Killer Destinations

In 2004, two families received tragic news. Their daughters had been brutally attacked in the middle of the night, and neither survived. The community was shocked and scared… were they next? But as the case was about to go cold, police released a piece of evidence that they hoped would result in someone turning in the perpetrator. And what came next surprised everyone.

In 1994, a well-known member of the Boulder community lost his life after answering a knock at his door. Almost two decades would pass before new DNA technology was used to convict a man named Michael Clark for the crime. However, at the end of 2024, a scandal at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was made public – and one of their most respected DNA analysts, Yvonne “Missy” Woods, was accused of manipulating DNA results on possibly thousands of cases. If this is proven to be true, how many lives were destroyed as a result of her lies?

More than three years after the horrific murders of the two young women in Los Angeles, a California jury has reached a verdict on their accused killer. Listen for all the latest details.

In 1987, the brutal death of the family matriarch fractured the family. Nobody could’ve anticipated just how long it would take – or what it would look like – when justice was finally served.

In 1988, Brenda Schaefer had a bright future ahead of her. She was engaged, had a job she loved and was part of a very close-knit family. When she suddenly disappeared, her family was frantic to find her… because this wasn’t the first time the family faced tragedy.

In the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 1985, husband and father Vicente Gonzales was targeted by gang members and lost his life in a brutal attack. The attackers were quickly arrested, but it still took five days of deliberations to reach a verdict. AND WE HAVE ONE OF THE JURORS AS A GUEST ON OUR PODCAST! Listen for all the behind-the-scenes details about the trial… and what happened afterward.

In 1954, 16-year-old Diane Hank wasn’t exactly a typical teenager. She’d just had to change schools after having a baby, and her closest friends were the couple in their early 20s whom she babysat for. Her life was a very small circle, which was why her mom was shocked when she was told her daughter had skipped school. And that shock resonated even more when she learned the secrets that Diane had been hiding.

The first letter arrived in Mary Gillispie’s mailbox in spring 1977 and threatened to expose an affair. Then more letters began arriving, not just addressed to Mary, but also to her husband Ron and hundreds of other residents who were accused of illegal or illicit behavior. This went on for years before someone was arrested. But was it the letter writer, or was it a set up?

Whenever Joan Diver had a few minutes away from her busy life as a mom of four, she’d run on one of Buffalo’s bike path trails. But one day in 2006, she never returned home. Tragically, her body was found two days later underneath some heavy brush alongside the trail. Sketches were released, but did it lead them to her killer, or was it someone they never suspected?

In order to spend more time with our families at Christmas, this is the one time each year that we do a repeat of an episode. Kathy chose the episodes for our first two years, so this year Cathy chose - and she went with Episode 29 - the first case in the US that used genetic genealogy to find the perpetrator and went to trial, resulting in a conviction.