MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Receipt (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

On the afternoon of March 24, 2006, an employee at a moving truck rental company in Ohio opened his desk drawer and grabbed a wad of cash. It had been a slow day, so the employee was using his downtime to organize a few recent payments. The money he’d just grabbed was from an all-cash deal that had happened a few days ago. At the time, the employee had been super busy, so he’d just taken the cash from the customer, flipped through it quickly to make sure the amount seemed right, then shoved the money in the drawer to deal with later. Now, he was actually counting it properly – and he really hoped the customer hadn’t shorted him, or he’d have to track them down to collect. But as the employee counted the bills, he paused. Not because the amount wasn’t right – but because there was something on the money that caught his attention. For a second, he wasn’t sure what it was. So, he looked closer. And then, all at once, he understood what he was seeing. He stopped counting the money and started flipping through it as quickly as he could – and he kept seeing the same thing on almost all the bills. With his heart racing, the employee dropped the money, grabbed the phone, and called the police.For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. On the afternoon of March 24, 2006, an employee at a moving truck rental company in Ohio opened his desk drawer and grabbed a wad of cash. It had been a slow day, so the employee was using his downtime to organize a few recent payments. The money he had just grabbed was from an all-cash deal that had happened a few days ago. At the time, the employee had done. been super busy, so he'd just taken the cash from the customer, flipped through it quickly to make sure the amount seemed right, then shoved the money in the drawer to deal with later. Now he was

actually counting it properly, and he really hoped the customer had not shorted him or he would have to track them down to collect the rest. But as the employee counted the bills, he paused, not because the amount wasn't right, but because there was something on the money that caught his attention. For a second, he wasn't sure what it was, so he looked closer. And then, all of at once, he understood what he was seeing. He stopped counting the money and just began flipping through it as quickly as he could, and he kept seeing the same thing on almost all the bills. With his heart racing, the employee just dropped the money, grabbed the phone, and called the police. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious,

delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So, if that's of interest to you, Please offer to cut the fall of buttons grass for them, but set the blades so low that it just obliterates the grass and leaves only dirt. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the evening of Thursday, March 9th, 2006, a 50-year-old woman named Karen Divalblis sat in the passenger seat of her car. Her husband, 71-year-old Jim Divalblis, was behind the wheel, driving them through downtown Lancaster, Ohio. Karen looked out the window and watched as they past historic buildings, shops, and restaurants. Every once in a while, Jim slowed down and

waved at people on the sidewalk, because he and Karen knew practically everybody in town. So Lancaster was a small suburb of about 36,000 people, and it was generally a friendly blue-collar place. Karen and Jim had lived there for over a decade, and they were well-known in the community, mostly because of their business ventures. They owned multiple rental properties around town, and also a store where they sold electronics, toys, and hobby supplies. The properties and the store had not only made Karen and Jim a lot of friends, but also a lot of money. They had a reputation for being very wealthy, but also very generous. They went out of their way to help people who were down on their luck, especially friends and family. Karen's former

sister-in-law, whose name was Deanna Smith, had actually been living in one of their rental properties for a long time now, and Karen's son was an employee at their store. But even now, with all of their success and their kindness, Karen knew that a lot of people in town, few people in the her and Jim as kind of an odd couple. They'd both been married before and had kids from their first marriages. And on paper, they didn't seem like obvious partners. Jim was 21 years older than Karen, and he also tended to be pretty quiet and reserved. Karen, on the other hand, was usually the loudest person in the room.

But despite their differences, they just worked. And really, that was all that mattered to them. Just then, Karen felt the car slowed to a stop. She looked out the window and saw that they were at their first stop the evening, the hobby store that they owned. There was a big sign outside that said the store's name, D&D sales. The sign looked exceptionally bright and clean, which should have made Karen happy, but in reality, it actually made her feel kind of annoyed. The sign had recently been repainted by Karen and Jim's regular handyman, and he'd done a great job with it, and Karen had paid him what

she owed him for the work. But then after she paid him, he kept demanding more money. Now, Karen prided herself on being generous, but she'd felt like the handyman was now trying to take advantage of her. So she had told him that if he wanted to earn more money, she could give him another repair job. Now, ultimately, he had agreed to do another job, but he'd made it very clear that he was not happy about it, and things had been tense between him and Karen ever since. But luckily, the handyman was not at the store that day. Karen was actually here to see somebody else, her 27-year-old son, Jeremy Moore. She could see him inside the shop through the window, manning the front counter. He was tall, skinny, and had dark hair and earrings. Jeremy was her

only son from her first marriage, and they usually got along really well. When Karen and Jim first opened D&D sales, they'd given Jeremy a job, and he'd been a great employee. Karen had felt like she could really trust him, and she'd given him a lot of independence. But then, that all changed, because Jeremy had started getting into serious trouble. He'd never really been a troublemaker, but it was like all of a sudden he had gotten arrested for stealing. And when he came back to work after that, his performance had majorly slipped.

He'd started showing up late or not showing up at all. And on top of that, some of Karen and Jim's other store employees had begun complaining that they didn't like working with him because he was moody and angry. And so this had put Karen in a pretty awkward position because she loved Jeremy and she wanted him to succeed. And family or not, she just wasn't in the habit of firing people or leaving them high and dry when they were having a hard time.

But at the same time, she also didn't want Jeremy's attitude and performance to affect her business. So she had sort of made it a point to check in on him while he was working. Karen told Jim she'd be right back and she got out of the car. She went inside the store and asked her son how he was doing. And he seemed annoyed to be asked and just told her that, you know, everything was fine. So Karen did a quick sweep of the store. to make sure all the shelves were stocked and the aisles were clean. Everything looked good, so she went back to the front counter and told Jeremy she loved him,

and then headed back outside to the car. A few minutes later, Karen and Jim pulled up to their second stop of the evening, their favorite bowling alley, which was called Tiki Lanes. In addition to being business people, Karen and Jim were avid bowlers. They were in three different bowling leagues and came to Tiki Lanes at least a few times. times a week. In fact, they were so serious about bowling that they'd even hired a coach, who they met with for weekly lessons. But for tonight, they were just here to meet with their friends for a couple of casual rounds. Karen and Jim parked the car, walked inside, and went

straight to their usual lane. A bunch of their bowling friends were already sitting around tables nearby, and when they saw Karen and Jim, they got up and hugged and said hello. At some point, Karen sat down, put on her bowling shoes, and took several expensive rings off her fingers and stuck them in her pocket so they wouldn't get damaged. Then she got up and got ready to play. Throughout the evening, Jim kept the table stocked with snacks and drinks for the whole group. They ate, they drank, they played, and they talked with their friends. And by the time they were all done, Karen was exhausted. She put her rings back on, changed her shoes, and all she could think about was getting home and going to bed. So she and Jim said goodbye to everyone. Then they

went outside, hopped in their car, and headed home. About ten minutes later, they pulled into their driveway. They lived in a big brick house in a rural area north of town, so the neighborhood was quiet and scenic. Karen got out of the car and was about to walk to the door, but she stopped when she heard a voice call out to her from behind her. She turned around, and she gasped. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin.

For the first time, my show Medical Mysteries has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode. A redacted medical mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations. Listen now on the medical mysteries or redacted feeds or search a redacted medical mystery wherever you get your podcasts. Hey listeners, Mr. Ballin here. What if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now are all connected to what my be the biggest crime of our generation. You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing tales out there. Well, I've discovered a new podcast that uncovers real-world mysteries unfolding right now, much like how another Ballin Studios podcast, redacted, declassified mysteries,

brings hidden government secrets to light, and it's called Lawless Planet. Host Zach Goldbaum reveals how shocking tales of murder, cover-ups, and mysterious deaths are all part of something bigger, the systematic destruction of our planet, from activists who vanish in the Amazon, to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes, these aren't just stories about the environment. They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app

or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet, early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Four days later, around, Around 9 a.m. on Monday, March 13th, Karen's son, Jeremy, pulled up outside his mother and stepfather's house. He parked his red sedan, then got out and walked towards the front door. So normally, at this time, Jeremy would be opening up the family store, D&D sales. But he'd asked another person to keep an eye on the store because he needed to go see his mom.

He had a routine of calling her every morning when he got to work. But that morning, when he'd called, she hadn't picked up, which was unusual. And then Jeremy realized that he actually hadn't spoken to his mother that entire weekend. And normally, they spoke just about every day. So the whole situation made him feel confused and sort of concerned. Jeremy went to the front door and he knocked, but he didn't hear anything inside. Nobody came to the door and he called out for his mom,

but he didn't hear anybody calling him back. So eventually he reached down and tried the handle, and he discovered it was unlocked. And when he swung the door open, nothing happened, which was also unusual. Jeremy knew his mom and stepdad never left their door unlocked, and they also had an alarm system. So the alarm at this point should have been going off right now, but it wasn't.

Once Jeremy was inside, he looked over at the living room, and he saw it had been completely ransacked. Furniture was overturned, and papers and random items were scattered all over the floor. At this point, Jeremy's heart was racing because obviously something was wrong. Instinctively, he just ran down the hall, way to his mother and stepfather's bedroom, but when he got there, something inside of him told him not to go all the way into the room. Instead, he sort of peered around the doorframe to

barely look inside, and when he did, he saw it was a mess just like the living room. Drowers had been pulled open and there were clothes and empty jewelry boxes all over the floor, but also on the floor in the middle of this mess, Jeremy saw a big red puddle that he immediately knew was blood. And in this puddle, he saw two feet. And even though, from his vantage point, peering into this room barely, you know, Jeremy couldn't really see anything except those two feet. He just had this immediate gut feeling that the feet belonged to his mother and that she had been murdered.

Jeremy turned, sprinted out of the house, and called the police. A few minutes later, a young stocky detective named Scott Jones, arrived on the scene, along with several other police officers and a team of forensic investigators. There were so many first responder vehicles crowded around the area that he had to park a squad car a little ways down the road. Detective Jones got out of his car and began walking towards the big brick house he was here to investigate. He'd worked for the county sheriff's office for about four years, and in that time he had investigated homicide cases, and he knew how important it was to approach every crime scene with a very open mind, so he was coming in with a very open mind. So he was coming in

with zero preconceived notions. All he knew at this point was that a few minutes ago, a young man named Jeremy had called in to report the murder of his mother, Karen Divalblis. He also knew that the big brick house belonged to Karen and her husband, Jim. But right now, Detective Jones didn't know where Jim was. Jeremy hadn't said anything about him when he'd called in the report. As Detective Jones walked, he noticed that in the midst of all the emergency response vehicles,

there was also a civilian car parked on the road. It was a red sedan, and there was a thin man with dark hair and earrings sitting inside of it. Detective Jones assumed it must be Jeremy. Detective Jones took note of this and just continued towards the Holmes driveway. There, he met up with a slightly older detective with a handlebar mustache, whose name was Andy Roberts. Detective Jones and Detective Roberts shook hands, and then together they approached the front door. Detective Jones noticed that the door did not look damaged at all, like it had not been pried or broken open.

In fact, there were no signs of forced entry anywhere. To Detective Jones, this meant that whoever killed Karen either had a key to the house or Karen had let them inside. And so this suggested that she had some kind of personal relationship with her killer. Still, Detective Jones reminded himself not to jump to any conclusions. He and the other detective went inside and right away saw the living room had been totally ransacked. It looked like a robbery. But again, Jones didn't want to form an opinion before seeing all the evidence. Because the house was so big, the detectives agreed to split up

and examine rooms of the house separately. Detective Jones took the bedroom, where he already knew was where the body was located. And when he got there, he saw the room was a total disaster just like the living room, and on the floor, he saw Karen Divalblis, lying face down in a pool of blood. The detective could see her body was covered in dozens of stab wounds, and when Jones leaned down for a better look, he saw that she also had cuts all over her hands. This told the detective two things. First, whoever killed Karen did so in a particularly violent and aggressive way, which suggested they were extremely upset with her, and the defensive wounds on Karen's hands suggested that she very likely fought back against her attacker. And so at this point, Detective Jones began to

wonder about Jim, Karen's husband. He knew that statistically, women were most likely to be killed by their intimate partners. So it seemed possible that Jim might have murdered Karen, then staged the house to look like it had been robbed, and then he fled. Detective Jones began asking the crime scene text to take photos of Karen's body, as well as the empty jewelry boxes all around the room. And as he was doing this, suddenly he heard Detective Roberts call out to him from a different part of the house. He sounded startled, and he yelled for Detective Jones to hurry. Seconds later, Detective Jones was standing by Roberts as they both stared down a set of stairs into the basement. And lying at the bottom of those stairs, they could see there was a second

body. When they went down the stairs, the detective saw that the body belonged to a man. He was on his back, and he had also been stabbed dozens of times. And he was just around the corner from a closet, which had an empty, open safe inside of it. Detective Jones realized that they had just found Karen Divalblis' husband, Jim. And so this made his earlier idea that maybe Jim had killed his wife, Karen, seem highly unlikely. And even though he still didn't want to jump to conclusions, a theory was already beginning to take shape in his mind. Based on the missing jewelry, the open safe, and the ransacked home, this was most likely a real robbery that had gone horribly wrong.

But Detective Jones was hung up on one detail. There was no evidence of forced entry into the house. So, the perpetrator either had access to the home, possibly with a key, or Karen or Jim, had opened the door for their killer. After he was done investigating the crime scene, Detective Jones went outside to speak to the 911 caller, who was sitting inside of his car. The man, who appeared very shaken,

confirmed that his name was Jeremy Moore and that the woman inside was his mother. Detective Jones informed Jeremy that his stepfather, Jim, was also found dead inside of the home. And when Jeremy heard this, he just went silent and kind of stared off into space. Detective Jones couldn't tell if he was shocked or just pretending to be. So he asked Jeremy why he'd come to his parents' house that day. Jeremy said that when he'd gone into work that morning, he had called his mother to check in, like he always did, but she hadn't answered.

He also said the last time he had seen his mom was four days earlier, on Thursday evening, when she and Jim had stopped by the hobby store on their way to go bowling at Tiki Lanes. Detective Jones then asked Jeremy about the contents of the house and what might have been taken. Jeremy told him that his mother did have a lot of jewelry, but he didn't know where she kept it all. And he also said he had no idea who would have done something like this. Detective Jones knew that it was way too soon to confirm or eliminate Jeremy as a suspect. He also didn't know when the couple had died, so he couldn't determine if Jeremy had an alibi yet. So for now, he told Jeremy he was free to go.

Detective Jones watched Jeremy drive away, then he went back to the driveway to speak with Detective Roberts. They both agreed to keep an eye on Jeremy, but they also wanted to send a team of investigators to speak to neighbors and ask if anybody had seen or heard anything strange over the last few days. And while they did that, Jones decided he would go check out the bowling alley that Jeremy had mentioned. Later that day, Detective's a lot of the bowling alley that Jeremy had mentioned. Detective Jones walked inside of Tiki Lanes.

He hoped the staff there would have some information for him, because so far, the investigative team had not gotten much from Karen and Jim's neighbors. Everyone they had spoken to had said they hadn't seen or heard anything weird, and they also hadn't seen Karen or Jim all weekend. Detective Jones went up to the front desk and explained why he was there, and a few of the employees said that they did know Karen and Jim, and they agreed to sit down with the detective and answer his questions. From these interviews, Detective Jones learned that Karen,

and Jim were regulars at Tiki Lanes, and they were avid bowlers who'd hired a coach to improve their game. He also found out that Karen typically wore a lot of rings on her fingers, which was actually pretty significant to him, because she wasn't wearing any rings when she was found. Whoever had killed her, very likely had taken them right off her hands. Lastly, everyone Detective Jones spoke to at the bowling alley said that the last time they'd seen the couple was Thursday night. That was also the last time that Jeremy reported seeing them as well. So for now, Detective Jones decided to operate under the assumption that Karen and Jim had been killed Thursday, sometime after they had bowled at Tiki Lanes. And so based on that, he decided to call Jeremy in for a formal interview, to ask him what he had done after he had left work on Thursday evening.

The next day, Detective Jones sat in front of his computer inside of his office at the police station while he waited for Jeremy to show up for his interview. He was preparing for the interview by doing some research about Jeremy. Based on interviews, the rest of the investigative team had done with Karen and Jim's friends, neighbors, and family members, Detective Jones had already learned a couple of very interesting things. First, Jeremy had reportedly stolen money and other items from Karen in the past. Second, Jeremy was in Karen's will and was going to inherit a lot of money now that she was dead. In the detective's mind, this seemed like a pretty clear motive for murder. It also struck him as very suspicious that Jeremy had been the one who found Karen's body and called the police.

Detective Jones knew that it wasn't uncommon for murderers to return to the scene of a crime and to literally insert themselves into the investigation. Now, on his computer, Detective Jones pulled up Jeremy's criminal record and scanned through his previous charges. He saw that Jeremy had been arrested for theft. Now, the detective knew there was a big difference between stealing and committing murder, but the fact that Jeremy had a documented history of theft and the fact that he was going to inherit a lot of money after his mother died looked really bad for him. So, when Jeremy finally came in for his interview, Detective Jones was very eager to talk to him.

He led Jeremy into an interview room and then sat down across from him. And just like the last time they had spoken, Jeremy struck the detective as seeming nervous and emotional. Detective Jones started by asking Jeremy what he had done on Thursday evening after he'd gotten off from work. And Jeremy said he'd gone straight home. But when Detective Jones asked if anybody could verify that, Jeremy said, no, no one could. So, Detective Jones began pressing him much harder, asking him directly about his history of theft and also his mother's will. Jeremy admitted that he had made some mistakes in the past, but he swore he would never hurt

his mother, whether he was in her will or not. He said this whole thing was just as confusing and upsetting for him as it was for everybody else. Now, Detective Jones wasn't sure if he actually believed Jeremy, but he still didn't have any evidence that would allow him to hold Jeremy in custody, so he let Jeremy go. And then once he was gone, the detective began heading back to his office. But on the way there, he ran into his partner, Detective Roberts, who looked excited. Robert said he'd been going over statements the rest of the investigative team had collected

from Karen's siblings, and there was someone that they really needed to speak to. A little while later, Detective Jones listened outside the door of an interrogation room as another detective was sitting with Karen's former sister-in-law, Deanna Smith. Karen's brother, Edgar, had told police about Deanna, who was his ex-wife. Edgar said that Karen had bought him and Deanna a house in Lancaster where they lived with their two kids. But when Edgar and Deanna got divorced, Edgar moved out, but Deanna wanted to stay inside of the house. Now, Deanna didn't have a lot of money after the divorce, so Karen had made an agreement with her. She could stay in the house if she paid a small fee each month and then also came to Karen's

house weekly and cleaned it. It seemed like a win-win situation, but Deanna almost never showed up to clean Karen's house like she had promised. So eventually, as a result of that, Karen increased her rent, and this had made Deanna really mad and led to a lot of tension between them. And when investigators had spoken to Karen's other siblings, they'd also learned that Deanna loved jewelry and expensive things, even though she really couldn't afford them. So, investigators had brought Deanna in for an interview because someone who loved jewelry and disliked Karen was incredibly suspicious. Plus, if Deanna did periodically clean Karen's house, well, she might have had a key, or known the alarm system's security code, which could explain why there was no evidence of forced

entry. And so now, Detective Jones stood there in the hallway and listened in. When the investigator in the room asked Deanna about the rent increase and her cleaning arrangement with Karen, Deanna said she didn't have any issues with Karen, which obviously was not true. Deanna also said she did not have a key to Karen's house or know the code to their alarm, which seemed hard to believe if she was supposed to drop by weekly to their house to clean it. It just seemed like Deanna was not being honest. But right now, it was Deanna's word, against the rest of Karen's siblings, so police really couldn't hold her. Still, after she had left, Detective Jones kept thinking about the fact that Karen's siblings

had really specifically mentioned that Deanna truly loved jewelry. And so if Deanna had stolen Karen's jewelry, she might have kept it, but she also might have pawned it since she needed the money. At this point, the investigative team already knew that Karen had a lot of expensive and unique pieces of jewelry that she typically bought at a specific local store. Authorities were already in touch with the shop owner, who was confident that she would actually recognize most of Karen's items. So, Detective Jones decided to start contacting pawn shops in Lancaster and the surrounding areas to see what jewelry had been sold between last Thursday and now. If any of it turned out to be Karen's, they might be able to find out exactly who had pawned it.

Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. I'm excited to tell you about something special. For the first time, my show, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with redacted, declassified mysteries with Luke Lamana, to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles. This special episode is called a redacted medical mystery. In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker, leading straight to classified government operations hidden for decades.

To listen and uncover the truth alongside us, head to either the Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries or redacted show pages right now. Or search for a redacted medical mystery in the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're fascinated by unexplained medical stories, well, stick around on medical mysteries. Every week, we dive deep into cases that will leave you questioning everything you know about the human body. And if government conspiracies are more your style, redacted is your go-to for stories that unravel secrets never meant to see the light a day. Remember, you can listen to both shows early and ad-free by joining Wondry Plus. Hey, listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon music with your prime membership.

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That's Amazon.com slash B-A-L-L-E-N. dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. On Wednesday, March 15th, 2006, so two days after Karen and Jim had been found dead, Detective Jones was at his desk when one of his investigators came in and dropped an itemized receipt in front of him. It was from a local pawn shop and was for the sale of an expensive piece of jewelry

on Saturday, March 11th, just two days after Karen and Jim were killed. And when Detective Jones looked at the bottom of the paper, he gasped. The seller's name was written right there. It was Deanna Smith, Karen's former sister-in-law. Detective Jones felt his heart pounding, but he tried to tell himself to be patient. Before they did anything else, they needed to be absolutely sure that the piece of jewelry Deanna sold actually belonged to Karen. So he told the officers to get the jewelry from the pawn shop, and the next day, Karen's regular jeweler came into the station to look at it,

and she determined, beyond a doubt, that it was not Karen's. After the jeweler left, Detective Jones slumped in his desk chair and rubbed his eyes in frustration. Now, the fact that this pawn jewelry did not belong to Karen was definitely disappointing, but the detective also didn't think that that proved Deanna was innocent. She clearly needed money. Otherwise, why would she have pawned one of her own pieces? And they also had a lot of other clues that made her seem suspicious as well. Still, at this point, Detective Jones didn't really know where to turn.

A whole team of detectives was investigating the case, but it felt like they just kept hitting dead end after dead end. He was still sure the motivation in this case had to be money. Karen and Jim's house had been ransacked, and a lot of their valuables were missing, like Karen's jewelry. Even the rings she had on her hands had been taken. But the robbery didn't seem random. It had been targeted and deliberate.

The killer had been able to access the house without breaking in, which meant they either had a key or Karen and Jim had let them in. And not only that, the couple was killed with such violence. It seemed like the killer was deeply angry with them. And there were two people who had a financial motive and potential access to the home, Karen's son, Jeremy, and her ex-sister-in-law, Deanna. But Detective Jones hadn't found any concrete evidence to prove that Jeremy or Deanna had committed this crime.

And as he sat there, going over the case in his mind, he knew there were a lot of other people in Karen and Jim's lives that the police had barely even looked into yet. They had friends from the bowling alley, plus multiple employees, tenants, and neighbors that interacted with them regularly, and these people knew Jim and Karen were wealthy. And so basically, Karen and Jim seemed to have some kind of relationship with pretty much everybody in Lancaster. And so Detective Jones had a whole lot more interviewing still left to do. About a week later, so 11 days after Karen and Jim's bodies were found, Detective Jones was

sitting in his office feeling frustrated. His team-mates, had been going all over town, interviewing basically everybody in Lancaster, and still they had not gotten a single helpful tip. But that afternoon, Detective Jones' phone rang, and the best lead he'd gotten so far seemed to fall right into his lap. It was somebody from his department calling with a very interesting story. They said they'd just gotten a call from a guy who worked at a moving company in town. The employee said that a customer had come in, rented a truck, and paid him in cash a few days ago.

And the employee said he had just begun counting their cash payment, and he'd found something the police really needed to see. Detective Jones hung up the phone, grabbed his coat, and headed out to meet this guy. Before long, Detective Jones stood at an office counter across from the moving company employee, and they both were looking down at the cash the employee had mentioned on the phone call. And as Detective Jones was looking at it, he asked the employee to tell him everything he could remember about the person who had given him the cash. And the employee told him that a few days ago, he'd gotten to work early to set up for the day, but when he arrived, there were already

some customers lined up by the door. And one of them had been carrying a heavy-looking plastic grocery bag and seemed very antsy to get inside. And they told the employee that they really needed to rent a truck for a move. The employee noticed that the customer looked exhausted and sort of scared. But the weirdest part about this whole encounter was that when it came time for the customer to pay for the rental, they'd opened up their shopping bag, and it was full of what looked like thousands of dollars in loose bills. It was definitely weird, but, you know, money was money, so the employee had accepted the cash and handed the customer the keys, and they'd gone on their way. It was not until later when the employee had counted the cash from the sale that he noticed

a lot of the money was covered in blood. Detective Jones couldn't believe it. He asked the employee if he kept records of his customers' names and information. The employee walked over to a file cabinet, pulled out a particular piece of paper, and handed it to Detective Jones. It was a contract that all customers had to sign in order to rent a moving truck. And written on that contract was a name and an address.

Detective Jones rushed back to the station and poured over the evidence once again. He wanted to make sure that every piece of information they had lined up with the person whose name was on that contract. and as far as he could see, it did. So, he and Detective Roberts, along with some backup, went to the address the moving company had given them. And when they got there, they saw it was a mobile home.

They charged up to the door and loudly announced themselves. Seconds later, the door opened, and the detectives saw not one, but two people standing in the doorway. And when Detective Jones looked behind these people into the mobile home, he knew immediately that these were the people who had killed Karen and Jim Divalblum. Based on later confessions and evidence collected by investigators, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Karen and Jim Divalblis on March 9, 2006.

That evening, the killer was riding in the backseat of a car with a few other people. In one hand, they were holding a plastic grocery bag, and in their other hand, they were clutching a large kitchen knife. They were on their way to Karen and Jim's house. The killer had been planning to rob the couple for a while now. They'd even asked an accomplice to join them, and now one of their friends was driving them and their accomplice to the house. But as they got closer to the big brick home, the killer saw that all the lights were off and there was no car in the driveway. Karen and Jim weren't home. And this was actually a big problem.

The killer needed Karen and Jim to be home, because they had an alarm system that would go off if the killer tried to break in. The killer also needed Jim and Karen around to open up their safe, which they knew was in the basement. And so now, since they weren't home, the killer decided the plan wouldn't work and they should just forget about it. So they told their friend who was driving to turn around. But as they began to drive away, they saw Karen and Jim pass them on the road headed towards their house. At this point, the killer realized. they could still go through with their plan. So they told the driver to turn around again.

And a few moments later, they pulled up in front of the house and the killer and the accomplice jumped out right as Karen and Jim were walking up their driveway. The killer called out to the couple, and when they turned around, the killer held up the knife. They told Karen and Jim to let them and their accomplice inside the house or else. Karen and Jim were obviously terrified, so they did what the killer said.

They went inside, and then the killer. led Jim downstairs to the safe while the accomplice stayed upstairs and kept an eye on Karen. When the killer and Jim got to the safe, the killer held up the knife again and told Jim to open it. Jim did, and then the killer grabbed all the money that was inside and began shoving it into the grocery bag. But at some point, Jim tried to get away, and the killer knew they couldn't let him, or they'd be caught in the middle of this robbery. So they didn't stop to think, they just started stabbing Jim over and over until he stopped moving. After that, the killer calmly walked upstairs where they found Karen and the accomplice.

And they demanded that Karen showed them where she kept her jewelry. When Karen said it was in her bedroom, the killer brought her in there. But at some point, Karen began to struggle with the killer and was knocked to the floor. And after that, the accomplice held on to Karen as the killer stabbed her over and over again. Karen did try to fight back, but it was too much. And eventually, she also died. The killer and their accomplice spent the next hour raiding the home for valuables. When they got all they could carry, they ran back to the car waiting outside and fled with

thousands and thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry, and antiques. The killer was not Karen's former sister-in-law, Deanna, and it wasn't Karen's son, Jeremy. It was somebody else who did regularly work for the couple, and who'd recently had an argument with them over how much money they were owed. The killer was Karen and Jim's hands. Handyman, 26-year-old Eric Hockman. Eric had done a lot of odd jobs for the couple, including recently painting their store's sign.

But when Karen paid him for that work, Eric felt like she had given him less than he was owed. And this infuriated him because he knew that Karen and Jim had a ton of money. And also, they had a lot of expensive things. And he knew this because he had done work at their house and seen these things. So he started planning a robbery. He asked a friend to give him a ride, and then also enlisted his girlfriend, 29-year-old Heidi Kidwell, to be his accomplice. The friend agreed, and also Heidi agreed,

possibly because she was in the middle of a three-week heroin high and was not thinking clearly. After the murders, Eric and Heidi laid low for a few days. Then, about three days after Karen and Jim's bodies were found, they rented a moving truck and left town. But their big mistake was paying for their rental with cash they had stolen from Karen and Jim, cash that was covered in the couple's blood.

The moving company employee led the police straight to Eric and Heidi's new address, which was over 1,000 miles away in Key Largo, Florida. When authorities searched Eric and Heidi's mobile home there, they found thousands of dollars in cash, along with expensive antiques, watches, and jewelry that was later identified as belonging to Karen. Eric and Heidi were both arrested and taken back to Ohio. Heidi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Eric was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He also received 67 additional years for kidnapping, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, and theft from an elderly person. The person who drove Eric and Heidi

to commit the murders was never charged. Eric would die by suicide in jail in 2019. Heidi was released from prison in 2020 and passed away two years later, at age 45. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange Dark and Misty, Sterea Stories is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Produced by Jeremy Bone. This episode was written by Kate Murdoch. Story editing by Karas Pash Cooper. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose,

Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Cole Lacasio. Additional audio editing by by Jordan Stidham. Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain. Production Coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley.

Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner. Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Ballin podcast, as well as Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, bedtime stories, wartime stories, run-fool, redacted, late nights with Nexpo, and a twist of history. All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts.

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