If you’ll remember, in Episode 29, I discussed the unsolved murders of three different women in Lumberton, North Carolina. These were not isolated incidents, unfortunately. In 2018, the community was shaken when a teenage girl was abducted in broad daylight in front of her home. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. Like many junior high students on a weekday, Hania Noelia Aguilar was waiting to get a ride to school from her family on the...
Last week a graduate student entered an academic lab on the University of North Carolina campus, shooting and killing a respected professor, resulting in an hours-long lockdown of the campus. The student was arrested a short time later and the motive for the murder has not yet been revealed. In 1995, a law student at the same university headed towards campus with an assault rifle, shooting at random passersby and murdering two innocent people....
Today we’re taking a look at two cases involving murdered young women that took place in the month of June. One occurred in 1009, the other in 1970. Both feature places I have a personal connection with as a resident of North Carolina. First, I’d like to talk about Amber Lundgren. I vividly remember her case because I was a junior in college at the University of North Carolina at Asheville at the time, and I often spent time in the downtown...
When I first started this podcast, I did not anticipate the ways in which it would evolve, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the content I’ve been able to create and tie back into Missing in the Carolinas. This week, I went back through my research notes for the past year and wanted to share a behind the scenes look at how I found stories to share and a few other things I’ve learned while working on this podcast. Enjoy! First, I...
The four-part docuseries “Missing: Dead or Alive,” features cases that occurred between 2019 and 2021. The series provides a firsthand perspective from Vicki Raines, missing persons investigator with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in Columbia, South Carolina, J.P. Smith, who focuses mostly on missing juveniles, Sergeant Nina Mauldin, and their captain Heidi Jackson. The four episodes are all tied together as one long narrative,...
The murder of New Jersey native Heather Stigliano has been featured in at least two different crime shows that focus on physical evidence collection. Forensic Files covered the story in 2008 in the episode titled “Pressed for Crime,” and “Secrets of the Morgue” aired “The Beast and the Beauty” in February of 2019. Each show discussed the brutal murder of the young woman out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and the copious amounts of...
Most true crime fans are familiar with the TV show “City Confidential.” The long-running show first aired in 1998 and continues today. It features real-life stories from a wide variety of American Cities. Most of the episodes feature murder cases, but they also discuss attempted murders and other scandalous incidents. The signature of the show is an overview of the city, its history, and what it is well known for. While recently watching...
Author Leslie Rule worked alongside her mother Ann to learn the craft of writing and started out her career writing both fiction and non-fiction. Her latest book, "A Tangled Web," shares an almost unbelievable tale of obsession, cyberstalking, and murder. Host Renee Roberson interviews Leslie about her research process and the behind-the-scenes details of the book. Listen to interview here.
On July 14, 2022, a South Carolina jury indicted Alex Murdaugh on double murder charges in the deaths of his wife Maggie, and youngest son, Paul. He pled not guilty. Jury selection began on January 23 of this year. The trial lasted 28 days before the jury quickly returned a guilty verdict. In this episode, I’d like to discuss the Netflix documentary, “Murdaugh Murders, A Southern Scandal,” which was released in early January of this year,...
In the area I live in there’s a lake, also known as the largest man-made, freshwater lake in North Carolina. But before it became Lake Norman, the area was a village containing textile mills, homes, and family farms called Long Island. According to the Visit Mooresville website, in the early 1900s, James Buchanan Duke and his successors at Duke Power began purchasing land from farmers around the Catawba and Wateree Rivers in preparation for a...