It's a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in a suburb of Detroit during the summer of 1985. Teenager Shawn Moore heads to the store on his bike for a soda. After he fails to return home, a frantic search ensues … as a man dubbed the "Real Norman Bates," the fictional serial killer from the classic film "Psycho," is discovered trolling the area for victims.

Two young women go missing along the Jersey Shore in the early 1980's. An eighteen-month search produces no leads. Then a woman walks into a local police station and begins talking—and a new search leads to a grisly discovery and several more victims.

In late 2023, one of Keith "Happy Face Killer" Jesperson's Jane Doe victims was identified. Phelps speaks with death investigator Emily Speed, who worked on the case along with Phelps for many years. In this special hybrid episode of two podcasts, "Death Calls" with Emily Speed and "Crossing the Line," Phelps and Speed discuss how the case evolved over almost 30 years and how, finally, she was identified.

A teenage girl goes missing in a small Minnesota town. Police are baffled. Her large family of nearly a dozen siblings are mortified. Weeks turn into months, there's no sign of her. Then a series of revealing events occur, tipping off police that 'Stranger Danger,' such a prevalent Public Service Announcement at the time, scaring kids from coast to coast, is likely more smoke than fire, and the culprit might be closer than anybody thinks.

In this first episode of the 2024 season, Phelps discusses several recent, alarming developments in the Long Island Serial Killer case, the implications they will have on the true crime genre, and, most importantly, the Long Island serial killer's victims' families.

Your favorite true crime podcast, CROSSING THE LINE WITH M. WILLIAM PHELPS, is back with all new episodes beginning February 22, 2024. Enjoy, share, and post the latest trailer. Check out www.crossingtheline.biz for more information. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your favorite podcasts, so you don't miss a new episode.

Phelps speaks with Lauren Fields' mother, Shantell, about the surprising cause and manner of death in Lauren's case. He also digs into the Brenda Rawls death - another woman found dead after a date - the very same night, just down the road from where Lauren died - whose family was also never informed of her death by the police.

You might have heard about this case: A woman, Lauren Smith-Fields, TikTok influencer, model and college student studying physical therapy, invites a Bumble date over to her apartment in December 2021 and winds up dead … police say accidental, family says suspicious … and yet the manner of death is only half the story. What happened inside Lauren's apartment on the night she died, and the next day, will have your jaw on the floor, wondering what is going on in the world of law enforcement investigation in some of the country's largest cities. In the first of this two-part Crossing the Line, Phelps digs in deep and talks to Lauren's family.

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A beloved woman in a posh Connecticut town goes out for a jog, same as she does every day. Along that route is an immense estate owned by the puppeteer, Caroll Spinney, who played the iconic "Big Bird" and "Oscar the Grouch" characters on Sesame Street. After failing to return, police searching for the woman find a literal blood trail leading directly to Big Bird's estate … and an immaculate Chinese pagoda on the property. Soon, all eyes are following that bird—and yet neither he - nor the woman - are anywhere to be found.

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When problems between a wealthy woman, her son and his wife begin to get ugly, people turned a blind eye. But when Rebecca Cornell catches fire one night and dies, the case is re-opened after a ghostly appearance convinces local lawmakers it wasn't just an accident.

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