Today we’re taking a bit of a turn from our typical trail of true crime and once again scraping the barrel of the internet for stories that leave us going what in the actual hell is this world we live in? Don’t get us wrong–we love the rules of forensic science and a justice system doing its job well— we need that certainty to pick up the pieces of the constant chaos caused by shitty human behavior and we’ll never stop obsessing over it. But sometimes things do happen to people with no rhyme or reason that seem to defy the laws we learn about in grade school: like the laws of time or space or someone appearing in one place while also standing in another. The most relatable example we can think of from pop culture was the 1999 movie The Matrix—where (sorry, spoiler alert) Humanity is living in a software simulation of reality called “the matrix”. This software glitches sometimes and creates visuals that seem odd or unexplainable. And there’s more people out there than you might think who believe this concept in the movie is not just made up for a fun film experience. At some point or another, we’ve all made a comment about experiencing “a glitch in the Matrix”--but for the folks who took the time to share their tales on Reddit today, that glitch was more than a joke. You’ll have to tell us what you think in the end–but for now, let’s get glitchy. Lights Out Campers.

SOURCE:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/search/?q=parallel+dimension++&cId=52db346b-8a4b-4fb2-8ee3-662b89e535f9&iId=df2a7b5a-cc15-4432-8a52-d84b1ee77310

We're diving into a mystery that has stumped law enforcement and internet sleuths alike for almost 20 years. In 2008, loving parents Annette and Brian Swanson were talking on the phone with their 19 year old son Brandon after a minor car accident–and they’d been on the phone for the better part of an hour, when Brain suddenly stopped responding even though the call was still running. So they hung up & called him back, but the phone just rang and rang until it went to voicemail. Every other call they made—voicemail. And in that moment, Brandon’s parents Annette and Brian had no idea that they were at the start of every parent’s worst nightmare—and that those would be the last words that they ever spoke to their son. Today we’re going to tell you campers everything we know about the facts and the theories for one of the most bizarre missing persons we've ever come across. This is the vanishing of 19 year old Minnesota West college student Brandon Swanson.

Lights Out Campers.

SOURCES:

https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/the-vault/rural-roads-of-minnesota-remain-last-known-location-of-19-year-old-brandon-swanson-1

https://www.grunge.com/640372/the-biggest-brandon-swanson-theories-what-really-happened/

"What Happened to Brandon Swanson?" by Rebecca Klein: http://immelman.net/brandon-swanson

https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/Missing-Since-2008-Brandon-Swanson

CONSIDER THIS YOUR NO-EATING WARNING

It's as American as apple pie for every small town to have a house that local children whisper is haunted and full of unspeakable horrors–a house that they dare each other to run up and touch without getting snatched and boiled in a cauldron. But everyone knows these houses aren’t really real…..they’re just stories that kids tell to spook each other and adults might chuckle over. But when it comes to the house we have to tell you about today— the one in Plainfield Wisconsin that slowly sunk into a state of disrepair after all but one of its family members had died—and the person who lived there: odd but friendly bachelor Eddie Gein—the truth about the horrors behind its walls turned out to be far more terrifying than any ghost story ever whispered about it. This is the true account of the man, the dark myth, the madman legend, who walked alone through the halls of his mother’s beloved home so that the likes of horror film icons Norman Bates and Leatherface could run. This is the story of Ed Gein: the Butcher of Plainfield. Lights Out Campers.

SOURCES:

Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original "Psycho" by Harold Schechter

https://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/gein-edward.htm

https://www.houseofgein.com/timeline/#google_vignette

https://allthatsinteresting.com/ed-gein

And welcome finally, to the long awaited conclusion, the ending; the dramatic wild west tale of Skidmore Missouri and its infamous bully, Ken Rex Mcelroy. If you’ve made it this far with us, you know Ken has lots of hobbies: like stealing livestock and terrorizing people with guns and knives; and let’s not forget his personal favorite–grooming 13 year old girls the second they start 8th grade to get them to marry him and have his babies. By the time Ken started waiting outside the Nodaway County grade school to pick up 13year old Trena Wood, he had this pattern down pat. But he didn't stop there....in this episode, we dive into Ken's antics ramping up to such a dangerous degree that it pushed an entire town to their breaking point.

It’s gonna be a rough ride today, but this story does have an ending—and you’re about to hear it. Lights Out Campers.

SOURCES:

SunDance TV Documentary Series "No One Saw A Thing" Directed by Avi Belkin (2019-2021)

Book: In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean

Welcome back, Campers!

Here we are once again, diving into the unhinged wild west-esque tale of Ken Rex Mcelroy and Skidmore Missouri: The Town That Got Away With Murder. This is DEFINITELY going to be a three parter—and here’s why.

When we first started researching this case, we thought Skidmore’s situation was going to be a case of tough lessons learned—where people took the law in their own hands, and nothing good came of it. But the deeper we dug into the decades of terror countless individuals endured at the hands of Ken Mcelroy–and the constant failing of the law enforcement system to protect them, maybe we aren’t finding ourselves so quick to judge anymore.

Perhaps you guys will disagree, but please give us these next two episodes to wait and see where you end up. If you haven’t listened to Part 1–that would be episode 61–what are you even doing–go do that now or this episode will be pointless. For the rest of you campers—Lights Out.

SOURCES:

SunDance TV Documentary Series "No One Saw A Thing" Directed by Avi Belkin (2019-2021)

Book: In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean

For this week’s episode…we’re going to do a deep dive into a supernatural phenomenon that seems to be much more common than we ever realized—and possibly far. more. sinister: Doppelgangers. The other, more psychology-y friendly term for it is the idea of “bilocation”, where a person somehow projects an image, or “body-double”, of themselves in a secondary location, and that double is actually able to interact with people around them. We know, it still sounds pretty woo-woo. Our minds can certainly play tricks on us, especially when we’re running low on sleep and high on anxiety (orrrr high for other reasons). And usually, who or what we thought we saw can be logically explained away.

But sometimes—it just can’t. Lights Out Campers.

SOURCES:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/xyy2ps/doppelg%C3%A4ngermimic_stories/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/ud2una/creepy_doppelganger_incident/

https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/phrases/doppelganger-pod

https://www.liveabout.com/true-stories-of-doppelgangers-2593448

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3591746/#:~:text=Evidence%20from%20neurology%2C%20cognitive%20neuroscience%2C%20and%20experimental,experience%2C%20occurring%20more%20frequently%20than%20commonly%20thought.

For nearly 45 years, a secret has been buried in Skidmore Missouri….and people who see the world in black and white may try to tell you that its impossible for an entire town to be driven to the point where violence was the only option they had left….but after today, you might not be so sure. We’ll leave that up to you to decide. This is the true story of a small American town that got away with murder. Lights Out Campers.

SOURCES:

SunDance TV Documentary Series "No One Saw A Thing" Directed by Avi Belkin (2019-2021)

Book: In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean

There were gasps of terror AND gasping for air from laughing so hard during this all-new installment of Booty-Clenching Tales. Gen had never heard wtf a "crawler" was, but thanks to the terrifying story we dive into today from one unlucky midwest camper and his 120-lb German Shepherd, she'll never sleep soundly again. We also learn why Kaitlyn will never be able to a) safely own a firearm and b) why if you find intestines in your yard, bury them immediately. THANK YOU to the Reddit babes Lugosthepalomino & oogerooger for sharing your stories with us & the world on Reddit:

SOURCES:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BackwoodsCreepy/s/cNag577q1a

https://www.reddit.com/r/BackwoodsCreepy/s/xQuPneV1G1

We're leanin' into Spooky Season HARD with this one. In the mid 1960’s…..at the height of acclaimed paranormal expert Han's Holzer's career, he was contacted by a young stay at home mom named Carole Trausch who had just moved with her husband and three young daughters into a new house in California. She thought Hanz might be the only person left who could help her, because a strange child wouldn't stop disturbing her daughter's bedroom and waking them up at night. Seems like that should be simple enough—but the problem with this particular child was that it seemed to have already been at the house long before its new family had moved in. Lights Out Campers.

(P.S.....maybe don't listen if you're in a house alone;)

Sources:

https://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Hans-Holzer-Amityville-writer-dies-3162888.php

Book: "Ghosts: Haunted Places, Haunted Houses, Haunted People" by Hans Holzer

On a freezing winter afternoon in 1896 the small Appalachian foothills town of Greenbriar County...a young boy named Andy Jones came by to offer his neighbor (22 year old newlywed Zona Heaster Shue) help with gathering eggs. Instead, he found a harrowing trail of blood and Zona lying dead as a doornail on the floor of her dining room. All types of hell broke loose. This case has it all..."out-of-wedlock" hanky-panky, a handsome grieving widower, a pattern of mysteriously dead wives, secret pregnancies, body exhuming, courtroom drama, an angry mob, damn good investigative work, Gen & Kait's wild speculation....a ghost, and a badass mother/daughter team who refused to let a real POS get away with murder.

If you aren't curious about what the folks in the tiny Appalachian town of Greenbriar County were getting up to in the late 1800's....or the possibility of the paranormal.....best move right along. In today's episode, we dive deep into the only recorded instance in American courtroom history where a ghost encounter was directly responsible for swaying a jury beyond reasonable doubt to convict a murderer.

WELCOME TO OUR BELOVED SPOOOOKY SEASON!!!!

(& lights out campers)

SOURCES:

https://www.gothichorrorstories.com/gothic-travel/the-death-resurrection-and-retribution-of-zona-heaster-shue-the-greenbrier-ghost/

https://wvexplorer.com/2024/01/20/greenbrier-ghost-zona-heaster-shue-west-virginia-wv/

https://westvirginiahauntsandlegends.com/Greenbrier_Ghost.htm

https://www.greenbrierhistorical.org/blog/the-greenbrier-ghost-reexamined