Small Town Mysteries

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On November 28, 1969, 22-year-old Penn State graduate student Betsy Aardsma was killed by a single stab wound inside the university's Pattee Library. Despite the busy campus setting and witnesses spotting a suspect fleeing the scene, the crime was never officially solved. Decades later, this tragic case—often called "Murder in the Stacks"—remains an infamous cold case with various theories but no official convictions.

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On April 1, 2006, 27-year-old medical student Brian Shaffer walked into an Ohio bar with friends and vanished off the face of the earth. Surveillance cameras famously captured Brian entering the crowded venue, but never showed him leaving, leaving investigators with an impossible mystery: how does a grown man completely disappear from a single-exit building surrounded by cameras?

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Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of discourse regarding the ethics of AI. It seems that in just the few years that AI has become available to the public, it has infiltrated our lives. It’s almost impossible to avoid. It’s being used in the workplace, on social media, to send emails or deal with complicated social situations…the list goes on and on. And those are just the immediate effects that we can visualize now. That’s not even getting into what AI is doing to our environment, to our social skills, to the nature of learning, and our perception of reality. 

So it makes sense that AI is at the center of the case I’m going to be talking about today. Because, as I posited this question to myself last week…if AI is everywhere, it must’ve already presented itself within the landscape of true crime, right? 

1) https://abc7news.com/post/open-ai-microsoft-face-lawsuit-chatgpts-alleged-role-connecticut-murder-suicide/18275966/
2) https://abc7ny.com/post/chatgpt-allegedly-played-role-greenwich-connecticut-murder-suicide-mother-tech-exec-son/17721940/?userab=kfsn_content_recs-582*variant_a_control_kfsn-2512%2Ckabc_content_recs-577*variant_a_control-2480%2Cwls_content_recs-584*variant_b_trending_wls-2517%2Cwtvd_content_recs-585*variant_a_control_wtvd-2518%2Cktrk_content_recs-587*variant_a_control_ktrk-2522%2Cwpvi_content_recs-586*variant_a_control_wpvi-2520%2Cotv_web_content_rec-539*variant_c_trending-2268%2Cotv_web_topic-580*variant_a_topic-2508%2Cotv_search_page_design_unification-546*variant_b_search_redesign-2300%2Cvertical_video_web-519*enabled-2164%2Cabcn_popular_reads_exp_followup-648*variant_a_control-3455%2Cotv_mobile_web_content_recs-639*variant_a_control-3429%2Ckgo_content_recs-583*variant_a_control_kgo-2514%2Cotvlink_abcnnav-576*variant_c_localnews-3316
3) https://www.npr.org/2025/12/12/nx-s1-5642599/a-new-lawsuit-blames-chatgpt-for-a-murder-suicide
4) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/open-ai-microsoft-sued-chatgpt-murder-suicide-connecticut/
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Suzanne_Adams
6) https://greenwichfreepress.com/news/obituaries/suzanne-eberson-adams-83-236015/ 

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In this episode, we talk about it all! What our favorites were, how we research for cases, and what cases we would recommend for those of you who are new to Small Town Mysteries! We close out the episode with a case update. 

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When beloved schoolteacher Genai Coleman was shot while reading her Bible in her car, detectives thought they had an open-and-shut case after finding a cigarette butt in the stolen vehicle that matched suspect Donald Smith’s DNA. However, the investigation hit a wall when Donald revealed he had an identical twin brother, Ronald, sharing his exact genetic code...

In our second case this week, we discuss a 1987 gas station sexual assault in Woodbridge, Virginia that went cold for nearly four decades until genetic genealogy led detectives to identical twins Russell and Robert Marubbio. With standard testing unable to point to a single suspect, scientists turned to ultra-deep whole-genome sequencing to hunt for microscopic somatic mutations created during embryonic division.

Sources (Genai Coleman): 
1) https://abcnews.com/TheLaw/atlanta-twin-murder-case-echoes-fingerprint-origins/story?id=9909586
2) https://www.foxnews.com/us/dna-georgia-womans-murder-leads-wrong-twin-investigator-says-crime-opportunity
3) https://www.oxygen.com/criminal-confessions/crime-news/ronald-smith-guns-down-teacher-genai-coleman-carjacking
4) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/identical-dna-murder-has-georgia-police-seeing-double-which-twin-did-it/

Sources: (Marubbio)
1) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/identical-twin-convicted-dna
2) https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/virginia/prince-william-county/identical-twin-convicted-in-rape-cold-case-after-slight-difference-in-dna-identified-in-prince-georges-county/
3) https://www.forensicmag.com/3594-All-News/621193-DNA-Analysis-Leads-to-Individual-Twin-in-1987-Rape-Cold-Case/

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What starts as a series of strange, ghost-like pranks against a local family escalates into one of Massachusetts' most shocking crimes. We examine the 1987 murders of Priscilla, Abigail, and William Gustafson, and the terrifying intruder who lived hidden inside their home for months.

Sources: 

1) https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/volumes/416/416mass433.html
2) https://allthatsinteresting.com/daniel-laplante
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_LaPlante
4) https://www.joeturnerbooks.com/post/daniel-laplante
5) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235146232/priscilla_jeanne-gustafson
6) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235146166/william_andrew-gustafson
7) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235146108/abigail_morgan-gustafson
8) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-20-mn-297-story.html 

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Kassandra Cantrell was 10 weeks pregnant when she went missing from Tacoma, Washington, in August 2020. Security footage showed a mysterious man in a hat hovering around Kassandra's car, along with other suspicious movements. Who was this man, and what was his motive?

Sources: 

 1) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kassanndra-cantrell-murder-colin-patrick-dudley-digital-evidence-mysterious-killer-hat-man/
2) https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/most-common-causes-maternal-death-may-surprise-you#:~:text=Researchers%20at%20Columbia%20University%20have,among%20pregnant%20and%20postpartum%20women.
3) https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/kassanndra-cantrell-disappearance-investigation/17/
4) https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article268780602.html
5)https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1poc937/out_of_every_true_crime_case_which_one_disturbs/

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In 1993, Gary Gauger woke up to find his parents brutally murdered on their Illinois farm, only to quickly find himself targeted as the prime suspect. After a grueling, 19-hour interrogation filled with psychological pressure and police deception, an exhausted Gary was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn't commit, landing him on death row for years. 

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Today we are traveling to Minneapolis to talk about the 1993 murder of Jeanne Childs, more frequently known as “Jeanie.” Jeanie was a sex worker who was brutally stabbed in her apartment at the age of 35 years. Sadly, it took 27 years for Jeanie to get the justice she deserved.

Sources: 

1) https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/jerry-westrom-guilty-jeanne-childs-1993-cold-case-murder
2) https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/2024/a22-1679.html 
3) https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/jeanie-childs-minneapolis-cold-case-solved-footprint-to-murder/
4) https://www.facebook.com/48hours/videos/mother-pens-heartbreaking-letter-to-murdered-daughter/968449605185335/

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In 1977, Yale students Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman were cycling across the United States when they stopped to camp at a park in Oregon. While they slept, a man drove his truck over their tent and proceeded to attack both women with an axe. Though both women miraculously survived the brutal assault, the attacker was never identified, and the case remains unsolved. 

Sources: 
1) https://moonmagazine.org/terri-jentz-my-journey-to-justice-2014-02-01/3/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Piece_of_Paradise
3) https://statestories.com/the-harrowing-story-of-terri-jentz-the-19-year-old-who-caught-an-axe-blade-with-her-bare-hands-at-an-oregon-campsite/
4) https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5554692
5) https://bendbulletin.com/2007/07/22/ax-attack-survivor-author-tells-all/
6) https://www.nuggetnews.com/story/2007/07/31/news/author-returns-to-the-scene-of-the-crime/14728.html
7) https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/victim-returns-to-crime-scene-30-years-later-as-an-author/

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