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Small Town Mysteries

Kate, Christine, and Rachael

3 lifelong friends who like to dish on true crime and the kind of drama that only small towns can provide 💀

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22 episodes
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#203
Thursday · 32 min
Murder in the Stacks: The 1969 Killing of Betsy Aarsdma
Send us Fan Mail On November 28, 1969, 22-year-old Penn State graduate student Betsy Aardsma was killed by a single stab wound inside the university's Pattee Library. Despite the busy campus setting and witnesses spotting a suspect fleeing the scene, the crime was never officially solved. Decades later, this tragic case—often called "Murder in the Stacks"—remains an infamous cold case with various theories but no official convictions. Support the show
#202
September 22 · 36 min
A Man Missing - The Case of Brian Schaffer
Send us Fan Mail On April 1, 2006, 27-year-old medical student Brian Shaffer walked into an Ohio bar with friends and vanished off the face of the earth. Surveillance cameras famously captured Brian entering the crowded venue, but never showed him leaving, leaving investigators with an impossible mystery: how does a grown man completely disappear from a single-exit building surrounded by cameras? Support the show
#201
September 19 · 27 min
AI-Assisted: The Murder of Suzanne Adams
Send us Fan Mail Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of discourse regarding the ethics of AI. It seems that in just the few years that AI has become available to the public, it has infiltrated our lives. It’s almost impossible to avoid. It’s being used in the workplace, on social media, to send emails or deal with complicated social situations…the list goes on and on. And those are just the immediate effects that we can visualize now. That’s not even getting into what AI is doing to our environment, to our social skills, to the nature of learning, and our perception of reality. So it makes sense that AI is at the center of the case I’m going to be talking about today. Because, as I posited this question to myself last week…if AI is everywhere, it must’ve already presented itself within the landscape of true crime, right? 1) https://abc7news.com/post/open-ai-microsoft-face-lawsuit-chatgpts-alleged-role-connecticut-murder-suicide/18275966/ 2) https://abc7ny.com/post/chatgpt-allegedly-played-role-greenwich-connecticut-murder-suicide-mother-tech-exec-son/17721940/?userab=kfsn_content_recs-582*variant_a_control_kfsn-2512%2Ckabc_content_recs-577*variant_a_control-2480%2Cwls_content_recs-584*variant_b_trending_wls-2517%2Cwtvd_content_recs-585*variant_a_control_wtvd-2518%2Cktrk_content_recs-587*variant_a_control_ktrk-2522%2Cwpvi_content_recs-586*variant_a_control_wpvi-2520%2Cotv_web_content_rec-539*variant_c_trending-2268%2Cotv_web_topic-580*variant_a_topic-2508%2Cotv_search_page_design_unification-546*variant_b_search_redesign-2300%2Cvertical_video_web-519*enabled-2164%2Cabcn_popular_reads_exp_followup-648*variant_a_control-3455%2Cotv_mobile_web_content_recs-639*variant_a_control-3429%2Ckgo_content_recs-583*variant_a_control_kgo-2514%2Cotvlink_abcnnav-576*variant_c_localnews-3316 3) https://www.npr.org/2025/12/12/nx-s1-5642599/a-new-lawsuit-blames-chatgpt-for-a-murder-suicide 4) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/open-ai-microsoft-sued-chatgpt-murder-suicide-connecticut/ 5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Suzanne_Adams 6) https://greenwichfreepress.com/news/obituaries/suzanne-eberson-adams-83-236015/ Support the show
#200
September 11 · 54 min
200th Episode Q&A
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we talk about it all! What our favorites were, how we research for cases, and what cases we would recommend for those of you who are new to Small Town Mysteries! We close out the episode with a case update. Support the show
#199
August 25 · 28 min
When DNA Is(n't) Enough
Send us Fan Mail When beloved schoolteacher Genai Coleman was shot while reading her Bible in her car, detectives thought they had an open-and-shut case after finding a cigarette butt in the stolen vehicle that matched suspect Donald Smith’s DNA. However, the investigation hit a wall when Donald revealed he had an identical twin brother, Ronald, sharing his exact genetic code... In our second case this week, we discuss a 1987 gas station sexual assault in Woodbridge, Virginia that went cold for nearly four decades until genetic genealogy led detectives to identical twins Russell and Robert Marubbio. With standard testing unable to point to a single suspect, scientists turned to ultra-deep whole-genome sequencing to hunt for microscopic somatic mutations created during embryonic division. Sources (Genai Coleman): 1) https://abcnews.com/TheLaw/atlanta-twin-murder-case-echoes-fingerprint-origins/story?id=9909586 2) https://www.foxnews.com/us/dna-georgia-womans-murder-leads-wrong-twin-investigator-says-crime-opportunity 3) https://www.oxygen.com/criminal-confessions/crime-news/ronald-smith-guns-down-teacher-genai-coleman-carjacking 4) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/identical-dna-murder-has-georgia-police-seeing-double-which-twin-did-it/ Sources: (Marubbio) 1) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/identical-twin-convicted-dna 2) https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/virginia/prince-william-county/identical-twin-convicted-in-rape-cold-case-after-slight-difference-in-dna-identified-in-prince-georges-county/ 3) https://www.forensicmag.com/3594-All-News/621193-DNA-Analysis-Leads-to-Individual-Twin-in-1987-Rape-Cold-Case/ Support the show
#198
August 4 · 29 min
The Boy in the Walls: The Gustafson Family Tragedy
Send us Fan Mail What starts as a series of strange, ghost-like pranks against a local family escalates into one of Massachusetts' most shocking crimes. We examine the 1987 murders of Priscilla, Abigail, and William Gustafson, and the terrifying intruder who lived hidden inside their home for months. Sources: 1) https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/volumes/416/416mass433.html 2) https://allthatsinteresting.com/daniel-laplante 3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_LaPlante 4) https://www.joeturnerbooks.com/post/daniel-laplante 5) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235146232/priscilla_jeanne-gustafson 6) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235146166/william_andrew-gustafson 7) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235146108/abigail_morgan-gustafson 8) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-20-mn-297-story.html Support the show
#197
July 22 · 22 min
The Man in the Hat
Send us Fan Mail Kassandra Cantrell was 10 weeks pregnant when she went missing from Tacoma, Washington, in August 2020. Security footage showed a mysterious man in a hat hovering around Kassandra's car, along with other suspicious movements. Who was this man, and what was his motive? Sources: 1) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kassanndra-cantrell-murder-colin-patrick-dudley-digital-evidence-mysterious-killer-hat-man/ 2) https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/most-common-causes-maternal-death-may-surprise-you#:~:text=Researchers%20at%20Columbia%20University%20have,among%20pregnant%20and%20postpartum%20women. 3) https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/kassanndra-cantrell-disappearance-investigation/17/ 4) https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article268780602.html 5)https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1poc937/out_of_every_true_crime_case_which_one_disturbs/ Support the show
#196
July 15 · 23 min
Coerced: The Gary Gauger Story
Send us Fan Mail In 1993, Gary Gauger woke up to find his parents brutally murdered on their Illinois farm, only to quickly find himself targeted as the prime suspect. After a grueling, 19-hour interrogation filled with psychological pressure and police deception, an exhausted Gary was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn't commit, landing him on death row for years. Support the show
#195
May 5 · 26 min
Jeanie Childs: The Hot Dog Napkin That Solved a Murder
Send us Fan Mail Today we are traveling to Minneapolis to talk about the 1993 murder of Jeanne Childs, more frequently known as “Jeanie.” Jeanie was a sex worker who was brutally stabbed in her apartment at the age of 35 years. Sadly, it took 27 years for Jeanie to get the justice she deserved. Sources: 1) https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/jerry-westrom-guilty-jeanne-childs-1993-cold-case-murder 2) https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/2024/a22-1679.html 3) https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/jeanie-childs-minneapolis-cold-case-solved-footprint-to-murder/ 4) https://www.facebook.com/48hours/videos/mother-pens-heartbreaking-letter-to-murdered-daughter/968449605185335/ Support the show
#194
April 28 · 27 min
Two Women, One Axe, and Zero Convictions
Send us Fan Mail In 1977, Yale students Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman were cycling across the United States when they stopped to camp at a park in Oregon. While they slept, a man drove his truck over their tent and proceeded to attack both women with an axe. Though both women miraculously survived the brutal assault, the attacker was never identified, and the case remains unsolved. Sources: 1) https://moonmagazine.org/terri-jentz-my-journey-to-justice-2014-02-01/3/ 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Piece_of_Paradise 3) https://statestories.com/the-harrowing-story-of-terri-jentz-the-19-year-old-who-caught-an-axe-blade-with-her-bare-hands-at-an-oregon-campsite/ 4) https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5554692 5) https://bendbulletin.com/2007/07/22/ax-attack-survivor-author-tells-all/ 6) https://www.nuggetnews.com/story/2007/07/31/news/author-returns-to-the-scene-of-the-crime/14728.html 7) https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/victim-returns-to-crime-scene-30-years-later-as-an-author/ Support the show
#193
April 21 · 25 min
Girly Chew: The Woman Who Predicted Her Murder
Send us Fan Mail The case of Girly Chew Hossencofft is a study in how “weirdness” can become a weapon. And I truly mean weird. Con men, fashion designers, UFO’s, and conspiracy theories about otherworldly aliens that secretly rule the Earth are just a few things that surround this case. Unfortunately, the case was so saturated with sci-fi lies and cult-like conspiracies, that the world almost lost sight of the most devastating fact: a woman was murdered, and she’s still waiting for someone to find her. Sources: 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Girly_Chew_Hossencofft 2) https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/the-disappearance-of-girly-chew-hossencofft-a-con-man-a-fashion-designer-ufos-and-a-ninja 3) https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/convicted-wife-killer-calls-to-vacate-sentence/ 4) https://www.koat.com/article/jailhouse-interview-linda-henning/4471831 5) https://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/07/ctv.henning.trial/ Support the show
#192
April 18 · 27 min
A Daughter’s Betrayal: The Murder of Barbara Keim
Send us Fan Mail In July 2005, 41-year-old Barbara Keim was killed in her own home in an act of violence orchestrated by her daughter. Investigators eventually uncovered a planned conspiracy involving the daughter, her boyfriend, and an accomplice. Sources: 1) https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/crime-time/hannah-stone-sentenced-100-years-murder 2) https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/court-of-appeals/2006/20a03-0605-cr-217-0.html 3) https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/in-supreme-court/1364686.html 4) https://www.wave3.com/story/4832751/teen-sentenced-to-62-years-in-murder-plot/ 5) https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/local/2015/06/10/women-in-prison-local-soccer-mom-and-preachers-daughter-featured-on-tv-show/46412415/ 6) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57606743/barbara_jo-keim 7) https://uclacovidbehindbars.org/blog/prisons-mistreat-loved-ones-belongings-after-death 8) https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/court-of-appeals/2007/20a03-0605-cr-229-1.html Support the show
#191
April 7 · 33 min
The French Family Annihilator
Send us Fan Mail We've all heard the expression "fake it till you make it", right? Well, Jean-Claude Romand did just that for 18 years, but never truly made it. Instead, he chose to murder his entire family rather than face his own shame and lies head on. Sources: 1) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48790276 2) https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2001/jan/13/weekend7.weekend1 3) https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=honorscollege_cj 4) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2072025/ 5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Romand Support the show
#190
March 31 · 23 min
The Unsinkable Terry Jo
Send us Fan Mail It was November 1961. The waters in the Bahamas were as blue and beautiful as ever. But for Nicolaos Spachidakis, a second officer on a Greek freighter called Captain Theo, something seemed off. As he looked into the distance, he could make out a tiny white speck, bobbing alongside the waves. It was too large to be trash, but much too small to be a boat. As they pulled alongside the speck, everyone gasped. Because that speck was a float - barely what you could consider a raft. And sitting on top of it was a blonde-haired, eleven-year-old girl. She looked skeletal and her skin was severely burned from the sun. Her name was Terry Jo Duperrault, and she had been drifting in the Atlantic for 84 hours before this crew had found her... Sources: 1) https://allthatsinteresting.com/terry-jo-duperrault 2) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-em-alone-orphaned-on-the-ocean/ 3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebelle_(ship) 4) https://time.com/archive/6871882/the-sea-the-bluebelles-last-voyage/ 5) https://www.rd.com/article/orphaned-on-the-ocean-the-unbelievable-story-of-terry-jo-duperrault/ Support the show
#189
March 24 · 32 min
Virginia Hall: The Limping Spy They Couldn't Catch
Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about Virginia Hall, an American Spy who was able to completely evade the Gestapo during WWII. The Gestapo labeled her as “The enemy’s most dangerous spy.” During WWII, Virginia organized agent networks, helped those who managed to escape being prisoners of war, and recruited both French men and women to run safe houses. Sources: 1) https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/virginia-hall-the-courage-and-daring-of-the-limping-lady/ 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall 3) https://www.npr.org/2019/04/18/711356336/a-woman-of-no-importance-finally-gets-her-due 4) https://historyguild.org/virginia-hall-soe-agent-to-cia-pioneer/?srsltid=AfmBOoqNl5rwJORK0t8v2tHAhkVXwnwfb_em0lW0ZYyypAVDHqX9q9Bx Support the show
#188
March 17 · 41 min
Josephine Baker: The Spy No One Suspected
Send us Fan Mail Today we’re talking about Josephine Baker, the remarkable entertainer who took France by storm and used her unsuspecting identity for subterfuge in World War II - truly a badass woman! Sources: 1) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/josephine-baker-was-the-star-france-wanted-and-the-spy-it-needed-damien-lewis-agent-josephine 2) https://nmaahc.si.edu/josephine-baker 3) https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/josephine-baker 4) https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/siren-resistance-artistry-and-espionage-josephine-baker 5) https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/josephine-baker-from-poverty-to-stardom-to-espionage/ 6) https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=15408 7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker Support the show
#187
March 10 · 26 min
Elizebeth Smith Friedman – The “Mother of Cryptology”
Send us Fan Mail In honor of Women's History Month, this week we are talking about Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a woman who turned her love for decrypting Shakespeare’s plays into cracking codes and ciphers during major moments in American history, all while using only pencil and paper. Elizebeth set the standard for modern codebreaking - and then watched as powerful men took all the credit. Ahh, a tale as old as time... Sources: 1) https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizebeth-smith-friedman 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fabyan 3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizebeth_Smith_Friedman 4) https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/2466899/watch-pbss-the-codebreaker-premiers-monday-jan-11/ 5) https://www.nsa.gov/History/Cryptologic-History/Historical-Figures/Historical-Figures-View/Article/1623028/elizebeth-s-friedman/ Support the show
#186
February 24 · 20 min
The 55 Year Old Cold Case of Joseph Mulvaney
Send us Fan Mail In 1992, a Wyoming man opened a padlocked military footlocker left in his shed by a neighbor six years earlier. Inside, he found the skeletal remains of a man shot in the head, wrapped in a grocery bag. It would take decades to pass and a DNA breakthrough to reveal that the 'man in the box' was Joseph Mulvaney—a father who had been murdered. Sources: 1) https://www.kulr8.com/news/55-year-old-cold-case-murder-solved-in-wyoming/article_583c0f3f-1ca9-5dc8-b905-1f35d93d3f3c.html 2) https://fox2now.com/news/true-crime/bones-in-a-box-mystery-of-missing-illinois-veteran-solved/ 3) https://www.wyomilitary.wyo.gov/19_088/ 4) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194722282/joseph_junior-mulvaney 5) https://unsolved.com/gallery/skeleton-in-a-box/ 6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermopolis,_Wyoming Support the show
#185
February 17 · 29 min
How to Get Away with Murder…Or Not
Send us Fan Mail In 1999, Paul Warner Powell, a 20-year-old white supremacist, murdered 16-year-old Stacie Reed and brutally assaulted her 14-year-old sister, Kristie, in a racially motivated attack after learning Stacie had a Black boyfriend. After his initial death sentence was vacated due to a legal technicality regarding capital murder requirements, Powell taunted prosecutors in a letter, believing he was protected by double jeopardy. But Powell was not as smart as he thought he was... Sources: 1) https://www.vacourts.gov/static/opinions/opnscvwp/1031421.pdf 2)https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1999/04/23/a-grim-account-of-attack-on-2-sisters/9a4c2427-ba7b-48f0-96c2-acf72d3a577f/ 3) https://www.pomc.org/murder-wall/murder-wall-stories/stacie-lynn-reed-16-years-old/ 4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect 5) https://fija.org/library-and-resources/library/jury-nullification-faq/what-is-double-jeopardy.html 6)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_murder#:~:text=Capital%20murder%20refers%20to%20a,others%20such%20as%20the%20media. 7) https://vocal.media/criminal/the-most-remorseless-killer-who-bragged 8) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/01/14/letter-boasting-of-slaying-rape-returns-man-to-va-courtroom/e2363704-1fee-4c5b-851b-0e34f7723e69/ 9) https://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/18/virginia.killer.letter/index.html 10) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7790959/stacie_lynn-reed Support the show
#184
February 3 · 20 min
The Murder of Deborah Palmer
Send us Fan Mail On the morning of March 26, 1997, Deborah was at home, getting ready for school. Her eleven-year-old cousin stopped by to walk her to class, but she wasn’t quite ready yet. The last words ever known to be spoken by Deborah were: “I’ll be right there. Go on ahead”. She never made it to school that day, and for the next twenty-nine years, her small hometown has been haunted by the question: Who took Deborah Palmer? Sources: 1) https://www.fox13seattle.com/washingtons-most-wanted/little-girl-doesnt-show-up-for-school-but-shows-up-days-later-dead-on-a-beach 2) https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/oak-harbor-police-renew-search-for-deborah-palmers-killer/ 3) https://www.timesargus.com/news/fears-grow-that-sex-offender-had-other-victims/article_9a271d2a-4aba-5c80-b7e4-5d1e8f61c5aa.html 4) https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/sunday-marks-20-year-anniversary-of-murdered-girls-disappearance/ 5) https://www.seattlepi.com/local/sound/article/Mother-of-Deborah-Palmer-holds-out-hope-that-892534.php 6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Harbor,_Washington Support the show

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