Debbie Schum waited a long time to receive the cremated ashes of her friend, LoraLee Johnson, from Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose, Colorado. When she did, she felt relieved to finally take them home with her. But then, she got a call from the FBI.

It turned out that the owner of the funeral home, Megan Hess, and her parents Shirley and Alan Koch had been operating a body brokering business—without permission from anyone.

We speak with Debbie Schum, Elena Saavedra Buckley, Melissa Connor, and Danielle McCarthy. To learn more, check out Saavedra Buckley’s article in High Country News, “‘None of this happened the way you think it did.’”

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Crime Blotter: “The Learning Center on Hanson Street reports a man across the way stands at his window for hours watching the center, making parents nervous. Police ID the subject as a cardboard cutout of Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Today, we’re looking at mistakes and misunderstandings. Like when Nate Roman returned home one evening to find his Marlborough, Massachusetts home mysteriously clean, and when 82-year-old Willie Murphy dealt with a home intruder in her own way.

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We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. 

Episode transcripts are posted on our website.

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We are trying something different. Have a question for Phoebe? You can call into our voicemail at (919) 697-8231.

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In 1995, two men filmed an episode of the daytime talk show, The Jenny Jones Show. A few days later, one of the men was dead. The shooter later claimed he’d committed the murder “in a panic that he was being falsely accused or identified as a gay person.”

We speak with Cynthia Lee, Carsten Andresen, and Paul Howard about so-called “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses, and we discuss the murders of Scott Amedure, Islan Nettles, Larry King, Ahmed Dabarran, and Matthew Shepard.

Thanks to Thomas Curry, who helped co-produce this episode.

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We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

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World-class biathlete Kari Swenson was on an afternoon trail run in the mountains near Big Sky, Montana in July 1984 when two men blocked her path. They were Don and Dan Nichols, a father and son pair who later became known as the “mountain men.”

This story was produced by 30 for 30 Podcasts from ESPN, and reported by Bonnie Ford. Find more at 30for30podcasts.com.

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In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer, Tom Radney, didn’t deny it. Burns told a police officer: “I had to do it. And if I had to do it over, I’d do it again.” The man he’d shot was Willie Maxwell, and everyone knew who Willie Maxwell was. 6 people who had been close to him had died in 7 years—including two wives, Mary Lou Edwards and Dorcas Anderson. 

We speak with Casey Cep and John Denson about Willie Maxwell, Robert Burns, and the events that brought Harper Lee to Alexander City, Alabama.

Casey Cep’s book is The Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.

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Episode transcripts are posted on our website.

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In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She had a bad cough, and her family was afraid she had Tuberculosis. She met a German x-ray technician named Carl Von Cosel who claimed he could save her, using unusual methods he’d invented himself. But on October 25, 1931, Elena de Hoyos died. “Count Von Cosel,” as he called himself, wrote that a strange new kind of life began for him.

For more, check out Ben Harrison’s book, Undying Love.

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Episode transcripts are posted on our website.

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SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to Episode 51: Money Tree before you listen to this one.

Three years ago, we spoke with Axton Betz-Hamilton about discovering that her identity had been stolen as a child. When she found out who had stolen it, everything changed.

We spoke with Axton again a couple of weeks ago. She said that since our last conversation she’s been conducting an investigation, going back to the very beginning of her own life, and reconsidering every memory. 

Axton’s new book is The Less People Know About Us.

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After a crime occurs, or when someone dies, the police aren’t responsible for cleaning up. That’s not their job. The coroner takes the body, the police conduct their investigation, and then everyone leaves. But the blood, and the rubber gloves, and the uneaten food in the refrigerator are all left behind. Sandra Pankhurst didn’t like imagining that. So she decided to clean it up. She became a crime scene cleaner.

To learn more about Sandra’s story, you can read The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

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In 1917, 18-year-old Ruth Cruger disappeared. She’d last been seen getting her ice skates sharpened in the motorcycle shop of a man named Alfredo Cocchi. Newspapers reported that she probably ran off with a boyfriend, and New York police said that there were no clues to go on. But an investigator named Grace Quackenbos Humiston decided that she would do whatever it took to find her. She became known as “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.”

Brad Ricca’s book is Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. 

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