Every Town - Canada’s Most Haunting Unsolved Murder | Still No Answers

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

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We all had different upbringings, and some of them were picture perfect and others not so much. Really, no matter how you feel about yours, there are some stories out there of childhood, so horrible and awful. We almost collectively pretend like they didn't happen. It's like a universal defense mechanism to keep us all just pushing through. However, today, we're bringing those cases to lay, so get ready. Hey guys, it's Andrew. Thanks for tuning into this Patreon-only patron. episode where today, looking at stories of people being tucked away into the dark corners of

homes quite literally. While the reasons as to why this happened vary from case to case, they are all utterly devastating. There are five families who hid dark secrets. Number five, the girl in the closet. Can a child disappear if they never actually went anywhere? I mean, it sounds impossible, and most of the time it is, except for the story of Lauren Kavanaugh. A girl from the age of 2 to 8 wasn't seen by anybody in her neighborhood or the outside world. It wasn't because she was missing, and she had never left the house. It was because she was being hidden away. Lauren was born on August 24th of 1993 in Marietta, Georgia, She was a child who lived through one of the worst abuse cases in all of American history.

Her biological mother, Barbara Atkinson, lost custody of Lauren soon after her birth due to prior abuse allegations, a.k.a. she was unfit to be a mother. And so then, Lauren was legally adopted by Sabrina and Bill Kavanaugh, a loving couple who had already fostered several children before. She was a good baby. Um, she was happy. always always with a smile on her face always happy little baby for the first eight months of her life Lauren thrived with the Kavanaugh's he was well fed safe and adored but then Barbara came crawling back as she pleaded with the Kavanaugh's to let her visit claimed she had changed but if she could just see her daughter they'd see how much she loved her and in a moment of weakness that would haunt them

forever. Sabrina and Bill made the unthinkable choice. They gave Lauren back to her biological mother. On paper, it was legal, but emotionally it was a devastating mistake. Because what follow was a descent into darkness that no child should ever have to endure. Barbara and her partner, Kenneth Atkinson took Lauren and moved into a trailer home in Hutchins, Texas. On the outside, nothing seemed unusual, but inside that trailer was a secret no one would uncover for six long years. At age two, Lauren was locked in a tiny dark closet with nothing but a vent in a dirty blanket. The space was barely large enough for her to sit up in, and yet that's where she stayed at all times. During those years inside there, the poor girl was starved to the point of near death.

There was no breakfast, lunch, or dinner routine. Well, she was only allowed to eat when Barb and Ken felt like getting her food. And even then, the scraps were minimal. Her diet consisted mainly of dried ramen noodles and bread crust. It was so dire, in fact, that she even turned to eating her own waste in an attempt to survive. When that closet became her world, there was no light, no toys or books. When neighbors asked about the little girl, the couple lied, telling people she had gone back to her adoptive family.

And since Lauren had never been enrolled in school or daycare, nobody came looking for her. By the time police were finally called to the trailer in June of 2001, Lauren was eight years old, yet she weighed just 25 pounds, the average weight of a two-year-old. A family friend had made the anonymous call that said, saved her life. Officers found her curled up in that closet, covered in her own filth,

that sores all over her body. Her muscles had atrophied, but she couldn't walk properly. She couldn't even speak in full sentences. A pediatrician who examined the girl said, quote, she looked like a Holocaust survivor. You just don't see kids in the United States come in looking like this unless they're terminal. And doctors let her confirm, that had she remained in that closet for just a few more weeks, well, she likely would have died of starvation. Barbara and Kenneth were arrested immediately. In 2002, both were sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility of parole. And prosecutors didn't hold back, and they called the abuse what it was, which was systematic torture. It was as if they had set out to destroy Lauren, and they nearly succeeded. After her rescue, Lauren was adopted, again of the very people who had once loved and lost her, Sabrina and Bill. They had never stopped

thinking about her so they didn't hesitate. Lauren had to learn how to speak again, how to walk, and how to trust. Her recovery was slow and filled with emotional landmines, but with help, she started to reclaim her life. She later went on to become a speaker and advocate for child abuse awareness, using her own horrific past to try to prevent future victims. She once told a reporter, I want people to know that I'm not just a victim, I'm a survivor. Number four, a boy who didn't know. Developing story on a disturbing case of child abuse involving a teenager within the last 10 minutes, federal, state, and local investigators armed with a search warrant, descended

on a Paulding County House. That's where they believe a local teenager was kept locked up in a room for years. Back in 2012, former police sergeant turned security guard, Joe Gonzalez, spotted someone at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Los Angeles that caught his eye. It was a frail team with sunken eyes who looked confused and scared. Gonzalez had seen a lot over the years, but there was something about this kid that made him stop and asked where he was from. A child who weighed 87 pounds and looked like he hadn't seen the sun in years thought for a moment

and then said sort of matter-of-factly that he didn't know. The Joe could tell this wasn't any sort of criminal not wanting to talk to an authority figure. This kid was actually in trouble. He explained that his name was Mitch and that he was 18 years old, even though he looked like 12. Mitch didn't have any ID, barely any money, no phone. It was a small bag and a story that didn't make sense, at least not at first. As Gonzalez listened, a clearer picture began to emerge. Mitch had just completed a cross-country journey from Mississippi to California.

Not by choice, though. He was sent there. Dumped, actually. According to Mitch, it was his stepfather, Paul Comer, who drove him to a bus station in Mississippi. See, it was Mitch's 18th birthday, instead of cake or a card. Paul handed him 200 bucks

and a printout of homeless shelters in L.A. And he told him, you're a man now, don't come back. The LAPD was called in immediately. Once they started asking questions, Mitch opened up even more. He hadn't attended school since the 8th grade, and that was four years ago.

As it turns out, he'd been locked inside his bedroom ever since. He never got out to do anything at all. In fact, he never even had any interactions with the two girls who lived in the same house, his younger step-sisters. That bedroom, he was locked in, had a camera inside, pointed right at the bed to keep a watchful eye over him, and discourage him from doing anything he wouldn't want his parents to see. Mitch said he only left to use the bathroom and was fed just enough to survive. Authorities in Paulding County, Georgia, where the comers lived, acted fast.

They went to the suburban home and began piecing the story together. Everything Mitch had said appeared to be true, the conditions were horrifying. And his parents, Paul and Sheila, well, they seemed completely unbothered by the situation, as if they had done nothing wrong. And Paul admitted everything, told investigators that yes, he had driven Mitch to Mississippi, gave him money, and a list of shelters. The Pauline County Sheriff's Office brought in the Georgia Bureau of the Bureau of the investigation and even the FBI to dig deeper. They found that Mitch's two step-sisters, who were 11 and 12 at

the time, had barely even never laid eyes on him. When asked, they couldn't even say what color hair he had. The neighbor who lived next door, never even knew Mitch existed. He saw the girls, although they weren't allowed to play with any other kids in the neighborhood, but he never saw a teenage boy. Authorities placed the two girls into protective custody and social workers, began assessing their situation. Back in California, Mitch was taken in by authorities and offered some help. But think about it, at 18 years old, he didn't have a driver's license, had no education beyond middle school, and didn't even know how to navigate the outside world.

It would take some time for him to get his footing. His folks ultimately made a plea deal and got 30-year sentences for what they had done. Well, there isn't a ton on what Mitch is up to today. he's around 31 years old now. He did say in an interview from a few years after, that he takes it all day by day. He looks at stories of others who have been through similar situations and chooses to be happy and works at making it through.

And we're all wishing him the best. Let's just hope that there's no kid that has to go through this fucking solitary confinement. Number three, basement of horror. It was a routine building inspection when a property manager in Philadelphia's Tacony neighborhood went in to check on a broken door in the basement of a rundown apartment building. What he found behind that door and what he heard would launch one of the most shocking criminal investigations

in the city's history. Because locked inside a cramped, foul-smelling basement were four terrified, malnourished adults. They were being held captive, chained, starved, and living in their own filth. The person behind it all was a woman named Linda Weston who had already been convicted of killing somebody before. Born in 1950 in North Carolina,

Linda had little education and suffered abuse herself growing up and so, not that it's an excuse, but as you know, hurt people, hurt people. Though Linda most certainly took things too far. In 1981, she was found, guilty of imprisoning and starving her 25-year-old sister's boyfriend, Bernardo Ramos. She said she believed he was trying to poison his child and not pay child support, so she locked him in a closet and just left him there for weeks.

By the time police found him, Ramos had died from a combination of dehydration and starvation. Linda got 10 years for that crime but only served about four, and then it was time to put this lady right back out there on the streets. Was she reformed and now a better person? Not at all. She went right back to a life of control, manipulation, and cruelty. Only this time it was even more calculated. I fast forward to October of 2011.

A landlord walks into the basement of his apartment building at 4724 Longshore Avenue in northeast Philadelphia. The stench hits him first, like rotting garbage and urine. Then he hears noises, whimpers, and pleading. And then he sees them, four people, all severely underweight, dirty and afraid, chained to a boiler and confined in a pitch-black space. Their names were Beatrice Weston, Tamara Breeden, Herbert Knowles, and to Marcus Williams. All of them mentally disabled. The victims were rushed to the hospital, and during the investigation, very quickly a horrifying pattern emerged.

This wasn't just some isolated kidnapping. It was actually something far worse. Linda Weston had been keeping people like this for years. Along with her boyfriend Gregory Thomas, her daughter, Jean McIntosh, and others in her circle, she had devised an actual system. They would find mentally disabled individuals, Often people with no strong family connections and lure them in with promises of food, shelter, or love.

Weston, Thomas, and Wright were arrested Saturday night after the discovery of four mentally disabled adults in a locked basement. Well, then they'd take control of their Social Security benefits, and once that happened, well, they were prisoners. Authorities discovered Weston had moved these victims across multiple states over a period of nearly 10 years. Texas, Virginia, Florida, finally Pennsylvania. In each location, she would hold them captive,

some in closets, others in basements, or locked bedrooms. They were routinely beaten, starved, drugged, and threatened with death if they tried to escape. Weston raked in thousands by collecting disability checks. When police raided Weston's properties and pieced together her movements, the breath of the abuse stunned them. I'm hiding in plain sight. She moved around, rented apartments, visited stores. She got paperwork filled out, applied for benefits,

even had dealings with government offices. Somehow, no one noticed or no one looked closely enough. A system that was supposed to protect the vulnerable failed as either they didn't see what was happening or willingly chose to look away. With the back in my head and all this was all bleying, That was real dirty of you. That was wrong. In the end, in 2013, Weston pled guilty to multiple charges.

She admitted to participating in a racketeering conspiracy that included kidnapping, sex trafficking, and fraud. And for this, she was sentenced to life in prison plus 80 years with no possibility of parole. And so, Linda herself will now remain caged up for the rest of her natural life. Number two, the girl in the window. She never felt the warmth of the sun, never tasted real food, never heard a kind word spoken to her, not for the first seven years of her life. On July 13, 2005, Plant City, Florida police detective Mark Holst got a call. It was a welfare check, nothing unusual at first glance, as someone reported seeing a young girl's face.

through a broken window of a run-down home. Just a glance, but it didn't look right. When Hulse arrived at the scene, he could smell before he even stepped through the door. Urine, feces, rot. Inside, the house was crawling with cockroaches. Garbage bags were piled high. And then, behind a door that barely opened,

inside a room the size of a closet, there she was. Six-year-old Danielle Crockett sitting silently. Her eyes wide, but empty. She was curled up on a bare mattress, bones showing through her skin, wearing a diaper that had clearly been unchanged for days. Her legs were streaked with feces, and her hair matted. She weighed just 46 pounds, and she couldn't even communicate with the officer

because, as it turns out, she never learned to speak. You know, I've thought about it over the years is how could a mother, how could a caregiver just lock their child away like that? And doctor is at Tampa General Hospital, likened Danielle to an infant. Despite being nearly seven years old, her development was frozen, as if time had stopped the day she was born. Up to 85% of a child's brain development happens in the first five years of life. Though this poor girl had been locked away during all of it, and she had become environmentally autistic, not born with autism, but made that way through severe isolation. Social workers will later admit something terrible, too, in this case, they had been warned before. Neighbors

called in reports as far back as 2002, made me to have seen a naked, starving child at the Crock at home. Authorities offered help, but Danielle's mother, Michelle, declined, and so they just left. Michelle later told investigators she was doing her darn best as a widowed single mother, but her version of doing her best ended with her daughter curled up and feral, so not too good a job. When charges were filed, Michelle faced the possibility of prison, but that didn't happen. As part of a plea deal, she waived her parental rights. received two years of house arrest and probation.

No prison time, no real accountability. In 2007, though, some good news. It was two years after Danielle's rescue when Hope finally arrived. Bernie and Diane LaRoe, a couple from Fort Myers had always dreamed of adopting a daughter. When they saw Danielle's photo, they said it was like a calling. Bernie said she just looked like she needed us. The LaRose knew it wouldn't be easy, but they were patient and slowly they made progress.

They got her into school, to speech therapy and church. She learned to swim and began making eye contact. Occasionally, she'd even approached strangers, something unimaginable before. Since she couldn't speak, they tried to use sign language with her, but she never signed back. And she had been permanently damaged by what she had been through, But because cases like hers are so few and far between, it's hard to know just how far it goes. I've never had regrets with her and all that stuff. I just like the other kids, I always figured once they're out of the house, then I can have my life.

And they wondered how much she understands and if there's a real way to reach through to her. Danielle's story is extreme and she will likely never speak. likely never speak a full sentence, likely will never live on her own. But there are moments, and to those who are around her the most, they believe that she does finally know what real love feels like. Number one, a lifetime of captivity. And they say a mother knows. On July 10th of 1998, 16-year-old Shinarah Mobley knew something was wrong the moment that nurse walked out of the room with her baby girl wrapped up in her arms. The nurse looked like all the rest.

wore a floral blue smock, green scrub pants, and even had a hospital badge, clicked to her chest. But eight hours after giving birth to her first child, Shinar never saw her daughter again. In Jacksonville, Florida, at the University Medical Center, Shinar had names swirling in her mind as to what to name her sweet little girl. It would have been one of the happiest moments of her life, and she named her Kamaya officially on the papers. Shinarah was just 16 at the time, and so the whole scenario was a bit overwhelming, and she was exhausted.

When that nurse entered the hospital room and talked to her gently and offered to take the baby for a check-up, well, the mother didn't hesitate. That woman cradled Kamaya and walked out the door, and just like that, she was gone. That woman, as it turned out, was no hospital worker at all. She was a 33-year-old stranger named Gloria Williams, wearing hospital scrubs and a fake ID.

Still, though, in a busy med center, no one stopped her or even questioned, Gloria. By the time, real staff realized the baby was missing, well, the woman had already disappeared. She sent the number up at my arms on the beginning. With her mother and grandmother offering comfort, 16-year-old Shinar Mowgli is reliving Friday afternoon again and again. She still can't make any sense of what happened and why someone did it. Williams herself had recently suffered a miscarriage,

and she was trapped in an abusive relationship, and had convinced herself that stealing a baby would somehow fix the pain, that she deserved to have a baby after all she had been through. But rather than go through the official step, she instead stole Kamaia, took her hundreds of miles north to Wal-Wallel. Borgor, South Carolina, changed her name to Alexis Kelly Manajo, who forged a birth certificate and raised her like her own. To the outside world, Gloria was a devoted mother of three, and two biological kids and Alexis, who grew up believing Gloria was her biological mother.

They all went to church together. Alexis went to high school and she lived alive filled with love, not knowing the truth was alive. But that illusion couldn't last forever. In 2015, when Alexis tried to apply for a job, she asked Gloria for her social security card and birth certificate. And Gloria refused. That's when suspicions started creeping in. And she needed these documents to begin her life as an adult, so it wasn't something she could just let slip past.

Alexis kept digging that, and what she found would flip her world upside. down. Got to the point where eventually DNA was collected. In January of 2017, the results came back. Alexis Kelly Manageo was not who she thought she was. She was Kamaya Mobley, the missing baby from Jacksonville, Florida, taken from her mother's arms 18 years ago. For Shinarabli, the news was a miracle, but not without pain. She had sued the hospital for negligence years earlier and received a $1.5 million settlement. She had moved on and had three more children,

but the wound never really closed. You forgiven Gloria for kidnapping you? Yes, I've never really felt no malice. Kamaya, when she received word, was described as overwhelmed, in good health but emotionally torn. As she had grown up believing Gloria was her mother, and despite the truth, she actually stood by her. actually stood by her. The biological reunion was bittersweet. Kamaya met her birth parents through

FaceTime. She saw the faces of a family. She never knew, but the connection didn't come easy. In 2018, Williams was sentenced to 18 years and through it all, Kamaya has insisted she is her mother. It's tough to say how I'd react if I got the same news, but what do you think? This baby wasn't stashed away in her room or basement. But she most certainly was hidden from the truth of her real identity, the majority of her life. And so there were five families who hid dark secrets. That's going to do it for today's Patreon episode.

Thank you all so much for tuning in and the support. I hope you enjoyed that one, as it was a little bittersweet, depending on how you look at it. Hope you guys have a great one out there today. Stay safe. I'll see you over in the next one. Thank you.