Criminal

An illustration of two hands holding a gift bag-style bag that holds a container of cremated human remains.

Sunset Mesa

Episode #131

2020-01-10 13:13:36

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Debbie Schum waited a long time to receive the cremated ashes of her friend, LoraLee Johnson. When she did, she felt relieved to finally take them home with her. But then, she got a call from the FBI.
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Who’s There

Episode #130

2019-12-20 12:54:27

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Crime Blotter: “The Learning Center on Hanson Street reports a man across the way stands at his window for hours watching the center, making parents nervous. Police ID the subject as a cardboard cutout of Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Today, we're looking at mistakes.
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Phoebe, Judge Me

Episode #Bonus

2019-12-13 13:48:49

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We are trying something different.
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Panic Defense

Episode #129

2019-12-06 12:35:16

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In 1995, two men filmed an episode of daytime talk show, The Jenny Jones Show. A few days later, one of the men was dead. The shooter later claimed he’d committed the murder “in a panic that he was being falsely accused or identified as a gay person.”
An illustration of a biathlete on cross-country skis, rifle lifted to her eye.

Deep Breath

Episode #128

2019-11-22 13:17:52

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World-class biathlete Kari Swenson was on an afternoon trail run in the mountains near Big Sky, Montana, in July 1984 when two men blocked her path.
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The Reverend

Episode #127

2019-11-08 14:00:29

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In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer didn’t deny it. Burns told a police officer: “I had to do it. And if I had to do it over, I’d do it again.”
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A New Kind of Life

Episode #126

2019-10-30 12:27:29

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In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She had a bad cough, and her family was afraid she had Tuberculosis. She met a German X-ray technician who called himself ”Count Von Cosel” and who claimed he could save her, using unusual methods he'd invented himself. But on October 25, 1931, Elena de Hoyos died. Count Von Cosel wrote that a strange new kind of life began for him.
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The Less People Know About Us

Episode #125

2019-10-25 12:51:16

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Three years ago, we spoke with Axton Betz-Hamilton about discovering that her identity had been stolen as a child. When she found out who had stolen it, everything changed. We spoke with Axton again a couple of weeks ago. She said that since our last conversation she’s been conducting an investigation, going back to the very beginning of her own life, and reconsidering every memory.
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A Bucket, a Mop, and a Sledgehammer

Episode #124

2019-10-11 13:04:05

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After a crime occurs, or when someone dies, the police aren’t responsible for cleaning up. That’s not their job. The coroner takes the body, the police conduct their investigation, and then everyone leaves. But the blood, and the rubber gloves, and the uneaten food in the refrigerator are all left behind. Sandra Pankhurst didn’t like imagining that. So she decided to clean it up.
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Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

Episode #123

2019-09-27 11:01:57

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When 18-year-old Ruth Cruger disappeared in 1917, newspapers reported that she probably ran off with a boyfriend. New York police said that there were no clues to go on. But an investigator named Grace Humiston decided that she would do whatever it took to find her. She became known as "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes."
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Professor Quaalude

Episode #122

2019-09-13 12:24:52

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John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty positions at Yale, Duke and NYU, before surprising everyone with a series of increasingly bizarre crimes.  
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Off Leash

Episode #121

2019-08-30 12:13:19

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“I never did anything wrong. I never had a speeding ticket. I think I just saved all my stuff up for just one thing.” This week, we speak with Toby Dorr — better known as the Dog Lady of Lansing Prison.
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The Tunnel

Episode #120

2019-08-02 12:39:00

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In the late 1800s, North Carolina was trying to build a railway system through the Western part of the state. In December of 1882, something went wrong. The Raleigh News and Observer called it “too horrible to chronicle without a shudder.”
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He’s Still Neutral

Episode #119

2019-07-19 12:49:51

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Dan Stevenson has lived in Oakland’s Eastlake neighborhood for 40 years. He says crime has been an issue for as long as he can remember, but he isn’t one to call the police. He’s a pretty “live and let live” kind of guy. Or he was. Before he finally got fed up and took matters into his own hands. We update a favorite episode with news and additional interviews.
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Stowaway

Episode #118

2019-07-05 14:23:27

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One day in 1969, Paulette Cooper decided to see what she could get away with.
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The Lake

Episode #117

2019-06-21 13:50:34

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Amanda Hamm and her boyfriend Maurice LaGrone drove to Clinton Lake one night in 2003. The next day, DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey told a local newspaper, “We don’t want to blow this up into something that it’s not. But on the other side, we’ve got three children who are...