Between Light and Dark

It was an odd weekend for camping on October 8th, 2000 in Wallowa County, Oregon. The weather was cool and would soon be turning cold, especially in places like the Wollowa-Whitman National Forest, but that didn't deter 44-year-old Chris Northon and 38-year-old Liysa Northon from taking their three-year-old son into the mountains for a weekend in the outdoors. Tragically, though three people drove into the mountains, only two would come back out alive. In the early dark of Saturday, October 9th, Chris Northon would be shot in the head by the woman he'd married just four years before.

For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/chrisnorthon

The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-River-Inn-Troubled-Spirits-ebook/dp/B08HX1XJ52

It was warm spring day on Friday April 25th, 2008 in Aiken, South Carolina when 47-year-old Ann Fox Smith didn't show up for work. Ann was a beloved special education teacher at Kennedy Middle School and this was definitely out of the ordinary. As the day went on with no word from Ann, her friend and fellow teacher, Sally Ferriter drove to Ann's house on Whitney Drive to check on her. As she stepped from the sunny spring day into Ann's home, she did not realize she was moments away from a life altering discovery. Ann Fox Smith lay dead on the floor in a blood spattered bedroom.

Complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/annfoxsmith

Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It was warm spring day on Friday April 25th, 2008 in Aiken, South Carolina when 47-year-old Ann Fox Smith didn't show up for work. Ann was a beloved special education teacher at Kennedy Middle School and this was definitely out of the ordinary. As the day went on with no word from Ann, her friend and fellow teacher, Sally Ferriter drove to Ann's house on Whitney Drive to check on her. As she stepped from the sunny spring day into Ann's home, she did not realize she was moments away from a life altering discovery. Ann Fox Smith lay dead on the floor in a blood spattered bedroom.

Complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/annfoxsmith

Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

Nothing about Cherryl's day on Friday January 4th, 2002 foretold the trouble awaiting her. The 37-year-old pediatrician lived in Bartlett, Tennessee; a city located northeast of Memphis with a population of more than 50,000 people.

That evening, she attended a Memphis Grizzlies game at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis. Cherryl had season tickets and as a former basketball player herself, it was a sport she enjoyed. She went to the game alone, which was not unusual. After the game, around 10:30 .pm., Cherryl returned to her brick home located across the street from a golf course on Daybreak Drive in Bartlett Tennessee. Her close friend Andrea Fox and another girlfriend came over to hang out for a while, leaving around 1 a.m.

These friends would be the last known people to ever see Cherryl Pearson.

Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/cherrylpearson

Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It was a seemingly ordinary day for thirty-one-year-old stay-at-home mom Joan Risch on October 24th, 1961 at her home in Lincoln Massachusetts. Joan was married and lived with her husband and two children, a son and a daughter, in a nice suburban home in a quiet, safe neighborhood.

That morning Joan's husband went of of town on a business trip, and Joan went about usual day. Unfortunately that day would turn out to be anything but usual. Sometime in the early afternoon hours, while her young son slept upstairs and her daughter played at a neighbors, Joan would vanish mysteriously. She would leave behind a house smeared with blood and an array of clues that would puzzle investigators for sixty years.

Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/joanrisch

Northern Michigan Asylum Series: http://jrericksonauthor.com

In the cold early morning hours of April 9th, 2011, 26-year-old Adam Campbell left Baron's Bar where'd been hanging out with friends in downtown Escanaba, Michigan. He walked west on Ludington Street and seemed to vanish into the night. Adam would not be gone for long, just one hour after he left the bar, his body was found burning in a parked car in an alleyway behind a residential neighborhood in the 300 block of Escanaba. To this day neither law enforcement or his family know who put him there.

Show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/adamcampbell

Show sponsor: The Troubled Spirits Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KSC9SV1

It has been nearly 27 years since 15 year old Chanty Shiverdecker disappeared after basketball practice in Alexander City, Alabama, nearly 27 years since her body was discovered at an abandoned lumberyard, and nearly 27 years without answers for her family.

On December 9th, 1994, Chanty attended girls varsity basketball practice which was being held at Radney Elementary School in Alexander City, Alabama. Around 6:30pm, as practice ended and other girls were picked up by parents or took the bus back to their high school, Chanty stayed behind waiting for a ride. Her friends and family would never see her alive again.

On February 24th, 1995, Chanty's decomposed and nude body was discovered at an abandoned lumberyard near Highway 9 in Coosa County Alabama, approximately ten miles from the place Chanty was last seen.

Nearly three decades have gone by without an answer to the question: Who killed Chanty Shiverdecker?

If you have any information regarding the unsolved murder, please contact the Coosa County Sheriff's Office at 256 377 2211 or email [email protected].

For complete show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/chantyshiverdecker

Show Sponsor: www.jrericksonauthor.com

Many people will never have heard of Derry Township Pennsylvania. Those that have might think of small town America or perhaps that most iconic of American company's Hershey Chocolate whose first factory was built and remains in Derry Pennsylvania.

But every city has its mix of light and dark. In Derry Township the dark doesn't get much worse than the unsolved brutal killing of 22-year-old Samantha Joann Lang on March 27th, 2007. Samantha's life ended bitterly on the kitchen floor of her father's home where she bled to death after an intruder slashed her throat.

For nearly fourteen years Samantha's family has lived with the horror of what occurred that night and with the mystery of who stole her life.

Full show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/samanthalang

JR Erickson audiobook giveaway: http://jrericksonauthor.com/freeaudio/

Bob Durst might have faded from the spotlight after Kathie's case went cold, but the man would end up in the news again and again and each time a violent death seemed to be at the center of the focus on Bob Durst. Two more murders would occur that would put his name back in the headlines. The first was the shooting death of his close friend Susan Berman. The second, and much more gruesome of the two was the murder and dismemberment of Morris Black.

It probably seemed like a fairytale when 19 year old Kathleen McCormack met Robert Durst in New York in 1972. Kathie had grown up in a blue collar family. Robert, or Bobbie had grown up in one of the most wealthy and influential families in New York City. Friends later said it was love at first sight.

Sadly the fairytale was not meant to be for Kathie and Bobbie Durst for behind Bobbies soft demeanor lurked another individual all together, a man who would commit the most heinous crimes and for years, decades even, get away with them.

Kathie McCormack Durst would not witness the unraveling of Bobbie Durst. For on rainy January evening in 1982 she disappeared forever.

Full show notes: https://bitterendingspod.com/podcast/kathiedurst