True Crime Central

The Letter He Never Sent: The Triple Murder of Robert Gearse, Robert Hinson, and James Barker

A microfilm company open for barely one month. Three men bound, gagged, and killed one by one in their own home on a Tuesday night in Indianapolis. When police arrived, both wallets were still on the table — cash untouched. Whoever did this didn't want money. They wanted something else entirely, and they waited inside that house until every last one of them came home.

In this episode, we explore a sealed confession letter discovered two years after the man who wrote it died, a refused polygraph that investigators flagged within three weeks of the murders and could never force, and a pair of boots buried in a backyard in 1971 whose owner's wife never asked why. Who ordered three men killed over a business that was barely a month old, and why did the answer sit in a dead man's drawer for over thirty years?

Case Details

Victim: Robert Gearse, 34, co-owner of B&B Microfilm Service Company; Robert Hinson, 27, co-owner of B&B Microfilm Service Company; James Barker, 27, close friend and frequent resident of the home.

Date: November 30 — December 1, 1971.

Location: 1318 North LaSalle Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

Case Status: Exceptionally cleared in 2003 after a posthumous confession letter named Ted Uland as the man who ordered the killings and Fred Harbison as the man who carried them out. Both men were deceased by the time the clearance was granted. No criminal charges were ever filed.

Episode Key Points

- All three victims were bound at the hands and ankles before their throats were cut, yet not a single piece of furniture in the house was overturned, indicating the killer or killers were already inside when the men arrived home.

- Ted Uland held life insurance policies worth one hundred fifty thousand dollars on two of the victims — policies that were set to expire within days of the murders — and refused every polygraph request between December 1971 and January 1972.

- The confession letter naming Uland as the man who ordered the killings was written by Fred Harbison before his death in 1998 but never mailed; his daughter found it sealed among his possessions two years later.

- Approximately seventy-five percent of the physical evidence collected from the scene was inadvertently destroyed in the mid-1980s despite an active hold stamp on the case files.

Robert Gearse, Robert Hinson, James Barker, Indianapolis triple homicide 1971, LaSalle Street murders Indiana, homicide, forensic science, investigation, criminal minds, true detective, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Confession That Couldn't Have Been True: The Murder of Devin Dunnever

A five-year-old girl vanished from her home in New Philadelphia, Ohio, while her mother was upstairs for less than thirty minutes. When her body was found the next morning, a forensic pathologist confirmed she had been moved — meaning the crime scene the police built their entire case around was never real. A twelve-year-old boy eventually said yes to a question he had answered no to dozens of times before, and that single word cost him years of his life.

In this episode, we explore the seventeen words Anthony Harris spoke to his mother the moment she entered that interrogation room, a man in a long-sleeved flannel shirt spotted inside the search perimeter by multiple volunteers who was never identified, and a Brady violation involving a false alibi that a circuit court later said no reasonable prosecutor should have ignored. Was this a catastrophic failure of one small-town police department, or something more deliberate? The forensic science and the interrogation tape point in directions that cannot both lead to the same person.

Case Details

Victim: Devin Dunnever, age 5, child resident of New Philadelphia, Ohio.

Date: June 27–28, 1998.

Location: New Philadelphia, Ohio, USA.

Case Status: Anthony Harris was convicted in juvenile court, then fully exonerated in June 2000 after his confession was ruled coerced and involuntary. Devin Dunnever's murder remains officially unsolved. A special prosecutor reviewed the case from 2005 to 2007 and found insufficient evidence to charge anyone. No suspect has ever been tried for her death.

Episode Key Points

- Livor mortis on Devin's right side contradicted the position in which her body was found, confirming to forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Petty that she had been moved after death — yet police never pursued a vehicle or second location.

- Multiple volunteer searchers testified under oath that the area where Devin was found had been searched repeatedly before her body appeared there, placing her death timeline in direct conflict with the prosecution's theory.

- A man wearing a long-sleeved flannel shirt buttoned to the neck and wrists in late-June heat was observed inside the search perimeter by volunteer Nancy, who also noted a beige car with its trunk open and a blanket inside — neither the man nor the car was ever identified.

- Jamie, Lori's ex-boyfriend and a convicted felon legally barred from contact with Devin, had previously held Devin hostage for three days and had recently sought reconciliation with Lori. His alibi was provided by a person using a false name and a false Social Security number — yet Captain Urban never personally spoke to him.

Devin Dunnever, New Philadelphia Ohio homicide, juvenile false confession 1998, Ohio cold case unsolved, Anthony Harris exoneration, true crime, homicide, investigation, forensic science, criminal minds, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Butterfly Pillowcase No One Can Explain: The Bowraville Murders of Colleen Craig, Evelyn Stadhams, and Clinton Durow

A single pink shoe on a front lawn. A pillowcase with a butterfly pattern stuffed inside a dead teenager's shorts. Three Aboriginal Australian children from the same tight-knit community vanished within five months — and police told each family there was nothing to worry about. How do three cases from the same street, involving the same suspect, end in two acquittals and one body never found?

In this episode, we explore the distinctive pillowcase that matched sheets on a specific caravan bed and was found tucked inside the victim's clothing, a delivery truck driver who claims he saw an unconscious young man in the road with a large white man standing over him — and never gave formal testimony at trial, and the forensic evidence including a blood speck on a headboard that was destroyed during testing before it could be fully analyzed. Were three separate investigations the reason justice failed, or was it something deeper — a systemic decision about whose children were worth finding?

Case Details

Victim: Colleen Craig, 16, student; Evelyn Stadhams, 4, child; Clinton Durow, 16, student.

Date: September 13, 1990 – February 1, 1991.

Location: Bowraville, New South Wales, Australia.

Case Status: Officially unsolved. Two acquittals were entered — Clinton's murder in 1994 and Evelyn's murder in 2006. A retrial application under New South Wales's revised double jeopardy law was dismissed in September 2018. No charges have ever been filed in Colleen's case. Colleen's body has never been found.

Episode Key Points

- A pillowcase with a distinctive pink-and-brown butterfly pattern was found stuffed inside Clinton's shorts at the body recovery site — it matched the bedding on the suspect's caravan mattress.

- When officers first searched the caravan, all sheets had been removed from the bed; when a second detective visited shortly after, the sheets were back in place.

- A blood speck found on the caravan headboard was confirmed human but was destroyed during the typing process before a match could be established.

- A delivery driver reported stopping his truck on February 1, 1991, for an unconscious shoeless young Aboriginal man in the road, with a large white man nearby and a car parked with its trunk open — he was never called to testify at trial.

Colleen Craig, Evelyn Stadhams, Clinton Durow, Bowraville murders, New South Wales homicide, Aboriginal Australia cold case, 1990 1991, true crime, homicide, forensic science, investigation, unsolved mysteries, criminal minds, true crime English.

The Girl Who Asked for Directions and Never Came Back: The Disappearance of Kristen Modafferi

At 3:00 PM on June 23, 1997, an 18-year-old college student asked her coworkers for directions to a shoreline park, walked out the door of a San Francisco coffee shop, and was never seen again. Scent dogs tracked her trail all the way to the edge of the Pacific Ocean — and then stopped. The homicide investigation that followed produced a suspect, a diary with pages torn out, and a basement that may have answered everything — but the one person who could verify the evidence refused to hand it over.

In this episode, we explore the anonymous tip that accidentally identified the prime suspect, a four-hour phone call in which a woman allegedly confessed her role in a kidnapping and murder, and a cadaver dog alert in the basement of Kristen's former home that ground-penetrating radar could neither confirm nor explain. Was Kristen swept into the Pacific by a rogue wave, or did someone intercept her before she ever reached the water? The forensic science and the phone records point in two directions that have never been reconciled.

Case Details

Victim: Kristen Modafferi, 18, Park Scholar at NC State University and part-time barista.

Date: June 23, 1997.

Location: San Francisco, California, USA.

Case Status: Unsolved. No arrests have ever been made. The FBI closed its investigation in 2017, while Oakland PD considers the case active. No remains have been recovered.

Episode Key Points

- Scent dogs tracked Kristen from her workplace to the Sutro Baths ruins and onward to Cliff House — where her scent trail ended at a rocky oceanside overlook with no witnesses and no reported sightings.

- The prime suspect identified himself accidentally by calling a local news station with a false tip, naming two women who, when interviewed, immediately named him.

- A diary belonging to the suspect's girlfriend was recovered with pages torn out specifically covering the week of Kristen's disappearance — she told investigators he removed them because "some of the stuff in there could come back to hurt him."

- A scientist claimed his proprietary technology detected human DNA matching Kristen's parents' samples in the basement of her former Oakland home — then refused to provide Oakland PD with the process details needed for independent verification.

Kristen Modafferi, San Francisco disappearance 1997, Oakland California missing person, Land's End San Francisco, unsolved mysteries, homicide, forensic science, investigation, true detective, criminal minds, murder, cold case, true crime English.

The Witnesses Who Still Won't Talk: The Unsolved Deaths of Thomas Beerson and Geetha Angara

A freshman's body was found six miles from campus, in a different state, missing a shoe and a phone — and the last people who saw him alive have never taken a polygraph. A senior chemist was pulled from a million-gallon water tank with deep bruising on her neck, and five medical examiners all agreed: someone put her there. In both cases, the investigators know who to look at. The problem is the witnesses.

In this episode, we explore a cryptic 1:30 AM tweet sent from a dead man's account naming a specific person, a broken grate at a water treatment plant that left no fingerprints, and a Law and Order episode filmed at the exact facility where Geetha Angara died — one year before her death — that describes how chlorine destroys forensic evidence. How do two homicide cases with named persons of interest stay unsolved for over a decade? The forensic science is there. The profiles exist. Someone just isn't talking.

Case Details

Victim: Thomas Beerson, 18, freshman at North Dakota State University; Geetha Angara, 43, senior chemist at Passaic Valley Water Commission.

Date: September 19–25, 2014 (Beerson); February 8–9, 2005 (Angara).

Location: Fargo, North Dakota / Moorhead, Minnesota, USA; Totowa, New Jersey, USA.

Case Status: Both cases remain officially unsolved. Moorhead Police confirmed Beerson's case is actively pursued as of September 2023. Angara's case has no active public investigation update; Passaic County Prosecutor's tip line remains open.

Episode Key Points

- Tom Beerson's body was found five to six miles from his dorm, across a state line, in a different jurisdiction — despite cell phone pings drawing the search to that exact industrial area days earlier.

- A tweet sent from Tom's account at 1:30 AM named Jake directly; Jake's account of that night has almost no presence in any public reporting despite being the last known person with Tom.

- Geetha Angara's workplace had a documented 1993 incident in which an unknown person moved the same style of grate over the same water tank and increased chlorine fifteen times above normal — that case was also never solved.

- One of the three remaining suspects in Geetha's case refused a polygraph test; investigators have never publicly disclosed which suspect refused.

Thomas Beerson, Geetha Angara, Fargo North Dakota homicide, Totowa New Jersey water plant death, unsolved mysteries 2014, homicide, true detective, forensic science, investigation, criminal minds, murder, cold case, true crime English.

The $2 Bill Pinned to His Underwear: The Death of Charles "Chuck" Morgan

A man came home at 2 AM with his hands bound in plastic handcuffs, one ankle cuffed, missing a shoe — and a note warning his wife that calling the police would be a death warrant for the entire family. Three months later, investigators found him on a desert highway wearing a bulletproof vest, a gun near his left hand, and a $2 bill pinned to his underwear with a hand-drawn map pointing directly to his own body. He was right-handed.

In this episode, we explore why the Pima County Medical Examiner refused to confirm suicide despite the sheriff closing the case within weeks, what the seven Spanish surnames written on that $2 bill actually connect to, and why an anonymous woman known only as Green Eyes told investigators a ninety-thousand-dollar contract had been placed on Chuck's life — increasing five thousand dollars for every day he stayed alive. Was this a desperate man who reached the end of his options, or someone who knew too much about the wrong people in Arizona?

Case Details

Victim: Charles "Chuck" Morgan, 39, president of Statewide Escrow Service, Inc., Tucson, Arizona.

Date: June 7–18, 1977.

Location: US Highway 86, Tohono O'odham Reservation, approximately 40 miles west of Tucson, Arizona, USA.

Case Status: Currently an inactive cold case. The Pima County Sheriff's Department ruled the death a suicide in mid-August 1977, but the county medical examiner ruled cause of death unknown and refused to confirm that ruling. No charges have ever been filed and no further official investigation has been publicly opened.

Episode Key Points

- Chuck was right-handed, yet the .357 Magnum was found near his left hand, and gunshot residue was recovered only from his left hand.

- The bullet entered from the back and top of his head and lodged behind his front teeth — a trajectory that investigators and the medical examiner found inconsistent with a self-inflicted wound.

- A $2 bill pinned inside his underwear contained a hand-drawn map pointing to the exact location where his body was found — written in Chuck's own handwriting.

- Arizona Attorney General Bruce Babbitt confirmed Chuck had given sworn secret testimony in a state banking investigation and had been offered physical protection, which Chuck declined.

Chuck Morgan, Tucson Arizona homicide, US-86 cold case 1977, Pima County death investigation, Arizona banking corruption, true detective, homicide, forensic science, criminal minds, investigation, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Run She Never Came Back From: The Disappearance and Death of Roberta "Bebe" Lee

A search dog found her body on December 9, 1984 — thirty-five days after she split off from her boyfriend on a morning trail run in Redwood Regional Park. The skull showed three fractures to the back of the head. A confession was obtained, then recanted within hours. And a serial killer operating in the same area that same month was never formally questioned about her case.

In this episode, we explore the fifteen-minute window in which Bebe vanished, the polygraph results that a leading expert later said were misread by the examiner, and a golden-brown van spotted near the trailhead by a witness who waited days to come forward. Was the right person convicted, or did voluntary manslaughter close a case that was never fully solved? The timeline and the forensic science point in directions that cannot both be correct.

Case Details

Victim: Roberta "Bebe" Lee, UC Berkeley student, age not confirmed in public record.

Date: November 4, 1984 (disappearance); December 9, 1984 (body discovered).

Location: Redwood Regional Park, Oakland, Bay Area, California, USA.

Case Status: Brad was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in April 1988 and served 2 years and 8 months. The conviction was upheld on appeal in 1991. No other suspect has ever been charged. The case is legally closed but contested.

Episode Key Points

- The confession Brad gave described Bebe falling backward from a backhanded strike — but the forensic pathologist testified the three skull fractures required a rock or repeated impact against the ground, not a single slap.

- A search dog pawed the ground at the exact location where Bebe's body was later found during the initial November search — but the handler did not report it as a formal alert because it was the wrong signal type.

- Police told Brad during interrogation that his fingerprints had been found at the scene and that a witness saw Bebe inside his car — both claims were false.

- Michael Patrick Ide, a convicted Bay Area killer whose physical description matched the composite sketch of the van suspect, was active in the same region during November 1984 and died in 2005 without ever being formally questioned about Bebe's case.

Roberta Bebe Lee, Redwood Regional Park homicide, Oakland California 1984, UC Berkeley missing student, Bay Area cold case, true crime, murder, forensic science, investigation, homicide, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The 45 Seconds That Swallowed Barbara Bullock: The Disappearance of Barbara Bullock

A fit, experienced hiker vanished on a well-marked, no-junction trail in the Bitterroot Mountains while her companion was less than thirty feet away — in under forty-five seconds, with no scream, no sound, and no trace ever found. Two young men with a dog were the last people to see her at the overlook, and they have never come forward. The lead investigator called them the key to the entire case — so why has no one ever heard from them?

In this episode, we explore the forty-five second window between the last confirmed sighting of Barbara and the moment Jim turned back around to find the trail empty, a loaded firearm she was carrying that never fired and was never recovered, and a years-long search involving the National Guard, infrared helicopters, and search dogs that returned zero physical evidence. Was Barbara taken by someone who knew exactly how little time they needed, or does this mountain simply hold a secret no search team has ever been equipped to find? The forensic science and the witness timeline produce two accounts that cannot both be complete.

Case Details

Victim: Barbara Bullock, 55, seasoned hiker and active outdoorswoman.

Date: July 2007.

Location: Bear Creek Overlook Trail, Bitterroot Mountains, near Corvallis, Montana, USA.

Case Status: The disappearance of Barbara Bullock remains an open and unsolved missing persons case. No arrests have been made, no remains have been positively identified, and the Ravalli County Sheriff's Office has never officially closed the investigation.

Episode Key Points

- Barbara vanished in an estimated forty-five seconds while her companion Jim stood less than thirty feet behind her on a trail with no junctions and no concealment routes.

- A loaded firearm Carl had given Barbara for wildlife protection was never found — it was in her day pack when she disappeared and has never been recovered.

- Two young male hikers with a dog were the only other people confirmed on the trail that day and chatted calmly with a construction crew on their way out — yet they have never been identified or come forward.

- In 2010, mushroom pickers discovered skeletal remains in the search area, but authorities determined they likely belonged to a male; the identity of those remains has never been confirmed.

Barbara Bullock, Bitterroot Mountains Montana disappearance, Ravalli County missing persons, Bear Creek Overlook Trail, unsolved 2007, true crime, investigation, unsolved mysteries, homicide, forensic science, morbid, casefile podcast, true crime English.

The Man Who Waited Thirty Minutes in the Dark: The Disappearance of Trevor Dealey

A CCTV camera captured a man in dark clothing pressing himself into a corner near a wrought iron column at 3:05 a.m. — and staying there for nearly half an hour. The moment Trevor Dealey walked past, the man turned, followed, and both disappeared from frame. Trevor was never seen again. Who waits in the dark for thirty minutes, and why has that man never come forward?

In this episode, we explore the three-camera CCTV sequence that shows an unidentified figure tracking Trevor across a Dublin block, a confidential informant who led investigators to a buried firearm on a Chapelizod wasteland plot — and then declined a hundred-thousand-euro reward, and a voicemail left at 4:05 a.m. that was deleted before anyone knew it mattered. Was Trevor the victim of a chance encounter turned violent, or did someone know exactly where he would be walking that night?

Case Details

Victim: Trevor Dealey, 22, IT analyst at Bank of Ireland Asset Management, Dublin.

Date: December 8, 2000, between approximately 4:05 and 4:15 a.m.

Location: Central Dublin, Ireland.

Case Status: Unsolved and active. The case was transferred to the Garda Serious Crime Review Team in September 2016. As of December 2023, the unidentified figure from Camera 1 and Camera 2 has never come forward or been identified.

Episode Key Points

- A man in dark clothing was recorded waiting in a doorway corner for approximately thirty minutes before Trevor walked past — then immediately turned and followed him on foot.

- A confidential informant led investigators to a three-acre wasteland in Chapelizod where a buried firearm was discovered, yet the same informant declined the €100,000 reward offered for information in Trevor's case.

- Trevor's phone was reportedly still ringing for days after his disappearance — a detail that directly contradicts any theory involving an immediate fall into the waterways he walked past.

- In December 2023, investigators confirmed that the man visible in Camera 3 footage is not the same individual seen in Camera 1 and Camera 2, meaning the figure who followed Trevor has never been identified in over two decades of investigation.

Trevor Dealey, Dublin disappearance 2000, Grand Canal Ireland, Chapelizod investigation, unsolved Ireland, homicide, investigation, forensic science, true detective, criminal minds, murder, morbid, true crime English.

The Skull Someone Washed Before Calling the Police: The Disappearance and Death of Kelly Disney

A man found a human skull inside an abandoned car in the Oregon woods, took it home, washed it with dish soap, and set it on top of his television. It sat there all weekend. He brought it to police on Monday. That skull belonged to seventeen-year-old Kelly Disney — missing for ten years. Who put it there, and why did it appear just days after investigators went public asking for tips?

In this episode, we explore how Kelly disappeared from Highway 20 after refusing a ride from a police sergeant at one in the morning, why investigators initially ruled her a runaway based on a disputed payphone sighting with no corroboration, and what multiple men who came forward years later claim they witnessed the night she vanished. Was the skull placed to be found — or found by someone too afraid to be honest? The forensic science and the forty-year silence point in directions that don't line up.

Case Details

Victim: Kelly Disney, 17, high school student from Siletz, Oregon.

Date: March 9, 1984 (disappearance); skull discovered July 23, 1994.

Location: Newport and Siletz, Oregon, USA.

Case Status: Unsolved as of 2024. No arrests have ever been made. Investigators approached the FBI in 2024 for reward assistance, and the case remains actively investigated by Lincoln County authorities.

Episode Key Points

- A man who found Kelly's skull washed it with dish soap and displayed it on his television for an entire weekend before surrendering it to police, permanently compromising potential forensic evidence.

- Kelly refused repeated ride offers from a police sergeant on a dark highway at one in the morning — the last confirmed sighting of her alive — and the sergeant drove away and left her there.

- Investigators issued a public press appeal for tips on Kelly's cold case just days before her skull appeared in the abandoned car, a timing law enforcement has described as "very coincidental."

- Multiple men have since come forward stating they were present when Kelly was killed, yet no arrests have been made in more than forty years.

Kelly Disney, Newport Oregon homicide, Lincoln County cold case, Highway 20 Oregon 1984, Oregon coastal highway murders, homicide, true detective, investigation, forensic science, murder, unsolved mysteries, criminal minds, true crime English.