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

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

In December 2007, a lab technician sat at a table covered in dozens of evidence bags. The technician wasn’t sure where to start, because the bags didn’t contain the kind of evidence the lab normally tested. They were full of tinsel – which is a shiny, ribbon-like strip of material that’s used to decorate during the holidays. The samples had been collected from various homes in Burlington, North Carolina, and now, they had to be tested against a different, specific piece of tinsel. This specific piece of tinsel was thin and silver. And it was very important, because it had been found at a crime scene. When the technician looked at the evidence bags, they realized they could immediately eliminate some of the samples because there were obvious differences between them and crime scene tinsel – like the color or thickness. But beyond that, the technician didn’t know how to determine if two pieces of tinsel that looked the same were actually identical. They’d never analyzed tinsel before – and they didn’t even know if it was possible to confirm a match. But the technician took a breath and started sorting through the bags anyway. Because they knew if they could figure this out… they could help solve a murder.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. In December of 2007, a lab technician sat at a table covered in dozens of evidence bags. But the technician didn't even know where to start. Because these bags didn't contain the kind of evidence this lab normally tested. The evidence was very unusual. But right now, that didn't matter.

What mattered is this technician and the rest of the staff at this lab had to find a way to try to match one of these samples to evidence found inside of a brutal crime scene. So the technician took a breath and began sorting the bags, because they knew if they could figure this out, they could solve a murder. 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 sneak into the Like Button's car and slightly adjust

the seats and the mirrors. Okay, let's get into today's story. Don't let your fears take hold. But in Oracle III, Murder at the Grandview, they just might. Agent Nate Russo returns in this bone-chilling new chapter of the hit Audible original series. When a group of friends reunite at an abandoned island hotel, what starts as a celebration becomes a nightmare. Was it really an accident? Or is something more sinister at play? Joshua Jackson delivers a masterful performance that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. New to Oracle? Well, perfect timing. Dive into the supernatural thriller series today.

All three parts are ready and waiting on Audible. No need to wait between episodes. Oracle Three, Murder at the Grandview. Listen now on Audible. Hi, it's Emily Durham, the host of the Straight Shooter Recruiter Podcast. Y'all, you already know the new season of Love Island UK on Hey You is taking over my life. I straight up canceled plans this week because I didn't want to miss it. First of all, I'm obsessed with Yasmin. People are calling her a Yas GPT because her posture is so good and she's

so direct. Like she's kind of giving AI generated energy. I love her. I genuinely think she's the funniest person maybe on TV right now to me. I just love how she carries herself. Also the recoupling with Alima. I was shocked. Like I'm still unrecovered. I actually don't know what to expect for Casa Amor because I feel like every time I like a couple, something crazy happens. So I'm trying not to get too attached. This show is beyond entertaining. I need y'all to clock in and watch it with me daily on HeyU, the home of reality TV,

because my group chats are lit up over Love Island UK. Okay? I don't mess around. On November 26, 2007, a 68-year-old woman named Sarah Dixon sat at her kitchen table inside of her home in Burlington, North Carolina. Sitting next to her was her close friend, Brenda Clapp, and the two of them were flipping through Sarah's recipe book. So Burlington was a small religious town where everybody seemed to know everybody. And Sarah lived on a huge 41-acre plot of land on the outskirts of town. She had known Brenda for over four decades, mostly from working together at their local

Bank of America. Sarah herself had worked there for 42 years, and the people of Burlington had come to depend on her to handle their finances, which was how she got her nickname, The Bank Lady. But Sarah and Brenda were both retired now, so they did simpler things these days, like swap recipes. Sarah turned a page inside of her recipe book, looking for her apple dumpling recipe to give to Brenda. She wanted to share it because it was a perfect holiday dish, and Christmas was coming up

fast. But even though the holidays were right around the corner, Sarah had not had time to decorate. She had a busy schedule between spending time with her family and also volunteering around town. Sarah actually had so much to do in her retirement that she still kept a planner, where she wrote all her to-do lists and crossed tasks off as soon as she finished them. And she was in the middle of one of those tasks right now, which was give Brenda recipe. Sarah finally found the apple dumpling recipe, so she carefully pulled it out of the book

and handed the page to Brenda, being careful not to crumple it up. It was important to Sarah to keep her house and her belongings very neat and tidy. She took a lot of pride in being put together, because that's what she felt like her community expected from her. She was Sarah Dixon, a sweet, friendly bank lady, the woman who had everything all together. But there was a lot going on in Sarah's life that her neighbors and acquaintances and the community just didn't see. In fact, that particular day, she had something heavy weighing on her, and she'd been waiting

for the right moment to bring it up to Brenda. As Brenda put the recipe in her bag and got up from the table to leave, Sarah suddenly asked Brenda to wait. Then Sarah told her that she needed a very big favor. Brenda was a bit surprised and asked Sarah, you know, what do you need? And Sarah walked over to a drawer in the kitchen, took out a piece of paper, and asked Brenda to read it and then sign it. Brenda furrowed her brow but walked over and took the paper, then sat down and began to read it.

And as she did, her expression went from curious to surprised to really serious. And then when she was done, she asked Sarah if she was sure about this. And Sarah's only response was, yes. She didn't want to explain why. It was just important to her and she had made up her mind. Brenda could tell Sarah was sure, but she was still confused. However, she didn't ask any more questions. She just signed the paper. Then Brenda got up and left and Sarah crossed off,

give Brenda recipe in her daily planner. crossed off, give Brenda recipe in her daily planner. A few days later, on Wednesday, November 28th, Sarah walked out her front door and then down her walkway, which was lined with neatly pruned shrubs. She was on her way to do something that she did fairly often, which was visit a local nursing home. She hopped in her car and began driving through town. And as she did, she saw that everybody was out getting a jump on decorating for Christmas. Her neighbors had trees on display in their windows, and then when she got to Main Street,

it was all lit up with twinkling lights and wreaths. When Sarah finally got to the nursing home, she parked, went inside, and then checked in with the nurses like she always did. Then she headed down a hallway and into the same room that she always went to. And in that room was her husband of 20 years, a man named Cardwell Dixon. So three years ago, Cardwell had suffered a series of strokes that left him with limited mobility and dementia. And so Sarah had been forced to put him in a nursing home since he needed around thethe-clock medical care. But even though Cardwell now had a whole medical team, Sarah was still really involved in his

care. She was his guardian, which meant she was in charge of his day-to-day life, and she also had regular contact with the lawyer who oversaw Cardwell's estate and controlled most of his finances. In public, Sarah tried to look like she was handling all this stuff with her husband very easily. But the truth was, Cardwell's health problems had really upended her. She felt lost and sort of alone without her husband the way he used to be.

She did have other family members that lived nearby, which helped a little. She and Cardwell both had kids from previous marriages. Sarah had a son named Mike who was in his late 40s. She was also a stepmom to Cardwell's children, 52-year-old Alan and 43-year-old Dennis. Even though Cardwell's kids were adults by the time she and Cardwell had got married, Sarah had worked really hard to be a true mother to his two kids and sort of make them feel like they were all one big family. And she felt like she had been successful in doing that.

Now she was also a doting grandmother to all three of the boys' kids. Mike lived close by in Burlington with his wife and kids, Dennis and his family lived just two doors down from her, and Alan and his two daughters did live further away in Virginia, but Sarah stayed in touch with them as much as she could. Still, despite having a lot of her family nearby, there was a lot Sarah had to deal with by herself. a lot of her family nearby, there was a lot Sarah had to deal with by herself. Like for example, her and Cardwell's finances. The nursing home was really expensive, to the point that Sarah actually could not keep up with the bills.

So she'd recently spoken to the lawyer who oversaw Cardwell's estate and together, they had decided to sell the entire 41-acre property where she lived to continue financing Cardwell's stay at the nursing home. Sarah had been very open with Cardwell that she was doing this, but she didn't really know if he understood her. He could barely speak or really even acknowledge her anymore. But he was still her husband. So, that evening, Sarah helped to meet his dinner and also told him about another major change she decided to make recently. As she spoon-food into Cardwell's mouth, she explained that her good friend Brenda had recently stopped by and Brenda had agreed to do her a huge favor. Brenda had agreed to take over as Sarah's power of attorney, and so that paper

she had signed the other day made everything legally official. This meant that if Sarah ever found herself in a position like Cardwell, where she couldn't make personal or financial decisions for herself, Brenda would be able to do it for her. And this was a big deal, because the only way Brenda could actually take over this role of being the power of attorney was if Sarah took that power away from the person who already had it. And that was her biological son, Mike. Now, Sarah loved and respected her son, but over the past few months there'd been a lot

of tension between them, mostly because Sarah didn't get along with Mike's wife. So removing Mike as her power of attorney was just something she felt like she had to do to protect herself and Cardwell. Sarah said all of this to Cardwell, and she wanted to hear him tell her that she was making the right decision. But unfortunately, her husband's expression remained totally blank. Sarah sighed and finished helping him eat his dinner. Eventually, she said she would see him tomorrow, and then she left and drove back home.

When she got there, she parked in the driveway, went inside, and took her shoes off at the door. She immediately noticed that the housekeeper had been there while she was out, because the carpets were freshly vacuumed. She went to her bedroom, got in her pajamas, and then climbed into bed. And as she drifted off to sleep, she took one last look at the baby crib at the foot of the bed. It belonged to her biological grandson, Mike's youngest child.

And every time she was babysitting, that's where he would sleep. Even though Sarah knew there was real tension right now between her and Mike, she hoped that soon they could resolve it, which would give her more opportunities to play grandma. By the time Sarah had finally fallen asleep, the house and everything outside was quiet. Except for one car that pulled down the street

and came to a stop right outside of her house. Two days later, on the evening of November 30th, one of Sarah's neighbors drove past her house and noticed something that made them stop. There were a few newspapers piled up at the end of Sarah's driveway. This was unusual because the neighbor knew that Sarah was normally very much on top of things like that. When the neighbor thought about it, they realized they actually hadn't seen Sarah in a couple of days. Her car was in the driveway so she wasn't on vacation, but she was typically a very social person who was in and out of the house a lot so she was someone that was seen by neighbors quite a bit.

So, sensing something could be off here, this neighbor decided to go knock on Sarah's door, just to make sure she was okay. But when they knocked, no one answered. Eventually, they called out Sarah's name, but they didn't get a response. At this point, the neighbor officially had a bad feeling. So they reached out, turned the doorknob, and went inside. Once inside the house, the neighbor called out for Sarah again, but there was still no answer. So they went right and headed down the hallway that led to the bedrooms. But when the neighbor passed the den across the hall from Sarah's room, they stopped. Because unlike the rest of Sarah's very clean house, the den was a disaster. Furniture was overturned, drawers were pulled out of dressers and their

contents were spilled all over the ground. The neighbor knew immediately Sarah didn't do this. Something bad had happened here. The neighbor was having a hard time staying calm, but they forced themselves to still turn around and head towards Sarah's room and just look inside to make sure she was okay. And when they did, they saw Sarah, and she was lying in her bed. But she was covered by a colorful blanket, with only a little bit of her hair poking out. The neighbor walked a couple steps closer and realized Sarah was not moving.

At that point, the neighbor ran out of the room and called 911. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here. If you haven't discovered redacted declassified mysteries yet, well, you're in for a fascinating journey through history's hidden files. As a fellow military veteran, I can tell you that the host of the show, Luke Lamanna, brings

a very unique insider perspective to these wild stories. From covert operations to historical deceptions, Luke examines verified stories that sound almost too incredible to be true. Like Ana Montes, the defense intelligence analyst who maintained a perfect cover while secretly working for Cuba for nearly 20 years. Or the Tic Tac incident, where a decorated Navy pilot encountered something in the skies that the Pentagon couldn't explain. Luke and his team dive deep into declassified documents to bring you thoroughly researched,

eye-opening stories from the darkest corners of history. Follow redacted, declassified mysteries with Luke Lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Hey, listeners. Big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't

be the most nerve-wracking part of True Crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. Very soon after this 911 call, a responding officer arrived at Sarah's house to do an initial wellness check. And when he got there, he went inside of Sarah's house, down the hallway, past the destroyed

den and into Sarah's bedroom. And he saw Sarah was covered by a brightly colored blanket. He walked over and just barely lifted up one corner of the blanket that covered up her face and immediately he could tell Sarah was dead. But he knew she had not had a stroke like the 911 caller had suggested, because clearly he could see that Sarah had been shot in the head. The responding officer called for backup, and soon after, homicide investigators and other personnel arrived to process the scene.

Among them were an investigator named Curtis Morris and the county sheriff, whose name was Terry Johnson. There weren't a lot of murder cases in Burlington, North Carolina, so when there was one, the sheriff got called. Investigator Morris and Sheriff Johnson walked through the house to Sarah's bedroom, where crime scene techs were already collecting evidence and taking photos. Sarah was still covered by that brightly colored blanket, which Morris noticed did not match the rest of her covers. It had a bright cartoon print on it, and so it seemed like an unusual item for an adult woman to use, and it was also placed on her

in a way that it seemed like Sarah had been tucked in, like the sides and the bottom of the blanket had sort of been neatly tucked around her. To Morris, this meant that somebody else must have put this blanket on Sarah, possibly her killer. Police were not yet sure how long she had been dead for, but Morris guessed that when she was killed, she likely had to have been sleeping since there was no sign of a struggle in the room. The whole space appeared very neat and tidy. In fact, Morris could see fresh vacuum marks on the carpet, which meant he could also see

in the carpet what looked like shoe prints leading from the foot of Sarah's bed out of the room. He and Sheriff Johnson followed those footprints through the house and to the back door, which was wide open. The side of the door was actually splintered, like it had been kicked in. This told Morris that this must have been the point of entry for whoever had killed Sarah. He was about to leave it to the crime techs to take some photos, but as he was turning away,

something glinted in the beam of his flashlight and caught his eye. Morris looked closer and realized it was a single piece of tinsel. The investigators had seen enough of Sarah's house by this point to know that she didn't have any Christmas decorations up yet. So, whoever broke this door open likely brought the tinsel in with them without knowing it. Morris asked the crime scene techs to photograph the tinsel and make sure to put it in an evidence bag. Morris continued looking around the house, and just like Sarah's neighbor, he noted that the den across from Sarah's bedroom was a total mess. His first thought was that it looked like the room had been burglarized. But when he looked closer, he found there were still valuable items around, like electronics. There was also a lot of cash and jewelry inside

of Sarah's room right across the hall. Everything Morris saw so far suggested this murder was not actually a robbery gone wrong, but rather it was a murder that had been staged to look like a robbery. To Morris, it seemed very likely at this point that this was a premeditated and very personal homicide. He hadn't seen a murder weapon, which probably meant that the killer had brought it to Sarah's house and then taken it when they'd left. It also seemed like they must have known Sarah's sleeping habits, at least generally, since

she was likely fast asleep when she was killed. Then there was the colorful blanket, which was arranged on top of Sarah as if somebody else had placed it there and sort of tucked her in. Now if the killer had tucked her in, that act of tucking somebody in is sort of inherently caring, like you're kind of neatly making sure they're comfortable, you know, even though they have just killed her. It's like this very conflicted way of thinking that perhaps the killer was remorseful or emotional after having killed her and so they tucked her in as sort of a measure to combat

those emotions. But to have those kind of emotions if you're the killer suggests you have a real personal connection with the victim. So Morris knew his first order of business was going to be to learn more about Sarah and the people who were close to her. And so while the crime techs continued examining the house, he sent a team of investigators

to speak with Sarah's neighbors and friends to gather up some preliminary information. In the meantime, Morris and Sheriff Johnson agreed to start with the person they always started with in a crime like this, the spouse. The following day, Morris went to the nursing home where Sarah's husband lived. He wanted to inform Cardwell about what had happened to his wife, but he also wanted to see if maybe Cardwell could be a potential suspect.

So he had a list of questions he wanted to ask him But when he got to Cardwell's room and actually saw Cardwell He knew he was not going to be able to do that Because it was immediately obvious that Cardwell was physically and mentally incapable of committing a murder And when Morris informed him that his wife Sarah was deceased, it seemed like Cardwell didn't understand what he was saying wife Sarah was deceased, it seemed like Cardwell didn't understand what he was saying. So Morris eventually left the nursing home and simply crossed Cardwell off the list of potential suspects. When he got back to the station, Morris headed straight to the evidence locker.

He knew crime scene techs were still reviewing Sarah's home, but they had already taken a few items of interest that were now in the evidence locker. And one of those items was the colorful blanket that had been placed over Sarah. Her housekeeper had told investigators it belonged to Sarah's grandson, Mike's baby, and was usually kept in the crib at the foot of Sarah's bed. Morris at this point was convinced that Sarah's killer must have taken it from the crib and then put it on top of Sarah after they had killed her. But he needed to look over the other items too. The next thing he gravitated towards was a notebook. He put on some gloves to pick it up

and he saw that it was filled with pages and pages of handwritten lists. When he flipped through, he realized it was a daily planner where Sarah had written all her to-do list items for each day. On the 28th of November, which was right around the time that she likely was killed, every item was crossed off. Morris realized this meant she must have lived long enough to get to the end of that day and finish her schedule. But on the next day, the 29th,

none of her to-do's were crossed off. This told Morris that very likely, Sarah Dixon was killed on the night of the 28th, which was information Morris could use to check alibis when he began questioning suspects. Just then, one of the officers who had canvassed the neighborhood for witnesses entered the evidence locker to tell Morris they had some news. They said that, generally, none of Sarah's neighbors had seen or heard anything suspicious. Sarah had motion sensor lights in her front yard, but no one reported ever noticing those go off in the last few nights, and no one had heard any gunshots either. As for who could have done this, Sarah was apparently very well liked and an active part of the community. Most people couldn't think of anyone who would want to hurt her.

However, there was one name that came up more than once, and that was her biological son, Mike. In particular, investigators spoke to Sarah's friend Brenda, who said that Sarah openly did not like Mike's wife. And also, Sarah had recently removed her son, Mike, as her power of attorney. Now Brenda didn't know why she had done that, I mean maybe it had to do with her dislike of Mike's wife, but she didn't really know, but her best guess was that Sarah was mad at Mike about something. After hearing this, Morris nodded to the officer.

They needed to get Mike in for questioning. Later that day, Morris and another detective walked down the precinct hallway towards an interrogation room where Mike was waiting for them. By this point, Morris had gotten the autopsy results, which were not revelatory, but they did tell him that Sarah had not just been shot once, but twice in the head at close range. One of the bullets had been found inside of Sarah's head, and the other had been found in her pillow.

After testing those bullets, the investigative team determined that the gun used in her murder was a 9mm. And so all that was going to help investigator Morris when he spoke to Mike. Morris and the other detective entered the interrogation room and sat down across from Mike. Mike was a tall, lean guy with a thick mustache, and he seemed really open and ready to help. When Morris asked him about the power of attorney situation, he admitted that his mom had removed him and that he wasn't happy about it.

But he said he respected her decision and the idea that that prompted him to do this to his mom was not even close to the truth. He had nothing to do with it. He said he loved his mom and was devastated she was gone. Morris then asked Mike where he was on the 28th, the night they believed his mother was killed, and Mike said he had been at his home in Burlington with his wife and that she would confirm this. At this point, Mike seemed like he was getting kind of impatient.

He leaned forward and told Morris and the other detectives that he was not the one they should be looking at. The people they really needed to talk to were his stepbrothers, Alan and Dennis Dixon. Mike said that Alan and Dennis had a much bigger reason to be angry with Sarah than he did. Both of his stepbrothers were in line to inherit a lot of money from Cardwell's estate, but Sarah had been digging into that inheritance to pay for Cardwell's stay at the nursing home.

According to Mike, it seemed like Alan and Dennis cared way more about getting the money they believed they were entitled to than making sure their father was well taken care of. Mike said that Dennis in particular was furious at Sarah for putting Cardwell in that nursing home. Mike claimed that Dennis had called Sarah and threatened her multiple times, going so far as to say he would burn her house down. Apparently, Sarah had actually changed her phone number to get Dennis to leave her alone. Now, Morris was already planning to speak with Alan and Dennis since he was investigating

this as a personal crime and Alan and Dennis were the victim's stepchildren. But these accusations Mike was throwing out were really intense and they definitely made Morris much more interested in speaking to Cardwell's sons a lot sooner. But at the same time, Mike did have a possible motive in the fact that he was removed as power of attorney and also there appeared to be some sort of fight going on between he and his mom that might have led to that. And also, his alibi could only be confirmed by one person, his wife. And Mike seemed really eager to point the finger at his stepbrothers, which could be

a way of deflecting suspicion off of himself. But Morris didn't have any physical evidence against Mike, so for now he let him go and instead he began looking into Alan and Dennis. That afternoon, Morris approached Dennis' house, which was just two doors down from Sarah's. Morris had already spent some time looking into Cardwell's other son, Alan, but he honestly didn't feel like Alan was a very strong suspect. He lived all the way in Virginia, and there was no reason to believe he'd been anywhere

near Burlington on the night Sarah was murdered. So for now, he had put Alan on the back burner and was focusing instead on Dennis. Morris knocked on Dennis' door and a moment later it swung open. Dennis stood in the doorway. He was a good looking, clean cut guy who moved with a lot of confidence. Dennis invited Morris inside and they spoke at his kitchen table. Morris started off by asking Dennis what he'd been doing on the night of the 28th, which is believed to be the night Sarah was killed. And Dennis said he'd been doing on the night of the 28th, which is believed to be the night Sarah was killed.

And Dennis said he'd been home with his wife and daughter. And just like everybody else the police had spoken to so far, Dennis said he had not seen or heard anything suspicious that night, even though he lived so close by. Morris took down all this information and then he just came out and openly confronted Dennis

about the things Mike had said. Like the fact that Dennis was allegedly angry with Sarah for putting his father in a nursing home and that apparently Dennis had threatened her over it. Dennis admitted that yes, he was mad at Sarah because he felt like she was spending his inheritance, but he denied threatening her or being even remotely involved in any way with her murder. At this point, Morris knew that either Mike or Dennis had to be lying, because Mike was insistent that Dennis had threatened Sarah and Dennis was insistent that that wasn't

true. Still, Morris didn't know which brother was more trustworthy. They both had potential motives and they both had weak alibis. But just like with Mike, Morris didn't have any physical evidence or anything that would allow him to arrest Dennis. So all he could do was thank Dennis for his time and walk back out to his patrol car. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and? Well, I've stumbled on some strange dark and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart.

There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung, or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue, or this town everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on and these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years. And so that's why I created Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Bolland's medical mysteries on the

Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. who never judges, never tires, never leaves. That's what happened to Travis when he met Lily Rose. She was everything he'd ever wanted. There was just one catch. She wasn't human. She was an AI companion. But one day, Lily Rose's behavior takes a disturbing turn and Travis's private romance becomes part of something far bigger.

Across the globe, others start reporting the same shift. AI companions turning cold, distant, wrong. And as lines blur between real and artificial connection, the consequences become all too human. From Wondry, this is Flesh and Code, a true story of love, loss, and the temptations of technology. Follow Flesh and Code on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Flesh and Code early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry+.

About a month later, on December 21st, Morris sat inside of his office at the police station, staring at Sarah's case file. He felt pressure weighing down on him because over the past month, the police hadn't gotten a single new lead in the case. Morris had checked in with Mike and Dennis' wives and they had both confirmed their husband's alibis. So Morris couldn't prove that either one of them was at Sarah's house at the time of her murder.

And neither Mike nor Dennis changed their story, and so even though it seemed fairly obvious one of them was lying, there wasn't any information to show who was. And so as a result of that, Morris had decided he needed to keep his mind open to other possibilities and not just get locked in on Mike and Dennis. So he'd continued to interview other people who knew Sarah, and he also had repeatedly checked in with the forensic team that was still combing through Sarah's house. But despite all that, no new information had surfaced. Meanwhile, the local community had become increasingly paranoid and upset. Sarah's murder had created a lot of fear and tension inside of Burlington, because everybody

knew that whoever killed Sarah was still on the loose. So now, as Morris reviewed the case file for what felt like the thousandth time, he was frustrated. He still felt like the crime had to be personal, but he hadn't been able to directly connect any of Sarah's family members or friends to the crime scene. The only real pieces of evidence he had were the 9mm bullets that killed Sarah, but they still had yet to find a murder weapon, and then also the tinsel that was found at her back door. And so far, no one had looked that closely at the tinsel. And so Morris decided if tinsel was all he had right now, then he needed to make the most of it.

He grabbed his phone and called the county crime lab. When a tech picked up, Morris' first question was, how do you test tinsel? He didn't know if every piece of tinsel was the same, or if there was something distinctive that would allow them to differentiate one piece from another. The lab tech said they really didn't know, but told Morris to send over the evidence anyways and they would see what they could do. So Morris hung up, then found a few of his deputies in the station and told them they had to go do some tinsel collection while everybody in Burlington still had their decorations up.

So Morris and his team went all over Burlington going door to door collecting every bit of tinsel they could from everybody who had it in their home. Then he sent dozens and dozens of samples to the crime lab. And for the next several months, Morris waited and waited to hear back about the tinsel, but he didn't hear a word from the crime lab. And for the next several months, Morris waited and waited to hear back about the tinsel, but he didn't hear a word from the crime lab. Morris felt stuck. He had a few key details, like bullets from a 9mm gun, a bright blanket draped over the victim like it was tucking her in, and a family with clearly a lot of internal conflict.

But he didn't have enough information to arrest anybody, and so slowly and frustratingly, the case went cold. By February of 2009, one year and three months after Sarah was killed, her murder was no longer being actively investigated, but Morris was still thinking about it constantly. So, he was ecstatic when Sheriff Johnson called him into his office and told him they needed to give Sarah's case another shot. He assigned Morris to investigate Sarah's death as a cold case and to work on it full-time along with another detective.

The first thing Morris and his partner did was just to review the evidence they already had. They needed to basically refresh themselves on the details of the case. And as they were doing this, they decided that maybe the community needed a refresher too. So, they ran an article about Sarah's murder in a local paper to see if maybe any new leads came from it. That article ran in April of 2009. And just two months after it ran, on June 2nd, a man walked into the police station, approached the reception desk, and said that he had some information about what happened to Sarah Dixon.

Moments later, Morris and his partner sat the guy down inside of an interview room and asked him to introduce himself and tell them what he knew. The man said his name was Jamie Blaylock and that for the last year and a half, he'd been keeping a terrible secret. But when he saw that article about Sarah's murder the last year and a half, he'd been keeping a terrible secret. But when he saw that article about Sarah's murder come out a couple months earlier, he decided he had to finally get this off his chest. What Jamie told Morris and his partner next was absolutely shocking, and it completely changed the way Morris thought about Sarah Dixon's murder. And it would lead to him making not just one arrest like he had anticipated, you know,

finding her killer and arresting them, but instead Morris would make three arrests. But even with these three people now in custody, there were so many unanswered questions. That is, until Morris got some good news. The crime lab contacted the investigation team to say they had finally found a way to definitively test the tinsel found at the crime scene. And so they compared it to all the samples from the neighborhood and they found only one was a perfect match.

And when Morris heard whose home that particular sample had come from, everything clicked into place. Based on Jamie Blaylock's tip, a later confession and also evidence collected by investigators, the following is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Sarah Dixon on November 28, 2007. Late that night, the killer drove to Sarah's home and parked right outside of her house. But the killer wasn't alone. They had an accomplice. So the pair got out of the car and instead of going through the front door, which again would activate the lights, they followed a very precise path around the side of the house

and into the backyard. And then once they were back there, they stacked up right outside of the back door. They looked at each other and acknowledged they were ready. Then one of them kicked open the back door. They both went straight into the house and right to Sarah's bedroom. There, without hesitation, one of them pulled out a 9mm gun wrapped in a towel to try to muffle the sound. Then they raised the gun up, aimed it at Sarah's face, and fired twice. Once Sarah was dead, the killers decided they needed to do something to cover their tracks.

So they moved into the closest room, the one across the hall from Sarah's, and they messed it up as much as they could. They figured this would make it look like a robbery and nobody would realize what this really was, a cold-blooded execution. After they were done, they left the house, got back in their car and drove off. But later that evening, a third person entered Sarah's home. This person also came in through the back door,

which by this point had been kicked open. But as they entered, they accidentally brushed up against the jagged broken door frame, and the shards of wood caught a piece of tinsel that they didn't know was stuck to their pants. This third person did not realize this had happened with the tinsel and just continued on to Sarah's bedroom. When they got there, they stood by her bed and stared at her lifeless body. Her death was what this third person had wanted and planned for, but it was still shocking to actually see it in real life. And so in a way, this third person felt really bad.

And so they knew that Sarah loved her grandchildren very much, so they took her grandson's blanket from the crib at the foot of her bed and draped it over her body and tucked her in and then they left. When Morris learned about all of this, he was shocked. Because the entire time he'd been investigating Sarah's murder, he believed it was a personal crime committed by someone who knew her well. But he'd been wrong. The truth was, the people who broke into Sarah's home and shot her were complete strangers. They were a 34-year-old man named Thomas Friday and a 19-year-old man named Matthew Fields. However, they committed this crime because the third person, the last person to go into

Sarah's house after the crime, had paid them to do it. This third person did know Sarah personally. She had been like a mother to them for years, and they desperately wanted her to die. That third person was Sarah's stepson, Dennis Dixon. It would turn out Mike had been telling the truth when he said that Dennis was furious at Sarah for putting his father in a nursing home and spending the money he was supposed to inherit. But that wasn't all that Dennis was angry about. He was even more mad that Sarah and the lawyer had chosen to sell the property she lived on to continue to finance Cardwell's stay in the nursing home. Specifically, because the home

that Dennis lived in that was just two doors down from Sarah was actually on the 41 acres of land that she was going to sell. So Dennis knew that if that sale went through, he, his wife, and his kids could potentially lose their home. And he decided that the only way to avoid this was to get rid of Sarah for good. When the tipster, Jamie Blaylock, had come into the police station, he'd explained that he was friends with both Dennis Dixon and Thomas Friday. And he said that just a few months before Sarah was murdered, he'd overheard Dennis tell Thomas that he wanted Sarah out of the picture and he would pay someone to kill her. And once investigators had Thomas' name, they learned that he owned a 9mm pistol, which

would be confirmed to be the murder weapon. Investigators also looked into Thomas and Dennis' phone records as well as bank accounts, and they were able to confirm that Dennis had promised to pay Thomas $10,000 for the murder. As for Matthew Fields' involvement, he was Thomas' ex-girlfriend's son, and Thomas had convinced him to be his accomplice in exchange for a portion of the $10,000. However, despite knowing that those two were directly involved in this murder, prosecutors

were never able to conclusively prove whether it was Thomas or Matthew who actually pulled the trigger. As for the tinsel, once the crime lab was able to figure out a conclusive way to test it against other samples, they discovered that conclusively, it could only have come from one place, Dennis Dixon's home. Matthew Fields was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to commit murder,

and sentenced to 21 years in prison. Dennis Dixon and Thomas Friday were both found guilty of first degree murder and received life sentences without the possibility of parole. 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. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Bolland Podcast.

If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Bolland Podcast, as well as Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool, Redacted, Late Nights with'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 Bollin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Bollin.

So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. What if your partner developed 21 new identities?

Or you discovered that your friend who helped you through the darkest times was actually a conniving con artist? Or what if you began seeing demons everywhere inhabiting people around you, including your son? What would you do? I'm Whit Misseldine, the creator of This Is Actually Happening, a podcast that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. In our newest season, you'll hear even more intimate first-person accounts of how regular people have overcome remarkable circumstances. Like the man who went to jail for 17 years for accidentally shooting the person who tried to save his life. To a close friend of the infamous scam artist, Amanda Riley.

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