Obscura: A True Crime Podcast

Paul John Knowles, famously nicknamed "The Casanova Killer," was an American serial killer who terrorized the United States during a brutal, four-month cross-country crime spree in 1974.

American serial killer responsible for at least 18 murders during a violent multi-state killing spree. 

The Harold Easter case involves the tragic in-custody overdose death of 41-year-old Harold Easter in January 2020 after an arrest by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) in North Carolina.

John Michael Hughes is a convicted murderer from Simpsonville, South Carolina, who, along with members of his family, orchestrated the January 2015 ambush and slaying of his estranged son-in-law, John Michael Ferrell.

Paul Michael Stephani, known as the "Weepy-Voiced Killer," was an American serial killer who murdered three women and attacked two others in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area between 1980 and 1982.

George T. Greer is a Kentucky man who was arrested in February 2024 for a violent samurai sword attack that killed one woman and severely injured two other people while he was under the influence of drugs.

The tragic 2015 true-crime case of 7-week-old Data Toria Hancock, an Oregon infant who died of severe starvation and maltreatment.

Today we explore a tragic 2022 emergency call that shattered a quiet Louisiana neighborhood and left four young children trapped in a real-life nightmare.

Outro Song: Yeah Right

Artist: Willa Mae

Intro Song: Affliction

Artist: SubRosa

On September 7, 1997, city park workers discovered the remains of a newborn boy near the Moses statue in Albany's Washington Park. Because his identity was initially unknown, the City of Albany and local funeral directors held a proper, deeply moving memorial service and burial for the infant.

On September 7, 1997, city park workers discovered the remains of a newborn boy near the Moses statue in Albany's Washington Park. Because his identity was initially unknown, the City of Albany and local funeral directors held a proper, deeply moving memorial service and burial for the infant.

Matthew Hoffman, often referred to as the "Leaf Killer", is an Ohio man serving a life sentence for the 2010 murders of three people and the kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl. 

Intro Song: Affliction

Artist: SubRosa

Martinez met a married woman on a dating app. He eventually met up with her and her husband, Anthony Brines. After a night of drinking, smoking marijuana, and using a Ouija board, a violent altercation broke out that would change their lives forever. 

Obscura is not AI slop. It will never be AI slop.

Canticle:

another name for a song

Vulnerable: 

(of a person) in need of support or protection

On a scorching July afternoon, a routine arrival home turns into a neighborhood nightmare. A father steps inside his air-conditioned house to play video games, leaving his sleeping toddler in the car under the assumption that the vehicle's cooling system is running. Hours later, emergency sirens pierce the quiet suburban cul-de-sac.

Intro Song: Affliction

Artist: SubRosa

The call went out at roughly one forty in the morning on March sixteenth, 2018, and it pulled the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office toward a scene that the deputies who responded would not be able to put down easily afterward, because some scenes do not let go of the people who walk into them. What waited inside the house is among the worst this show has had occasion to describe

There is a village in the apple country of western New York called Sodus, up in Wayne County near the south shore of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles east of Rochester. This is fruit-belt land, orchard and muck field running back from the lake, roadside stands selling cider in the fall, the big cold lake holding the frost off the trees in spring. In October the orchards go heavy and the light comes in low and gold across the drumlins, the long humped hills the glaciers left behind. A few thousand people, one central school the whole area feeds...

Aileen had been pawning items from her victims: tools missing from David Spears's truck, a camera that had belonged to Richard Mallory, other items linked to other victims. Florida law required pawnshops to take a thumbprint from anyone hocking goods, and the prints were on file.

Aileen, while filling out pawnshop intake forms, had been using the alias Cammie Marsh Greene. A signed pawn slip with a thumbprint, in the name of Cammie Marsh Greene, was sitting in a Daytona Beach pawn shop.

The wooded lot itself was mixed scrub of the sort that grows in the disturbed soil along an interstate corridor in central Florida. Pine. Palmetto. A few scrub oaks. Spanish moss hanging where the canopy thickened. The understory of vines and dead palm fronds that turns any walk off the shoulder into a careful one.

The lot was bordered on one side by the interstate, on another by a service road, and on the other two by more of the same scrub. It had the anonymity of land nobody owns in any way they bother to enforce...

This is part two of a four part series. Last episode, we walked her childhood. The fire at age six. The grandfather and the belt. The kitten in the bucket. The cigarette pig nickname at age eleven. The pregnancy at fourteen. The baby boy taken from her in March of 1971. Her grandmother Britta dying that July. Her grandfather throwing her out a few weeks later. The sleeping bag in the woods on the edge of Troy.

That is where we left her. Tonight we follow her from there.

She had stopped going to school. She had no money. There was no adult on the planet looking for her. What she had was a sleeping bag in the snow.

Her name was Aileen Carol Pittman. The world would come to know her by her grandparents’ last name. Wuornos.

In 2011, a quiet neighborhood in Bakersfield, California, was shattered by a crime so severe it left veteran investigators shaken. The case began with the frantic search for a missing eight-year-old girl and ended in a tense, seven-hour SWAT standoff. Ray Coriell, the man at the center of the storm, faced a barrage of charges that exposed a harrowing betrayal of trust and a level of violence that seemed unimaginable.

Double Homicide: The House on Benchor Road - Part 02

Double Homicide: The House on Benchor Road - Part 01

A two-year-old boy was found dead in his crib in Clinton Township, Michigan, starved to death while his mother streamed on Twitch. Featuring real court audio from the sentencing, Obscura examines the 2023 case of Sierra Pearl Zaitona and Jonathon Matthew Cheek, two parents who let their child waste away in silence.

The boy had been in foster care before being returned to his biological parents, Sierra Pearl Zaitona and Jonathon Matthew Cheek, both of Clinton Township. According to court records, the child was healthy and thriving under state care. The decision to reunify the family would prove...

Leslie Preer was murdered in her Chevy Chase, Maryland home on May 2, 2001. For 23 years the case sat cold. This episode features court audio from the August 2025 sentencing and the genetic genealogy breakthrough that finally identified her killer.

Leslie Ann Jennings Preer, 48, was a wife, mother, and former University of Florida journalism student. Born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island in 1952 and raised across the country in a large military family, she settled in Chevy Chase in 1982 with her husband Sandy and their daughter Lauren. She volunteered at a local library teaching English to immigrants and newcomers. Friends and...

Black Label: The Station Nightclub Fire

Two women strangled in two days by the same man in Jacksonville, Florida -- one killed at a motel on Christmas night, the other a beloved teacher murdered in her own home the next morning. This episode features real interrogation footage and court audio.

Leah Kline's life ended on December 25, 2019. She and Zebulon Perkins had been staying at a Westside Jacksonville motel when an argument turned violent. Perkins strangled Kline and disposed of her body in a dumpster behind the building. She was 38 years old. Her remains would not be discovered for days.

The following...

Abraham Shakespeare won thirty million dollars in the Florida Lottery. Three years later, he was dead -- shot twice, buried under concrete in Lakeland, Florida. This episode features real court recordings and interrogation audio.

Abraham Shakespeare, 43, was a truck driver's assistant from Lakeland, Florida, who lived simply and was known for his generosity. Friends described him as someone who would help anyone, even when he had little to give. On November 15, 2006, Shakespeare won a $30 million Florida Lotto jackpot, choosing a lump-sum payout of approximately $17 million. He purchased a million-dollar home in a gated community, bought cars for...

For nearly a decade, a predator stalked the quiet marshlands and sugarcane fields of southeastern Louisiana, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. In this episode, we dive into the chilling case of Ronald Dominique, a man who confessed to the rape and murder of at least 23 men and boys between 1997 and 2006.Despite a victim count that rivals some of history's most notorious killers, Dominique's name is rarely mentioned alongside Bundy or Gacy. We explore the "perfect storm" of factors that allowed him to evade capture for so long—from his strategic targeting of marginalized men on society's fri...

For nearly a decade, a predator stalked the quiet marshlands and sugarcane fields of southeastern Louisiana, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. In this episode, we dive into the chilling case of Ronald Dominique, a man who confessed to the rape and murder of at least 23 men and boys between 1997 and 2006.Despite a victim count that rivals some of history's most notorious killers, Dominique's name is rarely mentioned alongside Bundy or Gacy. We explore the "perfect storm" of factors that allowed him to evade capture for so long—from his strategic targeting of marginalized men on society's fri...

In Bridgeville, PA, George Sodini executed a chilling attack inside a gym. Featuring real audio.

George Alfred Sodini, 48. He was a systems analyst, once invisible and misunderstood, who turned his personal darkness into devastation.

On August 4, 2009, in Collier Township, Pennsylvania, Sodini walked into an LA Fitness gym with a duffel bag, setting the stage for chaos. As he turned off the lights in a crowded aerobics class, the room descended into terror as he opened fire. By night's end, three women lay dead, and several others were injured.

The investigation revealed a disturbing...

Marvin Morales found brutally murdered in his Sacramento, CA home. Real audio of police investigation.

Marvin Aris Untalan Morales, young and full of potential, became a tragic figure in Sacramento. Known for his vibrant personality and love for music, his life was cruelly cut short.

On December 2, 2010, Morales's life was taken in the most violent of ways. His body was discovered in his home, evidence of a vicious assault. The scene told a tale of unbridled aggression and tragic loss.

Detectives pieced together a puzzle involving disgruntled acquaintances and a planned attack. Surveillance...

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A fan’s obsession turned fatal — The Stalker Files revealed.

Ricardo López was an ordinary name behind an extraordinary obsession. He convinced himself he knew Björk intimately, though they had never met.

Ricardo’s fixation consumed his thoughts, spiraling into actions that only his twisted mind understood. Lured by her music and public persona, he embarked on a path that eclipsed his grip on reality.

The unraveling began when authorities discovered a chilling video diary, a manifesto of madness. His devotion had crossed a line into dangerous delusion.

Ricardo’s story cu...

Brandon Paul Janssen's tragic tale unfolds in Fountain, FL. Featuring real court and investigative audio.

Brandon Paul Janssen, once a beacon of innocence, faced the malign neglect of those who should have protected him. At the heart of a rural community's landscape, his story remains a chilling reminder of justice denied.

In 2020, the quiet community of Fountain, Florida, witnessed an atrocity that exposed the depths of moral failings. The unrelenting pursuit of punishment for a child sexual battery case unearthed systemic failures.

Law enforcement's relentless pursuit, aided by interrogation records and courtroom revelations...

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Heather Strong's murder case unravels into a deeper nightmare, fueled by sordid betrayal. Featured audio includes shocking interrogation clips.

This Black Label episode pulls back the curtain on the relentless investigation that seeks justice for Heather. A case stained by manipulation and betrayal.

Heather Strong was 26, a devoted mother battling for custody of her children when her life met a brutal end. She was known for her kindness and resilience, shackled by a toxic relationship.

The investigation turned her disappearance into a cataclysmic trial, revealing th...

BLACK LABEL CONTENT — Premium subscribers only

Heather Strong vanished into the shadows of betrayal in Marion County. Exclusive interrogation and crime scene audio.

This Black Label account unearths the calculated treachery that led Heather Strong into a deadly trap. Through heartbreaking evidence, it paints a portrait of a woman trapped by circumstances and deceit.

Heather was a beacon of hope for her children, engulfed by the turmoil of a failing marriage and a bitter battle for custody. Her life unfolded against the backdrop of manipulation.

The episode uncovers intricate details of de...

BLACK LABEL CONTENT — Premium subscribers only

A Piedmont officer uncovered horrors when a runaway's plight revealed deep-seated abuse. Highlighted audio exposes systemic failures.

Black Label explores a dark saga of abuse and neglect masked by routine appearances. This episode delves deep into the trauma faced by a child on the brink.

Tina Ramirez's case exposes shocking neglect and brutality endured by a 14-year-old girl weighing the size of a five-year-old. A situation that violated innocence and reshaped a community.

The investigation, driven by disturbing confessions and heart-wrenching audio, uncovers deeply buried se...

Ana Maria Cardona's chilling narrative concludes in Miami, tracing the final steps of Baby Lollipops. Real court recordings featured.

Ana Maria Cardona, a saga of relentless pursuit and ultimate conviction, reflects on the tragic life and death of three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa, known as Baby Lollipops.

On November 2, 1990, after the boy's emaciated body was found in Miami Beach, investigators followed chilling clues that unraveled a tapestry of abuse and neglect inflicted by his own mother.

The trial, marked by damning testimonies and real court recordings, brought to light the horrifying circumstances leading to Lazaro's...