Tara Grinstead, a High School teacher, cheerleading coach, beauty pageant winner, and all-around sweet Georgia girl, was well-loved and respected in the small town of Ocilla. On Saturday, October 22nd, 2005, Tara attended the Miss Sweet Potato Beauty Queen Pageant as a coach and mentor and then went to a barbecue dinner party at the home of her boss. Around 11 pm, she said goodbye to her friends at the party, drove the four blocks home to try to get some sleep, and was never seen again. What followed was over a decade's worth of twists, turns and a long list of suspects ranging from resentful ex-boyfriends, jealous former students and clandestine lovers. The case went cold and it seemed as if Tara would never be found...until 12 years later an anonymous tip led to the arrests of the most unlikely of individuals. Show Notes: Up and Vanished, Season 1:https://open.spotify.com/show/5FqJcvfGMLledCODGqV4J9

"Call Me Now For Ya Free Readin'!" was the tagline that defined the late '90s. Whether you loved them or hated them, The Psychic Readers Network and it's magical, mystical and manufactured Miss Cleo were the King and Queen of late-night TV advertising. By the time the year 2000 rolled around, the Psychic Readers Network had made $1 billion off of unsuspecting callers. But, the company and Miss Cleo herself were not at all what they seemed. The owners and operators of the Psychic Readers Network engaged in aggressive, deceptive and manipulative marketing tactics, and the crooked and elusive Miss Cleo swindled a charity and dozens of others out of their money. What followed was a trail of fraud stretching from North Carolina to Seattle, and eventually, all the way down to the great state of Florida. Show Notes:https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/fashion/mens-style/hotline-psychic-miss-cleo-commercials.htmlhttps://open.spotify.com/show/7KI5zSFWSHoUEewwF40PtO

Thomas Capano was a wealthy Delaware deputy attorney general and very politically connected. He had a rich father, close-knit brothers, a wife and four teenage daughters...and multiple mistresses on the side. But when one of those mistresses, 30-year-old Anne Fahey, went missing one summer evening, all eyes turned to her secret, older boyfriend. What would unravel next would be the unveiling of someone who was not what he seemed. An allegedly upstanding attorney and family man, who, deep down, was a jealous, deranged killer. Show Notes:https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Wind-Thomas-Capano-Murder/dp/0060393149

Annie Le was a brilliant and beautiful doctoral student conducting scientific research at Yale University. She was also a bride-to-be with a gorgeous wedding coming up in five days. So when she completely disappeared from work one morning, everyone was shocked and concerned. It would take six days before her decomposing body would be discovered, and even longer to figure out who would commit such a heinous crime against a lovely and promising young woman. Show notes:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11866590/https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-at-yale-stella-sands/1100353095

Nicole Atkinson was worried. She hadn't heard from her best friend Shanann, for hours and she typically was in constant contact with her. She knew Shanann had been fighting with her husband and had been in a depressed mood during their most recent business trip. Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with the couple's third child but she didn't believe her husband, Chris Watts, wanted the little boy. Little did she know, that not only did he not want the child, but he had been carrying on an affair with a co-worker and had murderous plans in mind. Colorado's True Crime story is one of the most well-known and extremely devastating of all time. It is proof that the devil lurks in the most unassuming of us all. Correction: Shanann Watts was 15 WEEKS pregnant, not 15 monthshttps://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Father-All-American-Family-Shocking/dp/1250231612https://www.netflix.com/title/81130130

Chris Smith was a laid-back millionaire surfer dude living the high life in Orange County, California. He had a thriving company, a gorgeous girlfriend and a trustworthy business partner, Ed Shin. Or so he thought. When Chris suddenly and unexpectedly takes off on a sailing trip around the world to the Galapagos Islands, Egypt, Mumbai and Costa Rica, his family isn't concerned. At first. Until they start receiving dozens of strange emails. What comes next is a story of murder and money and greed. Tremendous, life-altering, transformative greed, deception and desperation. Podcorn is the sponsor for this podcast. Check out  www.podcorn.com for more informationEpisode also sponsored by GeorgeFranklinAuthor.comhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6CWQJgEGCmPQBMF0M4hHgthttps://www.oxygen.com/a-lie-to-die-for/crime-time/edward-shin-murder-chris-martin-partner-kidnap-hoaxhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt9436472/www.classicalmusicindy.org

On May 5, 1993, in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, three little boys were murdered. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers were found hog-tied and beaten to death in the Robin Hood Woods on the outskirts of town. The residents and police were outraged and terrified and would do anything to bring the killers to justice. So much so, that they ended up arresting and convicting three teenage boys for the heinous crimes. The only problem was, the boys, who came to be known as The West Memphis Three, were most likely innocent.Podcorn is the sponsor for this podcast. Check out www.podcorn.com for more information.Episode also sponsored by GeorgeFranklinAuthor.comhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abusehttps://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/psychologist-explains-why-people-confess-crimes-they-didn-t-commit

Travis Alexander was an ambitious, outgoing and extremely successful young man who had the world at his feet. He had a nice home in Mesa, Arizona, tons of friends and love interests and was extremely involved in the Mormon church. Everything in his life was going great...until he met Jodi Arias. After entering into a romantic relationship with Jodi, Travis would become embroiled in a dangerous game of sex, obsession and seduction. A deadly game that would ultimately lead to his brutal murder. *Correction: the first McDonald's drive-thru was in Sierra Vista, Arizona. It was not the first in the country

You know Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy but you've probably never heard of Israel Keyes, one of the more terrifying serial killers of all time. In the last decade, Keyes admitted to kidnapping, raping and murdering numerous victims across multiple states...and getting away with it. Until he went after one young woman, Samantha Koenig, in Anchorage, Alaska, who would ultimately be his undoing.

For our first case, we delve into the Jack Wilson murder. Jack Wilson was a well-known ophthalmologist in Huntsville, Alabama. In May of 1992, he and his wife, Betty, a socialite, were getting ready to go on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico over the Memorial Day weekend to rekindle their romance. But Jack and Betty would never make that vacation. On May 22nd, Jack Wilson was found in the hallway of his upstairs bedroom, brutally beaten and stabbed to death. What followed after his death, was a murder investigation that involved a deranged psychopath, twists, turns, lies, blackmail and and an alleged murder-for-hire scheme involving Betty and her church-going twin sister, Peggy. Show Notes:https://books.google.com/books/about/By_Two_and_Two.html?id=daHyAAAAMAAJhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt1469602/