Hey there Holiday fans:

Have you ever wondered what Christmas was like, not just in your neck of the
woods, but in Western Europe, the Nordic countries, Africa, the Middle East,
even India? Introducing Christmas Around the World, a new podcast coming
this holiday season. With Christmas Around the World, I take a look at not just
how Christmas is celebrated everywhere, but other holidays like Kwanza,
Hannukah, Navaratri, Diwali and many more.

Did you know that the movie Krampus from 2015 was based on a real Austro-Bavarian devil monster character from the 1500s? He came to collect all the naughty children to take
back to his mountain lair to kill and eat. A kind of anti-Santa Claus that the
modern day character of the Grinch was based off of? Or that during Diwali,
the Hindu harvest festival of lights that is celebrated around the globe, more
than $300 million dollars per year is spent on fireworks alone? Imagine
celebrating Christmas on the sand with a barbeque and a picnic playing
beach volleyball like they do in South Africa. Did you know while most Biblical
scholars agree that at least one of the Three Wise Men came from the Middle
East to worship Jesus, that one or more of them could have been from China
or India ? There also is no consensus that they were three in number, some
debate there could have been 2, 4, 8 or even 12 Kings who made the journey.
And Did you know that instead of a jolly, Santa Claus type being the figure
representative of the season, both Italy and Iceland revere a good and an evil
witch, respectively ?

Learn about all of this and so much more like decor, food, religions and the holiday traditions that make the world go round during the very best time of the year. I will also be featuring interviews with special guests from around the globe who can tell us, in their own words, what
special Christmas, religious, solstice and harvest festival holidays are like for
them. Christmas Around the World premieres Tuesday, November 4th with a
new episode every Tuesday. Available wherever you get your podcasts. And
for more holiday mystery fun don’t forget to check out all three seasons of The
Evergreen Murders with The Evergreen Murders: A Mackenzie Monroe
Christmas Mystery, Murder at Mistletoe Manor and Return to Evergreen.
Trilogy available wherever you get your podcasts.

By the age of 17, Krystal Lee Higgins of Harrington, Maine, had been through more than most kids. She and her brother and sister were put into foster care when they were young and Krystal had been emancipated from her parents at only 16 years old. In August of 2004, right before she was due to start her senior year of High School, was living with a friend and was holding down two jobs. But on August 7, 2004, when she was supposed to have a fun night out with friends, her life was cut tragically short. 
Krystal's car was found submerged by a boat dock 5 days later and Krystal was found floating facedown in the same river one week after she disappeared. While the coroner pronounced her death an accidental drowning, others weren't so sure. Years later, two mysterious letters would turn up in the town, asking its residents to re-think everything they knew about the case.

Show Notes: 

https://darkdowneast.com/krystalleehiggins-pt1/

https://darkdowneast.com/krystalleehiggins-pt2/

On April 13, 1999 at around 9 pm, Danny Schneider Jr., 20, told his parents and sister he was going to study at a friend's house in Chalmette, Louisiana, about a 20 minute drive from New Orleans. In reality, Danny was actually going to buy drugs in the seedy 9th Ward. On April 14, at around 2 am, Dan and Annie Schneider were awakened by a knock at their door telling them their son was dead. He had been shot in the head. 
Dan Schneider would take on his son's case, relentlessly seeking justice for him. His quest would lead him down a long, dark and winding road full of drug dealers, drug addicts, a false informant, a real eyewitness, illegal pill mills and a pediatrician-turned narcotics dealer doctor who was almost single-handedly helping along the country's opioid crisis. 

Show Notes:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11600174/

The Murders of Bill and Peggy Stephenson are discussed.

Show Notes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cincinnatis-crime-vault-beyond-the-broadcast/id1641626489

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-cincinnatis-crime-vault-be-101295692/episode/5-the-brutal-stephenson-murders-and-111015211/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-the-tip-sters-true-crime-podcast/id1335317858

On June 2nd, 2007, at 6:30 p.m.,18-year-old Kelsey Smith went to the local Target in Overland Park, Kansas, to buy a gift for her boyfriend, John. Kelsey had just graduated from High School days earlier, was planning on going to Kansas State University in the fall, and was planning on studying veterinary medicine. She and John had been dating for about six months.
Once inside the Target store, she called her mom, Missy to ask where she might find gift wrap. Missy told her and Kelsey hung up the phone. At 7:30 John showed up at her house to take Kelsey on a date but Kelsey still was not home. Concerned, her father Greg and sister Lindsay set out to look for her. Eventually, at around 10 p.m. that evening, the worried father and sister found her car parked across the street from the Target at a Macy's store. There was still no sign of Kelsey.
Until June 6th, in a wooded area some 20 miles away in Grandview, Missouri, two hikers found her body. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with her own belt. What transpired to determine her killer would involve a non-cooperative phone company, more than 40 surveillance cameras, and one incredible citizen tipster. 

Show Notes:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4219070/

On Friday, July 13th, 2012, in the tiny town of Evansdale, Iowa, two cousins and best friends, Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10 set off on their bikes. Their grandmother told them to be back in an hour for lunch, but by late afternoon, the girls still had not returned. Concerned, family members called police who searched a nearby lake, where they found the girls' discarded bikes, but there was still no sign of the girls. 
The case went cold until almost six months later, in December of that year, a hunter found the remains of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook. The girls had been abducted and murdered. The police had a few suspects, but the case remains cold to this day. If you have any information on the murders of Collins and Cook please call the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515-725-6010 or email them at [email protected].

Show Notes:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33035689/

The cases of David Camm and Richard Hoagland are discussed. 

Show Notes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mystery-on-lockhart-road/id1464919521?i=1000463343241

https://www.andthentheyweregone.com/episodes/episode-514-re-release-richard-hoagland

The disappearance of Timmothy Pitzen and the suicide of Amy Frye Pitzen in Rockford, Illinois is discussed.

Show Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJqFMVT-S8

On September 14, 2001, Amber Hoopes, a 20-year-old native of Idaho Falls, Idaho left her grandparents house where she was living, and went out to their auto body shop on the premises to check her email around midnight. Amber's grandmother woke up a few hours later and noticed Amber's TV and lights were on in her room. Her grandmother went out to check the auto body shop, but Amber was nowhere to be found. 
What followed her disappearance in the middle of the night led police to a man named Keith Hascock, who was a former employee of Amber's family's business. Keith Hascock had abducted a 14-year-old girl in a neighboring town, but the girl had escaped. As police narrowed in on Keith Hascock, another young girl in Challis, Idaho, 9-year-old Stephanie Crane, was also kidnapped and never seen again. Was Keith Hascock responsible for all of these abductions and possible murders? Or was it the work of other child kidnappers and killers in Idaho?

Show Notes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/without-a-trace/id1766011211

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8350730/

On Monday, March 20th, 1977, 16-year-old Dawn Momohara received a call at the home she shared with her mother in Honolulu. It was an unknown male who asked to meet her at the local Ala Mohana shopping center. Telling her mother she would be back later, Dawn left without another word. When she hadn't returned home by midnight, her mother called the police. Dawn was found the next morning, dead, at her nearby High School. She had been raped and strangled. The case soon went cold. 
Nancy Anderson was born in Michigan, but, after High School, in 1971, wanted adventure. She soon moved to Oahu in Hawaii and found a roommate and a job at the local McDonald's, also at the Ala Mohana shopping center. Things were going well until the end of January 1972, a mere four months after moving to Hawaii, Nancy was found dead in her bathroom by her roommate. She had been stabbed. Her case also went cold. 
Two cases, 6 years apart that went cold, but, miraculously, and with the help of forensics, science, DNA and geneaology, were solved more than four decades later.

Show Notes:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Y23FBwSO1a9UwZpssESCv

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34912793/