Episode 168-Austin Thompson and the Hedingham Mass Shooting in Raleigh

A little after 5 p.m. on October 13, 2022, Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications received a call that a victim had been shot in the Hedingham subdivision in northeastern Raleigh. The neighborhood bordered the Neuse River Greenway Trail, which is part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. The caller reported the shooter was dressed in camouflage and carrying a long gun and backpack. By 5:55 p.m., members of the Raleigh Police Department had arrived on...

Episode 161-Missing in November

I first talked about the disappearance of Jeffrey Mays and Ted Wallin Episode 120. On November 13, 1980, 21-year-old Harold Jeffrey Mays, who went by Jeffrey, boarded his boat, the Sea Ox, with a friend, 21-year-old Ted Wall, off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Jeffrey had grown up in Pennsylvania, the son of a father who ran a successful photocopy business in the 1970s. Eventually, the family sold the business, and they reinvested that money...

Episode 160-Todd Kohlhepp’s Crimes in South Carolina

In 2016, a South Carolina couple went missing and their families knew something was wrong, especially when their Facebook accounts seemed to remain active. With the use of their cell phone data, investigators quickly zeroed in on the last location the man and woman had visited, and what they found there was terrifying. But not only that—the discovery on that November day in 2016 unraveled the mystery of a local quadruple-homicide that taken...

Episode 159-The Murder of Michelle Young in Raleigh

The Enchanted Oaks subdivision in Raleigh lived up to its name, with traditional-style homes, tree-lined streets with lampposts, and basketball hoops in driveways, like something you’d see out of a sit-com or family movie. But on November 3, 2006, that neighborhood’s quiet existence was shattered when residents noticed a police presence at 5108 Birchleaf Drive. They knew the two-story brick home was occupied by Michelle and Jason Young, two...

Episode 157-Stories of Spirits from the Carolinas

Renee discusses origin stories from Carolina folklore, whether or not places can hold onto spiritual energy, and why so many universities seem to be haunted. Episodes Mentioned: Ep. 16-Ghostly Tales from the Carolinas Ep. 22-Two True Tales from the Carolinas Ep. 31-Where Are the Children?

Episode 156-Helen Gibbs and Susan Haire, Deaths on the Parkway

The North Carolina mountains are a beautiful place to visit, but we’ve had many occurrences of people getting lost on hikes or getting injured or falling off treacherous spots or overlooks. In Episode 105, I shared the story of a group of hikers who got lost outside of the Linville Gorge, a hiker who fell to his death off a trail called Rock Trail, and a woman named Frances Apperson who went missing in 2022 after hiking in the same area....

Episode 154-Five Crimes from the North Carolina Mountains

Pulling from the catalogue, Renee discusses the cold cases of Nancy Morgan from Madison County, Beverly Sherman and Pamela Murray from Asheville, the solved murder of Denise Durham from East Flat Rock, and the workplace shooting of Michelle Marlowe in Hickory.

Episode 153-The Murder of Janet Siclari in Nags Head and the Unsolved Murder of Denise Johnson in Kill Devil Hills

In August of 1993, a woman vacationing on the Outer Banks made the fateful decision to spend an extra night at the beach. The next morning, her body was discovered in the sand within few hundred feet of her hotel room. She’d been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. This type of murder was almost unheard of in the small coastal town of Nags Head, and when a hurricane made landfall on the island just a few days later, police feared they...

Episode 152-The Unsolved Murder of Cynthia Kirk and the Death of Giovanni Pelletier

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a listener named Ashley Hester. She said her father, Detective T.A. Hester, had worked for the Durham Police Department for 30 years. While Ashley’s father is now deceased, there was one case in particular he was never able to solve that really ate away at him. It was the homicide I’m bringing to you today, so many thanks to Ashley for letting me know about it. On Monday, August 21, 1989, the quiet...