Two Unhinged Trash Pandas

A promising Craigslist job offered good pay, a place to live, and the chance for a fresh start on a remote Ohio cattle farm.

The job never existed.

In this episode, Lit and Kissy examine how Richard Beasley used an ordinary-looking employment ad to locate vulnerable job seekers, evaluate who might resist or be quickly missed, and lure selected men into the woods. We follow the lives of Ralph Geiger, David Pauley, and Timothy Kern—and the extraordinary survival of Scott Davis, whose escape exposed the deadly operation and helped investigators uncover the truth.

Before the main case, Lit presents the legendary JATO Rocket Car for this week’s Fact-or-Hoax Mini Creeper, Kissy brings the Dishonorable Mention of the Week, and our Trash Panda vocabulary lesson introduces:

CYBERVOCATIOCAPTIVISM
(SYE-ber voh-KAY-shee-oh-CAP-tih-viz-um)

The predatory use of a false online employment opportunity to lure, isolate, control, or exploit a victim.

This is not simply a story about Craigslist. It is a story about manufactured trust, false authority, and a killer who turned the familiar rituals of applying for work into a system for selecting victims.

Content warning: This episode discusses murder and attempted murder by gunshot, shallow graves, exploitation of financially vulnerable adults, identity theft, robbery, and the involvement of a juvenile accomplice.

It’s Halloween—and the Trash Pandas are playing a dangerous little game called Trick or Trash.

Lit has prepared three deeply unsettling stories for Kissy:

🪦 A dead outlaw whose journey didn’t end when he died
🐇 A hatchet-wielding rabbit haunting a lonely stretch of road
🔔 A forgotten logging camp, a buried bell, and something beneath the outhouse that refuses to stay quiet

Each story could be documented fact, folklore, or complete horseshit—and the categories may repeat.

Kissy has heard absolutely none of this in advance. No research. No outline. No warning. After each tale, she must decide whether Lit has brought her a genuine piece of disturbing history, a legend passed down through generations, or an elaborate pile of seasonally appropriate bullshit.

Listeners can play along—but choose carefully. Real evidence has been hidden among urban legends, historical details have been weaponized for deception, and at least one story may exist solely because Lit wanted to emotionally manipulate Kissy with a haunted toilet.

Three stories.

Three verdicts.

No lifelines—and no reason whatsoever to trust the raccoon holding the answer key.

Welcome to Trick or Trash: A Two Unhinged Trash Pandas Halloween Special.

It’s all connected. Unfortunately. 🎃🦝🗑️

In December 1900, three experienced lighthouse keepers—James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur—vanished from Eilean Mòr in Scotland’s remote Flannan Isles.

When the lighthouse tender Hesperus finally reached the island, relief keeper Joseph Moore found an empty station, an extinguished light, and no trace of the three men. Their bodies were never recovered.

More than a century later, the disappearance has accumulated terrified final log entries, an abandoned dinner, an overturned chair, curses, sea monsters, and supernatural theories—but how much of that story is supported by the surviving record?

Join Lit and Kissy as we reconstruct the keepers’ final documented days, examine the violent damage at the west landing, compare the official investigation with the legend it became, and discuss the most likely sequence that carried all three men into the Atlantic.

Lit also reads Wilfrid Wilson Gibson’s complete 1912 poem Flannan Isle—the haunting work that helped introduce some of the mystery’s most famous “evidence.”

Our Mini Creeper brings Kissy a preserved sea creature known as the Jenny Haniver. Is it an unidentified ocean monster, a misunderstood animal, or an exceptionally disturbing piece of fraudulent arts and crafts?

Today’s suspiciously legitimate vocabulary word:

PharomythologizationFAIR-oh-mith-ol-uh-jih-ZAY-shun
The process by which an unexplained lighthouse event accumulates invented details and supernatural embellishments until folklore becomes indistinguishable from documented history.

And Kissy contributed a brand-new word live during the episode:

Convessed
The linguistic offspring of convel and confessed—when your mouth admits something before your brain has finished constructing the sentence.

Three men disappeared. The sea left evidence—but no witnesses, no bodies, and no final answer.

It’s all connected. 🦝🌊

Before Auschwitz tried to reduce her to a number, Erika Kounio Amariglio had a name, a family, a home and a life.

She was a daughter, a sister and a young girl growing up beside the sea in Thessaloniki, Greece—a city once home to one of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish communities.

In this episode, Kissy and Lit examine the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, the machinery of propaganda and persecution, and the escalating laws and violence that transformed antisemitism into systematic mass murder.

Then we follow Erika’s life: her childhood, her family, the German occupation of Thessaloniki, forced relocation into the ghetto, deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau, forced labor, the death march, liberation and her eventual return home.

But this episode is not only about what was done to Erika.

It is about who she was before Auschwitz, the strength that carried her through it and the testimony she left behind so the world could remember.

One woman. One life. A world worth remembering.

TRASH PANDA VOCABULARY LESSON

Campaition
[kam-pay-shun]

Noun: The spontaneous creation of an entirely new word when two perfectly functional words collide in Kissy’s mouth—and she continues speaking as though everything went according to plan.

Is it a real word? No.

Did Kissy accidentally invent it live during our Holocaust episode? Absolutely.

LISTEN TO ERIKA’S TESTIMONY

After returning home, Erika wanted to speak about what had happened—but for years, people did not want to listen.

Today, we choose to listen.

Her complete 2009 testimony is available through “Sprechen trotz allem,” the video archive of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe:

https://www.sprechentrotzallem.de/deu/interview/sdje/0009/erika_myriam_amariglio

Interview credit: Erika Myriam Amariglio, 01098/sdje/0009. Recorded September 7, 2009, in Thessaloniki. Interview conducted by Daniel Baranowski and Ulrich Baumann. Camera, lighting and sound by Uwe Seemann. Editorial work by Barbara Kurowska.

CONTENT NOTE

This episode discusses antisemitism, Nazi persecution, ghettos, deportation, concentration and extermination camps, forced labor, death marches and the systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

May their names and their lives never be forgotten.

In 1977, Teresita Basa was murdered inside her Chicago apartment. With few leads and no apparent witnesses, her case seemed destined to remain unsolved—until another woman began speaking in a voice that allegedly belonged to Teresita herself.

According to the story that followed, Teresita named her killer from beyond the grave, described the jewelry stolen from her apartment, and told investigators exactly where they could find it. But did a murdered woman truly return to solve her own case—or did information buried in someone’s subconscious finally force its way to the surface?

This week, we examine Teresita’s life, her murder, the extraordinary trances experienced by Remy Chua, the evidence that led police to Allan Showery, and the courtroom battle that followed. We also explore the ordinary explanations, the paranormal possibilities, and the uncomfortable fact that sometimes the evidence survives even when the explanation does not.

Our vocabulary lesson introduces SPECTROCORROBORATION: the apparent confirmation of information supplied by a ghost when investigators later uncover matching physical evidence.

We also unleash another Mini Creeper: Fact or Hoax, Kissy delivers the Dishonorable Mention of the Week, and—during a completely unrelated linguistic emergency—discovers a terrifying new species known only as the BLOODERFLY.

Was Teresita Basa’s murder solved by police work, hidden knowledge, coincidence…or by Teresita herself?

🎧 Listen now—and decide what you believe.

Content warning: This episode discusses murder, stabbing, fire, and alleged spirit possession.

Canada had a national emergency—and it was sticky.

Between 2011 and 2012, thieves quietly emptied approximately 9,500 barrels from Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve, stealing nearly six million pounds of syrup valued at more than $18 million Canadian. Barrels were drained, replaced with water, transported by the truckload, and funneled back into the legitimate syrup market.

Yes, Canada really maintains an enormous maple syrup reserve. No, it isn’t a secret federal pancake bunker. And yes, stealing from it became one of the most valuable heists in Canadian history.

Join Lit and Kissy as we investigate the criminal operation, the suspiciously fungible nature of syrup, the warehouse inspection that exposed everything, and the men who apparently looked at thousands of barrels of maple syrup and thought, “We can absolutely steal this shit.”

This week also features:

🍁 Kissy’s Dishonorable Mention of the Week

🍁 Our entirely legitimate vocabulary word: SACCHAROCLEPTONOMICS
(sack-uh-roh-klep-toh-NOM-icks)
The underground economics of stealing, laundering, and reselling sugar-based commodities.

🍁 A Mini Creeper involving an alleged grave containing 1,600 tiny teeth—and another opportunity for Kissy to decide whether Lit has brought her a real case, an internet hoax, or something considerably more complicated.

Grab your pancakes, secure your barrels, and prepare to learn far more about the international maple-syrup economy than anyone reasonably needs to know.

Because apparently even breakfast has organized crime.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of theft, organized crime, unidentified human remains, and unverified allegations involving children’s remains.

In 1985, a hunter discovered a barrel on private property beside Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. Inside were the remains of a woman and a young girl. Fifteen years later—and only about 300 feet away—a second barrel was found containing two more children.

For decades, the four victims were known only through forensic estimates, facial reconstructions, and the place where someone had tried to erase them.

Today, they have names.

In this episode, we tell the stories of Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, her daughters Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and Sarah Lynn McWaters, and Rea Rasmussen. We follow an investigation that moved backward through time—from a living child whose identity had been stolen, through a maze of aliases, missing women, disconnected records, DNA, citizen researchers, and thousands upon thousands of branches on family trees.

Authorities identify serial offender Terry Peder Rasmussen as their killer, but he died before the full Bear Brook connection was uncovered and was never tried for these four murders. Questions remain about exactly when and where they were killed, the fate of two other missing women, and whether Rasmussen left additional victims behind.

This is not simply a story about bodies discovered in barrels. It is about four people who were denied their names—and the families, investigators, scientists, and ordinary people who refused to let that erasure be permanent.

Also in this episode: our Dishonorable Mention of the Week and a Mini Creeper involving an alleged ancient Persian princess that may—or may not—be exactly what she appears to be.

Today’s completely legitimate vocabulary word:

CRYPTOTHANATONONYMIZATION KRIP-toh-THAN-uh-toh-NON-uh-muh-ZAY-shun

The deliberate concealment, replacement, or destruction of a deceased person’s true identity through aliases, misinformation, isolation, or the removal of identifying evidence.

This 25-letter linguistic felony was fabricated by the Roxy Institute of Central Fucktion—and then handed to Kissy without mercy.

Content warning: This episode discusses the murders of children and adults, blunt-force trauma, child abduction, intimate-partner violence, unidentified remains, and the disposal and concealment of victims.

Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch.
Marie Elizabeth Vaughn.
Sarah Lynn McWaters.
Rea Rasmussen.

Four names. Four lives. No longer forgotten.

In 1921, 23-year-old Iñupiaq mother and seamstress Ada Blackjack joined four inexperienced young men on an expedition to Wrangel Island. She wasn’t chasing glory or trying to claim foreign territory—she needed money to bring her sick son home. Nearly two years later, Ada and the expedition cat, Vic, would be the only ones to leave the island alive.

This week, we follow the Wrangel Island Expedition from Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s staggering confidence and catastrophic planning to the failed relief attempts, dwindling supplies, scurvy, isolation and deaths that left Ada fighting for survival in the Arctic. We also examine how the press, Stefansson and others tried to control her story after she returned—and why Ada deserves to be remembered for far more than simply being the expedition’s “female Robinson Crusoe.”

Our vocabulary word is ARCTROGANCE: the wildly excessive confidence of believing the Arctic will personally make an exception for you.

Before the main story, Lit presents the alleged discovery of a frozen alien body in Siberia—with enough suspiciously legitimate-sounding evidence to make Kissy decide whether she’s hearing a real case or an internet hoax.

Content warning: This episode discusses domestic abuse, racism, exploitation, starvation, serious illness, death, animal hunting and survival under extreme conditions.

Grab your snacks, secure your expedition cat and never trust a man who calls a frozen wasteland “friendly.” Welcome back to the Dumpster Dive.

See you next Tuesday! 🦝❄️🐈‍⬛

Season Two begins with The Boy Minnesota Never Stopped Looking For.

On October 22, 1989, eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted while returning home from a convenience store with his brother Trevor and best friend Aaron. His disappearance changed his family, transformed Minnesota, and became one of the most recognizable missing-child cases in America.

But Jacob was never merely a case.

He was a son, brother, best friend, athlete, prankster, Michael Jordan fan, and hockey player who believed a goal could be both a great shot and a great save. Before discussing the crime, the investigation, or the man responsible, we begin with Jacob’s life.

Jacob first, always.

In this extended Season Two premiere, we set aside our usual Mini Creeper and Missing Persons Spotlight to focus entirely on Jacob. We examine the Paynesville attacks, Jared Scheierl’s abduction and extraordinary persistence, the evidence and connections investigators failed to bring together, and the nearly twenty-seven years Jacob’s family lived without an answer.

We also discuss Patty and Jerry Wetterling’s advocacy, Joy Baker’s research and relationship-building, the DNA breakthrough that finally connected Danny Heinrich to Jared, the complicated agreement that recovered Jacob while leaving other survivors without answers, and what we personally experienced while attending Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling and its Q&A.

Most importantly, we consider the legacy Jacob left behind—and what it means to carry hope after hope has been forced to change.

TRASH PANDA DICTIONARY:

Hopeostasis (hohp-ee-oh-STAY-sis), noun: The active process of maintaining emotional balance through hope when certainty is impossible.

CONTENT WARNING:

This episode discusses child abduction, sexual assault, homicide, child-sexual-abuse material, investigative failures, and long-term trauma. Sexual-assault details are limited to what is necessary to understand the offender’s method, the evidence, and the investigation.

PRIMARY SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

• Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope by Patty Wetterling with Joy Baker
https://www.dearjacobbook.com/

• U.S. Attorney’s Office — Danny Heinrich Admits to Murder of Jacob Wetterling
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/danny-heinrich-admits-murder-jacob-wetterling

• U.S. Attorney’s Office — Danny Heinrich Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/danny-heinrich-sentenced-20-years-prison

• APM Reports — It Took Nearly 27 Years to Solve a Notorious Child Abduction. Why?
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/12/30/27-years-wetterling-child-abduction

• APM Reports / In the Dark, Season One
https://www.apmreports.org/season-one

• APM Reports — Jared Scheierl
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/09/13/jared-scheierl

• Joy Baker — Jared’s Story
https://www.joythecurious.com/p/jareds-story

• Joy Baker — The 1986–87 Paynesville Incidents: An Update
https://www.joythecurious.com/p/the-1986-87-paynesville-incidents

• Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling
https://paramountarts.org/event/echoes-in-the-night-the-search-for-jacob-wetterling/

Please listen with care—and remember Jacob for how he lived, not only for what was done to him.

Jacob first, always. 💙11

🎙️ Episode 12: The Yuba County 5 ~ America’s Most MACABRIOUS Mystery

Five men. One abandoned car. And questions that still don’t make sense.

It’s the Season One Finale, Trash Pandas—and apparently we decided the appropriate way to celebrate was to choose a case that leaves us with approximately four answers and 7,492 questions.

In February 1978, five friends set out for a basketball game in California. They never made it home.

Days later, their car was discovered abandoned high in the mountains—miles from where anyone expected them to be and under circumstances that immediately raised questions.

Why were they there?

Why did they leave a working vehicle?

What happened after they walked into the freezing wilderness?

Months later, searchers would finally uncover pieces of the story… but what they found only created more questions.

Four of the men were eventually found.

One never was.

This week, Kissy takes us deep into the baffling mystery of the Yuba County Five—the evidence, the theories, the unanswered questions, and the tiny details that have kept people arguing about this case for nearly five decades.

But first, Talitha’s Mini Creeper takes us to Bulgaria for another disappearance caught partially on camera.

In 2014, Lars Mittank was vacationing with friends when his behavior suddenly became increasingly concerning. After arriving alone at Varna Airport, Lars abruptly fled the terminal, ran beyond the airport grounds…

…and vanished.

He has never been conclusively found.

Two disappearances.

Two baffling sequences of events.

And an alarming number of moments that make you ask:

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK HAPPENED HERE?!

By the end, we were completely…

✨ DISCOMBEWILDERED ✨

(Yes. It’s a word now. Don’t ask Merriam-Webster. Ask Kissy.)

Grab your snacks and your alibi, Trash Pandas. We’re digging into one final dumpster before closing the lid on Season One of Two Unhinged Trash Pandas.

Thank you for listening, laughing, questioning everything, and getting unhinged with us through our very first season. We seriously cannot wait to show you what we’re digging into next.

🎧 Mini Creeper: The Disappearance of Lars Mittank
🗑️ Main Case: The Yuba County Five
📖 Trash Panda Dictionary: Discombewildered — when regular bewilderment simply isn’t enough.
🦝 Also Trash Panda Dictionary: Macabrious — because apparently macabre wasn’t dramatic enough for Kissy. 😂

Question everything. Keep learning. Keep being kind.

And as always…

See you next season, Trash Pandas. 🦝💜🎙️

Two Unhinged Trash Pandas discusses real cases involving death, disappearance, violence, and other potentially distressing subjects. Listener discretion is advised.