Going West: True Crime

In the 1980s and ’90s, a deeply disturbed man from New Jersey drifted from town to town, hiding behind a soft-spoken voice and a childlike demeanor. Seemingly tormented by delusions, and obsessed with revenge, he harbored gruesome secrets. By the time investigators connected him to the 1986 disappearance of six-year-old Michele Dorr, and later, the baffling vanishing of Harvard graduate Laura Houghteling, it was clear: this man was...

In July of 1986, a 19-year-old man was found hanging from a tree near his Maryland home. Authorities swiftly ruled it a suicide, but those closest to him questioned everything about the scene; from the small tree, which could barely support his weight, to the lack of an autopsy, to the suspicious friends who seemed to vanish in the wake of his sudden death. Years later, his mother received a suspicious envelope on her doorstep, and...

In the summer of 1990, a serial killer originally dubbed “The Charmer” began his crusade of committing brutal acts of violence against Seattle-area women, then placing their bodies in crude positions before abandoning them. Locals were terrified of the perverse madman loose on the streets of their city - but, thanks to DNA and a few careless slip ups, a suspect was identified. And quickly, the evidence against him began to stack. T...

In July of 2012, a beloved high school teacher was found murdered inside her Staten Island home. Although it was initially believed to be a home invasion gone wrong, the scene left behind raised immediate questions with investigators. And a daunting four-month investigation would reveal family secrets that someone was fighting desperately to suppress - leaving a shocking trail of evidence in the form of Google searches and burner p...

Serial killers are not just the stuff of horror movies or thriller novels. They walk among us, hidden in plain sight, sometimes quiet, sometimes charming, almost always disarmingly ordinary. But what turns a human being into a hunter of humans? How do they emerge? And more importantly — why? Today, we’re diving into the dark psychology and chilling statistics
that define the anatomy of a serial killer. We’ll explore what the numbers...

In April of 2024, a 19-year-old student vanished after heading out for a promising first date in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But hours later, her torched car was found in another part of the city, and later that day, dismembered body parts began popping up along the coastline… Although security footage and phone pings helped the case against their surprising suspect, blood evidence and disturbing images on his phone garnered answers in t...

Between 1980 and 1982, a string of unexplained child deaths unsettled small towns across Florida. Shockingly, the common thread was a quiet teenager hired as the babysitter. As grieving families sought answers and doctors cited rare medical conditions as the cause, suspicion began to build quietly among the grieving families. But it wasn’t until the summer of 1982 that the truth behind the tragedies began to emerge, raising chillin...

In July of 2010, a 17-year-old girl vanished while walking home from summer school in a quiet Southern California suburb. Her belongings were scattered in a field along her route, but she was nowhere to be found. Days later, the discovery of her body would leave a community shaken and desperate for answers. But with help of DNA and a disturbing surveillance video, police would find a violent suspect. This is the murder of Norma Lop...

In July of 2013, three friends wound up in the woods of rural Oklahoma after a high-speed police chase - but only one of them emerged. Following a flurry of frantic phone calls asking for help, the pair who were left behind in the woods disappeared, and have never been seen again. As weeks turned to years, the secrets surrounding that strange night began to slip out in the town of just over a thousand people. Whispers of corruption...

In 1974, a 14-year-old New Jersey girl disappeared after meeting up with a man regarding a babysitting job. She had placed an ad in the paper, and the man in question had a 5-year-old son he allegedly needed care for. But when she went missing from their meeting spot, a bus stop, she was never seen again. And then, a horrifying ransom call came in to her family residence followed by a disturbingly poetic letter. This is the disappe...

In September, we're going on our first-ever tour! Find us in Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago alongside Love Murder for five mysteriously fun evenings! We really hope to expand this tour, so get your tickets THIS WEEK! Pre-sale begins Wed June 18, using code LOVEWEST. And public on-sale begins Friday June 20! Get your tickets at goingwestpod.com/tour

Thursday, September 11, 2025 The Oriental Theater Denver, CO
Satur...

In April of 1981, a mother and her children -along with two of her children's friends- were spending a quiet Saturday night in their rural California cabin. But by morning, the scene inside Cabin 28 was anything but peaceful. What investigators found was a blood-soaked mystery involving multiple victims, a missing child, and no trace of who—or what—had come in the night. With few answers and a town cloaked in silence, this case wou...

In June of 2002, a 20-year-old woman vanished after a swim by Lake Erie. Last seen with her boyfriend’s friend, she was reportedly dropped off safely at a movie theater, but no one saw whether she actually made it there or not. As investigators probed deeper, they uncovered conflicting stories, dubious alibis, and a suspect with a troubling past. So what happened to her, and is someone still hiding a sinister truth? This is the dis...

In July of 2008, a 53-year-old mother, artist, and counselor was found bludgeoned to death in her Arizona home, just 35 days after finalizing her divorce. At first, it appeared to be the tragic result of a random home invasion. But as investigators dug deeper into the victim’s life, they uncovered a tangled web of obsession and deception, as well as a trail of evidence that led to a conclusion some still find hard to believe. This ...

In August of 2014, a 62-year-old American woman was found brutally murdered and stuffed inside a suitcase at a luxury resort in Bali. What began as a baffling international mystery soon turned into a media frenzy as investigators sifted through surveillance footage, hotel records, and text exchanges - where they uncovered a chilling tale of privilege, power struggles, and a family dynamic more twisted than anyone could have imagine...