Obscura: A True Crime Podcast

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...

Kelsey Hildal survived brain surgery at age ten that left her unable to walk. Three years later, a devastating car accident fractured her skull and altered her personality forever. Sent to wilderness boot camp in North Carolina, then to Montana Academy for troubled teens, Kelsey nearly died from hypothermia after running away in subzero temperatures. Against all odds, she became a basketball sensation at Flathead High School in Kal...

Today we cover a strange case. An unusual case. The case of Joe Winko. But who is Joe Winko? Well, pinning him down is a challenge in itself. I’ll try my best. I warn you this episode is going to be unlike any Obscura episode you’ve heard before. But I promise you it will be worth it.

Hello Listener.

Today we cover a strange case. An unusual case. The case of Joe Winko. But who is Joe Winko? Well, pinning him down is a challenge in itself. I’ll try my best. I warn you this episode is going to be unlike any Obscura episode you’ve heard before. But I promise you it will be worth it.

In December 1984, a man walked into a karate dojo in Dumfries, Virginia. Minutes later, he was dragged out the back door, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Decades later, the grainy footage of his brutal beating would reemerge on YouTube, igniting a firestorm of outrage, speculation—and questions that remain unanswered to this day.

In this Black Label episode of Obscura, Justin Drown unpacks the haunting story behind what came t...

Anchorage wakes to the knock that ends the hunt: October 27, 1983, troopers arrive at Hansen’s bakery, and an interrogation room papered with maps and faces waits for him. Search warrants turn his life inside out—an aerial map etched with 24 Xs, hidden firearms, and jewelry that speaks for the dead. Ballistics tell the rest: shell casings match the Ruger Mini-14, and those Xs resolve into graves in the wild.

From a 12-hour confessi...

Anchorage’s pipeline boom promised prosperity, but under the neon and snow, someone was hunting. In this episode, we revisit the disappearances of young women—Megan Emerick, Mary Phil, Roxanne Eastland, and more—whose lives were too easily dismissed as the city looked the other way. Through survivor testimony, including Cindy Paulson’s harrowing escape, we chart the failures that let a predator thrive and the dogged investigators w...

Anchorage during the oil boom promised quick money and fresh starts—but the wilderness kept its own secrets. In this episode, we trace the disappearances of young women drawn north by opportunity, and the investigators who fought isolation, scarce resources, and a chilling pattern surfacing in the tundra. At the center stands Robert Hansen, the seemingly ordinary baker whose long shadow fell over a city in rapid transformation. Thr...