Murder: True Crime Stories - MYSTERIOUS DEATH: Unsolved Hotel Murders

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

In 1892, a woman calling herself Lottie Bernard checked into the Hotel del Coronado alone, sick, and afraid — and was found dead five days later, the bullet in her body not matching the gun she bought. Over forty years later, a young man registered as Roland T. Owen sat alone in a dark Kansas City hotel room with the door unlocked, as if waiting for whoever came to kill him. In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, Carter Roy investigates both cases — separated by decades and a thousand miles, but united by fake names, unanswered questions, and killers who were never found. Head over to our Murder True Crime Stories YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@MurderTrueCrimeStories If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder True Crime Stories to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios YouTube: @murdertruecrimestories To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, listeners, it's Carter Roy. Before we get into today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love, Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bot. Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena, and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files.

Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look. Hidden history drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. So you never miss a mystery. This is Crime House. A woman with a fake name. A young man trapped in a dark room. Two guests who checked into hotels and never made it out.

alive. Hotels hold secrets. Behind every closed door, there's a story no one else gets to see. Most of the time, those stories end when the guest checks out. But sometimes they don't end at all. In 1892, a woman arrived at one of California's most luxurious hotels. She was alone, had no luggage, and checked in under a name that wasn't hers. Five days later, She was found dead on a staircase leading down to the beach, a pistol by her side. The authorities called it a suicide, but the evidence told a very different story. Over 40 years later, on the other side of the country, a young man checked into another hotel under a fake name. He sat in the dark with the door unlocked like he was waiting for someone.

Days later, he was found beaten, stabbed, and strangled in his room. room. Somehow he was still alive, but even then, he refused to say who did this to him. When he put these cases side by side, the similarities are impossible to ignore, and they point to something far more disturbing than a coincidence. These are the cases of Kate Morgan and Artemis Ogletree. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end, but you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon and we don't always get to know the real ending.

I'm Carter Roy and this is murder. True Crime Stories, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come at every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thank you for being part of the crimehouse community. Please rate, review, and follow the show. And for ad-free access to every episode, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to another episode of Murder Mystery Fridays

where I'm covering unsolved cases with questions that I can't get out of my head. The ones where the evidence points in multiple directions and every theory feels like a possibility. Remember, these episodes are also on YouTube with full video. Just search for murder, true crime stories, and be sure to like and subscribe. Today, I'm covering not one but two.

unsolved murders and honestly these cases are bizarre and there's something about dying in a hotel under a name that isn't yours that's deeply unsettling and I can't help but wonder who were these people really and what were they so afraid of the first is Kate Morgan who died at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego in 1892 her death was ruled as suicide but the physical evidence doesn't add up, and it never has. And the second is a young man named Artemis Ogletree, who was found barely alive in a Kansas City hotel room in 1935. He'd checked in under a fake name, and after his death, someone went to extraordinary lengths to make sure no one came looking for him. His killer was

never found. These cases are separated by four decades and a thousand miles, but there's a one more thing that connects them, something that's a little harder to explain. Both hotels claim these victims never really left. Guests and staff at both properties have reported unexplained phenomena for decades. Strange sounds, cold spots, shadowy figures, and whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories of of Kate Morgan and Artemis Ogletree are a reminder that for some people, the mystery doesn't end with death.

All that and more coming up. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Hear that, that's your next obsession. Every coffee, a new world. Every sip, a new taste. This is the new Nespresso. One touch, endless possibilities. Iced, flavored, long, short,

because some days call for that espresso kick and sometimes a smooth silky latte just wins. It's exceptional but effortless, like actually effortless. Simply press, brew, and explore. Nispresso, what else? Keep exploring at nespresso.com. The Hotel del Coronado, known locally as the Dell, first opened its doors in 1888 on the Coronado Peninsula

just across the bay from San Diego, California. It was advertised as a modern, luxurious marvel. For about $2.50 a night, roughly $85 today, guests could enjoy ocean views, fine dining, and escape from the stress of everyday life. Honestly, sign me up. It's the kind of place people went to feel at peace. And peace was exactly what Kate Morgan seemed to be looking for when she arrived on November 24, 1892. She was in her mid-20s, although she looked older and worn down like someone. carrying a heavy burden. But Kate didn't check in under her real name. She told the front desk

she was Lottie A. Bernard from Detroit, Michigan. And from the very first moment, something about her seemed off. For starters, Kate had no luggage. She explained that she'd been traveling with her brother, but he'd gotten off the train in the city of Orange and accidentally taken their luggage claim checks with him. She didn't really explain why. he'd left her, but she promised the staff he'd be arriving soon. She also said her brother happened to be a doctor. This was important because Kate did not look good. She was pale and visibly sick. She told the hotel staff she had stomach cancer, though some people at the time had a different theory, which we'll get into later. Despite all that, Kate was well-dressed and seemed like she

could afford the room, so the Dell let her stay on credit while she waited for her brother to arrive. and settled a bill. Over the next several days, Kate checked in with the front desk repeatedly, asking if her brother had shown up. He never did. And no one else came to visit her either. And the longer she waited,

the worst things got. At around noon on November 28th, the fifth day of her stay, Kate called down to the front desk and asked for a bellboy named Harry West to come up and help dry her hair. She said she'd accidentally fallen into her bath and was too weak to manage on her own. It's not clear why she asked for Harry specifically.

It's possible he was just the bellboy she dealt with most during her stay. Harry immediately noticed that Kate was in rough shape. She was really weak, barely able to move around the room on her own, and yet she made sure to mention once again that her brother would be joining her soon. but that wasn't the only strange detail the staff noticed. Over the course of her stay, Kate had repeatedly asked Harry to bring her drinks from the bar, and glasses of wine and whiskey cocktails. Given how sick she seemed, this was pretty concerning,

but no matter how many times the hotel staff urged her to see a doctor, Kate refused every time. At this point, the Dell's clerk, a man named AS Going, Homer was getting suspicious. When Kate came down to the lobby, he asked her point blank whether she actually had the money to pay for her room. Kate didn't flinch. She told Gomer to send a telegram to a man named G.L. Allen in Hamburg, Iowa, and he'd take care of everything. We'll come back to G.L. Allen shortly, but for the moment, G.L. sent the telegram and left it at that.

then later that afternoon, Kate called for the bellboy Harry West again. This time she said she needed matches. She also asked him to bring up some papers she'd left at the front desk. Kate burned the documents in her fireplace, though nobody knows what they contained. By 4 or 5 p.m., Kate left the hotel, and despite how sick she was, She told another guest she was heading into San Diego to get her luggage from the train station, but that's not where she went first. Kate's first stop was a gun shop.

The owner later told investigators that Kate said she wanted to buy a pistol as a Christmas present for a friend. He sold her a revolver and cartridges and even showed her how to use it. No questions asked. after that Kate returned to the hotel. She never stopped at the train station for her luggage. At around 6.30 p.m. that evening, Harry West spotted Kate standing alone on a balcony, looking out at the ocean. I think about this moment a lot. A woman clearly sick, completely alone, a gun now in her possession, just standing there, watching the waves. It's heartbreaking. After that, Kate went down to the front desk one last time and asked

Gomer if anyone had sent her a letter or a telegram. Nobody had. That was the last time anyone at the hotel spoke to Kate Morgan. The next morning, November 29th, 1892 at around 7.30 a.m., the hotel's electrician found Kate's body outside. the building. She was lying on a set of steps that led from an upper level down toward the beach. The steps were covered in blood. And a pistol was lying beside her, apparently the same type she bought the day before. Working under the assumption that this was a suicide, the hotel contacted the coroner who came to collect Kate's body. That same morning, the funds for Kate's room arrived from G. L. Allen in Iowa. Gomer sent a reply, informing Alan that the guest he'd been

supporting, the woman Gomer knew as Lottie Bernard had died by suicide. Gomer never heard from G.L. Allen again. The next day, the coroner opened a formal inquest into the death. At that point, the authorities still had no idea that Lottie Bernard was an alias. Her daughter, Death was officially ruled a suicide, but the physical evidence told a very different story. Think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Karen retrial. Some crime cases are so shocking. They don't just make headlines they forever change a country. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's most infamous crimes. Each week, I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases, whether it's unfolding

now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed their society. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that kept detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes available now wherever you get your podcast. After 28-year-old Kate Morgan died at the Hotel Del Coronado in November 1892, the media took notice. The tragic story of a lonely, mysterious woman who'd taken her own life at one

of California's finest hotels was enough to sell papers on its own. But what sent the story into overdrive was the one thing the press couldn't get enough of. No one knew who she actually was. The name on the register was fake. No family came forward, no friends, no one at all. A woman had walked into one of the most famous hotels in the country, died under suspicious circumstances, and left behind nothing but questions. The San Diego police circulated a sketch of her around the country, and she became known by a nickname that stuck for over a century.

The beautiful stranger. It didn't take long for someone to come forward with a correction. Shortly after her death, an anonymous letter arrived at the coroner's office in San Diego. There was no return address, no signature, and no way to trace the sender. though many people think it was written by Thomas Morgan. Other way, the letter said that Lottie Bernard was actually a woman named Kate Morgan. On that answered one question, but it also split the case wide open. Here's what investigators were able to piece together about Kate's real life.

She was born Kate Farmer in 1864 in Fremont County, Iowa. her mother passed away when kate was about a year old and she was sent to live with her maternal grandfather kate's biological father didn't seem particularly interested in raising her he remarried and moved to texas without his daughter after that we don't know much but in december 1885 21-year-old kate married a man named thomas edwin morgan the following year they had a baby boy tragically he died just two days after he was born from an unknown illness the loss devastated kate and she eventually left thomas and ran off with another man but the next time she resurfaced she was alone again kate ended up in los angeles where she took a job as a housekeeper for a local man named l a grant

according to Grant's later recollections, Kate mentioned her husband Thomas a couple of times, but seemed to have moved on from him. She didn't even know where he was. By all accounts, Kate had a good reputation in L.A. She didn't stay out late, didn't have men around. There was no indication that anything was wrong. So when she left work on November 23, 1892, the day before Thanksgiving, Grant, fully expected her back the next morning. Instead, Kate left most of her possessions behind,

boarded a train to San Diego, and headed for the Hotel del Coronado. Now, here's where things get really interesting. After Kate's real name became public, witnesses came forward to say they'd seen her on the train arguing with a man, possibly a lover. This completely changed how people saw Kate's story. It suggested she hadn't traveled to San Diego alone. So, who was this guy, and where did he go? Some conspiracy theorists think Kate was heading to the Del for a romantic getaway, got into a fight with her companion, then told the hotel staff he was her brother to avoid a scandal. In 1892, an unmarried couple spending the night together would have been damaging enough. But if the man happened to be married, that would be even worse.

And there might have been another reason for all the secrecy. Remember, Kate told the hotel staff she had stomach cancer, but multiple people at the time suspected her illness was actually something else entirely. a pregnancy. If that were true, the social consequences in 1892 would have been devastating. Now, let's also talk about G.L. Allen, the man who wired money for Cates Hotel Room. Well, it turns out, Alan knew the real Lottie Bernard, or rather he knew her husband, a gambler named Tom Bernard. The actual Lottie Bernard had disappeared from Detroit about six weeks before Kate checked into the Dell. So Kate Morgan wasn't just using a random fake name.

She was pretending to be an actual person. As for why G.L. Allen sent the money, but seems like he simply recognized the name and wanted to help out. But this raises yet another question. How did Kate know about Lottie Bernard in the first place? Was she connected to the gambling world through her estranged husband, Thomas, or through the man she'd been seen arguing with on the train? None of this could ever be confirmed or denied. And without knowing who Kate's companion was, investigators hit a wall.

But the biggest problem with the suicide ruling wasn't about Kate's personal life. It was about the gun. In 1989, nearly a century after Kate's death, a lawyer named Alan May became fascinated by her story. He got his hands on a copy of the original coroner's inquest and started reviewing the evidence. One detail jumped out at him immediately, and it's a detail that should have raised red flags from the very beginning.

The pistol Kate bought at the first. gun shop on November 28th was a 44 caliber revolver. But the surgeon who examined Kate's body determined she was probably killed by a 38 or 40 caliber bullet. Those are not the same thing. If Kate had shot herself with the gun she purchased, the wound should have matched a 44 caliber round. And here's the other piece of the puzzle. Kate's a estranged husband, Thomas Morgan, was known to carry a firearm, one that could chamber 38 or 40 caliber ammunition. Now, to be clear, there's no evidence that Thomas Morgan was at the Hotel Del Coronado that week, but there's also no evidence that he wasn't. Investigators

never fully pursued the question. And the witness who saw Kate arguing with a man on the train, well, he was never identified. So let's lay out what we know. Kate arrived at the Dell under a false name, in the name of a real woman who'd recently disappeared. She told the staff she was expecting someone, a brother who didn't exist. She was visibly unwell and may have been pregnant,

but was drinking throughout her stay. She refused medical attention. She burned documents in her fireplace on the afternoon before she died, and we have no idea what was in them. And she bought a gun just hours before her death. But that gun probably didn't fire the bullet that killed her. If Kate took her own life,

she did it with a weapon no one can account for, not the one she purchased. And if someone else pulled the trigger, they had access to her, knew where she was, and did it. disappeared without a trace. The Hotel Del Coronado has historically treated Kate's death as a straightforward suicide,

but the ballistics evidence tells a different story, one that was never fully investigated. Was Kate Morgan murdered? And if so, by whom? Her estranged husband, Thomas, the mysterious man she was seen arguing with on the train, or someone else entirely? After more than 130 years, those questions remain unanswered, and Kate Morgan's death remains one of the oldest unsolved mysteries in California history. But if you ask the people who work and stay at the Dell, Kate may still be looking for answers

herself. Since her death, guests and staff have reported. some pretty strange stuff happening in room 3327, the room where Kate stayed. Lights flickering on and off without explanation. The chain on the ceiling fan swaying like someone had brushed past it, although the room was empty. Others have reported something even more unsettling. An imprint on the bed in the shape of a woman's body that wouldn't go away, no matter how many times staff tried to smooth the covers.

One guest staying in 3327 even said his blanket was ripped off in the middle of the night by what appeared to be the shadowy outline of a woman standing at the foot of the bed. Now, I know what you're thinking. Ghost stories. Easy to dismiss. But here's what makes the Dell unusual. In 1992, century after Kate's death, the hotel invited a paranormal researcher named Christopher Chaconne, to conduct a year-long investigation of the property.

He monitored temperatures, electrostatic emissions, air currents, vibrations, the works. He interviewed over 1,000 people, including guests, staff, and contractors. His conclusion, the Dell exhibited what he called a classic haunting, meaning the reported phenomena were consistent, repeatable, and concentrated in specific. specific locations, particularly room 3327. Whether you believe any of that or not, I think there's something meaningful underneath the ghost stories. If Kate Morgan was murdered, her case was closed almost immediately, ruled a suicide before anyone

even knew her real name. No one investigated. No one dug deeper. So maybe these alleged hauntings are about more. than spooky stories. Maybe they're the only way this case has stayed alive. The only reason anyone still talks about a woman who has written off over a century ago, and maybe Kate is the one making sure she isn't forgotten. But decades later, in a hotel room hundreds of miles away, another guest would arrive under a false name.

And his story would be even harder to explain. Most violent crimes that capture the public's imagination seem larger than life, but sometimes the most terrifying criminals are right next door. And he's just yelling. Matarroo miho, which translates to, they killed my son. On the Fear Thy Neighbor podcast from ID, we'll explore these true stories

and hear what happens when, neighborly disputes reached the point of no return. What do you want? Just this. Listen to fear thy neighbor wherever you get your podcasts. On January 2nd, 1935, over four decades after Kate Morgan's death in San Diego, a man walked into the president hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. He signed the register as Roland T. Owen and gave an address in Los Angeles.

Beyond that, he offered no other information. His appearance was hard to pin down. Witnesses placed him anywhere from 20 to 35 years old. He had a cauliflower ear, the kind you get from fighting or possibly boxing. And like Kate Morgan before him, he arrived without any luggage. But what made Roland stand out wasn't what he did or didn't bring with him. It was how he behaved. Later that day, a maid named Mary Soptic went up to Roland's room to clean it.

When she stepped inside, she found him sitting in the dark. The curtains were drawn tight. The only light came from a small desk lamp. Mary could tell something was wrong. Roland seemed anxious, scared even, like he was dreading something he knew was coming. But what really struck Mary was his request as she was leaving. He asked her not to lock the door behind her. In those days, hotel staff.

routinely locked guest room doors when they left, but Roland was insistent, leave it unlocked. He reminded her again before she finished. He wanted to make sure someone could get in. The next morning, Mary returned to clean again. On this time, she noticed the door had been locked from the outside. She assumed Roland had gone out for the day, but when she entered the room, he was inside, which meant someone else had locked the door, trapping Roland inside. As Mary tidied up, the phone in the room rang, Roland answered, and Mary overheard part of the conversation. Roland said, no, Dawn, I don't want to eat. I am not hungry. I just had breakfast. So now there was a name. Dawn. Someone Roland knew, someone who apparently knew what room he was in.

and someone who seemed to be keeping tabs on him. That afternoon, when Mary came back with fresh towels, Roland was no longer alone. When she knocked on the door, a man inside yelled at her to go away. Mary didn't push the issue. She moved on to the next room and went about her day. That night, a woman staying in the room next to Roland's heard a commotion through the wall. She heard men and women shouting.

She considered calling the front desk to complain, but ultimately decided against it and went back to sleep. That detail matters. It means there was more than one person in Roland's room that night. It's possible there was Roland, the man from before, and a mystery woman. Then, around 7 a.m. the next morning, the hotel's telephone operator noticed that the phone in Roland's room was off the hook, but there was no active call on the line. After about 10 minutes of this, the operator sent a bellhop up to ask Roland to hang up the phone.

The bellhop knocked on the door. A man inside told him to come in and turn on the light. But the door was locked and the bellhop couldn't get in. Figuring Roland was just drunk, the bellhop shouted through the door for him to hang up the phone and went back downstairs. Okay, let's pause here for a second. A voice from inside the room told the bellhop to come in and turn on the light, but the door was locked.

If it was Roland speaking, why couldn't he unlock it himself? And if it wasn't Roland, then someone else was still in that room. An hour later, the phone was still off the hook, so the operator sent another bellhop, and this time he used a master key. Like always, the room was dark and hard to see. The bellhop could make out Roland lying on the bed apparently passed out. The nightstand with the phone had been knocked over. The bellhop fixed it, put the receiver back on the hook, and went on his way.

But two hours after that, the phone was off the hook yet again. So up went another bellhop master key in hand. he opened the door, and this time Roland wasn't on the bed. He was on the floor, about two feet from the threshold. He was on his knees and elbows with his hands pressed against his head. And when the bellhop turned on the light, the room was covered in blood. Hotel staff notified the police who rushed over. What they found in room 1046 was horrific.

Roland had been stabbed multiple times in the chest. He'd been struck in the head so hard that his skull was fractured. Bruising around his neck suggested he'd been strangled and he'd been bound with a cord which explained the contorted position the bellhop found him in. And yet, against all odds, Roland was still alive. When investigators asked him what happened, Roland's answer was almost absurd. He said he'd hurt himself falling on the bathtub.

The police weren't buying it, given the restraints, the stab wounds, the fractured skull, and the strangulation marks, there was no way this was self-inflicted. Someone had done this to him, but Roland refused to name anyone. Whether he was protecting his attacker, afraid of retaliation, or simply too far gone to speak clearly, we'll never know. Shortly after the police arrived, Roland fell into a coma. He died from his injuries the next day. The investigation that followed raised as many questions as it answered. For one thing, the room had been stripped.

Roland's clothes were missing, so were all the stand. hotel supplies, shampoo, soap, towels, someone had gone to the trouble of clearing the scene. And then there was the guest next door. The one who'd heard men and women shouting through the wall, that was never explained. The police weren't able to identify who else had been in the room or on the floor, male or female. Then there was the matter of Roland's identity. When police ran the name, Roland T. Owen, it led nowhere. Like Kate Morgan's alias, Lottie Bernard, it was totally fake. Nobody by that name existed at the Los Angeles address he'd given. Police tried to identify the mysterious dawn from the phone call, but that trail went cold, too.

No one at the hotel recognized the name or could identify any of Roland's visitors. The man who yelled at Mary Soptic through the door was never found. For a year and a half, the case sat dormant. There were no leads, no suspects, and no real identity for the victim. It seemed like Roland T. Owen would remain a ghost. Until the fall of 1936, when a woman in Birmingham, Alabama, picked up a newspaper. Her name was Ruby Ogletree. And the moment she saw the article about the unsolved murder at the president hotel, her blood ran cold.

The victim looked just like her son, Artemis. Ruby hadn't seen Artemis since he'd left home in April, 1934. About eight months before his death, she said he was 19 at the time. But here's where the story takes a deeply disturbing turn. In the spring of 1935, after Artemis was already dead, Ruby had received a handful of typed letters that appeared to be from her son. They said he was heading to Europe and that everything was fine. Then that August, a man in Tennessee had called Ruby to say that Artemis was in Cairo, Egypt.

The man explained that Artemis couldn't write or call himself because he'd lost a thumb in a fight. It was a convenient story, well, too convenient and Ruby wasn't falling for it. She contacted the police, but the letters were typed, no handwriting to trace, and the phone call couldn't be tracked to a specific individual. The trail ended before it even started. someone had gone to significant lengths to impersonate Artemis after his death, to make sure his own mother didn't come looking for him. That takes planning.

That takes cold-blooded calculation. And it strongly suggests that whoever killed Artemis didn't act in a moment of rage or passion. This was deliberate, premeditated, and carried out by someone who understood that a missing person's report could unravel. the whole thing. The question is, why? At 19 or 20 years old, Artemis Ogletree was barely an adult. What could he have been involved in that would lead to this kind of violence and this kind of cover-up? Some theories focus on the mysterious dawn. Was he an older associate who lured Artemis into something dangerous, a criminal accomplice, a predator? The fact that Artis is a predator? The fact that Art of Artemis asked the maid to leave his door unlocked suggests he was expecting someone,

and the fact that he was later locked in from the outside suggests that person had power over him. And then there's the detail that doesn't fit neatly into any of those theories. The woman next door heard women's voices too, not just men. Were other people involved? Did Artemis have a wider circle in Kansas City than anyone realized? Police never found out. Others have speculated about organized crime. Kansas City in the 1930s was a hub for mob activity, corruption, and vice.

The city was under the thumb of political boss Tom Pendergast, and violence was commonplace. It's possible Artemis got tangled up with the wrong people and paid the ultimate price. The thorough cleanup, stripping the room of evidence, sending face. letters to his mother planting a story about him being overseas points to people who knew how to make problems disappear but the most chilling detail might be the simplest one when the police asked Artemis what happened he could have named his attacker he was still conscious he could speak and yet he said nothing whatever Rollin T. Owen was afraid of in that dark hotel room. It was something he feared even more than death.

Sadly, Ruby Ogletree never found out who killed her son or why he ended up in Kansas City. She was never able to identify Dawn or any of Artemis' associates, and neither was anyone else. The case went cold and has remained unsolved for nearly a century. Just like Kate Morgan at the Hotel del Coronado, some say Artemis never truly left the place where he died. The president hotel, now known as the Hotel President, has long been considered one of the most haunted buildings in Kansas City. Guests and staff have reported cold spots, unexplained footsteps in empty hallways, and faint sounds of music with no apparent sounds. source. Whether those stories have anything to do with Artemis Ogletree is anyone's guess, but it's hard not to make the connection. A young man murdered in a dark room, his real name

unknown for over a year, his killer never caught. If any spirit had a reason to linger, it would be his. When you put these two cases side by side, the parallels are hard to ignore. Kate Morgan and Artemis Ogletree both checked into a hotel under fake names. Both appeared to be waiting for someone. Both seemed anxious and afraid, and both died under circumstances that were never fully explained. In Kate's case, the authorities ruled her death of suicide, but the bullet that killed her didn't match the gun she bought. In Artemis' case, the murder was obvious, but the killer was never found, and someone went to a gun. extraordinary lengths to conceal his death from the people who loved him.

And in both cases, the cover-up started almost immediately. Kate's death was written off as a suicide before anyone even knew her real name. Artemis's killer stripped the room clean and then spent months sending letters and making phone calls to keep his mother from asking questions. These are the kind of cases that haunt you. not because they're gory or sensational, but because they're incomplete. Two people walked into a hotel running from something or someone who caught up with them. It goes to show that some mysteries don't fade with time.

They just get more unsettling. And that some guests, they never really check out. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of another murder and all the people it affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram.

Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes it. difference. And to enhance your murder true crime stories listening experience, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free. We'll be back on Tuesday. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. This episode is brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertowski, Lori Marinelli, Cassidy Dylan and Russell Nash.

Thank you for listening. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's most infamous crimes. Each week, I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes available now wherever you get your podcast. Looking for your next listen, check out Hidden History with Dr. Horini Bot. Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious. vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies,

and events that science still can't fully explain. Follow Hidden History Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.