On a snowy night in February of 1972, the small, quiet town of Boone, North Carolina was the site of a shocking triple homicide. This horrific crime stunned the community—things like this just didn’t happen in the mountain town, home to Appalachian State University. Not only that, but the victims owned a successful business, and the murders left only one survivor who lived a few miles away. Within a few months, four men were arrested and...
This episode features something a bit different. I share my award-winning short story, "The Polaroid," which was inspired by the Tara Calico disappearance from New Mexico in 1988. It received first place in the Suspense/Thriller Category of Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards in 2018.
When people find out I have a true crime podcast, it often sparks discussions of related cold cases and serial killers. I’m asked, “have you written about this, or done a podcast about that?” Most of the time, I’m familiar with the topics, and have usually covered them, but I know not everyone has listened to 100 plus episodes of this podcast. And even if they have, I started the show four years ago and a lot of content and crime has...
On February 12, 1971, a young couple went missing in the Durham area after attending a dance at a local nursing school together. Patricia Ann Mann, age 20, was a junior at the Watts School of Nursing, and Jesse Allen McBane, 19, was then a freshman at North Carolina State University studying textile technology. They had met while they were still in high school—Patricia was from Sanford and Jesse from Pittsboro. Patricia stood around five feet...
In Episode 73, I compiled several different stories that featured missing persons from the Carolinas that involved Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. This included 68-year-old Young Chang, who went missing from the Mount Pisgah Care Home in Candler, North Carolina in 2004. He had only just moved into the home from Atlanta, Georgia when he left the facility on foot, and he has never been found. Heddie Dawkins was an 81-year-old woman who left...
January is National Stalking Awareness Month, and while the majority of victims know their stalker personally, whether it’s an ex-partner, friend, family member or colleague, there are also instances where a person is attacked, or in the most extreme cases, murdered by someone they had no idea was stalking them. This is what happened in the case of Raleigh resident Stephanie Bennett. In May 2002, residents at a North Raleigh apartment complex...
Several years ago, I heard about an unsolved murder that took place on my college campus back in 1973. I wrote a blog post about it and was surprised when I received messages from people thanking me for bringing attention to the case, where 19-year-old Virginia Olson was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered. I dug into the news archives, took a trip back to campus, and produced Episode 94 on the case in April of last year. Little did I know...
True crime has always been a popular genre in nonfiction books, and with the rise of independent presses and self-publishing options, the publication of true crime books has only risen in recent years. Throw in a murder trial that riveted people nationwide, whether they were familiar with the region or not, and you’ll find more ways to read about a case than you know what to do with. This is exactly what has happened in the case of Alex...
Well, if you’re like me you no longer no what day it is during this holiday season. This past year has been a hectic one, and due to a lot of different factors, I decided to take a break from producing new episodes after Thanksgiving to regroup and give myself a break to spend time with my family. I did still want to create an end-of-year wrap up for the podcast, so this will close out 2024. This episode is beneficial because it helps me take...
On September 29, 1981, a gruesome murder scene greeted law enforcement officers off Knightner Road in Columbia, South Carolina. The headline in “The Morning News” that day read, “Four people were shot to death and two others wounded Tuesday in what authorities called a “vicious massacre” in a home equipped with an altar for the practice of black magic. The murders occurred in a well-maintained white brick two-story house with yellow...
