Episodes

  • The Neighbor Who Lived in Her Life: The Quiet Theft of Susan Reed

    The Neighbor Who Lived in Her Life: The Quiet Theft of Susan Reed
    25 Oct 2026
    The Neighbor Who Lived in Her Life: The Quiet Theft of Susan Reed

    Cold, intimate, and methodical: a stranger rebuilt a woman's life around her until the smallest forgery unmasked him. Seven sealed change-of-address forms, one near-perfect signature, and a single loop in a lowercase letter unraveled ten months of careful construction - but how did no one notice until a Meals on Wheels volunteer opened a closet?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline of what happened to Susan Reed and the steps the person who moved into her house took to erase her presence in everyday life. You will hear how routine details - choir emails, bank withdrawals, a saved house key - became the seams of a larger deception and why one tiny handwriting trait ended months of claimed innocence.

    Person: Susan Reed
    Date: January 23, 2017
    Location: Pratt Street, Millhaven, Iowa
    Age: 44
    Object: Seven sealed envelopes containing change-of-address forms

    - Susan had lived in the same Pratt Street house for 19 years and paid it off in 2015 with a stated value of $340,000.
    - Alan Hamilton reconnected with Susan in March 2016, brought her heirloom tomato plants in August 2016, and moved into her house on January 2, 2017.
    - Hamilton visited Susan’s house four nights a week by October 2016 and had a bedroom drawer by November 2016.
    - On January 4, 2017, Hamilton created a secondary email on Susan’s open laptop and scheduled a medical leave message to the choir director, redirecting correspondence.
    - On January 10, 2017, two ATM withdrawals totaling $4,200 were shown on Susan’s account, made eight miles west of her house using her original card.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • He Engineered Her Doubt: How a Trainer Stole Her Reality

    He Engineered Her Doubt: How a Trainer Stole Her Reality
    24 Oct 2026
    He Engineered Her Doubt: How a Trainer Stole Her Reality

    A woman’s gym bag, unzipped and abandoned by a storm drain with a size-seven sneaker still inside, carried a membership form bearing Christine Schultz’s name - but the printed name on that form had been surgically cut away. Who would assemble a trail of false evidence over almost a year to make a methodical, savings-minded woman question her own memory, and why?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a morning call about a stranded bag to the detective’s careful processing of that bag and the discoveries that followed, asking how routine favors and measured attention became tools to erase a person’s certainty.

    Person: Christine Schultz
    Age: 28
    Location: Harwick (Paxton Lane)
    Date: December 2019 (gym bag found morning of a Tuesday)
    Person: Troy Taylor

    - Gym bag found at edge of a storm drain on a Tuesday morning in December 2019, unzipped with a size-seven sneaker inside.
    - Christine Schultz had saved $9,000 in a dedicated savings account over four years before it was drained to zero by 11 ATM withdrawals between September and November 2019.
    - Christine joined Pinnacle Fitness in January 2019 and was assigned trainer Troy Taylor, age 34, who managed roughly 20 clients.
    - Christine missed five consecutive Thursday dinners with her aunt Norma after last speaking to her in late November 2019.
    - The membership form in the bag had a name printed in blue ink “Christine Schultz” and a clean cut removing the original printed name; paper stock dated at least two years before Christine joined Pinnacle.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • He Stole My Memory: How a Partner Rewrote an Inventor's Life

    He Stole My Memory: How a Partner Rewrote an Inventor's Life
    23 Oct 2026
    He Stole My Memory: How a Partner Rewrote an Inventor's Life

    A man's entire documentary life vanished into a river and reappeared months later in a leather portfolio initialed E.C.O., fourteen pages of handwritten notes and a patent-attorney letter dated before the company existed - so who would quietly relocate a creator's proof of authorship? What happens when the paper trail you trust is slowly rewritten until you begin to doubt your own memory?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the first administrative change to the discovery of the portfolio and the forensic review that followed, outlining how routine filings and meeting notes became the battlefield for authorship. What did the altered headers and routed documentation ultimately reveal about the partnership and the man who started to lose his claim?

    Person: Edward Olson
    Person: Stanley Evans
    Location: Dellard Crossing
    Date: November 9, 2019
    Consultant: Lloyd Dalton

    - Portfolio contained fourteen pages of handwritten notes, a yellowed business card, and a patent-attorney letter.
    - Notes were dated earlier than the founding of Halverton Adaptive Systems (founded spring 2007).
    - Halverton had three regional distribution contracts by 2011 and was solvent by 2009.
    - In spring 2010 Evans offered to route all product-development documentation through himself.
    - The portfolio was tangled in a trotline at Dellard Crossing on November 9, 2019.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • He Put His Name on Her Mailbox Before the Mourning Ended

    He Put His Name on Her Mailbox Before the Mourning Ended
    22 Oct 2026
    He Put His Name on Her Mailbox Before the Mourning Ended

    A fresh "SAWYER" decal appeared on the mailbox at the end of Aldermoor Lane less than 24 hours after Gerry Norris died-an action that went unnoticed for four months until it surfaced at a zoning meeting and made a local attorney sit very still. How did a man with an expired counseling license use grief, a casserole, and a handwritten number to enter and then dismantle a 22-year-old woman's life?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from Gerry Norris's death to the moment Julie Norris began to be isolated, tracing each contact, visit, and decision that enabled that isolation to take hold. What happened in roughly one hundred days that shifted a stable, connected life into one controlled by an outsider?

    Person: Gerry Norris
    Person: Julie Norris
    Person: Lloyd Sawyer
    Date: September 28, 2019
    Location: Aldermoor Lane, Tindall County

    - The SSA decal "SAWYER" was fresh on the Aldermoor Lane mailbox less than 24 hours after Gerry Norris died.
    - County surveyor Ross Schultz noticed the decal in October 2019 while running a boundary check on the adjacent parcel.
    - Gerry Norris was 67 years old and had been in cardiac monitoring with his doctor tracking his heart for two years.
    - Julie Norris was 22 years old in summer 2019 and had volunteered every Thursday for six consecutive years at the Millhaven Food Pantry.
    - Lloyd Sawyer's counseling license had expired in 2016, three years before he arrived at the velatorio with a casserole and a handwritten phone number.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • He Hired Her Lawyer - Who Secretly Built Her Financial Cage

    He Hired Her Lawyer - Who Secretly Built Her Financial Cage
    21 Oct 2026
    He Hired Her Lawyer - Who Secretly Built Her Financial Cage

    Fear and fascination collide: a waterproof sleeve pulled from a septic tank in Fallbrook in September 2019 held $214,000 in documents that proved months of careful erasure, and the man Lauren Jensen paid to protect her was the same man quietly constructing the trap. How do two men coordinate a years-long campaign that looks like normal life until a single buried record exposes everything?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the prepaid phone purchase in September 2015 through the hidden incorporations and the January meeting that preceded a divorce filing, laying out the tactics, timeline, and the central question of agency and betrayal: how was Lauren’s life dismantled step by step?

    Person: Lauren Jensen
    Person: Marcus Jensen
    Person: Duane Stevens
    Date: September 2019
    Amount: $214,000

    - A plumber's rod struck a waterproof document sleeve sealed to the inlet pipe fourteen inches below the sludge line of a septic tank.
    - The sleeve contained $214,000 worth of evidence and was zip-tied and sealed against decomposition.
    - A prepaid phone bought at a gas station 22 miles outside Fallbrook in September 2015 showed up on Duane Stevens's credit card.
    - Marcus and Stevens were in contact by September 2015, two years before Lauren met Stevens and before the divorce filing.
    - Six weeks before Lauren's January meeting with Stevens, a holding company for two of Marcus's commercial properties was incorporated without Lauren's name.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The Neighbor Who Stole a Life: How They Took Wade's World

    The Neighbor Who Stole a Life: How They Took Wade's World
    20 Oct 2026
    The Neighbor Who Stole a Life: How They Took Wade's World

    A retired teacher was found at his kitchen table with ninety cents in his account and one dress shoe on the porch - but no signs of violence. How did a stranger dismantle Wade Wagner’s finances and social world over eleven months without leaving a conventional crime scene?

    In this episode, we walk through the sequence of events that led from a staged utility visit to intimate neighborly trust, and trace the practical actions that left Wade isolated and impoverished - how did someone exploit routine kindness to erase a life?

    Person: Wade Wagner
    Date: August 11, 2019
    Location: 414 Fenwick Road
    Condition: Dehydrated; cognitively intact per interview
    Intruder alias: Clifford Bell

    - At 6:41 AM on August 11, 2019, a neighbor found a single dress shoe on the back steps and reported it to Mineral Basin PD.
    - Wade Wagner, age 62, was found sitting at his kitchen table in one sock with his car missing and his bank account containing $0.90.
    - On August 3, 2018, a man in a van labeled “Vantage Utility Services” spent 40 minutes in Wade’s basement; that company was not registered in Ohio.
    - Clifford Bell appeared in mid-September 2018 at a Kroger and introduced himself as a new neighbor; by November 2018 he was Wade’s primary practical support.
    - Bell rented a room on Brentwood Street four blocks from Fenwick Road and used a prepaid phone number activated three days before the fake utility visit and disconnected the following Monday.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    25 min
  • The Tank Kept Running: How They Erased Vernon Slowly

    The Tank Kept Running: How They Erased Vernon Slowly
    19 Oct 2026
    The Tank Kept Running: How They Erased Vernon Slowly

    The hum of a fish tank shielded a disappearance that unfolded over years: the filter still ran, the fifty-gallon cichlid tank kept its cycles, and Vernon Tillman stayed away for eleven days before anyone noticed. Rent records show his stabilized lease cost the owner an estimated $8,000 a year in lost income - but how do noise complaints, sabotage, and a vanished thirty-one-month notebook add up to an erasure that was deliberate?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events and the documents that track them, from tenancy changes to maintenance errors and manufactured complaints, asking whether a coordinated campaign can steadily unmake a person’s life without immediate violence or a single obvious culprit.

    Person: Vernon Tillman
    Date: July 19, 2017
    Location: Unit 4-C, Morrow Arms, Clement Street
    Topic: Thirty-one months of handwritten observations; missing notebook
    Status: Tenant on rent-stabilized lease paying $712 per month

    - Vernon fed his West African cichlids at 6:15 AM and 6:15 PM every day and kept a notebook on the windowsill with 31 months of observations.
    - The building was acquired by Sarah Whitaker’s Clement Street Properties in January 2011 and eight of nine units were converted to market-rate within two years.
    - Owner estimated a loss of approximately $8,000 per year due to Vernon’s rent-stabilized lease versus market rent.
    - Seven noise complaints were filed against Unit 4-C between March and November 2012, each resulting in a formal warning letter to Vernon.
    - Maintenance alterations from 2013 onward included an undersized bathroom exhaust fan causing mold and an improperly repaired pipe creating low-frequency vibration.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • The Pastor's Journal: How a Counselor Cataloged Thirty-One Secrets

    The Pastor's Journal: How a Counselor Cataloged Thirty-One Secrets
    18 Oct 2026
    The Pastor's Journal: How a Counselor Cataloged Thirty-One Secrets

    Fear that the person you trust to hold your truths is quietly weighing them as weapons - a leather-bound journal held thirty-one confessions, gilt-edged and bone dry, annotated in a second ink for how much damage each secret could do; who else signed off on transfers totaling $41,200 and why was Mark Tucker's name stamped inside? What was the plan written across forty-seven pages?

    In this episode, we present the documented sequence of events recorded in that journal and the surrounding financial and professional traces, laying out who was involved and what unfolded as questions about intent and trust emerged. Could a licensed counselor use his access to dismantle a community leader?

    Person: Mark Tucker
    Person: Terry Whitfield
    Date: June 9, 2017
    Event: Forty-seven dated entries over sixteen months
    Amount: $41,200

    - Journal found by Edward Erickson at 4:50 a.m, on June 9, 2017, on Route 9 in Hollowell County, Tennessee.
    - Journal contained forty-seven dated entries spanning sixteen months and listed thirty-one names.
    - Eleven of the forty-seven pages in the journal were entries written about Mark Tucker himself.
    - Over fourteen months transfers totaling $41,200 were withdrawn from Tucker personally and the church discretionary account, labeled as charges to Covenant Resource Group LLC.
    - Terry Whitfield, age forty-one, held a master's degree and a valid Tennessee pastoral counseling license and had done renovation work at Calvary Road Community Church four years earlier.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min