Never Light Up A Room Podcast

After a night out of fun and dancing on September 6th 2012 at the popular Thrill Night club. College students Faith Hedgepeth and her roommate Karena Rosario head back to their apartment. Karena then leaves the apartment for the rest of the night leaving Faith alone. The next day looking for a ride back home, Karena tries to call Faith but she doesn’t pick up. With another friend picking her up, they go to the apartment and that is...

On January 10, 2019, the bodies of 37-year-old Nichol Olsen, along with her 2 daughters, 16-year-old Alexa Montez and 10-year-old London Bribiescas were found in the upscale Anaqua Springs Ranch home of Nichol’s boyfriend, Charlie Wheeler. The Medical Examiner ruled this was a case of murder suicide, where Nichol killed her two daughters and then herself. However, that theory has been questioned, and there is some belief that this ...

On March 12th, 2011 at a Lululemon store in Bethesda Maryland store manager Rachel Oertli was set to open the store that morning. When she arrived at the store, she noticed the door was unlocked and there was merchandise spread across the store, not wanting to go in alone she had a bystander enter with her where they would discover worker Jayna Murray dead and Brittany Norwood injured and tied up. Was this a robbery or were there ...

On January 26, 2011, Sam Goldberg found his fiancé, Ellen Greenberg stabbed to death in the couple's apartment. Ellen’s death was initially ruled a homicide but that was later changed to rule her death a suicide. Ellen’s family does not believe that she took her own life and instead believes that she was murdered. Join us as we discuss the evidence for both theories and provide an update on where this case is today, in April of 202...

On July 15th 1976 3 gunmen would hijack a school bus that was carrying 26 kids from the ages of 5-14. The gunmen would go to hold the children and bus driver captive for over 24 hours. Tune in to hear the incredible story of what unfolded and the act of heroism.

Sources  

Ritzen, Young, Chris, “Remembering the Chowchilla kidnapping: A never-before-seen interview with a survivor”, CBS News, March 17 2023, https://www.cbsnews....

We’re back with our Thirteenth Leave The Light On episode where we recap the cases we covered in the previous month, discuss crime headlines from the month, and give you a sneak peek at what is coming up in the next month. If we know!

References: 

Speakman, Kimberlee, “Ghost Adventures Star Aaron Goodwin's Wife Arrested After Allegedly Plotting to Have Him Killed: Report” People, Published March 11, 2025, https://people.com/ghost-ad...

This week we are looking at the psychology behind why a person would confess to a crime that they never committed. We discuss the categories of false confessions including voluntary, persuaded or internalized, and compliant false confessions. We also discuss examples of cases where someone has falsely confessed including the JonBenet Ramsey case, the murder of Hartmut Hagan, the Satanic abuse case against Paul Igram, the West Memph...

On March 17th 1990 14 year old Rachel Hurley was out boating with her friends at the Jupiter Inlet in Florida. With her Mom waiting in the parking lot just over a mile away, Rachel leaves her friends at the washroom to make sure she wasn't late. Unfortunately that would be the last time she would be seen alive. Tune in this week to find out Rachel's story.

Sources  

Julius Whigham II, “Who killed 14-year-old Rachel Hurley...

On Dec 6, 1989, Marc Lepine carried out a targeted attack on women at the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The rampage resulted in 14 women losing their lives and 14 other people being wounded, while countless others were forever traumatized. This was the largest mass shooting in Canada until 2020. 

Sources: 

Humphreys, Adrian, “Montreal massacre: 19 minutes at École Polytechnique”, National Post, ...

On February 24th 1986 29 year old Sherri Rasmussen would be found dead in her home by her husband John Ruetten. Sherri would have 3 bullet wounds to her chest as well as a bite in her arm. Police initially ruled it as a home invasion gone wrong. Would that be what happened? Or is it something more sinister?  

Sources  

Doc Louallen, “Former LAPD detective who murdered her ex-lover's wife, hid crime for decades remains behind bar...

We’re back with our twelfth Leave The Light On episode where we recap the cases we covered in the previous month, discuss crime headlines from the month, and give you a sneak peek at what is coming up in the next month. If we know!

References: 

Lake, Thomas, “Despite 20 knife wounds and 11 bruises, Ellen Greenberg’s death was ruled a suicide. The pathologist just changed his mind”, CNN, Feb 3, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/us/...

On March 19, 1960, James Kinne was allegedly shot and killed by his 2-year-old daughter who had been playing with James .22 pistol and accidentally fired the gun, killing her father. Within a month, James’ widow, Sharon Kinne, was involved in an affair with Walter Jones, who was married to Patricia Jones. When Sharon asked Walter to leave his wife Patricia, Walter refused. Mysteriously, Walter’s wife, Patricia, was murdered days la...

On February 14th 2010 Richard Schoeck was to meet his wife Stacey Schoeck at Belton Bridge Park in Hall County Georgia for some adult activities. While they both took separate vehicles, when Stacey arrived at the park, she would find Richard dead beside his truck with multiple bullet holes. Join us this week in discovering what happened to Richard Schoeck on Valentines Day. 

Sources:

Viswa Vanapalli, “Where is Stacey Schoeck N...

In the early morning hours of July 31, 2022, Mackenzie Shirilla drove her car 100mph into a brick building. The crash resulted in the deaths of the two passengers in the car, Dominic Russo, who was Mackenzie’s boyfriend, and Davion Flanagan, who was a friend of Dominic’s. The crash was originally considered an accident, but after further investigation it was determined that Mackenzie intentionally crashed her car, intending to kill...

In March of 1972 a crew of burglars  from Youngstown Ohio travelled to Laguna Niguel California to get the score of a life time. One small mistake foiled the crew from pulling off an almost perfect heist.  

We’re back with our eleventh Leave The Light On episode where we recap the cases we covered in the previous month, discuss crime headlines from the month, and give you a sneak peek at what is coming up in the next month. If we know!

On Feb 22, 2024, 22-year-old Laken Riley went for run on her college campus, but sadly, Laken never made it home from this run. Laken’s body was found over 60 feet off the running trail several hours later. Police immediately began searching for a suspect in Laken’s murder, and they soon came across Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela. Join us as we discuss Laken’s story and lasting impact she has left behi...

On March 13th 2006 during spring break at Duke University the Lacrosse team that had to stay on Campus went on to throw a party at an off campus house where the team hired 2 exotic dancers to attend. Shortly after the 2 girls arrived they would both pick up and leave. While one left in a car the other would be convinced to go back inside and would eventually end up at the police department in Durham to accuse some of the team memb...

In mid-December, we released episode 40: Rachel Bellesen and the Death of Jacob Glace. After releasing the episode, Rachel reached out to us and let us know that we had some inaccurate details in our episode. Rachel very kindly provided us with the corrected information and those details are included in this update episode.   Sources: