The Flute That Played After She Vanished: The Disappearance and Murder of Robin Benedict

A sledgehammer wrapped in a blood-soaked jacket. A strand of dark hair pressed into the blood on the head. And neighbors reporting flute music drifting from Robin Benedict's apartment for days after she was last seen alive — when no one could say who was inside. The forensic science pointed to one man. The investigation stretched across four states. But Robin's body has never been found.

In this episode, we explore a Tufts Medical School professor's phone records placing him at a highway rest stop payphone minutes after a murder, brain tissue recovered from a windbreaker pocket that matched what was found in Robin's abandoned car, and a mended shirt seam that a wife identified — and then handed over to detectives herself. Was this the act of a man who lost control, or a premeditated plan built over months of obsession? The evidence and the confession tell two stories that cannot both be true.

Case Details

Victim: Robin Benedict, 21, graphic design background, sex worker, President Merit Scholar.

Date: March 5–6, 1983.

Location: Sharon and Mansfield, Massachusetts; Rhode Island; New York, USA.

Case Status: William Douglas pleaded guilty to manslaughter in April 1984 and was released in June 1993 after serving less than nine years. Robin Benedict's body has never been recovered.

Episode Key Points

- Neighbors reported hearing flute music and high-pitched singing from Robin's apartment for days after March 5th, 1983 — the night she was last seen alive — yet no one could confirm who was inside.

- Phone records show William Douglas used a payphone located directly across the highway from the rest stop where the murder bag was found, minutes before making two calls to his own home.

- Brain tissue recovered from the pocket of Douglas's windbreaker matched the decomposed matter found inside Robin's abandoned Toyota — a car with all identifying marks scratched off except the VIN.

- Robin's mother received a telegram claiming Robin was alive in Las Vegas, but knew immediately it was fake because Robin always signed family messages with her nickname "Bin Bin" — a detail only someone close would know.

Robin Benedict, Mansfield Massachusetts homicide, Sharon Massachusetts 1983, William Douglas Tufts professor, unsolved missing body, true detective, homicide, forensic science, criminal minds, murder, investigation, true crime English.

The Video That Was Never Sent: The Sextortion Cases of Asia Anderson and Walker Montgomery

A sixteen-year-old boy spent three hours pleading with strangers online while his parents slept twenty feet away — and the video they threatened to release was never sent to a single person. Across nearly a decade, one man running what the FBI called the worst criminal operation in Facebook's history kept approximately 375 victims silent through a single, devastating bluff. How does a threat with no real power destroy so many lives?

In this episode, we explore how Buster Hernandez built a sextortion operation targeting girls as young as twelve using copy-paste scripts and fabricated proof, how Facebook took the unprecedented step of building a custom hacking tool to catch him, and why a sixteen-year-old in Mississippi named Walker Montgomery saw no way out of a three-hour nightmare that left no real evidence behind. These two cases share one unbearable truth: the most destructive weapon was never a file, a photo, or a video — it was the fear of one.

Case Details

Victim: Asia Anderson, 18 at time of first contact, restaurant host, Indianapolis, Indiana; Walker Montgomery, 16, high school student and football player, Starkville, Mississippi.

Date: September 2014 – March 2021 (Anderson/Hernandez case); November 30 – December 1, 2022 (Montgomery case).

Location: Indianapolis, Indiana and Bakersfield, California, USA; Starkville, Mississippi, USA.

Case Status: Buster J. Hernandez pleaded guilty to all 41 charges on February 6, 2020, and was sentenced to 75 years in federal prison in March 2021. The Nigerian criminal group responsible for Walker Montgomery's death has been identified by IP address but no arrests or extraditions have been confirmed.

Episode Key Points

- Hernandez never possessed the explicit photos he claimed to have when he first contacted Asia Anderson — he bluffed using a sticky note detail extracted from her public Facebook profile.

- A Virginia girl reported Hernandez to local police in October 2014, but the responding officer accused her of lying and threatened her with juvenile detention, effectively ending that investigation.

- Facebook, calling Hernandez the worst criminal to ever use their platform, paid a private cybersecurity firm to build a custom hacking tool targeting his specific operating system — a tool that had a window of only days before a routine update would have made it useless.

- The sextortionists who targeted Walker Montgomery never actually sent his video to any of his contacts; every screenshot they showed him of the video being distributed was fabricated.

Walker Montgomery, Asia Anderson, sextortion Mississippi 2022, Buster Hernandez Indianapolis sextortion, online extortion teen suicide, homicide, forensic science, criminal minds, true detective, investigation, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Town That Buried Eight Women and Asked No Questions: The Unsolved Murders of the Jeff Davis Eight

Eight women found in canals, on roadsides, and in tall grass across Jefferson Davis Parish between 2005 and 2009 — and the lead investigator on the case quietly bought the truck one victim was last seen riding in, washed it, and resold it for nearly double the price. This homicide investigation into one of Louisiana's most overlooked serial cases reveals how a small town's drug corridors, a jail warden, and a clearance rate of under seven percent kept eight deaths invisible for two decades.

In this episode, we explore a 2009 order for DNA swabs from every investigator on the case — results that were never publicly released — a jail warden who identified a victim's skeletal remains by a tattoo on an intimate part of her body before any official identification was made, and a string of witnesses whose testimony collapsed every time an arrest came close. Were these women killed by one person, or protected by one system? The forensic science and the institutional record point in the same direction, but they still don't have a name attached.

Case Details

Victim: Eight women — Loretta Chasson, 28; Ernestine Patterson, 30; Kristen Gary Lopez, 21; Whitney Dubois, 26; Laconia Brown, 23; Crystal Shea Benoit Zeno, 24; Brittany Gary, 17; Nicole Guillory, 26.

Date: May 2005 – August 2009.

Location: Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, USA.

Case Status: Officially unsolved. No convictions have been obtained. Newly elected Sheriff Kyle Mears, elected 2024, has publicly committed to reopening the case and retesting available evidence.

Episode Key Points

- The lead investigator purchased the pickup truck Kristen Gary Lopez was last seen riding in, washed it, and resold it for nearly double the purchase price — then was removed from the murder case and placed in charge of the evidence room.

- Jefferson Davis Parish's homicide clearance rate stands at just under seven percent, against a national average above sixty percent.

- In 2009, the sheriff ordered DNA swabs from every investigator working the case — and the murders stopped. The results were never publicly released.

- Jail warden Terry Guillory told Crystal Zeno's mother he knew the unidentified skeletal remains were her daughter — identifying her by a tattoo on an intimate part of her body — and added, unprompted, that he did not kill her.

Jeff Davis Eight, Jefferson Davis Parish Louisiana, Jennings Louisiana murders, serial homicide 2005 2009, unsolved Louisiana cold case, homicide, investigation, true detective, criminal minds, forensic science, murder, morbid, true crime English.

The Town That Buried Eight Women and Asked No Questions: The Unsolved Murders of the Jeff Davis Eight

Eight women found in canals, on roadsides, and in tall grass across Jefferson Davis Parish between 2005 and 2009 — and the lead investigator on the case quietly bought the truck one victim was last seen riding in, washed it, and resold it for nearly double the price. This homicide investigation into one of Louisiana's most overlooked serial cases reveals how a small town's drug corridors, a jail warden, and a clearance rate of under seven percent kept eight deaths invisible for two decades.

In this episode, we explore a 2009 order for DNA swabs from every investigator on the case — results that were never publicly released — a jail warden who identified a victim's skeletal remains by a tattoo on an intimate part of her body before any official identification was made, and a string of witnesses whose testimony collapsed every time an arrest came close. Were these women killed by one person, or protected by one system? The forensic science and the institutional record point in the same direction, but they still don't have a name attached.

Case Details

Victim: Eight women — Loretta Chasson, 28; Ernestine Patterson, 30; Kristen Gary Lopez, 21; Whitney Dubois, 26; Laconia Brown, 23; Crystal Shea Benoit Zeno, 24; Brittany Gary, 17; Nicole Guillory, 26.

Date: May 2005 – August 2009.

Location: Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, USA.

Case Status: Officially unsolved. No convictions have been obtained. Newly elected Sheriff Kyle Mears, elected 2024, has publicly committed to reopening the case and retesting available evidence.

Episode Key Points

- The lead investigator purchased the pickup truck Kristen Gary Lopez was last seen riding in, washed it, and resold it for nearly double the purchase price — then was removed from the murder case and placed in charge of the evidence room.

- Jefferson Davis Parish's homicide clearance rate stands at just under seven percent, against a national average above sixty percent.

- In 2009, the sheriff ordered DNA swabs from every investigator working the case — and the murders stopped. The results were never publicly released.

- Jail warden Terry Guillory told Crystal Zeno's mother he knew the unidentified skeletal remains were her daughter — identifying her by a tattoo on an intimate part of her body — and added, unprompted, that he did not kill her.

Jeff Davis Eight, Jefferson Davis Parish Louisiana, Jennings Louisiana murders, serial homicide 2005 2009, unsolved Louisiana cold case, homicide, investigation, true detective, criminal minds, forensic science, murder, morbid, true crime English.

The Wrong Man Served 16 Years for Her Attack: The Murder of Chantal Marie Green and the Attack on Diana D'Aiello

A nine-months-pregnant woman was found unconscious in her bed at 2 AM with her brain exposed through a forehead wound — and the only man convicted of the crime was sitting in a prison cell when a serial attacker confessed to the truth seventeen years later. The forensic science had the answer the whole time. The question is why nobody looked.

In this episode, we explore the sixteen-year wrongful conviction built on a domestic violence history and a victim's recovered memory, a preserved sexual assault kit that no one tested for over a decade, and the confession of a Marine who provided details only someone present at the scene could know. How does a man get convicted of nearly killing his own wife when a serial killer was operating in the same neighborhood on the same night? The investigation and the homicide record tell two stories that cannot both be true.

Case Details

Victim: Diana D'Aiello (Diana Green), 20, nine months pregnant; Chantal Marie Green, unborn daughter, died 12 hours post-attack.

Date: September 30, 1979.

Location: Tustin, California, USA.

Case Status: Kevin Green was exonerated on June 20, 1996, after DNA evidence confirmed Gerald Parker as the true attacker. Parker was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder in 1998 and sentenced to death. Parker remains on California's death row.

Episode Key Points

- Diana's recovered memory identified Kevin as her attacker with absolute certainty — yet DNA from the preserved sexual assault kit confirmed the semen belonged to Gerald Parker, not Kevin.

- Gerald Parker confessed knowing the street name, the bedroom layout, and the side-entry door location — details never made public during Kevin's trial.

- Kevin Green served sixteen years before exoneration, attending parole hearings where Diana testified against his release every single time.

- A regional task force formed specifically to catch the Bedroom Basher was disbanded in under one month — just one week after Parker attacked Diana — and women continued to be murdered.

Diana D'Aiello, Tustin California wrongful conviction, Bedroom Basher Orange County, Gerald Parker serial killer, Kevin Green exoneration 1996, homicide, forensic science, true detective, criminal minds, investigation, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Mechanic Who Knew Where to Look: The Murders of Kay Turner and Rachanda Pickle

A highway mechanic volunteered to lead police into the Oregon woods and walked them directly to a broken watch stopped at 9:27 a.m. on Christmas Eve. He already knew exactly where to step. This investigation would take fifteen years to crack — and the answer had been standing in front of investigators from day one.

In this episode, we explore the impossible alibi that collapsed only after a divorce, a rope found in a suspect's truck carrying a missing girl's hair and blood, and a storage unit emptied the same night police made their first arrest. How does a man with a CB radio handle known to everyone at the local diner as "The Pervert" pass a polygraph, keep his freedom for over a decade, and collect victims along a single stretch of Oregon highway?

Case Details

Victim: Kay Turner, 35, Eugene office worker; Rachanda Pickle, 13, stepdaughter of the suspect.

Date: December 24, 1978 (Kay Turner); July 10, 1990 (Rachanda Pickle).

Location: Highway 20 corridor, Camp Sherman and Santiam Junction, Oregon, USA.

Case Status: John Aykroyd was convicted of Kay Turner's murder on October 6, 1993, and accepted a no-contest plea for Rachanda Pickle's murder in 2013. He died in prison in 2013. No parole was possible under the plea terms. Multiple additional Highway 20 victims remain officially unsolved.

Episode Key Points

- The broken watch found with Kay Turner's clothing had its stem knocked out, freezing the time at exactly 9:27 a.m. on December 24 — the window when John Aykroyd was the last confirmed person to see her alive.

- John's alibi for Christmas Eve was corroborated for years by Pam Beck, who later admitted she lied because her husband threatened to kill her if she told the truth.

- A rope recovered from John's truck contained Rachanda Pickle's hair and blood. John told police the rope had been used to play with kittens.

- The same night Roger Beck was arrested for Kay Turner's murder, John Aykroyd completely emptied his rented storage unit. The contents were never recovered.

Kay Turner, Rachanda Pickle, Highway 20 Oregon murders, Camp Sherman homicide, Santiam Junction missing person 1990, serial killers, true detective, homicide, investigation, forensic science, murder, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

She Said Good Morning. Then Four Shots.: The Murder of Elizabeth Barraza

A garage sale. A Friday morning in a quiet Texas subdivision. Elizabeth Barraza said "good morning" to a stranger walking up her driveway — and four seconds later, four gunshots ended her life. The shooter was gone in under sixty seconds, and the murder weapon has never been found. Who knew she would be standing in that driveway at that exact moment?

In this episode, we explore a dark-colored pickup truck that circled the neighborhood nearly five hours before the shooting, a $500,000 life insurance policy the beneficiary described as "not worth that much," and a shooter whose gender investigators still cannot confirm. Was this a targeted hit by someone inside Elizabeth's circle, or a calculated strike by a stranger who knew exactly where to look? The forensic science and the surveillance footage point toward two answers that cannot both be true.

Case Details

Victim: Elizabeth "Liz" Barraza, young adult, data reporter at Rosen Group and hospital volunteer.

Date: January 25, 2019.

Location: Tomball, Texas, USA.

Case Status: Unsolved and officially active. No arrests have been made as of the reporting date, and no charges have been filed against any individual.

Episode Key Points

- The shooter arrived exactly four minutes after Liz's husband left for work, a window so precise it raises serious questions about prior surveillance of the household routine.

- A revolver was used instead of a semiautomatic pistol, a choice that left zero shell casings at the scene and required no cleanup whatsoever.

- The shooter's truck doubled back past the Barraza house after the murder while a neighbor was still live on the phone with 911 dispatch.

- A geofencing warrant covering the area returned only first responder devices — meaning the shooter almost certainly did not carry a phone during the attack.

Elizabeth Barraza, Tomball Texas homicide, Harris County murder 2019, unsolved murder Texas, garage sale shooting, true crime, homicide, investigation, forensic science, criminal minds, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Party That Erased Itself by Morning: The Disappearance of Randy Leach

A 17-year-old arrived at a graduation bonfire in rural Kansas and was never seen again — but the most disturbing detail isn't his disappearance. It's what the farm looked like at sunrise: ground raked clean, no cups, no cans, no trash, as if a party for over a hundred people had never happened. How does an outdoor bonfire for 150 people leave zero trace in under five hours?

In this episode, we explore the impossible timeline between Randy's last confirmed sighting at 2:00 AM and the sanitized farm discovered at dawn, a severed foot found on a riverbank eleven months later by the last person who saw Randy alive, and a cave witness who passed multiple polygraphs before authorities blocked the search entirely. Was Randy the victim of an accident on a dark rural road, or did something far more deliberate happen at that farm — and did someone spend the night making sure no one would ever know?

Case Details

Victim: Randy Leach, 17, high school senior and basketball player.

Date: April 15–16, 1988.

Location: Linwood, Leavenworth County, Kansas, USA.

Case Status: The case remains officially open and unsolved. No charges have ever been filed in connection with Randy's disappearance, and neither Randy nor his vehicle has ever been recovered in over 36 years.

Episode Key Points

- The farm hosting the graduation bonfire was found raked clean of all debris by morning — fewer than five hours after the party ended at 2:30 AM.

- Steve, the last known person to be with Randy before the party, was observed driving past the Leach family home at 10 mph on a 55 mph highway the morning after Randy vanished.

- A cave witness who claimed to have seen a young male body matching Randy's description passed multiple polygraph examinations — before Leavenworth County blocked the search and the cave was later bulldozed.

- The sheriff's office eventually provided the Leach family with 60 pages of case files — all of which contained only information the family had originally given to investigators themselves.

Randy Leach, Linwood Kansas missing person, Leavenworth County disappearance 1988, Kansas cold case, rural Kansas homicide, true crime, unsolved mysteries, investigation, criminal minds, forensic science, homicide, murder, Crime Junkie, true crime English.

The Dog That Ate the Carpet: The Disappearance and Death of Marcus Rutledge

A locked bathroom, a starving Rottweiler, and a phone wiped clean before investigators could read it — and that was just the first night Marcus Rutledge was missing. His car turned up three weeks later, more than twenty miles away, with an unregistered handgun under the seat and fingerprints that didn't belong to anyone who knew him. Someone knew exactly where he went. They just haven't said a word in twenty-six years.

In this episode, we explore the thirteen-day gap between Marcus's last confirmed phone call and the moment his car was found at a complex he had no connection to, a skull discovered by a hunter in 2010 that sat unidentified for fourteen years, and the murder of Marcus's best friend Ethan Gibbs Jr. just eight months after Marcus vanished — a case that also collapsed before trial. Was Marcus's death connected to a drug-world home invasion that happened the very next day, or did someone closer to him decide what his secret life was worth? The forensic science points to a name. The legal record refuses to say it.

Case Details

Victim: Marcus Rutledge, 23, Tennessee State University student (unofficial — had secretly dropped out in 1997).

Date: June 8, 1998 (last confirmed contact); remains identified January 31, 2025.

Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Case Status: Active homicide investigation. Metro Nashville Police Department officially reclassified the case from missing persons to homicide on January 31, 2025, after DNA from a skull found in 2010 was matched through CODIS. No arrests have been made.

Episode Key Points

- Marcus's landline phone was unplugged and removed from his apartment the night he vanished, triggering a factory reset that permanently erased all stored contact numbers before investigators could examine it.

- His red Plymouth Neon was found abandoned at an apartment complex twenty miles from his home, with an unregistered handgun under the driver's seat and one unidentified fingerprint on the inside of the driver's-side window.

- The day after Marcus disappeared, three to four masked gunmen invaded the apartment of Charles D. Brown Jr. — a man connected to Marcus's circle — and fled in vehicles that included a red car visually consistent with Marcus's Plymouth Neon.

- Ethan Gibbs Jr., Marcus's best friend, was shot multiple times in his apartment eight months later; the only named suspect walked free after charges were dropped, and that case also remains officially unsolved.

Marcus Rutledge, Nashville Tennessee homicide, Tennessee State University cold case, cold case 1998, Nashville missing persons, true detective, homicide, murder, investigation, forensic science, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

She Bought a New Purse That Afternoon: The Murder of Jane Newman

Jane Newman stopped at a store on her way home from work to exchange a purse. That purse was found next to her body less than two hours later. The official investigation closed inside of three months — but the man who burned the only suicide note and threw the shotgun off a highway bridge was never charged with murder.

In this episode, we explore a fishing line threaded through a hole in a laundry room wall, a one-hundred-thousand-dollar life insurance policy whose suicide exclusion expired exactly four days before Jane died, and a computerized phone system her husband programmed himself that may have built his alibi call by call. Was this a woman who planned her own death with military precision — or a crime scene staged by someone who knew exactly which evidence would never be tested?

Case Details

Victim: Jane Newman, 30, mortgage company employee.

Date: November 22, 1993.

Location: St. Croix County, Wisconsin, USA.

Case Status: The case is an open homicide. A 1997 civil jury found James Newman responsible for Jane's murder and ordered over four hundred thousand dollars in damages, upheld on appeal in 2001. No criminal homicide charges have ever been filed.

Episode Key Points

- The suicide exclusion on Jane's one-hundred-thousand-dollar life insurance policy expired exactly four days before her death — a fact her husband claimed not to know.

- Jim Newman burned the alleged suicide note, flushed the ashes, wrapped the shotgun in garbage bags, drove three miles, and threw it from a bridge — all before calling 911.

- Bubble wrap fragments found inside Jane's gunshot wound matched computer packaging material from Jim's employer, where he had direct daily access.

- Jim's employer testified that Jim had personally programmed the company's computerized telemarketing system and could have used it to generate the home calls that formed his alibi.

Jane Newman, St. Croix County Wisconsin homicide, murder 1993, open homicide Wisconsin, civil trial wrongful death, true crime, homicide, investigation, forensic science, murder, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.