Charles C Morgan

This week we talk about a pair of murders, but only one of them is real. The other one is fake.

This week we talk about a pair of murders, but only one of them is real. The other one is fake.

Charles C Morgan & Ross Wilkens

These are some high stakes prank phone calls folks.

These are some high stakes prank phone calls folks.

Pranknet

In this episode we get to the bottom of the big question, are ghosts real? Okay, not really. We mostly just make up non-sense for an hour.

In this episode we get to the bottom of the big question, are ghosts real? Okay, not really. We mostly just make up non-sense for an hour.

Are Ghosts Real?

A man died of a heart attack alone in his hotel room. Or did he?

A man died of a heart attack alone in his hotel room. Or did he?

Room 348

We try to tell a complicated and nuanced historical tale. We'll probably mess it up.

We try to tell a complicated and nuanced historical tale. We'll probably mess it up.

The Battle of Alesia

Part 2 of our annual Halloween Spooktacular. We read scary stories and share some costume ideas.

Part 2 of our annual Halloween Spooktacular. We read scary stories and share some costume ideas.

2018 Halloween Spooktacular: Part 2

It's the Halloween Spooktacular! We're reading some scary stories in this one. Turn off the lights and turn on your lights. Rave.

It's the Halloween Spooktacular! We're reading some scary stories in this one. Turn off the lights and turn on your lights. Rave.

2018 Halloween Spooktacular: Part 1

Hey guys, someone like straight up scammed McDonald's. That's pretty crazy huh?

Hey guys, someone like straight up scammed McDonald's. That's pretty crazy huh?

The McDonald's Monopoly Scam

There's an octopus in Oklahoma. Idk we didn't really try on this one.

There's an octopus in Oklahoma. Idk we didn't really try on this one.

The Oklahoma Octopus

Larry Walters

A man strapped himself to a lawn chair and tried to launch himself into the sky.

A man strapped himself to a lawn chair and tried to launch himself into the sky.

A podcast where two long-time friends solve all the mysteries those trained professionals can't seem to figure out.

I had the “pleasure” of listening to the Waco Siege episode first. It is difficult to make this interesting subject a slog to listen to, but they succeeded. You know the podcast is bad when they have to put a disclaimer at the begging admitting they are idiots. If I had to describe this podcast to someone, I’d say it was the Waco of podcasts, but much worse.

Boring

I was listening to the episode about Johnny Gosche and was quite put off with the way they chose to talk about a missing 12 year old. It was quite callus and while something’s can be funny; a woman losing it because of her child being missing isn’t. They talked about a missing persons case like it was a review of SNL. Not cool. At all.

Need to be more aware of themselves

MysteriYES

Diane Schuler

Have you ever been in a car crash Zach? I’ve been in twoLeaving schoolTarget parking lot This week’s mystery involves a car crash. In fact an incredibly tragic car crash. At 9:30 July 26 of 2009 Diane Schuler along with her husband Daniel Schuler left the Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville, New York. Daniel rode alone in his pickup truck while Diane took her brother’s 2003 red Ford Windstar. Riding with Diane were her 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter along her her brother’s three daughters ages 8,7, and 5. Around 9:00 Diane’s brother Warren Hance received a call from his oldest daughter. She said everything was going well and they had had a great time on their trip and were looking forward to getting home. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1IrRCNyWXLqSg3dIGPzzL7W8HEws&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=41.48049430966268%2C-74.2663015&amp;z=9 Daniel left first with Diane following close behind. As they left they said goodbye to one of the campground’s co-owners who would later say that everything seemed fine. Daniel immediately started driving to their home in West Babylon, NY while Diane made a planned stop to get gas and breakfast for the kids. Diane then went to a mcdonalds in Liberty New York then to a Sunoco across the street. There is surveillance footage showed her at both locations and by all accounts everything seemed normal. The most disturbing thing so far is that the she chose to go to mcdonalds rather than the wendy’s across the street. Wendys.com/mysteriyes. At 11:37 Diane called her sister in law Jackie Hance to tell her they were running late. According to Jackie they had a friendly conversation before Diane went back to driving.  A witness claims that at 12 that same day they saw a red minivan swerving between lanes along the route that Diane and the kids were supposed to be taking. According to the witness he saw a woman who appeared to be very focussed on driving the car. The witness also said the driver wasn’t drifting between lanes but rather changing rather aggressively and with, “some degree of precision”. Other witnesses reported seeing Diane on the side of the road at least two times with her hands on her knees as if she was vomiting. At 12:55 a wrong number was dialed from Diane’s phone.  Around 1 pm there was call made to Warren Hance from Diane’s cell phone. This time it was one of Diane’s nieces calling to tell her father that her aunt Diane was having trouble seeing and speaking clearly. Diane then talked to Hance and said that she was disoriented and couldn’t see clearly. It’s probable at this time that the group had pulled into a pull-off area just past the Tappan Zee Bridge toll booths. Hance reportedly told Schuler to stop driving until he could come up and meet them. The call lasted about 2 ½ minutes and was ended abruptly. Around 1:10 there were 3 more calls from Diane’s phone that were all wrong numbers. At 1:15 tried to call Diane back but the call went to voicemail because at this point Diane’s phone had been left on a guardrail on the side of the road. It’s not exactly clear the route they took from there, but the next thing we know happens at 1:33 two drivers call 911 after noticing Diane edging onto the northbound exit ramp of the Taconic State Parkway. The ramp was clearly marked with do not enter and one way signs. Within the next minute there were four more 911 calls from people who reported a car driving the wrong way down the parkway going ~75-85mph. The van then went almost two miles further down the highway before colliding head on at ~1:35pm. It was estimated that Diane was traveling at somewhere near 85 mph on impact. Diane, her daughter, and two of her nieces were dead at the scene of the crash, along with the three men in the car they crashed into. The third niece and Diane’s 5 year old son suffered severe injuries and were rushed to the hospital. The niece died later that day and Diane’s son sustained broken bones and severe head trauma. So what happened? I think first we should talk about who Diane Schuler was. She was a mother of two who worked a well respected banking job in which she made over $100,000 a year. She was a headstrong person who, by all reports, was a happy and healthy woman. People who knew her claimed that they had never seen her in a drunken state (over 50 people attested to that fact). With that it mind it came as quite a shock that a toxicology report showed that Diane had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 or approximately 10 drinks. The report also said that she had high levels of THC which indicated marijuana use. This, compounded by the fact that a large bottle of vodka had been in the passenger seat would probably indicate that she was simply drunk driving. However, this was completely dismissed as a possibility by anyone who knew Diane who insisted that she would never have done something like that. There was also testimony from the campground owner who said Diane seemed sober when she left as well as a gas station employee who said that they “knew for a fact that she wasn’t drunk when she came into the station” and several McDonald’s employees who didn’t see any signs of intoxication when ordering her food. One theory put forward by Diane’s family is that she must have suffered a stroke, aneurysm or embolism. Diane had been suffering from an abscess in her mouth for several weeks that had reportedly caused her a great deal of pain. She also had an unidentified lump in her leg. This was ruled out by officials after an autopsy showed no sign of a stroke, aneurysm or heart attack. Another theory is that the pain Diane was suffering lead her to a point of delirium in which she became confused and in an attempt to alleviate the pain she was feeling tried to self medicate with alcohol. Perhaps this lead to her drinking more than she had intended and she simply began to spiral out of control. I don’t know how much I really believe either of those theories. (Talk about closeted alcoholism) Diane’s mother left at a very early ageShe was the only girl in the family.She never reconciled with her mother even though her brothers didShe was a very private person who never talked about her emotionsShe was a perfectionist No matter what happens and no matter who you want to cast blame on I think, at the end of the day, this is just a horrific tragedy.

Have you ever been in a car crash Zach? I’ve been in two<ul><li>Leaving school</li><li>Target parking lot</li></ul> This week’s mystery involves a car crash. In fact an incredibly tragic car crash. At 9:30 July 26 of 2009 Diane Schuler along with her husband Daniel Schuler left the Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville, New York. Daniel rode alone in his pickup truck while Diane took her brother’s 2003 red Ford Windstar. Riding with Diane were her 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter along her her brother’s three daughters ages 8,7, and 5. Around 9:00 Diane’s brother Warren Hance received a call from his oldest daughter. She said everything was going well and they had had a great time on their trip and were looking forward to getting home. <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1IrRCNyWXLqSg3dIGPzzL7W8HEws&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=41.48049430966268%2C-74.2663015&amp;z=9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1IrRCNyWXLqSg3dIGPzzL7W8HEws&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=41.48049430966268%2C-74.2663015&amp;z=9</a> Daniel left first with Diane following close behind. As they left they said goodbye to one of the campground’s co-owners who would later say that everything seemed fine. Daniel immediately started driving to their home in West Babylon, NY while Diane made a planned stop to get gas and breakfast for the kids. Diane then went to a mcdonalds in Liberty New York then to a Sunoco across the street. There is surveillance footage showed her at both locations and by all accounts everything seemed normal. The most disturbing thing so far is that the she chose to go to mcdonalds rather than the wendy’s across the street. <a href="http://Wendys.com/mysteriyes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wendys.com/mysteriyes</a>. At 11:37 Diane called her sister in law Jackie Hance to tell her they were running late. According to Jackie they had a friendly conversation before Diane went back to driving. A witness claims that at 12 that same day they saw a red minivan swerving between lanes along the route that Diane and the kids were supposed to be taking. According to the witness he saw a woman who appeared to be very focussed on driving the car. The witness also said the driver wasn’t drifting between lanes but rather changing rather aggressively and with, “some degree of precision”. Other witnesses reported seeing Diane on the side of the road at least two times with her hands on her knees as if she was vomiting. At 12:55 a wrong number was dialed from Diane’s phone. Around 1 pm there was call made to Warren Hance from Diane’s cell phone. This time it was one of Diane’s nieces calling to tell her father that her aunt Diane was having trouble seeing and speaking clearly. Diane then talked to Hance and said that she was disoriented and couldn’t see clearly. It’s probable at this time that the group had pulled into a pull-off area just past the Tappan Zee Bridge toll booths. Hance reportedly told Schuler to stop driving until he could come up and meet them. The call lasted about 2 ½ minutes and was ended abruptly. Around 1:10 there were 3 more calls from Diane’s phone that were all wrong numbers. At 1:15 tried to call Diane back but the call went to voicemail because at this point Diane’s phone had been left on a guardrail on the side of the road. It’s not exactly clear the route they took from there, but the next thing we know happens at 1:33 two drivers call 911 after noticing Diane edging onto the northbound exit ramp of the Taconic State Parkway. The ramp was clearly marked with do not enter and one way signs. Within the next minute there were four more 911 calls from people who reported a car driving the wrong way down the parkway going ~75-85mph. The van then went almost two miles further down the highway before colliding head on at ~1:35pm. It was estimated that Diane was traveling at somewhere near 85 mph on impact. Diane, her daughter, and two of her nieces were dead at the scene of the crash, along with the three men in the car they crashed into. The third niece and Diane’s 5 year old son suffered severe injuries and were rushed to the hospital. The niece died later that day and Diane’s son sustained broken bones and severe head trauma. So what happened? I think first we should talk about who Diane Schuler was. She was a mother of two who worked a well respected banking job in which she made over $100,000 a year. She was a headstrong person who, by all reports, was a happy and healthy woman. People who knew her claimed that they had never seen her in a drunken state (over 50 people attested to that fact). With that it mind it came as quite a shock that a toxicology report showed that Diane had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 or approximately 10 drinks. The report also said that she had high levels of THC which indicated marijuana use. This, compounded by the fact that a large bottle of vodka had been in the passenger seat would probably indicate that she was simply drunk driving. However, this was completely dismissed as a possibility by anyone who knew Diane who insisted that she would never have done something like that. There was also testimony from the campground owner who said Diane seemed sober when she left as well as a gas station employee who said that they “knew for a fact that she wasn’t drunk when she came into the station” and several McDonald’s employees who didn’t see any signs of intoxication when ordering her food. One theory put forward by Diane’s family is that she must have suffered a stroke, aneurysm or embolism. Diane had been suffering from an abscess in her mouth for several weeks that had reportedly caused her a great deal of pain. She also had an unidentified lump in her leg. This was ruled out by officials after an autopsy showed no sign of a stroke, aneurysm or heart attack. Another theory is that the pain Diane was suffering lead her to a point of delirium in which she became confused and in an attempt to alleviate the pain she was feeling tried to self medicate with alcohol. Perhaps this lead to her drinking more than she had intended and she simply began to spiral out of control. I don’t know how much I really believe either of those theories. (Talk about closeted alcoholism) <ul><li>Diane’s mother left at a very early age<ul><li>She was the only girl in the family.<ul><li>She never reconciled with her mother even though her brothers did</li></ul></li></ul></li><li>She was a very private person who never talked about her emotions</li><li>She was a perfectionist</li></ul> No matter what happens and no matter who you want to cast blame on I think, at the end of the day, this is just a horrific tragedy.

A woman and her two young children had their throats cut. Now she's on death row for their murder.

A woman and her two young children had their throats cut. Now she's on death row for their murder.

Darlie Routier

Johnny Gosch

The Disappearance of Johnny Gosch- Part One- MysteriYES

The largest art heist in modern history is still unsolved. Who took half a billion dollars in art?

The largest art heist in modern history is still unsolved. Who took half a billion dollars in art?

The Gardner Museum Heist

Martha Moxley

A teenage girl was murdered in a wealthy area of Connecticut. Who did is a question that still lingers 40 years later.

Sneha Anne PhilipDoctor working at hospital on Staten IslandMarried to Ron Lieberman, also a doctorRented an apartment in Manhattan, a few blocks from the WTC.September 10, 2001Ron went to work. Sneha had 10th and 11th off.She stayed home doing chores to prepare for a visit from a cousin two days later.Had a two hour IM chat w/ Mom; mentioned plan to visit Windows on the World.At 4 pm, she signed off, dropped off clothes at dry cleaner, and made a large purchase at Century 21 department store using their American Express card..Security camera footage captured here is last evidence of her existence.Ron returned to the apartment after midnight. Sneha wasn’t there.He figured she was out late or would be staying out all night, which had apparently become a habit.Determined to tell her to call so he’d know she was okay, then went to bed.September 11, 2001Around 4 am, there was an unknown call placed from the apartment landline to Ron’s cell phone.He thinks that in his sleep he may have used the house phone to check his cell phone voicemail, but isn’t sure.Ron got up at 6:30; Sneha still not home. He went to work.At 8:46, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North tower of the WTC.At 9:03, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South tower.At 9:59, the South tower collapsed, burned for 56 minutes.At 10:28, the North tower collapsed, burned for 102 minutes.A huge cloud of dust and rubble filled the area.It took Ron forever to get home, and when he finally did, he found no evidence that Sneha had come home.A huge amount of dust had come through the open windows, but only cat tracks, no human tracks.Ron reported her missing, but thousands of people were reported missing that day and so her disappearance didn’t make a big splash.Her brother told reporters that he had last spoken to her during the attack and that she had suggested she would go to help, since she was a doctor.This was a lie to try and get people to pay attention.Instead, she just got lumped in with the other missing people.Ron’s investigationRon didn’t believe she died in the attacks.He found out that Sneha had been seen the evening of the 10th by a Century 21 employee, who claimed to have seen Sneha with another woman, possibly Indian. When Ron found the security footage, she was alone.Ron hired a private investigator named Gallant.Gallant found security camera footage from the lobby of the apartment on the morning of the 11th, timestamped 843 am, around the time Ron said Sneha normally came home from her nights out.Could have been Sneha, but there was poor contrast and sunlight that kept her from being positively identified.The woman didn’t have bags from the shopping trip.She looks as if she’s going to get on the elevator, but then abruptly leaves, presumably because of Flight 11’s crash into the North tower.Gallant found no evidence of Sneha trying to flee.Instead suggested that she saw the attack and then, being so close, rushed to the scene to help wherever she could, eventually dying in the towers or as a result of their collapse.NYPD investigationIt took awhile before NYPD could investigate.When they did, they came to a different conclusion.They found that earlier in the year, Sneha had worked at a different hospital called Cabrini, and had been fired due to repeated tardiness and alcohol related issues.Shortly thereafter, went out to a bar with coworkers.She claimed that a fellow coworker touched her inappropriately, but she was charged with falsely reporting an incident and was held in jail overnight.After being fired, she started spending nights out at gay and lesbian bars.NYPD stated that sometimes she left with women.Police also claim her brother walked in on Sneha having sex with the brother’s girlfriend, but he denies this.At her new job at the hospital on Staten Island, she was having similar problems as at Cabrini. She was off work on the 10th and 11th because she was suspended for missing an appointment with a substance abuse counselor.On the morning of the 10th, she was formally arraigned for the charge of falsely reporting an incident.At the courthouse, she fought loudly with Ron about her problems and all the nights out.NYPD basically suggested that something else had happened to Sneha. Either she’d met an unseemly character while out on the 10th, or she had fled her life due to mounting issues.Ron and the rest of Sneha’s family dispute the NYPD investigation.They claimed she’d been fired from Cabrini due to being a whistleblower regarding racial and sexual prejudice.Ron also claimed that her visits to lesbian bars were a result of her not wanting to be inappropriately touched by a coworker again, and that when she went home with women, they never had sex.He agreed that she’d been drinking quite a bit, but stated that this was a temporary situation due to her depression regarding being fired from Cabrini.Ron claimed that they never had a fight at the courthouse, and Sneha’s brother said that he never caught Sneha having sex with his girlfriend.Was she a 9/11 victim?  This is not an episode of My Favorite Murder. It is an episode of MysteriYES. There was quite a battle between the courts and the family regarding whether she should be considered a 9/11 victim.There is no clear evidence of her being at the towers, but also no clear evidence that she wasn’t. (No physical remains have been found for over 1000 of the nearly 3000 victims of the attacks)Eventually, her name was added to the list of victims at the memorial and she was declared the 2751st victims of the attack  in New York.

<ul><li>Sneha Anne Philip<ul><li>Doctor working at hospital on Staten Island</li><li>Married to Ron Lieberman, also a doctor</li><li>Rented an apartment in Manhattan, a few blocks from the WTC.</li></ul></li><li>September 10, 2001<ul><li>Ron went to work. Sneha had 10th and 11th off.</li><li>She stayed home doing chores to prepare for a visit from a cousin two days later.</li><li>Had a two hour IM chat w/ Mom; mentioned plan to visit Windows on the World.</li><li>At 4 pm, she signed off, dropped off clothes at dry cleaner, and made a large purchase at Century 21 department store using their American Express card..</li><li>Security camera footage captured here is last evidence of her existence.</li><li>Ron returned to the apartment after midnight. Sneha wasn’t there.</li><li>He figured she was out late or would be staying out all night, which had apparently become a habit.</li><li>Determined to tell her to call so he’d know she was okay, then went to bed.</li></ul></li><li>September 11, 2001<ul><li>Around 4 am, there was an unknown call placed from the apartment landline to Ron’s cell phone.<ul><li>He thinks that in his sleep he may have used the house phone to check his cell phone voicemail, but isn’t sure.</li></ul></li><li>Ron got up at 6:30; Sneha still not home. He went to work.</li><li>At 8:46, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North tower of the WTC.<ul><li>At 9:03, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South tower.</li><li>At 9:59, the South tower collapsed, burned for 56 minutes.</li><li>At 10:28, the North tower collapsed, burned for 102 minutes.</li><li>A huge cloud of dust and rubble filled the area.</li></ul></li><li>It took Ron forever to get home, and when he finally did, he found no evidence that Sneha had come home.<ul><li>A huge amount of dust had come through the open windows, but only cat tracks, no human tracks.</li></ul></li><li>Ron reported her missing, but thousands of people were reported missing that day and so her disappearance didn’t make a big splash.</li><li>Her brother told reporters that he had last spoken to her during the attack and that she had suggested she would go to help, since she was a doctor.<ul><li>This was a lie to try and get people to pay attention.</li><li>Instead, she just got lumped in with the other missing people.</li></ul></li></ul></li><li>Ron’s investigation<ul><li>Ron didn’t believe she died in the attacks.</li><li>He found out that Sneha had been seen the evening of the 10th by a Century 21 employee, who claimed to have seen Sneha with another woman, possibly Indian. </li><li>When Ron found the security footage, she was alone.</li><li>Ron hired a private investigator named Gallant.<ul><li>Gallant found security camera footage from the lobby of the apartment on the morning of the 11th, timestamped 843 am, around the time Ron said Sneha normally came home from her nights out.</li><li>Could have been Sneha, but there was poor contrast and sunlight that kept her from being positively identified.</li><li>The woman didn’t have bags from the shopping trip.</li><li>She looks as if she’s going to get on the elevator, but then abruptly leaves, presumably because of Flight 11’s crash into the North tower.</li></ul></li><li>Gallant found no evidence of Sneha trying to flee.</li><li>Instead suggested that she saw the attack and then, being so close, rushed to the scene to help wherever she could, eventually dying in the towers or as a result of their collapse.</li></ul></li><li>NYPD investigation<ul><li>It took awhile before NYPD could investigate.</li><li>When they did, they came to a different conclusion.</li><li>They found that earlier in the year, Sneha had worked at a different hospital called Cabrini, and had been fired due to repeated tardiness and alcohol related issues.</li><li>Shortly thereafter, went out to a bar with coworkers.<ul><li>She claimed that a fellow coworker touched her inappropriately, but she was charged with falsely reporting an incident and was held in jail overnight.</li></ul></li><li>After being fired, she started spending nights out at gay and lesbian bars.<ul><li>NYPD stated that sometimes she left with women.</li><li>Police also claim her brother walked in on Sneha having sex with the brother’s girlfriend, but he denies this.</li></ul></li><li>At her new job at the hospital on Staten Island, she was having similar problems as at Cabrini. She was off work on the 10th and 11th because she was suspended for missing an appointment with a substance abuse counselor.</li><li>On the morning of the 10th, she was formally arraigned for the charge of falsely reporting an incident.<ul><li>At the courthouse, she fought loudly with Ron about her problems and all the nights out.</li></ul></li><li>NYPD basically suggested that something else had happened to Sneha. Either she’d met an unseemly character while out on the 10th, or she had fled her life due to mounting issues.</li></ul></li><li>Ron and the rest of Sneha’s family dispute the NYPD investigation.<ul><li>They claimed she’d been fired from Cabrini due to being a whistleblower regarding racial and sexual prejudice.</li><li>Ron also claimed that her visits to lesbian bars were a result of her not wanting to be inappropriately touched by a coworker again, and that when she went home with women, they never had sex.</li><li>He agreed that she’d been drinking quite a bit, but stated that this was a temporary situation due to her depression regarding being fired from Cabrini.</li><li>Ron claimed that they never had a fight at the courthouse, and Sneha’s brother said that he never caught Sneha having sex with his girlfriend.</li></ul></li><li>Was she a 9/11 victim?</li><li><ul><li>  This is not an episode of My Favorite Murder. It is an episode of MysteriYES. There was quite a battle between the courts and the family regarding whether she should be considered a 9/11 victim.</li><li>There is no clear evidence of her being at the towers, but also no clear evidence that she wasn’t. (No physical remains have been found for over 1000 of the nearly 3000 victims of the attacks)</li><li>Eventually, her name was added to the list of victims at the memorial and she was declared the 2751st victims of the attack  in New York.</li></ul></li></ul>

Sneha Philips

Zach Witman

Introductory statementsThe boys, the parents, the setting, etc.The brothers’ good relationshipThe crimeZach home sick and sleeping upstairs, Ron in Chicago, Sue at work3:05--Greg gets off bus3:09--first phone call from Erin.3:10--Greg gets home; immediately attacked3:15--second phone call from Erin, Zach wakes up, hears scuffle, goes downstairs, finds Greg.3:17--Zach calls 9113:24--EMS and police arriveZach taken to hospital; sweatshirt, socks, bloody towel from finger collected as evidence.Physical EvidenceBloody footprints go out and come back insideMound found outside with gloves and knifeZach’s clothesThe case for ZachThe case against Zach.Theories for third-party attacker?Verdicts

Introductory statementsThe boys, the parents, the setting, etc.The brothers’ good relationshipThe crimeZach home sick and sleeping upstairs, Ron in Chicago, Sue at work3:05--Greg gets off bus3:09--first phone call from Erin.3:10--Greg gets home; immediately attacked3:15--second phone call from Erin, Zach wakes up, hears scuffle, goes downstairs, finds Greg.3:17--Zach calls 9113:24--EMS and police arriveZach taken to hospital; sweatshirt, socks, bloody towel from finger collected as evidence.Physical EvidenceBloody footprints go out and come back insideMound found outside with gloves and knifeZach’s clothesThe case for ZachThe case against Zach.Theories for third-party attacker?Verdicts

Things are about to get a little hot this week Zach. That is to say the rage of a several different groups will undoubtedly rain down upon us if we mess this one up. You’ve got several branches of the 7th Day Adventist church, far right pro-gun anti-government militias, and even the ghost of Timothy McVeigh. This week we’re talking about the siege of the Branch Davidians better known as the Waco Siege. Now the actual event takes place from February 28th-April 19th of 1993 but to fully understand what happened we have to go back to 1981. That is the year a young man named Vernon Howell arrived at the Mount Carmel Center outside Waco, Texas. The Mount Carmel Center was the headquarters of a group known as the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians were (and still are?) an offshoot of the Davidians who were kicked out of the Seventh Day Adventist church which is itself a pretty bonkers offshoot of the Christian church. The first thing you need to know about the branch davidians (and 7th day adventists as a whole) is that they believe the end of the world is really close. Founded in 1959 following a failed prediction of the end of the world by Benjamin Roden the Branch Davidians were a more militaristic offshoot of the Davidians. By the time Vernon Howell arrived on the compound Benjamin Roden had passed away and the group was being run by his widow Lois. Now, of course Vernon had an affair with the 65 year old woman and quickly became one of the most influential people in the group. This lead to a clash with prophet-to-be and son of Lois Roden, George Roden (who apparently didn’t like his new dad). When Lois passed away George assumed control of the the Branch Davidians but was quickly losing followers to Vernon Howell. In an attempt to regain the support of the cult, George challenged Vernon to a good old fashion resurrection contest  for which he exhumed a corpse for them to raise from the dead. In response Vernon tried to file charges against George but was told he needed evidence. So, what do you do when you need evidence? That’s right you storm your former compound with 7 followers, 5 .22 caliber semiautomatic guns, 2 .22 caliber rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition. This lead to a shoot-out and several arrest. Despite Roden fleeing the property with wounds to his hands and chest, Vernon’s 7 followers were found not guilty of attempted murder and Vernon himself had his trial in end in a hung jury. George Roden would later go on to murder his future roommate with an ax before being committed to a mental asylum for the rest of his life and dying of a heart attack. Vernon went on to assert his spiritual role in the group by changing his name to David Koresh and, in 1989, Koresh declared that because he was obviously the lamb of god prophesied in Revelation 5:2 all of the marriages in the church were null and void, all men and women had to be separated, and all of the women (including underage girls) had to have sex with him. He also said God had instructed him to raise an “army of god” for the end times. Over the next several years the Brand Davidians started to stockpile and modify guns. This caught the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (which is a real thing that we have in America) who began to investigate the group. The investigation officially started on June 9th of 1992 after a UPS worker reported an accidentally opened package containing guns, inert grenades, and gun powder. The investigation went about as poorly as an investigation like this good go. The ATF sent agents undercover in a house across the street from Mt. Carmel posing as college students. These college students, however, were all in the 30s, had new cars, were not registered at any local school, and didn’t keep any kind of consistent schedule. ATF agents also never chose to talk to Koresh or the Branch Davidians directly instead opting to conduct the investigation in secret. When a search warrant was obtained there was no proof to be found that the branch davidians were doing anything wrong. They had licenses for all of the guns that they were illegally buying and selling, however a search warrant was given because of the suspicion that the Branch Davidians were modifying the guns themselves, a suspicion that was given credence by reports of automatic fire coming from the compound. The ATF’s raid on the compound was originally planned for March 1st, 1993, but the raid was moved up to February 28th after the Waco Tribune-Herald published a series of article about Koresh called “The Sinful Messiah”. The series alleged that Koresh had taken multiple wives, several as young as 12 or 13. The article ended with a plea for law enforcement to intervene which only lead to further paranoia from Koresh and his followers. At 5:00 the morning of the 28th 76 agents assembled at Fort Hood to drive to the staging area for the raid. Shortly after this time, any hopes of catching the Branch Davidians were dashed after a reporter who had been tipped off to the raid accidentally asked David Koresh’s brother in law directions to the Branch Davidian compound. ATF was fully aware of their lack of surprise after one of their undercover agents had to escape from the compound because it turns out he wasn’t super duper under cover. At 9:45 ATF attempted to enter the compound and a gun battle ensued. It isn’t clear who shot first, Branch Davidians say ATF shot first, authorities say Branch Davidians shot first, it’s been suggested that the first shot was an accidental misfire or a member of the dog team. Whoever shot first the result was a nearly 2 hour gun battle in which 4 ATF officers and 6 Branch Davidians were killed. Eventually a ceasefire was reached but sporadic gunfire continued through most of the afternoon. I want to talk about one thing before we get too off track. I don’t think it matters who shot first. If the federal government has a warrant to arrest you and search your property you don’t have a right to resist. Even if the ATF agents were the ones who shot first, if they saw Branch Davidians brandishing weapons or if they were threatened in any way they were completely in their rights to fire the first shot. Anyway, back to the story. Eventually a ceasefire is agreed on and negotiations begin. At first 4 children were allowed to leave the compound safely which authorities took as a good sign. Later Koresh said he would surrender if he was given an hour on national radio. Authorities gave Koresh 58 minutes on the Christian Broadcasting Network in Waco and the speech was a disaster. The speech was definitely not intended for anyone who didn’t already understand his teaching and it was mostly ignored when it aired. Despite this the FBI (who had now taken over the case) and the Branch Davidians prepared for a mass surrender. However, after all the details had been negotiated David Koresh called the FBI negotiator and said that god had told him to wait. If I have to guess though I’d probably say that Koresh knew that because federal officers had been killed there was no way he was going to get out of serious prison time. Five day later the FBI gave Koresh a video camera to show conditions inside the compound. The tape they got back consisted of interviews with Branch Davidians who all said they were staying and resisting of their own free will. Suddenly the negotiations shifted from one leader with several innocent bystanders to over 100 people who were willing to do anything for Koresh. The FBI tried to at least negotiate the release of the remaining children but the only kids who remained in the compound were Koresh’s. It’s important to know that the reason Koresh had given for having sex with as many members as possible was to create these kids. David Koresh believed that his children had God’s DNA and were going to help judge the world.  For the Davidians this was the entire reason for the cult. They believed that they were living in the end times and that they were destined to suffer persecution. They were completely and totally entrenched and negotiations ground completely to a halt. This was only made worse by the tactical strategies that the FBI used. The FBI brought in tanks and helicopters to lay siege to the compound and constantly shone lights and blasted loud noises such as the sound of chickens and rabbits being killed. Eventually Koresh and the FBI agreed that the Branch Davidians would come out after Koresh had finished writing a book on his teachings. 50 days into the siege, after receiving no indication that Koresh had finished any of his work the FBI made the decision to assault the compound. Authorities contacted the Branch Davidians and told them the siege was over and they were now going to enter the building. First the FBI used tanks to insert tear gas into the compound. I think one former Branch Davidian put it best when he said, “When you see a tank coming through your front door and shooting gas at you, you don’t think it’s a very good response to exit through the hole it just made”. At first the Branch Davidians didn’t move, then a fire started. As people watched in horror on news broadcasts around the country everyone expected people to pour out of the compound. Instead only a couple of disoriented people stumbled out of the burning building. According to the department of justice 75 Branch Davidians died in the blaze include 25 children under the age of 15. 9 people survived the fire and were arrested after being treated for their wounds. Many of the Branch Davidians including David Koresh were killed not by the fire but by gunshot wounds to the head. It’s not clear whether the gunshots were self inflicted or if they were from other members of the church. Where did the fire come from? The tanksAn accident from the canistersIt was set by the Branch DavidiansDefensivelySuicidallyOklahoma City bombingMilitia movement

Things are about to get a little hot this week Zach. That is to say the rage of a several different groups will undoubtedly rain down upon us if we mess this one up. You’ve got several branches of the 7th Day Adventist church, far right pro-gun anti-government militias, and even the ghost of Timothy McVeigh. This week we’re talking about the siege of the Branch Davidians better known as the Waco Siege. Now the actual event takes place from February 28th-April 19th of 1993 but to fully understand what happened we have to go back to 1981. That is the year a young man named Vernon Howell arrived at the Mount Carmel Center outside Waco, Texas. The Mount Carmel Center was the headquarters of a group known as the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians were (and still are?) an offshoot of the Davidians who were kicked out of the Seventh Day Adventist church which is itself a pretty bonkers offshoot of the Christian church. The first thing you need to know about the branch davidians (and 7th day adventists as a whole) is that they believe the end of the world is really close. Founded in 1959 following a failed prediction of the end of the world by Benjamin Roden the Branch Davidians were a more militaristic offshoot of the Davidians. By the time Vernon Howell arrived on the compound Benjamin Roden had passed away and the group was being run by his widow Lois. Now, of course Vernon had an affair with the 65 year old woman and quickly became one of the most influential people in the group. This lead to a clash with prophet-to-be and son of Lois Roden, George Roden (who apparently didn’t like his new dad). When Lois passed away George assumed control of the the Branch Davidians but was quickly losing followers to Vernon Howell. In an attempt to regain the support of the cult, George challenged Vernon to a good old fashion resurrection contest  for which he exhumed a corpse for them to raise from the dead. In response Vernon tried to file charges against George but was told he needed evidence. So, what do you do when you need evidence? That’s right you storm your former compound with 7 followers, 5 .22 caliber semiautomatic guns, 2 .22 caliber rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition. This lead to a shoot-out and several arrest. Despite Roden fleeing the property with wounds to his hands and chest, Vernon’s 7 followers were found not guilty of attempted murder and Vernon himself had his trial in end in a hung jury. George Roden would later go on to murder his future roommate with an ax before being committed to a mental asylum for the rest of his life and dying of a heart attack. Vernon went on to assert his spiritual role in the group by changing his name to David Koresh and, in 1989, Koresh declared that because he was obviously the lamb of god prophesied in Revelation 5:2 all of the marriages in the church were null and void, all men and women had to be separated, and all of the women (including underage girls) had to have sex with him. He also said God had instructed him to raise an “army of god” for the end times. Over the next several years the Brand Davidians started to stockpile and modify guns. This caught the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (which is a real thing that we have in America) who began to investigate the group. The investigation officially started on June 9th of 1992 after a UPS worker reported an accidentally opened package containing guns, inert grenades, and gun powder. The investigation went about as poorly as an investigation like this good go. The ATF sent agents undercover in a house across the street from Mt. Carmel posing as college students. These college students, however, were all in the 30s, had new cars, were not registered at any local school, and didn’t keep any kind of consistent schedule. ATF agents also never chose to talk to Koresh or the Branch Davidians directly instead opting to conduct the investigation in secret. When a search warrant was obtained there was no proof to be found that the branch davidians were doing anything wrong. They had licenses for all of the guns that they were illegally buying and selling, however a search warrant was given because of the suspicion that the Branch Davidians were modifying the guns themselves, a suspicion that was given credence by reports of automatic fire coming from the compound. The ATF’s raid on the compound was originally planned for March 1st, 1993, but the raid was moved up to February 28th after the Waco Tribune-Herald published a series of article about Koresh called “The Sinful Messiah”. The series alleged that Koresh had taken multiple wives, several as young as 12 or 13. The article ended with a plea for law enforcement to intervene which only lead to further paranoia from Koresh and his followers. At 5:00 the morning of the 28th 76 agents assembled at Fort Hood to drive to the staging area for the raid. Shortly after this time, any hopes of catching the Branch Davidians were dashed after a reporter who had been tipped off to the raid accidentally asked David Koresh’s brother in law directions to the Branch Davidian compound. ATF was fully aware of their lack of surprise after one of their undercover agents had to escape from the compound because it turns out he wasn’t super duper under cover. At 9:45 ATF attempted to enter the compound and a gun battle ensued. It isn’t clear who shot first, Branch Davidians say ATF shot first, authorities say Branch Davidians shot first, it’s been suggested that the first shot was an accidental misfire or a member of the dog team. Whoever shot first the result was a nearly 2 hour gun battle in which 4 ATF officers and 6 Branch Davidians were killed. Eventually a ceasefire was reached but sporadic gunfire continued through most of the afternoon. I want to talk about one thing before we get too off track. I don’t think it matters who shot first. If the federal government has a warrant to arrest you and search your property you don’t have a right to resist. Even if the ATF agents were the ones who shot first, if they saw Branch Davidians brandishing weapons or if they were threatened in any way they were completely in their rights to fire the first shot. Anyway, back to the story. Eventually a ceasefire is agreed on and negotiations begin. At first 4 children were allowed to leave the compound safely which authorities took as a good sign. Later Koresh said he would surrender if he was given an hour on national radio. Authorities gave Koresh 58 minutes on the Christian Broadcasting Network in Waco and the speech was a disaster. The speech was definitely not intended for anyone who didn’t already understand his teaching and it was mostly ignored when it aired. Despite this the FBI (who had now taken over the case) and the Branch Davidians prepared for a mass surrender. However, after all the details had been negotiated David Koresh called the FBI negotiator and said that god had told him to wait. If I have to guess though I’d probably say that Koresh knew that because federal officers had been killed there was no way he was going to get out of serious prison time. Five day later the FBI gave Koresh a video camera to show conditions inside the compound. The tape they got back consisted of interviews with Branch Davidians who all said they were staying and resisting of their own free will. Suddenly the negotiations shifted from one leader with several innocent bystanders to over 100 people who were willing to do anything for Koresh. The FBI tried to at least negotiate the release of the remaining children but the only kids who remained in the compound were Koresh’s. It’s important to know that the reason Koresh had given for having sex with as many members as possible was to create these kids. David Koresh believed that his children had God’s DNA and were going to help judge the world. For the Davidians this was the entire reason for the cult. They believed that they were living in the end times and that they were destined to suffer persecution. They were completely and totally entrenched and negotiations ground completely to a halt. This was only made worse by the tactical strategies that the FBI used. The FBI brought in tanks and helicopters to lay siege to the compound and constantly shone lights and blasted loud noises such as the sound of chickens and rabbits being killed. Eventually Koresh and the FBI agreed that the Branch Davidians would come out after Koresh had finished writing a book on his teachings. 50 days into the siege, after receiving no indication that Koresh had finished any of his work the FBI made the decision to assault the compound. Authorities contacted the Branch Davidians and told them the siege was over and they were now going to enter the building. First the FBI used tanks to insert tear gas into the compound. I think one former Branch Davidian put it best when he said, “When you see a tank coming through your front door and shooting gas at you, you don’t think it’s a very good response to exit through the hole it just made”. At first the Branch Davidians didn’t move, then a fire started. As people watched in horror on news broadcasts around the country everyone expected people to pour out of the compound. Instead only a couple of disoriented people stumbled out of the burning building. According to the department of justice 75 Branch Davidians died in the blaze include 25 children under the age of 15. 9 people survived the fire and were arrested after being treated for their wounds. Many of the Branch Davidians including David Koresh were killed not by the fire but by gunshot wounds to the head. It’s not clear whether the gunshots were self inflicted or if they were from other members of the church. Where did the fire come from? <ul><li>The tanks</li><li>An accident from the canisters</li><li>It was set by the Branch Davidians<ul><li>Defensively</li><li>Suicidally</li></ul></li><li>Oklahoma City bombing</li><li>Militia movement</li></ul>

Waco Siege

Jodi Husentruit

Jodi Huisentruit27 year old news anchor in Mason City Iowa in 1995Graduated from St. Cloud State UniversityBecame the Iowa City bureau chief for KGAN in Cedar Rapids then was a reporter for KSAX in Alexandria MinnesotaFinally became the morning news anchor for KIMT in Mason City IowaJodi lived 5 minutes from the studio and would often have to walk to work very early in the morning.June 27th 1995Showed up late to workHer producer called her at 4AM asking where she wasShe answeredWhen she didn’t show up her producer called again at 5 AMNo answerProducer filled Jodi’s role then called police at 7 AMPolice dispatchedNo sign of JodiInside of apartment looked normalSigns of struggle near her brand new (June 13th) red Mazda MiadaBent key suggests she was attacked while unlocking her carStruggle stretch out over the entire parking lotPolice found Jodi’s keys, a pair of her shoes, her jewelry, a can of hairspray, and a blow drierAlso found an unidentified hand printA neighbor reported seeing a white van with its lights on parked in Jodi’s lotAt least 3 neighbors reported hearing a woman scream around the time Jodi disappearedJodi’s apartment was next to a park that police believe someone could have hidden out inJodi had told several people she was afraid of something and that she was being stalkedOne of the largest manhunts in Iowa history was launchedOver 100 officers were either tracking down leads and interviewing peopleEveryone who knew Jodi was questioned even those who hadn’t seen her for yearsSearches turned up nothingJohn VansiceParticipated in a golf tournament with Jodi the day beforeThrew a birthday party for her on June 11thShe went back to his house after to watch the tape from her partyThey didn’t have a romantic relationship but friends reported John wanted onePassed lie detectorThe Huisentruit family hired a private investigator from Minnesota and flew to Los Angeles to meet with 3 prominent psychicsThe search continued for over a yearIn June of 2008 Jodi’s personal journal was mailed to the Mason City Globe GazetteJournal largely about her career goalsFinal 3 entries June 11th, 13th, and 25th all mention John Vansice

Jodi Huisentruit<ul><li>27 year old news anchor in Mason City Iowa in 1995<ul><li>Graduated from St. Cloud State University</li><li>Became the Iowa City bureau chief for KGAN in Cedar Rapids then was a reporter for KSAX in Alexandria Minnesota</li><li>Finally became the morning news anchor for KIMT in Mason City Iowa</li></ul></li><li>Jodi lived 5 minutes from the studio and would often have to walk to work very early in the morning.</li><li>June 27th 1995<ul><li>Showed up late to work<ul><li>Her producer called her at 4AM asking where she was<ul><li>She answered</li></ul></li><li>When she didn’t show up her producer called again at 5 AM<ul><li>No answer</li></ul></li></ul></li><li>Producer filled Jodi’s role then called police at 7 AM</li></ul></li><li>Police dispatched<ul><li>No sign of Jodi</li><li>Inside of apartment looked normal</li><li>Signs of struggle near her brand new (June 13th) red Mazda Miada<ul><li>Bent key suggests she was attacked while unlocking her car</li><li>Struggle stretch out over the entire parking lot</li><li>Police found Jodi’s keys, a pair of her shoes, her jewelry, a can of hairspray, and a blow drier</li><li>Also found an unidentified hand print</li><li>A neighbor reported seeing a white van with its lights on parked in Jodi’s lot</li><li>At least 3 neighbors reported hearing a woman scream around the time Jodi disappeared</li></ul></li></ul></li><li>Jodi’s apartment was next to a park that police believe someone could have hidden out in<ul><li>Jodi had told several people she was afraid of something and that she was being stalked</li></ul></li><li>One of the largest manhunts in Iowa history was launched<ul><li>Over 100 officers were either tracking down leads and interviewing people</li><li>Everyone who knew Jodi was questioned even those who hadn’t seen her for years</li><li>Searches turned up nothing</li></ul></li><li>John Vansice<ul><li>Participated in a golf tournament with Jodi the day before</li><li>Threw a birthday party for her on June 11th</li><li>She went back to his house after to watch the tape from her party</li><li>They didn’t have a romantic relationship but friends reported John wanted one</li><li>Passed lie detector</li></ul></li><li>The Huisentruit family hired a private investigator from Minnesota and flew to Los Angeles to meet with 3 prominent psychics</li><li>The search continued for over a year</li><li>In June of 2008 Jodi’s personal journal was mailed to the Mason City Globe Gazette<ul><li>Journal largely about her career goals</li><li>Final 3 entries June 11th, 13th, and 25th all mention John Vansice</li></ul></li></ul>

Anastasia Romanov

Remember that movie Anastasia? It's nothing like that.

Remember that movie Anastasia? It's nothing like that.

Today we’re going to take a trip up north to visit our Canadian neighbors, but then we’re going to hang a tight left and travel back west back to land of the free, and the home of the brave. That’s right, Willy, we are going to visit the vast, untamed state of Alaska, so put on your parka and your ski pants and an extra pair of socks.You didn’t notice it, but while we were traveling to Alaska, we also went back in time to October 16, 1972. As you may have figured out by all the airplanes around us, we are in the Anchorage Airport. Do you see that Cessna 310 right there? Let’s go ahead and climb aboard. But we need to be quiet, because there are some important people on board and we don’t want to disturb them. Specifically, there’s House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, Representative Nick Begich, Russell Brown who is Representative Begich’s aide, and our bush pilot for today’s flight, Don Jonz.Now, hold onto your butt, Willy, because we’re going to be flying several hundred miles from Anchorage to Juneau for a campaign fundraiser for Representative Begich. The plane’s about to take off, but, you know, now that I think about it, I’ve got a bad feeling about this flight, so let’s go ahead and get off, okay?Let’s fast forward a few days. You and I are hanging out in our hotel, you know, maybe eating our breakfast of Cookie Crisp and Alaska-shaped waffles in our matching PJs, when your eye catches a local newspaper headline, which says something about the House Majority Leader going missing during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Phew! It’s a good thing we got off that plane, but it’s still such a bummer that they went missing missing like that. I bet you there’s going to be a 39 day long search as a result of the high profile of the disappeared persons. I bet you even 400 aircraft and dozens of boats will be involved in the search effort too. But, unfortunately, I also bet you that absolutely no evidence, no matter how great or small, will ever be found of any of the men or the plane they were flying in.Some conspiracy theorists are going to suggest that the plane crash was purposely orchestrated and covered up because of Hale Boggs’ membership on the Warren Commission and his strong doubts about the Commission’s single-bullet theory in its investigation into the JFK assassination. However, the Cessna 310 that you and I nearly died in is not the only airplane to go missing in Alaska. No, not by a long shot.See, there is an area in Alaska known as the Alaska Triangle where many planes have disappeared or crashed for no apparent reason, and where unusually high numbers of tourists and locals go missing every year. In fact, since 1988, over 16,000 people have vanished from that area and have never been seen or heard from again. The Alaska Triangle encompasses a very large section of the state stretching from the southeast near Juneau and Yakutat, up to the Barrow mountain range to the north, and over to Anchorage in the middle of the state. This area includes large areas of unexplored wilderness, including forests, mountains, and desolate tundra.There are a few theories to explain what in the heck is going on up there in Alaska, and of course, the first of them comes to us from the field of cryptozoology. The indigenous tribe called the Tlingit included in their mythology stories about shape-shifting creatures known as the Kushtaka, which is loosely translated as “land otter man,” since they can assume either the form of a human or an otter. Apparently these creatures are cruel creatures who lure people to their doom, particularly people who are lost or hapless. In some legends, the Kushtaka will imitate the cries of a baby or the screams of a woman to lure victims to a nearby river, where it will then either kill the person by tearing them to shreds or turn them into another Kushtaka. We’re in luck, though, because legend has it that the Kushtaka can be warded off with human urine.Apparently the area of the Alaska Triangle is deeply connected to legends of the Kushtaka, so the theory is that these demonic creatures are responsible for the disappearances up there. Although, to be fair, I have a hard time figuring out how a creature that shape-shifts between an otter and a human is able to rip airplanes out of the sky, but I better not blaspheme the Kushtaka or else one of them might come after me.The next theory is a super fringe-scientific one that I didn’t really understand but that I’m going to talk about as if I really know what it’s about. This next theory was suggested by an American researcher and cryptozoologist named Ivan T. Sanderson, and his theory is that the Alaska Triangle is what is known as a vile vortex. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Willy: “What is the goshdarn heckity-heck is a vile vortex?” Well, luckily for you, I’ve got a half-assed explanation of what vile vortices are. Vile vortices are geographical areas around the world that supposedly exhibit extreme electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic anomalies, which some people believe are electromagnetic currents. The most famous example of a vile vortex is the Bermuda Triangle, but there are also many other alleged vile vortices all over the world. Some suggest that places like Stonehenge, Easter Island, and the Egyptian pyramids all lie on vile vortices, and that these monuments were built there as a result.These vile vortices supposedly cause many strange phenomena. They affect humans physically, mentally, and emotionally by causing visions, demonstrating miraculous powers of healing, and spurts of creativity and profound epiphanies. Many people even believe that they can access their higher selves at these vile vortices. However, on top of self-actualization, these vile vortices also cause disorientation, confusion, and both visual and audial hallucinations. The vortices also purportedly cause electrical instrumentation to malfunction. Some people believe that these vortices are doorways into spiritual dimensions or gateways to other realms.So what’s the support for this theory? Well, Alaska is heavily concentrated with magnetic anomalies which greatly disrupt compasses, so much so that compasses can be up to thirty degrees off. Also, some search and rescue workers who have worked in the area have reported audio hallucinations sounding like a swarm of bees, as well as unusual disorientation or lightheadedness. However, let’s be honest, there actually is no real evidence for the existence of vile vortices, and the theory has been met with a great deal of skepticism throughout the years.The last theory that we’re going to discuss today is the theory put forth by the Alaskan authorities to explain the multitude of disappearances in the Alaska Triangle. I’ve got to be honest, though, this one isn’t nearly as fun, but it is our solemn duty to talk about it. The Alaskan government has actually hacked our computer screens with live video of our parents who have been kidnapped and tied up. The King of Alaska himself is holding a bottle of ketchup and is threatening to spray our lovely parents with it if we even act like we won’t talk about the theory put forth by the Alaskan authorities.So, Alaska has more people reported missing each year than any other state in the United States, and the rate at which people go missing is twice the national average. On top of that, Alaska also has the highest number of missing people who are never found. BING BING BING: STAT OF THE DAY: in 2007, nearly 3,000 of the state’s 670,000 people went missing, and if you’re keeping track at home, that means that four out of every thousand people in Alaska went missing that year. So I guess if you’re a thrillseeker looking for a new adventure, I guess you should just go to Alaska and wait to vanish without a trace, leaving your family desperate for answers about what happened to their dearly departed loved one.Now, why do the Alaskan authorities think so many people go missing, particularly in the Alaska Triangle, where the vast majority of disappearances occur? Well, the Alaska Triangle includes gigantic areas of remote wilderness that is almost completely unmarred by human existence, comprising more than half of the nation’s federally designated wilderness. This harsh landscape boasts cruel weather, hazardous terrain, ferocious wild animals, and about 100 active volcanoes. Many tourists go into the wilderness completely unprepared to camp or hike in such conditions, which leads to them becoming lost, encountering some danger they weren’t expecting, or being killed by a wild animal or the elements. This area is so vast, inaccessible, and wild that trying to find someone who is lost in the area is nearly impossible, particularly when unpredictable weather patterns limit the amount of time that searchers can spend looking for the missing.So that’s the mystery of the Alaska Triangle. Any particular theory you like, Willy?

Today we’re going to take a trip up north to visit our Canadian neighbors, but then we’re going to hang a tight left and travel back west back to land of the free, and the home of the brave. That’s right, Willy, we are going to visit the vast, untamed state of Alaska, so put on your parka and your ski pants and an extra pair of socks.You didn’t notice it, but while we were traveling to Alaska, we also went back in time to October 16, 1972. As you may have figured out by all the airplanes around us, we are in the Anchorage Airport. Do you see that Cessna 310 right there? Let’s go ahead and climb aboard. But we need to be quiet, because there are some important people on board and we don’t want to disturb them. Specifically, there’s House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, Representative Nick Begich, Russell Brown who is Representative Begich’s aide, and our bush pilot for today’s flight, Don Jonz.Now, hold onto your butt, Willy, because we’re going to be flying several hundred miles from Anchorage to Juneau for a campaign fundraiser for Representative Begich. The plane’s about to take off, but, you know, now that I think about it, I’ve got a bad feeling about this flight, so let’s go ahead and get off, okay?Let’s fast forward a few days. You and I are hanging out in our hotel, you know, maybe eating our breakfast of Cookie Crisp and Alaska-shaped waffles in our matching PJs, when your eye catches a local newspaper headline, which says something about the House Majority Leader going missing during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Phew! It’s a good thing we got off that plane, but it’s still such a bummer that they went missing missing like that. I bet you there’s going to be a 39 day long search as a result of the high profile of the disappeared persons. I bet you even 400 aircraft and dozens of boats will be involved in the search effort too. But, unfortunately, I also bet you that absolutely no evidence, no matter how great or small, will ever be found of any of the men or the plane they were flying in.Some conspiracy theorists are going to suggest that the plane crash was purposely orchestrated and covered up because of Hale Boggs’ membership on the Warren Commission and his strong doubts about the Commission’s single-bullet theory in its investigation into the JFK assassination. However, the Cessna 310 that you and I nearly died in is not the only airplane to go missing in Alaska. No, not by a long shot.See, there is an area in Alaska known as the Alaska Triangle where many planes have disappeared or crashed for no apparent reason, and where unusually high numbers of tourists and locals go missing every year. In fact, since 1988, over 16,000 people have vanished from that area and have never been seen or heard from again. The Alaska Triangle encompasses a very large section of the state stretching from the southeast near Juneau and Yakutat, up to the Barrow mountain range to the north, and over to Anchorage in the middle of the state. This area includes large areas of unexplored wilderness, including forests, mountains, and desolate tundra.There are a few theories to explain what in the heck is going on up there in Alaska, and of course, the first of them comes to us from the field of cryptozoology. The indigenous tribe called the Tlingit included in their mythology stories about shape-shifting creatures known as the Kushtaka, which is loosely translated as “land otter man,” since they can assume either the form of a human or an otter. Apparently these creatures are cruel creatures who lure people to their doom, particularly people who are lost or hapless. In some legends, the Kushtaka will imitate the cries of a baby or the screams of a woman to lure victims to a nearby river, where it will then either kill the person by tearing them to shreds or turn them into another Kushtaka. We’re in luck, though, because legend has it that the Kushtaka can be warded off with human urine.Apparently the area of the Alaska Triangle is deeply connected to legends of the Kushtaka, so the theory is that these demonic creatures are responsible for the disappearances up there. Although, to be fair, I have a hard time figuring out how a creature that shape-shifts between an otter and a human is able to rip airplanes out of the sky, but I better not blaspheme the Kushtaka or else one of them might come after me.The next theory is a super fringe-scientific one that I didn’t really understand but that I’m going to talk about as if I really know what it’s about. This next theory was suggested by an American researcher and cryptozoologist named Ivan T. Sanderson, and his theory is that the Alaska Triangle is what is known as a vile vortex. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Willy: “What is the goshdarn heckity-heck is a vile vortex?” Well, luckily for you, I’ve got a half-assed explanation of what vile vortices are. Vile vortices are geographical areas around the world that supposedly exhibit extreme electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic anomalies, which some people believe are electromagnetic currents. The most famous example of a vile vortex is the Bermuda Triangle, but there are also many other alleged vile vortices all over the world. Some suggest that places like Stonehenge, Easter Island, and the Egyptian pyramids all lie on vile vortices, and that these monuments were built there as a result.These vile vortices supposedly cause many strange phenomena. They affect humans physically, mentally, and emotionally by causing visions, demonstrating miraculous powers of healing, and spurts of creativity and profound epiphanies. Many people even believe that they can access their higher selves at these vile vortices. However, on top of self-actualization, these vile vortices also cause disorientation, confusion, and both visual and audial hallucinations. The vortices also purportedly cause electrical instrumentation to malfunction. Some people believe that these vortices are doorways into spiritual dimensions or gateways to other realms.So what’s the support for this theory? Well, Alaska is heavily concentrated with magnetic anomalies which greatly disrupt compasses, so much so that compasses can be up to thirty degrees off. Also, some search and rescue workers who have worked in the area have reported audio hallucinations sounding like a swarm of bees, as well as unusual disorientation or lightheadedness. However, let’s be honest, there actually is no real evidence for the existence of vile vortices, and the theory has been met with a great deal of skepticism throughout the years.The last theory that we’re going to discuss today is the theory put forth by the Alaskan authorities to explain the multitude of disappearances in the Alaska Triangle. I’ve got to be honest, though, this one isn’t nearly as fun, but it is our solemn duty to talk about it. The Alaskan government has actually hacked our computer screens with live video of our parents who have been kidnapped and tied up. The King of Alaska himself is holding a bottle of ketchup and is threatening to spray our lovely parents with it if we even act like we won’t talk about the theory put forth by the Alaskan authorities.So, Alaska has more people reported missing each year than any other state in the United States, and the rate at which people go missing is twice the national average. On top of that, Alaska also has the highest number of missing people who are never found. BING BING BING: STAT OF THE DAY: in 2007, nearly 3,000 of the state’s 670,000 people went missing, and if you’re keeping track at home, that means that four out of every thousand people in Alaska went missing that year. So I guess if you’re a thrillseeker looking for a new adventure, I guess you should just go to Alaska and wait to vanish without a trace, leaving your family desperate for answers about what happened to their dearly departed loved one.Now, why do the Alaskan authorities think so many people go missing, particularly in the Alaska Triangle, where the vast majority of disappearances occur? Well, the Alaska Triangle includes gigantic areas of remote wilderness that is almost completely unmarred by human existence, comprising more than half of the nation’s federally designated wilderness. This harsh landscape boasts cruel weather, hazardous terrain, ferocious wild animals, and about 100 active volcanoes. Many tourists go into the wilderness completely unprepared to camp or hike in such conditions, which leads to them becoming lost, encountering some danger they weren’t expecting, or being killed by a wild animal or the elements. This area is so vast, inaccessible, and wild that trying to find someone who is lost in the area is nearly impossible, particularly when unpredictable weather patterns limit the amount of time that searchers can spend looking for the missing.So that’s the mystery of the Alaska Triangle. Any particular theory you like, Willy?

The Alaska Triangle

The Disappearance of Johnny Gosch- Part Two- MysteriYES

A string of murders along I-70 from Indiana to Kansas. Are they connected? Who is the killer?

The I-70 Killer

Summer is winding down Zach. The weather is getting cooler and the kids are going back to school. Here in America football season has started and the leaves are starting their yearly transition from green to orange, brown and yellow. I can practically smell the pumpkin spice lattes now tickling my nostrils with its cinnamon aroma. I personally love fall. I like wearing a light jacket and sipping on a warm cider while walking along sidewalks covered in fallen leaves, but we need to hold off for one more week. Rather than dive headlong into fall we need to grasp onto the dying embers of summer because this week we’re going to the beach! Grab your boogy board and put on your mankini it’s nothing but sun and fun today. Zach, as an aficionado of both old timey swimsuits and international beaches I’m assuming you know exactly where we’re going this week. That’s right we’re going to Somerton beach just outside Adelaide, Australia in 1948. It’s a lovely december morning around 6:30 in the morning and despite cold war tensions the mood is optimistic in Australia. Take a stroll along the beach with me Zach. Oh wow there’s a seagull! Wowie wowie wowzers there’s a….. And look over there it’s a man reclining on the beach. Wait a second. That guy looks a little strange… Wait he’s not reclining at all! He’s dead! Who is this guy? Let’s take a look. He’s a white man in very nice clothes but none of his clothes have any tags. There’s an unlit cigar behind his ear and a half smoke one resting on his shoulder. Zach you’re a cigar expert. Can you tell me where that one is from? England that’s right and they definitely don’t sell this kind in Australia. Quick let’s check his pockets for identification (and any extra cash). There’s a pack of cigarettes in here, but the cigarettes in the box don’t match the brand on the box. This is a pretty normal thing actually, a lot of people buy a box of expensive cigarettes then refill it with inexpensive ones to seem like their smoking more expensive cigarettes. Wait, this is weird the cigarettes here are more expensive the the ones that originally came in the box. Let’s keep searching. Don’t forget to check his fob pocket! Wait, what’s this? It’s a scrap of paper… It says Taman Shud thank God I speak arabic and just happen to know that means “finished or ended”. Oh man look at this, his shoes are really really clean. This is getting too weird. We better call the police (insert hilarious bit where we call the police here that leads into the autopsy). When police conduct their autopsy on this man they discover this man is in peak physical condition. He looks like some kind of athlete but probably not a laborer because his hands don’t have any calluses or marks. There’s a partially digested pasty in his stomach, his spleen was 3 times too big, and there was congestion in his brain and stomach that suggest that he may have been poisoned but when his blooded no poison could be found. Despite his clothing having no tags his jacket appeared to have been made in America. Let’s send his fingerprints and dental records over there for identification. (Wait a couple weeks) Well nothing came up. Wait, hold on, it appears that a staff member at the Adelaide railway station has discovered a brown suitcase with its label removed. Perhaps this belonged to the man! The case was check into the station cloakroom after 11:00 AM on November 30th. Inside there’s a red checked dressing gown, a size seven red felt pair of slippers, four pairs of underpants, pyjamas, shaving items, a light brown pair of trousers with sand in the cuffs, an electrician’s screwdriver, a table knife cut down into a short sharp instrument, a pair of scissors with sharpened points, a small square of zinc thought to have been used as a protective sheath for the knife and scissors, and a stencilling brush. Also found in the suitcase is a thread card of Barbour brand orange waxed thread of “an unusual type” not available in Australia and was the same type of thread used to repair a pocket of the dead man’s pants. Just like on the man all tags had been removed from the clothing but the police found the name “T. Keane” on a tie, “Keane” on a laundry bag and “Kean” (without the last e) on a singlet along with three dry-cleaning marks. While it may seem strange that these tags were not removed, they are the only tags that couldn’t be taken off without damaging the clothing. There were no spare socks and no correspondence in the case even thought the police found pencils and unused letterforms. A search of all English-speaking countries concluded there was no T. Keane missing and police weren’t able to track down the dry-cleaning marks. Police check incoming train records and believe the man arrived at the station by overnight train from either Melbourne, Sydney or Port Augusta. They think he may have showered and shaved the the city baths before returning to the train station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50 a.m. train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he missed or chose not to catch. He immediately check his suitcase at the station cloak room before leaving the station and catching a city bus to Glenelg. There’s not really any more evidence. I guess this is a cold case. (A hilarious quirky character walks up) “Do you remember that piece of paper that said ‘Taman Shud’? We’ve managed to figure out that it came from a rare edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam a collection of persian poems.” The police conducted a countrywide search for this book and we’re lucky enough to find someone with this book. Someone (who was never publically identified) came forward and reported finding a copy of this book in the back seat of his car around the same time and place that the body was found. When police inspected the book they found the piece of paper had been torn out of the book. On the inside back cover of the book, detectives identified indentations from handwriting. These included a telephone number, an unidentified number, and a text that resembled a coded message. The code has never been decrypted but has been confirmed to be some kind of code. It’s only 4 lines and isn’t long enough to be efficiently cracked and is probably a one time pad which is effectively impossible to break. The phone number was an unlisted number that belonged to a nurse and single mother (perhaps now married woman) named Jessica Ellen Thompson who lived less than a kilometer from where the body was found. When police when to question Jessica she told them the book had once belonged to her but three years ago she had given it to a lieutenant named Alfred Boxall at the Clifton Gardens hotel in Sydney because the two were in love. Keep in mind this was during WWII so the couple was quickly separated. Eventually Jessica moved out of Sydney and got married. She hadn’t heard from him since except when she received a letter a few years later and Jessica replied telling him she was married. Another important event happened shortly before the body was found. An unidentified man came to the door of Jessica’s neighbor and asked about her. This would suggest perhaps Alfie was the unidentified body but the neighbor was never able to positively identify the body. It’s worth noting that the ticket the unidentified man bought was for the station closest to Jessica’s house. When the police showed a picture of the man to Jessica she claimed to have no idea who he was, but, according to the detectives who interviewed her, she appeared visibly shaken as if she was about to faint. Jessica was given another chance to identify the body when investigators showed her a plastic cast of the man’s head. Again she claimed to not know the man, but, according to investigator Jessica looked at the once then looked away and would not look at it again. Despite not being able to prove it I think we have a pretty good theory here Zach. We know Alfred Boxall had this book in his possession, the body had a scrap of paper from the same very rare book with Jessica’s phone number imprinted on it, a mysterious stranger had come looking for her around the time the man died, everything seems to point to this being the body of Alfred Boxall. This makes sense. Alfred had been a soldier in world war two he could be involved in some kind of espionage that would explain the code and it’s possible he took his own life for whatever reason. This case seemed to be solved until July of 1049 was found alive and well in Sydney, Australia. Even stranger Alfred still had his copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the last page was still in tact. Despite their suspicions no concrete link could be established between Jessica and the unknown man and eventually the case went cold. In January 1949, two people identified the body as 63 year old former wood cutter Robert Walsh. A third person also viewed the body, initially could not identify it, but an hour later contacted the police to claim it was Walsh saying his hair color had changed which threw him off. Walsh had gone to buy sheep in Queensland but failed to return at Christmas as he originally had planned. The man in the photos certainly doesn’t appear to be 63 years old and while his body was consistent with the physique of a woodcutter, his hands indicated he had not cut wood for at least 18 months. While this initially seemed promising, one of the people who had positively identified him retracted their statement after noticing the absence of a particular scar on the body. By early February 1949 there had been eight different positive identification of the body, including two men who thought the body was a friend of theirs, and other who thought it was a missing station worker, a worker on a steamship, or a Swedish man. Don’t you dare giggle Zach. A seaman by the name of Tommy Reade from the SS Cycle, which was in port at the time of the man’s death, was thought to be the dead man, but after some of his shipmates viewed the body at the morgue, they stated it was definitely not him. By November of 1953 police announced they had received the 251st solution to the identity of the body from the public but the only clue of any value was the clothing the man wore. There have been several more recent developments. In 2011 an Adelaide woman contacted authorities about an identification card she had found in her father’s possessions. The card was issued to an H. C. Reynolds during World War I as a form of identification for foreign soldiers fighting with the Americans. The card said H. C. Reynolds was 18, British and contained a photograph of a man who looked very similar to the missing man. Experts found that there were similarities in the nose, lips, and eyes but most convincingly their ears were described as a “very good” match and a unique identifier was found, a mole on the cheek that was the same shape and in the same position in both photographs. When searches were conducted by the US National Archives, the UK National Archives and the Australian War Memorial Research Centre no record of an H. C. Reynolds could be found. Jessica Ellen Thompson died in 2007 and in November of 2013 her relatives gave interviews to Australia’s 60 Minutes. Jessica’s daughter Kate said that her mother said she had lied to the police and did in fact know the identity of the Somerton Man and that his identity was also “known to a level higher than the police force”. Jessica’s daughter suggested that her mother and the Somerton Man were in fact spies. She claimed her mother taught English to migrants, was a communist sympathiser, and could speak Russian but would not tell her daughter where or why she had learned it.  Do you remember that Jessica Ellen Thompson had a son? His name was Robin Thompson and even though he died in 2009 his widow and daughter were interviewed for the same 60 Minutes piece. In the piece they suggested that Robin was in fact the son of the Somerton Man. This provided a way to prove his identity through DNA testing. However, when the man’s body was exhumed any usable DNA evidence had been destroyed during the embalming process. In addition the suitcase found at the train station was destroyed 1986 and the man’s copy of The Rubaiyat was lost sometime in the 1950s. Two more details that are of interest. There are actually two very similar cases.  In June of 1956- three years before the death of the Somerton Man- a 34 year old Singaporean man named George Marshall was found dead in Ashton Park in Sydney. He had an open copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on his chest. His death is believed to be a suicide by poisoning and occurred two months before Jessica gave Alf Boxall the inscribed copy of the Rubaiyat. An inquest was held for Joseph Marshall on August 15th where Gwenneth Dorothy Graham testified. Her body was found dead 13 days later face down, naked, in a bath, with her wrists slit. On June 6th 1949 the body a two-year-old Clive Mangnoson was found in a sack in the sand hills near Largs Bay only a few miles from Somerton. Lying next to him was his unconscious father, Keith Waldemar Mangnoson. The body was found by a local who claimed they had seen the location in a dream. The father was taken to a hospital in a very weak condition, suffering from exposure. After a medical examination he was transferred to a mental hospital. The two of them had been missing for four days and police believed the boy had been dead for twenty four hours when his body was found. The coroner could not determine the cause of the boy’s death but it was not believed to be of natural causes. Following the incident the boy’s mother reported having been threatened by a masked man, who, while driving a battered cream car, almost ran her down outside her home. She state that, “the car stopped and a man with a khaki handkerchief over his face told her to ‘keep away from the police or else.’” Mrs. Mangnoson believed that it was related to her husband’s attempt to identify the Somerton Man. He claimed the man was in fact a former coworker named Carl Thompsen. Authorities also claim to have received threatening phone calls telling them not to “stick their nose into the Mangnoson affair”. Police believed the calls to be a hoax along with the man with the handkerchief. After being interview by the police Mrs. Mangnoson collapsed and required medical treatment. What do you think Zach? Who was the Somerton Man? Was he a spy who was actually murdered by his fellow spy Jessica Ellen Thompson? Was he a former woodcutter in his 60s? Was he even murdered?

Summer is winding down Zach. The weather is getting cooler and the kids are going back to school. Here in America football season has started and the leaves are starting their yearly transition from green to orange, brown and yellow. I can practically smell the pumpkin spice lattes now tickling my nostrils with its cinnamon aroma. I personally love fall. I like wearing a light jacket and sipping on a warm cider while walking along sidewalks covered in fallen leaves, but we need to hold off for one more week. Rather than dive headlong into fall we need to grasp onto the dying embers of summer because this week we’re going to the beach! Grab your boogy board and put on your mankini it’s nothing but sun and fun today. Zach, as an aficionado of both old timey swimsuits and international beaches I’m assuming you know exactly where we’re going this week. That’s right we’re going to Somerton beach just outside Adelaide, Australia in 1948. It’s a lovely december morning around 6:30 in the morning and despite cold war tensions the mood is optimistic in Australia. Take a stroll along the beach with me Zach. Oh wow there’s a seagull! Wowie wowie wowzers there’s a….. And look over there it’s a man reclining on the beach. Wait a second. That guy looks a little strange… Wait he’s not reclining at all! He’s dead! Who is this guy? Let’s take a look. He’s a white man in very nice clothes but none of his clothes have any tags. There’s an unlit cigar behind his ear and a half smoke one resting on his shoulder. Zach you’re a cigar expert. Can you tell me where that one is from? England that’s right and they definitely don’t sell this kind in Australia. Quick let’s check his pockets for identification (and any extra cash). There’s a pack of cigarettes in here, but the cigarettes in the box don’t match the brand on the box. This is a pretty normal thing actually, a lot of people buy a box of expensive cigarettes then refill it with inexpensive ones to seem like their smoking more expensive cigarettes. Wait, this is weird the cigarettes here are more expensive the the ones that originally came in the box. Let’s keep searching. Don’t forget to check his fob pocket! Wait, what’s this? It’s a scrap of paper… It says Taman Shud thank God I speak arabic and just happen to know that means “finished or ended”. Oh man look at this, his shoes are really really clean. This is getting too weird. We better call the police (insert hilarious bit where we call the police here that leads into the autopsy). When police conduct their autopsy on this man they discover this man is in peak physical condition. He looks like some kind of athlete but probably not a laborer because his hands don’t have any calluses or marks. There’s a partially digested pasty in his stomach, his spleen was 3 times too big, and there was congestion in his brain and stomach that suggest that he may have been poisoned but when his blooded no poison could be found. Despite his clothing having no tags his jacket appeared to have been made in America. Let’s send his fingerprints and dental records over there for identification. (Wait a couple weeks) Well nothing came up. Wait, hold on, it appears that a staff member at the Adelaide railway station has discovered a brown suitcase with its label removed. Perhaps this belonged to the man! The case was check into the station cloakroom after 11:00 AM on November 30th. Inside there’s a red checked dressing gown, a size seven red felt pair of slippers, four pairs of underpants, pyjamas, shaving items, a light brown pair of trousers with sand in the cuffs, an electrician’s screwdriver, a table knife cut down into a short sharp instrument, a pair of scissors with sharpened points, a small square of zinc thought to have been used as a protective sheath for the knife and scissors, and a stencilling brush. Also found in the suitcase is a thread card of Barbour brand orange waxed thread of “an unusual type” not available in Australia and was the same type of thread used to repair a pocket of the dead man’s pants. Just like on the man all tags had been removed from the clothing but the police found the name “T. Keane” on a tie, “Keane” on a laundry bag and “Kean” (without the last e) on a singlet along with three dry-cleaning marks. While it may seem strange that these tags were not removed, they are the only tags that couldn’t be taken off without damaging the clothing. There were no spare socks and no correspondence in the case even thought the police found pencils and unused letterforms. A search of all English-speaking countries concluded there was no T. Keane missing and police weren’t able to track down the dry-cleaning marks. Police check incoming train records and believe the man arrived at the station by overnight train from either Melbourne, Sydney or Port Augusta. They think he may have showered and shaved the the city baths before returning to the train station to purchase a ticket for the 10:50 a.m. train to Henley Beach, which, for whatever reason, he missed or chose not to catch. He immediately check his suitcase at the station cloak room before leaving the station and catching a city bus to Glenelg. There’s not really any more evidence. I guess this is a cold case. (A hilarious quirky character walks up) “Do you remember that piece of paper that said ‘Taman Shud’? We’ve managed to figure out that it came from a rare edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam a collection of persian poems.” The police conducted a countrywide search for this book and we’re lucky enough to find someone with this book. Someone (who was never publically identified) came forward and reported finding a copy of this book in the back seat of his car around the same time and place that the body was found. When police inspected the book they found the piece of paper had been torn out of the book. On the inside back cover of the book, detectives identified indentations from handwriting. These included a telephone number, an unidentified number, and a text that resembled a coded message. The code has never been decrypted but has been confirmed to be some kind of code. It’s only 4 lines and isn’t long enough to be efficiently cracked and is probably a one time pad which is effectively impossible to break. The phone number was an unlisted number that belonged to a nurse and single mother (perhaps now married woman) named Jessica Ellen Thompson who lived less than a kilometer from where the body was found. When police when to question Jessica she told them the book had once belonged to her but three years ago she had given it to a lieutenant named Alfred Boxall at the Clifton Gardens hotel in Sydney because the two were in love. Keep in mind this was during WWII so the couple was quickly separated. Eventually Jessica moved out of Sydney and got married. She hadn’t heard from him since except when she received a letter a few years later and Jessica replied telling him she was married. Another important event happened shortly before the body was found. An unidentified man came to the door of Jessica’s neighbor and asked about her. This would suggest perhaps Alfie was the unidentified body but the neighbor was never able to positively identify the body. It’s worth noting that the ticket the unidentified man bought was for the station closest to Jessica’s house. When the police showed a picture of the man to Jessica she claimed to have no idea who he was, but, according to the detectives who interviewed her, she appeared visibly shaken as if she was about to faint. Jessica was given another chance to identify the body when investigators showed her a plastic cast of the man’s head. Again she claimed to not know the man, but, according to investigator Jessica looked at the once then looked away and would not look at it again. Despite not being able to prove it I think we have a pretty good theory here Zach. We know Alfred Boxall had this book in his possession, the body had a scrap of paper from the same very rare book with Jessica’s phone number imprinted on it, a mysterious stranger had come looking for her around the time the man died, everything seems to point to this being the body of Alfred Boxall. This makes sense. Alfred had been a soldier in world war two he could be involved in some kind of espionage that would explain the code and it’s possible he took his own life for whatever reason. This case seemed to be solved until July of 1049 was found alive and well in Sydney, Australia. Even stranger Alfred still had his copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the last page was still in tact. Despite their suspicions no concrete link could be established between Jessica and the unknown man and eventually the case went cold. In January 1949, two people identified the body as 63 year old former wood cutter Robert Walsh. A third person also viewed the body, initially could not identify it, but an hour later contacted the police to claim it was Walsh saying his hair color had changed which threw him off. Walsh had gone to buy sheep in Queensland but failed to return at Christmas as he originally had planned. The man in the photos certainly doesn’t appear to be 63 years old and while his body was consistent with the physique of a woodcutter, his hands indicated he had not cut wood for at least 18 months. While this initially seemed promising, one of the people who had positively identified him retracted their statement after noticing the absence of a particular scar on the body. By early February 1949 there had been eight different positive identification of the body, including two men who thought the body was a friend of theirs, and other who thought it was a missing station worker, a worker on a steamship, or a Swedish man. Don’t you dare giggle Zach. A seaman by the name of Tommy Reade from the SS Cycle, which was in port at the time of the man’s death, was thought to be the dead man, but after some of his shipmates viewed the body at the morgue, they stated it was definitely not him. By November of 1953 police announced they had received the 251st solution to the identity of the body from the public but the only clue of any value was the clothing the man wore. There have been several more recent developments. In 2011 an Adelaide woman contacted authorities about an identification card she had found in her father’s possessions. The card was issued to an H. C. Reynolds during World War I as a form of identification for foreign soldiers fighting with the Americans. The card said H. C. Reynolds was 18, British and contained a photograph of a man who looked very similar to the missing man. Experts found that there were similarities in the nose, lips, and eyes but most convincingly their ears were described as a “very good” match and a unique identifier was found, a mole on the cheek that was the same shape and in the same position in both photographs. When searches were conducted by the US National Archives, the UK National Archives and the Australian War Memorial Research Centre no record of an H. C. Reynolds could be found. Jessica Ellen Thompson died in 2007 and in November of 2013 her relatives gave interviews to Australia’s 60 Minutes. Jessica’s daughter Kate said that her mother said she had lied to the police and did in fact know the identity of the Somerton Man and that his identity was also “known to a level higher than the police force”. Jessica’s daughter suggested that her mother and the Somerton Man were in fact spies. She claimed her mother taught English to migrants, was a communist sympathiser, and could speak Russian but would not tell her daughter where or why she had learned it. Do you remember that Jessica Ellen Thompson had a son? His name was Robin Thompson and even though he died in 2009 his widow and daughter were interviewed for the same 60 Minutes piece. In the piece they suggested that Robin was in fact the son of the Somerton Man. This provided a way to prove his identity through DNA testing. However, when the man’s body was exhumed any usable DNA evidence had been destroyed during the embalming process. In addition the suitcase found at the train station was destroyed 1986 and the man’s copy of The Rubaiyat was lost sometime in the 1950s. Two more details that are of interest. There are actually two very similar cases. In June of 1956- three years before the death of the Somerton Man- a 34 year old Singaporean man named George Marshall was found dead in Ashton Park in Sydney. He had an open copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on his chest. His death is believed to be a suicide by poisoning and occurred two months before Jessica gave Alf Boxall the inscribed copy of the Rubaiyat. An inquest was held for Joseph Marshall on August 15th where Gwenneth Dorothy Graham testified. Her body was found dead 13 days later face down, naked, in a bath, with her wrists slit. On June 6th 1949 the body a two-year-old Clive Mangnoson was found in a sack in the sand hills near Largs Bay only a few miles from Somerton. Lying next to him was his unconscious father, Keith Waldemar Mangnoson. The body was found by a local who claimed they had seen the location in a dream. The father was taken to a hospital in a very weak condition, suffering from exposure. After a medical examination he was transferred to a mental hospital. The two of them had been missing for four days and police believed the boy had been dead for twenty four hours when his body was found. The coroner could not determine the cause of the boy’s death but it was not believed to be of natural causes. Following the incident the boy’s mother reported having been threatened by a masked man, who, while driving a battered cream car, almost ran her down outside her home. She state that, “the car stopped and a man with a khaki handkerchief over his face told her to ‘keep away from the police or else.’” Mrs. Mangnoson believed that it was related to her husband’s attempt to identify the Somerton Man. He claimed the man was in fact a former coworker named Carl Thompsen. Authorities also claim to have received threatening phone calls telling them not to “stick their nose into the Mangnoson affair”. Police believed the calls to be a hoax along with the man with the handkerchief. After being interview by the police Mrs. Mangnoson collapsed and required medical treatment. What do you think Zach? Who was the Somerton Man? Was he a spy who was actually murdered by his fellow spy Jessica Ellen Thompson? Was he a former woodcutter in his 60s? Was he even murdered?

The Somerton Man

Have you ever heard of the Greek sport of Pankration? It’s basically the ancient version of mma. There weren’t any rules other than beat up your opponent. In 564 BC Arrhichion of Phigalia was competing in the Olympic Pankration tournament. In fact he was in the final but in the final he wasn’t doing so well because his opponent had him in a stranglehold. Zach you’re experience in the martial arts are you not? What would you do if someone had you in a stranglehold? That’s right you would start kicking them. So that’s what achie did. Archie kicked and kicked his opponent and kicked him so hard that his opponent had to show the sign of defeat to the referees but as he made this sign he was in such pain and exerting so much effort that he also broke archie’s neck. So archie died but he was also proclaimed the winner posthumously.In 1919 there was an event known as The Great Molasses Flood. The Boston’s North End neighborhood a large molasses storage tank burst which sent a wave of molasses rushing through the streets of Boston at a blazing 35 mph killing 21 people and injuring 150 more in the process. If you ask someone from the North End they’ll tell you that on hot summer days you can still smell the molasses.Zach as one of your oldest friends I know exactly how you want to go in your old age. I have your signed and sealed will right here in front of me and I have some bad news. You’ve already been beaten to the punch. You were beaten by Charles II of Navarre (or Charles the Bad) who was suffering from illness in his old age in 1387. As a wealthy French lord he of course had the greatest of medical council and was ordered by his physician to be tightly sewn into a linen sheet soaked in distilled spirits. Probably to get schwasted through osmosis. Well I don’t know if his physician was aware but distilled alcohol is very flammable and in 1387 there was no electric lighting. So of course this very flammable sheet caught on fire and Charles died of his injuries. It’s ok though because many people considered this to be God’s judgment upon their king.*bum bum* (Insert SVU theme here) We got ourselves a legal death here. No not an assisted suicide but a death in the courtroom. Clement Vallandigham was an Ohio lawyer and politician in 1871. Ol’ Clem took on a murder case probably from a single mother or a streetwise kid who was just a victim of circumstances. Clem was getting ready for the knockout punch, the old Mattlock moment. He was demonstrating to the courtroom who the victim might have actually shot himself while in drawing a gone and standing up at the same time. Unfortunately he got a little too carried away with his Perry Mason moment because he accidentally shot himself in the courtroom. The defendant was found innocent but Clemmy Clem Clem died of his wounds.Let’s go back to ancient Greece for a quick one. Empedocies was a Greek philosopher whose work has been credited as one of the originators of the theory of the 4 elements. So he basically created The Last Airbender. Well Empedocies wasn’t a firebender because to prove he was a god he decided to leap in Mount Etna which was an active volcano.Let’s fast forward to 1131 to the streets of Gay Paris. Can you smell the fresh bread or perhaps you can even taste the fine French wine. Oh look here comes Crown Prince Philip! What a sight to behold! Oh. Oh no. His horse just tripped over a black pig that was running out of a dung heap and he died.We’re spending too much time in the distant past. Let’s do something a little more recent. Denver Lee St. Clair died of asphyxiation after receiving an atomic wedgie. He had been knocked out by his stepson during a fight and had his torn underwear pulled over his head and stretched around his neck. His stepson pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years in jail.Just last year (and this one is tragic) a seven year old girl died an elephant struck her with a stone thrown from its enclosure at a zoo in Morocco.This is getting a little too real. We need to jump back in time and remove ourselves from the humanity of these stories. Let’s go back to 1993 hopefully that will be far enough. In 1993 48 year old Garry Hoy fell to his death after throwing himself against a window on the 24th floor of a building in an attempt to prove to a group of visitors that the glass was unbreakable. The glass did not break but instead popped out of the window frame and Hoy fell to his death.Zach you’re a tennis fan are you not? Well so was Dick Wertheim. Ol’ Dickie was an tennis linesman and in 1983 he was struck by a wicked serve from Stefan Edberg that hit him in the groin. Dick dick dick dick dick had been sitting in a chain at the center line when the blow knocked him backwards. He fell out of the chair and onto the hard court surface, striking his head.Maybe we should go back a bit further. In 1771 Adolf Frederick the king of Sweden died of digestion problems after he consumed a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, and chamagne, topped off with 14 servings of his favorite desert in a bowl of hot milk.In 2011 Joes Luis Ochoa died after being stabbed in the leg at an illegal cockfight in California. He was stabbed by one of the birds that had a knife-like spur strapped to its leg.Finally in 2017 a podcaster producer known only as silent Jeff died under mysterious circumstances. He was working on the podcast MysteriYES and was known for his silence. He was invited to end the show in the very famous and well known MysteriYES fashion. Silent Jeff was then struck by a falling coconut despite being indoors and in the state of Kansas which has no indigenous coconut producing trees.

<ul><li>Have you ever heard of the Greek sport of Pankration? It’s basically the ancient version of mma. There weren’t any rules other than beat up your opponent. In 564 BC Arrhichion of Phigalia was competing in the Olympic Pankration tournament. In fact he was in the final but in the final he wasn’t doing so well because his opponent had him in a stranglehold. Zach you’re experience in the martial arts are you not? What would you do if someone had you in a stranglehold? That’s right you would start kicking them. So that’s what achie did. Archie kicked and kicked his opponent and kicked him so hard that his opponent had to show the sign of defeat to the referees but as he made this sign he was in such pain and exerting so much effort that he also broke archie’s neck. So archie died but he was also proclaimed the winner posthumously.</li><li>In 1919 there was an event known as The Great Molasses Flood. The Boston’s North End neighborhood a large molasses storage tank burst which sent a wave of molasses rushing through the streets of Boston at a blazing 35 mph killing 21 people and injuring 150 more in the process. If you ask someone from the North End they’ll tell you that on hot summer days you can still smell the molasses.</li><li>Zach as one of your oldest friends I know exactly how you want to go in your old age. I have your signed and sealed will right here in front of me and I have some bad news. You’ve already been beaten to the punch. You were beaten by Charles II of Navarre (or Charles the Bad) who was suffering from illness in his old age in 1387. As a wealthy French lord he of course had the greatest of medical council and was ordered by his physician to be tightly sewn into a linen sheet soaked in distilled spirits. Probably to get schwasted through osmosis. Well I don’t know if his physician was aware but distilled alcohol is very flammable and in 1387 there was no electric lighting. So of course this very flammable sheet caught on fire and Charles died of his injuries. It’s ok though because many people considered this to be God’s judgment upon their king.</li><li>*bum bum* (Insert SVU theme here) We got ourselves a legal death here. No not an assisted suicide but a death in the courtroom. Clement Vallandigham was an Ohio lawyer and politician in 1871. Ol’ Clem took on a murder case probably from a single mother or a streetwise kid who was just a victim of circumstances. Clem was getting ready for the knockout punch, the old Mattlock moment. He was demonstrating to the courtroom who the victim might have actually shot himself while in drawing a gone and standing up at the same time. Unfortunately he got a little too carried away with his Perry Mason moment because he accidentally shot himself in the courtroom. The defendant was found innocent but Clemmy Clem Clem died of his wounds.</li></ul><ul><li>Let’s go back to ancient Greece for a quick one. Empedocies was a Greek philosopher whose work has been credited as one of the originators of the theory of the 4 elements. So he basically created The Last Airbender. Well Empedocies wasn’t a firebender because to prove he was a god he decided to leap in Mount Etna which was an active volcano.</li><li>Let’s fast forward to 1131 to the streets of Gay Paris. Can you smell the fresh bread or perhaps you can even taste the fine French wine. Oh look here comes Crown Prince Philip! What a sight to behold! Oh. Oh no. His horse just tripped over a black pig that was running out of a dung heap and he died.</li><li>We’re spending too much time in the distant past. Let’s do something a little more recent. Denver Lee St. Clair died of asphyxiation after receiving an atomic wedgie. He had been knocked out by his stepson during a fight and had his torn underwear pulled over his head and stretched around his neck. His stepson pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years in jail.</li><li>Just last year (and this one is tragic) a seven year old girl died an elephant struck her with a stone thrown from its enclosure at a zoo in Morocco.</li><li>This is getting a little too real. We need to jump back in time and remove ourselves from the humanity of these stories. Let’s go back to 1993 hopefully that will be far enough. In 1993 48 year old Garry Hoy fell to his death after throwing himself against a window on the 24th floor of a building in an attempt to prove to a group of visitors that the glass was unbreakable. The glass did not break but instead popped out of the window frame and Hoy fell to his death.</li><li>Zach you’re a tennis fan are you not? Well so was Dick Wertheim. Ol’ Dickie was an tennis linesman and in 1983 he was struck by a wicked serve from Stefan Edberg that hit him in the groin. Dick dick dick dick dick had been sitting in a chain at the center line when the blow knocked him backwards. He fell out of the chair and onto the hard court surface, striking his head.</li><li>Maybe we should go back a bit further. In 1771 Adolf Frederick the king of Sweden died of digestion problems after he consumed a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, and chamagne, topped off with 14 servings of his favorite desert in a bowl of hot milk.</li><li>In 2011 Joes Luis Ochoa died after being stabbed in the leg at an illegal cockfight in California. He was stabbed by one of the birds that had a knife-like spur strapped to its leg.</li><li>Finally in 2017 a podcaster producer known only as silent Jeff died under mysterious circumstances. He was working on the podcast MysteriYES and was known for his silence. He was invited to end the show in the very famous and well known MysteriYES fashion. Silent Jeff was then struck by a falling coconut despite being indoors and in the state of Kansas which has no indigenous coconut producing trees.</li></ul>

Some Unusual Deaths

There's a camp for rich white guys. People are freaking out about it.

There's a camp for rich white guys. People are freaking out about it.

Bohemian Grove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZgmJdqVRAk 1976https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWAYHbKPvFw 1982http://priyom.org/military-stations/russia/the-buzzer http://priyom.org/military-stations/russia/the-buzzer/2017/june 2017https://www.wired.com/2011/09/ff_uvb76/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/uvb76-russia-mystery/  Zach, last week you called me out for always using the same basic format during  the introduction to my topic. This week I’m going to change it up a bit. Normally I’d ask you a question about whatever topic is at the center of my mystery. This week I’m going to ask you a question that is only tangentially related and you have to figure out how it’s related to this week’s mystery. Zach have you ever seen the TV show “Lost”? In the first season of Lost the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 discover a strange radio broadcast coming from somewhere on the island. The broadcast is an automated message from a french woman that when translated says, “If anybody can hear this, they are dead. Please help us. I’ll try to make it to the Black Rock. It (or he) killed them. It (or he) killed them all.” This message had been playing, nonstop, for 15 years. This week, Zach, we’re talking about a mysterious radio signal that has been broadcast, nonstop, for at least 44 years. UVB-76 is a station broadcasting at 4625 kHtz somewhere in Russia. It plays a constant loop of a strange buzzing noise which you can hear under my voice right now. For quite some time, until around 1992, UVB-76 broadcasted nothing but beeps, but somewhere along the way it changed to a rhythmic buzzing that varies from 21-34 buzzes per minute with 2 quick buzzes every hour, on the hour. For this reason the station is commonly referred to as “the buzzer”. The station is thought to be run by the Russian military but this has never been confirmed by the government. Zach I want you to follow me on a journey. You’re walking alone in the Russian wilderness with your shortwave radio slung around your neck like a crazy old guy at a baseball game. It’s getting a little dark outside but fortunately you have favorite monotonous tone to keep you company. As you walk down the dirt path you notice something is off. Maybe a buzz was slightly off, maybe a buzz was slightly too quiet. Something is different. Someone is controlling the broadcast. Then you hear……… In case you don’t speak Russian you just heard a man read a series of numbers and Russian names and most people think this is the real reason for the broadcast. The interruptions happen at random intervals that can be anywhere from minutes to months apart and they never repeat or show any kind of obvious pattern. They do have a standard format however. First the monotonous beeping is interrupted, then a voice reads the station callsign and some combination of numbers and russian names. I know that you are well up to speed on late 20 to early 21st century Russian history but let me give you a little recap of things that have happened in the last 40 years. You have the last decade of the cold war, the end of the Afghan war, the Soviet implosion, the end of price controls, Boris Yeltsin, the bombing of parliament, the first Chechen war, the rise of oligarchs, the financial crisis, the second Chechen war, the rise of Putinism, and the beginning of the Crimean war. Despite a country going through complete and total upheaval, UVB-76 has continued to broadcast. In fact, UVB-76 has been even more active since the turn of the century with voice messages increasing to multiple times a month. Another strange thing about UVB-76 is that it isn’t a loop or even pre recorded. It seems to be a manually generated buzzer noise. This was deferred after listeners started hearing phone conversations and banging noises in the background. The buzzer is made by some kind of device in front of a microphone and there is often a person in the room with it. More than just background voices and banging noises have been heard from UVB-76. In 2010 the station did several very weird things. On June 5 the buzzing stopped. There was no announcement and no explanation then it started again the next day. Everything seemed mostly normal, there were some things that sound like morse but nothing dramatic. Then on August 25th at 10:13 AM everything stopped again then there was a series of bumps that could be routinely heard for the next month. For the first week of September the broadcast was regularly interrupted with portions of “Dance of the Little Swans” from Tchaikovsky’s swan lake. https://youtu.be/oH5Fn_u7XQk?t=93 There were also reports of a woman’s scream being heard on the air. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oMN_ISWA0w  Then on September 7th at 8:48 PM Moscow time a male voice issued a new call sign, “Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris”. The station had now changed it’s name to MDZhB. Around this time the station also changed locations, originally it was traced to Povarovo a military outpost a few miles north of Moscow. Around the same time as the strange noises heard in 2010 the station was relocated to an unknown location near St. Petersburg. Since it’s move and rebranding UVB-76 or UZB-76 or MDZhB or The Buzzer or whatever else you want to call it has been broadcasting normally. There are occasional technical problems and the voice broadcasts have become more frequent over the years. There are several theories about why UVB-76 exists. The first actually comes from a Russian state-funded organization called the Borok Geophysical Observatory. This group published an academic paper that explained the the signal originates from an observatory using the frequency to measure changes in the ionosphere. At first this seems like a perfectly reasonable explanation until you remember the voice. Why would a group of researches need to send coded messages in order to study the ionosphere? There’s also something I haven’t mentioned yet Zach. The original location of UVB-76 has already been found and explored.  After the station changed location two groups of explorers travelled to Povarovo. When they got there a local man told them about a storm that happened in 2010. One night a dense fog rolled in and the military outpost was evacuated within an hour and a half. After sneaking onto the former military base the groups found an abandoned bunker and several abandoned buildings. Equipment and random items had been left behind and strewn about, there were leaks that had frozen over, and the building seemed completely abandoned. During the exploration a book was found that contained a log of messages sent by UVB-76. This discovery all but confirmed the station’s affiliation with the Russian military. Now the “official” explanation seems a little strange. Why would a research group operate out of a military bunker? Another theory is that the station is a Dead Man’s Switch. The theory claims that if Russia were to be crippled by a nuclear strike that prevented the orders for retaliation the automated system would launch a counter strike at the most likely perpetrator (aka America). This theory isn’t one of my favorites because it doesn’t explain the voice broadcast or the strange noise. Additionally the Russians would have to be incredibly stupid for this to be their automated retaliation system. First the station has gone out many many times since it first started broadcasting sometimes for several days. Second why would they rely on a manually generated tone to hold their nuclear arsenal at bay? The device generating the tone has broken on more than one occasion and the rate and pitch of the noise has varied over the years. Finally why would they use a system that would be so easy for another country to replicate? Nothing would prevent the US or any other country from broadcasting a recorded version of the station shortly before killing everyone and thereby nullifying the deadman’s switch. For me, the best explanation is that UVB-76 is used for communication within the Russian military. It definitely explains the strange messages that are broadcast whether it be internal communication or if it’s intended for operatives overseas. Number stations such as this have been operated by dozen of countries, rebels, and paramilitary grounds for decades. They use an open frequency to broadcast coded messages (often in a series of numbers) to an unknown recipient who is the only one who can easily decode the message. This theory doesn’t explain UVB’s buzzer. Perhaps it’s meant to hold the frequency, maybe it’s to draw attention to itself, I’m not sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station 

<ul><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZgmJdqVRAk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZgmJdqVRAk</a> 1976</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWAYHbKPvFw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWAYHbKPvFw</a> 1982</li><li><a href="http://priyom.org/military-stations/russia/the-buzzer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://priyom.org/military-stations/russia/the-buzzer</a> </li><li><a href="http://priyom.org/military-stations/russia/the-buzzer/2017/june" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://priyom.org/military-stations/russia/the-buzzer/2017/june</a> 2017</li><li><a href="https://www.wired.com/2011/09/ff_uvb76/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.wired.com/2011/09/ff_uvb76/</a> </li><li><a href="https://www.dailydot.com/debug/uvb76-russia-mystery/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.dailydot.com/debug/uvb76-russia-mystery/</a> </li></ul> Zach, last week you called me out for always using the same basic format during  the introduction to my topic. This week I’m going to change it up a bit. Normally I’d ask you a question about whatever topic is at the center of my mystery. This week I’m going to ask you a question that is only tangentially related and you have to figure out how it’s related to this week’s mystery. Zach have you ever seen the TV show “Lost”? In the first season of Lost the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 discover a strange radio broadcast coming from somewhere on the island. The broadcast is an automated message from a french woman that when translated says, “If anybody can hear this, they are dead. Please help us. I’ll try to make it to the Black Rock. It (or he) killed them. It (or he) killed them all.” This message had been playing, nonstop, for 15 years. This week, Zach, we’re talking about a mysterious radio signal that has been broadcast, nonstop, for at least 44 years. UVB-76 is a station broadcasting at 4625 kHtz somewhere in Russia. It plays a constant loop of a strange buzzing noise which you can hear under my voice right now. For quite some time, until around 1992, UVB-76 broadcasted nothing but beeps, but somewhere along the way it changed to a rhythmic buzzing that varies from 21-34 buzzes per minute with 2 quick buzzes every hour, on the hour. For this reason the station is commonly referred to as “the buzzer”. The station is thought to be run by the Russian military but this has never been confirmed by the government. Zach I want you to follow me on a journey. You’re walking alone in the Russian wilderness with your shortwave radio slung around your neck like a crazy old guy at a baseball game. It’s getting a little dark outside but fortunately you have favorite monotonous tone to keep you company. As you walk down the dirt path you notice something is off. Maybe a buzz was slightly off, maybe a buzz was slightly too quiet. Something is different. Someone is controlling the broadcast. Then you hear……… In case you don’t speak Russian you just heard a man read a series of numbers and Russian names and most people think this is the real reason for the broadcast. The interruptions happen at random intervals that can be anywhere from minutes to months apart and they never repeat or show any kind of obvious pattern. They do have a standard format however. First the monotonous beeping is interrupted, then a voice reads the station callsign and some combination of numbers and russian names. I know that you are well up to speed on late 20 to early 21st century Russian history but let me give you a little recap of things that have happened in the last 40 years. You have the last decade of the cold war, the end of the Afghan war, the Soviet implosion, the end of price controls, Boris Yeltsin, the bombing of parliament, the first Chechen war, the rise of oligarchs, the financial crisis, the second Chechen war, the rise of Putinism, and the beginning of the Crimean war. Despite a country going through complete and total upheaval, UVB-76 has continued to broadcast. In fact, UVB-76 has been even more active since the turn of the century with voice messages increasing to multiple times a month. Another strange thing about UVB-76 is that it isn’t a loop or even pre recorded. It seems to be a manually generated buzzer noise. This was deferred after listeners started hearing phone conversations and banging noises in the background. The buzzer is made by some kind of device in front of a microphone and there is often a person in the room with it. More than just background voices and banging noises have been heard from UVB-76. In 2010 the station did several very weird things. On June 5 the buzzing stopped. There was no announcement and no explanation then it started again the next day. Everything seemed mostly normal, there were some things that sound like morse but nothing dramatic. Then on August 25th at 10:13 AM everything stopped again then there was a series of bumps that could be routinely heard for the next month. For the first week of September the broadcast was regularly interrupted with portions of “Dance of the Little Swans” from Tchaikovsky’s swan lake. <a href="https://youtu.be/oH5Fn_u7XQk?t=93" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/oH5Fn_u7XQk?t=93</a> There were also reports of a woman’s scream being heard on the air. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oMN_ISWA0w" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oMN_ISWA0w</a> Then on September 7th at 8:48 PM Moscow time a male voice issued a new call sign, “Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris”. The station had now changed it’s name to MDZhB. Around this time the station also changed locations, originally it was traced to Povarovo a military outpost a few miles north of Moscow. Around the same time as the strange noises heard in 2010 the station was relocated to an unknown location near St. Petersburg. Since it’s move and rebranding UVB-76 or UZB-76 or MDZhB or The Buzzer or whatever else you want to call it has been broadcasting normally. There are occasional technical problems and the voice broadcasts have become more frequent over the years. There are several theories about why UVB-76 exists. The first actually comes from a Russian state-funded organization called the Borok Geophysical Observatory. This group published an academic paper that explained the the signal originates from an observatory using the frequency to measure changes in the ionosphere. At first this seems like a perfectly reasonable explanation until you remember the voice. Why would a group of researches need to send coded messages in order to study the ionosphere? There’s also something I haven’t mentioned yet Zach. The original location of UVB-76 has already been found and explored. After the station changed location two groups of explorers travelled to Povarovo. When they got there a local man told them about a storm that happened in 2010. One night a dense fog rolled in and the military outpost was evacuated within an hour and a half. After sneaking onto the former military base the groups found an abandoned bunker and several abandoned buildings. Equipment and random items had been left behind and strewn about, there were leaks that had frozen over, and the building seemed completely abandoned. During the exploration a book was found that contained a log of messages sent by UVB-76. This discovery all but confirmed the station’s affiliation with the Russian military. Now the “official” explanation seems a little strange. Why would a research group operate out of a military bunker? Another theory is that the station is a Dead Man’s Switch. The theory claims that if Russia were to be crippled by a nuclear strike that prevented the orders for retaliation the automated system would launch a counter strike at the most likely perpetrator (aka America). This theory isn’t one of my favorites because it doesn’t explain the voice broadcast or the strange noise. Additionally the Russians would have to be incredibly stupid for this to be their automated retaliation system. First the station has gone out many many times since it first started broadcasting sometimes for several days. Second why would they rely on a manually generated tone to hold their nuclear arsenal at bay? The device generating the tone has broken on more than one occasion and the rate and pitch of the noise has varied over the years. Finally why would they use a system that would be so easy for another country to replicate? Nothing would prevent the US or any other country from broadcasting a recorded version of the station shortly before killing everyone and thereby nullifying the deadman’s switch. For me, the best explanation is that UVB-76 is used for communication within the Russian military. It definitely explains the strange messages that are broadcast whether it be internal communication or if it’s intended for operatives overseas. Number stations such as this have been operated by dozen of countries, rebels, and paramilitary grounds for decades. They use an open frequency to broadcast coded messages (often in a series of numbers) to an unknown recipient who is the only one who can easily decode the message. This theory doesn’t explain UVB’s buzzer. Perhaps it’s meant to hold the frequency, maybe it’s to draw attention to itself, I’m not sure. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station</a>

UVB-76

A strange meteor hit Siberia over a hundred years ago. Was it really a meteor or something more sinister?

A strange meteor hit Siberia over a hundred years ago. Was it really a meteor or something more sinister?

The Tunguska Event

The Tube Sock Killings

Jesse Ross

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this Willy, but we are inching closer and closer to a full year of doing this podcast, which is the greatest mystery of them all. I went back and listened to one of our earlier episodes recently and realized just how much we have devolved. Back in the early days of the show, we were a borderline good podcast with just enough humor sprinkled onto our true crime to set us apart. Now, we’re basically the mystery podcast version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” only to more accurate it would be “Whose Turn to Write the Script Is It Anyway”, where everything’s made up and the mysteries don’t matter. Anyway, the reason I bring up the early days of the show is because today’s episode is going to be a bit retro. Today we’ll be covering a good old fashioned missing person, like we used to do, back when times were simpler. I wanted to find a super interesting disappearance and usually the most interesting ones are missing children, because those cases are so tragic and gut-wrenching. However, now that I have a child, I couldn’t bring myself to do the story of a missing child, so we’re going to talk about a missing adult. Well, technically he’s an adult, but biologically he’s still an adolescent because biological adolescence lasts until you’re 23 or 24. Bam. You learn something new everyday.In 2006, Jesse Ross was a nineteen-year-old sophomore communications major at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, over in your neck of the woods. He was a paid radio personality on a popular Kansas City radio station called 95.7 The Vibe. Willy, have you listened to 95.7 The Vibe?In late November of 2006, the week before Thanksgiving, Jesse and thirteen other UMKC students traveled to Chicago, Illinois for a Model UN Conference along with 1000 other college students from around the country. The problem with our show is that we’re constantly dealing with victims of tragedy, so it’s totally inappropriate for me to do things like BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP NERD ALERT NERD ALERT neeeeehROOOOOOOWWWWWWwwwwww neeeeeehROOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWwwwwww NERD ALERT NERD ALERT BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEP.On the drive to Chicago, Jesse commented to his peers about how he wanted to deliver some of his music to bars and radio stations in Chicago so that he could be discovered, which is a very sad detail considering the fact that his story is being covered on MysteriYES. Here’s another sad detail: on November 20th, Jesse called his mother to tell her that he was having a great time at the Model UN Conference (nerd alert) and promised to call her the next day once he and his fellow students had loaded up in their vans for the drive home.That night, Jesse and a school friend named Ralph Parker attended a dance thrown by the conference organizers at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel &amp; Towers, where the conference was being held. After that, he and Ralph went to a party at a hotel room where alcohol was served. According to Ralph, Jesse had done some drinking, but in no way did he seem to be intoxicated. Around 1 am, an emergency meeting of the Model UN Security Council was called at the same hotel, and Ralph and Jesse were in attendance because (nerd alert).At around 2:30 am, after 90 minutes of meeting in the middle of the night for a fake security council at a conference that was ending in the morning, the diligent Model UN Security Council took a 30 minute recess. At that time, Jesse left the meeting room. There is surveillance footage of Jesse from the hotel lobby walking toward the main doors but did not exit through the main doors. It has been suggested that he went out a side staff door that was frequently used by conference attendees. Jesse was wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, and a green jacket. However, there is some dissension about whether Jesse was actually caught on security cameras leaving. One report I read said that there is no footage of him leaving, only of him entering earlier in the evening. The only image I’ve found has a timestamp that looks like it says 12:46 am, which would have been about fifteen minutes before the emergency meeting began. I really don’t know which report is accurate, but I wish they could clear it up because it really affects the way I think about the case. If indeed the security footage did show Jesse leaving the hotel, it is the last trace of Jesse Ross that exists.When Jesse didn’t return for the conclusion of the Model UN Security Council Meeting, Ralph assumed that Jesse went back to their hotel room and fell asleep. The walk back to their hotel--the Four Points by Sheraton--would have been about ten minutes. It was well-lit and heavily surveyed by security cameras, and yet none of them recorded Jesse. I’ve never been to this part of Chicago, but everything I’ve read online suggest that pretty much every square foot of this area is covered by security cameras, and so it is baffling why Jesse was never recorded outside of the hotel lobby. To me, this is part of what makes this case so interesting. There is no proof that Jesse ever left the hotel, but surely there’s no way he’s still in the hotel.Later that night/super early morning when the emergency meeting wrapped up, Ralph returned to the hotel room he shared with Jesse. He mistook a small pile of clothes on Jesse’s bed to the thin kid’s sleeping form and went to sleep himself. It wasn’t until the next morning that Ralph realized that Jesse wasn’t in his bed. Ralph assumed that Jesse was a player and slept in another room, so he ever-so-kindly (or perhaps suspiciously?) packed up Jesse’s suitcase and met up with the rest of the group, as they were heading back to Kansas City that morning.When Jesse didn’t show up with the rest of the group after some time, the group’s chaperone alerted the conference organizers that they were missing a student.The organizers asked around to see if they could locate him, and when they couldn’t they called hotel security. A missing persons report was filed at 4 pm, and then the chaperone called Jesse’s parents to let them know their son was missing. Meanwhile, the other students from the UMKC group headed back, while the chaperone stayed behind to help police with the search.Jesse’s parents hoped that there was some sort of mixup and that Jesse had returned home with students from another university. However, after that first day came and went without hearing anything from Jesse, this theory seemed less and less likely until it seemed all but impossible, particularly when they realized that there had been no activity from Jesse’s cell phone or bank accounts since before he had vanished.Jesse’s parents flew to Chicago to meet with the local police, and would later make multiple other trips to hang posters and pass out fliers. The posters stated that Jesse was a white male, 5’10, 140 pounds, with very short red hair, blue eyes, freckles, and glasses.Now, even though Jesse was technically an adult being age 19, his case was given high priority due to the fact that he was visiting from out of town and was relatively unfamiliar with the area. However, the Chicago police had difficulty conducting their investigation for a number of reasons. The primary reason the investigation was so difficult was that most of the potential witnesses--the other students at the conference--had left Chicago before the missing persons report was even filed. Also, there was no crime scene to investigate and no physical evidence to gather. On top of that, the report came in two days before Thanksgiving, a time of year when absolutely no one wants to come in to work.The case did draw a great deal of media attention, and as a result, investigators received hundreds of tips in the first few months after the disappearance, but nothing of any substance was turned up. The Kansas City police helped to interview some of Jesse’s fellow classmates who had also gone on the trip, but because they were teenagers or very young adults who’d been drinking alcohol in a fun, new city, they aren’t able to provide much information other than “theories and presumptions.”The hotel where the conference was being held was right along the Chicago River, and apparently if Jesse had gone out the side door everyone claimed, he would have walked right out onto an esplanade right along the river. As a result, Chicago police’s primary theory was that there had been no foul play and he had merely accidentally drowned in the river--even though there is a four-foot security barrier along the pedestrian walkway. Police divers searched the Chicago River for any sign of Jesse Ross’s body, but they didn’t find anything.Let’s talk about some theories, and first let’s get into the theory that Jesse chose to disappear on purpose, either by killing himself or running away to start a new life. It does seem like many times when adults disappear, it is done intentionally, however I don’t think that’s the case with Jesse. After all, if you’re going to kill yourself or run away, waiting until a thirty-minute break in a Model UN Security Council late-night emergency meeting is a really bizarro time to do it. His parents also highly doubt this theory, given that he had called earlier that day describing how much fun he was having, and that he had recently gotten the promotion to on-air personality at 95.7 The Vibe, which was a dream come true for him. By now, we should all know that people who are going to kill themselves don’t always show outward signs that this is what they’re planning, but if we’re looking at the circumstances with Jesse here, I find this very unlikely.The next theory is the police’s theory that he either accidentally or purposely ended up in the Chicago River and drowned. After all, the river is right outside the door Jesse apparently went out, so it’s possible that he wanted to go outside during the break to appreciate the pleasant view of the river. Had he done so, perhaps he somehow fell into the river and wasn’t able to cry out for anyone to help, it being the middle of the night and there likely not being very many people around. However if this is the case, why wasn’t he captured on the security cameras that were apparently all over the place? And if there was a four-foot tall security barrier, how or why did he get over that barrier so that he was in a position to fall in? And if he did fall in, how come searches of the area turned up nothing? (Well, this is pretty easy, actually. Can you imagine having to search a body of water like that and be expected to find a single human body?)Then there’s the various foul play theories. While police haven’t found any evidence to suggest that Jesse met with foul play, I don’t think that we--as a comedy mystery podcast--should rule it out. The first foul play theory is that one of the other nerds--er, I mean, aspiring young professionals--at the Model UN Security Council late-night emergency meeting followed him out of the building and killed him, perhaps by throwing him into the river. A few questions though. First, and primarily, why? Second, were there no witnesses? Third, was there no security footage? This one is just silly.Another foul play theory is that he met with foul play while going to a bar to promote his music. I couldn’t tell if this was a confirmed fact, but there’s some rumor that he had declared that he was going to try promoting his music that night. Maybe he either got lost on his way, stumbled on a shady character, went home with a shady person, whatever. My problem with this theory is that it was already 2:30 am, and apparently downtown Chicago is not a city that never sleeps and so most bars were probably already closed. Plus, he was nineteen, so where could he have gone anyway?The next foul play theory is that perhaps he was headed back to his hotel to go to sleep and got lost or took a wrong turn and stumbled upon a shady character or saw something he shouldn’t have seen and was killed and disposed of. I guess this could be possible, but apparently the downtown Chicago area is a relatively safe, quiet area with little crime, and is thus less likely to have much shady business going on between the two hotels. Plus, it was the last night of the conference. He should have been familiar with the route between the two hotels by then. And then there’s the pesky business of him not ending up on any of the CCTV footage that was between the two hotels.So Willy, what theory are you choosing?I don’t think that Jesse is still alive, and if I had to guess what happened to him, I would say he most likely fell into the Chicago River and drowned. It doesn’t make sense for him to have killed himself or run away, and if he met with foul play then how come his body was never found and what actually happened to him? There’s obvious problems with this theory, such as no security footage and the security barrier that should have protected him from falling in, but if someone were to put a gun to my head, I would say he’s probably in the Chicago River. Well, his body has probably decomposed so he could actually be all over the place by now. That was inappropriate.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this Willy, but we are inching closer and closer to a full year of doing this podcast, which is the greatest mystery of them all. I went back and listened to one of our earlier episodes recently and realized just how much we have devolved. Back in the early days of the show, we were a borderline good podcast with just enough humor sprinkled onto our true crime to set us apart. Now, we’re basically the mystery podcast version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” only to more accurate it would be “Whose Turn to Write the Script Is It Anyway”, where everything’s made up and the mysteries don’t matter. Anyway, the reason I bring up the early days of the show is because today’s episode is going to be a bit retro. Today we’ll be covering a good old fashioned missing person, like we used to do, back when times were simpler. I wanted to find a super interesting disappearance and usually the most interesting ones are missing children, because those cases are so tragic and gut-wrenching. However, now that I have a child, I couldn’t bring myself to do the story of a missing child, so we’re going to talk about a missing adult. Well, technically he’s an adult, but biologically he’s still an adolescent because biological adolescence lasts until you’re 23 or 24. Bam. You learn something new everyday.In 2006, Jesse Ross was a nineteen-year-old sophomore communications major at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, over in your neck of the woods. He was a paid radio personality on a popular Kansas City radio station called 95.7 The Vibe. Willy, have you listened to 95.7 The Vibe?In late November of 2006, the week before Thanksgiving, Jesse and thirteen other UMKC students traveled to Chicago, Illinois for a Model UN Conference along with 1000 other college students from around the country. The problem with our show is that we’re constantly dealing with victims of tragedy, so it’s totally inappropriate for me to do things like BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP NERD ALERT NERD ALERT neeeeehROOOOOOOWWWWWWwwwwww neeeeeehROOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWwwwwww NERD ALERT NERD ALERT BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEP.On the drive to Chicago, Jesse commented to his peers about how he wanted to deliver some of his music to bars and radio stations in Chicago so that he could be discovered, which is a very sad detail considering the fact that his story is being covered on MysteriYES. Here’s another sad detail: on November 20th, Jesse called his mother to tell her that he was having a great time at the Model UN Conference (nerd alert) and promised to call her the next day once he and his fellow students had loaded up in their vans for the drive home.That night, Jesse and a school friend named Ralph Parker attended a dance thrown by the conference organizers at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel &amp; Towers, where the conference was being held. After that, he and Ralph went to a party at a hotel room where alcohol was served. According to Ralph, Jesse had done some drinking, but in no way did he seem to be intoxicated. Around 1 am, an emergency meeting of the Model UN Security Council was called at the same hotel, and Ralph and Jesse were in attendance because (nerd alert).At around 2:30 am, after 90 minutes of meeting in the middle of the night for a fake security council at a conference that was ending in the morning, the diligent Model UN Security Council took a 30 minute recess. At that time, Jesse left the meeting room. There is surveillance footage of Jesse from the hotel lobby walking toward the main doors but did not exit through the main doors. It has been suggested that he went out a side staff door that was frequently used by conference attendees. Jesse was wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, and a green jacket. However, there is some dissension about whether Jesse was actually caught on security cameras leaving. One report I read said that there is no footage of him leaving, only of him entering earlier in the evening. The only image I’ve found has a timestamp that looks like it says 12:46 am, which would have been about fifteen minutes before the emergency meeting began. I really don’t know which report is accurate, but I wish they could clear it up because it really affects the way I think about the case. If indeed the security footage did show Jesse leaving the hotel, it is the last trace of Jesse Ross that exists.When Jesse didn’t return for the conclusion of the Model UN Security Council Meeting, Ralph assumed that Jesse went back to their hotel room and fell asleep. The walk back to their hotel--the Four Points by Sheraton--would have been about ten minutes. It was well-lit and heavily surveyed by security cameras, and yet none of them recorded Jesse. I’ve never been to this part of Chicago, but everything I’ve read online suggest that pretty much every square foot of this area is covered by security cameras, and so it is baffling why Jesse was never recorded outside of the hotel lobby. To me, this is part of what makes this case so interesting. There is no proof that Jesse ever left the hotel, but surely there’s no way he’s still in the hotel.Later that night/super early morning when the emergency meeting wrapped up, Ralph returned to the hotel room he shared with Jesse. He mistook a small pile of clothes on Jesse’s bed to the thin kid’s sleeping form and went to sleep himself. It wasn’t until the next morning that Ralph realized that Jesse wasn’t in his bed. Ralph assumed that Jesse was a player and slept in another room, so he ever-so-kindly (or perhaps suspiciously?) packed up Jesse’s suitcase and met up with the rest of the group, as they were heading back to Kansas City that morning.When Jesse didn’t show up with the rest of the group after some time, the group’s chaperone alerted the conference organizers that they were missing a student.The organizers asked around to see if they could locate him, and when they couldn’t they called hotel security. A missing persons report was filed at 4 pm, and then the chaperone called Jesse’s parents to let them know their son was missing. Meanwhile, the other students from the UMKC group headed back, while the chaperone stayed behind to help police with the search.Jesse’s parents hoped that there was some sort of mixup and that Jesse had returned home with students from another university. However, after that first day came and went without hearing anything from Jesse, this theory seemed less and less likely until it seemed all but impossible, particularly when they realized that there had been no activity from Jesse’s cell phone or bank accounts since before he had vanished.Jesse’s parents flew to Chicago to meet with the local police, and would later make multiple other trips to hang posters and pass out fliers. The posters stated that Jesse was a white male, 5’10, 140 pounds, with very short red hair, blue eyes, freckles, and glasses.Now, even though Jesse was technically an adult being age 19, his case was given high priority due to the fact that he was visiting from out of town and was relatively unfamiliar with the area. However, the Chicago police had difficulty conducting their investigation for a number of reasons. The primary reason the investigation was so difficult was that most of the potential witnesses--the other students at the conference--had left Chicago before the missing persons report was even filed. Also, there was no crime scene to investigate and no physical evidence to gather. On top of that, the report came in two days before Thanksgiving, a time of year when absolutely no one wants to come in to work.The case did draw a great deal of media attention, and as a result, investigators received hundreds of tips in the first few months after the disappearance, but nothing of any substance was turned up. The Kansas City police helped to interview some of Jesse’s fellow classmates who had also gone on the trip, but because they were teenagers or very young adults who’d been drinking alcohol in a fun, new city, they aren’t able to provide much information other than “theories and presumptions.”The hotel where the conference was being held was right along the Chicago River, and apparently if Jesse had gone out the side door everyone claimed, he would have walked right out onto an esplanade right along the river. As a result, Chicago police’s primary theory was that there had been no foul play and he had merely accidentally drowned in the river--even though there is a four-foot security barrier along the pedestrian walkway. Police divers searched the Chicago River for any sign of Jesse Ross’s body, but they didn’t find anything.Let’s talk about some theories, and first let’s get into the theory that Jesse chose to disappear on purpose, either by killing himself or running away to start a new life. It does seem like many times when adults disappear, it is done intentionally, however I don’t think that’s the case with Jesse. After all, if you’re going to kill yourself or run away, waiting until a thirty-minute break in a Model UN Security Council late-night emergency meeting is a really bizarro time to do it. His parents also highly doubt this theory, given that he had called earlier that day describing how much fun he was having, and that he had recently gotten the promotion to on-air personality at 95.7 The Vibe, which was a dream come true for him. By now, we should all know that people who are going to kill themselves don’t always show outward signs that this is what they’re planning, but if we’re looking at the circumstances with Jesse here, I find this very unlikely.The next theory is the police’s theory that he either accidentally or purposely ended up in the Chicago River and drowned. After all, the river is right outside the door Jesse apparently went out, so it’s possible that he wanted to go outside during the break to appreciate the pleasant view of the river. Had he done so, perhaps he somehow fell into the river and wasn’t able to cry out for anyone to help, it being the middle of the night and there likely not being very many people around. However if this is the case, why wasn’t he captured on the security cameras that were apparently all over the place? And if there was a four-foot tall security barrier, how or why did he get over that barrier so that he was in a position to fall in? And if he did fall in, how come searches of the area turned up nothing? (Well, this is pretty easy, actually. Can you imagine having to search a body of water like that and be expected to find a single human body?)Then there’s the various foul play theories. While police haven’t found any evidence to suggest that Jesse met with foul play, I don’t think that we--as a comedy mystery podcast--should rule it out. The first foul play theory is that one of the other nerds--er, I mean, aspiring young professionals--at the Model UN Security Council late-night emergency meeting followed him out of the building and killed him, perhaps by throwing him into the river. A few questions though. First, and primarily, why? Second, were there no witnesses? Third, was there no security footage? This one is just silly.Another foul play theory is that he met with foul play while going to a bar to promote his music. I couldn’t tell if this was a confirmed fact, but there’s some rumor that he had declared that he was going to try promoting his music that night. Maybe he either got lost on his way, stumbled on a shady character, went home with a shady person, whatever. My problem with this theory is that it was already 2:30 am, and apparently downtown Chicago is not a city that never sleeps and so most bars were probably already closed. Plus, he was nineteen, so where could he have gone anyway?The next foul play theory is that perhaps he was headed back to his hotel to go to sleep and got lost or took a wrong turn and stumbled upon a shady character or saw something he shouldn’t have seen and was killed and disposed of. I guess this could be possible, but apparently the downtown Chicago area is a relatively safe, quiet area with little crime, and is thus less likely to have much shady business going on between the two hotels. Plus, it was the last night of the conference. He should have been familiar with the route between the two hotels by then. And then there’s the pesky business of him not ending up on any of the CCTV footage that was between the two hotels.So Willy, what theory are you choosing?I don’t think that Jesse is still alive, and if I had to guess what happened to him, I would say he most likely fell into the Chicago River and drowned. It doesn’t make sense for him to have killed himself or run away, and if he met with foul play then how come his body was never found and what actually happened to him? There’s obvious problems with this theory, such as no security footage and the security barrier that should have protected him from falling in, but if someone were to put a gun to my head, I would say he’s probably in the Chicago River. Well, his body has probably decomposed so he could actually be all over the place by now. That was inappropriate.

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