"Guys, I've got a map here... with a lot of X's."

Just after 5:00 AM on 13 June 1983, police in Anchorage, Alaska arrive at a seedy motor inn on Gambell Street. Inside room 110 is a young girl huddled on the bed, barefoot, shivering, and still wearing a pair of handcuffs. Her name is Cindy Paulson, and minutes earlier she had made a run for her life.

Through Cindy's extraordinary account, police link her case to a local resident, Robert Hansen. Hansen, a local baker and avid hunter, was well-known and liked by almost all who knew him, including members of the Anchorage P.D. Investigators bring him in for questioning but are ultimately forced to let him go. However, Cindy's report quickly ends up on the desk of Alaska State Trooper Glenn Flothe, who - along with some others - had been investigating the mysterious deaths of local sex workers and dancers...



Part two of four

Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

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"Workers and drug dealers and dancers came and went, many with few ties to the state and no one to notice if they went missing..."

In the early 1980s, a quiet pattern had begun to form: women were disappearing in the region surrounding Anchorage. Many had come to Alaska in order to escape their problems or to otherwise have a fresh start in the "Last Frontier." But amidst a transient population, these women's disappearances were shrugged off, presumed to have simply gotten lost in the shuffle.

Following the discovery of a few bodies, however, investigators with the Anchorage Police Department and Alaska State Troopers started to make connections between victims. Despite being separated by time and distance, these young women had seemingly been hunted by a serial killer with ritualistic tendencies...



Part one of four

Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

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"Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb."

In November 1971, a man in a suit boarded a flight from Portland to Seattle, calmly handed a note to a flight attendant, and claimed he had a bomb. He demanded $200,000 in cash, four parachutes, and a fuel truck on standby. Hours later, somewhere over the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest, he opened the rear stairway of the plane and vanished into the night.

Was it a fatal leap, the perfect getaway, or the birth of a new identity? Fifty years later, no one knows who Dan Cooper really was, what became of him, or if he ever touched the ground alive. But the theories haven't stopped... and neither has the obsession.



Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Additional research & writing by Amelia White and Ira Rai

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

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"I don't believe in any nonsense... but I'll keep an open mind. Out here, who knows?"

In July of 1970, an Athena RTV rocket was launched from Green River, Utah. Containing the radioactive element cobalt-57, the rocket was supposed to arc harmlessly down in White Sands, New Mexico. But instead it went rogue, streaking south over the Mexican border to a desolate area near the Durango-Chihuahua state line.

This location, known by many as the "Zone of Silence," has long held a reputation for the unexplained. Dating back to the 1800s, local homesteaders have claimed to witness "hot pebbles" tumbling from the sky. Planes have crashed here, meteorites fall with surprising regularity, and walkie-talkies reportedly malfunction within this sprawling desert. "Mexico's Bermuda Triangle," some have come to call it...



Research by Ira Rai

Writing by Amelia White

Hosting and production by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

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"We have no idea how many other victims are out there, past and present."

In April 2013, relatives of 53-year-old Laura Howard began to grow concerned. She wasn't responding to any phone calls, and the tone of her text messages changed. It felt as if someone else was texting with her phone. She'd even failed to pick up her son from the airport and wasn't responding to any of her neighbors' knocks at the door. Her curtains were drawn and her vehicle was missing.

Police, having briefly dropped by Laura's home in April, returned again in early May. Entering inside, they were shocked at what they found: Laura's decomposing body covered with towels in her bathtub, the air conditioner set to its lowest setting. The house had been carefully staged to avoid detection for as long as possible. Missing from the scene, though, was Laura's new housemate, an enigmatic man calling himself "Simon Storm"...



Research and writing by Ira Rai

Hosting, production, and additional writing by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.meIf you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or Producer






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"I believe it was a very personal, deliberate thing."

On 16 November 1987, the three-member Dardeen family returned to their rural home in Ina, Illinois after a weekend away. As Thanksgiving approached, 30-year-old Elaine, 29-year-old Keith, and 3-year-old Peter spent two days visiting with Elaine's family in nearby Albion. Elaine, nearing the end of her second pregnancy, expected to give birth to a baby girl named Casey in the near-future.

Days later, though, Keith was a complete no-show for work. A usually punctual and responsible man, Keith's absence was noted by his coworkers and supervisors, who began trying to get in contact with Keith and his family. This led police to the young family's home that Wednesday evening, November 18th, where they discovered a crime scene beyond this small town's comprehension...



Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

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"There's absolutely no information in the signal."

For decades now, an odd and mysterious audio signal has operated on the shortwave spectrum. Since the late 1970s, a strange pulsating sound has repeated at 4625 kilohertz. There is never a formal introduction. There are no hosts or music. Only on occasion will a voice step in, and when it does, it reads off some words and names in a monotonous Russian accent before disappearing once more.

No country or agency has ever attempted to claim or explain the signal. Rumors persist about its purpose: everything from a "dead hand" nuclear deterrent controlled by the Russian government to a channel marker acting as a placeholder. However, after more than four decades, the signal's meaning remains unknown to the world at large...



Research & writing by Amelia White

Hosting, production, and writing by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

If you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or Producer

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"I have no doubt they died of an experiment with psychic forces for which they were ill-prepared and which turned out to be fatal."

By the end of 1967, the official investigation into the Lead Masks Case was brought to a close. The final police report listed the cause of death for both Miguel José Viana and Manoel Pereira da Cruz as undetermined.

There was no evidence of foul play. No external injuries. No signs of trauma. The bodies had not been robbed, nor had they been bound or restrained. No crime, as defined by Brazilian law, had seemingly taken place... 



Part 2/2

Research & writing by Amelia White

Hosting, production, and writing by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

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“16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after effect protect metals await signal mask.”

On 20 August 1966, a teenager was flying a kite on Vintém Hill, a rural location outside of Niterói, Brazil. He wasn't looking for anything unusual that Saturday afternoon, but partway up the hill, he discovered what looked like two mannequins. He'd rush home and tell his mother, who immediately alerted police.

Hours later, authorities arrived at the scene and documented what they found: two men laying side by side on the grass, arms and legs outstretched. There was no sign of violence or a struggle of any kind. But the other objects found at the scene - including a pair of strange, homemade lead masks worn by the two men - have led to a litany of unanswered questions in the decades since...



Research & writing by Amelia White

Hosting, production, and writing by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

If you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or Producer

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Here is the second episode of Post-Truth. Make sure to subscribe to Post-Truth on your podcast app of choice to stay up to date on every new episode as it comes out. And if you want to get early access to new & bonus episodes, please support Unresolved Productions at the Patreon link below. 

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