She Left Without Her Shoes - Episode 87

She Called In Late. She Never Made It Out. - Episode 106

She Called In Late. She Never Made It Out.: The Disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit At 4:10 in the morning, a young news anchor answered her phone, groggy, and promised her producer she'd be at the station in twenty minutes. She never arrived. Outside her apartment, investigators found her shoes, her hair dryer, and a bent car key on the ground — but no Jodi. In nearly thirty years, no one has been charged, and the investigation file is still being resealed every single year. In this episode, we explore a disputed timeline that places Jodi in two locations at the same time on her final night, an unidentified hair collected from the crime scene that police mentioned exactly once and never discussed publicly again, and a sealed GPS warrant that investigators have refiled annually since 2017 targeting vehicles connected to one man. Was Jodi the victim of a calculated abductor who had been watching her for weeks, or did someone close to her know exactly when she would walk out that door? The forensic evidence and the witness accounts do not tell the same story. Case Details Victim: Jodi Huisentruit, 27, morning news anchor at KIMT-TV, Mason City, Iowa. Date: June 27, 1995, approximately 4:00 AM. Location: Key Apartments parking lot, Mason City, Iowa, USA. Case Status: Jodi Huisentruit is officially listed as missing and presumed dead. The case remains unsolved with no charges ever filed. As of 2023, a sealed GPS warrant connected to a named person of interest continues to be refiled annually by investigators. Episode Key Points - Jodi's confirmed phone call from her apartment at 8:24 PM directly conflicts with a person of interest's claim that she visited his home that same evening. - An unidentified hair was recovered from the crime scene and publicly acknowledged by police in February 1996 — it has never been mentioned in any official statement since. - Search dogs brought in the day of the disappearance failed to pick up a scent trail, leading investigators to conclude Jodi was placed directly into a vehicle at the scene. - Beer cans found lined up in the parking lot in the days before Jodi vanished were positioned with a direct sightline into her apartment window — and were never seen again after her disappearance. Jodi Huisentruit, Mason City Iowa abduction, KIMT-TV anchor missing 1995, unsolved disappearance Iowa, Key Apartments crime scene, true crime, homicide, investigation, unsolved mysteries, forensic science, criminal minds, murder, true crime English.

The Text She Sent Before She Disappeared - Episode 105

The Text She Sent Before She Disappeared: The Death of Morgan Patton At 10:25 PM on November 8, 2019, a 24-year-old woman texted her fiancé something strange — a tip about cocaine being smuggled onto a Marine Corps base through pizza deliveries. Eleven minutes later, she sent her last message. Six minutes after that, she was dead, found on the ground beneath a speeding truck she had no known reason to be inside. The forensic science, the witness statements, and the medical records all point in different directions — and nobody has been charged with her murder. In this episode, we explore the autopsy's two blood alcohol readings that cannot both be true, a foreign male DNA profile found under Morgan's fingernails that has never been matched to anyone, and a sworn military statement that directly contradicts the physical injuries documented in hospital records. Was Morgan Patton the victim of a tragic accident driven by a drunk Marine, or was something far more deliberate happening inside that truck? The investigation, the homicide, and the evidence tell three different stories. Case Details Victim: Morgan Patton, 24, former waitress and only child, traveling to visit her fiancé at Camp Lejeune. Date: November 8–9, 2019. Location: Maysville, North Carolina, USA. Case Status: Hunter O'Neill Wells has been indicted on felony death by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and DWI charges; a criminal trial is pending. No foul play charges have been filed. The question of how Morgan came to be in the truck remains officially unanswered. Episode Key Points - Morgan's blood BAC measured 0.13 from an aortic sample collected 59 hours after death, while her vitreous fluid — unaffected by decomposition — measured only 0.02, a discrepancy prosecutors addressed by telling the family to "assume somewhere between the two." - Foreign male DNA from two contributors was recovered from Morgan's fingernail scrapings; the quantity was deemed insufficient for identification and no match has ever been announced. - The Event Data Recorder confirmed the truck was traveling at 86 miles per hour with zero braking detected before leaving the road — a detail the family says raises questions about who, if anyone, was trying to stop the vehicle. - Charlie Cornwall gave a sworn military statement claiming he was wearing a seatbelt, then later asked civilian prosecutors whether he had been wearing one, then told a private investigator he remembered nothing about the crash or the months surrounding it. Morgan Patton, Maysville North Carolina homicide, Camp Lejeune 2019, felony death by vehicle North Carolina, Marine Corps criminal case, true crime, murder, forensic science, investigation, criminal minds, homicide, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

She Won Six Hundred Dollars. Then Someone Shot Her. - Episode 104

She Won Six Hundred Dollars. Then Someone Shot Her.: The Murder of Furbia Faye Tinsley A 51-year-old Army veteran won big at bingo on a Friday night, deposited her winnings at the bank, and was found shot twice in the head inside her own car before sunrise. The engine was still running. Her seatbelt was still on. Her purse was gone, but nothing inside the car had been touched. Homicide investigators have named no one in over a decade — but one man who was in that car walked away without calling 911. In this episode, we explore a phone call Faye made before 5 a.m. that brought her to a street she had no reason to visit, a convenience store surveillance clip showing a man without shoes who told a clerk something so significant that detectives still refuse to repeat it, and a gun linked to multiple Charlottesville shootings that has never been found. Was Faye driven to that block by someone she trusted, or did she go there to confront the truth about her own relationship? The forensic science and the witness accounts point in two directions that cannot both be right. Case Details Victim: Furbia Faye Tinsley, 51, U.S. Army veteran living on disability benefits. Date: July 14, 2012. Location: 800 block of Prospect Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Case Status: The murder of Furbia Faye Tinsley remains officially unsolved. No charges have ever been filed. As of 2023, the case is technically active but has seen no public movement in years. Episode Key Points - Two spent handgun casings were found inside Faye's locked car with all windows rolled up, yet no one could definitively establish where the shooter was sitting. - A man who was present in the car when Faye was shot fled on foot, appeared on surveillance without shoes minutes later, and left Charlottesville that same morning without calling police. - The gun used to kill Faye was ballistically linked to multiple other Charlottesville shootings, suggesting it was passed between individuals before and after the murder. - Detectives tried repeatedly to bring charges but prosecutors declined, citing a mystery third-party shooter described by the surviving witness — a man no one has ever identified. Furbia Faye Tinsley, Charlottesville Virginia homicide, Prospect Avenue murder 2012, unsolved cold case Virginia, bingo night shooting, true crime, murder, investigation, forensic science, homicide, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

She Said His Name. The Phone Disappeared. - Episode 103

She Said His Name. The Phone Disappeared.: The Murder of Deanna Cook She called 911 while he was in the room. For nearly seventeen minutes, the operator listened to a woman beg for her life — and heard a man say "I'll kill you" three times. When police finally knocked on her door, they left without going inside. Three days later, her mother found her face down in a bathtub full of water. The phone Deanna used to make that call was never recovered from the scene. In this episode, we explore a 911 call that captured an active homicide in real time but triggered no immediate response, the fifty-minute gap between dispatch and the moment officers knocked and walked away, and DNA evidence from a sexual assault kit that took two separate laboratory tests to produce a usable profile. Was this a system that failed one woman, or a system that was never built to protect her at all? The forensic science and the recorded audio tell a story the city of Dallas spent years trying to avoid. Case Details Victim: Deanna Cook, 32, mother of two, Dallas resident. Date: August 17, 2012. Location: Dallas, Texas, USA. Case Status: Delvecchio was convicted of murder on May 18, 2015, and sentenced to 85 years in prison. A civil lawsuit filed by Deanna's mother against the City of Dallas and others was still in active appeals as of March 2019 with no public resolution confirmed after that date. Episode Key Points - The 911 call ran for eleven to seventeen minutes and captured the sound of a struggle and what investigators described as water splashing, yet the call taker did not log an active assault in her records. - Two responding officers stopped at a 7-Eleven and completed paperwork from a prior call before arriving at Deanna's address — fifty minutes after they were dispatched. - Deanna's sexual assault kit contained DNA from two unidentified males who have never been traced, a gap the defense used to argue the investigation was never completed. - Without the 911 recording, the medical examiner stated the death would have been classified as mysterious rather than homicide — there was no visible bruising consistent with a beating. Deanna Cook, Dallas Texas homicide 2012, domestic violence murder Dallas, 911 call evidence, criminal minds, true detective, homicide, forensic science, investigation, murder, systemic failure, true crime English.

The Blood Flowed the Wrong Direction - Episode 102

The Confession That Wasn't His to Give: The Murder of Father Patrick Ryan and the Wrongful Conviction of James Harry Rios A housekeeper opened Room 126 of a Texas motel on December 22, 1981, and found a man beaten beyond recognition, hands bound, lying face-down in a pool of blood. The investigation that followed produced a conviction built entirely on a phone call — no fingerprints, no DNA, no physical evidence placing the accused anywhere near that room. The man who confessed said, repeatedly, that he didn't do it. In this episode, we explore a speeding ticket that placed the convicted man 200 miles from the crime scene during the murder window, a set of fingerprint templates believed destroyed for nearly three decades that ultimately identified the real killers, and a prosecutor so certain his own case was wrong that he wrote an eight-page letter to the Governor of Texas begging for a pardon. How does a system convict a man with an alibi, zero physical evidence, and a confession he immediately recanted — and then take forty years to admit the mistake? Case Details Victim: Father Patrick Ryan, 49, Catholic priest assigned to St. William's Church, Denver City, Texas. Date: December 21, 1981 (murder); October 4, 2023 (official exoneration of wrongfully convicted James Harry Rios). Location: Sand and Sage Motel, Odessa, Texas, USA. Case Status: James Harry Rios was officially exonerated on October 4, 2023, after serving 20 years in prison and nearly 20 additional years on parole. The real perpetrators were identified posthumously via CODIS; no criminal charges can be filed as both individuals are deceased. Episode Key Points - Harry's speeding ticket and timestamped receipts placed him in Roswell, New Mexico — 200 miles away — during the murder window, yet the jury convicted him in 7.5 hours with zero physical evidence. - No fingerprints, hair, saliva, or semen matching Harry were recovered from Room 126 or from Father Ryan's car, despite extensive forensic collection at both scenes. - The prosecutor who argued against Harry's 1984 appeal later spent an entire night reviewing the trial record, concluded Harry was innocent, and filed an unprecedented 8-page pardon request — which the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied 16 to 0. - Fingerprint templates believed destroyed by Odessa PD in 1994 were rediscovered in 2022 after two true crime podcast listeners from Odessa prompted a new evidence search — leading directly to the CODIS identification of the real killers. Father Patrick Ryan, James Harry Rios, Odessa Texas homicide, wrongful conviction 1983, Ector County Texas, true crime, homicide, investigation, forensic science, criminal minds, innocence project, murder, true crime English.