The 20 year anniversary of one of the strangest tales in modern American religious history is quickly approaching. On March 26th, March 26, 1997 Marshall Herff Applewhite led a group of 39 devoted followers to their final destination. In their minds they were headed to a spaceship following the Hale-Bopp Comet where they would be taken and transformed into perfect angelic alien beings, a state in which they would live forever. We're joined by Benjamin E. Zeller, Religious Historian and Author of the book "Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion." ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0vF3OUkwvc
22 year old Brandi Montgomery’s charred body was found in her parents’ burning home on a January morning in 2006. Her husband called 911 claiming to have seen Brandi being attacked by an unknown perpetrator, and the tiny town was in a frenzy, being that this was the first death ruled a homicide since the 1960’s. In many cases, we don’t ever have the luxury of finding out what truly happened, but we do in this story.
David Grunwald was a stellar student, a respectful teenager, and always punctual. When he didn’t come home one night his parents immediately began to worry, after all, it was November and they lived in Alaska. The community rallied together to assist in the search, and his parents never gave up hope of finding him. But then they discovered the dangers of the Alaskan wilderness in winter didn’t compare to the savagery of people or the stupidity of youth. David fell victim to corrupting influences and the wrong crowd, but then again boys will be boys.
Brenton Walker would always try to pick up on women in the small towns surrounding his 80-acre parcel in rural Michigan but on July 30th, 2016, he was actually successful. He met Heather Young and she came home with him after the last call. They had such an exciting night that changed both of their lives forever.
When 34 year old Dale Harrell is brutally attacked in his bed with a claw hammer, the truth about what caused the altercation, and who was at fault gets blurred between a number of versions of the event. Because there were 5 other people in the home at the time, police have no shortage of witnesses to interview, including Dale’s three children. As a mountain of lies told by Dale’s wife and roommate are uncovered, the truth about the couple’s life begins to emerge… and it is shocking.
Right in the middle of Wisconsin, that’s where you’ll find the small rural town of West-Salem. It’s an idyllic little village that exudes the small-town stereotypes one would expect, its home to kind and hospitable folks who all know one another. And it’s where Barbara and Todd Kendhammer called home. On the morning of Friday, September 16th 2016, what seemed like a sudden freak accident would change their lives forever.
On the evening of March 3rd, 2015, two individuals in their car were stopped by a young man stumbling into the roadway of Magazine Street in Boston. The young man, identified as 17-year-old Luis Rodriguez, was bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to his head.
When investigators asked Luis who shot him, the only words he could get out were “Rev”. Who was “Rev” and what connection did he have to Luis? What were the events that led to the senseless attack on this teenager? The only Reverend that had any connection to Luis was the well-known Reverend Shaun Harrison, Dean of Academics at Boston’s English High School. Further investigation would show Shaun had another side of his life that only few were aware of…
Anchorage, Alaska can be a cold and dark city. In the summer of 2016, it was clear this coming winter would be one of the coldest and darkest winters yet. By June there were 11 murders, putting them on track for one of the deadliest years in decades. In the month of July, 9 more people died and by August the community was worried that a serial killer had made the scenic bike paths and parks their personal hunting ground at night. Dead bodies were piling up but local James Dale Ritchie wasn’t afraid. He was used to the cold and no stranger to the darkness either but even he would find this winter to be particularly dreary.
The world of online dating can be a precarious one, filled with peril. When Sydney Loofe met a young girl by the name of Audrey, she thought she had made a friend and potential girlfriend. Instead, she got sucked into the deceptive and bizarre world of Bailey Boswell and Abrey Trail.
Sarah Stern had a secret. A secret that's almost impossible to keep anything secret for long.
Though it wasn’t anything particularly gruesome or embarrassing, it was something you wouldn’t necessarily go around sharing. At the tender young age of 19, Sarah had incidentally become well off for a 19 year old, after the untimely death of her mother, receiving a generous inheritance.