The investigation into the murders of Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch had already spanned decades. Detectives had followed leads, families had endured years of unanswered questions, and an entire community had learned to live with the possibility that the truth might never be known.

Then everything changed.

In Part Two of Bound by Assumption, Dan and Bekah follow the investigation through the breakthroughs that finally transformed these cold cases. From groundbreaking DNA analysis and genetic genealogy to the shocking discoveries that forced investigators to rethink everything they thought they knew, this chapter reveals how persistence, science, and a refusal to give up ultimately brought answers to two families who had waited more than thirty years.

Along the way, you’ll meet the detectives who refused to let these cases die, the families who never stopped fighting for justice, and the unexpected twists that turned one of Tacoma’s most infamous mysteries into something no one saw coming.

This is the conclusion of the story of Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch.

New episodes premiere every Sunday night at 8 PM Pacific Time.

Keep your eyes open and your footsteps light, because in the pines, the truth never stays buried.

The Maury Island Incident

It’s the summer solstice, 1947. A man named Harold Dahl is out on a salvage boat in Puget

Sound when six enormous, doughnut-shaped objects appear in the sky above him. One of them

falters. Debris rains down — burning the hull, injuring his teenage son, killing the family dog.

And the morning after Dahl tells his story, a stranger in a dark suit shows up at his door, knows

exactly what happened, and tells him to stay quiet.

That stranger is, by most accounts, the very first Man in Black.

But that’s only where this story starts. Because the other man in it — Dahl’s business partner,

Fred Crisman — turns out to be one of the strangest figures in postwar American history. A man

who spent twenty years drifting through the weirdest precincts of the American century: secret

caves, shell companies, a far-right radio show broadcast under a fake name. And then, in 1968,

a New Orleans prosecutor investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy subpoenaed him

by name.

The same Fred Crisman. The Maury Island man.

Today we’re going out on the gray water near Tacoma — to the UFO case the Air Force called

the dirtiest hoax in flying saucer history, and the one thread you can pull that somehow connects

the Men in Black to Dealey Plaza.

Mini Pines is a single-host narrative podcast for people who like their stories unhurried.

For decades, the murders of Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch haunted Tacoma, Washington. Two young girls. Two bicycle rides. Two families left searching for answers. And for more than thirty years, investigators believed they were looking at a single mystery.

In Part One of Bound by Assumption, Dan and Bekah examine the disappearances that terrified an entire community, the massive search efforts that followed, the heartbreaking discoveries that changed countless lives, and the decades-long investigation that seemed destined to remain unsolved.

As detectives Gene Miller and Lindsey Wade revisit the evidence, new forensic technology begins revealing answers investigators never thought possible. But the deeper they dig, the more they realize that some of the assumptions surrounding these cases may not be as solid as everyone once believed.

Join us as we trace the stories of Jennifer and Michella from the summer of 1986 through the breakthroughs that finally began to crack open one of the Pacific Northwest’s most haunting cold case investigations.

New episodes premiere every Sunday night at 8 PM Pacific Time.

Keep your eyes open and your footsteps light, because in the pines, the truth never stays buried.

CrimeCon 2026 was an experience we’ll never forget.

This week, Dan and Rebekah take a break from the case files and pull back the curtain on their trip to Las Vegas for CrimeCon 2026. From Nancy Grace’s opening remarks and discussions about the Gabby Petito investigation, to meeting victims’ families still searching for answers, this episode explores the people, stories, and moments that left a lasting impact.

We’ll talk about the creators we met, including our favorite booth from Shirley You Can’t Be Serious, the powerful work being done by Ring True Co. to support survivors of human trafficking, and why the lack of Pacific Northwest representation reinforced our mission to keep telling the stories of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.

We’ll also discuss meeting listeners, seeing industry heavyweights like Wondery and True Crime Garage, hearing from advocates and families, and what we learned about the true crime community as a whole.

Sometimes the most memorable part of true crime isn’t the cases themselves—it’s the people who refuse to let those stories be forgotten.

New episodes premiere every Sunday night at 8 PM Pacific Time.

#CrimeCon2026 #CrimeCon #TrueCrimePodcast #ShadowsInThePines #NancyGrace #SteveGoncalves #GoingWest #ShirleyYouCantBeSerious #RingTrueCo #TrueCrimeCommunity #PacificNorthwest #PNWTrueCrime #LasVegas #PodcastLife #VictimAdvocacy #MissingPersons #CitizenSleuths #GabbyPetito #TrueCrimeFans #CreatorRow

The Loneliest Road to the Stars — Nevada’s Extraterrestrial Highway

What if the most famous alien highway in America has been hiding its biggest secret in plain sight?

This week on Mini Pines, we travel Nevada’s mysterious Extraterrestrial Highway—a lonely stretch of desert road forever linked to Area 51, Bob Lazar, UFO sightings, and the legendary Black Mailbox that became a pilgrimage site for believers from around the world.

But beneath the stories of flying saucers and government secrets lies a far stranger truth.

Long before UFO hunters gathered under the desert stars, something really did arrive from space. An ancient cosmic impact left one of the largest craters in North America buried beneath the Nevada desert, and most travelers drive directly through its remains without ever knowing it.

Join us as we explore the history of Nevada State Route 375, the rise of the Area 51 phenomenon, the curious story of the Black Mailbox, and the astonishing geological evidence of a visitor from the stars that changed this landscape forever.

Sometimes the greatest mysteries aren’t hidden in the sky above us.

Sometimes they’re buried beneath our feet.

New episodes of Mini Pines and Shadows in the Pines premiere every Sunday night at 8 PM Pacific Time.

Follow, rate, and share the show, and remember:

Keep your eyes open and your footsteps light, because in the pines the truth never stays buried.

🔎 Part 2 of our Diane Downs series is available now.

As detectives continue pulling apart the story from Old Mohawk Road, the investigation begins shifting in a dramatic direction. What started as the search for a mysterious roadside gunman slowly becomes something much darker as timeline problems, forensic evidence, and survivor statements begin pointing investigators toward an unthinkable possibility.

In Part 2, Dan and Bekah cover Christie Downs’ recovery and testimony, the mounting case against Diane, the arrest that shocked the nation, the bizarre courtroom behavior that captivated the media, Diane’s own testimony, the guilty verdict, the prison escape that reignited national headlines, and the lasting impact left on Christie and Danny.

We also examine how the case evolved into a cultural phenomenon through endless television coverage, public fascination, Ann Rule’s Small Sacrifices, and the disturbing way the offender nearly overshadowed the victims in the public consciousness.

At the center of it all remain three children in a car on a dark Oregon road in May of 1983.

One never came home.

Two survived.

And the questions surrounding that night continue to haunt people decades later.

🎙️ Shadows in the Pines

🕯️ New episodes premiere every Sunday at 8 PM Pacific.

#ShadowsInThePines #DianeDowns #TrueCrimePodcast #OregonTrueCrime #PacificNorthwest #OldMohawkRoad #AnnRule #SmallSacrifices #TrueCrime #CrimePodcast #ChristieDowns #DannyDowns #SherylDowns #OregonHistory #CourtroomDrama #PrisonEscape #ColdCaseCommunity #TrueCrimeCommunity #SpotifyPodcasts #PodbeanPodcast

🚨 This week on Shadows in the Pines, we head to Springfield, Oregon for one of the most disturbing and psychologically unsettling cases in true crime history: the case of Diane Downs.

On a dark stretch of Old Mohawk Road in May of 1983, three children were shot inside a family car. Seven-year-old Cheryl Lynn Downs was killed. Eight-year-old Christie and three-year-old Danny barely survived. Their mother claimed a bushy-haired stranger stepped out of the darkness and opened fire.

But almost immediately, detectives began noticing things that didn’t feel right.

The timeline.

As the investigation tightened, the horrifying possibility at the center of the case became impossible to ignore: what if there never was a stranger at all?

In this episode, Dan and Bekah follow the full chronology of the Diane Downs case — from Diane’s chaotic early life and obsession with Robert “Nick” Knickerbocker, to the shooting on Old Mohawk Road, the media circus that followed, Christie’s devastating testimony, the nationally televised trial, Diane’s bizarre courtroom behavior, and the prison escape that somehow made the story even stranger.

This is not just the story of a murder investigation.

It’s the story of three children trapped inside a car on a dark Oregon road… and the mother a jury believed pulled the trigger.

🎙️ New episodes premiere every Sunday night at 8PM Pacific.

🕯️ Follow, rate, and share Shadows in the Pines wherever you listen to podcasts.

#ShadowsInThePines #DianeDowns #TrueCrime #PacificNorthwest #OregonTrueCrime #OldMohawkRoad #TrueCrimePodcast #AnnRule #SmallSacrifices #SpringfieldOregon

Just a soft recap of what we’ve learned and final thoughts along with show announcements 

🏔️🪣 This week on Mini Pines, we head deep into the high desert of eastern Oregon for one of the strangest lost-treasure legends in American history — The Blue Bucket Mine. 🌵✨

In 1845, a wagon train following the infamous Meek Cutoff became hopelessly lost in the Oregon wilderness. Families starved. People died. And somewhere during the nightmare journey, children playing in a dry creek bed may have unknowingly filled a blue bucket with raw gold nuggets years before the California Gold Rush ever began. ⛏️💰

But there’s a problem.

Nobody could ever find the creek again. 👀

For nearly 180 years, treasure hunters, prospectors, historians, and explorers have searched the deserts and canyons of eastern Oregon trying to uncover the legendary mine that may not even exist at all. 🗺️☠️

Tonight, we’re talking about the Meek Cutoff disaster, Stephen Meek’s deadly “shortcut,” pioneer survival, lost gold, and the eerie possibility that one of America’s greatest hidden treasures is still buried somewhere beneath the sagebrush. 🌙🔥

Welcome to Mini Pines. 🌲🎙️

September 24th, 1997. A Spokane patrol officer pulls over a white Corvette near East Sprague. The driver is Robert Lee Yates Jr. He’s ticketed and allowed to go. The officer fills out the field interview report and writes one word in the vehicle make field.