Small Town Mysteries

Send us Fan Mail

On today's episode, Christine starts by describing the murder of Melissa Gosule, a teacher in Boston who accepted a ride from a supposed "good samaritan" after her car broke down.  Find out how the JFK Jr. plane crash ties in to the case, and how a Massachusetts law was created due to Melissa's murder. Melissa's killer had 27 prior convictions. 

Next, Rachael talks about the murder of Melissa Benoit, who was raped and murdered by her next-door neighbor. Her killer admitted to many other atrocities that he was never formally charged for (but he claimed insanity during the trial...)

Sources (Melissa Gosule): 
1) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/132181460/melissa-stacey-gosule 
2) https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/state/1999/07/19/searchers-rest-in-case-missing/50514507007/
3) https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/state/1999/08/04/cambridge-marchers-honor-melissa-gosule/50512520007/ 
4) https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/1999/07/20/gosule-s-body-found-at/51032908007/
5) https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/1999/07/24/thousands-mourn-for-melissa/50512153007/
6) https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/1999/09/09/suspect-in-woman-s-death/51020943007/
7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Jr._plane_crash 
8) https://apnews.com/article/a14c1a684a00cae519c403f41f978e34 
9)http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/09/11/family_settles_suit_against_aaa_driver/ 
10) https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2011/11/11/bill-prompted-by-1999-murder/49837924007/
11) https://www.masslive.com/news/2011/03/adovocates_of_melissas_law_whi.html 
12) https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/08/02/quiet-ceremony-governor-signs-melissa-law-legislation/3lAsmuWaaZqEESAKwFwRqL/story.html 

Sources (Melissa Benoit):
1) https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-bible-school-instructor-abducts-a-teenage-girl
2) https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/29/Funeral-for-slain-teen-as-history-of-suspect-emerges/9048654580800/
3) https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/28/Police-find-no-more-bodies-in-Meinholzs-backyard/2876654494400/
4) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-07-mn-1615-story.html
5) https://apnews.com/article/6af14b2c4a114fe9e21c0c397004e1e9
6) https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/old-colony-memorial/2015/10/19/plymouth-look-back-in-time/33241269007/
7) https://nempb2015.wixsite.com/nempb/melissa-benoit#:~:text=June%2020%2C%201995%20%2D%2D%20The,his%20Kingston%20home%20in%201990.
8) https://www.masslive.com/news/2018/05/michael_hand_indicted_for_murd.html
9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston,_Massachusetts#Demographics

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Tune in to hear about how it is possible for two people to be buried in their own backyard by their own flesh and blood for FIFTEEN YEARS without anyone asking a question. 
Also: why would someone do such a thing? I bet you wouldn't believe me if I told you it had something to do with memorabilia...cause that's just TOO insane, right? Right.

Sources:
1) https://www.inflationtool.com/british-pound/2012-to-present-value?amount=10000&year2=2022&frequency=yearly
2) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/25/the-murderers-next-door
3) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/20/william-patricia-wycherley-murder-unnoticed-15-years
4) https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/where-are-susan-and-christopher-edwards-from-hbo-series-the-landscapers
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day#United_Kingdom
6) https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/business-community/economic-data/population-estimates
7)https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/admin/nottinghamshire/E07000174__mansfield/
8) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gerard-Depardieu
9) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gary-Cooper
10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Cooper
11) https://www.choosingtherapy.com/shopping-addiction/
12) https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/shopping-addiction/compulsive-spending-statistics/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Michelle O'Connell was a young mother to a 4-year-old daughter and had just gotten her dream job. Which is why her loved ones are in disbelief when police say that Michelle has committed suicide. 
What makes this questionable is the fact that Michelle's supposed suicide occurred the night she told her sister she was going to break up with her boyfriend, a police officer for the county. 
Sketchy police work abounds in this one.

Sources:
1) https://behindthebluewall.blogspot.com/2010/09/fl-its-that-simple-anonymous-deputy.html
2) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/murder-or-suicide-the_b_10110682?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHtOMf1we9cKO0OloJ59xw3INq-8dwaValrJy6NivsCd1_BDWZszghDXSR6Vyme_SPMcpnnEOT-JqYS0dR-E_K6Cl55QHeD-TF-5BQrBnutGC0s52Vew55t83F3Jt_0GOfdE3bVoTLNJGGKFXTQxWHxhee2hBpMdLXmKMbcJZaot
3) https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/03/02/killing-of-michelle-oconnell-case-researcher-remains-unsolved-more-than-2-years-later/ 
4) https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-woman-found-dead-authorities-ruled-suicide-family/story?id=65105939 
5) https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/michelle-o-connell-7-things-to-know-about-suspicious-death-of-person-looking-into-case/915046040/ 
6) https://www.news4jax.com/news/2016/03/15/after-3-year-investigation-fdle-agent-back-on-job/
7) https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2018/06/01/2020-tonight-airs-michelle-oconnell-death-case-involving-st-johns-deputy/12083959007/ 
8) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/us/michelle-oconnell-jeremy-banks.html 

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

The year is 1933. It's the Great Depression, the last year of prohibition, and alcoholism is widespread. 
This sets the scene for the case of Michael Malloy, otherwise known as "Iron Mike" and "Mike the Durable". Mike is an alcoholic who drinks 24/7...and he's also the target of a group of people known collectively as "The Murder Trust". 
Let's count how many attempts on his life that they made:
1...2...3...4...5...and it goes on and on.

Sources:
1) https://the-line-up.com/bizarre-true-crime-cases-by-state-part-one
2) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wouldnt-die-89417903/
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy 
6) https://www.thejournal.ie/mike-malloy-donegal-bronx-murder-trust-prohibition-depression-alcohol-2410813-Dec2015/ 

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

I mean, the title really does say it all! This week, Rachael digs into (get it?) people who bury others in their backyard. Get ready for some very gratifying karma in this one, folks. 
Rachael highlights four separate cases and goes into some statistics on backyard burials, because this is apparently something that is common enough for people to write academic journals on...yikes. 

Sources:
1) https://lawandcrime.com/crime/man-strangled-girlfriend-to-death-then-had-a-fatal-cardiac-event-while-burying-the-body-sheriff/
2) https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/joseph-mckinnon-dead-of-heart-attack-while-burying-patricia-dent-after-he-killed-her/
3) https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/joseph-mckinnon-dies-burying-patricia-dent-murder
4) https://www.hatcherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Mrs-Patricia-Ruth-Vaughn-Dent?obId=24833199
5) https://people.com/crime/man-dies-heart-attack-trying-bury-girlfriends-body-after-murdering-her/
6) https://www.wlox.com/2022/09/19/st-martin-man-gets-life-killing-woman-found-buried-his-backyard/
7) https://www.wxxv25.com/missing-woman-found-backyard-identified/
8) https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/body-of-missing-woman-found-buried/
9) https://www.tapinto.net/towns/coral-springs/sections/police-and-fire/articles/missing-coral-springs-woman-found-buried-in-mississippi-backyard
10) https://www.co.jackson.ms.us/DocumentCenter/View/919/State-of-the-Department-2020
11) https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2014/04/25/lake-alfred-woman-found-guilty/8174473007/
12)https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2014/4/24/jury_deliberating_in#:~:text=Prosecutors%20argue%20Scott%2C%2066%2C%20shot,used%20it%20to%20kill%20him.
13) https://www.news9.com/story/5e35ada383eff40362beabfe/wife-who-buried-former-oklahoma-man-in-garden-charged-with-murder
14) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2128396/Elderly-woman-murdered-husband-buried-body-backyard-tired-looking-him.html
15) https://westorlandonews.com/woman-who-buried-husbands-body-in-backyard-charged-with-murder/
16) https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2012/04/11/wife-of-man-buried-in-yard-charged-with-murder/
17) https://www.wesh.com/article/police-woman-shot-tied-up-buried-husband/4415772
18) https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2012/04/11/wife-charged-with-killing-ailing/8057965007/
19)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2694780/#:~:text=Filicide%20is%20defined%20as%20the,of%20life%20it%20is%20neonaticide.
20) https://www.newsweek.com/baby-discovered-buried-backyard-parents-arrested-north-carolina-1735666
21) https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-north-carolina-baby-dead-murder-cousins-20220831-ucrqn4s2xfg4dllcppe2zjcb6a-story.html
22) https://abc11.com/infant-death-erwin-body-found-autopsy/12180924/
23) https://www.wspa.com/news/crime/its-heartbreaking-neighbors-shocked-saddened-after-dead-baby-found-buried-at-erwin-nc-home/
24) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shadow-boxing/202106/why-would-killer-bury-bodies-in-the-yard-0
25) Article: Serial Murders Spatial Decisions: Factors that influence Crime location Choice 
26) Article- Body Disposal: Spatial & Temporal Characteristics in Korean Homicide 

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

When an 11-year-old girl named Sabrina Buie is found murdered, Henry McCollum and Leon Brown are brought in for questioning and eventually confess after long interrogations. They are 19 and 15-years old, respectively, and both have intellectual disabilities, with Leon Brown not even able to read his own signed confession. They are charged with rape and murder and are given the death penalty. 
Years go by and both men are adamant about their innocence. What evidence exists that ties them to the crime, and what evidence exists that can exonerate them? And if they didn't commit the crime, who did? 
Sentenced to death at 16, Brown became the youngest person on North Carolina’s death row, and McCollum became North Carolina’s longest-serving death row prisoner. 
Stay tuned toward the end for some statistics on wrongful convictions and a discussion about what wrongful convictions mean for the family of victims.

Sources: 
1) https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4493
2) https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/north-carolina-jury-awards-death-row-exonerees-henry-mccollum-and-leon-brown-75m-for-their-wrongful-capital-convictions
3) https://nccadp.org/stories/henry-mccollum-leon-brown/
4) https://ncpolicywatch.com/2022/11/02/court-of-appeals-backs-suspension-for-lawyer-who-swindled-wrongfully-convicted-black-men/ 
5) https://wcsj.law.duke.edu/2021/10/event-recap-henry-mccollum-leon-brown-attorneys-talk-wrongful-convictions/ 
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_McCollum_and_Leon_Brown 
7) https://abc11.com/child-rape-murder-red-springs-1983-killed/293662/ 
8) https://www.theroot.com/my-sister-s-convicted-killer-was-innocent-23-years-lat-1790877141 
9) https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/2022/02/01/beneath-the-statistics-the-structural-and-systemic-causes-of-our-wrongful-conviction-problem/#:~:text=Studies%20estimate%20that%20between%204,result%20in%20a%20wrongful%20conviction. 

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

This Tuesday, Kate talks about the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking case, in which a man who called himself "Dan Cooper" alerted a flight attendant that he had a bomb and demanded 1.3 million dollars (in today's money) in cash ransom. The plane lands, cash is brought aboard, and Cooper parachutes out of the plane, never to be seen again.
Who is D.B. Cooper? Well, that's still unknown.  But there are always theories :)

Missing person spotlight of the week: Greisy Ramirez Cruz is 16 yo hispanic female who was last seen in Seattle, WA on October 8, 2022. Greisy has brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5 foot 1 and weighs 105 pounds. If you have any information, 
Call 911 or 1-800-843-5678 or the Seattle Police Department at 1-206-625-5011

Sources: 
1) https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2014/10/the-10-crimes-that-shook-seattle-october-2014
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
3) https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/db-cooper-hijacking
4) https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NPAjAAAAIBAJ&pg=6509%2C3689150
5) https://nymag.com/news/features/39593/
6) https://vault.fbi.gov/D-B-Cooper%20/d.b.-cooper-part-64/view

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

For this week's episode, Rachael first goes over some very exciting true crime news involving a decades-old unsolved case in Massachusetts. 
The main case this week surrounds a triple murder in the VERY small town of Machias, Maine, which is only about 30 minutes south of Canada. Thomas Bonfanti killed three individuals and attempted to kill a fourth. He claims that all murders and attempted murders were either accidental or in self-defense. Cue suspicious looks/noises. 
Word of the day for this pod episode is: "pro se". Find out what it means (if you don't already) from an actual lawyer!

Sources:
1) https://machiasme.org/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machias,_Maine
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonesboro,_Maine
4) https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/crime/2022/10/31/lady-of-the-dunes-dna-provincetown-massachusetts-victim-identity-headless-body/69605688007/
5) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lady-dunes-identified-nearly-50-years-mutilated-body-was-found-massach-rcna54817
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Marie_Terry
7) https://q1065.fm/thomas-bonfanti-found-guilty-of-murder/
8) https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/crime/trial-begins-in-washington-county-man-accused-of-shooting-four-killing-three-in-2020-northfield-machias-jonesport-maine-thomas-bonfanti/97-294e4a1e-5cf0-4b90-be69-9c8ac6ec013c
9) https://www.pressherald.com/2022/06/02/man-convicted-of-killing-3-people-in-down-east-rampage/
10) https://www.newsweek.com/triple-murder-suspect-represents-himself-trial-tell-story-better-1712058
11) https://lawandcrime.com/crime/maine-man-convicted-of-murder-after-shooting-spree-that-left-3-dead-and-one-woman-severely-injured-motive-remains-a-mystery/
12) https://www.wabi.tv/2022/06/01/northfield-murder-suspect-takes-stand-his-own-trial/
13) https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-man-found-guilty-in-2020-triple-murder-thomas-bonfanti-downeast-gun-violence-machias-shooting-spree
14) https://wgme.com/news/local/2-victims-feared-for-their-lives-days-before-down-east-shooting-spree
15) https://q1065.fm/washington-county-man-sentenced-to-life-for-3-murders-in-2020/
16) https://www.foxbangor.com/news/item/several-witnesses-claim-thomas-bonfanti-admitted-guilt/
17) https://rewind1009.com/news/074470-man-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-triple-murder-in-downeast-maine/
18) https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/Survivor-of-Machias-area-shooting-spree-released-from-hospital-568262511.html
19) https://www.foxbangor.com/news/item/machias-shooting-victims-condition-improves-to-serious/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

This week, hear about the incredible survival of an 8-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped, and left for dead in a field. 
Jennifer Schuett waited almost two decades to get the answers she desperately wanted: what was the name of her kidnapper? Was he still out there, potentially harming others?
Today, Jennifer is an advocate for other victims of crime and has continued to beat all the odds. 
She is a survivor.

Sources:
1) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jennifer-schuett-case-afraid-of-the-dark-texas-woman-seeks-justice-in-childhood-kidnapping-attack/ 
2) https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/oct/14/nlr-man-arrested-90-assault-20091014/ 

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

The last episode of our Bridgewater Triangle Series has a little bit of everything to satisfy all of your spooky-season needs! 
Christine goes over hauntings said to plague Bridgewater State University and the Hornbine School. We go over some personal accounts from people in the area and touch on the Mayflower Hill Cemetery in Plymouth, MA.  
Christine then moves on to cult activity in the area: is it really cults or just a cover for more organized crime? The infamous Cult Killings are covered, and "Satanic Panic" is summarized.

Sources: 
1) https://commentbsu.com/2013/10/ghostly-happenings-on-bsu-campus/ 
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgewater_Triangle#cite_note-enterprise.southofboston.com-13 
3) https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/bridgewater-triangle/ 
4) https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/massachusetts/boston/creepy-small-town-near-boston/ 
5) http://www.reportertoday.com/stories/haunted-rehoboth,28427 
6) https://www.theclio.com/entry/40616 
7) https://www.enterprisenews.com/story/entertainment/2021/10/13/bridgewater-triangle-halloween-taunton-rehoboth-freetown-nippenicket-hockomock-ghosts-haunted/6060701001/ 
8) https://www.enterprisenews.com/story/entertainment/2021/10/13/bridgewater-triangle-halloween-taunton-rehoboth-freetown-nippenicket-hockomock-ghosts-haunted/6060701001/ 
9) https://www.heraldnews.com/story/entertainment/2021/10/01/taunton-area-haunted-sites-ghost-tales-paranormal-sightings-halloween-haunting-legend-scary/5944177001/ 
10) https://www.mattbarnsley.com/notes-of-a-fairly-clean-man/2020/9/17/paranormal-files-the-bridgewater-triangle
11) https://www.ranker.com/list/bridgewater-triangle-stories/laura-allan 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_(mythology) 
12) “Dark Woods: Cults, Crime, and Paranormal in the Freetown State Forest” by Christopher Balanzo
13) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_River_murders 
14) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_panic#As_a_moral_panic 

Support the show