Obscura: A True Crime Podcast

The investigation into Heather Strong's disappearance ends in the most devastating way possible. What began as a missing person case becomes a murder trial that sends ripples through Florida's legal system for years to come.

Heather Strong was 26 years old when her life was brutally cut short. A mother of two young children, McKinzie and Zachary, she had spent years navigating a turbulent relationship with her ex-partner Jos...

On a February evening in 2009, a young mother vanished from rural Marion County, Florida, lured to a storage trailer by promises that masked a deadly betrayal. What investigators would uncover weeks later would reveal a calculated murder born from a toxic love triangle and a bitter custody battle.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Heather Strong was 26 years old, a hardworking mother of two young children, McKinzie and Zachary. She worked the morning ...

On March 15, 2024, a Piedmont, Oklahoma police officer responded to a routine runaway report that would uncover one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in recent Oklahoma history.

The officer found a 14-year-old girl hiding under a blanket, weighing approximately 60 pounds—the size of a first grader. Her skin hung from her bones, and her eyes carried a fear that went far beyond a typical runaway. She had fled from her foster mo...

Part 2 of 2: In our conclusion to the Baby Lollipops case, we examine the final months of three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa's life, the investigation that followed his discovery, and the decades-long pursuit of justice that saw his mother convicted three separate times.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Lazaro Figueroa never had a chance at a normal childhood. Born in September 1987, just weeks after his father, drug dealer Fidel Figueroa, was murder...

On November 2, 1990, Florida Power and Light workers discovered the emaciated body of a small child hidden in the bushes of a wealthy Miami Beach home. The boy, dressed only in a lollipop-decorated T-shirt and a soiled diaper wrapped in brown packing tape, had been beaten, starved, and systematically tortured. He weighed just eighteen pounds. This is part one of the story of how a mother's resentment turned deadly.

VICTIM PROFIL...

Escambia County, FL. March 24, 2010. When Tina Brown invited twenty-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman to her trailer under the guise of reconciliation, the young mother had no idea she was walking into an ambush. What would unfold in the following hours represents one of the most horrific crimes in Florida history.

Part 02 of 02.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Audreanna Zimmerman was just twenty years old, a young mother navigating the precarious landsca...

On March 24, 2010, nineteen-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman was ambushed by three women she knew from her Pensacola trailer park. What followed was one of the most brutal attacks in Florida criminal history. Beaten with a crowbar, shocked repeatedly with a stun gun, and doused in gasoline before being set ablaze, Audreanna somehow survived the initial attack. Despite burns covering sixty percent of her body, she managed to walk nearly...

On March 13, 2020, a long-simmering domestic conflict in Des Moines, Iowa, erupted into fatal violence. Paula Marie Thompson, a 50-year-old claims processor, was beaten to death with a crowbar by her adult son Christopher inside the home they shared on Pleasantview Drive. Her body would not be discovered until five days later.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Paula Thompson was 50 years old at the time of her death. She worked as a claims processor a...

On a humid September day in 1997, a man walking his dog discovered the nude body of 26-year-old Tracy Habersham in a ditch near Fort Benning, Georgia. She had been strangled. What investigators couldn't know then was that her death marked the beginning of a six-year killing spree.

Part 2 of 2

VICTIM PROFILE:

Paul Durousseau's victims shared heartbreaking commonalities. They were young African American women—many of them mother...

On a humid September day in 1997, a man walking his dog discovered the nude body of 26-year-old Tracy Habersham in a ditch near Fort Benning, Georgia. She had been strangled. What investigators couldn't know then was that her death marked the beginning of a six-year killing spree.

Part 1 of 2

VICTIM PROFILE:

Paul Durousseau's victims shared heartbreaking commonalities. They were young African American women—many of them mother...

[Part 2 of 2]

On February 24th, 2005, nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford vanished from her bedroom in Homosassa, Florida—taken through an unlocked door while her family slept. The girl who was afraid of the dark, who couldn't sleep without her stuffed purple dolphin, was about to become the center of one of the most heartbreaking cases in American true crime history.

Jessica was a cheerful third-grader who loved singing, helping othe...

On February 24th, 2005, nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford vanished from her bedroom in Homosassa, Florida—taken through an unlocked door while her family slept. The girl who was afraid of the dark, who couldn't sleep without her stuffed purple dolphin, was about to become the center of one of the most heartbreaking cases in American true crime history.

Jessica was a cheerful third-grader who loved singing, helping others, and spend...

Apopka, Florida. October 30, 1990. When 10-year-old Christine McGowan's stepfather entered her bedroom to wake her for school—he found her lifeless body face down in bed, the sheets beneath her soaked in blood. The door to their home stood slightly ajar. His white construction truck—keys left in the ignition the night before—had vanished.

Christine McGowan was a child who spent her afternoons watching her neighbor at The Lightho...

EXTREME CONTENT WARNING: This BLACK LABEL episode contains graphic descriptions of extreme consensual violence, disturbing audio recordings, and dark web investigation. Rated 10/10 for intensity. Not suitable for all listeners.

In February 2025, footage emerged on dark web forums and Telegram channels documenting what investigators believe may be the first authenticated case of consensual extreme violence captured on film and public...

In January 2025, Nguyen Dat, a 35-year-old Vietnamese man living in Ha Dong, voluntarily sought his own execution—fulfilling a years-long sexual obsession with decapitation. Through extreme pornography forums and dating apps, Nguyen publicly advertised his desire to be beheaded, eventually connecting with an unnamed butcher who shared his fatal fetish.

The killing occurred between January 25 and February 24, 2025, in a makeshift exe...

On October 24, 1995, firefighters battled a massive blaze at a Tudor-style home in Prairie Village, Kansas. Thirteen-year-old Timothy Farrar and his six-year-old sister Kelly died in the inferno while their ten-year-old sister Kate escaped by jumping from a second-floor window. Within hours, investigators determined the fire had been deliberately set with multiple gallons of accelerant poured throughout the house—and the trail of e...

On the windy night of October 23, 1995, Dr. Debora Green's three children—thirteen-year-old Tim, ten-year-old Kate, and six-year-old Kelly—went to bed in their beautiful new home on Canterbury Court in Prairie Village, Kansas. By 12:20 AM on October 24, their lives would be forever shattered by a fire that investigators would later determine was no accident.

Part 1 of 2

The Perfect Life, Unraveling

Debora Green seemed to ha...

On May 4, 2013, nine nurses celebrating a bachelorette party crossed the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge in a white stretch limousine. At around 10:05 PM, thick black smoke began rising from the floor. Within minutes, the rear compartment was engulfed in flames. Four women and the driver escaped. Five women—including bride-to-be Neriza Fojas—remained trapped inside.

This episode features real 911 calls from witnesses and survivors, testimo...

On April 1st, 2025, multiple emergency calls flooded dispatch centers across Claremont County, Ohio.

VICTIM PROFILE

Kelsey Hildal was a 34-year-old resident of Blue Ash, Ohio, known to her family as a former mixed martial arts competitor who had been struggling with severe mental health challenges for years. Her mother Robyn and father Rick described a daughter caught in cycles of paranoia and delusion, convinced that cartels and dem...