Between 2001 and 2017, at least 75 women were strangled or smothered in Chicago. Many were found in alleys, vacant buildings, garbage cans, and other places where it was easy for their deaths to become separate case files instead of a citywide emergency. The women were daughters, mothers, artists, business owners, caregivers, and friends. Their names included Angela Ford, Gwendolyn Williams, Nancy Walker, Margaret Gomez, Teresa Bunn, Hazel Lewis, and Rio Renee Holyfield.

In 2018, the Chicago Tribune identified 75 women whose cases showed a devastating pattern. 25 cases had been closed, while more than two thirds remained unsolved. Families and advocates had long questioned whether some of the murders were connected. The term "Chicago Strangler" became shorthand for those fears, but Chicago police have said there is no evidence that one person killed every woman in the group. The available evidence points to an even more difficult possibility: some cases may be linked, some may involve multiple offenders, and far too many families are still waiting for answers.

We discuss the women at the heart of these cases, the investigation that revealed the scale of the failures, and the work advocates continue to do to make sure they are not forgotten.

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In June 2006, 24 year old Lori Ann Slesinski left an Auburn Walmart to pick up drink mixes before a night at her best friend’s house. She never arrived. Days later, her Yorkshire Terrier, Peanut, was found safe in her mobile home, but Lori was gone. Her kitchen rugs and telephone cord were missing, the answering machine messages had disappeared, and her Mazda was later found burned on a secluded Auburn street.

Lori’s friend Derrill Richard Ennis, known as Rick, was the last person known to be with her. He claimed she had left to make a drug deal, but police found nothing to support that story. The case went cold for years, even as questions remained about the evidence inside Lori’s home and near her burned vehicle.

Sixteen years later, investigators rebuilt the case without Lori’s body. A jury ultimately found Derrill guilty of capital murder, but Lori’s remains have never been recovered. We cover Lori’s disappearance, the cold case investigation, and the trial that brought her family a measure of justice.

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Today, we’re replaying our 2024 episode about Emma Compton Layne, a woman remembered by the people who loved her for her generous heart, her contagious joy, and the way she always showed up for her family. Emma disappeared in June 2017 after working at her store in Halifax County, Virginia. Months later, her remains were found, leaving her loved ones with years of grief and unanswered questions.

Since we first shared Emma’s story, there has been a significant development in the case. In November 2024, Emma’s husband, Russell Wayne Layne, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death. As this episode is re-released, his trial is underway. We’re revisiting Emma’s case because she deserves to be remembered not only for what happened to her, but for the life she lived and the love she gave so freely. Our hearts are with Emma’s family and everyone who continues to carry her memory through this difficult time.

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In the fall of 1988, Peggy Carr, her son Duane Dubberly, and her stepson Travis Carr became violently ill inside their rural Florida home. The symptoms were strange and terrifying: severe nerve pain, numbness, weakness, trouble walking, and eventually, hair loss. Doctors discovered they had been exposed to thallium, a rare and deadly heavy metal.

The source was even more disturbing. Someone had carefully opened glass bottles of Coca-Cola, added thallium, resealed the caps, and placed the bottles inside the Carr home. Peggy died after spending more than four months in a coma. Six other members of the household were also poisoned, including a young child.

The investigation pointed to George Trepal, the Carr family's next-door neighbor. He had chemistry knowledge, a history of disputes with the family, and a bottle-capping machine in his garage. We cover the poisoning, the undercover operation that gave investigators access to Trepal's home, the trial, and the later questions about FBI testimony that did not overturn his conviction.

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When 32-year-old nurse Alex Pennig was found dead inside the bathroom of her St. Paul apartment, the man who called 911, Matthew Ecker, insisted she had taken her own life behind a locked door. Alex had struggled with depression and addiction in the past, and at first, there were details that seemed to support his story. But the scene inside the bathroom told a much more complicated story.

Investigators found a strangely clean gun resting on Alex’s chest, almost no blood on Matthew despite his claims that he had tried to save her, and a bathroom door that didn’t seem to fit his version of events. Matthew’s explanation of what happened also began to change. Then, underneath Alex’s head, investigators discovered a tiny piece of metal from the bathroom door’s locking mechanism, which was the evidence they believed showed the door had been forced open before Alex was shot.

We cover Alex’s life and the struggles she worked so hard to overcome, her complicated relationship with Matthew, the final hours before her death, the inconsistencies investigators found inside her apartment, and the small piece of evidence that helped reveal what really happened behind that bathroom door.

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On September 14, 2007, 14-year-old Andrew Gosden left his home in Doncaster dressed for school. After his family left for the day, he returned home, changed out of his uniform, withdrew £200 from his bank account, and bought a one-way ticket to London.

Andrew arrived at King’s Cross Station at 11:20 that morning. CCTV captured him walking out of the station alone five minutes later. That is the last confirmed image of him. Nearly 19 years later, his family still does not know why he went to London or what happened after he arrived.

We cover Andrew’s life, the carefully planned trip, the missed opportunities in the early investigation, the possible sightings, and the questions that remain in one of the United Kingdom’s most enduring missing person cases.

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For months, Harold Allen suffered from worsening illnesses that doctors could not fully explain. When he died in Freetown, Indiana, just days before Christmas 2022, his death was attributed to serious cardiac problems. His family believed they had lost him to a sudden decline in his health.

Nine months later, a burglary at the home of Harold’s widow, Marsha Allen, gave investigators a reason to look again. What began as a break in led detectives to thousands of text messages between Marsha and her daughter, Ashley Jones, and evidence of a poisoning plot that included a root beer float. In 2025, Ashley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Marsha died before she was charged.

We cover Harold’s life, the illnesses that were not what they seemed, the burglary that changed the investigation, and the evidence that finally explained what happened.

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In March 2010, Holly Bartlett, a 31 year old blind public servant and graduate student, left a party in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and took a cab toward her condo. Seven hours later, ironworkers found her critically injured inside a fenced area beneath the MacKay Bridge, less than 1,000 feet from her home.

Police concluded Holly became disoriented after leaving the cab, entered the restricted area, climbed a steep concrete abutment, and fell. But the people who knew Holly best struggled to accept that explanation. Holly had spent years mastering the orientation and mobility skills that allowed her to live independently. Her cane was later found leaning against a fence after police and a search dog had already searched the area. Her phone and wallet were discovered scattered in her condo parking lot. The cab driver, Paul Fraser, gave changing accounts of what happened after he dropped her off.

A 2014 independent review upheld the accidental death finding, but criticized important parts of the original investigation, including delayed neighborhood canvassing and the brief initial interview with the last person known to see Holly alive. We cover Holly's life, the final night that cannot be fully reconstructed, and the questions her family still carries.

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In September 1987, Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret were found shot to death inside their Biloxi, Mississippi home. Vincent was a former Air Force colonel, a law professor, and a sitting circuit court judge. Margaret was a prominent local attorney and politician. Neither had any known enemies. The investigation would take years and lead directly into the heart of the Dixie Mafia, a loose network of contract killers, drug smugglers, and corrupt officials who had turned Biloxi's Gulf Coast into one of the most lawless stretches in the American South.

What investigators eventually uncovered was that Vincent's own law partner, Peter Hallett, had pointed Dixie Mafia hitman Kirksey Nix toward the Sherrys to protect himself from a money dispute he had no clean way out of. Peter stood at the Sherry family's side at the funeral. He handed out copies of the eulogy to the press. He described Vincent and Margaret as family.Convictions were eventually secured for racketeering, fraud, conspiracy, and murder-for-hire. But no one was ever charged with pulling the trigger inside the Sherry home. The murders technically remain unsolved.

We cover the full story, including the Dixie Mafia, the corruption that made Biloxi a criminal safe haven, the Sherry family, and the betrayal that set everything in motion.

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On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded a flight in Portland, handed a flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb, and walked away with $200,000 in ransom after jumping out of the plane somewhere over the Pacific Northwest. He was never identified. His body was never found. And to this day, most of the money has never turned up.To the public, it looked like he got away with it. That was enough.

In the months and years that followed, a string of men tried to copy what Dan (or who the public would know him by) D.B. Cooper had done boarding planes with fake bombs, demanding money and parachutes, and attempting to disappear into the sky. Some lost their nerve. Some were surrounded before they ever got off the ground. One actually knew how to use a parachute, landed successfully in a Colorado wheat field, and then discovered that the U.S. Air Force had been watching him the entire way down.

We cover the original D.B. Cooper hijacking and the copycats who followed, and why nearly all of them demonstrated just how unlikely his disappearance really was.

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