51-year-old Dr. Joe Smith was a fixture around the Lancaster, South Carolina community for many years. He had a practice as a general practitioner, worked as the jail physician for Chester County and the city, and the assistant coroner for Lancaster County. He’d grown up in Anderson, where his father was employed by Swift and Company. After graduating from high school, he joined the military. After a tour of duty, he entered medical school....
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?
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....
Today I want to discuss the case of a young woman who was murdered as she was trying to leave an abusive partner and the toxic environment he had created in their home. Like Mary Ann Willis’s story, it also involves a partner with ties to the U.S. Army at the time of the crime. Cati Boyter had just turned 20 when she met 26-year-old John Blauvelt, who had a recruiting office for the U.S. Army close to where Cati worked at a local sub sandwich...
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.
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...
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...
Episode 151 pulls stories from the following episodes: Ep. 42: Missing, Murdered, and Mistaken Identity in the Carolinas Ep. 97: Chapel Hill/Carrboro Crimes from the 1980s Ep. 63: Hania Aguilar, Victoria Paredes, Maria Diaz, and Scott Johnson Ep. 29: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in N.C., Part 1 Ep. 16: Ghostly Tales from the Carolinas
In late 2010, two people went missing from Durham, North Carolina. Both were connected to one man, a 27-year-old who exerted a powerful influence over his friends and the women he brought into his life. While it didn’t take investigators long to figure out what had happened to the missing woman and young boy, they were shocked to learn exactly what the women in this man’s circle were willing to do for him. In February 2011, family members...
In the fall of 2021, a 41-year-old veterinary technician and mom was found murdered at her residence in Greer, South Carolina, the crime scene covered in rose petals. As investigators learned more about the victim, they found a history of relationships with controlling, older men and shocking evidence on USB drives in the home, along with a perpetrator who appeared to be on what he believed was a mission from God. We’ll also discuss the...
