She Left a Voided Check - He Left a Trail of Lies

Fear and cold clarity collide: a voided cashier's check for $8,400, a printed photo, and a note pleading "please find out who this really is" left on church steps - how did a cautious 29-year-old who trusted her routines end up erasing the last trace of a man she once believed saved her? Who was Duane Schmidt, and what did Diane Draper really see coming?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Diane to leave those items at Calvary Lutheran and the unraveling of the relationship that preceded it. We follow her discovery of an online practitioner, the rapid escalation to private calls and a proposal, and the decision she made at 1:00 a.m. that changed everything - but what was Diane trying to stop?

Person: Diane Draper
Age: 29
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Date: February 9, 2022 (envelope left shortly before 9:00 AM) and February 9, 2022 (drive to church at ~1:00 AM)
Topic: Online nutritional practitioner relationship and $8,400 cashier's check

- Diane obtained a cashier's check for $8,400 on February 8, 2022, then voided it before leaving it on church steps.
- The envelope contained a voided cashier's check, a photograph printed on plain paper, and a handwritten note reading "please find out who this really is."
- Diane began messaging "D. Schmidt" (handle DSchmidt_Wellness) after a gastroenterologist referral in late summer 2021 and moved sessions off the app by November.
- By December her inflammatory markers improved and her gastroenterologist noted the change after following Schmidt's protocol.
- Schmidt proposed by phone at 11:47 PM in the third week of January 2022 and then asked for $8,400 for a flight and apartment deposit.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Laminated Lie: How a Fake UN Badge Hooked a Widow

Grief made her vulnerable and a hand-laminated United Nations credential landed in a culvert four thousand miles from any UN mission - blue lanyard, gold embossed seal, holographic strip - and the name on it didn't exist. How did a fake ID, stolen photos, and a furnished room engineer a relationship that led to a $7,000 request, and who would be left holding the truth?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that connected a widow on Piñon Mesa to an invented UN contractor, following the discovery of the credential, the online courtship, and the financial plea that tested everything; will a reverse image search undo a year of trust?

Person: Amy Sawyer
Location: Piñon Mesa
Person: Russell O'Brien (named on badge)
Person: Daniel Frick
Amount: $7,000

- A United Nations credential was found on a January morning 2019 at the third switchback of the Millbrook trail.
- The badge displayed a blue lanyard, gold embossed seal, and a holographic strip and bore the name Russell O'Brien.
- Amy Sawyer began messaging "Russell O'Brien" in spring 2018 after joining a social platform and received daily emails by June 2018.
- The photographs used for "Russell O'Brien" were actually images of Warren Holt, age sixty-one, taken without his knowledge.
- In October, "Russell" requested $7,000 to process a logistics hold related to an extended deployment.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Chessboard, the Phone, and the Man Who Stole Her Heart and Account

Fear tightens in the chest when you realize a stranger can learn your rhythms and empty your bank account without ever meeting you - Heather lost more than money; she lost trust and evidence that someone had been watching her routine for months. How did a chess puzzle, a photographed voided check, and a rose-gold phone hanging on a hook lead investigators to a man living in a nearby township?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from the first chess puzzle through daily messages, staged financial emergencies, and the discovery of a phone on a river trotline to trace how a fake identity and careful patience became a financial scam. What patterns and digital traces finally pointed to the perpetrator?

Person: Heather Draper
Person: Mark Cox
Person: Tom Ricci
Date: December 3, 2019
Location: Millhaven

- Phone battery at discovery: 62 percent after 31 hours in the water but GPS showed it never touched the river.
- Age of victim: Heather Draper was 23 years old and lived in Millhaven her whole life.
- First contact timing: Heather joined Paired in August 2019 and matched with "Daniel Marsh" within hours.
- Initial money request: An $800 invoice in October repaid in nine days to build trust.
- Money transfers: Heather sent funds in seven separate transactions to two accounts (Portland-linked prepaid routing service and an Atlanta account opened with a fraudulent identity).

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Mailbox of Lies: How "Kevin Walsh" Took Jean Keller's Trust

Cold details can feel like proof - a wiped mailbox, a cement collar, nine wire transfer confirmations totaling nearly $94,000 tucked into a sealed bag on a forgotten Harlan County parcel. How did money traced to no Indiana bank end up in a galvanized box labeled K. WALSH - and who was the real man behind the messages that led Jean Keller to give pieces of her life away?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of discoveries from a land surveyor's morning walk to the private messages that replaced in-person contact, tracing how an online profile called Kevin Walsh built trust with Jean Keller and led to the mailbox discovery; what forces connected the sealed transfers to a vacant county lot, and what questions remain about the person using that name?

Person: Jean Keller
Date: November 4, 2019
Location: Dellwood Road, Harlan County
Amount: nearly $94,000
Alias: Kevin Walsh

- A land surveyor named Thomas Stein found a galvanized steel mailbox labeled K. WALSH in frost-hardened soil on November 4, 2019.
- Inside the mailbox was a sealed plastic bag containing nine wire transfer confirmations totaling nearly $94,000.
- Jean Keller was 39 years old in fall 2019 and had been in remission from Stage II breast cancer by age 38.
- The Kevin Walsh profile claimed to be a mid-forties widower hospice social worker in Columbus, Ohio, with a daughter named Amy in Portland.
- The real person behind the photos was Dennis Hartwell, whose images were used without his knowledge; the actual operator of the profile was Allen Purdy, 42, from Terre Haute, Indiana.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

La sonrisa que no era suya: cómo le robaron el corazón por carta

Fear that the person you think you love is only a collage of borrowed photos and handwriting can feel like a slow betrayal - and this story begins with a single photograph mailed in October that was not who Janet thought it was. A man named André Fernand appeared smiling outside an apartment, while the letters he supposedly sent were by someone called Stanley Stevens; how did two and a half years of correspondence and roughly twenty-six letters each create a convincing life out of stolen images and careful prose, and who was really behind the favors and a promised shipment to Janet's apartment?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of letters, the postmarks across Europe, the arrival of a photograph, and the librarian's reverse-image search that unmasked the man in the picture - and we ask whether the memory of maple trees and small, exact details prove affection or serve as tools of deception. How did shipping records and a postal inspection begin to untangle the network that made a stranger into a fake correspondent?

Person: Janet Bailey
Age: 62
Location: Farwell, central state
Correspondence length: two and a half years
Letters exchanged: approximately twenty-six in each direction

- Janet volunteered at Harwick Community Food Pantry with a nine-year record and only four absences.
- First letter came from someone listed as Stanley Stevens, age 38, claiming to be in a West Africa transitional camp.
- Postmarks on letters moved through three locations in France and then the Netherlands.
- A photograph arrived in October showing André Fernand, a civil engineer resident in Belgium since 2011.
- Reverse-image search by librarian Melissa Crawford identified the photographed man within less than an hour using library subscription databases.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

Dry Card by the Reservoir: How "Mark Clark" Stole Michelle's Trust

Fear of being fooled into love drives you to listen: a greeting card found dry on a dewy rock, a photograph that mattered later, and a fabricated profile polished over two years led a careful 26-year-old to send $13,000 - and stop sleeping. Who was "Mark Clark," why was the card dry at Harwick Reservoir, and how did a two-year script convince Michelle to wire thousands?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the lonely breakup that led Michelle to create a dating profile through the messages, migrations to private channels, and the escalating financial requests that followed - ending with the mysterious card at the reservoir and the unanswered questions about the operation's scope and methods.

Person: Michelle Carlson
Age: 26
Date found: September 4, 2019
Location: Harwick Reservoir
Platform: Linked Hearts

- The card was found by Neil Weber at 7:00 AM on September 4, 2019, resting on a flat rock at the edge of Harwick Reservoir.
- Michelle created her Linked Hearts profile in late March 2019 and began messaging "Mark Clark" in early April 2019.
- The fake profile used a photo belonging to Paul Renner, a licensed architect in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- The operation had a two-year-refined script and was running against twelve other active targets in parallel.
- Michelle transferred $4,000 in the second week of August 2019 and another $9,000 later in August, totaling $13,000.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Three Faces Who Stole Her Heart - And $45,000

She lost more than money: over eighteen months Pamela Taylor exchanged messages and video calls with a man who did not exist, built from three strangers’ photos and words, before a reverse image search collapsed the lie in four seconds. How did a structural engineer named Michael Ashford, an essay by Stephen Ferris, and Instagram clips from Greg Osman combine to convince a careful, professionally trained woman to send $45,000?

In this episode, we tell how Pamela Taylor met "Michael Ashford" on ConnectMature, how the persona was assembled from real people’s careers and grief, and how requests framed as banking holds and bridge loans escalated until a single image search revealed the truth. What happened next when the construction of the man fell apart in August?

Person: Pamela Taylor
Age: 48
Location: 4412 Sycamore Bend Drive
Perpetrator: Jeffrey Novak, 36, living in a rented room in Fountain Square, Indianapolis
Total amount requested and sent: $45,000

- A single high-heeled shoe was found outside 4412 Sycamore Bend Drive at 6:15 AM.
- Pamela moved off ConnectMature to private email within a few weeks and was on video calls three times a week within six weeks.
- The first money request in late April was $4,000, repaid in ten days.
- The second request in June was $9,000; the third in late July was $22,000.
- A reverse image search on August 6 matched "Michael Ashford" to Greg Osman’s Instagram in four seconds.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Bluebird in the Ditch: How Grief Bought a Fake Friend

Grief can make a sympathetic stranger feel like a lifeline: a watercolor bluebird card found in a frozen roadside ditch was the single physical trace that exposed a year-long romance scam that extracted $9,200 from a grieving woman. How did a Facebook profile built with stolen photos, a scripted empathy routine, and a hastily placed card create enough trust for instant Zelle transfers-and who was the woman behind the invented Pamela Watson?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from a roadside card to the discovery that a complete online persona had been fabricated. We trace Debra Marshall’s loss, the online friendship she believed was real, and the transactions that moved money as soon as a plea arrived-raising the question: could a grief-stricken person have recognized the red flags before the dollars were gone?

Person: Debra Marshall
Age: 32
Date: November 2018 (mother's death) and spring 2019 (friendship begins)
Location: Millhaven (southern part), upper Midwest
Amount lost: $9,200

- The bluebird card was found at 6:20 AM propped against a tire rut beside Fenner Road after two hours of freezing drizzle.
- Debra’s mother, Louise Marshall, died of a pulmonary embolism in November 2018; Debra kept a rabbit named Clementine who required subcutaneous fluids every morning at 7:00.
- Debra joined the Facebook group "After: A Community for Adult Orphans" with roughly 400 members and was contacted within two weeks by the profile "Pamela Watson."
- Pamela Watson’s profile claimed 843 Facebook friends, four years of posting history, and specific details (a 12-year-old daughter Becca and a rescue greyhound Theo afraid of staircases).
- The first monetary request was $420 for an urgent care copay, which Debra sent via Zelle within the hour with no recorded hesitation.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

She Sent $91,000 to Her Fake Lover - The 43 Cards Found

Loneliness can be engineered: forty-three greeting cards, fanned on a workbench, each signed "All my love, Marvin," led a 53-year-old woman to send $91,000 over 28 months to a man who did not exist. What kept Pamela Marshall trusting that carefully constructed lie even after one early repayment proved "Marvin" could be trusted?

In this episode, we follow the timeline and details that turned small, consistent gestures into a decades-old life unraveling; we map the transfers, the mailed cards, and the stolen identity to ask how a single convincing image and patient deception became a $91,000 loss.

Person: Pamela Marshall
Person: Marvin Morgan (identity used)
Amount: $91,000
Duration: 28 months
Cards found: 43

- Pamela Marshall was 53 years old and had lived in the same house for 11 years.
- The scam began after a dating profile was created in January 2017 and continued through 2019.
- The first wired amount of $4,200 in August 2017 was repaid in three weeks.
- By the end of 2017 Pamela had sent a total of $22,000; by the end of 2018 the total reached $68,000.
- The stolen photo of the real engineer was originally posted to a professional network in 2015; the real man lived in Aberdeen, Scotland.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Loved Her Garden - Then Stole Her Father's Last Will

Trust can feel like safety until someone uses patience as a weapon: a laminated card tied in white satin ribbon, a single refrigerated rose left on a park bench, and a man already in handcuffs five days earlier. This episode follows how small-town routines and a nine-year gardening notebook became the clearest entry points for a calculated betrayal - but how did he earn that trust so completely?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led a man calling himself Eugene Burns - later identified as Edward Grady Morrow - into Rachel Sheridan’s life and her father Thomas’s care, and how ordinary acts of kindness became a method for taking everything; what did his patience hide?

Person: Rachel Sheridan
Person: Thomas Sheridan
Person: Edward Grady Morrow
Date: May 14, 2022
Location: Keswick Park, Denton, Ohio

- At 6:00 AM on May 14, 2022 Lisa Bell found a long-stem rose sealed in a florist's sleeve on a bench beside the fountain.
- The laminated card tied to the rose read: "For Rachel. Everything I have is already yours."
- Rachel Sheridan had kept a gardening notebook for nine years documenting seeds, failures, and soil needs.
- Thomas Sheridan was 81 years old with 30 years on the railroad and 20 years as a church deacon, diagnosed with moderate vascular dementia.
- Edward Grady Morrow used at least three other names in three other states before arriving in Denton and had been in handcuffs five days before the rose was left.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].