On a snowy January morning in 2022, Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead outside a fellow officer’s home and his girlfriend, Karen Read, was charged with hitting him with her SUV and leaving him to die. Prosecutors say it was a drunken hit-and-run. The defense claims a cover-up inside the house and a rush to frame her. What happened in those early morning hours has divided a community and turned this case into one of the most explosive courtroom battles in Massachusetts.

Leanne was 14 years old when she vanished from Brooklyn, New York on March 18, 1999. She was last seen waiting on a street corner and never made it to school. She has never been seen again.

Her case was quickly labeled a “runaway,” delaying the investigation for years and leaving her family to search for answers alone. This episode looks at what was missed, what was ignored, and how Leanne’s story reflects the broader crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.

In 2014, a quiet Wisconsin town was rocked by a stabbing so disturbing it seemed unreal—one tied to belief in the fictional online figure known as Slender Man. What began as an internet myth spilled into real life, blurring the line between fantasy and violence. The case unsettled the public not just because of the crime itself, but because of the ages involved and the haunting question it left behind: how could something imaginary inspire something so real?

In this episode of Crime Connections, we examine the unsolved murder of Lisa Pruett, a 16-year-old girl whose death shattered the quiet, affluent community of Shaker Heights, Ohio.

On September 14, 1990, Lisa was found just outside her boyfriend’s family property, less than 100 feet from where he slept. What followed was an investigation plagued by questionable decisions, conflicting timelines, and an early rush to judgment.

The case quickly became a national spectacle when another local teenager, Kevin Young, was charged and put on trial in a highly publicized Court TV case, only to be acquitted due to lack of evidence. His life was irreparably damaged, and the real questions surrounding Lisa’s murder were never fully answered.

We walk through Lisa’s life, the night she was killed, the investigation that followed, and the troubling possibility that critical leads were ignored. More than three decades later, Lisa’s murder remains officially unsolved.

In 2014, around Thanksgiving, 25-year-old Amy Lynn Hanson disappeared from the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, and just two days later her body was found in an arroyo in Red Rock. Investigators ruled her death a homicide, but no arrests have ever been made. Despite FBI involvement and a reward for information, Amy’s case remains unsolved. This is another heartbreaking example of an Indigenous woman whose story still demands justice.

In North Carolina, Indigenous women are disappearing and being murdered at alarming rates and their families still have no answers.

In 2017, Rhonda Jones, Christina “Kristin” Bennett, and Megan Oxendine were found dead within blocks of each other in Lumberton. Two more women, Cynthia Jacobs and Abby Patterson, vanished soon after. None of these cases have been solved.

These women mattered. Their stories matter.

Jermain Charlo is a 23-year-old Indigenous woman, vanished from Missoula, Montana, in June 2018 after a night out with friends. Surveillance footage captured her leaving a downtown bar, but she never made it home, and her phone soon went dark. Despite years of searching, countless interviews, and community efforts, Jermain’s case remains unsolved, highlighting the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Her disappearance continues to haunt her family and community, who still seek justice and answers about what happened that night.

On January 13th, 2024, 25-year-old Marissa Carmichael, a mother of five from High Point, North Carolina, called off work at Waffle House to enjoy a rare night out with a friend. By early morning on January 14th, she was gone.

After an argument with a man she met that night, Marissa was dropped at an Exxon gas station. He threw out her belongings, kept her phone, and drove off. Marissa called 911 for help, but by the time police arrived nearly an hour later, she had vanished.

It’s now been over 290 days, and still no answers. Her family continues to fight for justice while facing cruel rumors and judgment online. Marissa is a daughter, a mother, a human being and she deserves to be found.

Happy Halloween! 

In today’s episode we cover the case of Cassie Jo Stoddart. She was responsible, caring, and only 16 years old. She was house-sitting for her family when she was betrayed and murdered by people she trusted, friends from school.

This case isn’t about movies or infamy.

We honor her story in this Halloween episode.

This week’s episode is an update special! We’re revisiting several of our past cases including: Tom Philips, the University of Idaho Murders, JonBenét Ramsey, the Skelton Brothers, Toyah Cordingley, and Crystal Rogers, to share new developments, court updates, and where each case stands today.