Around 4 a.m. on May 31, 2003, 21-year-old rookie police officer Jeff Postell was making a second run patrolling the area behind the Valley Village shopping center in the town of Murphy, which at the time had under 2,000 residents, when he noticed a man ducking behind some milk crates at the Sav-A-Lot. Postell took a closer look because he thought he had interrupted a burglary in progress. When he noticed the man had a black object in his hand,...
On July 27, 1996, a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta during the Summer Olympic Games. Alice Hawthorne, a 44-year-old businesswoman and resident of Albany, Georgia, had decided at the last-minute to take her 14-year-old daughter Fallon to the celebration. She loved Atlanta and often traveled there to shop and attend events. She died as a result of injuries from multiple penetrating metal fragments from the bomb. Her daughter...
In 1980, a memoir titled “Michelle Remembers” chronicled a woman’s experience of childhood torture inflicted by a satanic cult. Canadian resident Michelle Smith recovered these memories, which allegedly occurred over a 14-month period when she was five years old, while working with her psychiatrist Larry Pazder. Michelle and Larry did an extensive media and book tour where they talked about the memories Michelle had uncovered after hours...
My family recently returned from a vacation in the High Country area of North Carolina. The High Country includes a wide array of places such as Beech Mountain, Boone, Blowing Rock, Linville Falls, West Jefferson, Sparta, Wilkesboro. We had a fantastic time and made sure to fill our days with outdoor activities. We did a relaxing trip down the New River on inner tubes, visited Grandfather Mountain, and hiked several different local trails. My...
I discussed wilderness therapy camps and Trails Carolina in Lake Toxaway specifically in Episode 88. Trails Carolina was founded in 2008, with the belief that a wilderness setting enhances the benefits of therapy. It accepts children ages 10-17 on wilderness expeditions, and therapists are supposed to meet with the campers on a weekly basis. The program bills itself as helping minors with conditions such as depression, anxiety, anger management...
Doris Duke was born into an extreme amount of wealth. Her grandfather, Washington Duke, helped establish a thriving tobacco business in North Carolina with other farmers following the Civil War. When he died, the business was passed on to his son, James Buchanan, who formed the American Tobacco Company in 1890. James also founded the Duke Power Company. He married a woman named Nanaline Holt Inman, who was a widow with one son, in 1907....
Last month, the trial of 62-year-old Christopher Palmiter, the stepfather of missing Cornelius girl Madalina Cojocari, began. He was charged with failing to report eleven-year-old Madalina missing. Madalina’s mother, 39-year-old Diana Cojocari, pleaded guilty of the same charge last month and has already been released for time served. I’ve discussed this case in Episode 52 and a few weeks ago in Episode 99. Palmiter chose to have a jury...
Today marks a monumental day in the life of this podcast. Missing in the Carolinas officially has 100 episodes! Sometimes I still find it hard to believe I’ve been able to keep it going for so long. Yes, I’ve changed up the format a few times and taken a few hiatuses. But I am very proud of myself in that I’ve continued to write and produce episodes. Here’s something you might not know about me—I enjoy creating things but have trouble...
It’s no secret that children and young people are a vulnerable sector of the population when it comes to crime and missing persons cases. We’ve profiled several different children on “Missing in the Carolinas.” In fact, this week there was news related to the case of Madalina Cojocari, an 11-year-old girl who went missing from my community in November of 2022. I talked about Madalina’s disappearance in Episode 52: Not Reported...
Carrie Wikerson and Jean Fewel On February 22, 1984, 7-year-old Carrie Wilkerson failed to report to school at Frank Porter Graham Elementary in Carrboro. That morning, firefighters investigating a fire at the Rocky Brook Trailer Park off South Greensboro Street discovered the body of Carrie in the bedroom closet of her stepmother Norma Shivers’ home. Carrie was the birth daughter of Shivers’ first husband, and she had stayed with her...
