Episodes

In 19th-century New England, fear of tuberculosis collided with an older, darker belief: that the dead could return from the grave to prey upon the living. In this episode, I join Family Plot Podcast to explore the New England Vampire Panic — a chilling period when families, desperate to explain devastating outbreaks of illness, began to suspect that their deceased loved ones were actually vampires. Across New England, graves were opened, bodies examined, and desperate measures were taken in t...

The 2014 Disappearance of Former Basketball Star Rico Omarr Harris in Yolo County, California

Was the Ourang Medan a real ghost ship—or one of the greatest maritime legends ever created? The crew of the Ourang Medan were reportedly found dead aboard their ship in the waters of the Strait of Malacca in the late 1940s. Their bodies were said to...

For nearly two decades, John Sabine was simply gone. His wife, Leigh, had spent years telling elaborate stories about their lives, convincing friends and family that John had left and started over somewhere else. She was a gifted storyteller whose...

Today, you'll hear the story of Yolanda Paneck, brought to you by Carmita from Missing in the PNW. A beautiful young mother is brutally murdered after last being seen at the Capri Motel in Portland, Oregon. The day after her locked car was found abandoned with her two-year-old son inside, alive and a maid at the motel who cleaned her room found the mattress stripped of its sheets and soaked in blood.Though she has never been found her husband was charged and convicted of her murder in March 199...

In September 1952, Betty Shanks left work in Brisbane, Australia, and began the journey home.She never made it.What followed was one of Brisbane’s most disturbing and enduring unsolved murder cases. Betty was found brutally murdered, and despite an extensive investigation, numerous theories, and decades of speculation, the person responsible was never definitively identified. Was her murder a random attack, or did the killer know more about her movements than investigators ever realized? More th...

In 2007, 22-year-old Lindsay Hawker left England for Japan to pursue her dream of teaching English and experiencing life abroad. Kind, adventurous, and passionate about helping others, she had no idea that one persistent stranger would change the course of her life forever.After repeatedly seeking her attention and convincing her to give him private English lessons, the man followed Lindsay home. When she failed to arrive at work, concern quickly turned into a missing persons investigation that ...

The search for Barbara Mackle was becoming a race against time. After 20-year-old Barbara was buried alive inside a custom-built underground capsule, her family and the FBI faced an impossible challenge: pay a $500,000 ransom before her air supply...

In December 1968, 20-year-old Barbara Mackle was abducted from a Georgia motel and buried alive in a custom-built underground box while her kidnappers demanded a $500,000 ransom. For 83 terrifying hours, Barbara fought panic, darkness, and the fear that she would never be found. This week in part 1, i walk you through the planning if one of theFBI's most infamous kidnappings. Connect with us on Social Media! You can find us at: Instagram: @bookofthedeadpod X: @bkofthedeadpod Facebook: The Book ...

On August 12, 1984, 13-year-old Eugene Wade Martin vanished while delivering newspapers in Des Moines, Iowa. Just two years earlier, another paperboy, Johnny Gosch, disappeared under eerily similar circumstances only miles away. Despite extensive investigations, countless theories, and decades of speculation, neither boy has ever been found. In Part One of The Paper Boy Abductions, I walk you through the mysterious disappearance of Eugene Martin, the haunting parallels to Johnny Gosch's case, an...

From the age of three Robert Kosilek knew he was different, he knew he was born into the wrong body. As an adult he struggled with his gender identity and even married a woman named Cheryl McCaul with whom he had a child with. One day she came home early and caught him in her clothing, that's when things took an abrupt deadly turn. Thank you to CJ from Rainbow Crimes for taking over while I deal with some personal matters this week <3 Follow Rainbow Crimes Here Beyond the Rainbow Podcast a.k.a...

In June 1988, 24-year-old truck driver David Churchill Jackson walked out of his Pembroke Pines, Florida apartment and completely vanished. He left behind a loving mother, a complicated past, and a young son who would grow up wondering what happened to his father. For fifteen years, David’s disappearance remained a frozen mystery—until a cold case detective's vision board caught the eye of an unexpected visitor. ​In this chapter of The Book of the Dead, I explored the life of David Jackson, the...

In the summer of 1997, fear spread across the campus of Arizona State University as reports surfaced of women being attacked while walking home alone at night. Students were warned to stay alert, travel in groups, and avoid being out after dark. But no one expected the danger to strike in broad daylight. When 21-year-old Fiona Yu was found brutally murdered inside her own apartment, investigators described the crime as a frenzied blitz attack. With little physical evidence and only the belief t...

From shocking revelations and cases that remain painfully unsolved, this special episode revisits the first cases covered on The Book of the Dead. I'm breaking down the biggest developments, new evidence, court updates, and unanswered questions surrounding the stories that have stayed with listeners long after the episodes ended. Some families finally got answers. Others are still waiting.This is where the cases stand now. Connect with us on Social Media! You can find us at: Instagram: @bookoft...

In 1975, 26-year-old teacher Jane Ellen Wakefield disappeared from Iowa City just months after filing for divorce from her husband, John. She never returned home, never contacted loved ones, and was never seen again. Even after an infrmant comes forward with an alarming story of what happened, the case went cold faster than anyone could have expected. Nearly fifty years later, the mystery surrounding Jane’s disappearance remains unsolved. Anyone with information regarding Jane Wakefield's disap...

On the coast of California, in November 2004, retired couple Tom and Jackie Hawks thought they were closing a new chapter, selling their yacht and preparing for a quieter life. Instead, they were lured into a meticulously planned trap. What began as a routine boat sale quickly spiraled into one of the most disturbing maritime murders in true crime history. In this episode, I broke down the calculated scheme that led to their disappearance, the shocking method used to silence them, and the inve...

When Jax Gratton disappeares on April 15, 2025, those closest to her knew something was wrong. Weeks later, her body is found, but the answers never came. In this episode, I joined CJ from Rainbow Crimes Podcast to take a deeper look at Jax’s case,...

On January 26, 2001, 33-year-old Diane Whipple returned to her apartment building in San Francisconever knowing she was walking into a deadly encounter. Just outside her door, she was brutally attacked by two massive Presa Canario dogs owned by her neighbors, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller. As the attack unfolded, Knoller stood by, and Diane suffered catastrophic injuries that would ultimately take her life.What followed was a case that shocked the nation. Public outrage quickly grew, with ma...

After years of terrifying messages, threats, and manipulation, the truth behind Cari Farver’s disappearance finally begins to surface.In Part 2, investigators uncover a chilling web of deception that points not to an unknown stalker, but to someone much closer. As digital evidence, forensic clues, and shocking behavior come together, the case takes a turn no one expected. Who was really behind the messages? What happened to Cari Farver? And how did one person maintain such an elaborate lie for y...

In 2012, Cari Farver after blowing up at the man she had been seeing, vanished from Omaha, Nebraska but what followed made no sense. Her family, Dave Kroupa who she had been dating, and a woman named Liz Golyar, who dated the same man, began receiving disturbing, erratic messages from Cari. As the texts escalated into threats and harassment, it was clear that Cari was a stalker, hellbent on destroying lives. However, as the investigation unfolded, the truth became far more disturbing than anyone...

Today, I sat down with Randy Barnett, professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and former prosecutor for the City of Chicago. He joins me to tell me all about his latest book, Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption that gives a behind the scenes look at what it was like to work in the thick of the violence and corruption running rampant in 1970s and 1980s Chicago. Randy Barnett walked me through hi...

Two-year-old Myra Lewis disappeared from her rural Mississippi home in 2014 while playing outside with her siblings. Despite one of the largest searches in state history, she has never been found. This episode explores the timeline, investigation, and lingering questions in this haunting missing child case. Anyone with information about the disappearance of Myra Lewis is encouraged to contact the Madison County Sheriff’s office at 601-859-2345 or the Mississippi highway patrol at 855-642-5378. ...

In 1980, two unidentified women were found murdered in California, one in Ventura County and the other in Kern County. For decades, they were known only as Jane Does, their names and stories erased by time. Their killer, Wilson Chouest, was identified years ago, but the identities of his victims remained a mystery. Now, through advances in forensic genealogy and relentless investigative work, both women have finally been identified, restoring their names after more than 40 years. In this episod...

In February 1978, five young men vanished after attending a basketball game in Yuba County, California. Their car was later found abandoned deep in the snowy wilderness of Plumas National Forest far from their route and with no clear explanation why they went there. As searchers uncovered eerie clues, including a remote trailer stocked with untouched supplies, the mystery only deepened. Four of the men were eventually found, but Gary Mathias was never located. Nearly 50 years later, the case of...