Every Town - Every Town Has A Dark Side - BEST of 2024

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Today we’re wrapping up 2024 in style and sharing with you 3 of our favorite stories from the year. On top of that a little bonus of 3 stories coming straight from our Patreon only Patrons exclusive vault! 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://youtu.be/XAl3HNp488Q 👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy International & Other Ways To Watch: https://www.anangryboy.com/ 💀 MERCH: https://scary-mysteries.teemill.com/ 💀 Free 7 Day Trail on Exclusive Episodes, Podcasts & Perks! https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 👁 X: https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Today we're wrapping up 2024 in style and sharing with you three of our favorite stories from the year. On top of that, a little bonus of three tales coming straight from our Patreon-only patrons' exclusive vault.

So there's a little something new for most of you. To all the current Patreon supporters, a big shout out and thank you for having our backs out there. Just a heads up to you as a way of showing our appreciation. We will very soon be doing some friends. free giveaways for our new merch that's coming out. As long as you're a Patreon member, you're automatically entered to win. I'm wishing you all the best out there in the new year. Now, here's the darkest side of Everytown for 2024.

Every town has a dark side. Having an open mind is important. And in my opinion, as well as according to the research, it is a telltale sign of intelligence. When someone's open to ideas, as I'm sure you are, are if you're listening to this, usually means are the type of person who actually listens when you talk and can engage in real, meaningful conversations. They don't lose their temper if they disagree with something. They think about it and take in the information. They can admit when they're wrong and apologize. And all of these open, mindful traits I bring up because really it boil down to one

thing, having the understanding to know that you don't know everything. And despite many, many people pretending like they have it all figured out, well, that's just an act. We're human, and so by default, I can assure you, we don't know a whole lot of things. I mean, just go back to the year 1900, we're still using horses and donkeys as our primary means of transportation. The first motion picture, the one of that guy riding a horse had only been invented 10 years earlier. The Wright brothers were still three years away from flying. While we've certainly come a long way since then, we still have really far to go. It's in our nature to like to think we have the answers to the world figured out.

There's a real sense of comfort there. However, any intelligent person knows we have a lot of work left to do. And so today, we're talking about some of those things that appear to be happening, and yet we have no answers for. Specifically, honing in on the great state of Alaska. There are countless stories of unsolved mysteries occurring up in the great north, missing people and planes, creatures, any stories of shapeshifters, so what gives? You might think that a lot of the legends or strange encounters may just be stories and folk tales,

but oddly that doesn't appear to be the case, and the hard data shows this. And to put it in context, in Alaska, since 1988, more than 16,000 people have disappeared, which is a huge number. For every 100,000 people in Alaska, 164 of them have gone missing, which is far higher than any other state by a long shot, as the 49 other states average out to just around six people missing per 100,000. Those figures aren't skewed for effect for the sake of this episode. It's a fact. So the question then becomes, what exactly is going on in Alaska?

Hey guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning in today for another episode of Everytown. I really appreciate you being here. So I know what you're thinking, but of course Alaska has the most missing person's cases. It's the harshest landscape, and the terrain and weather is so unforgiving that it makes sense. Well, I agree to a certain extent. It seems like a person every other day of the year just up and vanishing is quite a lot. It feels like that's a bit abnormal. Well, you may not be sure how to feel about it exactly. The people who agree, the ones that think there's something else much stranger going on in this place,

are the ones we should probably be listening to. And that's the natives of Alaska. People have lived on this rocky and icy patch of land going back 14,000 years. and through the generations they've experienced the same things we see today. And people went missing back then, as they do right now. The ancestors have had strange encounters and stories to tell, same as many people do now. And while today we can sort of turn a blind eye to the reality of what's happening in Alaska,

because we can fill the void with all the other information in the world, and back then they couldn't do this. They had to face things head on, and from that came their tales of creatures and beasts and demons. They weren't just making up these stories for no good reason. It appears they were actually telling the truth. At 3 o'clock this morning, the steamship Portland from St. Michael's for Seattle passed up Puget Sound with more than a ton of gold on board and 68 passengers. That was a headline from the Seattle Post News News News.

newspaper back in 1897 that set in motion the great Alaskan gold rush that would continue on for roughly the next decade. And people from all around the world flocked to the state in a bid to strike it rich, and a man named Harry D. Culp was one of them. As his story goes, Harry was living in a lodge out near the city of Rangel, Alaska, with a man named Charlie as they tried to find their gold. But aside from a few small claims, for the most part, they were striking out and needed to widen their range. And Charlie had gotten some intel about a possible gold deposit out in the Thomas Bay area, which was around 50 miles north of Wrangell. Without many options, he decided to pack up some supplies and set out to go find it. He had planned on being gone for around three months, but just a month after leaving, he abruptly returned.

Invisibly shaken, with no gold or supplies, he told Harry why he came back. Once Charlie had made it out to Thomas Bay, he searched for the half-moon-shaped lake he was told about where the gold supposedly was. Near the base of a glacier he found it. Shortly after settling in, he saw something terrifying, something he had never seen before. In his own words, he described what he witnessed out there on the frozen tundra as a hairy pack of devils. Charlie watched them for a few minutes trying to figure out what exactly they were. There's lots of different kinds of canines up in Alaska and, of course, bears, but these things were different than that.

They looked to be some sort of a mix between a human and a monkey. Their bodies were covered in hair except for where they had large scabs and open wounds. And from what those were caused by, he had no idea. Since a dread washed over Charlie, and he quickly tried to pack up his gear to look. leave. He was taken down his tent before he could pack that up. They spotted him in unison, like a pack of wolves. His little devils came charging for him, letting out screams and cries along the way that was so visceral. They made him delirious. Charlie took off running towards his canoe, and at one point they got so close he could actually smell them. The stench was so awful and foul

that made him ill, but the adrenaline overpowered that. Charlie managed to make it to make it to his canoe before they could catch him. Shortly after pushing off the banks, he passed out, only to wake up hours later, floating in the bay, at which point he just headed back to the home base down in Wrangell. This story of what happened to Charlie has become fairly well known among those in Alaska, especially the ones down in the southeastern portion where the story took place, but of course it's been met with a lot of skepticism over the years.

But what's interesting about that skepticism is that it comes from people, like you and me, or those who are new to Alaska. But if you ask any natives, those whose generations have been on that land for thousands of years, they don't think it's a strange or fantastical tale in the slightest. They very much know it's real, and in fact, they have a name for this creature that Charlie encountered. The Kustake, also known as an otter man or the slime man.

The Kustaki gets its name from the Klingit people whose territory covers southeast Alaska, which is mentioned just so happened to be in the very same area that Charlie and Harry were in. The ottermen are said to be shape-shifting creatures that can easily look like another fellow human being, but when alerted, shape-shift into large, hairy, humanoid figures that resemble something like a giant sea otter. Charlie described what he saw as half-monkey and half-human, so could it be that he came to? He came to him. face to face with a gang of Kushtaki, and what he really was looking at was half human and half honor. Most natives in the area, even today, will tell you that they fear these creatures more

than any other animal, more than bears or wolves, with a simple fact that not only can they trick you, but also only intend to harm you. It's said that they can mimic the sounds of a baby or a woman's cry to help lure people straight to them. But if they see you first, they've been known to approach people in their human form to either offer assistance or pretend to need help themselves. In either case, they'll lure their prey further into the woods or away from their intended destinations, at which point they'll either rip them apart and devour them if they're hungry enough, or transform them into another otterman. If they do this, and that person can no longer reincarnate their soul forever trapped as an otterman,

which translates to our more modern ideas of what a demon or the devil does, just instead of trapping a person down in hell, the person is now trapped inside this creature. And there are lots of stories of people encountering shapeshifters, not just in Alaska, but really everywhere. For a lot of people, it's hard to take those stories seriously because, well, we're talking about creatures that can shape-shift, so no real explanation needed.

But as I mentioned, if you keep an open mind, perhaps there is something to it. And while I was working on this story strangely or perhaps serendipitously, I came across another story. That was a good example of what could be a shapeshifter, an otter man or a demon. Whenever you choose to call it,

this is a weird one, and it hits all the right points. It comes from a man who was on the podcast radio rental recently. If you haven't listened to Radio Rental, then you're a lucky dog because it covers some crazy true crime and strange stories as told by the people that experienced them. Check it out when you can. And you can hear the full version of this story over there that I'm about to tell you, which I do highly recommend you do. Now other than the location, which comes from the northern part of Alaska, even though they don't mention it directly, it sounds like a crew of

workers came across one of these Kushtaki, and had they not been so lucky, one of them could have easily been hurt or killed or transformed. A storyteller explains that when he was in his early 20s, he did some work up along the north slope of Alaska for a wireline crew, which the guys who were in charge of maintaining oil rigs. In the area where they were, it was a place you could only access in the winter because from their base camp to the Petroleum Reserve, they needed to drive 60 miles across an ice road. And it was only in winter when the ice was hard enough for them to safely make the trip. So it was January, mostly dark up in those parts for the majority of the day,

15 degrees out, and then there was this road and not much of anything else. No settlements or towns. The trip took roughly three hours because you can't go more than 20 miles an hour on those ice roads. About halfway through the drive is when they caught something in their headlights. As they got closer, they could then see it was a guy, just shuffling along the road, staring blankly ahead. Once they got a good look, they could see it was a white guy, meaning maybe they could understand finding a native up there who was out and about. Possibly they had had a snowmobile accident, but this man was way out of place. On top of that, he didn't have the proper attire at all.

all. He was wearing just sneakers, jeans, and a hoodie. And the other eerie thing was that he didn't look like he'd been out there in the elements all that long. Almost like he teleported there, or, in our case, shape-shifted. They pull up to this man who isn't even acknowledging them, just staring ahead as they ask him if he needs help. With no answer, even though they saw no sign of an accident, they thought maybe this man was in shock. One of the stranger details was that that this guy smelled awful, emanating this garlicky and acidic stench, which was especially odd since smell doesn't travel so much in cold conditions. The crew couldn't just leave him there. I mean, there was nothing for 30 miles in either direction. He'd certainly die, and so one of the

passengers eventually reached out to pull him inside. It was at that moment that the wandering man turned, grabbed the guy's forearm incredibly tight, and let out a guttural store. scream that the storyteller described as ungodly. He wouldn't let go and kept screaming, so they just peeled away as fast as they could until he released. They talked about going back, but it was a scary situation, so they decided just to forge ahead and let the guards know so they could go check it out. The guards did eventually and found no sign of this person anywhere, no footprints, no nothing. And so getting back to the Otterman and the similarities.

Here you have a person who looks in need of help, smells terrible, and lets out a guttural cry. All things the natives describe, as well as similarities from Charlie's story back in the 1900s. If those stories aren't enough to show you that something weird is most definitely going on in Alaska, then I want to hit you with some of the hard data. Because these facts aren't anomaly in and of themselves.

As I mentioned earlier, For no clear-cut reason at all, Alaska's missing persons rate is astronomical compared to the rest of the U.S. So for context, Massachusetts sits at the lowest end with 2.74 missing people for every 100,000 people. Followed by that on the low end is Rhode Island at 2.57 and then Iowa at 3.28. And on the highest end, you have the state of Hawaii with 16.68 people missing per 100K. Following that up is Oklahoma with 16 and Arizona with 14. Every other state falls somewhere in between except for Alaska, which has 173.5 people missing. So you have to ask yourself, what exactly is that all about?

That man from the oil rig specifically mentioned that he wondered if what they had encountered was some sort of demon. In October of 1972, a small private plane heading from Anchorage to June. carrying four people on board banished without a trace. Despite a huge search effort because the occupants of the plane were government officials and congressmen, nothing was ever discovered. Ultimately, that was the start of the talk surrounding the Alaska Triangle, which, much like the Bermuda Triangle is an area that covers a large chunk of Alaska, where people go missing and planes disappear without a trace. And people like to label these triangles as if the shape itself,

as something ominous about it, but really, it's not about the shape, it's just about defining an area where unexplained things happen. Some explanations that are attempted on why bad things occur here are because of magnetic anomalies, aliens, otter people, and more broadly, the devil himself. But really, nobody knows for sure, and likely that's how it will stay. After all, who even said we were supposed to have the answers for every. everything. And really, if we did, wouldn't that take a lot of fun out of living? In essence, with the natives named Kushtaki thousands of years ago, I believe is what we're calling the Alaska Triangle today.

Yes, there are two completely different things, and that one is a mythical creature and one is a set of coordinates on a map, but they are the same thing. They're just names assigned to explain the unexplainable and to give us context in order to wrap our brains around all the things that fall outside of our defined knowledge. So, and call it what you will and believe in what you want. Remember, keep an open mind out there because these mysteries, regardless of what's happening, sure are fun to talk about. Every town has a dark side. Urban legends have a way of sticking with us for reasons beyond just being a good and often weird story, because typically they share at least some part of an authentic truth in them, and often

it's something specific to a region, and so the legend is able to endure through the generations. Sometimes these legends cover stories of real people that died under strange or tragic circumstances, and so now their spirits haunt a building, a town, or road. Sometimes they're about creepy creatures that lurk in the woods, having been seen by many but yet the hard proof remains as elusive as them. And then there's the scariest kinds of urban legends, the ones that revolve around real life missing persons cases and murders. That's exactly what the story of Cropsey is all about in our focus today.

Hey guys, it's Andrew. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of Everytown, where today we're looking deep into the legend of Cropsey. The boogeyman, for lack of a better term, that haunts the woods of Staten Island. His story is one that everyone who lives there is heard and varies a bit in details depending on who you hear it from, but all the tales about Cropsey share the same base

about an escape mental patient who now hides in the woods and only comes out to prey on little kids. But unlike many urban legends, this one has a lot of hard evidence behind it, and it was created in real time over the course of several decades as a way to try and help explain away the strange vanishings and serve as a warning for young kids not to wander too far from home. Not only is this urban legend completely real,

but surprisingly the stories that people tell about this man around their campfires is nothing in comparison to what actually happened in real life. This is a story behind the urban legend known as Cropsey. The New York City metropolitan area is a popular city, that's hovering around 8.5 million people. Those individuals live in one of the five boroughs, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Each has its own identity, own unique neighborhoods and cityscapes.

The Staten Island is the southernmost borough, and part of what makes this place unique, other than being the hometown of Pete Davidson, is that right in the middle is a huge swath of woods. A nature-preserved, known as the Staten Island Greenbelt. It covers 2,800 acres, making it one of the largest natural areas within the five boroughs,

and it essentially wraps around the city streets in a full circle, just like a belt, hence the name. Many houses and apartment buildings run along the edge of this wooded area, and so you could be on a densely populated street one moment, and then just walk a few blocks over, and you'll find yourself in the woods, among a seemingly endless stretch of trees, swamp lands, and open fields. And I bring this up because it's from this setting where the forests, the Butt City Street,

and more importantly, the old Willowbrook School, and the urban legend of crops he grew out of. And every single one of us, there's an instinct we have, and it's been put in place to help us survive. It's an evolution in biology, that is as simple as it gets, that gut feeling, warning us to not to go out into the woods alone. And it makes a lot of sense because you can get lost out in the woods or injured from falling. And of course, there's wild animals out there too that can kill people. There's also the most dangerous animal of them all. Other humans, possibly with bad intentions.

So when looking out into that vast void, our brains tell us to stay put. Just stay near your home and your chances of survival increase exponentially. So stories can be found in every single culture covering this idea. A legend of Cropsey is no different. It's essentially parents, uncles, and older siblings passing down the story to not go into the force of Staten Island because a boogeyman lives there. And if you're not careful, well, you might get you. The story of Cropsey came into existence in the early 1970s.

It centers around a deranged psychopath that lives in the woods only to come out at night. to prey upon unsuspecting children. It was a warning to not play alone on the playground. Never talk to strangers, because if you do, it may become the next in the long line of Cropsey victims. This man was said to have been a patient at the old Willowbrook mental institution before he escaped, only to settle down by himself in the woods.

Cropsey has scars on his face and unkempt hair, and often will be seen carrying an axe. If you wander in the forest, and you come across them, then it's likely already too late. Cropsey would drag you back to the now abandoned asylum, and torture, and they can kill you in horrific ways. In some versions, there's more of a refined story about a man named George Cropsey,

whose own son was kidnapped, never to be seen again. This incident sent him into a dark spiral where he lost his mind completely, retreated into the woods, and would come out to steal kids off the street as sort of a replacement of the child. had lost. So if you lived on Staten Island around the 70s, 80s, and 90s, you no doubt heard some version of this urban legend. But the truth is, this was much more than just a story.

It went much deeper than our inherent fears of the dark woods and the unknown. This entire thing was based in reality, as there were several missing persons cases on Staten Island that cropped up over the years that remained unsolved. It would take years for a good chunk of the truth to come to light when it was discovered that the real-life boogeyman haunting the community of Staten Island was just a man named Andre Rand. And his story is one of the more insane we've ever come across. As this guy was weird and sadistic, and his story reached every tip of the island. As it would be revealed later, Rand strategically set himself up to be able to pull off

his crimes in many locations, making it hard for police to hone in on him. Amp the expansive Staten Island Greenbelt was Rann's dumping ground, where many of the bodies are still believed to be hidden to this day. Born Frank Rostum Roshin, on the island of Manhattan on March 11th of 1944. As a side note, he later changed his name, so don't get confused later on. Frank's father passed away when he was 14, and right after that, his mother was committed to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, New York. which is located in the middle of Long Island. Frank and his sister would visit her when they could, but they also had to essentially grow up on their own and make ends meet as teenagers.

While Frank's childhood clearly wasn't the best, he wasn't abused or mistreated by his parents in the typical way you find with many criminals. Oftentimes the darkest of madmen were formed that way, coming from backgrounds that would be devastating to any young developing child. But Frank, it appears, was just broken. A bad egg, if you will, and from time to time in this world, that's just how they come out. There's no rhyme or reason behind it. By the time he reached his early 20s, between 1966 and 68, Frank got a job working as a custodian and orderly at the Willowbrook State School.

This school catered to educating and taking care of children with intellectual disabilities. It was a large facility, and at the back of the school grounds, you could find a portion of the Staten Island Greenbelt Forest. This school was open in 1947, shut down for good in 1988. With regards to the Crops of Urban Legend, and many retellings, this school was the setting, of what they called in their stories the Willowbrook Mental Institute. At 25 years old in 1969, Rand was up in the South Bronx up to no good. And there he enticed a nine-year-old girl to get in his car, at which point he took her to an isolated parking lot.

And once there, he undressed himself and while in the process of removing the child's clothes, luckily a cop car drove by and stopped what was happening. For that crime, as he was clearly caught red-handed, Frank pled guilty and was sentenced to four years, for which he ended up serving 16 months. Once he got out, he wanted a fresh start, and so this is when he legally, changed his name to Andre Rand. By his late 20s, he was working odd jobs, handyman-style work, like painting houses and cleaning up schools, anything that he could grab quickly and then leave behind easily. And he chose to do all this on Staten Island. One of the first missing persons cases

came in the summer of 1972. The five-year-old Alice Pereira was playing with her brother in the lobby their apartment building, which is located on the 600 block of Tissons Lane. It was around 3.30 p.m. when the brother went upstairs real quick to grab something. When he came back down, his sister was just gone. The family searched the neighborhood for a few hours, figuring she had wandered off, but by 6 p.m., her mom reported her missing in the police, and since then, Alice has never been seen again. I thought he's thought maybe it was the dad at first because he was divorced from the mom. mom, but he was cleared as a suspect pretty quickly. There were no other suspects because there was

never and still isn't any evidence pointing to anything happening. But interestingly, it would later be found out that our boy, Andre Rand, previously known as Frank, and so happened to be doing one of his paint jobs in the exterior of that exact apartment building during that summer. Another interesting tie in this story was that of 18-year-old Audrey Nirenberg. who lived in Brooklyn and was last seen on July 5th of 1977 after heading out to the store to grab a pack of smokes. Audrey suffered from a condition called hebraphrenic schizophrenia. So she had been dealing with that all while growing up,

spending brief stints in various hospitals and taking medications to control it. An interesting side effect of the disorder is that sometimes it can cause the sufferer to get disoriented, and as was the case with Audrey. repeat actions or tasks they had already done. So, for example, a person with this condition may go to the store, and then as they're heading back home get disoriented, forget that they were going home and head back to the store to repeat the task again.

Well, the very night before she vanished, Audrey and her family had headed to the Jerry Lewis Theater on Staten Island to catch a movie. And that theater just so happened to be located adjacent to a campsite that Rand was known visit fairly often. It's believed that if she had in fact retraced her steps as she had done before, back to the theater. Then it's possible she crossed paths with Rand, at which point he had his way with her. And Rand by this time was known around town as being a bit of a transient. Despite having a home, he would camp often at makeshift sites he had set up in and around the woods. In 1979, he was accused of having some unwanted relations with a 15-year-old girl, but charges were never

pressed, so it was a he-said-she-said type of situation. So while there were rumblings about him and people may have kept their distance, he was viewed more as a town oddball. His aunt lived on the island, and like I mentioned, he worked odd jobs around there, so for better or for worse, he was a part of the community. But his main camping site, and he had set up, was one that nobody knew about for many years. And it was located out in the back of Willowbrook State School, somewhere in that expansive forest. It was as if he liked to keep his eye on the place

ever since he had worked there all those years back. Had authorities known about his spot earlier, they probably could have caught him, but they didn't. And as a result, Rand literally got away with murder from several of them. In the summer of 78, 44-year-old Shin Lee, who worked as a nurse at Willowbrook was last seen leaving the property of the school, was headed home at around midnight. Around three weeks later, her body would be discovered in a shallow grave right on the edge of the facility's property.

She'd been strangled to death, and because of her age and because a body was found, this killing looked random, as if it wasn't connected to any of the other missing persons cases. That is, until around two months later. In October of that same year, 42-year-old Ethel Atwell, who was a physical therapist at Willowbrook, was headed into work early one morning at around 6 a.m. She parked behind Building 47, and while on the way in, two female employees inside the building, said they heard a man's voice say, Come on, come on.

Followed by Atwell saying, No, you'll beat me. And was the man asking for a race of some sort or what she's saying he'd literally beat her up? We don't know. It was still dark out and the streetlights were off, but right after that conversation, the women heard Atwell scream. And then she was gone. They called the police who came to the scene where on the driver's side of her car, they found Ethel's pocketbook, three buttons from her coat, an earring, and one of her shoes. And then, about 75 feet away along the edge of the woods, they would find her car keys laying on the leaves.

While there was an extensive search for her throughout that area, no sign of Athol was ever found. Both of these cases were at the time an unsolved mystery to authorities. They never had a suspect. It was only in hindsight after Rand was finally caught for a separate crime, that authorities connected the dots. Iran's next act would be something he ultimately paid the price for, but this too took a few decades before it could be pinned on him. And it happened on July 15th of 1981. And that day, seven-year-old Holly Ann Hughes was sent by her mom to a local deli just two blocks away from her apartment complex so she could pick up a bar of ivory soap. And she was last seen at around 9.30 p.m., but she never made it home, and no one knows for sure what happened to her.

But eyewitnesses said they saw Rand driving around the same store Holly was in before she disappeared. Rand had a noticeable green Volkswagen, so he sort of stuck out. Police would go on to question him and search his car, but they found nothing inside that would lead them to believe that Holly had been inside it. Rand's aunt, you see, lived in the same building complex as Holly, and so that was his reasoning for being there, so he covered his bases. He also said that he played hide and seek with Holly earlier in the day, but had he had no idea what happened to her or why she vanished. About a month after the girl disappeared, her mother, who was also named Holly,

received a phone call from a man who called himself Sal. Sal told her that he had her little girl and that if she wanted her return safely, then she'd need to do some lewd acts in front of a camera in order to get her back. Sal and Holly said a date to meet up at Penn Station. She brought with her two detectives, but Sal, of course, was a no-show. But when Holly was given an audio recording of Rand's voice for comparison, she said, I was definitely the same man that had called her, but again, this was not enough evidence at the time for police to arrest him.

Around this time, another layer was being added to the urban legend of Crompsie. Around the U.S. was a wave of people, being concerned about Satanism entering the fabric of our culture. In Cropsey, it was said, maybe into that too, using children for sacrificial purposes. Also, underneath the expansive plot of land that the Willowbrook school sat on were a series of tunnels that some said Cropsey would use to pass around his victims to other homeless and mentally ill individuals living there. About a year and a half after Hawley disappeared, Rand then did something very strong.

He got his hands on a school bus and pulled up to a local YMCA where he picked up a random group of 11 kids. He fed them a meal and then drove them to Newark Airport. He was caught there and while none of the kids were harmed, you have to wonder what his whole plan really was. He never told anyone, but for this crime, he would serve 10 months in jail. And then just 12 days after he got out, 11-year-old Tia He said, he was. Jackson, who was living with her mom and three siblings at the Mariners Harbor Motel because their house had caught fire, headed out to the Crown Supermarket to run an errand. It was at around 1.30 that afternoon, and Tia Hease's mother was taking a nap when a neighbor gave her some money

and sent her to pick up some chicken wings. When her mom woke up around 4 p.m., and there was no sign of her daughter, she called the police, but the little girl was never heard from again. And wouldn't you know it, Rand, at one of his campsites, set up at the Baron Hirsch Cemetery, which was less than a mile from the Mariners Harbor Motel. And went on to be interrogated for this, but ultimately no charges were filed. But his luck was finally about to run out in the same place that all this started, Willowbrook State School. Rand seemed to like those summer months On July 9th of 1987, 12-year-old Jennifer Schweger, who attended the school, was reported missing. No one saw her leave, more knew where she went, so police searched the area around the school.

And eventually, 35 days later, they stumbled upon some freshly moved dirt in the woods out back. Underneath it was the body of Jennifer. A further search for evidence around the body then brought authorities across Rand's makeshift campsite. And suddenly, it all clicked. And they had found the man who had been victimizing the island for decades. They had found their boogeyman, and they got Cropsey. Rann was charged with the kidnapping and first-degree murder of Schweger, for which he received 25 years to life.

It opened the door to all the other cases against him, but without the bodies, none of them can be pinned on him. The easiest one to get him on was the kidnapping of Holly Hughes, And in 2004, they got him on that, and so he spent the rest of his life in jail. And right now, at the age of 79, that's where he sits. And so, while urban legends always have some bit of truth in him, this one has a whole lot of it. And Cropsey was much more than just an urban legend,

which is why I freaked out so many people that heard the story of the man who was taking people at will. It was based around Andre Rand, A bad man whose true story is much darker than anything anyone could ever create. Every town has a dark side. The story that we have for you today, in its simplest terms, can be described as a man who by day was a respected community member, and by night a psychopathic serial killer. And for years he preyed upon the city of Indianapolis, looking for his next victim, to which there were many.

24, in fact, and those are only the ones the authorities know about. Herbert Beaummeister was an entrepreneur and family man with three children, but in the darkness, he hit a big secret. One that was so insane, we'll probably never see anything like it again. Hey guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Everytown, where today we have one of the wildest stories, in my opinion, we've ever covered. It's so crazy, or the entire thing sounds completely made up. So, let's get into it. head on over to Indy and learn all about her Beaumeister, his Fox Hollow Farm, and the I-70 Strangler. It was the night of July 22nd, 1994 in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana,

when 33-year-old Roger Goodlitt left his mother's house to head out for a fun night on the town. He was headed down to 16th Street to a gay bar, and it never crossed anyone's mind and his family, but this would be the last evening they'd ever see him walk out that door. again, because Roger never came home that night, or the following morning or any other day after, for that matter. His parents reported a missing, of course, but the police dragged their feet on this one, as they had so many others before. So good lit wasn't the first. He was just one of many young men in this very specific area of our beautiful country who disappeared. And going back more than a decade before that, there were many stories of young, often gay men who had vanished without a trace.

Authorities were aware of this, suspecting that someone could possibly be taking them out of circulation, as there were some consistent patterns. But at the same time, there seemed to be just enough differences to not allow all the dots to be connected. Some bodies were discovered, others still just missing persons cases, with no sign of where the individual was. or might have gone. They also happened over a long period of time. Years would pass and then another missing person's case. Another dead young man found along the side of the road. And on top of all that, the truth was that investigating these cases wasn't the police's top priority. They weren't interested in looking into these disappearances precisely because the victims were gay men.

They believe that being in such a conservative city, all of them had likely flipped. led to a more liberal place to live their lives more openly. And it writes back then, we're not nearly as respected as they are today. Some people, both in law enforcement and within the community, were quite happy to have them leave, one by one, no matter what the circumstances. But as the cases mounted, the chatter couldn't be ignored. And somebody was hunting down these men and it wasn't because he hated them, but because he hated himself.

And finally in 1994, something changed in this entire case, a story that simply couldn't be ignored, and it blew the whole thing wide open. And that year, a man named Tony Harris called up the police, said that he had met someone terrifying who called himself Brian Smart, though he didn't think that was his real name. The two had met at the 501 Club in downtown Indianapolis. Tony was the one who approached him, and they started a pleasant conversation. Brian said he was a landscaper from Ohio, and he was in town preparing a half-empty house on the outskirts of the city for family who would be moving in soon. As the night progressed, he then offered to take Tony to that house for a cocktail and a swim in the pool.

I got into the car, and there was a little something in Tony's mind that had him at least aware that what he was doing was a little risky. Brian made several turns as Tony tried to memorize the route to the house, but after a while he just lost track. But they arrived to the property, no problem, safe and sound. Tony could see it was an elegant house with a farm out back. It was sprawling, and they parked the car in the garage, at which point Brian told him they needed to go downstairs through the basement to get access to the indoor pool area. It was dark and creepy as they maneuvered through the underbelly of the ascent. state. And then, when they eventually got there, Tony saw several mannequins in various poses around the water. Some of them were sitting in chairs, others laying on towels as of sunbathing.

It was weird. And seeing Tony's look of shock, Brian said, I feel lonely here. They keep me company. He offered Tony a cocktail, but he refused not wanted to drink anything, aiming to stay sober for whatever might happen that night. So it was a strange. situation that Tony found himself in. I wasn't sure if he was overreacting or his gut was giving him the correct information to not trust Mr. Smart. Brian wanted to keep the party going and his guests relaxed. He stepped out at Tony's sight for a moment and when he returned he seemed calmer and happier and Tony was sure he'd taken some sort of drug. They continued on with their conversation which put Tony at ease. Eventually the two started skinny days.

when things took a dark turn and everything changed. Brian said he had learned a new trick and wanted to try it out with him. He mentioned experimenting with auto-erotic asphyxiation and we found it to be unbelievably satisfied and that Tony should try it out with him. His fixation would be done with a hose while he pleasureed himself. Brian lay naked on a fold-out couch in the next room and he called Tony to his side. Tony went over and began to cut off his air supply as instructed while Brian touched himself. When he was done, now it was Tony's turn. And Tony laid down while Brian squeezed his neck, only he took it too far. And Tony fairly quickly couldn't breathe anymore, started black out. Cleverly, he decided a fake passing out, closing his eyes and relaxing his entire body.

The trick worked, and Ryan let go. Then whispered Tony's name and Tony impulsively opened his eyes. Brian tried to act natural and pretend to be surprised, saying that sometimes accidents happen with these things, and that he was sorry. Using all the persuasion he could, Tony would go on to convince him to take him back to the city. He managed to escape that night. The near-death experience left Harris traumatized and convinced that Brian was a deadly predator.

He finished by telling police that he believed that his good friend, Roger Goodlet, who had gone missing earlier in the summer, may have had a similar encounter with Brian, only he wasn't so lucky to get away. But this crucial lead, the investigators intensified their efforts. They now had a name, at least, and a witness who knew him up close. Nothing in their database pulled up the name Brian Smart, so it wasn't that easy. Harris, more than six months later, would finally see Brian Smart again in August of 95. Followed his car.

Notice the license plate number. This small act allowed the police to finally find a real name. Brian Smart's identity was revealed as 48-year-old Herbert Richard Beaumister. But Tony's story didn't align with who Herb was, not in the slightest. Beaumister wasn't just a respected businessman in the community. the owner of two successful Save-A-Lot thrift stores in the area. He also wasn't gay. He'd been happily married to his wife, Julie, since 1997,

and together, a couple had three lovely children. As you know, though, looks can be deceiving, sometimes very deceiving, and, as it turns out, Herb wasn't just a good old-fashioned family man like he had everyone believe him, and he was living a double life, and was such a psychopathic killer, and he may have killed upwards of 25 men. Born in Indianapolis on April 7th of 1947 into a well-off family

where his father was a successful anesthesiologist. Herb's childhood seemed uneventful at first glance. Nothing probably would have even been noted about it if he had just been a regular guy, but of course, this man was far from that. He showed some disturbing antisocial behaviors from a young age. For example, he had a strange obsession with boss. bodily fluids, and enjoyed thinking about tasting human urine. He acted these desires out on a few occasions.

He would go on to get in trouble in school for urinating on his teacher's desks more than once. Also, like so many other serial killers in this world, Beaumiceur demonstrated cruelty towards animals, finding pleasure and playing with dead creatures, imposing them in various unnatural positions, just like his mannequins backed by that pool. His behavior, were it his father, who secretly had him undergo mental evaluations as he grew up, with the diagnosis being fairly alarming.

Paranoid schizophrenia, an antisocial personality disorder, were a part of who he was. Despite this, though, Boenmeister never received proper psychiatric treatment to address his growing deviations. And he just shoved them down, and pretended to be something he wasn't, hence why he was so good at living this double life he had created. My hindsight is 20-20. Back then, no one could have imagined what this teenager would eventually go on to do as an adult. And socially his odd behavior made him an outsider. At North Central High School, where sports were big, Bowmeister, didn't fit in with the popular

crowd. He kept to himself spending long hours alone without making friends. His behaviors and social rejection shaped his troubled mind. Bo Meister became a misfit who gradually developed a dangerous, disconnected personality from reality. After a failed attempt to college, Herb struggled through various jobs without finding stability. His inappropriate behavior often got in a way of work. Once, while working at the DMV, he did something that showed everyone whose truly disturbed nature. Beaumaster once again urinated, this time on a letter addressed to the state governor himself.

And this messed up act not only solved the mystery as to who had vandalized his supervisor's desks weeks earlier, but also cost him his job. After that, unpleasant episode, Bowmeister found a job at a local, humble, secondhand store. Trying to turn his life around, he stayed there for three years until he finally decided to strike out on his own, and open his own business in the same field. Thus, the first of the Save-A-Lot chain of stores was born. and things began to improve from as he had learned to hide his dark side very well from the outside world. Sales were good and encouraged by the initial profits, Beaumister and his wife Julie decided to expand operations by opening a second branch. With that money, the family also bought an impressive dream property, Fox Hollow Farms, in May of 1988.

At first glance, the mansion was a real estate gem. built in 1978 and situated on over 18 acres of wooded rolling grounds with a private pond. The opulent estate featured four bedrooms, 10 luxurious bathrooms, and an overwhelming 11,572 square feet of living space. The details spoke of true wealth, an indoor swimming pool, fully equipped bar, and luxury features unmatched in their class. Additionally, the residents boasted a detailed. attached five-car garage with a second-floor terrace, perfect for social events.

It was so opulent on the one hand, but herb-saw it is something else, with so much space to work with, as wife and kids could be in one part of the home, completely unaware of what was going on in another section, so it was perfect. Unfortunately, this period of prosperity was short-lived, and soon mismanagement caused the business to crack. Financial difficulties created increasing tension in the Beaumister marriage. Julie began spending weekends at her mother-in-law's apartment to escape the situation, while her husband stayed behind, claiming he needed a tend to the stores. What she didn't know was that during this free time,

Herb wasn't going to work or staying home trying to figure out the next move to write the ship. Instead, he went to a whole bunch of gay bars in the city. And there he met and enjoyed himself with gentlemen, dancing, to the booming base under neon lights where he could finally be who he wanted to be. Whenever he could, he would choose one of them. Typically, they were between the ages of 20 to 35. Being a successful and more experienced man, he would seduce them with tricks and promises, convincing them to come back to his luxurious home with a pool to continue the party in a more intimate venue. Few refused his invitations. Once the victim entered the grounds,

their fate was completely and inevitably sealed. Upon arrival, he would invite them to relax and offer them a drink. While preparing it, he secretly spiked their drinks with drugs without their knowledge. As they took a fact, his unsuspecting victims became defenseless. Bowmeister showed his true and sinister intentions. Using a hose most often, though sometimes his hands as the deadly weapon, he ruthlessly strangled them. That's how he liked to do it,

and in their lives in the cruelest of ways. After that, especially when his wife and kids were away, he'd then burn the bodies to erase any evidence, then buried the charred remains all across the vast grounds of his property, where his children used to play in the afternoons, and they were undoubtedly walking all across these young men. This was Err Bomeister's M.O., which he had been refining for years.

He wasn't always this clean about it, but that's because he didn't always have Fox Hollow Farms. But by now, he was to the point where he felt like he was untouchable and impossible to catch. Which may actually be why he let Tony Harris go that night in 1994 and drove him back to the city. Ultimately, it was that decision that would lead to his end in more ways than one. By mid-1996, the House of Cards herb had built up was all but collapsing. Following Tony's lead, and after verifying the license plate registration,

the police arrived at Fox Hollow Farms to find out just what exactly was going on there. And Julie answered the door, where they requested permission to conduct a thorough search of the Bowmeister property. They wanted to see the pool area, those mannequins, perhaps the hose over the couple adamantly refused. Since the police didn't have any solid evidence, that meant they also didn't have a warrant and so they left, not before warning Julie about the possibility of her husband being a serial killer. Initially, Julie dismissed such an accusation entirely. She couldn't believe that the man she had built a family with could be capable of such a thing. However, the idea then began to take hold on her mind. She thought about how just a couple of years ago it was a disturbing memory,

when her young son came home after playing in the woods with a human skull in his hand. Faced with a horrifying discovery, Beaumeister and tried to calm the family down with an unusual explanation. He claimed that the skeleton was part of an anatomical display belonging to his father, the respected doctor, when he used for dissection to better understand the human body. Julie accepted this explanation reluctantly at the time, but now doubts about her husband's true nature started to bother her. She had also grown accustomed to something at this point.

However, now it seemed really strange. At an over 25 years of being together with her husband, she could literally count on both hands how many times they'd been intimate with one another. Back at the police station, as detectives looked into herbs past, their suspicions grew stronger and stronger. They found out about his mental disorders, the urination, a brief stint in a facility shortly after getting married. But they still lacked the evidence they needed to get the search warrant.

Tense weeks passed until finally in June. Unexpected turn of events occurred when Julie abruptly filed for divorce and then called the police to search their home. Herb wasn't there at the time. He had gone on vacation to clear his mind and Julie wanted to know the truth. On June 24th of 96, investigators conducted a thorough search of Fox Hollow Farm. There they uncovered a gruesome killing field. Eventually, fragments of human bones belonging to at least 11 individuals were unearthed.

The remains, which included charred bones, fragments, and body parts were a macab discovery that horrified the locals. To date, 12 victims have been officially identified, each with a personal story by a jointly cut short. Among them was Jeffrey Jones, 31-year-old who was reported missing in August of 93. Jones was identified through advances in forensic genetic genealogy, bringing closure to his long search for his family. Other identified victims included Alan Livingston, who was 27. Emmanuel Resendez, who was 34, both missing in 93 in the Indianapolis area. and 20-year-old Johnny Bayer and Richard Hamilton Jr. 28-year-old Stephen Hale and 28-year-old Alan Broussard.

Roger Goodlett was also discovered. 45-year-old Michael Kern and 34-year-old Jerry Williams Comer. All these men shared similar physical characteristics and lifestyles that ultimately made them targets of this serial predator. But as it turns out, Unfortunately, these men were just a small part of Bowmeister's potential victims, because Herb had a whole other life before he purchased the farm at the age of 41. As the investigation into the disappearances and murders of young men in the Indianapolis area progressed,

police started to find unsettling connections with other crimes that had occurred nearby years earlier. And this wasn't just a random accusation. The patterns and methods used by the so-called, i-70 Strangler, seemed to match the crimes now being uncovered related to Earth. For over a decade, this unidentified predator had stalked in the shadows of the city, carefully choosing his victims from among the young and vulnerable men who frequenting gay bars. His crimes were brutal. He lured his victims, presumably in a similar way of promising drinks or drugs,

taking advantage of their needs, only to subject them to a ruthless death by strangulation. The mutilated bodies were then discarded in rural areas along Interstate 70, earning the killer as a chilling nickname of the I-70 Strangler. The first victim was Michael Petrie, a 15-year-old boy whose naked body was found in remote Hamilton County in June of 1980. Then Maurice Taylor, a 23-year-old homeless man, discovered lifeless at Weasel Creek in July of 82. Soon Moore followed, and 22-year-old Mick Ryle. Ali's body was located in a ditch, after he was last seen leaving a gay nightclub with a

mysterious companion. In total, at least nine more young men found in the area, having been killed in the same type of way, brings the I-70 stranglers total to at least a dozen confirmed victims. Authorities have been searching for clues about the identity of this ruthless killer. So when they found the bodies at Fox Hollow, the similarities were too much to ignore. A key witness who was once shown Erbs' photo, claimed to have seen Beaummeister with victim Michael Riley just before his disappearance in 83. And furthermore, the murders attributed to the I-70 Strangler seemed to have ceased around 1991. Same year, Beaumister established Fox Hollow Farm, as if he had simply changed the location to dispose of the bodies.

Though, as of right now, the case of the I-70 Strangler is still open, but no good. clear proof that Beaumister was the one behind these awful crimes. When Herb found out what the police had found on his land, well, he knew he'd finally been caught. He faced with arrest and the chance of being charged for his awful crimes, but Bomeister decided to run to Ontario, Canada in July of 96. From there, that beautiful Penery Provincial Park on Lake Huron, while he pulled out his 357 magnum pistol and took care of the route of the problem. In his three-page note, written on a yellow legal pad, Well Meister expressed regret for ruining the park and failing at his marriage.

He went on to describe mundane details of his journey, like his last meal, a peanut butter sandwich, also finding the right place to end this story. However, he never admitted to his crimes, not once, or mentioned any of his victims. He avoided that altogether, as he had done in his life, out ever having to admit to the evil side that lay within him. Even though Erb has gone for good, efforts to bring closure to the victim's families continue even to this day, because after all, his property was sprawling. So who really knows what lay underneath its grounds? Today, it remains an active investigation site. Recently on May 21st of 2024, the Hamilton County Coroner's Office announced a major board.

breakthrough and identifying some more victims who have been unknown until then. It was actually through this effort that Jeffrey Jones was finally identified as one of the victims, and there are also four more DNA profiles that haven't been identified yet, making the total presumed victims 12 at the farm. What's worse, authorities have found over 20 spots in the property that might have more human remains, adding to the 10,000 bones and fragments. they already have. So how many more men felt victim to Herb's twisted acts? Maybe time will tell, but maybe not. There is a good chance that out there no one will ever find a thing, no matter how long they look. It's a truly tragic tale of what this man did, but it should serve as a cautionary story

to all of us. But he was a true monster who hid behind that respectability, showing us that appearances can be deceiving and that real demons, very much so, walk among us every single day. And they could be your coworker, your neighbor, friend, even your spouse. Don't let it get you down. Just be aware that the next time your instincts tell you something, well, you should probably listen. Bonus number three, haunted Ohio River. Blowing right through the heart of the American Midwest, the Ohio River might appear tranquil on the surface, but beneath its calm waters, lies a history riddle with dark tales, tragic events, and eerie mysteries. This river, stretching over 980 miles has been a silent witness to everything from bloody

battles to unexplained disappearances, making it a subject of fascination for those drawn to the darker side of history. The Ohio River was pivotal during the early expansion of the U.S., serving as a natural border and a crucial route for settlers moving west. However, its strategic importance also made it a focal point of conflict between European settlers and Native American tribes, earning it the nickname River of Blood, due to the frequent violent clashes along its banks. There's no telling how many lives were actually lost, but to get a nickname like that, it had to be a lot. As a result, I began to take on a sort of haunted life of its own. Adding to that, lore, are scary true stories, like the disappearance of James Booth in 19,

James was a local businessman who vanished after a meeting in Cincinnati, a last scene walking near the river's edge. Despite extensive searches, neither booth or his body was ever found, sparking theories ranging from accidental drowning to murder. Then, there's the ghostly remains of the USS Sackham, a ship once owned by Thomas Edison that was later abandoned near the Kentucky shore. This creepy place has become a high hotspot for paranormal enthusiasts. Those exploring it have reported eerie noises, unexplained lights floating, and a feeling of being watched. The Mothman sightings, of course, the 1960s happened just across the river in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. This winged entity, which I'm sure you're familiar with,

is perhaps most famously known for being associated with the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge, which ran over the Ohio River and killed 46 people. In a lesser-known but equally chilling legend is that of the singing river near Ripley, Ohio. Locals claim on certain nights one can hear soft haunting melodies emanating from the river, believed to be the spirits of those who perished along the banks lamenting their untimely deaths. The Ohio River, with its sweeping currents and scenic blends,

holds within its depth stories of mystery, the paranormal, and death. From historical bloodshed to modern-day mysteries, and the river is like a murky archive, holding on to the secrets of the region's past. Bonus number two, Annette and Karina Malinowski. On a cool autumn morning in Mount Holly, South Carolina, 11-year-old Annette Malinowski stood at her usual bus stop, the loyal dog by her side.

It was the spooky season, October 4th of 1988, and like most mornings, she waited in the same spot for her ride to Westview Middle School, where she was a sixth grader. But at 7.20 a.m. when the school bus pulled up, the only trace left behind that she had even been there was her dog, sitting patiently, waiting for the girl who would never return. And that had vanished without a trace, but what makes her case particularly messed up is in just her sudden disappearance. It's the haunting connection to a mystery that began almost a year earlier. Annette's mother, Karina, had disappeared from the exact same town the previous November. Karina, like her daughter, vanished without warning or explanation. Her car was found,

parked at the entrance of Mount Holly Plantation, a sprawling 6,000-acre property where her husband, Steve, worked as the caretaker. Other than the car, though, she left behind no clues, no final messages and no clear indication of where she had gone or why. And so for nearly a year the family tried to pick up the pieces. The absence of the mother lingered over everything in the house. And at first, no one knew where a net could have gone, but hours later a discovery would add in dark twists to the already haunting mystery. A note written in pencil and address to her stepfather Steve was found at the bus stop that read, Dad, Mom came back. I have to go with her. and give the boys lots of kisses and hugs, and also you too, love Annette.

And the note was actually written in Annette's handwriting, confirmed by experts. It raised a whole lot of questions. For one, had Karina really returned to take her daughter away, it was Annette forced to write the note by someone with far more sinister intentions. Despite the note's message, no one saw Karina that morning. In fact, no one saw anyone approach Annette at all. Witnesses who passed by the bus stop that morning saw the young girl standing there, but there was no sign of a car or person picking her up.

Suspicion immediately fell on Steve and that stepfather and Karina's husband. According to her family members, Steve and Karina had argued frequently before she vanished. Some of those arguments had even turned violent. There was gossip of Steve's drug addiction, and one of the Malinowski boys even recalled the constant tension between his parents. Steve, though, claimed innocence from the start. He maintained that Carina left after an argument in 1987

and that he had no knowledge of her whereabouts or his stepdaughters. After Annette disappeared, Steve moved to Florida, relinquishing custody of his two sons to the foster care system. The boys, too young to remember much about the turbulent events surrounding their mothers and sisters vanishings, were adopted and grew up disconnected from their past. In 2000, an anonymous tip led investigators to search a location in Sumter County, where it was rumored a body was buried.

With cadaver sniffing dogs, the police combed the area, hoping to find answers to the long-standing mystery. Once again, the search came up empty. Authorities have never uncovered any concrete evidence, linking anyone to the disappearances of Carina and Annette. Yet, investigators believe foul play is likely. And many suspect that neither of the two females ever left Mount Holly Plantation alive. That Steve had taken them out for that he could start his own new life. And putting his boys in foster care, that only adds to the believability of that motive. To this day, both cases remain unsolved.

Bonus number one, the unknown expedition. In the early 1980s, a chilling. discovery by an American research team deep within the Antarctic interior occurred when they stumbled upon a series of abandoned Soviet camps, eerily well supplied yet devoid of any human presence. And this mysterious find has since been dubbed the unknown expedition. This concerning discovery took place during a routine research expedition by an American team. His primary mission was to study the geological and climate conditions of Anonon. While crossing the frozen tundra, that's when they came across a series of buildings and small camps that clearly had been set up by the Soviets.

Inside, they found large quantities of food and fuel, enough to support a team for several months. Advanced scientific instruments were in there as well, consistent with those used in the late 1970s and early 80s, and all were left intact. Personal belongings too. Items such as clothing, notebooks, and even personal letters were found, adding a poignant touch to the mystery. And everything was remarkably well preserved, a testament to the frigid and dry conditions of the Antarctic. However, it wasn't a single person around. No soldiers, no scientists, no researchers. Whoever was there and just vanished, they didn't take all their stuff with them,

suggesting it probably wasn't a planned departure. And so who was actually here? One of the most perplexing aspects of the unknown expedition is a complete lack of official documentation. Neither Soviet records nor American archives provide any corroborative evidence of the expedition itself. Given the Cold War context, there is speculation that this camp might have been part of a covert operation

and those living here may have been set up to be involved in espionage activities, and as a result, their mission was kept secret from both American and Soviet records. In that same vein, the camps could have been established for highly classified scientific research that both governments chose to keep under wraps. There may have also been an emergency that forced them out and a subsequent cover-up. An urgent situation might have necessitated a rapid evacuation, leaving behind the well-supplied camps, and both Soviet and American authorities might have decided to keep the incident confidential for political or strategic reasons. Some speculative theories, of course, dig into the realm of the paranormal,

suggesting that encounters with extraterrestrial beings or unknown phenomena could have led to the team's disappearance. But more than likely, there's something real world about this. What's most interesting is that despite the sensational nature of the discovery, it received little attention in scientific circles or even mainstream media. It was just a blip on the radar of news stories back then, even though its implications were massive. You'd think that the fact that no bodies were found would create a bigger mystery, which it is, and yet,

I'm sure this is likely the first time you've ever heard of this story. This silence has only contributed to this tale's relegation to the fringes of Cold War lore and conspiracy theories. And why it was set up and what happened to its inhabitants. Well, it's likely something. None of us will ever know for sure. So there was the darkest side of every town for 2024. Hope you all enjoyed it. Stay safe out there and watch your backs.

Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary strange and mysterious stories because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.