Dark Deeds
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Dark Deeds episodes

  • S02E12: The Unsolved Chen Family Murders
    In 2000, Jin Chen and his wife, Hai Yan Li moved to a suburb in Albany, New York known as Guilderland from Houjo, Fujian province off the southeastern coast of mainland China. In New York, Jin was given a job at his relatives' restaurant, The King's Wok. The Chens decided to start a family in 2004, with the birth of their first son, Anthony, and then a second son, Edward (Eddy) in 2007. On Thursday, October 5, 2014, Jin did not show up for work and had not called to say he was not coming in. When coworkers and relatives went to check on Jin and his family, they discovered all four family members had been murdered. Language barriers and fears from community members have made this case difficult to investigate, and almost 700 leads have lead investigators to the Chinese mafia and human trafficking rings, but the case remains unsolved. Two other cases have been thought to be related to the murders of the Chen family, the case involving the murder of three Chinese family members in 2011 in D'Iberville, Mississippi and a case in 2014 involving the murder of four Chinese family members in Harris County, Texas. The D'Iberville case has yet to be solved, but the case in Texas has since been solved and is said to be unrelated. Sources Nola (2015) A&E (2022) CBS 6 Albany (2019) CBS News (2022) ABC 13 News (2022) Tuscaloosa News (2019)

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    15 min
  • S02E11: Junko Furuta's 44 Day Nightmare
    Junko Furuta, a 17-year-old student living in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, Japan was beautiful, popular, and a great student who her friends endearingly called 'Jun-Chan'. Junko did not smoke, drink, or participate in any "bad teenage behavior" which is why she was often called a good girl. Her beauty and kindness unfortunately caught the eye of the school bully, 18-year-old Hiroshi Miyano. When Hiroshi asked Junko on a date, she politely declined, and did not realize this would ultimately lead to her final 44 days of life involving the most horrendous, inhumane torture. Hiroshi and his friend, Nobuharu Minato devised a plan to kidnap Junko as she was biking home from work. They captured her, and four friends (Hiroshi Miyano, Nobuharu Minato, Jo Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe)  held her hostage for 44 days at Minato's parents' vacation home before finally being murdered. The suffering Junko endured at the hands of these four boys and others was so cruel that it's hard to fathom how four teenage boys, let alone any monster, could dream up and enact such a plan. Sources Medium (2021) How Stuff Works (2023) The Cinemaholic (2023) Tokyo Reporter (2018) Film Daily (2020) Film Daily (2022) All That's Interesting (2022) The Scare Chamber Wikipedia Audio Junko Furuta on the news (in the memory of junko furuta)- Youtube

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    32 min
  • S2E10: Manchester's Most Notorious: The Torture and Murder of Kelly Anne Bates
    On April 16, 1996, 48-year-old James Patterson Smith reported to his local police station in Manchester, England to report that he had "accidentally" killed his girlfriend during an argument when she drowned in the bathtub. When police reported to his home, they discovered his 17-year-old girlfriend's naked, dead body lying in a bedroom and her blood all throughout his home. It was clear this was no accident. Kelly Anne had met James when she was only 14-years-old and began a relationship with him, then 45-years old, unaware of his horrifically abusive past. The pathologist tasked with examining and autopsying her body concluded that she had over 150 separate wounds showing a month's worth of severe torture in the last weeks of her life. James had starved Kelly, denied her water, and tied her to furniture and a radiator by her hair or neck ligatures, even gouging out her eyes 5 days to 3 weeks before her death. This is one of the worst, most notorious torture murders in British history. Sources Murderpedia All That's Interesting (2022) Manchester Evening News (2015) Ranker (2022) Daily Mail (2023) Mirror (2020) Wikipedia National Domestic Violence Hotline US: 800-799-7233 (Available in English and Spanish, as well as 200+ languages through interpretations) England: 0808 2000 247

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    29 min
  • S02E09: Sylvia Likens and the Baniszewski House of Horrors
    In the 1960s, Sylvia Likens lived in southern Boone County, Indiana with her family which consisted of her father, Lester Likens, mother Betty Likens, fraternal twins, Danny and Diana, and another set of fraternal twins, Bennie and Jenny. Sylvia was the middle child between the two sets of twins. The Likens family were very poor and Sylvia's father worked many odd jobs, even traveling with the carnival to sell food from a concession stand, but it is said that the children were happy and taken care of. In June of 1965, Sylvia's mother, Betty was arrested for shoplifting, leaving Lester to come up with a way to support his children while she was away. Lester found his two daughters, Sylvia and Jenny at a home near theirs known as the Baniszewski home. Lester decided he would "board" his daughters at Gertrude Baniszewski's home, paying her $20 a week to take care of them while he went with the carnival to bring in some money. Gertrude had 7+ children of her own, and the Baniszewskis were also very poor with the home being filthy, in disarray, and lacking adequate food and sleeping arrangements but Lester had not known this when he left his daughters. Bennie and Danny were sent to live with their grandparents, and Dianna had been 19, married, and living on her own. What would happen during the months of June 1965 to October 1965 consist of unspeakable horrors which Sylvia and Jenny endured. Sylvia being punished far worse, enduring unimaginable torture by not only the Baniszewskis but other neighborhood children. Some say it is due to Gertrude and her oldest daughter, Paula's jealousy of Sylvia coupled with Gertrude not receiving on time payment from the Likens but nothing that Sylvia ever could have done would make her deserving of this torture, and ultimately, horrific death. Since then, the Likens family has been plagued by a series of tragedies, and this case is one that will never be forgotten in Indiana. Sources Indy Star (2013) The Weekly View (2015) NBC San Diego (2015) True Crime Edition (2021) Medium (2019) All Thats Interesting (2023) Sylvia's Child Advocacy Center Criminal (2020) Audio of Gertrude Baniszewski at parole board- Youtube- Thomas Henning

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    43 min
  • S02E08: The Murder of Bella Fontanelle
    Only a few weeks ago, on April 26, 2023, police located a 10 gallon Chlorine bucket on the front lawn of a Louisiana home. Inside this bucket was the body of little 6-year-old Bella Fontanelle, who was murdered, stuffed into a bucket, and left on the front lawn of her mother’s home by her father’s girlfriend. This story is still very much in development at this time.

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    23 min
  • S02E07: The Freeman Family Massacre
    Brenda and Dennis Freeman were peaceful, quiet Jehovah's Witnesses who had planned to raise their three sons to be just the same. They wanted their boys to grow up in their faith and be good citizens..but who doesn't want their kids to be good people? This changed when two of their sons, Bryan Freeman and David Freeman chose to denounce their faith and become involved with Neo-Nazism after discovering it and being intrigued by it at a rehabilitation facility they were sent to at ages 12 and 13 due to drug and alcohol use. The boys were not shy about their beliefs, dressing in camo pants, doc marten combat boots, shaving their heads, and even displaying their beliefs across their heads and necks by the way of tattoos expressing their hatred. It was known that the boys caused trouble at school and at home, but not known by many just how bad Brenda and Dennis struggled to help their sons. Eventually, on February 26, 1995, the two boys at ages 16 and 17, along with their 18-year-old cousin, Nelson Birdwell III committed the ultimate act of violence toward Brenda, Dennis, and Brian and David's 11-year-old brother, Erik by bludgeoning all three of them to death and fleeing to Michigan where they were ultimately caught.
    Sources The Roanoke Times (1995)Sun SignsOxygen (2022)Grunge (2022)The Morning Call (2015)

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    32 min
  • S02E06: The Okmulgee Cyclist Murders
    On October 9, 2022, two brothers, Billy and Mark Chastain along with two of their friends, Alex Stevens and Mike Sparks left Billy’s home on bicycles at 8:00 P.M. The men were later reported missing by Billy’s wife and Alex’s mother a few hours later when they had not been seen or heard from. Mark’s phone pinged at a salvage yard owned by Joe Kennedy off Highway 75. Evidence of a violent crime was located at an adjacent property from this salvage yard. On October 14, the four men’s bodies were located in the Deep Fork River with multiple gunshot wounds and severed in half. Joe Kennedy became a person of interest, and then the prime suspect due to the evidence against him found at his salvage yard, in his vehicle, on his shoes, and in the field nearby. He awaits trial currently on four counts of first degree murder. Sources ABC 7KJRHNY PostCBS NewsThe Guardian CNN NY Times CBS News Obituaries Mark Anthony Chastain Billy Jack Chastain Smith Mikel Tyrel Sparks

    Alexray Jeffery Stevens 

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    19 min
  • S02E05: Bruce Pardo and the Christmas Eve Massacre (Covina Massacre)
    On December 24, 2008, 45-year-old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo dressed as Santa Claus carrying weapons and a Christmas package, walked up to the home of Joseph and Alicia Ortega where they were having a Christmas Eve party for 25-30 family members. Bruce was determined to massacre all party guests due to his anger from his recent divorce from Joseph and Alicia's daughter, Sylvia Ortega Pardo. After shooting some of the party guests, Bruce used a homemade flamethrower he carried in the package to ignite the home, charring the bodies of his victims. The aftermath of this massacre has not been forgotten by the Ortegas and their family, as it left 13 children orphaned and others without one parent.  Sources Murderpedia Los Angeles Times  Audio: CBS News: Santa Shooting Spree 911 Tapes 

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    21 min
  • S02E04: The Mysterious Death of David Scott Elmquist
    On the night of February 8th/early morning hours of February 9th, 2018, 24-year-old David Scott Elmquist died in a fire that was started in his apartment after the Bakken crude oil covering his body caught fire, and he suffered burns to over 90% of his body, soot-filled airways, and blindness. To investigators, this was a simple open and closed case of suicide, but to David's family and many others, he may have been the victim of foul play as well as evidence planting. There are many strange reasons concerning this case as to why there's no way David could have killed himself, according to his family.  From the mysterious untouched patches of skin on his wrists when the rest of his flesh was burned to the missing lighter, unlocked door, and planted knives at the scene, this case is so hard not to think about.  Please check out Sherrilyn Dale and Gavin Fish's documentaries of this case on YouTube, as well as Gavin Fish and Scott Elmquist's websites.  Sherilynn Dale's videos on David:  https://youtu.be/3UiQ6NnXS9c https://youtu.be/RY_fpZH5Ykw https://youtu.be/RekbUz_-L00 Gavin Fish's videos on David: https://youtu.be/bziZEz73W8U https://youtu.be/IxMgMuyFj3w https://youtu.be/IxMgMuyFj3w Gavin's website:  https://gavinfish.com/cases/david-elmquist/ Scott's website:  https://www.truthfordavid.com/ Please sign the petition:  www.change.org/truthfordavid

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    1 hr 4 min
  • S02E03: Timothy Ray Jones, Jr.'s Chilling Crimes. Illness or Greed?
    In June 2004, 22-year-old Timothy Ray Jones, Jr. met 18-year-old Amber Kyzer. They were married a month after meeting, and over the course of their relationship, had five children: Merah, Elias, Nahtahn, Gabriel, and Abigail. Their marriage was rocky, as Amber was forced to be subservient to her husband due to his religious beliefs. They struggled to care for all of the children while keeping a clean home, and Tim developed some rather aggressive discipline habits where he would force the children to workout until absolute exhaustion if he felt they had done wrong. DSS became involved, but had failed to see the whole picture of what was going on, as they deemed the only problem to be with the cleanliness of the home. Amber and Tim eventually got divorced, and Tim had custody of the children. It seemed as though he was struggling to care for all of them and the home, as Amber had in the past, as well. One day, Nahtahn was accused by Tim of damaging an electrical outlet, causing him to have to endure exhausting physical punishment (running laps around the family home for hours) until he couldn't breathe. Tim went to check on Nahtahn later that night, claiming he had passed away in his sleep. Instead of getting help for Nahtahn, Tim then did the unthinkable.  Was all of this because he did not want Amber to have the children, or was it all only because he was just truly mentally ill as he claims?  Sources News19 (2021) PostandCourier (2021) USA Today (2019) Greenville Online (2019) News 19 (2019) WYFF4 (2014)  Audio: Timothy Jones, Sr. Testimony Law&Crime Network 

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    59 min

About Dark Deeds

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A short true crime podcast detailing the stories of solved and unsolved cases for the true crime enthusiast to get a quick fix of true crime!

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