object stay bone-dry while the wallet beneath it soaked through, forty yards from a drowned man?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Eugene Simpson’s last Sunday call through the discovery at Brauer Pond and the decades-long cold file. We trace witness accounts, detective notes, and the exact contradiction that kept the investigation unresolved: was the scene arranged, staged, or something else entirely?

    Person: Eugene Simpson, age 28
    Date: October 1991 (call Oct 6; discovered Oct 9)
    Location: Brauer Pond culvert, Millhaven
    Status: Case file marked open; cold-case review in 2022
    Detective: Bob Neville (original), Holly Rafferty (cold-case review)

    - The last recorded rain in Millhaven occurred on October 4, 1991, five days before the body was found.
    - Eugene called his sister on Sunday, October 6, 1991, saying he rented a car and planned to visit on Tuesday.
    - The rental car was found in the Anchor Grille parking lot two miles north of Brauer Pond, wiped clean inside.
    - The wallet in the culvert was soaked through with pond water and contained Eugene’s driver’s license.
    - An orange rectangular rental key fob with a toll-free number on the back was found completely dry, sitting on top of the wet wallet.

    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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    19 min
  • The Concrete Lie: How a Shoe Unburied Two Girls' Secrets

    The Concrete Lie: How a Shoe Unburied Two Girls' Secrets
    Aug 3 2026
    The Concrete Lie: How a Shoe Unburied Two Girls' Secrets

    A white canvas sneaker, its lace still tied, sat under concrete for thirty-one years until demolition crews found it in a packing plant on Decatur Industrial Road, cracking two cold cases at once. How did a new concrete pour in 1982 hide a trail between a nine-year-old's walked route and a vanished childhood?

    In this episode, we tell what surfaced when a work order said renovation but municipal blueprints from 1982 showed compacted gravel, and how a shoe discovered in October 2015 connected the disappearance of nine-year-old Darlene Vogel to another missing girl two years earlier-what does that single shoe reveal about the four blocks between Darlene's school and her home?

    Person: Darlene Vogel
    Date: September 14, 1984
    Location: Birch Mill Avenue / Caldwell Street route, Kessler Falls, Indiana
    Event: Shoe found under concrete at Halloran Packing Plant
    Date Found: October 2015

    - The sneaker belonged to nine-year-old Darlene Vogel and had been under concrete for thirty-one years.
    - Darlene walked four blocks from her school to her duplex on Birch Mill Avenue and disappeared on September 14, 1984.
    - The municipal blueprints from 1982 showed compacted gravel where a new concrete pour was later documented on a work order.
    - The Halloran Packing Plant on Decatur Industrial Road sat sealed from 2009 until demolition in October 2015 when the shoe was discovered.
    - Detective Phil Gentry interviewed about twenty-four residents during an eleven-day investigation that ultimately narrowed to a single theory.

    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 River Returned His Wallet - Why He Was Never Forgotten

    The River Returned His Wallet - Why He Was Never Forgotten
    Aug 2 2026
    The River Returned His Wallet - Why He Was Never Forgotten

    A worn leather wallet tied with a double half-hitch knot was hauled from the Aldine River, its license window holding a twenty-two-year-old photo of Thomas Allen Roberts-missing for twenty-six years-and the leather showed days, not decades, of water exposure. Who placed that preserved proof of a vanished life into the river exactly twenty-six years after his disappearance, and why now?

    In this episode, we recount the timeline from Thomas Roberts’s last known movements on August 4, 1993 to the morning Dale Tucker found the tied wallet on August 9, 2019, following the clues left in police reports, witness statements, and lab analysis to ask whether a long-ignored lead finally resurfaced.

    Person: Thomas Allen Roberts
    Date: August 4, 1993 (last seen); August 9, 2019 (wallet found)
    Location: Tillers Road / Aldine River bend / Hatchett
    Status: Missing for twenty-six years
    Witness: Grace Tillman reported a light-colored pickup near Roberts’s truck on August 4, 1993

    - Thomas was twenty-two in summer 1993 and worked as an electrician's apprentice from the Hatchett union hall.
    - On August 4, 1993 at about 8:15 PM Thomas bought a bag of ice and a two-liter soda at a convenience store on Route Nine and drove away in his 1989 dark-green Ford Ranger.
    - Thomas’s truck was found on August 8, 1993 on the gravel shoulder of Tillers Road with the engine cold, melted ice soaked into the floor mat, and an unopened two-liter soda on the passenger seat.
    - Deputy Henry Acres labeled the disappearance a voluntary relocation within three weeks; by spring 1994 the case was cold despite the family’s objections and annual missing-person renewals.
    - Dr. Ann Shea at the state crime lab reported the wallet’s leather saturation pattern was consistent with days to weeks of water exposure, not decades.

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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