The Misery Machine
There’s a problem with True Crime. Creators idolize perpetrators, shame victims, or are completely checked out on cases while they focus on other things. However, we can’t forget there are victims who lost their lives and families who are still grieving to this day. Furthermore, many True Crime outlets spend their time focusing on themselves or rambling, instead of getting right to the facts of the case. We hear you, this is frustrating. The Misery Machine focuses on cases the media fails to give proper attention to. We want to help give those a voice that never got to have one, to begin with. We also cover aspects of cases that other podcasts might look the other way on, and the way that these cases impact their communities for generations. It’s not enough to simply cover a case, our platform must be used to make a difference.
Episodes
On Christmas Eve, a young man went missing after a date arranged through Grindr, and what followed would shock an entire community. Kevin Bacon, a 26-year-old hair stylist from Michigan, never made it home that night. His disappearance would soon be linked to Mark Latunski, a man hiding a dark and disturbing secret behind the walls of his rural farmhouse. This is the story of Kevin Bacon, and the crime that unfolded during a holida...
On a quiet afternoon in Polk City, Florida, a teenage breakup spiraled into unimaginable violence. What began as a dispute between 17-year-old Hunter Penton and his ex-girlfriend quickly escalated into a brutal attack inside his own home... an assault carried out by multiple teenagers and captured on video. But the violence didn’t end there. As Hunter’s mother, Suzette Marie Penton, rushed to protect her son, she was struck and kil...
Some of the most devastating crimes are not committed by strangers in dark alleys, but by the very people meant to protect and love us. In this compilation, we examine four separate cases that shook communities to their core, each involving a biological father who betrayed the most fundamental bond of parenthood. Phoebe Jonchuck, Maddox Lawrence, Dylan Redwine, and Takoda Collins were children whose lives ended far too soon at the ...
It was a story that gripped Southern California and eventually broke hearts across the nation. In August of 2025, 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro was reported kidnapped from a Yucaipa parking lot during a broad-daylight attack on his mother.
The parents, Rebecca and Jake Haro, went on television pleading for their son’s safe return. But behind the scenes, investigators were finding holes in their story. Surveillance footage showed no ...
On a quiet train ride through North Carolina, surrounded by strangers and moving steadily toward its destination, no one could have imagined that violence was about to unfold in one of the most confined public spaces imaginable. Iryna Zarutska was just another passenger that day... until her life was taken in a brutal and senseless act that would shock travelers, law enforcement, and an entire nation.
What makes this case especi...
In the quiet lakeside city of Oshawa, Ontario, police believed they were dealing with two separate mysteries: the disappearance of 18-year-old Kandis Fitzpatrick in 2008, and, nearly a decade later, the horrifying discovery of human remains belonging to 18-year-old Rori Hache. What they didn’t yet realize was that both cases pointed to the same predator... one hiding in plain sight.
Adam Strong was not a name anyone recognized. ...
Some of the most devastating crimes don’t come from strangers lurking in the dark, but from the people allowed closest to home. This week's compilation tells the heartbreaking stories of four children whose lives were cut short not by chance, but by trust misplaced.
Logan Cline. Tesslyn O’Cull. Sereniti Jazzlynn-Sky Blankenship-Sutley. Jabraylon Bables. Each of these children was brutally murdered by a man brought into their lives a...
In October of 2025, what began as a transatlantic journey ended in one of the most disturbing and tragic cases Florida authorities have ever encountered.
Sonia Exelby, a 32-year-old woman from Portsmouth, England, flew into the Sunshine State with an intention that would shock investigators on both sides of the Atlantic, and lead to a grim discovery in the woods of Marion County. Authorities say she had connected online with a m...
In the nightlife pulse of Orlando, Florida, 29-year-old Dereck Cummings II, better known as Antwan Miles in his community, was building a name for himself. An aspiring rapper, a rising club promoter, and a father of four with another baby on the way, Dereck spent the night of January 29th, 2023 doing what he loved: bringing people together. His final event at Labelle Caribbean Restaurant was supposed to be another step toward the f...
In the quiet Swedish town of Skara, where life usually moves with the slow rhythm of rural calm, police were called to a scene so gruesome it would scar the country’s collective memory for years to come. It was 2011 when authorities entered a small apartment and discovered a reality that read more like a nightmare than anything imaginable, one of the most shocking acts of violence in modern Swedish history.
The man responsible w...
In the world of true crime, some cases don’t just shock us... they shake us to our core. They leave us wondering how anyone could cross a line so sacred, so unthinkable, that it defies every instinct we have as human beings.
Today’s video is a deep dive into some of the most disturbing and heartbreaking cases in recent memory... crimes committed not by strangers, not by intruders, but by the very people meant to protect their childr...
In the shadowy corners of Southwest Florida, where the sun-soaked streets of Cape Coral give way to quiet neighborhoods, a darkness was quietly taking shape... one that would eventually erupt into a series of crimes so brutal, so senseless, that the entire state would be left stunned. This is the story of Wade Wilson (not Deadpool), a man whose trail of violence unfolded over a matter of hours yet left wounds that continue to haunt...
Imagine being 20 years old, carefree, and hitchhiking your way toward a friend’s birthday party... only to have your life stolen in an instant. In 1977, Colleen Stan accepted a ride that would plunge her into one of the most disturbing and prolonged abduction cases in American history. For seven years, she was held captive in ways almost too shocking to comprehend... hidden away in a wooden box for hours or even days at a time, man...
In the quiet city of Ogden, Utah, the spring of 1974 should have been ordinary, filled with warm evenings, small-town routines, and a sense of safety people trusted without question. But on one April night, that calm was shattered inside a small, unassuming electronics store: the Hi-Fi Shop.
What began as a simple robbery spiraled into one of the most shocking and brutal crimes in Utah’s history. Hostages were taken, tortured, a...
In May of 2019, 42-year-old Julia Rawson left her home for what should have been an ordinary night out. Instead, she crossed paths with two strangers whose fascination with gore, fantasy violence, and dark role-play would spiral into one of the most disturbing murder cases the West Midlands has ever seen.
When Julia went missing, her family hoped she had simply wandered off… but what investigators would soon uncover inside a gri...
In the heart of California’s Central Valley lies Bakersfield, a city known for its oil fields, country music roots, and tight-knit community. But in 2011, it became the backdrop for one of the most disturbing crime stories in recent memory.
Jaime Osuna, a heavily tattooed man who relished being called a “real-life monster,” was arrested for the brutal murder of Yvette Peña, a mother of six. What followed was a decade of shocking...
Robert Ben Rhodes was a man who lived on the road... a trucker who seemed like just another face behind the wheel. But hidden behind that calm exterior was a darkness few could imagine. His truck wasn’t just a vehicle; it was a prison. A place where people’s lives ended in terror.
Rhodes’ crimes stretched across years and state lines, leaving behind a trail of heartbreak and unanswered questions. Behind every headline and mugsho...
This week, Drewby and Yergy head out to The Ozarks to discuss the murders of 43-year-old Clinton David Brink and his wife, 41-year-old Cristen Amanda Brink. The couple, along with their 7 and 9 year old daughters, were on a hike in Devil's Den State Park when they came across 28-year-old Andrew James McGann, who brandished a knife. Clinton and Cristen were stabbed to death in front of their little girls, who were later found sa...
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This week, Drewby and Yergy head to Florida to discuss the case of Patrick Benway, and 81-year-old mean living in a group home with 3 other roommates. One of those roommates was 18-year-old Moses Ojeda, who had been placed in the facility after being Baker Acted 6 times. However, within 5 hours of his arrival at the...
In March of 1989, a bright and promising college student named Mark Kilroy vanished while on spring break in Mexico. What began as a night of partying with friends in Matamoros quickly spiraled into one of the most shocking and disturbing murder cases in history. When investigators uncovered what had happened to Mark, they stumbled upon a cult practicing dark rituals... blending drug trafficking with human sacrifice. This is the ho...
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