"£1,200 for a room where you can touch both walls while lying on the bed. £2,000 for a studio with a view of a brick wall. And that's before you learn that 'bills included' might mean mold, mice, and a landlord who lives downstairs."
In this stress-releasing sleep story, we follow Alex as she moves from Sydney to London for a dream job offer—only to discover that London's rental market is a nightmare dressed in Rightmove listings. Join her as she scrolls past "cosy" rooms (translation: closet-sized), attends viewings where the shower is in the kitchen, and questions every life decision that led to this moment.
When she finally finds a flat she can afford, the agent asks for six months' rent upfront and a guarantor who owns property in the UK. She has neither. But after two weeks of hostel bunk beds and cold calls, an unexpected message appears: a Londoner she barely knows offers her a room in Hackney—at a price that makes her cry (in a good way).
Narrated in calm, neutral tones—not for comedy, but for comfort. A story about exhausting searches, brutal trade-offs, and the quiet kindness of strangers. No conflict, no horror (rental listings are scary enough). Perfect for falling asleep after your own long day of adult decisions. Press play and let London's rental chaos carry you to dreamland.


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"I was cleaning his room. I found a plastic bag. It was heavy. Covered in maggots." Those were the words of Terri Cohee as she described the moment she discovered a severed human head in her 19-year-old son's closet [citation:3]. She called his father first, then dialed 911. When police arrived, Brian Cohee calmly walked outside and confessed: "I murdered him with a knife. I always wanted to know what murder felt like" [citation:5].
The victim was Warren Barnes, a 69-year-old homeless man known as "The Reading Man" who spent his days quietly reading outside a Grand Junction bridal store [citation:5]. On February 27, 2021, Cohee drove around searching for a victim—specifically a homeless person or prostitute, believing no one would miss them [citation:5]. He found Barnes sleeping under a Highway 340 overpass, donned three layers of gloves, and stabbed him repeatedly while making "animalistic noises" [citation:3]. He later returned to dismember the body, bagging Barnes's head and hands and storing them in his closet [citation:6].
During interrogation, Cohee smiled and laughed while describing the murder [citation:1]. He admitted he had fantasized about killing for six months [citation:3]. Despite pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in February 2023. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole—and noted it was the most horrific case he'd seen in nearly four decades on the bench [citation:6]. Listener discretion absolutely required.


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"The family thought their house was haunted. They heard tapping in the walls at night. Objects moved. Ketchup messages appeared on mirrors. They even called a priest." But the monster wasn't a ghost. It was a 16-year-old boy who had been living inside their walls for months — watching, waiting, and escalating toward murder.
In this chilling true crime episode, we investigate the case of Daniel LaPlante, a Massachusetts teenager whose crimes progressed from outlandish to unspeakable [citation:1]. In 1986, LaPlante secretly lived inside the Bowen family's home in Pepperell, hiding in crawl spaces and emerging at night to terrorize them [citation:7]. The family genuinely believed they were dealing with a demonic haunting — until they discovered the horrifying truth.
But LaPlante's dark obsession didn't end there. On December 1, 1987, he entered the home of Priscilla Gustafson, a nursery school teacher in Townsend, Massachusetts [citation:2]. He raped her and shot her twice at close range through a pillow [citation:6]. He then drowned her two young children — seven-year-old Abigail and five-year-old William — in separate bathrooms [citation:6]. Priscilla was pregnant at the time of her death [citation:6].
After a massive manhunt involving police dogs and helicopters, LaPlante was captured hiding in a dumpster [citation:6]. He was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to three consecutive life terms — with the possibility of parole only after 45 years [citation:6]. A forensic psychiatrist later evaluated LaPlante and found that he was not remorseful for his crimes [citation:6].
This is the story of the teenage boy who hid in the walls and graduated to murder. Listener discretion absolutely required.


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"The realtor saw them first. Two bodies, seated upright by the pool, leather belts looped around their necks. The initial police theory? Murder-suicide. The truth? Far darker—and eight years later, still unsolved."
On December 15, 2017, Canadian billionaire Apotex founder Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife Honey, 70, were found dead in their Toronto mansion [citation:1]. They had been murdered two nights earlier, on December 13 [citation:7]. Pathologists determined death by ligature strangulation—thin plastic ties around their necks, wrists bound while alive, though no ties were ever found [citation:1][citation:8]. The killer staged the scene: leather belts, added after death, kept them posed upright [citation:1][citation:5].
Toronto police first pursued a murder-suicide theory—Barry killing Honey, then himself—despite forensic evidence to the contrary [citation:2]. A privately hired second autopsy exposed this error, and police switched to a double homicide investigation six weeks later [citation:8][citation:5]. But critical early leads were lost [citation:2].
A toxic email chain, discovered weeks before the murders—Barry wrote "You have been abusive to me for over 40 years"—may have misled initial investigators [citation:4][citation:10].
Now, in 2026, the case remains cold. The Toronto Star is locked in a legal battle to unseal more than 4,000 police documents [citation:1][citation:7]. Only one detective works the case part-time. The killer is still unknown.


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"He was a divorced father of three, happily engaged, and on his way to work at the remote Arizona copper mine. In the early morning darkness of February 10, 2020, 35-year-old Matthew Misener drove into the 'Horseshoe Curve' on US Route 191 between Clifton and Morenci. He never came out."
A passerby found his black Chevrolet Tahoe riddled with 14 bullets on the driver's side. Matthew had been shot three times in the head with a 9mm pistol and died at the scene. What looked like a random road rage attack soon revealed itself as a cold-blooded conspiracy—orchestrated by the person who knew him best.
For months, Matthew had been locked in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, Georgina Misener, over their three children. Georgina had faked a cancer diagnosis to manipulate his visitation rights, even sending him stolen photos of a shaved head. She had also filed a false child abuse complaint against him and his fiancée, Nicole Chacon.
But on February 10, 2020, hours before a court hearing where Matthew was expected to win full custody, the trap was sprung. Georgina's new boyfriend, 36-year-old Eduardo Montano Jr., was the triggerman. He had stalked Matthew days earlier, photographed his vehicle, and on the fateful morning, ambushed him at the isolated bend.
After a tip led police to a white sedan seen fleeing the scene, detectives arrested Montano. The murder weapon—a 9mm pistol with 14 missing rounds—was found in his bedroom. His own grandfather contradicted his alibi. Georgina was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 33¾ years in prison. Justice was served.


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"When Joleen Cummings didn't pick up her children on Mother's Day 2018, her family knew something was wrong. They couldn't have imagined the truth: she had already been murdered, dismembered, and thrown in a dumpster—by the new co-worker she had just begun to suspect wasn't who she claimed to be."
In this chilling true crime episode, we investigate the 2018 murder of Joleen Cummings, a 34-year-old mother of three and hairstylist at Tangles Hair Salon in Fernandina Beach, Florida [citation:1][citation:3]. The last person to see her was a co-worker named Jennifer Sybert—who promptly quit her job and fled when police arrived [citation:1][citation:6]. But Jennifer Sybert didn't exist. The real Jennifer Sybert had died as a teenager in Pennsylvania. The woman using her identity was Kimberly Kessler, a fugitive who had been missing from Butler County since 2004 and had lived under at least 18 aliases across 30 cities in 14 states [citation:3][citation:8].
Kessler had been running from the FBI for 25 years [citation:4]. But she made one fatal mistake: she left Joleen's blood all over the salon. Crime scene investigators used Luminol, and the entire salon "lit up"—blood on walls, chairs, cabinets, scissors, mop handles, even a bleach bottle [citation:6][citation:8]. Kessler's internet searches included "how to dismember a body," and surveillance showed her buying an electric carving knife, gloves, and trash bags [citation:2][citation:4]. She was also seen on camera dumping heavy garbage bags into a dumpster behind the salon—bags that were never recovered [citation:6][citation:8].
After a hunger strike that dropped her weight to 74 pounds and bizarre behavior including smearing feces on herself, Kessler was ruled competent for trial [citation:3][citation:6]. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding her guilty of first-degree murder [citation:4][citation:7]. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Joleen's body has never been found [citation:1][citation:5]. But justice was served. Listener discretion advised.


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"When Joleen Cummings didn't pick up her children on Mother's Day 2018, her family knew something was wrong. They couldn't have imagined the truth: she had already been murdered, dismembered, and thrown in a dumpster—by the new co-worker she had just begun to suspect wasn't who she claimed to be."
In this chilling true crime episode, we investigate the 2018 murder of Joleen Cummings, a 34-year-old mother of three and hairstylist at Tangles Hair Salon in Fernandina Beach, Florida [citation:1][citation:3]. The last person to see her was a co-worker named Jennifer Sybert—who promptly quit her job and fled when police arrived [citation:1][citation:6]. But Jennifer Sybert didn't exist. The real Jennifer Sybert had died as a teenager in Pennsylvania. The woman using her identity was Kimberly Kessler, a fugitive who had been missing from Butler County since 2004 and had lived under at least 18 aliases across 30 cities in 14 states [citation:3][citation:8].
Kessler had been running from the FBI for 25 years [citation:4]. But she made one fatal mistake: she left Joleen's blood all over the salon. Crime scene investigators used Luminol, and the entire salon "lit up"—blood on walls, chairs, cabinets, scissors, mop handles, even a bleach bottle [citation:6][citation:8]. Kessler's internet searches included "how to dismember a body," and surveillance showed her buying an electric carving knife, gloves, and trash bags [citation:2][citation:4]. She was also seen on camera dumping heavy garbage bags into a dumpster behind the salon—bags that were never recovered [citation:6][citation:8].
After a hunger strike that dropped her weight to 74 pounds and bizarre behavior including smearing feces on herself, Kessler was ruled competent for trial [citation:3][citation:6]. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding her guilty of first-degree murder [citation:4][citation:7]. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Joleen's body has never been found [citation:1][citation:5]. But justice was served. Listener discretion advised.


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"She smiled. She cried. She changed her story three times in two hours." Deborah thought she could outsmart the detectives—using charm, tears, and carefully crafted lies to deflect suspicion. But when they played the audio from her own phone, her face went white. The manipulation stopped. And reality set in.
In this gripping true crime interrogation episode, we examine the case of a female suspect who believed her emotional performance would save her. Using interrogation transcripts and body language analysis, we walk through her initial confidence, her mid-interview contradictions, and the exact moment she realized the evidence had already convicted her—before she even spoke.
Featuring criminal psychologists who explain the "performative tear" phenomenon, how detectives weaponize silence against manipulative suspects, and why overconfident liars always leave digital footprints they can't erase. No graphic violence—just the chilling collapse of a woman who thought she was smarter than the room. Press play for the case where manipulation met its match.


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"She left her children with a babysitter. She told friends she was meeting someone. Then she walked into a hotel room—and made the worst decision of her life."
In this shocking true crime episode, we investigate the murder of 33-year-old Samantha Runnion, who was found naked from the waist down and stabbed three times in the face, neck, and chest in a field near her home in Bloomingdale, Georgia . Her body was abandoned, her Pontiac Grand Am left parked nearby. Samantha was a mother of two boys, ages 13 and 15, and awaiting trial in a separate drug case at the time of her death.
The investigation led police to David Lee Taylor Jr.—a 23-year-old who had reportedly contacted Samantha the night of her murder . But what makes this case unforgettable isn't just the violence—it's what happened before. According to reports, Samantha had gone out intending to have a threesome. Instead, the encounter turned deadly. Taylor was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, concealing a death, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony .
But the deeper tragedy? Samantha's 13-year-old son was the one who found her body. When the babysitter couldn't reach her, the boy went searching—and walked into a nightmare his mother never imagined he would see.
Listener discretion advised—graphic content involving adult situations and violence. Press play for the case where a night that was supposed to be "just for fun" ended in a body abandoned in a field.


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"Newlyweds. Just 22 and 28. Shot to death in their home—and the killer went to their funeral."
For 25 years, the murders of Gail and Rick Brink haunted Ottawa County, Michigan. On November 21, 1987, the young couple returned home from a wedding. Rick was shot twice in the head inside his Chevy Blazer. Gail was shot three times in the head while lying in their waterbed [citation:4]. No forced entry. Nothing stolen. The case went cold [citation:9].
The killer? Gail's older brother, Ryan Wyngarden. For decades, he hid in plain sight—even telling a reporter they were "the nicest people in the world" [citation:10]. But in 2011, the Ottawa County Cold Case Team reopened the investigation [citation:3]. Detectives Venus Repper and David Blakely conducted over 200 interviews, piecing together tattered documents [citation:3].
The breakthrough came when Wyngarden's own wife, Pam, broke decades of silence. She testified that hours after the murders, he took her to see the bodies and confessed—driven by jealousy and a dark secret: a past sexual relationship with his sister that he feared her husband would discover [citation:4][citation:7]. On January 18, 2013, Ryan Wyngarden was arrested [citation:3]. Convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, he received two life sentences without parole [citation:4]. "Justice Served," reads a plaque donated by a friend who waited 27 years [citation:5].


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