Beyond the Ferns

On this week's episode, we are headed to Minnesota to explore the cold case of Chris Jenkins.

On Halloween night in 2002, 21-year-old Chris Jenkins, a University of Minnesota student and lacrosse player, headed out with friends to celebrate in downtown Minneapolis. Dressed in a Halloween costume, Chris spent part of the evening at the Lone Tree Bar and Grill. Reports indicate he was kicked out of the bar, leaving him alone in the freezing Minnesota night without his coat, wallet, or a way to contact anyone.

Chris never made it home.

Nearly four months later, his body was discovered in the Mississippi River, but instead of providing his family with answers, the discovery only raised more questions. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance, the condition in which he was found, and conflicting accounts of his final known moments left investigators with a complicated and deeply troubling case.

Over the years, the investigation would take numerous unexpected turns, involving suspicious individuals, questionable witness accounts, and overlooked leads. With many mistakes made by the police.

What initially appeared to be a tragic accident eventually became a homicide investigation, but the question of what happened to Chris Jenkins has never been fully answered.

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In this week's episode, Beyond the Ferns listener John takes us back to the late 1990s, to a haunted house in Texas where an unsettling presence seemed to lurk within its walls. But what began as an eerie atmosphere took a terrifying turn when his family witnessed something they could hardly comprehend—someone desperately grasping at their family member's throat, struggling against an unseen force. They could see the terror unfolding right in front of them, but whatever had its grip on him was unknown.

Join us as we explore what the paranormal truly means to us and delve into the unsettling possibility that hauntings aren't always tied to places. Sometimes, it's the people themselves who are haunted.

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On this week's episode, we are headed to London!

In the spring of 1971, two young brothers were pulling weeds in the garden of their family home in England, when they uncovered something strange beneath the soil: two small, formed stone-like heads.

At first, they seemed like little more than an unusual discovery.

Then, according to the families involved, things began to happen.

Objects reportedly moved on their own. Strange noises traveled through otherwise empty rooms. Glass shattered without explanation. An overpowering animal-like smell appeared and disappeared. And eventually, witnesses began describing something far more disturbing—a large, dark figure that seemed to exist somewhere between human and animal.

When the mysterious heads were later taken from the home and examined by Celtic scholar Dr. Anne Ross, the story should have become easier to explain.

Instead, it became even stranger.

Were the Hexham Heads ancient artifacts pulled from ground that had kept them hidden for centuries? A modern creation surrounded by coincidence and fear? Or had two ordinary objects somehow become attached to something no one could explain?

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In this week's episode, we are headed to Pennsylvania!

Christmas morning, 2002. As record-breaking snow blanketed Middletown, Pennsylvania, a family gathering that should have happened the night before had never taken place.

When Jean Wholaver and her daughters, 20-year-old Victoria and 15-year-old Elizabeth, failed to show up for their traditional Christmas Eve celebration, concern quickly grew. By the following morning, police were sent to the family's home to check on them.

Inside, they discovered a scene that would forever change Christmas for those who loved the Wholaver family. Jean, Victoria, and Elizabeth had all been murdered. Yet amid the silence of the house, investigators heard something from upstairs—a baby crying.

What initially appeared to be a horrific triple homicide would soon unravel into a much darker story involving the who and why would someone do this...

Join along to hear everything from the murders to the investigation to justice served.

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In the early morning hours of October 29, 1995, 24-year-old Leah Ulbrich was seen struggling with a man inside a dark-colored car.

Minutes later, that same car was speeding through the streets toward the town of Wethersfield—with Leah's body dragging outside the passenger door.

What followed was a horrifying journey that stretched for miles through an area that was already beginning to wake up for the morning. People heard screams. Witnesses caught glimpses of the car. A police officer even crossed paths with the vehicle and attempted to follow it.

By sunrise, police were left with a crime scene spanning miles, pieces of evidence scattered along the roadway, conflicting descriptions of a dark-colored car, and one enormous question:

Who was the person behind the wheel?

More than 30 years later, investigators are still trying to answer it.

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In this week's episode, we are headed to California!

On the morning of March 29, 2011, a man came across something horrifying along a dirt road cutting through a vineyard near the small farming community of Arvin.

The body of a woman had been left among the rows of grapevines. She had no clothing, no identification, and whoever had placed her there had gone to disturbing lengths to make sure identifying her wouldn’t be easy. Even stranger, investigators found remarkably little evidence at the scene, leading them to believe she had been killed somewhere else before being brought to this quiet stretch of farmland.

Police had no name for her. No clear connection to Arvin. And when her DNA was entered into national databases, there were no matches.

For years, she would be known only as a Jane Doe—while investigators were left with two enormous questions: Who was she, and who wanted to make sure no one ever found out?

Tune in to hear all about this cold case, and SPREAD THE WORD about these lesser known cases, so we can get them traction!

P.S. There is one part within the episode where I unfortunately say "are" instead of "is". Just know, I caught it -- but I had already finalized my episode and wasn't able to go back in and correct. :)

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In this week's episode, we are headed to New Jersey!

It was supposed to be an ordinary summer night.

In July 2013, 41-year-old Donna Ongsiako was home alone at her secluded farmhouse in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Her daughter was at a party for the evening, the house was quiet, and Donna was simply going through her normal nighttime routine when she opened her front door.

Standing on the other side was a stranger.

Within moments, Donna found herself fighting for her life inside the place where she should have felt safest. Severely injured and completely alone, with no neighbors close enough to hear her cries for help, her chances of surviving were quickly slipping away.

But Donna wasn’t ready to die.

What followed was an extraordinary fight for survival—and an investigation to uncover who had come to her home that night and why.

And boyyyyyy, it's not what you would expect...

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Hi y'all! I am in the midst of moving -- anyone who has ever moved, knows just how chaotic an event like this can be! Because of this, we are revisiting one of my favorite throwback episodes from the archives of Dark October-- Urban Legends!

For those of you who can't wait for Halloween - this one is for you! All new episodes will resume next week <3 Thank you for listening!

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In this week's episode, we are headed to the vast ocean!

By the late 1940s, aviation had entered an entirely new era. World War II had pushed aircraft technology forward at an incredible pace, and when the war ended in 1945, those advancements began making their way into civilian travel. Longer routes were becoming possible, transatlantic flights were expanding, and air travel was beginning to connect parts of the world in ways that had once seemed unimaginable.

But despite all that progress, flying across the open Atlantic was still far from what it is today. Navigation was more limited, weather forecasting was imperfect, and once an aircraft ventured far enough from land, there were vast stretches of ocean where communication could become difficult.

And in 1948, one passenger aircraft would disappear somewhere within that enormous expanse.

Its name was Star Tiger.

Less than a year later, another aircraft belonging to the same airline—Star Ariel—would vanish as well.

Neither aircraft was ever found.

Their disappearances would become two of the most enduring mysteries in British aviation history and, in the decades that followed, both would become forever connected to the legend of the Bermuda Triangle—a stretch of the Atlantic blamed for the unexplained disappearances of ships, aircraft, and the people aboard them.

But what really happened to Star Tiger and Star Ariel? Were their disappearances simply the result of the very real dangers that came with this rapidly evolving era of flight… or is there something about these two cases that truly cannot be explained?

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