Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries

Henry Gurholt wrote home about a promising new job on an Indiana farm. He liked his room. The fruit trees were blooming. His employer treated him almost like family.
Then his letters stopped.

His employer was Belle Gunness—and Henry’s family wasn’t the only one waiting for someone to come home.

In Part 1 of this two-part Kat Has Questions series, we follow Belle from her early life in Norway and Chicago to her farm outside La Porte, Indiana. As workers and prospective husbands enter her life, unanswered letters, abandoned belongings, and changing explanations leave...

Did your parents check your Halloween candy before you could eat it? Behind that familiar tradition is a mix of urban legends, frightening headlines—and a real murder whose most important detail often gets left out.

On Halloween night in 1974, eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan died after eating a cyanide-laced Pixy Stix. The investigation led police to someone far closer than an unknown neighbor: his father, Ronald Clark O’Bryan.

In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we follow the Halloween outing, the unraveling account of where the candy came from, and the insurance policies and witness testim...

In 1878, a girl in Watseka, Illinois, began calling another family her own. She said her name was Mary Roff—but Mary had been dead for twelve years.

Thirteen-year-old Lurancy Vennum reportedly recognized Mary’s mother and sister, asked for her belongings, and recalled details from her life. For more than three months, she lived with the Roffs while her own parents waited for their daughter to return.

In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we explore the Watseka Wonder, an Illinois paranormal mystery involving alleged spirit possession, nineteenth-century Spiritualism, and two families with very different reasons to h...

They knew six people had been murdered inside the house. They moved in anyway. Twenty-eight days later, they were gone.

Before The Amityville Horror became a bestselling book and horror movie, 112 Ocean Avenue was the scene of a devastating true crime. In November 1974, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. killed his parents and four siblings inside their Long Island home. A little over a year later, George and Kathy Lutz moved in with their three children—and began reporting experiences that would make the address infamous.

In this spooky-season episode of Kat Has Questions, we explore the DeFeo family...

Lizzie Borden took an axe… or did she?

On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered inside their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Andrew was found on the sitting room sofa. Abby had already been dead upstairs for significantly longer. Their daughter, Lizzie Borden, was home during the morning of the murders — and within days, investigators began focusing on her.

But the real Lizzie Borden case is far more complicated than the famous rhyme.

In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we're going inside 92 Second Street to reconstruct the morning of the murders, the...

On September 29, 1982, 12-year-old Mary Kellerman took Extra-Strength Tylenol for what seemed like an ordinary cold. Within hours, she was dead.

Before the next few days were over, seven people across the Chicago area would die after taking Tylenol capsules that someone had secretly laced with cyanide. The victims had no apparent connection to one another. They were simply people reaching for medicine they trusted.

For Episode 50 of Kat Has Questions — released on the 44th anniversary of the murders — we’re returning to Illinois for one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history.

We’ll...

Herb Baumeister looked like a successful Indiana businessman, husband, and father of three. But behind his family's Westfield estate—Fox Hollow Farm—investigators uncovered approximately 10,000 human bones and bone fragments belonging to an unknown number of men.

In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we take a deep dive into the life and suspected crimes of Herb Baumeister: his early life, marriage to Julie Baumeister, Sav-A-Lot thrift stores, the disappearances of men from Indianapolis's LGBTQ+ community, and the surviving witness who helped investigators identify the mysterious man calling himself “Brian.”

We follow the investigation to Fox Hollow F...

Herb Baumeister looked like a successful Indiana businessman, husband, and father of three. But behind his family's Westfield estate—Fox Hollow Farm—investigators uncovered approximately 10,000 human bones and bone fragments belonging to an unknown number of men.

In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we take a deep dive into the life and suspected crimes of Herb Baumeister: his early life, marriage to Julie Baumeister, Sav-A-Lot thrift stores, the disappearances of men from Indianapolis's LGBTQ+ community, and the surviving witness who helped investigators identify the mysterious man calling himself “Brian.”

We follow the investigation to Fox Hollow F...

On April 27, 2024, 30-year-old Mica Miller was found dead at Lumber River State Park in North Carolina. Her death was officially ruled a suicide.But in the months before she died, Mica had been trying to leave her husband, Myrtle Beach pastor John-Paul “JP” Miller. She had contacted police about harassment, reported tracking devices on her vehicle, and told officers she was afraid for her life.Now, Netflix’s Death of the Pastor’s Wife has brought renewed attention to Mica’s story — but the case did not end with her death.In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we go beyond the d...

For most of her life, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was known as a severely ill, wheelchair-dependent young woman whose devoted mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, cared for her around the clock.Then Dee Dee was found stabbed to death inside their Springfield, Missouri home—and Gypsy was discovered more than 500 miles away, walking beside her secret boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn.In this episode, we go back to the beginning of the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case: the illnesses Dee Dee claimed her daughter had, the unnecessary medical treatments and procedures, the doctors who questioned the story, Gypsy’s secret attempts at independence, her online rela...

He cut holes through McDonald’s roofs, politely held employees at gunpoint, escaped from prison underneath a truck—and then secretly lived inside a Toys “R” Us.Jeffrey Manchester became known across the country as “The Roofman” after a bizarre string of rooftop robberies in the late 1990s. But getting caught was only the beginning.After escaping a North Carolina prison in 2004, Manchester created a hidden life in Charlotte that sounds almost impossible: baby monitors used for surveillance, nighttime bike rides through Toys “R” Us, a secret room inside an abandoned Circuit City, church services under the fake name John Zorn, and a rela...

In February 1959, nine experienced Soviet hikers disappeared while crossing the northern Ural Mountains. Weeks later, searchers discovered their abandoned tent partially buried on the slope of Kholat Syakhl. Their boots, warm clothing, food and equipment were still inside—but the tent had been cut open from within.The hikers’ bodies were eventually found scattered between the campsite and a forest nearly a mile away. Some had died from hypothermia. Others suffered catastrophic chest and skull injuries. Two were missing their eyes, one was missing her tongue, and traces of radioactive contamination were detected on several pieces of clothing.For decades, the...

In February 2013, 21-year-old Kelsie Schelling drove from Denver to Pueblo, Colorado after learning she was pregnant. She believed she was meeting the father of her unborn child, Donthe Lucas.She never came home.What followed became one of Colorado's most remarkable no-body homicide cases. Investigators reconstructed Kelsie's final hours through surveillance footage, text messages, phone records, ATM transactions, and the movements of her abandoned Chevrolet Cruze. Years passed without answers, while Kelsie's family refused to stop searching and continued fighting for justice.Then the investigation took an extraordinary turn.A woman named Lauren Suhr, who had never met Kelsie, made...

On November 2, 2009, 22-year-old mother Holly Cassano was found murdered inside her home in Mahomet, Illinois.Investigators recovered unusually powerful forensic evidence almost immediately. Holly’s attacker had been injured during the assault, leaving his blood throughout the mobile home. Semen recovered from Holly’s body came from the same unknown man. Police had the killer’s DNA—but there was no match in CODIS and no name to attach to it.Over the next nine years, investigators interviewed witnesses, examined injuries, followed leads and collected DNA from more than 150 men. Every one of them was excluded.Then investigative genetic genealog...

In July of 1518, something unimaginable happened in the city of Strasbourg.A woman stepped into the street and began dancing. She didn't stop. Days later, dozens of others had joined her. Soon, hundreds were reportedly dancing through the city—some collapsing from exhaustion and some allegedly dancing themselves to death.More than 500 years later, historians still can't fully explain what became known as the Dancing Plague of 1518.Was it a case of mass psychogenic illness? Poisoned rye contaminated with ergot? A religious phenomenon tied to Saint Vitus? Or the result of multiple forces colliding at exactly the wrong moment?In th...

On February 9, 2004, twenty-one-year-old nursing student Maura Murray packed a bag, withdrew nearly all the money from her bank account, emailed her professors saying there had been a death in the family, and drove north from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Just hours later, her black Saturn crashed on a quiet road in Haverhill, New Hampshire.A local bus driver stopped to help.Maura told him she had already called AAA.He knew she couldn't have. He drove home to call police.When officers arrived just minutes later, Maura was gone.More than twenty years later, she has never been found...

On February 9, 2004, twenty-one-year-old nursing student Maura Murray packed a bag, withdrew nearly all the money from her bank account, emailed her professors saying there had been a death in the family, and drove north from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Just hours later, her black Saturn crashed on a quiet road in Haverhill, New Hampshire.A local bus driver stopped to help.Maura told him she had already called AAA.He knew she couldn't have. He drove home to call police.When officers arrived just minutes later, Maura was gone.More than twenty years later, she has never been found...

The discovery of a human arm floating in Lake Mattoon shocked Central Illinois—but that was only the beginning.When boaters first spotted what they believed was a dead fish drifting across the water, they had no idea they had stumbled upon one of Illinois' most disturbing criminal investigations in recent memory.In this episode, we break down the entire Lake Mattoon murder case using court documents, investigative records, and official law enforcement information to reconstruct what investigators allege happened.You'll hear how detectives:identified 38-year-old Dalewayne Turner using tattoos and jewelry,traced the investigation from Lake Mattoon to a ho...

In 2013, 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam disappeared while staying at Los Angeles' infamous Cecil Hotel. Weeks later, her body was discovered inside a rooftop water tank, shocking the world and fueling one of the internet's most enduring mysteries.The release of Elisa's unsettling elevator video sparked countless theories involving murder, paranormal activity, conspiracies, and cover-ups. But what did investigators actually find?In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we examine the timeline of Elisa Lam's disappearance, the viral elevator footage, the investigation, autopsy findings, her history of bipolar disorder, and why the case continues to fascinate people more than a...

The Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles has become one of the most infamous hotels in the world.Over nearly a century, the hotel became associated with dozens of deaths, violence, suicides, serial killers, urban legends, and paranormal claims. It was home to long-term residents, linked to notorious figures like Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger, and eventually became the center of global internet obsession after the 2013 death of Elisa Lam.But is the Cecil Hotel truly haunted?Or did decades of tragedy, media attention, internet conspiracy culture, and human psychology slowly transform a building into mythology?In this episode of...

A night out near Ohio State University turned into one of the strangest missing persons cases in modern true crime.In 2006, 27-year-old medical student Brian Shaffer was seen on surveillance footage entering the Ugly Tuna Saloona in Columbus, Ohio. Friends saw him inside the bar. Witnesses spoke with him throughout the night.But when investigators later reviewed the surveillance footage… they could not clearly identify Brian ever leaving.No confirmed sightings.No body.No clear explanation.Nearly twenty years later, the disappearance of Brian Shaffer remains one of the internet’s most debated unsolved mysteries.In this episode of Kat Has...

In the early morning hours of September 22, 2001, firefighters responded to a house fire on Paul Avenue in Champaign, Illinois.Inside the home, they found 59-year-old Linda Smith.At first, it appeared to be a tragic residential fire.But investigators quickly discovered something far more disturbing. Linda Smith had been sexually assaulted before the fire was set, transforming what looked like an accidental fire into a homicide investigation.Then came an even stranger discovery.DNA recovered from the scene didn't point investigators to a suspect. Instead, it connected Linda Smith's murder to two other sexual assaults — one in Carbondale, Illinois and an...

In 2016, Sherri Papini vanished while out jogging near her home in Redding, California. Her phone and earbuds were found abandoned on the side of the road, and for 22 days, her family and the nation searched for answers.Then, on Thanksgiving morning, Sherri reappeared — bruised, restrained, and claiming she had been kidnapped by two armed women.For years, the public viewed the case as a horrifying abduction and survival story. But behind the scenes, investigators were uncovering inconsistencies that would eventually unravel the entire narrative.In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we break down:Sherri’s disappearance and dramatic returnthe medi...

A mansion in California. Thirty-nine bodies. Matching outfits, packed luggage, and a belief that a spacecraft was waiting behind the Hale-Bopp comet.In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we explore the disturbing rise of Heaven’s Gate — the UFO religious group led by Marshall Applewhite that became one of the most infamous cults in American history. From spiritual searching and isolation to apocalyptic beliefs and mass suicide, we examine how the group formed, why members stayed, and how devotion slowly transformed into tragedy.This is the story of Heaven’s Gate.⸻'Weird Girls Club' Tee, VizVizShop on Etsy: https://www.etsy...

In the quiet desert town of Taos, New Mexico, a small percentage of residents have reported hearing something strange for decades—a low, persistent hum with no clear source.Some describe it as a distant engine. Others say it feels more like a vibration than a sound. But the most unsettling part?Most people can’t hear it at all.In the early 1990s, complaints grew loud enough to trigger a government-backed investigation involving scientists from Los Alamos, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of New Mexico. They tested for acoustic, seismic, and electromagnetic signals using highly sensitive equipment.They foun...

Jennifer Pan was the only witness to a brutal home invasion that left her mother dead and her father fighting for his life.She was tied up. She survived. And at first, her story made sense.But as investigators started to look closer, small inconsistencies began to surface — timelines that didn’t quite match, details that shifted, and a version of events that slowly started to fall apart.Because what they uncovered wasn’t just about one night.It was about a carefully constructed life, built on expectations… and the lengths someone might go to protect it.In this episode, we walk...

This is a crossover episode with The Wanted Files. Listen to the podcast here: thewantedpodcast.com⸻Three young girls. Three disappearances. And a pattern that seemed too precise to ignore.Between 1971 and 1973, three children in the Rochester, New York area—Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Maenza—were taken in separate incidents that would later become known as the Alphabet Murders.Each case, on its own, was devastating. But when viewed together, something else began to emerge.A pattern.Matching initials. Similar circumstances.. A structure that felt intentional—even if it couldn’t be proven.In this episode, we focus on what is...

In January 2006, 24-year-old Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando condo sometime between leaving for work and starting her day.There were no signs of forced entry. No clear struggle. And no confirmed timeline of where she went.Days later, her car was found abandoned just a mile away — along with surveillance footage of a person of interest.But in one of the most frustrating twists in modern true crime, the person’s face was completely obscured… frame by frame.In this episode, we break down the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse — a case defined not by what’s missing, but by what almos...

Three women vanish from the same home overnight — without a struggle, without forced entry, and without taking any of their belongings.In this episode, we’re looking at the disappearance of the Springfield Three — a case where everything seemed normal… until it wasn’t.Because sometimes the most unsettling cases aren’t the ones with obvious violence — they’re the ones where nothing makes sense at all.⸻About the showKat Has Questions is a curiosity-driven podcast about real stories that sound unreal — from unsolved crimes and strange history to the quietly weird corners of human behavior.New episodes every week.⸻Support the ShowIf you...

On Christmas Eve in 2002, Laci Peterson disappeared from her home in Modesto, California.Within days—before there was a body, before there was a confirmed crime scene—suspicion turned toward her husband, Scott Peterson.What followed was one of the most widely covered cases in modern true crime history. A case built not on a single piece of definitive evidence, but on a timeline, a pattern of behavior, and a narrative that quickly took hold.In this episode, we step back from what we think we know… and look closely at what was actually proven.Because this isn’t just a story...

On May 14, 2008, nineteen-year-old Brandon Swanson called his parents after his car went into a ditch on a rural Minnesota road.He believed he was just outside the town of Lynd and asked them to come pick him up.For the next 47 minutes, Brandon stayed on the phone with them while he walked through the dark toward what he thought were the lights of town.Then suddenly, in the middle of the conversation, Brandon said two words:“Oh, shit.”And the line went dead.Despite extensive searches, Brandon Swanson was never found.In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we reconstruct the...

Wait… it’s not Berenstein?In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we dive into the Mandela Effect — the phenomenon where large groups of people remember events, quotes, logos, and even movies that never existed.From the Berenstain Bears to the nonexistent Sinbad genie movie, we unpack what’s really happening in our brains… and why it feels so unsettling.Is it faulty memory? Social reinforcement? Pattern completion? Or something stranger?And most importantly — what do YOU remember that apparently never happened?Send your Mandela Effects to Kat for a possible Part 2.⸻About the showKat Has Questions is a curiosity-driven podcast about...

Dead Wrong is a five-part deep dive into one of the most shocking wrongful conviction cases in recent memory — and the woman at the center of it all.When Betsy Faria was found stabbed to death in her Missouri home in 2011, the case seemed straightforward. Her husband, Russ Faria, was quickly arrested and convicted.But almost immediately, the story began to unravel.In this five-episode arc, we follow the timeline from Betsy’s murder to Russ’s conviction, the appeals that exposed serious investigative flaws, and the growing suspicion surrounding Betsy’s close friend — Pamela Hupp.As each layer peels back, the...

Dead Wrong is a five-part deep dive into one of the most shocking wrongful conviction cases in recent memory — and the woman at the center of it all.When Betsy Faria was found stabbed to death in her Missouri home in 2011, the case seemed straightforward. Her husband, Russ Faria, was quickly arrested and convicted.But almost immediately, the story began to unravel.In this five-episode arc, we follow the timeline from Betsy’s murder to Russ’s conviction, the appeals that exposed serious investigative flaws, and the growing suspicion surrounding Betsy’s close friend — Pamela Hupp.As each layer peels back, the...

Dead Wrong is a five-part deep dive into one of the most shocking wrongful conviction cases in recent memory — and the woman at the center of it all.When Betsy Faria was found stabbed to death in her Missouri home in 2011, the case seemed straightforward. Her husband, Russ Faria, was quickly arrested and convicted.But almost immediately, the story began to unravel.In this five-episode arc, we follow the timeline from Betsy’s murder to Russ’s conviction, the appeals that exposed serious investigative flaws, and the growing suspicion surrounding Betsy’s close friend — Pamela Hupp.As each layer peels back, the...

Dead Wrong is a five-part deep dive into one of the most shocking wrongful conviction cases in recent memory — and the woman at the center of it all.When Betsy Faria was found stabbed to death in her Missouri home in 2011, the case seemed straightforward. Her husband, Russ Faria, was quickly arrested and convicted.But almost immediately, the story began to unravel.In this five-episode arc, we follow the timeline from Betsy’s murder to Russ’s conviction, the appeals that exposed serious investigative flaws, and the growing suspicion surrounding Betsy’s close friend — Pamela Hupp.As each layer peels back, the...

Dead Wrong is a five-part deep dive into one of the most shocking wrongful conviction cases in recent memory — and the woman at the center of it all.When Betsy Faria was found stabbed to death in her Missouri home in 2011, the case seemed straightforward. Her husband, Russ Faria, was quickly arrested and convicted.But almost immediately, the story began to unravel.In this five-episode arc, we follow the timeline from Betsy’s murder to Russ’s conviction, the appeals that exposed serious investigative flaws, and the growing suspicion surrounding Betsy’s close friend — Pamela Hupp.As each layer peels back, the...

In August 1977, a radio telescope in Ohio detected something extraordinary.A powerful, narrowband radio signal appeared suddenly, lasted 72 seconds, and then vanished — never to be detected again.The signal was so unexpected that astronomer Jerry Ehman circled it in red ink and wrote one word in the margin: “WOW!”Nearly fifty years later, the WOW! Signal remains one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in science. Was it a natural cosmic phenomenon? Human interference? Or something more — a signal not meant for us, overheard only once?In this episode of Kat Has Questions, we break down what scientists were listening for, why...

Nancy Guthrie, an 84-year-old woman from the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson, Arizona, was reported missing on February 1, 2026.In this “What We Know” episode, we lay out the confirmed timeline of events, law enforcement involvement, and official public statements — without speculation or commentary.This episode focuses solely on verified information from law enforcement and major news reporting. The investigation remains active.If you have information related to this case, please contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department or submit a tip to the FBI.
⸻About the showKat Has Questions is a curiosity-driven podcast about real stories that sound unreal — from unsolve...

In June of 1912, eight people went to bed in a quiet Iowa town. None of them woke up.The Moore family—and two visiting children—were brutally murdered with an axe taken from inside their own home. There were no signs of forced entry. No clear motive. And no one was ever convicted.More than a century later, the Villisca Axe Murders remain one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history.In this episode, we walk through what happened inside the house on Second Street—and the leading theories about who could have done it, from traveling preachers to bus...