Dakota Spotlight
Dakota Spotlight isn't your average true crime podcast. Creator James Wolner delves headfirst into unsolved mysteries and forgotten cases of the Upper Midwest and beyond, meticulously researching every detail to deliver a gripping, heartfelt narrative. Wolner prioritizes ethical storytelling, ensuring the victims are treated with care and respect. Prepare to be both enthralled and moved as James brings renewed hope for answers while offering a compassionate and soothing voice to the voiceless.
Episodes
July 10, 2025 • 29 mins
In 1995, Mary K. Ross, a 25-year-old single mother and college student, was stabbed to death in her Sioux Falls apartment while her baby watched. This essay reflects on how evil drifts from place to place, preying on the vulnerable, recruiting the unguarded, and how quiet compassion can remain our strongest defense.
Check out the full catalog and everything Dakota Spotlight: https://dakotaspotlight.com/
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June 26, 2025 • 25 mins
Nineteen-year-old Russell Turcotte vanished in July 2002 while hitchhiking home to Montana. Last seen at a truck stop in Grand Forks, his body was found months later near Devils Lake. He had been murdered. This episode retraces his final steps and the tireless efforts of his family to find justice, efforts that continue more than 20 years later.
If you have any information about the murder of Russell Turcotte, or if you were in Gr...
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June 14, 2025 • 37 mins
Part 5 (Chapters 23-27): As the story draws to a close, Doug Rolfstad faces the full weight of his choices, with each moment tightening the grip of consequences. What began with a mysterious envelope now hurtles toward a chaotic and unexpected conclusion.
Dead Cold Drop by James Wolner is told across five gripping episodes in the signature Friday Night Fiction style.
About Friday Night Fiction: Written and narrated by James Wolne...
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June 7, 2025 • 40 mins
Part 4 (Chapters 17-22): With tensions still simmering, Doug Rolfstad follows through on key parts of the plan as new information and close calls tighten the emotional grip. As the walls begin to close in, Doug must navigate rising pressure, uncertain alliances, and the weight of choices that can’t be undone.
Dead Cold Drop by James Wolner is told across five gripping episodes in the signature Friday Night Fiction style.
About Fr...
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June 6, 2025 • 7 mins
Season 6 of Nobody Should Believe Me–out weekly starting June 19, available in full for subscribers at launch–covers the extraordinary and tragic saga of the McDaniel family, a real-life Southern Gothic tale of Munchausen by Proxy that spans decades and has left untold damage in its wake.
For the past twelve years, Lisa McDaniel worked for The Guthy Jackson Foundation, a high-profile non-profit, dedicated to a rare disease called...
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June 5, 2025 • 44 mins
Keith Schmidt was last seen on the morning of May 20, 2024, in Dickinson, North Dakota. In this episode, we revisit the days leading up to his disappearance, hear from those who knew him best, and speak with a journalist covering the case to better understand both the man and the mystery he left behind.
Anyone with information regarding Keith Schmidt’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Dickinson Police Department at 701-456-7759...
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May 31, 2025 • 37 mins
Part 3 (Chapters 12-16): As tension rises and new layers of uncertainty unfold, Doug Rolfstad pushes deeper into a world far beyond his quiet life as a Bismarck plumber. With paranoia mounting and unsettling discoveries piling up, Doug is forced to confront how much—and whom—he can really trust.
Dead Cold Drop by James Wolner is told across five gripping episodes in the signature Friday Night Fiction style.
About Friday Night Fic...
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May 29, 2025 • 42 mins
Getting started as a bank robber isn’t easy for Joe Loya. It takes courage … and rage. But Joe does the math. Thousands of dollars gained for a few minutes work. That’s what he figures he deserves. Meanwhile at home, losses mount.
Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc.
Get the Money and Run is available now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts....
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May 24, 2025 • 40 mins
Part 2 (Chapters 6-11): Back in Bismarck, Doug sets their plan in motion, taking cautious steps to protect Mandy and make sense of the situation. But with each move, the tension tightens—and a growing sense of unease suggests there may be more at play than they first realized.
Dead Cold Drop by James Wolner is told across five gripping episodes in the signature Friday Night Fiction style.
About Friday Night Fiction: Written and n...
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May 22, 2025 • 23 mins
In 1962, 14-year-old Larry Jo Phebus vanished from Tioga, North Dakota. Months later, two farmers discovered his body in a snow-covered field. Sixty years later, the case remains unsolved. Who was Larry Jo, and what happened to him that night?
Check out the full catalog and everything Dakota Spotlight: https://dakotaspotlight.com/
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May 17, 2025 • 38 mins
Part 1 (Chapters 1-5): At a truck stop near Valley City, North Dakota, Bismarck plumber Doug Rolfstad meets his daughter Mandy at her unexpected and urgent request. There, she reveals she found a manila envelope filled with cash. As unsettling news follows, father and daughter are drawn into a situation neither of them fully understands.
Dead Cold Drop by James Wolner is told across five gripping episodes in the signature Friday N...
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May 15, 2025 • 43 mins
This isn’t your typical true crime story.
Brittani Ard steps back into the shadowy labyrinth of memories, scars, and fragile ties that bind us to our past. Where wounds still ache and the bonds of connection blur between salvation and entrapment. After revealing her own story in the first 8 chapters, she’s pulling at the threads of the past—threads so delicate they threaten to unravel everything.
This time, it’s not just her stor...
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May 8, 2025 • 42 mins
More than 30 years ago, Eric’s brother Jacob was murdered—a case that remains unresolved to this day. In this conversation, we discuss his pursuit of justice and explore the ethical challenges of creating content in the ever-growing, often problematic true crime genre. Originally released on July 28, 2021.
Listen to the True Consequences podcast: https://www.trueconsequences.com/
Check out the full catalog and everything Dakota S...
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May 1, 2025 • 34 mins
Slaycation is a darkly funny true crime podcast hosted by Kim Davis, a former social worker and true crime fanatic, her comedy-writer husband Adam “Tex” Davis, and Emmy-nominated producer Jerry Kolber. Blending horror, humor, and empathy, Slaycation explores vacations gone tragically wrong, offering travel tips that just might save your life. In this episode, “You Cruise, You Lose,” a dream getaway unravels into a chilling mystery ...
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April 24, 2025 • 40 mins
In 1978, the body of a young woman was discovered in a rural Iowa ditch—no name, no missing persons report, and clear signs of a violent death. For 27 years, she was known only as a Jane Doe. Her name was Wilma June Nissen. She was 23 years old and believed to have been killed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, around the time of her daughter Krissi’s first birthday. In this episode, Krissi Haas shares her decades-long search for the tr...
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April 17, 2025 • 39 mins
In 2002, Madison McGhee’s father, John McGhee, was shot and killed in his own home in Belmont County, Ohio. Driven by her desire to find justice she began conducting her own investigation into his murder that remains unsolved to this day. The police investigation did not yield any significant leads, leaving Madison and her family with more questions than answers - until now.
Join her not only on a quest for justice, for closure, fo...
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April 11, 2025 • 57 mins
In this first installment of Friday Night Fiction, a new series by James Wolner, a harmless social media group turns sinister in this modern noir tale set in Fargo, North Dakota. When a local banker’s carefully planned Friday night is disrupted by a group of self-appointed parking vigilantes, what begins as an inconvenience escalates into something far more dangerous. Written and narrated by James Wolner, Park Like a Fargonian expl...
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April 10, 2025 • 13 mins
We introduce you to our new series of original crime-inspired short stories, all set in North Dakota and the Upper Midwest. If you're a fan of true crime but curious to explore fictional tales with the same tension, twists, and emotional depth—this series is for you.
We’ll walk you through what to expect from future episodes, how often they’ll drop, and why true crime fans will feel right at home in these moody, mysterious, and dis...
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March 27, 2025 • 38 mins
In May 1971, Pam Jackson and Sherri Miller were two seventeen-year-olds driving to an end-of-the-school-year party in a rundown Studebaker Lark when they seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. In this episode James interviews author Lou Raguse, author of the riveting book Vanished in Vermillion: The Real Story of South Dakota’s Most Infamous Cold Case.
Check out Lou's website: https://vanishedinvermillion.com/
Purchase t...
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March 20, 2025 • 43 mins
On the evening of July 3, 1972, 16-year-old Joli Truelson stood hitchhiking in Uptown Minneapolis, MN. Just 15 hours later she was found deceased in Minnehaha Creek, four miles away. She died from blunt force trauma to the back of her head. In this episode, Dakota Spotlight interviews Trisha Taurinskas, journalst and host of a new podcast series about Joli's murder: Joli Truelson: Connecting the Dots.
Trisha shares insights about t...
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