Cold Case Murder Mysteries

On April 14, 2013, 87-year-old Chip Northup and his 76-year-old wife, Claudia Maupin, were found brutally stabbed to death in the bedroom of the couple's Davis, CA home. Someone had broken into their house during the previous night and murdered them as they slept. But in the aftermath, investigators weren't able to identify anything missing from the home, nor could they establish any other motive. Soon enough, suspicion fell upon the shoulders of family members, including Chip's son Robert. Before long, however, the leads dried up, and the case seemed as though it might go cold. That's when a 911 operator receives a call from a local high school student who claims his best friend, 15-year-old Daniel Marsh, is the killer. Join host Ryan Kraus for a journey through the twisted mind of a sadistic psychopath in an effort to understand what drove him to commit murder.

Join host Ryan Kraus for the final episode of a two-part series exploring the disappearance of 12-year-old paperboy Johnny Gosch on September 5, 1982. In part I, we examined the crime itself, but this time we'll take a deep dive into the events that transpired in the aftermath of the kidnapping. From local pedophiles to mass conspiracies, this perplexing, unsolved abduction offers no shortage of potential answers. But to this day, we're all still asking the same question... Which one is true?

Join host Ryan Kraus for Part I of a two-part series delving into one of the strangest, most complex disappearances in US history, the kidnapping of 12-year-old West Des Moines, Iowa paperboy Johnny Gosch on the morning of September 5, 1982. In this episode, we'll explore the crime itself, while part II will examine the various theories and conspiracies that arose in the aftermath.

August 29, 2014. A Bladenboro, NC woman rises shortly after 7am to find a deceased black male hanging by a makeshift noose from an old swing set in the yard of the predominantly white trailer park where she lives. Her subsequent call to 911 draws police to the scene of the crime to investigate. They quickly determine the person in question is a 17-year-old high school student and football player named Lennon Lacy, who lives up the road about a quarter of a mile away. Before long, his death is hastily ruled a suicide by local authorities, a sentiment later shared by the state police as well. But something is wrong with this scene. Lennon is wearing shoes that don't belong to him, and are too small for his feet. Even more baffling is the fact that the hanging appears to have been impossible for him to accommodate on his own. Soon enough, what was initially deemed a suicide starts looking a whole lot more like it could be a racially motivated lynching. But to this day, the truth remains a mystery. Join host Ryan

On November 2, 2016, husband and father of two young children, Keith Papini, arrived home to discover his wife, Sherri, was missing. After using an app to locate her phone, he found it lying on the side of the road about a mile from their house. Keith dialed 911 and reported the incident, hoping the disappearance was just some type of a misunderstanding. But Sherri never came home that day, or even the next. Weeks passed, and there was still no word from someone described as a loving mother and devoted spouse. Early Thanksgiving morning, however, a beaten, battered, and frightened woman was spotted 150 miles away trying to flag down help at the entrance ramp to the I-5 freeway. It was Sherri Papini, who promptly offered a harrowing tale of abduction, captivity, and ultimately, freedom from her imprisonment. Yet, to this day, her captors remain unidentified, and the details surrounding her disappearance have caused some to question the integrity of her story. So, was Sherri telling the truth about her ordeal,

On the night of September 26, 2014, a 30-year-old woman named Kayelyn Louder dialed 911 to report an altercation involving guns in the clubhouse at her condo development. What followed over the next 24 hours was a series of inexplicable events shrouded in mystery, at the culmination of which Kayelyn was missing. Surveillance footage later discovered by police depicted her fleeing home on foot, but there was no evidence of anyone chasing her. Extensive searches in the aftermath also produced no leads as to her whereabouts. More than two months later, however, her decomposing body was discovered by workers unclogging a drainage pipe along Utah's Jordan River five miles downstream from her home in Murray. So, was Kayelyn a victim of a predator lurking in the shadows, or did she fall prey to some type of mental illness that caused her to lose control? Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological exploration of this fascinating, yet tragic tale of a young woman's descent into darkness.

When a mother fails to show up for her 10-year-old son's birthday party, his father drives home to check on her, only to learn she's been murdered in the shower with a shotgun blast to the head. In the aftermath, Tom Foley, Dar's husband, becomes the focus of the police investigation. Before long, he finds himself convicted of the crime and sent to prison. But a retrial based on new evidence reveals the jury choosing not guilty the second time around. In the end, justice has not been served for Dar Foley. So, did Tom Foley murder his wife, or was she an unfortunate victim in the process of a robbery? Join host Ryan Kraus for a look inside the psychology of the killer's choices in an effort to unearth the truth.

On the night of May 28, 1980 a 32-year-old single mother named Dorothy Jane Scott, who had recently been stalked by an unknown man, left her 4-year-old son in the care of her parents as she went to a staff meeting being held at work. During the meeting, she noticed a coworker seemed ill, and had some type of swollen, red mark on his arm that was getting worse. After taking him to the hospital with another coworker along for the ride, they learned he'd been bitten by a Black Widow. Once he was released, and had gone to the hospital pharmacy to fill a prescription, Dorothy went out to the parking lot alone to pull her car up to the emergency room doors. Yet, as her coworkers came outside to meet her, she was nowhere to be found. Moments later, her car sped right past them, and disappeared in the distance. Dorothy Jane Scott was never seen alive again. Nearly 40 years later, we're still searching for answers. Join host Ryan Kraus for a deep dive into this fascinating, yet harrowing unsolved mystery.

On July 13, 2014 the body of 18-year-old Conrad Roy was found inside the cab of a pickup truck in the parking lot of the Fairhaven, MA K-Mart store, a scene which suggested the young man had succumbed to suicide by way of inhaling carbon monoxide from a gas generator found at the scene. Before long, however, police not only discovered his cell phone, but also an extensive thread of revealing text messages inside that offered the notion Conrad's death wasn't quite as it seemed. Soon enough, his girlfriend, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, became a suspect in the case, and was ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her involvement. But in the process, the legal system, in addition to the public, were asked to answer a question for which there was seemingly little precedent in a burgeoning digital world: Is it a crime to tell a person to kill himself, or is such an action protected by the freedom of speech guaranteed in the US Constitution? Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological exploration of this e

Enter the strange mind of Cold Case Murder Mysteries host Ryan Kraus for the fascinating final episode of a two-part series in which he answers questions posed by listeners. SPONSOR: CDL.com With plenty of new jobs and schools around the country, get your trucking career started at CDL.com. Explore a truckload of jobs for the trucker in you.

December 6, 1991. Austin, TX. The local fire department is called to the scene of a blaze at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt store after 11pm when a police officer notices smoke coming from the rear of the building. But when the flames subside, it soon becomes clear something much more sinister is at play. Inside, the money is missing from the cash register, and four teen girls lay dead on the floor. The subsequent investigation yielded hundreds of suspects, dozens of confessions, and even sent two men to prison. Nearly thirty years later, however, we're still searching for the truth about what happened that night. Join host Ryan Kraus for a journey through the crime scene and beyond in an effort to unveil the face of evil.

Enter the strange mind of Cold Case Murder Mysteries host Ryan Kraus for the fascinating first episode of a two-part series in which he answers questions posed by listeners. SPONSOR: CDL.com With plenty of new jobs and schools around the country, get your trucking career started at CDL.com. Explore a truckload of jobs for the trucker in you.

On the afternoon of July 24, 2006 a 33-year-old man named Sean Dickus arrived home from work to discover his 26-year-old wife Chynna and 10-year-old son Blake had been brutally murdered inside their house in Franklin, IN. As the investigation proceeded, two possibilities quickly became apparent as the most likely scenario that rendered this horrifying result: one is that Sean Dickus himself could be the killer, and the other pointed the finger at a connection to a local string of burglaries that occurred in the area. Thirteen years after the crime, however, the assailant remains unknown, as does his motive. Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological evaluation of the available evidence in an effort to piece together a narrative that finally offers the truth.

At 10:40pm on the night of May 19, 1983 a young mother named Diane Downs pulled her Nissan Pulsar up to the ER entrance of a hospital near Springfield, OR and informed the staff her children had been shot by a strange man who tried to carjack her out on a dark, desolate road nearby. Inside the vehicle, doctors and nurses discovered three kids who had suffered severe wounds delivered by a .22 handgun, leaving one of them dead and the other two barely clinging to life. It was a mother’s worst nightmare. As the police began to investigate, however, it soon became clear Diane’s story of what happened conflicted with the forensic evidence found at the scene. Before long, Diane was arrested, charged, and convicted of the shootings, leaving the world to wonder how a loving mother could perpetrate this unspeakable act against her offspring. Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological exploration of Diane’s childhood to uncover the irreconcilable emotional wound from her past that led to murder. Sponsor: UTEP Connect G

On the morning of June 20, 1994 police in Dunedin, NZ responded to an emergency call placed by 22-year-old David Bain that eerily proclaimed, "They're all dead." Upon arriving at his home, authorities soon discovered a massacre that left the other five family members deceased, seemingly a result of a murder-suicide carried out by patriarch Robin Bain. Yet, as the investigation began, it quickly became apparent something wasn't right with this crime scene. Before long, David Bain was arrested, charged with the murders, and convicted. After spending nearly fourteen years in prison, however, a successful appeal led to a second trial that set him free. In the aftermath, the public is forever left to wonder what really happened on that fateful morning. Join host Ryan Kraus for an extensive psychological exploration of the crime scene and suspects to determine, once and for all, who killed the Bain family: Robin ... or David?

Around 8pm on the night of December 16, 2011, young father Justin DiPietro put his 20-month-old daughter to sleep in her crib at their Waterville, ME home, leaving his sister to check on the child a while later. All seems fine. But sometime during the night, Ayla Reynolds disappears, prompting Justin to phone 911 when he wakes in the morning and realizes what's happened. Yet, despite the largest search for a missing person in the state's history, the little girl's whereabouts remain a mystery to this day, and police believe the adults in the house that night may know why. Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological journey through the blood evidence at the crime scene in an attempt to establish a truthful narrative about what really took place in Justin's home on that fateful evening.

On the morning of June 5, 1960, a grim discovery was made along the shoreline of Lake Bodom in Espoo, Finland. Four local teens on a camping trip were found brutally bludgeoned and stabbed inside their tent, with three of them having succumbed to their injuries. The survivor, Nils Gustafsson, suffered a broken jaw and multiple facial fractures, leaving him with almost no memory of the incident. Yet, before long, the suspicion mounted, and many came to believe Gustafsson was actually the killer. But did he really do it? Or was the real perpetrator one of several other shady men who came under police scrutiny in the aftermath of the crime? Either way, the case remains unsolved, and the murderer never saw justice. Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological exploration of evidence found at the scene in an attempt to finally uncover the truth of this baffling mystery.

On the evening of January 3, 2017, 24-year-old Alex Stevens and 20-year-old Megan Shaffer ventured to High Rock overlook in Western Maryland accompanied by multiple animals, where they abandoned their cars, hiked a mile up a dark trail in the freezing cold, and held a strange ritual in the nude near the edge of a cliff. As the hours passed, and nobody heard from them, a friend became concerned enough that he drove to their location to check on them. But they were nowhere to be found. By the next morning, one of them will call 911 for help, and the other will be dead. Join host Ryan Kraus for another trip down the rabbit hole to assess the psychology lurking within this fascinating mystery.

September, 2015. 32-year-old Liberian immigrant Henry McCabe, an auditor for the Minnesota Department of Revenue, leaves his Mounds View home to go drinking at a nearby night club with two acquaintances. But within hours, Henry will make a desperate, eerie, and alarming phone call to his wife, at which point the line goes dead, and nobody ever hears from him again. Nearly two months later, the man's body is discovered by a kayaker in Rush Lake, only miles from his house, but that event brings more questions than answers, and the truth remains a mystery. Join host Ryan Kraus for an examination of this baffling case in an effort to learn what really happened to Henry McCabe on that fateful night.

In the early morning hours of June 3, 2003, a 20-year-old Indiana University student named Lauren Spierer vanished off the streets of Bloomington while walking home after a long night of partying. Nearly 8 years later, there's still no sign of what happened to her. Some believe she was snatched off the roadside by a serial predator, and others think there's rampant dishonesty among the people who accompanied Lauren that fateful evening. But no matter which theory you choose, one thing is for sure... The truth remains a mystery. Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological examination of this enduring enigma in an effort to see what evil is lurking beneath the surface.