In August of 1993, ten-year-old Holly Kristen Piirainen vanished while visiting her grandparents’ cottage in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. She’d walked just a few hundred yards down a dirt road to see a neighbour’s puppies...and never came back. Seventy-nine days later, hunters discovered her remains in the woods of nearby Brimfield.

More than thirty years later, Holly’s killer has never been caught. In this episode, we retrace that summer day, the massive search that followed, and the decades of leads, suspects, and heartbreak. From the Stanger brothers’ eerie connection to the Molly Bish case, to convicted rapist Gerald Battistoni’s proximity to the scene, and the mysterious “Boston” tank top found near Holly’s body — every clue feels close but never close enough.

Now, with modern DNA testing and genetic genealogy back in the spotlight, investigators are hoping technology will finally reveal what time has buried. The Hampden District Attorney’s Office is even hosting another FIGG DNA drive on November 9, 2025, inviting locals to provide cheek-swab samples that could generate long-overdue answers.

Because somewhere in those quiet Massachusetts woods, the truth is still waiting to be found.

⚠️ Listener Discretion:
This episode contains discussion of child abduction and murder. Please take care of yourself while listening.

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Sources:
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/da-to-release-new-details-in-1993-killing-of-10-year-old-mass-girl/2960667/ 

https://www.helpholly.com/

https://www.facebook.com/hollypiirainen 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/investigators-link-dead-mass-man-to-site-where-body-of-10-year-old-holly-piirainen-was-found/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1505090837301831/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22your_upcoming_events_unit%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22bookmark%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

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It’s the urban legend every parent has whispered at least once: “Check your candy, you never know what could be inside.” But in 1974, that warning wasn’t just a myth. In Pasadena, Texas, eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan was poisoned by a Pixy Stix laced with cyanide, handed to him by his own father.

This is the horrifying true story of Ronald O’Bryan, the man the media dubbed The Candyman Killer. He wasn’t a stranger lurking in the shadows or a neighbour with bad intentions. He was a dad in financial ruin who saw his son’s life as a quick payday.

Sources:

https://texasarchive.org/2017_03761 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/halloween-killer-ronald-clark-o-bryan-candy-man/ 

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/01/us/killer-of-son-is-executed-in-texas-after-asking-forgiveness-for-all.html 

https://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/Common/HistoricalDocument/pdf/COTM_Oct_2021.pdf

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To ring in 150 EPISODES, Kaydra invites some friends to the show to read some of their favorite spooky stories from the internet. Happy Halloween!

This episode was produced and edited by Kaydra Brannan, the host of Perplexity: A Mystery Podcast. https://www.perplexitymysterypodcast.com/

Show Notes:

Perplexity: A Mystery Podcast https://www.perplexitymysterypodcast.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/1dgll4w/my_wife_and_i_saw_our_5_year_old_daughter_but/

Believing the Bizarre https://believingthebizarre.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/ParanormalEncounters/s/pSiiHaLfSw

Lets Get Haunted: letsgethaunted.com 

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/BackwoodsCreepy/comments/esx890/my_first_time_backpacking/ 

All video assets purchased/licensed from here: https://www.pexels.com 

All sound effects purchased/licensed from here: https://artlist.io/sfx  

Music: “Scary Forest Ambience” by DL Sounds, purchased here: https://www.editingsounds.com/royalty-free-music/scary-forest-ambience/

Drinking the Koolaid https://www.dtkpod.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/s/ecZb8zhu6R

Live, Laugh, Larceny https://www.livelaughlarceny.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/creepyencounters/comments/lv0ifn/i_heard_a_creepy_voice_whisper_help_while_walking/ 

Music: Experia / Brain Hurts from the Memories / Courtesy of Epidemic Sound

Serial Napper https://serialnapper.com/

Story: https://www.wattpad.com/594413960-short-horror-stories-look-at-me

Scare You To Sleep https://www.scareyoutosleep.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/ke896c/i_died_last_night_but_im_still_here/

Lets Not Meet https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/ParanormalEncounters/comments/16uxnlg/something_in_my_house_perfectly_mimicked_my_sons/

Truly Twisted, Twisted & Uncorked Podcast  https://open.spotify.com/show/6Pvr5mpNCgvToOehPV8xEE

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truly-twisted-where-real-stories-take-a-twisted-turn/id1800597032?i=1000700047299

https://www.twistedanduncorked.com/

Story: https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/s/8kh2WHUxet

Scared All The Time Podcast https://scaredallthetimepodcast.com/

Story: http://web.archive.org/web/19981203004349/http:/www.ghosts.org/stories/tales/evil-kids.html

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In the summer of 1990, Gainesville, Florida, was a humid little college town buzzing with new school year jitters...until one week changed everything.

Within days, five University of Florida students were brutally murdered in their homes. Doors were barricaded, classes cancelled, and the city descended into full-blown terror. The killer was methodical, staging his victims like something out of a horror film. And he was closer than anyone imagined.

This is the story of Daniel Rolling, the man who would become known as The Gainesville Ripper, a drifter raised in abuse and chaos, who left a trail of horror. Before his crimes inspired the movie Scream, they shattered a town and haunted a generation.

This episode dives into how one man turned a college campus into a real-life nightmare. Lock your doors. Check them again. Then press play.

Sources:

https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/psyc%20405/serial%20killers/rolling,%20danny%20-%202004.pdf 

https://ffplaw.com/notable-case/the-gainesville-student-murders/

https://murderpedia.org/male.R/r1/rolling-daniel-harold.htm

https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Danny_Rolling

https://www.biography.com/news/danny-rolling-scream-killer-gainesville 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/danny-rolling-gainesville-ripper

https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-louisiana-helped-break-case-student-murders-florida/story?id=76900692

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Tonight on Serial Napper, we’re stepping into the strange, tragic world of Grady Stiles Jr., better known as Lobster Boy, the carnival performer born with fused “claw-like” hands who turned his sideshow fame into a nightmare for everyone around him.

From his childhood under the tent lights of the travelling freak show to his reign of terror at home, Grady’s story blurs the line between fascination and exploitation, between monster and victim. After years of abuse, drinking, and unchecked violence, the very family he tortured finally decided to end the show for good.

Set in Gibsonton, Florida, a town built by and for carnival performers, this case feels almost too bizarre to be real...elephants in backyards, low mailboxes for dwarfs, high ones for giants, and one family whose dark legacy became circus legend.

It’s a chilling tale of power, pain, and revenge under the big top.

Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-11-06-mn-59142-story.html

https://allthatsinteresting.com/lobster-boy

https://www.factinate.com/people/grady-stiles-facts

https://www.historicmysteries.com/major-crimes/lobster-boy-grady-stiles/6401/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/26/welcome-to-gibtown-the-last-freakshow-town-in-america

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Napa Valley, famous for its wine, rolling hills, and peaceful small-town charm, wasn’t the kind of place where doors stayed locked or nightmares felt real. But on Halloween night, 2004, that illusion shattered when two young women were brutally murdered in their own home.

In this episode of Serial Napper, we’re diving into the chilling case of Adriane Insogna and Leslie Ann Mazzara, two roommates whose lives were cut short by someone hiding in plain sight. What began as a quiet evening handing out candy turned into one of California’s most shocking double homicides.

For nearly a year, police chased rumours, false leads, and hundreds of DNA samples. The community whispered about jealous lovers, shady exes, even strangers in the vineyards, but the truth was far more disturbing. The killer wasn’t a drifter or a mystery man. He was someone the victims knew, someone who’d sat at their table, someone they trusted.

This is the story of how Napa learned that even paradise can have monsters, and how betrayal can wear the most familiar face.

Sources:

https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/LegalCenter/story?id=1187524&page=1

https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0730/2007296752-s.html

https://truecrimesocietyblog.com/2024/10/20/the-napa-valley-halloween-murders/#google_vignette

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nightmare-in-napa-19-04-2007/

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This week on Serial Napper, we’re revisiting one of the most disturbing cases I’ve ever covered, the story of Christa Pike, the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the United States.

When I first released this episode a few years back, Christa was still sitting on death row with no date in sight. But now… that’s changed. In September 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court officially scheduled her execution for September 30, 2026, marking what could be the first execution of a woman in the state in over 200 years.

In this re-recorded episode, I take you deeper into the life, crime, and legacy of Christa Pike, from her horrific childhood and obsession-fueled murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, to the decades of legal battles that followed.

Sources:

https://www.knoxnews.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2021/06/12/christa-gail-pike-through-years/7635082002/ 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/corpsewood-manor-murders

https://deadlywomen.fandom.com/wiki/Christa_Pike

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/crime/victims-mom-christa-pike-execution/51-3665cad8-4d07-4f4a-bad5-d7de4fe05e9a

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/tennessees-execution-of-christa-pike-would-make-her-the-first-woman-to-be-executed-in-the-state-in-over-200-years

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In April 1987, 52-year-old Ruthie Mae McCoy called 911 from her Chicago apartment, panicked and out of breath. She told the dispatcher that someone was trying to break in...through her bathroom mirror.

Police didn’t believe her. Two days later, she was found dead.

This episode unpacks the real-life horror that inspired the Candyman legend, a murder born not of superstition, but of neglect, poverty, and systemic failure.

Ruthie’s killers crawled through the hollow wall behind her medicine cabinet, shot her four times, and disappeared back into the building’s decaying infrastructure. The same walls that were supposed to protect her instead became a tunnel for her killers.

We’ll explore Ruthie’s life before the headlines: her struggles with mental illness, her attempts to rebuild her life, and the cruel irony that she was finally on the verge of escaping public housing when her own apartment became a death trap.

We’ll also go inside the Grace Abbott Homes, one of Chicago’s most dangerous housing projects, where gangs ruled, drugs flowed faster than repairs, and dozens of units sat vacant, turning the building into a concrete maze of fear.

Sources:

https://chicagoreader.com/news/they-came-in-through-the-bathroom-mirror/ 

https://justnlife.com/candymans-legacy-a-haunting-tale-of-chicagos-south-side/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-uncovered/candyman 

https://chicagoreader.com/news/cause-of-death/

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If you think your grandma’s weird, wait until you meet Nannie Doss.

Known by a handful of delightfully horrifying nicknames...The Giggling Granny, The Lonely Hearts Killer, The Jolly Black Widow, Lady Blue Beard...Nannie Doss looked like the kind of grandmother who’d bake you cookies and tell you to eat seconds. Instead, she was slipping arsenic into sweet potato pie and serving it with a smile.

Between 1920 and 1954, Nannie poisoned, smothered, and schemed her way through eleven victims, including four husbands, her own sister and grandson, all in the name of love. She spent her life searching for romance and the “perfect man,” leaving a trail of bodies and broken hearts in her wake.

In this episode, we’re diving deep into her dark fairytale: a childhood of abuse and isolation, a head injury that might’ve rewired her empathy, and a deadly addiction to love stories that promised happy endings. We’ll look at how the 1950s ideal of the sweet homemaker gave her the perfect cover, and how a society blinded by gender stereotypes allowed one smiling widow to keep killing for decades.

It’s a story about love, lies, and lethal pie.

This episode is a refreshing/re-recording of one of the first stories I ever covered on Serial Napper.

Sources:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/nannie-doss-giggling-granny

https://people.com/nannie-doss-giggling-granny-serial-killer-8761190

https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/nannie-doss/

https://murderpedia.org/female.D/d/doss-nannie.htm

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In 1930s Buffalo, New York, a grieving widow sat hunched over a Ouija board, desperate to hear from her dead husband. The planchette moved, spelling out a chilling message: “They killed me.” The spirit named a culprit, Clotilde Marchand, a petite Frenchwoman, mother of four, and the wife of a well-known sculptor.

Days later, Clotilde opened her front door to an accusation of witchcraft…and never lived to close it again.

Dubbed the “Ouija Board Murder,” this case shocked Buffalo’s art world, fueled public hysteria about séances and spirit boards, and left behind a trail of questions that linger to this day. Was Nancy Bowen a vulnerable woman manipulated into killing? Was Lila Jimerson a believer or a schemer? And who really wrote the mysterious letters that pointed to Clotilde as a witch?

This is the story of obsession, betrayal, and the deadly power of belief in the beyond.

Sources:

https://www.buffalospree.com/app/buffalospreemagazine/archives/2008_12/1208fearandloathing.html

https://www.nydailynews.com/2010/03/21/the-ouija-board-murder-tricking-tribal-healer-nancy-bowen-to-kill/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ouija-board-cant-connect-us-to-paranormal-forces-but-it-can-tell-us-a-lot-about-psychology-grief-and-uncertainty-5860627/

https://journalnews.com.ph/a-ouija-board-and-a-bizarre-murder/

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