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Latest Episodes:

The Murder of Colleen Ritzer Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

It was 2013 in Danvers, Massachusetts and Colleen Ritzer had been teaching math at Danvers High School for just 2 years. She loved teaching math and her students loved her, which is why it was such a shock when just before Halloween that year, she went missing. Her parents called around to her friends and colleagues looking for her when she didn't come home at her usual time and wasn't answering her phone, but no one knew where she'd been. Her parents tried not to worry too much - she'd probably made plans and forgotten to tell them, but maybe she'd been in an accident and unable to reach them. They decided to go up to the school and look for her. They found her car in the parking lot, but no sign of Colleen anywhere. And that's when they discovered Colleen wasn't the only person that was missing. Diana Chism had filed a missing persons report on her son, Phillip Chism, after he failed to come home after school. Police investigated both cases, but no one was prepared for what they found...

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Sources:

Videos

YouTube | The Disturbing Case of Colleen Ritzer (That

Chapter)

YouTube | Community Heartbroken by Young Teacher's Death

(WCVB Channel 5)

YouTube | Teen Admitted Murdering Danvers Teacher (WCVB)

Articles & Documents

Discover School | Salem Witch Trials - 1692 Salem -

Economic and Social Divisions -

Court Documents | Search Warrants & Warrant Applications

Boston Globe | Official describes brutal injuries to

Colleen Ritzer (Maria Cramer)

CNN | Defense: Teen Had Psychotic Episode During Killing

(Sarah Jorgensen)

The New York Times | Timeline Provides Details for a

Grisly Crime Against a Teacher (Katharine Seelye)

Daily News | Philip Chism, Mass. Teen Accused of

Murdering Teacher, was Coerced into Confession

(AP)

The Salem News | Philip Chism Told police 'Trigger Word'

Made Him Angry at Colleen Ritzer (Julie Manganis)

Boston.Com | Mistake Led to Chism Crime Scene

‘Slaughterhouse’ Being Cleaned (Allison Manning)

The Eagle-Tribune | Families Suffer Through Difficult

Testimony in Chism Trial (Julie Manganis)

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The Murder of Cheryl Lynn Downs Part 2 Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

Detectives have uncovered a potential motive to explain why Diane Downs would try to kill her three children, but can they prove it? They work to build their case, but it's going to be tough, especially when Diane becomes a media darling. There is very little evidence, and the only witnesses are severely injured, young children. Meanwhile, Diane has big plans of her own. She wants to have another baby...

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Sources:

Books

Small Sacrifices (Anne Rule)

Articles

ABC News | Surgeon Who Helped Save 1 of Diane Downs’ Kids in 1983 After She Shot Her Recalls Chilling Interaction (Effron, Lauren, and Dooley, Sean)

Murderpedia | Diane Downs

TimeToast | Diane Downs Timeline

Wikipedia | Diane Downs

ABC News | Woman On Finding Peace After Learning Mother is Child Killer Diane Downs: 'Though That's Biologically My Makeup, It's Not Who I am Inside (Taudte, Jeca, Schiffman, Keren and Francis, Enjoli)

The Famous People | Diane Downs Biography

The Mommy Murder Case of Diane Downs That Rocked the 80s (Casaus, Sara)

Distractify | Diane Downs Was Sentenced to Life in Prison, but What Happened to Her Husband?

Alcatraz East Crime Museum | Diane Downs

Heavy | Diane Downs’ Children Now: Christie, Danny & Becky Today

Crime Museum | Diane Downs

DeLani Bartlette | Diane Downs: Hungry Like the Wolf

Diane Downs Website

The Trouble With Justice | The Diane Downs Case Was No Small Sacrifice

Videos

Inside Edition | Diane Downs Says From Prison That She Shot Her 3 Kids for Her Lover

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The Murder of Cheryl Lynn Downs Part 1 Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

It was late on May 19, 1983 when the car pulled up to the ER in Springfield, Oregon. Inside were three children, and they'd all been shot in the chest. Their mother, Elizabeth Diane Downs, had a horrifying story to tell: she'd been driving the kids home that night when a bushy haired stranger had flagged her down. He tried to steal her car, but when Diane put up a fight, he pulled out a gun and shot her kids. The story seemed so bizarre to detectives, so unbelievable, that they couldn't help but suspect Diane of being behind the shooting. But why would a mother shoot her own children?

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Sources:

Books

Small Sacrifices (Anne Rule)

Articles

ABC News | Surgeon Who Helped Save 1 of Diane Downs’ Kids in 1983 After She Shot Her Recalls Chilling Interaction (Effron, Lauren, and Dooley, Sean)

Murderpedia | Diane Downs

TimeToast | Diane Downs Timeline

Wikipedia | Diane Downs

The Famous People | Diane Downs Biography

The Mommy Murder Case of Diane Downs That Rocked the 80s (Casaus, Sara)

Distractify | Diane Downs Was Sentenced to Life in Prison, but What Happened to Her Husband?

Alcatraz East Crime Museum | Diane Downs

Heavy | Diane Downs’ Children Now: Christie, Danny & Becky Today

Crime Museum | Diane Downs

DeLani Bartlette | Diane Downs: Hungry Like the Wolf

Diane Downs Website

The Trouble With Justice | The Diane Downs Case Was No Small Sacrifice

Videos

Inside Edition | Diane Downs Says From Prison That She Shot Her 3 Kids for Her Lover

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The Infamous Astronaut Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

Colleen Shipman's flight arrived in Orlando a little after 1 AM on February 6, 2007. Exhausted, she didn't realize someone else had arrived at the airport - someone that was watching her. They stalked her as she discovered her baggage was delayed and her drink her coffee and eat her danish in the airport Starbucks. They followed her onto the shuttle bus that would take her to her car, and finally, when they were alone in the parking lot, they struck, attacking her with pepper spray before Colleen was able to get away.

The most bizarre part of Colleen's night would be when she discovered the identity of her stalker, and the reason for the attack.

Sources:

Article

People | Astronaut Love Triangle: Colleen Shipman Says of Her

Husband: 'They Were Making Him Out to be Something Horrible' (Jeff Truesdell)

New York Times | Astronaut Charged With Attempted Murder (Maria

Newman and Christine Hauser)

Biography | Lisa Nowak: Why the Astronaut Drove 900 Miles to Attack

Her Ex's Girlfriend (Sara Kettler)

Texas Monthly | Lust in Space (S. C. Gwynne)

Wikipedia | Lisa Nowak

CNN | Ex-astronaut Can Take Off Ankle Bracelet

Book

Out There by: Diane Fanning

Video

YouTube | Colleen Shipman; Astronaut Love Triangle Turns Dangerous

YouTube | Nowak Case: A Look At What Happened At Airport

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The Murder of Angie Dodge Jul 22, 2021

Show notes

On June 13, 1996, 18-year-old Angie Dodge was found in her apartment in Idaho Falls brutally raped and murdered. Despite having plenty of DNA in the case, police quickly ran out of suspects until the following January, when a new lead brought them to 20-year-old Christopher Tapp. His DNA didn't match that left at the crime scene, but that didn't matter - not after he gave police a confession about his involvement. By trial, Chris recanted his confession, saying it was coerced, but why would anyone confess to something they hadn't done?

Sources:

Articles

East Idaho News | After 25 Years, Brian Dripps Goes to Prison for Rape and Murder of Angie Dodge (Eric Grossarth)

CBS News | How A Discarded Cigarette Led to an Arrest In Idaho Teen Angie Dodge's Cold Case Murder (Rybak, Schwartz, DiFiore, O'Connell and McLaughlin)

East Idaho News | Chris Tapp Sues Idaho Falls and Former IFPD Officers for Wrongful Conviction (Grossarth)

ISHI News | Unraveling the Twisted Case of Angie Dodge

East Idaho News | The Angie Dodge Case from 1996 Until Today. What’s Happened, Why and What's Next. (Nate Eaton)

Innocence Project | Christopher Tapp (Ken Otterbourg)

Post Register | Key Witness in Tapp Case Recants Testimony (Johnathan Hogan)

Documentaries/Shows

20/20 | Season 43 Episode 17: Stranger Than Fiction

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The Attempted Murder of Payton Leutner Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

On May 30, 2014, Morgan Geyser celebrated her 12th birthday with her two best friends: Payton Leutner and Anissa Weier. They did all the normal stuff 12 year olds do at slumber parties - they went to a skating rink, they played dress up, they played on their phones. But the next morning, Payton was found in the park with multiple stab wounds.

First responders were shocked to find a 12 year old who had been stabbed, but their shock would turn to horror when she told them who had done it: 12 year old Morgan Geyser. And the reason behind the attack would lead investigators down a rabbit hole of internet lore, centered around one character: Slenderman.

Sources:

Articles

NPR | Judge Orders Release Of Wisconsin Woman In Slender Man Case (AP)

Meaww | Where Payton Leutner is Now? Slender Man Stabbing Victim Slept with Scissors Under Pillow (Alakananda Bandyopadhyay)

Know Your Meme | Slender Man

Documentaries/Shows

HBO | Beware the Slenderman - HBO

20/20 | Season 42 Episode 5: The Wicked

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The Murder of Brook Baker Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

It was the spring of 1997 and Brook Baker was a journalism student at Vincennes University in Indiana, working on an expose of one of the fraternities on campus. One night, her brother went to visit her apartment where he found her dead in her bedroom. In the bathroom, the tub had been left running, and the kitchen sink had been filled with water. As police investigated, their suspect list continued to grow faster than they could eliminate people - there were the brothers of the fraternity, the creepy landlord who would come into her apartment often unannounced, her on again, off again boyfriend. But every lead they went down turned up more questions than answers...

Sources:

Articles

Oxygen | Bathtub Clues Left At Crime Scenes Leads To Killer Of 2 University Students (Joe Dziemianowicz)

Documentaries

6 Degrees of Murder | Season 1 Episode 6 “Crime Writer”

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Starvation Heights: The Murder of Claire Williamson Jul 01, 2021

Show notes

The worst mistake Claire Williamson ever made was the day she responded to an ad in a Seattle daily newspaper to ask for a copy of Fasting for the Cure of Disease, a book by Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard. Claire and her sister, Dorothea, who went by Dora, were extremely close and extremely wealthy, heirs to a fortune of nearly 29 million that they alone controlled, but they were obsessed with one thing: fad cures. Cures for what, you might ask? I have no idea because both Claire and Dorothea seemed to be in perfectly fine health. Neither of them suffered from any serious illness. But Claire especially could not let this search for wellbeing go. She would die to be healthy.

Sources:

Books

Starvation Heights (Gregg Olson)

Articles

Healthline | What is An Osteopath

Forgotten Minnesota | The Starvation Doctor: Quack Cure or Murder?

Murderpedia | Linda Burfield Hazzard (Crow, C.J., Ellis, Fullerton, and Morris, JJ)

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The Shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Jun 24, 2021

Show notes

One day, Biology professor Amy Bishop spent 50 minutes in a staff meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville before pulling a gun out of her purse and letting shots fire around the conference room. By the time her gun jammed, only a minute into the shooting, she’d already killed 3 people and injured 3 others. At first glance, this seemed to be retaliation - Amy had recently been denied tenure. But then police in Alabama got a phone call from the chief of police in Amy’s hometown near Boston that would send their investigation in an entirely different direction…

Sources:

Articles

The New Yorker | A Loaded Gun (Patrick Radden Keefe)

CNN | Alabama Shooting Survivor "There Was No Way to Ever Anticipate This"

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The Mysterious Death of Rebecca Zahau Jun 17, 2021

Show notes

Rebecca Zahau was found hanging outside the Speckles Mansion on Coronado Island, California. She was naked, bound, and gagged, and there was a disturbing message written on the wall, which to most lay people immediately looked suspicious. But police were quick to categorize this death as a suicide. This was especially odd, since just 2 days later there had been another death in the mansion - that of 6 year old Max Shacknai, which had happened under Rebecca’s supervision. Was this a case of grief leading to a suicide? Or was Rebecca actually murdered, and if so, by whom?

Sources:

Articles

Town & Country | The Mysterious Deaths That Rocked a Wealthy Southern California Enclave (Sean Elder)

Documentaries

Oxygen | Death at the Mansion

Investigation Discovery| Zahau: An ID Murder Mystery

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