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February 14, 2024 3 mins

Summer 1989: in the heart of the Ozarks. A young woman goes missing before a body is found, not far from the Missouri border. Soon, a second body is discovered nearby. The hunt for a possible serial killer heats up as investigator M. William Phelps arrives on the scene to reinvestigate a once-cold case. 

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All of a sudden, he says, Linda Isa's.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Skull deep in the heart of the ozarks. A mysterious
disappearance turns into a grisly discovery.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm thinking they're lying like hell, because my little girl
wasn't dead.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Two young women murdered.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I have nightmares about this. I have nightmares that she's
asking for help and I can't help her.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
With a connection to one of the most infamous serial
killers of all time and one very familiar name stepping
out from the shadows of the past, well, first he
chose his own moniker behind them, torture them, kill them BTK,
and a once cold case is pulled off the shelves

(00:46):
in real time as investigators race to solve a gruesome,
dark puzzle.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
The skull was they headed from the body, and the
rig page was detached from the body. The only clothes
that was on the body that we found was where
the pelvis legs were in tenees. She had tenchees on.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
My name is em William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist,
true crime author of close to fifty books, and the
host of the podcast Paper ghosts Now in its fourth
season from My Heart Media for the past several years,
I've been reinvestigating the cases of two young women abducted

(01:30):
from their small towns, their bodies dumped deep in the
Ozark Woods. Cold cases. I'm breaking wide open, bringing families
answers after thirty long years of silence and waiting. I'm
not out to give up on it, and I have
reason to believe that it will be solved. As my

(01:51):
investigation unfolds, gaining insight from those who were there. Even
three decades later, some sources are still terrified, speaking out.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
This guy is fixing to kill this girl. But he
never moved. He just stood there with his arms folded,
this smirky smile in her, this dancing, and I, oh
my god, this is some kind of a murder.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
With a new suspect emerging.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Well, that's the problem with a serial killer, because with
a serial.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Killer, you got to you kind of gotta build the bodies.
As a heated confrontation with an alleged cycle path ensues,
I'm asking you, did you kill those girls.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
In those information?

Speaker 1 (02:39):
No one did you ask me if I knew? What
do you think?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, look, lots of people, including me, think you did.
Long held secrets finally revealed sending authorities rushing to confront
a suspect who has been hiding in plain sight for decades.
Coming February twenty, first season four of Paper Ghosts Theosons.

(03:08):
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Host

M. William Phelps

M. William Phelps

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