Sword and Scale
Sword and Scale is a weekly true crime podcast covering the dark underworld of crime and the criminal justice system’s response to it. The first episode launched January 1st, 2014 and feature stories of murder, abduction, rape, and even more bizarre forms of crime. It’s the purest form of true-crime where the raw uncensored audio tells the story. Everything from 911 calls to court testimony, interviews with victims and sometimes with perpetrators give listeners a 360 degree look at the seedy underbelly of human nature and so-called civilized society. Sword and scale proves that the worst monsters are real.
Episode 356
In 2008, University of Wisconsin–Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her apartment in the middle of the day, and then the trail went cold. An unlikely informant leads the police to search for two mystery men, a theory that would steer the investigation for years. As time passed and leads fell apart, the case slowly faded from view. Twelve years later, detectives discovered the truth wasn’t buried; it had been right in front of them all along.
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Episode 355
When Virgil and Shirley Best were found dead in their home, investigators expected a familiar explanation. What followed instead was an investigation defined by uncertainty and a motive that challenged the idea that violence always comes from clear intent.
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Episode 354
In 2022, when 57-year-old Harold Allen was found dead in his Indiana home, the case was ruled natural. Nearly a year later, a brazen burglary and a string of buried messages bring detectives back to the same address and to Marsha Allen, the woman who said she loved him. What starts as a property crime becomes a chilling reexamination of Harold’s final days, as small-town routines, late-night deliveries, and a quiet house of secrets point to something far darker. No one is ready for where the evidence leads or what it costs.
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Episode 352
Beloved father and prominent attorney, Gary Farris, should have been safe on his own land. But in July 2018, he vanished from his family’s rural dream property, and a smoldering burn pile would unravel everything they thought they knew about their home, their marriage, and each other.
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Episode 350
In 2016, 22-year-old Cati Blauvelt was found stabbed to death in the basement of an abandoned house. The search for her killer would uncover a story of control, deception, and betrayal — and reveal how one man turned trust into a weapon.
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Episode 348
When 43-year-old Diane Holik was found dead inside her Austin home, homicide investigators were left with more questions than answers. Diane had no enemies. There was no apparent reason for anyone to want her dead. But as detectives dug deeper, they uncovered a web of obsession, deceit, and darkness that defied understanding and revealed a killer hiding in plain sight.
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Episode 347
In March 2015, ninety-four-year-old Marie Belcastro was found brutally murdered in her home on Cherry Street in Niles, Ohio. Adored by her family and neighbors, she was known for her humor, generosity, and the simple kindness she extended to those around her. But the violence that ended her life came from closer to home than anyone imagined, leaving her family and the community to wrestle with unsettling questions about trust, justice, and whether every life is worth saving.
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Episode 346
Seventeen-year-old Collin Griffith called 911 in a panic, begging for help. Minutes later, deputies arrived to find his mother bleeding in the kitchen and Collin calm, almost detached. His story of self-defense unraveled quickly, leading investigators back to Oklahoma and exposing dark family secrets and a shocking history of violence.
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Sanctuary
On a quiet January morning in rural Pennsylvania, Rhonda Smith went to work at her church and never came home. What started as a shocking act of violence inside a place of worship slowly unraveled into something far more personal. As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered whispered jealousies, blurred boundaries, and a devotion that may have crossed a dangerous line.
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Episode 344
On a cold March evening in 2023, police in Englewood, Colorado responded to a 911 call from 81-year-old Reginald Maclaren. Inside his upscale apartment, they uncovered a scene so brutal, it would briefly dominate headlines before vanishing just as quickly. The victims were Reginald’s wife and daughter. They were two women who lived quietly, knew no one, and left behind almost nothing. It was their bodies, and the way they were found, that told the horrifying story of their deaths.
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Episode 342
In a quiet Ohio suburb where families mow their lawns and kids ride bikes on the sidewalks, police uncover a bloody scene: two decomposing bodies, Regina Capobianco and her friend John Mann, buried beneath trash inside a modest home. As investigators peel back the layers, they don’t just find evidence of murder; they find broken families, desperate choices, and a trail of secrets that stretches from prison cells to nail salons. In a quiet, family-friendly town, someone let a killer through the front door.
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Episode 341
When Sean Lannon arrived at his uncle Mike’s house in March 2021, it appeared to be the start of a family tragedy. But, as investigators investigated further, a much darker story started to come to light - one that spanned across states and years, prompting everyone to question how well they truly knew him.
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Episode 340
In the quiet backroads of Dallas County, Missouri, investigators uncovered a nightmare hidden in plain sight. Cassidy Rainwater, a young woman whose search for stability led her to a remote cabin. What seemed at first like an isolated disappearance soon unraveled into something far darker. Disturbing digital evidence, cryptic messages, and chilling interviews revealed just how calculated and sinister the truth really was.
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Episode 338
In East Cleveland, Ohio, Diane Madison - a mother and grandmother - was also a woman remembered fondly by her neighbors. In 2019, she woke to a knife at her throat, and the assailant was her very own grandson, Jalen Plummer. Years earlier, another tragedy had unfolded just steps from her home involving a man who killed three women, ranging in age from 18 to 38.
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Episode 336
Rebekah Gould was young, beautiful, and murdered in a quiet Arkansas town. Her case haunted the internet for years—until a confession surfaced. But instead of answers, it raised a far darker question: what if the truth is still being hidden?
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Episode 334
A young couple seemed to be building a quiet life together in a small Texas town. But everything changed when 21-year-old Anggy Diaz was found brutally murdered. What followed was a maze of grief, confusion, and unanswered questions, leaving two families searching for answers.
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Episode 333
When 46-year-old Victoria Schafer was killed by a falling log at a popular Ohio state park, it first appeared to be a tragic accident — until investigators uncovered the truth. What followed was a tangled web of lies, teenage recklessness, and a crime that never made any sense.
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Episode 332
In August 2000, eighteen-year-old Jessica Currin was found burned behind a middle school in Mayfield, Kentucky. The case went cold until a determined homemaker named Susan Galbreath decided she could solve it herself. Against all odds, she did what police couldn’t: she found witnesses, uncovered leads, and helped to deliver a conviction.
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Episode 331
When 65-year-old Kenneth Reece returned to his quiet farmhouse, he found a nightmare waiting: a decapitated body in his living room and his estranged son, Kenny McBride, claiming ignorance. But once detectives uncovered the victim’s head, the gruesome truth and deep family scars started to surface.
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Episode 330
In October 2016, a teenage girl was found brutally murdered along a jogging trail in St. Joseph, Missouri. She was naked, stabbed repeatedly, and her throat was slashed. As investigators dug into the case, they uncovered a disturbing web of delusion, detachment, and darkness. What began as a baffling mystery ultimately led to a chilling discovery. This murder had been carried out as part of a planned satanic ritual.
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Episode 328
In a quiet Ohio town shaped by coal and tradition, Brad McGarry is found dead in his basement. At first, it looks like a break-in. But as detectives dig deeper, they uncover a complex friendship, a hidden relationship, and a web of lies that unravels in the interrogation room. This is a story of secrets, pressure, and the cost of keeping them buried.
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Episode 327
When Kajavia Globe disappeared, her family’s worst fears came true in a city hardened by loss. As frustration with police mounted, the community - neighbors, a sanitation worker, a mother who refused to give up - kept pushing forward. In the end, justice came not from the system, but from those who refused to stay silent.
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Episode 326
A night of celebration at a remote cabin takes a horrifying turn when a fight breaks out and a young father steps in to calm things down. Within moments, the party descends into chaos, and a single act of violence changes lives forever.
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Episode 325
17-year-old Halia Culbertson and 18-year-old Bryanna Baronzinni went from friends to enemies over the course of a few months. Then, it all ended in a single, fatal fight. But did the person who set this tragic murder in motion walk away unscathed?
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Episode 324
In the mountain valley town of Questa, New Mexico, a group of teenagers spent a summer afternoon the way so many do: unsupervised, a little bored, and pushing boundaries. But by nightfall, 13-year-old Amber Archuleta was dead. What followed was a tangle of grief, blame, and questions about the adults who were supposed to be keeping them safe.
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Episode 323
In June 2022, in the quiet city of Alton, Illinois, Heidi Noel found her 22-year-old daughter, Liese Dodd, savagely murdered in her apartment. A disturbing investigation uncovered missed warning signs, a fractured relationship, and a chilling unraveling. This is the story of a young woman who gave too many chances to the wrong person - and the silence surrounding her final moments.
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Episode 322
It was a quiet July day in Bellevue, Washington, until a hail of gunfire shattered the calm. Outside an apartment complex, 48-year-old Baron Li lay on the pavement, riddled with nine bullets. As the shooter vanished, an investigation started - one that would unearth a harrowing tale of survival, betrayal, and pure evil.
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Episode 321
When 41-year-old Erika Huff opened her home to a man in need, she believed she was doing the right thing, but that simple act of kindness would cost her everything. Erika’s generosity was repaid with unthinkable violence, leaving her dead, her mother barely alive, and a community searching for justice.
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Episode 320
When a homeless woman in Anchorage finds a discarded SD card, she hopes it holds music. Instead, she uncovers something far more disturbing - graphic videos documenting the torture and murder of a woman later identified as 30-year-old Kathleen Henry. The footage is so brutal even seasoned detectives struggle to comprehend it. But it’s not just a one-time horror - it’s the calling card of a serial predator hiding in plain sight.
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Episode 318
When 27-year-old Jamie Haggard vanished from her Kenmore, WA home in June 2016, she was just another name added to the long list of missing people in King County. Eventually, weeks turned into months. After several dead ends, sifting suspects, and body parts kept turning up across Northern Washington, identifying who these victims were proved to be much more difficult than investigators could have ever imagined…
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Episode 316
When a traffic accident in Georgia led to a deadly confrontation, the line between heroism and vigilante justice blurred. A 21-year-old woman took matters into her own hands, but was she trying to help—or hunting down a man who never posed a threat? The truth was unravelled during an emotional trial that exposed the deadly consequences of one reckless decision.
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Episode 315
At just 16 years old, Daniel Gore had already fallen through the cracks. While homeless in Beaverton, Oregon, he kept mostly to the confines of his tent in the woods while looking inward for a sense of belonging. Survival on the fringes wasn’t easy - especially when a body was discovered near his camp in May of 2022. While the community demanded answers, investigators worked to piece together a timeline...
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Episode 314
When a butchered, bloody man was found by the Tri-Rail train station in Lake Worth, Florida, everyone assumed he had been hit by a train. But when police followed a blood trail from the body to a hidden homeless encampment, they found five people living on the fringe of society who were the only witnesses to an anti-social meltdown that ended in murder.
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Episode 312
In July 2024, sanitation workers were completing their usual trash route at the abandoned Mother Goose Land amusement park in Canton, Ohio. While emptying the barrels, they uncovered a horrifying sight after noticing a human limb protruding from a bedsheet covered in flies. When authorities arrived, they were unable to identify the body due to severe blunt-force trauma to the victim’s face. Investigators worked quickly to connect the dots and were led to Sean Goe - a 26-year-old aspiring rapper who had fled from police just hours before…
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Episode 311
When 16-year-old Britney Ujlaky vanished from Spring Creek, Nevada, those closest to her were desperate for answers. She was last seen getting into a green truck with a cowboy nobody could seem to find. As the search intensified, one detail changed everything—her digital footprint hadn’t disappeared like she thought it would. The truth was there all along, buried in the one place no one expected.
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Episode 310
Young lovers Toby Lowry and Morgan Leppert dreamed of escaping their small-town Florida lives, vanishing in the spring of 2008 to chase freedom at any cost. As they raced across state lines, stealing and hiding, authorities uncovered a chilling reality that pointed back to a small house in Melrose and the man left behind. Soon it became clear: this wasn’t just teenage rebellion—it was something far darker.
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Episode 308
In the tight-knit town of Arlington, Indiana, 17-year-old Valerie Tindall went missing on a seemingly ordinary day. At first glance, everything appeared routine - she had told her mother she was going to work. But as detectives started to dig deeper, it became clear that something was lurking just beyond the obvious. From suspicious sightings of a black Nissan to cryptic messages sent after her disappearance, investigators were led down a path of false leads and half-truths.
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Episode 307
When Katelyn Markham vanished without a trace, investigators were left chasing shadows. A registered sex offender. A troubled coworker. A longtime fiancé with too many explanations. But as leads faded and the case grew cold, the real truth remained buried - until, 12 years later, a forgotten clue cracked the mystery wide open. Who was responsible for Katelyn’s fate? And why did it take more than a decade to bring them to justice?
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Episode 306
Brian and Brandon Allen were twin brothers, but their lives couldn’t have been more different. The troublemaker Brandon had always cast a shadow over Brian, the quiet follower. When Brandon returned to Palm Beach Gardens and moved in with Brian and their adopted sister Linda, chaos followed. A year later, the brothers were found burning on the side of a highway, and the truth behind their murders was more chilling than anyone could have imagined.
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Episode 304
In March of 2014 Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson were found murdered and dumped behind a convenience store in the desolate Texas peninsula of Port Bolivar. Detectives at the Galveston Sheriff’s Office followed a series of haphazard clues to piece together this mysterious and heinous double homicide, only to lead them to the most surprising killer.
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