Pretty Wicked

Settle in, friends, because today's story starts with something that should have been completely ordinary: responding to a babysitting ad.

In October 2007, Katherine Ann Olson met a mom named Amy in Savage, Minnesota. Amy needed someone to watch her 5-year-old, and Katherine said yes.

She told her roommate Amy seemed a little strange. She went anyway.

The next morning, a purse turned up in a park trash can, and a suburban police department started pulling on a thread that led somewhere nobody in Minnesota was ready for.

This is the story of who Katherine really was, who was actually behind those emails, and how her case gave the internet a brand new and terrible nickname.

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is written, researched, and hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

FindLaw - State v. Anderson, Supreme Court of Minnesota (2010)

MPR News - Teen charged in death of Minn. woman who answered Craigslist ad

MPR News - Victim in Craigslist murder remembered for warmth, energy

MPR News - Indictments made in Craigslist killing

MPR News - Craigslist founder helps memorialize murder victim

CBS News - Teen Charged In Craigslist Nanny Slaying

CBS News - Craigslist Killer Gets Life Without Parole

NBC News - Police: Woman inquires about online ad, killed

NBC News - Teen charged with killing woman seeking job

NBC News - Killer who lured victim with online ad gets life

Fox News - 19 year old charged in death of woman answering craigslist ad

ABC News - Ad for Online Nanny Lured Woman to Her Death

ABC News - Craigslist Killer Lured Victim With Baby Sitter Ad

Minnesota Daily - Coverage of Katherine Olson's death and the criminal complaint, October 2007

Arizona Daily Wildcat (U-Wire) - Murder brings Craigslist safety in question

Star Tribune - Asperger's diagnosis is rejected in Craigslist trial

Star Tribune - Defense: Shy youth's desire for sex led to 'Craigslist' killing

The Village Voice - Craig Newmark Speaks at Victim's Memorial in Wake of Craigslist Killings

The Village Voice - Craigslist Founder Speaks on Minneapolis "Craigslist Killer" Victim

Savage Pacer - Family finds solace 10 years after Craigslist murder

Worldwide Faith News (ELCA News Service) - Memorial concert on May 3 to benefit ELCA's St. Olaf scholarship

Crime Library - Katherine Ann Olson Lured to Her Death by Internet Classifieds

Crime Library - Katherine Ann Olson Lured to Her Death by Internet Classifieds, continued

Crime Library - Police Have Strong Evidence That Michael John Anderson Was Katherine Ann Olson's Killer

Crime Library - Police Have Strong Evidence, continued

Crime Library - The Illicit List: Minnesota Murder, No Mystery

Crime Library - The Illicit List: The Death of Katherine Olson

Westword - Letters, from the week of May 14, 2009

A&E - Richard Beasley, Philip Markoff and Others: The Many Faces of the Craigslist Killer

Wikipedia - Murder of Katherine Ann Olson

📚 BOOKS

No books were used to research this episode.

🎬 DOCS

CNN - Nancy Grace, broadcast transcript, October 29, 2007

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They say Friday the 13th is unlucky for a reason. Well, on one Friday the 13th back in 1980, in a quiet Texas suburb where everybody goes to the same church and everybody knows everybody's business, that superstition came true in the worst way. Because that morning, a young mom and Sunday school teacher was found dead in her own home, and nobody could make sense of it. She had the husband, the two girls, the whole life.

So who would do this? Well, friends, the answer had been sitting in the next pew the whole time. This week, a friendship, a secret, and one summer morning that turned a quiet Texas town upside down.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Texas Monthly - Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part I: Candy Montgomery's Affair

A&E - The Betty Gore Murder: Could 41 Axe Blows Be Self-Defense?

TODAY - The true story of Candy Montgomery that inspired 'Love and Death'

TODAY - Where are Candy and Pat Montgomery from 'Love and Death' now?

Oxygen - What Happened To Candy Montgomery, Betty Gore?

Newsweek - What Happened to Candy Montgomery and Where Is She Now?

Biography - Where Is Acquitted Murderer Candy Montgomery Now?

📚 BOOKS

Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs - John Bloom and Jim Atkinson (Open Road Media, 1984)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August 2006, a young woman fell to her death from one of the most famous cliffs in the American national park system while hiking with her husband, the only witness. It was ruled an accident. Twenty years later, two phone calls changed everything and in June 2026, the case ended in a way nobody saw coming.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is written, researched, and hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

NBC News - Former Vegas youth pastor charged with murder 20 years after his wife's deadly fall at Zion National Park

NBC News - David Vander Meer, former Vegas youth pastor charged in wife's murder, dies before court appearance

NBC News - Ex-youth pastor accused in wife's 2006 death lived lavishly after insurance payout, authorities allege

CNN - 20 years after his wife fell to her death in Utah, a youth pastor's story unravels

PEOPLE (via AOL) - Cheating pastor sent teenage mistress to confront wife during church tryst months before murder

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Las Vegas man David Vander Meer arrested in 2006 death of wife at Zion National Park

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Bernadette Vander Meer's family reacts to arrest of her ex-husband

Las Vegas Review-Journal - David Vander Meer dies before hearing in 2006 case involving wife's death

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Las Vegas school where Vander Meer counseled issues statement; 'not enough,' parent says

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Bombshell murder charge renews questions about other deaths at Angels Landing

Las Vegas Review-Journal - 'No winners in any of this,' former pastor says of Vander Meer death

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Clark County sheriff addresses Vander Meer case, calls in-custody death 'unique'

Las Vegas Review-Journal - 'A real angelic being': Friend reflects on Bernadette Vander Meer's life and death

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Las Vegas church rehired David Vander Meer as youth pastor despite hearing concerns, former staff say

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Hiker falls to death at Angels Landing in Zion National Park (April 2026)

Las Vegas Review-Journal - Bernadette Vander Meer obituary, published Aug. 26, 2006 (via Legacy.com)

KTNV Channel 13 Las Vegas - 20 years later: What led investigators to charge an ex-Las Vegas youth pastor with murder in his wife's death

KTNV Channel 13 Las Vegas - Family of Las Vegas woman speaks out after husband charged with her murder nearly 20 years later

ABC News - Former youth pastor dies day he was set to appear in court for the 2006 death of his wife

News 3 Las Vegas (KSNV) - 'Suspected him all along': Parents react to arrest of Las Vegas man for wife's death

News 3 Las Vegas (KSNV) - 'She's been vindicated': Family reflects after 2006 Zion murder suspect's death

News 3 Las Vegas (KSNV) - Former youth pastor in Las Vegas arrested in wife's 20-year-old murder case

8 News Now (KLAS) - 'Vindicated': Henderson family of woman killed in 2006 rejoice over former husband's arrest

8 News Now (KLAS) - Family of Zion NP murder victim reacts to suspect's jailhouse suicide

8 News Now (KLAS) - Inside the relationship of Vander Meer and teen girl: Affidavit outlines timeline

8 News Now (KLAS) - Charges filed against Las Vegas man for allegedly murdering wife during Angels Landing hike in 2006

KSL - Husband charged in 2006 death of wife in Angel's Landing fall

KUTV - Former youth pastor charged in wife's death accused of relationship with underage girl

ABC4 Utah - Charges filed against Las Vegas man for allegedly murdering wife during Angels Landing hike in 2006

Fox 13 Utah - Man charged with wife's murder at Zion allegedly had affair with underage girl

Fox News - Former Las Vegas youth pastor accused of murder in death of wife at Zion National Park

St. George News - Details emerge in cold case alleging husband pushed wife to her death at Zion National Park

Backpacker - Man accused of pushing wife off of Angels Landing found dead before court date

The Washington Times - Former Las Vegas pastor dies in custody after being charged in wife's murder at Zion National Park

Deseret News - Texas man identified as hiker who fell at Angels Landing at Zion National Park

📚 BOOKS

None for this episode, this case broke in June 2026, so all research comes from court documents and news coverage.

🎬 DOCS

None yet - this story is only weeks old. Expect coverage to follow!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the winter of 1959, ten experienced hikers set out on a route rated at the highest difficulty level their country had. One turned back early, and the other nine never came home. When searchers found the camp, the tent had been cut open from the inside, and the bodies were scattered across the snow, some barely dressed, some with injuries that made no sense at all. The official investigation ran three months and closed with a conclusion so vague that people are still arguing about it sixty years later. This week we are going up that mountain.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is written, researched, and hosted by Megan Alda.

This episode was written and researched by Chloe Kibbe.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Communications Earth & Environment (Nature) - Mechanisms of slab avalanche release and impact in the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959

National Geographic - Has science solved history's greatest adventure mystery?

BBC News - Dyatlov Pass: Russia opens new investigation into 1959 mystery

The New Yorker - Has an Old Soviet Mystery at Last Been Solved?

Smithsonian Magazine - Has Science Solved the Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass Incident?

Dyatlov Pass (archive site) - Case files, autopsy reports, diaries, and photographs

The Guardian - Dyatlov Pass mystery: Russian prosecutors say avalanche killed hikers

📚 BOOKS

Donnie Eichar - Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Keith McCloskey - Mountain of the Dead: The Dyatlov Pass Incident

🎬 DOCS

Prime Video - Dead Mountain: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013)

Discovery - Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives (2014)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three women. One small house in Springfield, Missouri. On the night of her high school graduation, Stacy McCall followed her friend Suzie Streeter home to spend the night at the house Suzie shared with her mother, Sherrill Levitt. By morning, all three of them were gone. Their cars were in the driveway, their purses were still inside, and the only thing out of place was a broken porch light. 34 years later, the Springfield Three are still missing.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is written, researched, and hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Wikipedia - Springfield Three

City of Springfield, MO - Three Missing Women

FBI ViCAP - The Springfield Three - Springfield, Missouri

KY3 - The Springfield Three: What we know about the cold case

KY3 - The Springfield 3: June 7 marks 34 years since the disappearance

KY3 - Three Missing Women: A look back at the case 27 years later

NBC Dateline - 30 years later family still seeking answers

Newsweek - Three Women Vanished. More Than 30 Years Later, No One Knows What Happened

Springfield Daily Citizen - Missing women: Theories and investigations into The Springfield Three cold case

Unresolved - The Springfield Three, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

The Charley Project - Suzanne Elizabeth Streeter

True Crime Society - The missing Springfield Three

Ozarks First - Crime Traveler: The case of Springfield Three continues to haunt the city 30 years later

True Crime News - Crime Watch Daily investigates the mysterious disappearance of 'the Springfield Three'

🎬 DOCS

Crime Watch Daily - The Springfield Three investigation (2017)

NBC Dateline - Missing in America: The Springfield Three

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I'm revisiting one of the most infamous cases in American true crime; a woman the press called the Damsel of Death. Between 1989 and 1990, seven men were found dead along the highways of central Florida, and the person behind it was the last kind of suspect anyone expected.

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

This episode was researched and written by Chloe Kibbe.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Britannica - Aileen Wuornos

Capital Punishment in Context - The Case of Aileen Wuornos - The Facts

A&E - Case File: Aileen Wuornos

Justia - Wuornos v. State, Supreme Court of Florida (1994)

📚 BOOKS

Dead Ends: The Pursuit, Conviction, and Execution of Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos by Michael Reynolds

Lethal Intent by Sue Russell

Monster: My True Story by Aileen Wuornos with Christopher Berry-Dee

🎬 DOCS

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992), dir. Nick Broomfield

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), dir. Nick Broomfield

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A married, middle-aged man lies about his age online to chase a girl he thinks is eighteen. But he's not the only one catfishing. The girl he thinks is eighteen isn't exactly who she says she is either. And when a real young man comes into the picture, the whole thing turns into obsession, threats, and eventually murder.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

ABC News (20/20) - Online Love Triangle, Deception End in Murder

CBS News - Internet Love Triangle Comes To Deadly End

CBC News - Web user sentenced for killing online rival

Fox News - 22-Year-Old New York Man Murdered After Being Drawn Into Internet Love Triangle

The Daily Beast - Web's Killer Love Triangle

Greater Niagara Newspapers - MURDER: Guilty plea in Internet love triangle

Greater Niagara Newspapers - COURTS: Montgomery gets 20 years in 'Internet love triangle' killing

🎬 DOCS

Talhotblond (2009), directed by Barbara Schroeder

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 13-year-old boy walks home from a basketball court in San Antonio and vanishes. Three years later, his family flies across the world to bring him home from Spain. There's just one problem. The young man they pick up isn't their son. He isn't even American. He's a 23-year-old Frenchman with brown eyes, dark hair, and an accent you could spot from across a room. And somehow, for nearly five months, nobody in that family said a word. This is the story of Frédéric Bourdin, the impostor the world came to call the Chameleon, and the missing boy whose name he wore like a coat.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

The New Yorker - The Chameleon

The Scotsman - Interview: The private detective who uncovered The Imposter

The Mirror US - Our missing son returned home after three years, but it was actually a French conman

KSAT - Case of missing San Antonio boy from 1994 remains a mystery

The Charley Project - Nicholas Patrick Barclay

Swallowing The Camel - Fake Teens V: Serial Teen Frederic Bourdin

Grunge - Frederic Bourdin: The Crazy True Story Of A Serial Impostor

📚 BOOKS

David Grann - The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (contains the expanded "Chameleon" essay)

Christophe D'Antonio - Le Caméléon (the authorized Bourdin biography)

🎬 DOCS

The Imposter (2012), directed by Bart Layton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forerunners that knock before a death. A fish that spoke the language of the dead. A phantom ship still burning on the same stretch of water two hundred years on. And a woman who walks a beach made of bones. These are the ghost stories of Canada's Atlantic coast, where the sea takes what it wants and sometimes sends it back.

SHOW NOTES

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Helen Creighton Folklore Society - Significant Stories

Saint Mary's University - Modernity, Myth and Memory on Nova Scotia's Devil's Island

NS Ghost Stories - Devil's Island, Where Spirits Still Roam

NS Ghost Stories - Peggy's Cove, Ghost of the Lady in Blue

Friends of McNabs Island - Devils Island

MyNewBrunswick.ca - Legend of Money Cove

MyNewBrunswick.ca - A Pirate Ghost on Grand Manan

Maclean's Archive - The Fiery Phantom That Sails Bay Chaleur, 1951

Fox Harb'r Resort - The Ghost Ship of the Northumberland Strait

NUVO Magazine - The Flaming Ghost Ship of Prince Edward Island

PEI Lighthouse Society - West Point

CBC News - Are old lighthouse keepers haunting West Point?

CBC News - Sable Island: Shipwrecks at the graveyard of the Atlantic

Mysteries of Canada - Doppelganger Stories from Canada

📚 BOOKS

Helen Creighton, Bluenose Ghosts (Ryerson Press, 1957)

Helen Creighton, Bluenose Magic (1968)

Julie V. Watson, Ghost Stories and Legends of Prince Edward Island (1988)

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A birthday sleepover. Three best friends. A game of hide and seek in the woods. By the time it was over, one girl was crawling toward a road with nineteen stab wounds, and the other two were walking toward something they swore was real. That was 2014. Eleven years later, one of them cut off her ankle monitor and ran.

🖤 FOLLOW PRETTY WICKED

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

Please leave a rating and review. It helps more than you know!

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

ABC News - Slender Man Stabbing Survivor's Parents: 'She's Meant to Do Something Special'

ABC News - 'Slender Man' Interrogation Tapes Reveal Shocking New Details About Alleged Stabbing Plot

ABC News - Mothers of teens who pleaded guilty in 'Slender Man' stabbing case say there were no warning signs of violence

ABC News - 'Slender Man' teen to be released, survivor's family wishes she served longer sentence

ABC News - Slender Man Stabbing Timeline: Out of the Woods

ABC News - Slender Man stabbing victim speaks publicly for first time: 'Without the whole situation, I wouldn't be who I am'

Newsweek - The Girls Who Tried to Kill for Slender Man

Newsweek - How Slenderman, the Internet's Horror Star, Crawled out of Creepypasta

New York Magazine via Harvard Center for Law, Brain & Behavior - Slender Man Is Watching

NBC News - 911 Call Released in Waukesha 'Slender Man' Stabbings

NBC News - 'Slender Man' Victim's Family Thankful for Special Day

NBC News - The 'Slender Man' stabber made a close new friend — then ran away so they could be together

CNN - What we know about Morgan Geyser's 24-hours on the run more than a decade after the 'Slender Man' stabbing took place

Courthouse News Service - Slender Man stabber loses conditional release after escape

WBAY/AP - Conditional release of Morgan Geyser upheld by judge

WTMJ - Conditional release plan moves forward for accused "Slenderman" stabber Morgan Geyser

WTMJ - Conditional release finally approved for Slenderman stabber Morgan Geyser

TMJ4 News - Judge approves conditional release plan for woman convicted in Slender Man stabbing

TMJ4 News - Morgan Geyser arrested in Illinois after cutting off ankle bracelet, fleeing group home

TMJ4 News - Slender Man trial: Jury finds Anissa Weier mentally ill, won't face prison

FOX6 Milwaukee - Slenderman stabbing case: Court learns what private investigator found in Morgan Geyser's bedroom

FOX6 Milwaukee - Slender Man stabbing: Morgan Geyser escapes, group home neighbors react

ABC7 Chicago - Morgan Geyser 911 calls detail Slender Man attacker's escape from Madison group home

ABC7 Chicago - Where is Morgan Geyser now? Wisconsin judge sends suspect in Slender Man stabbing back to mental health institution

ABC7 Chicago - Morgan Geyser waives extradition after escape from Wisconsin group home

WKOW - DOC places three staff on leave during investigation into Morgan Geyser's escape from group home

WMTV - Despite escape, state finds no supervision violations at Morgan Geyser's group home

CBS 58 - The Latest: Jury finds Anissa Weier not criminally responsible for stabbing classmate due to mental illness

CBS News Minnesota/AP - Wisconsin Judge Orders Release Of Anissa Weier In Slender Man Stabbing

Court TV - Judge approves conditional release plan for Morgan Geyser

Patch.com - Slenderman Trial: Anissa Weier Sentence Is 25 Years

Inverse - Mr. CreepyPasta Explains the Problem with 'Slenderman'

Biography.com - Slender Man Attacker Morgan Geyser Is Back in Custody After Sparking a Brief Manhunt

A&E - The Slender-Man Inspired Attempted Murder of a Sixth Grader

Heavy - Payton Leutner's Injuries in the Slender Man Stabbing

Heavy - Morgan Geyser's Parents: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Crime + Investigation UK - The Slender Man stabbing: Attempted murder inspired by an urban legend

All That's Interesting - Who Is Payton Leutner, The Girl Who Nearly Died In The Infamous Slender Man Stabbing?

Jezebel - There's More Than One Boogeyman in the Slender Man Doc

Inside Edition - Slender Man Fan Who Tried to Kill Friend at 12 Gets Release Hearing

Good Morning America - Cyclist Recalls Finding Slender Man Stabbing Victim

LegalClarity - Anissa and Morgan Case: Charges, Mental Health, and Release

📚 BOOKS

Slenderman: A Tragic Story of Online Obsession and Mental Illness - Kathleen Hale, 2022

Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man: The Development of an Internet Mythology - Shira Chess and Eric Newsom, 2014

Slender Man Is Coming: Creepypasta and Contemporary Legends on the Internet - edited by Trevor J. Blank and Lynne S. McNeill, 2018

🎬 DOCUMENTARY & FURTHER LISTENING

Beware the Slenderman - HBO, 2016, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky

20/20: Out of the Woods - ABC News, September 2014, with David Muir

20/20: 'Out of the Woods' - ABC News, October 2019, Payton Leutner's first interview, with David Muir

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices