Episode 90-DNA Doe Project Stories from the Southern States

Since 2017, the DNA Doe Project has worked on more than 200 cases of unidentified remains. With the work of their leadership, countless volunteers, advances in technology, the organization was able to make some of the very first identifications through investigative genetic genealogy. They’ve been able to identify people with dementia who went missing and died in another state, away from family members. They’ve been able to identify victims...

Episode 89-The Crimes of Henry Louis Wallace

In the early 1990s, a string of rapes and murders occurred in East Charlotte. Because the killer used different methods and cleaned up crime scenes, investigators had no idea the murders were connected until he escalated and got sloppy, stealing items from the victims, and leaving evidence behind. Community members became convinced the murders went unsolved because they involved working class Black women, many of whom were young mothers. But...

Episode 88-The Deaths at Trails Carolina

On November 10, 2014, a 17-year-old young man named Alec Lansing went missing after he left a group from Trails Carolina, an organization in Western North Carolina that offers wilderness therapy for young adults and children. At the time, Alec, who was from Atlanta, Georgia, had been camping with a group off NC 107 in the forest near Heady Mountain Church Road. A search for Alec involved the U.S. Forest Service, the North Carolina Highway...

Episode 87-Missing and Murdered in Columbia, S.C.

Mike O'Boyle On the morning of Tuesday, May 27, 1980, 20-year-old Eugene Carmichael “Mike” O’Boyle left his home in West Columbia and drove to the Shandon area of town to pick up a friend who was going to work on his car. The friend, a 29-year-old student and part-time mechanic named Chris Clifton, was not home when the two were supposed to meet. He came back to his home about 15 minutes after their designated meeting time and found the...

Episode 86-Review of “The Lesson is Murder,” “American Nightmare,” and “They Called Him Mostly Harmless

Today I’m talking about a few different true crime documentaries and series that I think fans of this podcast would enjoy. I tried to make selections from a few different streaming services, since I know most of us don’t have access to everything available. I’ll be discussing the Hulu series “The Lesson is Murder,” the Netflix documentary “American Nightmare,” and the Max documentary “They Called Him Mostly Harmless.” The...

Episode 85-Denise Durham, Shelby Wilkie, and Marissa Carmichael

Pamela Denise Durham, known as Denise to her friends, was a 16-year-old high school student at East Henderson High School. She lived in East Flat Rock, North Carolina. According to an article that ran in the February 15, 1981 edition of The Asheville Citizen Times, Denise Durham was a model student. She was the secretary of the student council, an honors program student, and a band member who played the clarinet. Her life was going smoothly,...

Episode 84-The Business of Body Brokers

What is a body broker and how do they operate? According to an investigative series by the news organization Reuters, body brokers are also known as non-tissue transplant banks. These banks are different from the organ and tissue industry, which is highly regulated. No federal law currently governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education. In 2004, a federal health advisory panel called for regulation of body brokers....

Episode 83-James Chambers, Cole Thomas, and Sydney West

A man from Fayetteville gets a ride from a co-worker and is never seen again, until a religious awakening with a murderer brings the secrets to light. Another young man from Florida takes a job out of state while he figures out his next move, abruptly exits his truck while riding with co-workers he doesn’t know very well in North Carolina in the early hours of the morning, and his never seen again. And a young woman from North Carolina heads...

Episode 82-Deaths of Children with Special Needs

A young boy dies at the home of his adoptive parents in what is later found to be the result of swaddling. The boy was only four years old, and his parents had been attempting a controversial parenting therapy before his death. A 10-year-old girl from North Carolina is taken out of state by her adoptive mother in another case of attachment therapy, and also dies at the treatment center. Two boys with special needs die in what appears to be...

Episode 81-National Stalking Awareness Month and Peggy Klinke’s Story

January is National Stalking Awareness Month. In January 2003, Debbie Riddle learned her sister Peggy had been murdered by her ex-boyfriend after years of controlling behavior and incidents of stalking. In Episode 81, Debbie shares the story of how her sister's death changed her life and motivated her to begin advocating for change in the way law enforcement and communities handle the crime of stalking. Resources: Peggy Klinke articles:...