This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). On Oct. 7, 1998, a teenager was riding his mountain bike in some fields just outside of Laramie, Wyoming, when he discovered what he thought was a scarecrow that had fallen off its post. Or, perhaps it was some type of Halloween gag, a dummy lying on the ground, maybe? It WAS October, after all. But when the teen got closer, he realized it was a person. The person was still alive, but barely breathing. It was 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming freshman, and he had been tortured and tied to a log fence with a rope. He had been there, left to die in the frigid cold temperatures, for at least 18 hours before the teen discovered him. This is the story of one of the nation’s most heinous and unprecedented anti-gay hate crimes.

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This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). On Oct. 7, 1998, a teenager was riding his mountain bike in some fields just outside of Laramie, Wyoming, when he discovered what he thought was a scarecrow that had fallen off its post. Or, perhaps it was some type of Halloween gag, a dummy lying on the ground, maybe? It WAS October, after all. But when the teen got closer, he realized it was a person. The person was still alive, but barely breathing. It was 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming freshman, and he had been tortured and tied to a log fence with a rope. He had been there, left to die in the frigid cold temperatures, for at least 18 hours before the teen discovered him. This is the story of one of the nation’s most heinous and unprecedented anti-gay hate crimes.

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This episode is rated a 4.5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s another one of those stories that DOES involve homicide, but under what some might call extenuating circumstances… and, honestly, you’re probably going to be left scratching your head or maybe even questioning the justice system at the end of it. In my opinion, there were TWO victims in this case. There were TWO wrongs that clearly DID NOT make a right… and no, I’m not sure justice has been served, even though there was a court trial and a verdict. But all of that is, just MY opinion. So, check out the episode to find out exactly how this Tinder match went wrong.

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This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Eleven days after the shootings at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard, Jackson State College (which is now Jackson State University) in Jackson, Mississippi, faced a similar tragedy, where two young people were killed by Jackson police officers and Mississippi state troopers. The two campus shootings by America’s own were so close together in time, and circumstances appeared so similar (at least in the public eye, that is), that the headline of an editorial piece written for the Indiana Daily Student literally crossed out the words “Kent State” and replaced them with “Jackson State”; and an article in TIME magazine referred to the shootings at Jackson State as “Kent State the II.” But, you see, even though these two events seem strikingly similar on the surface, the driving forces and underlying reasoning of the two tragedies were very, very different.

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This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). May the 4th is a significant date for numerous reasons. For some, it’s more of happy date on the calendar that represents a nod to the iconic Star Wars franchise and a play on words for "May the Force Be with You." But for Kent State University in Ohio, May 4th has a much more serious, significant, and somber meaning. On May the 4th of 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired shots into a crowd of students who were protesting the Vietnam War. As a result, four students were killed and nine were injured. Listen now for the full story.

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This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of Humboldt State University student David Josiah Lawson. In 2017, Josiah, who was commonly known by his middle name, was stabbed to death at a house party off campus. Even though there are TONS of witnesses from the scene who can testify about exactly what they saw happen, nobody has been convicted of Josiah’s murder. In fact, the one person police suspected of the crime was arrested and released after only five days of testimony at a preliminary hearing. That hearing was less than a MONTH after Josiah was killed. To find out more, check out this week's episode of Campus Crime Chronicles.

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This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of 18-year-old Anita Knutson, a freshman at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota. In June of 2007, Anita was killed in her off-campus apartment. Initially, police had a very large circle of suspects, and none of those suspects were ever officially cleared, which means police could never build what they would consider a provable case against any particular person… that is, until now, nearly 15 years after Anita’s murder. Just this year, in March of 2022, Minot Police announced the arrest of a suspect, and they charged that suspect with felony murder. Listen to the episode to find out who that person is!

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This episode is rated a 2 (on my Serious Crime Scale). This story is partially what sparked the conspiracy theories (AKA rumors) that the coronavirus was developed in a lab in China. While the man in this story was found guilty of blatantly lying to the IRS about millions of dollars and his ties to China, he was NOT found guilty in any way of developing the coronavirus or even charged with anything of the sorts. It's the story of 62-year-old Harvard University professor Dr. Charles Lieber, who covered up his involvement with the Wuhan University of Technology and his participation in a program called China’s Thousand Talents Plan.

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This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It's the story of Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old Indiana University student who seemed to disappear without a trace. But THIS story, this episode, has several possibilities of what might have happened to her. You see, in the summer of 2011, Lauren went out one night with some friends, but the last time she was seen seems to have left more questions than answers, especially among the group of friends she was last seen with.

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This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of 19-year-old Shannon Melendi, a young woman attending Emory University, a private research institution in Atlanta, Georgia. On one morning in March of 1994, Shannon was working her part-time job as a score keeper at a community softball complex; but when she left the softball fields that day for lunch, she was never seen or heard from again. The person responsible for her disappearance and, ultimately, her murder, would not be brought to justice until over 10 years later, in 2005, and he wouldn’t ADMIT to his crime until a year after that, in 2006.

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