True Crime Brewery

Jennifer Cave and Colton Pitonyak had their addiction to drugs in common, but they were otherwise two very different people. Jennifer was known as a caring person who tried to help everyone she met. Pitonyak was a drug dealer with a growing propensity for violence.In August of 2005, when Jennifer didn’t show up for her new job working for a law firm in Austin, Texas, her employer called Jennifer’s mother Sharon back in Corpus Christi. Concerned, Sharon called several of Jennifer’s friends. She even called Pitonyak, who lied to her and claimed he had not seen Jennifer. The next day, Sharon and her fiancé, Jim, drove to Austin to look for Jennifer. The crime scene they found in Pitonyak’s apartment was shockingly gruesome.Join us at the quiet end for When Darkness Fell. Colton Pitonyak was a former rich kid who was used to getting everything he wanted. Jennifer considered herself his friend, but he wanted more from her. He took Jennifer out for dinner to celebrate her new job on August 16th, but something very

Ellen Boehm’s husband left her for another woman, abandoning his three children without visitation or financial support. With only her secretarial job to support them, Ellen had to move her children out of the family home and into an apartment building. Money was tight, but Ellen had some strange priorities that made it tighter. She was crazy about professional wrestling and she travelled to attend matches whenever she could, wherever she could, leaving her kids with her mother.In many ways, Ellen lived in her own fantasy world. She wrote love letters to her favorite wrestling personalities and bragged to her friends about her popularity with these men. No one actually believed that Ellen had any romantic involvement with them, but it seemed harmless enough. Until her children began to die.Join us at the quiet end for Mommy’s Little Moneymakers. There were some crucial emotions missing in Ellen Boehm, including kindness, honesty, and maternal love. She began to see killing her own children as a means to an en

In the spring of 2005, brother and sister Shasta and Dylan Groene were just normal kids, out playing in their yard in their bathing suits. Neither they nor their parents had any way of knowing that a violent pedophile was watching them. Joseph Duncan III, recently paroled, had been trolling the area, looking for fresh victims. He likely knew that this would be his last chance to live out his horrific fantasies before he would be returned to prison.Join us at the quiet end for Shasta’s Story. Shasta was just 8-years-old when the deeply disturbed Duncan invaded her home and proceeded to beat and tie up her family members. For the next several weeks, she experienced more trauma and fear than we can imagine. Today, we’re going over the details of this crime, the criminal history of Duncan, and, most importantly, the strength and determination of Shasta, a child who once showed remarkable courage in the face of terror and a young woman now putting together the best life she can from her own broken and battered psy

On November 26, 2001, the fire department of Cantonment, Florida, was called to the burning home of Terry King. Terry was dead in his reclining chair, but he had not been overcome by smoke. He had been bludgeoned to death. Once the fire was extinguished, concerns turned to Terry’s two sons, Derek, 13, and Alex, age 12. Fortunately, they had not been victims of the fire, but where were they?It took days to locate Derek and Alex, who were brought to the police station by a 40-year-old man named Rick Chavis. Chavis claimed to be a family friend, but a background check showed that he had a criminal history, including convictions for molesting teenage boys.Join us at the quiet end for Killing Dad. Terry King’s two sons would confess to their father’s murder, claiming self-defense against an abusive parent. But there was no proof that Terry was abusive. Interviews with the boys soon brought into question their relationship with Chavis and his role in the murder of Terry King.Become a supporter of this podcast

Graduate student Annie Le disappeared from her lab at Yale University just five days before her wedding. When she was first reported missing, investigators theorized that she had cold feet and had likely run off for some time alone. But Annie’s family and friends didn’t believe Annie would do that. She was very much in love with her fiancé and she was excited about the upcoming nuptials. Join us at the quiet end for The Vanishing Bride-to-Be, the story of Annie Le. As the days passed by and her wedding day neared, Annie’s disappearance seemed more and more likely to be the result of foul play, but a thorough examination of CCTV footage at the laboratory showed that Annie had never left the building.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

In September, 2015, 25-year-old Jack Taylor was found dead in the graveyard of St. Margaret’s Church in East London. Jack was not the first young man to be found dead under unexplained circumstances, all within a few hundred yards of each other. It was initially believed that these deaths resulted from drug overdoses, but Jack’s death led the police to find a more sinister cause. A killer had lured these men to their deaths using online dating apps.Two days before Jack Taylor was found dead, he had arranged to meet with a man he’s been chatting with on the dating app Grindr. When his family and friends didn’t hear from Jack, they reported him missing. Then the police showed up at his parent’s home with the worst news imaginable.Join us at the quiet end for The Grindr Killer. Four suspicious deaths under very similar circumstances in the same area of London pointed to one killer. Today we’re going back in time to learn about the monster responsible and his methods to lure young, gay men into his deadly web of

How much are your loved ones worth to you? Priceless, right? You cannot put a dollar amount on a person’s life. Not so for Karl Karlson. There were so many tragedies and coincidences in his life that his second wife suspected him of two murders and several instances of insurance fraud. In fact, she became convinced enough to record her conversations with Karlsen.Join us at the quiet end for Cashing In. Karl Karlson valued people only for how they could benefit him. Over a span of many years, his family members tried to believe in his innocence. But there were signs that things weren’t right. As the pieces of his life and the facts of his crimes came to light, a puzzle of sorts began to come together. But before looking at the whole picture, let’s look at how the individual pieces add up to two of the most unfathomable crimes imaginable.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

Kathy Stobaugh married the wrong man. Once she realized her mistake, she did everything right in order to set off on a better course. She worked full-time, went back to college, and accomplished her dream of being a kindergarten teacher. Saving her money, she rented a new house and moved there with her two children. But her husband, Charles, was not going to let her get away so easily.On December 29, 2004, Kathy happily hummed a tune as she gathered her divorce settlement papers together and drove off in her car. Charles had finally agreed to talk things over and reach a financial settlement with her. She had a newfound hope that their post-divorce lives could be civil. She held no false hopes that they would be friends.Join us at the quiet end for Gone & Never Forgotten: The Kathy Stobaugh Story. Did Kathy’s soon to be ex-husband kill her and hide her body or are we meant to believe that she just walked off one day before her divorce hearing?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/po

On the morning of Friday, August 16, 1996, Marissa Moody brought her 6-year-old son to the impressive home of Janet and Perry March to have a play date with 5-year-old Sammy March. The March family seemed like the picture-perfect family, but Marissa never felt comfortable around Perry March. He was intimidating and snubbed her at every opportunity.Janet March, 33-years-old, was an accomplished artist from a privileged upbringing. It wasn’t terribly unusual that Janet wasn’t there for the play date. The March children had a nanny. The only thing that seemed off that day to Marissa was the presence of a rolled-up rug lying on the floor near the kitchen entryway. She had never seen it before, and when she returned to pick up her son that afternoon, the rug was gone. Perry claimed that Janet had left home for a 12-day vacation. But, after 12 days, there was still no sign of her. Homicide detectives became convinced that Janet’s 100-pound body had been concealed in the rug that day.Join us at the quiet end f

In 2006, 33-year-old Mechele Linehan was visited by the Alaska police regarding a 1996 murder. Back then, Mechele had been working as an exotic dancer. The murder victim was a former client named Kent Leppink. But, in 2006, Mechele was a professional woman married to a physician and raising a young daughter in Washington state. Her arrest was shocking to the people in her community.Join us at the quiet end for The Fisherman & the Flirt. Mechele had been dancing at The Great Alaskan Bush Company for only a few months when she met Kent Leppink. He was infatuated with Mechele and soon told people that she was his fiancée, but Mechele said that they were never engaged and were not in a romantic relationship. There are many sides to this story, so let’s dive in and try to separate fact from fiction.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

When 16-year-old Patricia Columbo took a job in a soda shop next door to a pharmacy, no one even imagined that she and the 36-year-old married pharmacist Frank DeLuca would become involved in a sexual relationship. But that’s exactly what happened.Over the next four years, Patricia’s parents tried to talk some sense into her. First, Deluca moved Patricia into his family home with his wife and five children. When Patricia’s parents gave her money to move out and get her own apartment, they were distressed to learn that she had Frank DeLuca move in with her.Join us at the quiet end for A Dark Passion. Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca went into her family’s house with the motive to kill them all and receive her family inheritance, but the murders were clearly overkill, revealing a level of hate beyond all reason and leading everyone who knew the family to question why these shocking crimes happened.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

On July 5, 2003, 37-year-old Florida bartender Sandra Rozzo was shot in her own garage before she could even get out of her car. Sandra, known by her friends as Sandee, was a hard worker, a good friend, and a devoted mother to her young daughter. The idea that someone would want her dead was difficult to comprehend.There was one man with a motive: 36-year-old Tracey Humphrey. Humphrey was an ex-boyfriend charged with felony battery and the sexual assault of Sandee. He was due to go on trial in August of 2003. Sandra planned to testify against him. But Tracey had an ironclad alibi. If he didn’t kill Sandee himself, could he have been the mastermind behind her murder?Join us at the quiet end for The Silencing of Sandra Rozzo, a murder case with an unlikely pair of co-conspirators. It’s also a case that begs the fascinating question of whether one person can convince an otherwise nonviolent person to kill.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

Elaine O’Hara of South Dublin, Ireland, spent her life looking for love. Because of mental health issues, Elaine spent many of her years in the St Edmundsbury Hospital, receiving psychiatric treatment for depressive disorder, self-harming behaviors, and three suicide attempts. As a result, she missed the usual social milestones of dances, dating, and boyfriends. In her twenties, she began to meet men online and became involved in masochistic behavior.Lonely and emotionally immature, Elaine was exceedingly vulnerable to online predators. In August of 2012, Elaine disappeared after a visit with her family. Investigators assumed she had committed suicide by jumping off nearby cliffs. But disturbing texts found on recovered cell phones later revealed that Elaine had been involved with a dangerous man. Join us at the quiet end for Groomed for Murder. Elaine O’Hara wanted to find a man to love her and have a family of her own, but instead she was tragically lured to her own murder by a cruel, sick man who was livin

After a night out clubbing with a friend in New York City, the beautiful and kind 20-year-old Kim Antonakos disappeared. Kim was on her way home in the early morning hours when she was abducted. Her father, wealthy businessman Tommy Antonakos, immediately began a widespread and organized search for his daughter. What he didn’t know was that Kim’s abductors were supposed friends of Kim. Right under Tommy’s nose, these cold-blooded men pretended to care about her and to participate in his search for Kim. Join us at the quiet end for Seized and Scorched. Everything about Kim’s abduction showed unbridled cruelty and extraordinary incompetence. When plans to hold Kim hostage for money didn’t go according to plan, Kim’s abductors panicked and took Kim’s life. But not only was her young life stolen from her and those who loved her, Kim died an agonizing and slow death, leaving her unrecognizable. Before the investigation was completed, another murder would occur, revealing that the callousness of at least one of her

In the early morning of April 22, 2016, relatives of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio, began to discover family members brutally killed in their own homes. In all, eight members of the Rhoden family were murdered, including one minor, 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden, Jr.The victims had been shot to death. Three young children, including a newborn infant, were left alive. Investigators determined early on that the killings were planned and carried out by at least two perpetrators who knew the family well, but it took over two years to make arrests.This crime investigation is the most extensive in the history of the state of Ohio. Evidence of cock-fighting and marijuana growth operations were found at some of the crime scenes, but the motive may have been something as simple as a child-custody dispute.Join us at the quiet end for The Piketon Massacre. Due to the methodical nature of these killings and the lack of forensic evidence at the scenes, these murders have been described as a premeditated and sophi

This episode was suggested to us by Jeane, a long-time listener. In fact, Jeane was so enthusiastic about this case that she volunteered to write the script, and we took her up on that. Jeane was a federal prosecutor in the San Francisco Bay area for 27 years, focusing primarily on white-collar crimes, before she retired in 2018. She looks forward to the U.S. Department of Justice becoming a nonpartisan institution once again and cherishes the career attorneys who stuck it out. So, thank you for all your research and hard work, Jeane. This is a fascinating case you brought to our attention and we’re excited to share it with our listeners at the quiet end. That said, please join us at the quiet end for The Cards He Was Dealt, the story of the life and death of Barry Crane.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

Something different today! We’re talking about untrue crimes which occurred in a high rise LA office building in 1988. At the center of these events was a detective from New York named John McClane. He and his wife Holly were separated at the time over issues including her blossoming career with the Nakatomi Corporation in Los Angeles, but John visited her for the holidays and soon found himself at the center of a complex and violent robbery plot. The events that follow are quite shocking and show failures by the LAPD to rescue hostages or arrest the perpetrators. In fact, if not for a beat cop named Al, John McClane would have been completely on his own.Join us at the quiet end for Diehard, the story of two good cops who prevailed over evil on Christmas Eve 1988.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-brewery--4126935/support.

Most of us have some compulsions or obsessions. But what if your compulsion was to poison people? Then you would be well on your way to becoming a killer. As a child, Graham Young began experimenting with poisons. By the age of 14, he was using his family as subjects. His father, step-mother, and sister suffered from episodes of excruciating stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then, while Graham was still a teenager, his stepmother died from one of his poisoning experiments.Graham would ultimately confess to the murder of his stepmother and the attempted murder of other family members. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for several years until he was determined to be rehabilitated. What his doctors didn’t know was that Graham had spent much of his time in the hospital reading medical texts to improve his knowledge of various poisons. He had honed his skills to include extracting poisons from plants on the hospital grounds. His step-mother’s murder was just the beginning of his career as a devian

In 1999, Leann and Michael Fletcher were just beginning to grow their family as Michael was busy building his career as an attorney. That August, the couple left their daughter, Hannah, with Leann’s parents. Michael took Leann to the shooting range to teach her how to shoot a gun. Afterwards, taking advantage of the free baby-sitting, they returned home and had afternoon sex. What happened next would destroy both of their families. In the aftermath of an unexpected and shocking death, problems in the Fletcher marriage were exposed. Leann had recently learned that she was pregnant, reuniting with Michael after a lengthy separation. She had high hopes for the future. Michael had been a doting husband for the past several months, but his loving gestures had raised some eyebrows, especially those of Leann’s mother.Join us at the quiet end for Bedroom Betrayal. Was Michael Fletcher a loving father looking forward to the birth of a second child, or was he an unfaithful, lying, cold-blooded man with a long-planned s

18-year old Angie Dodge had just moved into her first apartment in 1996 when her life was suddenly and violently snuffed out. In 1998, a young man named Christopher Tapp was convicted of Angie’s murder. The prosecution’s case relied on Christopher’s confession. The defense argued that the confession was coerced and that the state was ignoring DNA evidence from an unknown suspect. Angie’s heartbroken mother, Carol Dodge, was left to wonder about the suspect still at large.After years of seeking the truth, Carol Dodge watched Christopher’s confession tapes. Appalled by the interrogations, she reached out to an expert in false confessions, who in turn contacted the Innocence Project. But it would take several more years and the work of experts in DNA genealogy to find Angie’s real killer and exonerate Christopher Tapp. The use of genealogical familial searching and its success in this and other cases has exciting implications for future criminal investigations. The public has shown approval for the technique ove