The Unlovely Truth

This month’s featured unsolved case is the murder of ten-year-old Joshua Lee Walden of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Joshua was enjoying the mild weather in early December of 2000 by riding his 20-inch Magnum bicycle near his family’s home in the 4500 block of 14th Avenue. His 17-year-old sister Crystal was busy with her newborn, but when she realized how late it was, and that her parents didn’t know where Josh was, she reported him missing. It was just after midnight, in the early moments of Saturday, December 9th. Police immediately started a neighborhood canvas and began to interview Josh’s friends and family, and people searched everywhere for the grade schooler. His body was found on Sunday the 10th, in a wooded area off the 3100 block of 16th Avenue, near the East Lake Duck Pond. It was only about a half a mile from the Waldens' home. Someone knows what happened to Joshua.

 

For more information about Joshua Lee Walden’s case, check out these resources:

 

News video with Crystal and police

Video with Joshua on his bike

 

If you have any information at all regarding Joshua’s case, please contact the DA's Cold Case Unit at 423-209-7470 or send an email to [email protected].

The internet can certainly make daily tasks more convenient. We can do our shopping online, apply for jobs online, and even look for love online. But how can you know for sure that someone you meet on the internet really is who they say they are? Former FBI profiler John Douglas of Mindhunter fame has teamed up with true crime author Stephen Singular to bring us a cautionary tale of multiple women who thought they met the man of their dreams online, only to find themselves in a deadly nightmare.

You’ve probably never heard of John Robinson, who made history for being the first serial killer known to find his victims on the internet. I certainly hadn’t heard of him, even though he was a very, very prolific criminal who fooled dozens of unsuspecting victims. Join me and my guest Carrie Kerskie, a private investigator and fraud expert, as we talk about romance scams, phishing attacks, and how to stay safer online. 

 

For more information, check out these resources:

Carrie's website

Credit protection Tip Sheet

Carrie's podcast

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main agency that collects scam reports. Report your scam online with the FTC complaint assistant, or by phone at 1-877-382-4357 (9:00 AM - 8:00 PM, ET).

Buy "Anyone You Want Me To Be"

Mary Linda Patricia Vann, known to most as Pat, had big dreams. She was obsessed with the idea of having a man who would sweep her off her feet and set her up in a modern-day version of Gone With The Wind. Someone who would give her everything she ever wanted. Ann Rule’s book with that title is the tale of the lengths Pat would go to in order to make her dreams come true. She went much further than most people you and I know would – we hope!

 

This week’s guest is Pastor Lori Prather who is also the chaplain of our Unlovely Truth Tribe. She and I will be talking about recognizing and helping people in your life who might be just a little bit like Pat. 

 

Buy "Everything She Ever Wanted" by Ann Rule

Buy "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

All of us have a deep desire to be known. To have others value who we are at our core. Our story today involves the death of a woman who is only known in death as Delta Jane Doe. Authorities in Isleton, California, hope that they can discover who she was in life. They need your help to be able to do that.

 

If you know anything about this case, call 916-874-5057.

 

Check out these sites for more information about Delta Jane Doe:

 

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/627ufca.html

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/ca-isleton-fem-skeletal-627ufca-30-50-blue-delta-fire-hoodie-mar08.62723/page-2

http://unsolvedgratefuldeadfans.homestead.com/UnidentifiedFemale1.html

https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2d/141/304.html

Buy The Case of the Singing Skirt

“9-1-1, What’s your emergency?”

Dispatchers never know what they are going to hear when they say those words. On June 20th, 2001, a dispatcher in Houston, Texas, answered a call from a woman named Andrea Yates. She wouldn’t tell the dispatcher what had happened, just that she needed a police officer to come to her house. After asking more questions and finding out that Andrea had 5 young children, the dispatcher sent Officer David Knapp to the home on Beachcomber Lane in south Houston. Andrea met him at the door when he arrived and told him that she had just killed her children. Her husband Rusty arrived minutes later. She had called him at work to tell him that he needed to come home. Rusty was worried that Andrea may have tried to kill herself again. He had no idea of the devastation he was coming home to. 

 

Please check these resources if you or someone you know needs assistance with a mental health issue.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 800-273-8255

Available 24 hours. Languages: English, Spanish. 

 

Psychology Today

Cumberland Counseling Centers

@alexandrathompson_lcsw

In Montana, Indigenous people make up less than 7% of the population, but they consistently account for more than a quarter of the state's missing persons cases. I was shocked when I read that. And according to the Montana Department of Justice, eighteen of their missing persons have been missing for more than a year. So the story I’m about to tell you, sadly, is not as shocking as it should be. Eight-year-old Mildred Old Crow was reported missing in November 2020. She was last seen in the care of her guardians who were appointed by the Crow Reservation Tribal Court in March of 2019. I can’t find any information on why it took over a year and a half for someone to file a missing person’s report on the tiny, brown eyed child.

 

Anyone with information about Millie’s whereabouts can call BIA Law Enforcement at Crow Agency at (406) 638-2631 or the FBI at (801) 579-1400.

 

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/mmiw/missing-girls-body-found-on-crow-reservation/article_2674ccb0-3cf2-58b2-8f62-64f8a25be3e9.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

 

https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/two-charged-with-child-endangerment-in-connection-with-missing-crow-girl/article_097dfca1-49ec-56c0-88e0-0ee718239d2a.html

 

http://www.crow-nsn.gov/constitutions-and-bylaws.html

 

https://tribalnations.mt.gov/crow

 

https://montanafreepress.org/2020/12/21/u-s-supreme-court-to-hear-case-involving-crow-nation/

 

https://www.mtpr.org/post/crow-tribe-declares-state-emergency-over-lack-law-enforcement

 

https://www.khq.com/regional/candle-light-vigil-honors-mildred-milly-old-crow/article_6172168c-dac3-5beb-a18b-12956cc60dff.html 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow_people

Are you really a criminal mastermind if you get caught? So begins chapter one of the book, A Prisoner’s Perspective: The Redemption of a Criminal Mastermind by Mike Savage. Spending years in federal prison will change a man, and his family. Mike and his wife Cynthia join me for this episode to talk about what God did in their lives during those dark days of Mike’s incarceration, and what He’s continuing to do now. Mike doesn’t dispute that he was guilty of the dozens of counts of international money laundering, laundering criminally derived proceeds, wire fraud, mail fraud, and more. Federal prosecutors, in addition to their description of Mike as a criminal mastermind, called him a scumbag and a thug.  When he was asked under oath why he had lied and committed each of his crimes, Mike’s only answer was, “I wanted to be loved.”

 

A Savage Perspective Podcast

A Prisoner's Perspective: The Redemption of a Criminal Mastermind

One by one, two wives, a brother, a nephew, a neighbor, and finally a stepdaughter of the Reverend Willie Maxwell had all died under suspicious circumstances. The criminal justice system had proved powerless to stop him, so Robert Burns took matters into his own hands. Charged with murder, Burns needed the best lawyer he could find. He turned to Tom Radney – the man who had gotten Willie acquitted of the murder of his first wife.

 

Buy The Furious Hours by Casey Cep

My all-time favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; so imagine how excited I was when author Casey Cep finished a project that Lee had started, and mysteriously abandoned. After helping her good friend Truman Capote do research for his masterpiece, In Cold Blood, Lee thought that she too would write a true crime book. And there was a doozy of a case unfolding in her home state of Alabama. It was the trial of Robert Burns, who was accused of killing the Reverend Willie Maxwell. Many locals called Maxwell a voodoo preacher. Robert had killed Willie in front of hundreds of witnesses while they attended the funeral of Robert’s niece, 16-year-old Shirley Ann Ellington. Shirley was also Willie’s step daughter. Few seemed to mind what Robert had done, since Maxwell himself was suspected of the murders of a half a dozen people. People who just happened to name him as beneficiary of their life insurance policies. Policies that the Reverend Willie bought and paid for. 

 

Purchase The Furious Hours on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101947861/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MCTSYKA4YNBF53JZRCEX

Can a person be destined to do evil things because of their upbringing? Or are we solely responsible for our own actions? Theodore Oswald’s mother says that her husband raised their son to be a madman. Police said that Ted’s diaries prove that he would have committed these crimes with or without his father’s influence. Listen to today’s episode and share with me on social media what YOU think.

Email me at [email protected], or send me a message on social media. Look for @theunlovelytruthpodcast on Instagram, or The Unlovely Truth on Facebook.

Check out the links in the show notes for more information on this case.

 

https://journaltimes.com/news/father-son-charged-in-shootouts/article_00a6ed97-50e8-5e11-8163-1b26b6454208.html

 

https://chippewa.com/news/attorney-osborn-raised-to-be-killer/article_25a2ba61-c916-5de2-884f-2399ee2fe991.html

 

https://madison.com/news/local/oswalds-mom-says-abuse-began-at-sons-birth/article_b8343faa-6a7c-5c6e-a729-21299611d727.html

 

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/32517394.html/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYAoR4QwYes

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJbEYGvP5NY

 

https://madison.com/news/local/oswald-trial-sees-repeat-outcome-hes-again-prison-bound-after-another-jury-finds-he-was/article_e7cfe22d-0205-581d-9a4b-73315eedb622.html

 

https://apnews.com/article/4e0e5edd29d2cce95233b06ec47c379b