This week's case is about a woman who preyed on the people who trusted her with their wellbeing and were completely vulnerable. Kimberly Saenz worked as a dialysis nurse at the DaVita Dialysis Clinic in Lufkin, Texas in 2008. Listen to today's episode to hear about how Kimberly made the cruel, calculated and fatal decision to inject bleach into the dialysis lines of several patients.

Sources:

 Texas Court of Appeals. Kimberly Clark Saenz v. State of Texas (Case No. 12-12-00038-CR).
https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/twelfth-court-of-appeals/2014/12-12-00038-cr.html

Texas Court of Appeals opinion summary.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/tx-court-of-appeals/1655506.html

U.S. Department of Justice – Eastern District of Texas.
Former Nurse Sentenced in East Texas Dialysis Clinic Deaths (April 9, 2012).
https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/txe/News/2012/edtx-saenz-040912.html

CBS News. Texas jury finds ex-nurse guilty in bleach deaths (2012).
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-jury-finds-former-nurse-guilty-in-bleach-deaths/

ABC6 / Associated Press. Trial begins for nurse charged in bleach injection deaths (2012).
https://6abc.com/archive/8600137/

Spectrum Local News. Supreme Court refuses appeal in bleach injection case (2016).
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2016/11/1/supreme-court-refuses-appeal-of-texas-nurse-who-injected-patients-with-bleach

KOMO News / AP. Nurse’s bleach injection deaths: trial begins (2012).
https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/nurses-bleach-injection-deaths-trial-begins

Baylor Lariat. Trial begins for Lufkin nurse charged with murder (2012).
https://baylorlariat.com/2012/03/06/trial-begins-for-lufkin-nurse-charged-with-murder/

Oxygen True Crime (License to Kill).
https://www.oxygen.com/license-to-kill/crime-time/texas-nurse-kimberly-clark-saenz-dialysis-bleach

Wikipedia (Helpful for general overview, not primary sourcing).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Clark_Saenz

It was a cold, drizzly morning in March 2018 when a young woman appeared at the edge of a farmhouse in rural Wisconsin. Mud clung to her bare feet. Her clothes were torn, her hands and arms, smeared with blood. She was terrified, trembling, and desperate.

Today, I will tell you the complex story of Ezra McCandless — the 20-year-old girl who seemed to have been hunted — and the shocking truth she hid. Her story is one that begins with compassion, fear, and survival... and ends with betrayal, deception, and murder.

Sources;

https://www.courttv.com/news/wi-v-mccandless-timeline-of-events/

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/wi-court-of-appeals/117664648.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.talkdeadlytome.com/post/the-untold-story-of-ezra-mccandless-inside-the-mind-of-a-killer?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ezra-mccandless-alex-woodworth-murder-sentencing-why-was-the-word-boy-carved-into-the-arm-of-accused-killer/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR! LET'S GO 2026!

In 1959, nine young hikers set out across the frozen wilderness of the Ural Mountains in Russia — and never returned.
When their campsite was discovered, rescuers found a tent ripped open, footprints leading barefoot into the snow, and bodies scattered across the mountain — some burned, some broken, one missing her tongue.

For decades, the Dyatlov Pass mystery haunted investigators and fueled every theory imaginable — from military testing to alien encounters. The case was finally reopened in 2019, and what modern science uncovered was shocking and no less haunting.

Hear the full story — the 1959 tragedy, the forensic horror, and the modern investigation that used Disney’s Frozen to model the snow that may have killed them.

Nine hikers. One mountain.
And more questions than answers.

Sources:

• Russian Federation Prosecutor General’s Office — Dyatlov Pass Reinvestigation Report (2019–2020)
• Sverdlovsk Oblast Criminal Case File No. 659 — Dyatlov Group Incident, 1959 (declassified 1990)
• Lev Ivanov, “The Mystery of the Fireballs,” Soviet Life Magazine, 1990

• DyatlovPass.com — English-language archive of original case files, diaries, autopsy reports, and search photos
• Dyatlov Foundation — Russian-language archival materials, official documents, and family interviews

• Donnie Eichar — Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident (Chronicle Books, 2013)
• Yuri Yudin & Natalia Varsegova — Dyatlov Pass: End of the Mystery (Eksmo Press, 2017)
• Aleksei Rakitin — Dyatlov Pass Mystery: Not a Cold Case (AST Publishing, 2015)
• Benjamin Radford — “The Dyatlov Pass Incident Revisited,” Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 44, No. 2 (2020)

• Johan Gaume & Alexander Puzrin — “Mechanisms of Slab Avalanche Release and Implications for the Dyatlov Pass Incident,” Communications Earth & Environment, Nature Portfolio (January 2021)
• ETH Zurich / Disney Research Collaboration — Snowpack Motion Simulation Project (2019)

• An Unknown Compelling Force (Documentary, 2021, directed by Liam Le Guillou)
• Expedition Dyatlov (Russian TV Documentary, Channel One Russia, 2019)
• BBC News — “Russia Reopens 1959 Dyatlov Pass Mystery Case,” (February 2019)
• National Geographic — “Frozen in Mystery: The Dyatlov Pass Incident Revisited,” (March 2020)

• Russian Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography — Ural Mountains Topographic Survey Series, Sheet O-41
• NASA Earth Observatory — MODIS Snow Cover Imagery, Northern Urals Region (1959 comparative dataset, analysis 2019)

Christmas Eve. A night of joy, togetherness, sugar cookies, and awkward family moments. But in 2008, in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, Christmas Eve became a horror film written by someone who really hated the holiday season and family togetherness.

This is the story of a man who dressed up as Santa Claus, rang a doorbell, and then turned the most festive night of the year into a furnace of bullets and fire. Nine people died. Three more were injured. Dozens of lives were shattered, and the crime scene was so catastrophic that forensic investigators had to separate melted ornaments from human remains. Listen to today's episode to hear about the devastation caused by Bruce Jeffrey Pardo.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covina_massacre?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6530779&page=1

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28462082

This week's case is about a man who grew up in North Pole, Alaska. By his teens, people described him as violent, volatile, and cruel toward women. This man cycled through psychiatric hospitals, had brushes with the law, and built a reputation in Anchorage.

The warning signs were there in the 1990s. But no one stopped what came next in 2000. Listen to today's episode to hear about the heartbreak Joshua Alan Wade caused to five families and the Anchorage community.

Sources:

Anchorage Daily News (ADN)

“Convicted killer Joshua Wade dies in Indiana prison” (June 14, 2024) – ADN

“Joshua Wade sentenced for killing Mindy Schloss” (Feb 2010) – ADN archive

“Wade admits to three more murders” (Sept 2014) – ADN

Coverage of Della Brown’s 2000 murder and 2003 acquittal – ADN archive

 U.S. Department of Justice

 “Joshua Wade sentenced to life for carjacking resulting in death” (Feb 17, 2010) – DOJ Press Release

  Alaska Department of Law

 “State of Alaska press release: Wade pleads guilty to 2000 and 2007 murders” (Feb 2010) – Alaska Dept. of Law

 Associated Press (AP)

“Body of missing nurse found near Wasilla” (Sept 13, 2007) – AP via Seattle Times

“Wade confesses to three more killings” (Sept 2014) – AP

  "FBI confirms investigation into Wade’s additional murder claims” (2014 statement) – FBI.gov

 Books / Long-form

 Ice and Bone: Tracking an Alaskan Serial Killer by Monte Francis (2016) — covers the Della Brown case, the collapse of the first trial, and Schloss investigation in detail.

Today, we’re diving into the 1929 Lawson Family Massacre in North Carolina — a tale of rural hardship, whispered secrets, a shocking murder-suicide, and one man who would ensure that Christmas would forever be remembered not for joy, but for terror. Listen to today's episode to hear about the brutal violence Charlie Lawson inflicted on his family. Sources:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/similar/837433-white-christmas-bloody-christmas-finally-the-true-story-of-the-lawson-f?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_the_Lawson_family?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.amazon.com/Lawson-Family-Murders-Eric-Hubbard-ebook/dp/B0D8ZZ36RW?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-156-blame-no-one-but-i-the-lawson-family-murders/id1298314174?i=1000680539327&utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2016/12/25/story-lawson-family?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.planetslade.com/murder-lawson-family.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.truecrimepodcast.com/videos/episode-024-holiday-homicides-the-lawson-family-murders/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-lawson-family/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://open.spotify.com/show/7JxGrrXxVsKnUqZPYiV2XC?utm_source=chatgpt.com

This week's case occurs in the frozen quiet of Alaska’s wilderness. Where a respected baker hides a darkness no one sees coming. Between 1971 and 1983, Robert Hansen turns the vast, empty tundra into his private hunting ground—stalking women through the trees as if they were prey. When a teenage girl escapes his clutches, investigators uncover a chilling map marked with thirty-seven graves. Listen to today's episode to hear about the truth behind the man Anchorage thought they knew.

This case was suggested to us by a fan, Jody! Thanks for the suggestion!

Sources:

• Hale, Leland E. Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer. Open Road Media, 1991.
• Alaska State Troopers. Press Release: Victim of Serial Killer Robert Hansen Identified as Robin Pelkey (2021). Link
• Anchorage Daily News. “Serial killer Hansen dead; ‘world better without him,’ trooper says.” (Aug. 22, 2014). Link
• Anchorage Daily News archives, 1980–1984 (coverage of disappearances, investigation, and trial).
• People Magazine. “How Serial Killer Robert Hansen Was Caught.” Link
• Wikipedia contributors. “Robert Hansen.” Wikipedia. Link
• Wikipedia contributors. “Murder of Eklutna Annie.” Wikipedia. Link
• AP News. “DNA identifies Alaska serial killer victim after 37 years.” (Oct. 22, 2021). Link
• Bartlette, Delani R. “Robert Hansen: The Butcher Baker of Alaska.” Medium, 2019.
• Douglas, John, and Mark Olshaker. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. Scribner, 1995.
• Hale, Leland E. Butcher, Baker Case Blog — transcripts, notes, and interviews. Link
• Chugachpics. Robert Hansen Case Notes. Link

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Today, we’re diving into the disturbing, surreal, and deeply sad case of Steven Pladl, his ex-wife Alyssa Garcia, and their biological daughter, Katie Fusco. Listen to this week's episode to hear about a story that is one of the most chilling collapses of family boundaries you’ll ever hear about.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pladl_incest_and_murdershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_XwKCGbbY&t=3s

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43747225

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/dad-who-child-daughter-caught-27059999?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

 https://abcnews.go.com/US/father-kills-daughter-adoptive-father-incest-case-exposed/story?id=54382864    

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/north-carolina-man-42-kills-daughter-baby-her-adoptive-father-n863271  

 https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/us/new-york-incest-murder-suicide/index.html 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/nyregion/steven-pladl-katie-fusco-shooting.html   

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steven-pladl-incest-case-murder-suicide-katie-pladl-today-2018-04-12/  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5419285/Girl-11-reveals-father-got-sister-pregnant-diary.html   

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/baby-half-demon-journal-reveals-12022449  

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/dad-who-child-daughter-caught-27059999  

This case is one of the most chilling in Arizona’s history—not because we don’t know who the killer is, but because of how openly she owned what she did. Today, we’re looking at Angela Simpson, the Phoenix woman who lured a man into a vacant apartment in 2009 and subjected him to days of brutality. The question isn’t who committed the crime—we know that. The real question is: why?

Sources:

https://murderpedia.org/female.S/s/simpson-angela.htm

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/angela-simpson-pleads-guilty-to-impaling-stabbing-strangling-beating-and-extracting-teeth-from-disabled-man-then-dismembering-him-and-setting-pieces-of-his-body-on-fire-6656823

https://www.foxnews.com/story/phoenix-woman-indicted-in-torture-murder-of-man-in-wheelchair

 https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sdut-phoenix-woman-indicted-in-dismemberment-of-man-2009aug28-story.html 

https://www.wltx.com/article/news/nation/police-say-woman-butchered-disabled-man/101-380541533 

https://www.sinistercrimesandcocktailspodcast.com/2028814/episodes/15637981-episode-119-torture-kill-dismember

 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/timeforcrime/episodes/EP-35---Angela-Simpson-Pt1-e1m98l9

 https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-terrible-case-of-angela-simpson-and-terry-neely-25--63244814 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/angela-simpson 

https://vocal.media/criminal/angela-simpson-dismembers-burns-snitch 

https://creativeroots.org/angela-simpson/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzK_VXS310o 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYoCxC2mB28 

Today we will discuss a case that was disturbingly described as "romantic" in the media. July 15, 1984 in Big Sky, Montana. a young athlete, Kari Swenson went for her typical run when she disappears into the woods. By nightfall, searchers wonder: Did she get lost—or meet something far worse? Listen to today's episode and let us know, do you think Don and Dan Nichols were romantic or deranged?

Sources:

Wikipedia contributors. “Kari Swenson.” Wikipedia, last updated 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kari_Swenson

Kidnap Victim Decries Myth of Mountain Men - Los Angeles Times

ESPN 30 for 30 Podcasts. “Out of the Woods.” 30 for 30 Podcasts, 2017.
https://30for30podcasts.com/episodes/out-of-the-woods/

“Where Are They Now? Kari Swenson.” FasterSkier, February 2017.
https://fasterskier.com/2017/02/where-are-they-now-kari-swenson/

Black Dog Veterinary Services (Bozeman, MT). Facebook post announcing retirement farewell for Dr. Swenson, June 2023.
https://www.facebook.com/blackdogvet/posts/to-honor-dr-swenson-we-will-have-a-come-and-go-retirement-farewell-on-tuesday-ju/953962180074973/

Associated Press. “Father, Son Guilty in Swenson Kidnapping and Killing.” The Billings Gazette, Sept. 1985.
https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/father-son-guilty-in-swenson-kidnapping-and-killing/article_3d3c76ac-5a2d-5e48-8e4d-4c410bc9a6f9.html

“Mountain Man Sentenced to 85 Years for Kidnapping Biathlete.” New York Times, Sept. 1985
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/13/us/mountain-man-sentenced-to-85-years.html

Associated Press. “Dan Nichols Sentenced to 20 Years for Role in Kari Swenson Abduction.” Great Falls Tribune, May 1985.
https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/archives/1985/05/17/dan-nichols-sentenced/

“Capture Ends 5-Month Manhunt for Nichols Father and Son.” Missoulian, Dec. 14, 1984.
https://missoulian.com/news/local/capture-ends-5-month-manhunt-for-nichols-father-and-son/article_f6ec1f2d-73b4-5a94-9b84-8ea83acb3f10.html

Associated Press. “Parole Board Frees Don Nichols After 32 Years.” Helena Independent Record, Dec. 2017.
https://helenair.com/news/local/parole-board-frees-don-nichols-after-32-years/article_d08c9956-c8af-11e7-9d22-6b31a91e0a32.html