In December 1974, three kids take off for a local Fort Worth, Texas, Army-Navy store and mall and fail to return. Known as the "Fort Worth 3," this missing person case is one of the oldest and most mysterious on record. I speak to several victim family members and try to sort out fact from fiction in this Crossing the Line special trilogy of episodes.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this show, please. ;-)

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 Apple Podcast hit PAPER GHOSTS, now in its 5th season, "The Texas Teen Murders," wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

It's January 14th, 1973. And the parents of 16-year-old Norman Prater call into the Dallas Police to report their son missing. Fifty-two years later, the answer comes with some remarkable police work, a little luck, and it is not what anyone could have ever expected.

Welcome to a bonus feature here on the Crossing the Line feed. I come across all sorts of stories while researching books, TV series, and my iHeartMedia podcast, Paper Ghosts, in addition to the ideas you send me. A lot of them grab hold of me emotionally—especially the victims' stories and the ordeal their families go through. A good number of the cases, for myriad reasons, don't fit into the model for a more complete CTL episode. So I wanted to create a sub platform to showcase some of those stories, as well.

That said, thank you for supporting Crossing the Line, which has allowed me to produce this new expansion of the brand … Once or twice per month, maybe more, I'll present a 15 to 20 minute episode, covering murder and missing person cases, and other interesting crimes I think you'll want to hear about—but maybe more importantly, cases that give us a deeper understanding of the crimes and scumbags who commit them.

Sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A woman heads to a Florida beach to scatter her late husband's ashes. She meets a woman and strikes up a friendship. But then … no one can find her. Meanwhile, investigators 1200 miles north are looking into the murder of a local man—having no idea the two cases are connected.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this show, please. ;-)

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 Apple Podcast hit PAPER GHOSTS, now in its 5th season, "The Texas Teen Murders," wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A lovely woman, enjoying the latter stages of her life, is found dead at the bottom of her basement stairs. There is far too much blood for her to have fallen, along with a slice from ear to ear along her throat. But who could have committed such a heinous crime in what seems to be a pleasant, charming, quiet Montana town.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this show, please. ;-)

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 Apple Podcast hit PAPER GHOSTS, now in its 5th season, "The Texas Teen Murders," wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A prominent Santa Barbara, California, family is found dead inside their home one March morning. A manhunt then gets underway for a killer, while a man proclaims he has developed an alternative energy source Big Oil is killing his friends over and looking to make him the next target.

Sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A woman befriends a few coworkers and decides to move in with them. They begin fighting. Animosity builds. So, she moves out. Days later, she decides to reconcile with both of them … but the conversation doesn't go as planned and two of them wind up dead, dismembered, and placed inside several suitcases aboard a train heading out of town.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A woman cannot reach her family—so she heads over to their house to check things out. What she witnesses inside is a scene straight out of a contemporary horror film. As the case moves into the investigative phase, decades pass before the evil behind it all is finally brought to justice.

Sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

You are sitting at home one night, just doing your normal thing, when someone busts through the door with a weapon and begins firing. Catching a double murderer takes all of about 15 hours to resolve, the result shocking the community and police … but not the victim's family.

Welcome to a bonus feature here on the Crossing the Line feed. I come across all sorts of stories while researching books, TV series, and my iHeartMedia podcast, Paper Ghosts, in addition to the ideas you send me. A lot of them grab hold of me emotionally—especially the victims' stories and the ordeal their families go through. A good number of the cases, for myriad reasons, don't fit into the model for a more complete CTL episode. So I wanted to create a sub platform to showcase some of those stories, as well.

That said, thank you for supporting Crossing the Line, which has allowed me to produce this new expansion of the brand … Once or twice per month, maybe more, I'll present a 15 to 20 minute episode, covering murder and missing person cases, and other interesting crimes I think you'll want to hear about—but maybe more importantly, cases that give us a deeper understanding of the crimes and scumbags who commit them.

Sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A Colorado man's mother goes missing. He spends years building up resentment and frustration with police not getting anywhere. He feels he has nowhere else to turn. So he takes matters into his own hands … and the results of what he creates could help solve thousands of cold cases all over the world.

To contact Ash, learn more about CrimeOwl, or try it out for yourself, visit CrimeOwl.

Sign up for your free Patreon account here, where I'll be streaming "live," sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won't get anywhere else.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**

A hardworking Pennsylvania man arrives home from his second shift job one night, gets out of his vehicle, and winds up on the ground in front of his home … fighting for his life. Neighbors report hearing and seeing a dark colored SUV tearing away from the scene. As investigators begin asking questions, two candidates for the stupidest murderers of the year step forward.

Sign up for your free Patreon account here, where I'll be streaming "live," sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won't get anywhere else.

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.

And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.

M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.

**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**