Small Town Mysteries

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When a 92-year-old with dementia disappears, all clues point to her granddaughter and her granddaughter's husband. Without a body though, the case grows cold. Until, that is, an unlikely detective waddles by...

Sources: 

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candler,_North_Carolina
2) https://disability-memorial.org/nellie-sullivan 
3) https://people.com/crime/pet-duck-helps-police-find-body-woman-vanished-two-c...

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When one man bullies an entire town into turning a blind eye to his numerous crimes over several decades, what else can a town do but finally enact some good old vigilante justice?

Sources: 

1) https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/us/16bully.html
2) https://www.nwmissourinews.com/news/article_ff2ddc1c-b317-11ef-ac2c-d706c09832af.html
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy
4) https://www.shortform.com/pod...

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Today we are traveling to Tennessee, specifically to the unincorporated community of Drummonds, Tennessee. Here, the brutal murder of 36-year-old Starr Harris shook the small, tight-knit community. 

Sources:

1) https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/spr-crt-ten-at-jac/1748758.html
2) https://www.actionnews5.com/story/17296068/jury-deliberating-in-starr-harris-murder-trial/
3) https://scotblog.org/2015/11/in-controver...

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Today we're going to be talking about the murder of Shirley Ann Duguay, who went missing in 1994 and was later found dead in a shallow grave. 
Shirley Ann Duguay was from Canada and a 32-year-old mother of five. Most reports don’t go into any sort of detail about who she was as a person or really anything about her personal life, mostly due to the nature of her death and the fact that her case marked a “first...

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On the morning of November 15, 2004, Peter Porco woke up as usual and carried out his typical morning routine: he packed a lunch, he filled the dishwasher, and he wrote and signed a check to his son Christopher. He even locked himself out of the house, found his spare key, and let himself back in. 
And then, Peter Porco fell over and died. It would seem so random – he had a completely normal morning, after all – e...

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On September 7, 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian defector living in London, was on his way to work. He left his car and crossed the Waterloo Bridge, which was part of his everyday routine. While waiting for the bus, Markov felt a stinging sensation in his right thigh. When he turned around, he saw a man picking up an umbrella from off the ground and running away. Not feeling well, Markov checked himself into the hospi...

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Today, we’re going to Norway! We’ve got another international case on our hands this week, with some parallels to The Somerton Man, which was recently covered. This one goes back to the autumn of 1970, to a place nicknamed “The Ice Valley”.
It is the story of the (still unidentified) Isdal Woman -- a woman with no name, two suitcases, and perhaps a secret.

Sources: 

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isdal_Woman
2...

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Did this famous Brazilian television presenter and politician really murder for more views? Let's talk about it on this new episode of Small Town Mysteries.

Sources: 

1) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-10785494
2) https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32377654
3) https://www.mamamia.com.au/wallace-souza/
4) https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32573467
5) https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/wall...

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The murder of teenager D'Andre Green remains unsolved - and someone knows who his killer is. 

Sources: 
1) https://www.wdel.com/news/video-7-years-on-family-of-teen-killed-in-brookside-community-center-shooting-still-seeking/article_9f234312-3f20-11eb-a652-6b6d733d7c1c.html
2) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/31/delaware-teen-killed-seeking-community-help/4262275/
3) https://www.newca...

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Today we're talking about The Somerton Man - a case that reads like a novel and frustrated investigators for over seventy years.

Sources:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerton_Man 
2) https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/27/somerton-man-mystery-identity-solved-identified-australia
3) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-enduring-mystery-somerton-man-one-of-australias-most-puzzling-c...

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The 1970s and 80s was a hotbed of excellent paranormal horror films – The Exorcist, the original Amityville Horror, Halloween, Carrie, Eraserhead, Dawn of the Dead, Suspiria, Invasion of the Body Snatchers…. I could go on. It was quite the era of film – and remarkably, some of these legendary tales are based on true stories.

One of the lesser known films of this era is The Entity. It’s sort of your run-of-the...

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Today on STM I’m taking it back to the early 1800s and the village of Hammersmith, located in foggy London. 

Nowadays, Hammersmith is a populated area within the Greater London area, home to almost 200,000 people . In December of 1803, However, the village only had about 5,500 inhabitants - the perfect setting for local gossip to run amok. 

And amok it ran! Tales of an ominous specter were spreading among the village. I...

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The Dybbuk box first gained popularity in 2003, after a man by the name of Kevin Mannis posted the Dybbuk box for sale on ebay. He claimed that the Dybbuk box was haunted and was causing a lot of strange and supernatural things to happen to both him and his family. 

Sources: 

1) https://jewitches.com/blogs/blog/the-deal-with-the-dybbuk?srsltid=AfmBOooiwzKe-kwg8ZBK2fCzzIa10aX_7PbGLT9DV-QiFa2KlCeknEQl
2) https://en.wi...

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Hello and welcome to Small Town Mysteries, spooky season edition! This October we’re bringing you some truly bizarre cases – ones that we think simply scream Supernatural…are they truly the works of ghosts and phantoms? Are these crimes caused by otherworldly beings…or are humans the most depraved creature of all? I’m Kate, here with Christine and Rachael, bringing you our the first episode of our annual Spooky Season...

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On a Monday morning in February 1986, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, Sherri Rasmussen’s life came to a violent end. Sherri, a young nurse, was found dead in her condo. She had been brutally beaten and shot three times.
Following this discovery, the Los Angeles Police Department quickly labeled the case as a botched burglary. But to Sherri's father, Nels, this felt wrong. He had a suspect in mind...

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On July 4, 2016, David Isaiah Goodwin (age 25)  murdered Wendy Tamagne (age 37) and then dismembered her body and shoved her remains into trashbags.

Sources: 

1) https://wcti12.com/news/local/deliberations-finish-jury-begins-discussion-of-sentencing-for-david-godwin
2) https://www.wnct.com/news/david-godwin-sentenced-to-death-justice-has-been-served/
3) https://www.jdnews.com/news/murder-suspect-to-be-returned-t...

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Sometimes on this podcast, or in true crime in general, there’s discussion over so-called “black widows,” or women who have had multiple husbands die mysteriously, with the implication that they were responsible for those deaths. 

But that’s not why we’re here today. Today, we’re going to talk about a bluebeard – yes, a man rather similar to a black widow, whose wives or partners mysteriously died. 

...

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Over 40 years ago, on July 15th, 1984, in the rugged wilderness of the Madison Range in Montana, 22-year-old Kari Swenson went missing. 

Kari was a recent Montana State University graduate and rising star in the world of biathlon, a sport that combines cross country skiing and rifle shooting. One sunny morning in July, Kari went for a run on a scenic forest trail. She was actually hoping to see a grizzly bear during he...

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One unhinged person murders their in-laws and the sister of her mother-in-law via death cap mushrooms. 

Sources: 

1) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3ngr2n3vo
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leongatha_mushroom_murders
3) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-02/police-charge-erin-patterson-mushroom-poisoning-deaths/103056694
4) https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/30/erin-patterson-mushroo...