A Simpler Time True Crime

A Simpler Time True Crime

I’m Megan, your host, and each week I revisit unsolved cases from decades past—stories that have too often been forgotten or overlooked. Together, we examine the facts, question the myths of “the good old days,” and ask whether a simpler time was ever really a safer one. This podcast honors the people at the heart of each case—focusing not on sensationalism, but on the lives affected and the justice still waiting to be served. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/a-simpler-time-true-crime--6665681/support.

Episodes

All Just A Game: The Unsolved Murder of Harriet Riley

October 13, 2025 • 28 mins
In 1975 Sacramento, a young girl named Harriet went out to play at the park and never returned home. Her concerned mother called police and tragically, the next day, her body was found in a dumpster just a mile away. Police quickly focused on two local boys who claimed it was all part of a child’s game that went terribly wrong. But as you’ll hear, there’s so much more to this story. Her father — a decorated veteran — was also murde...
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Valid Concerns For Her Safety: The Unsolved Murder of Judy Lord

October 6, 2025 • 24 mins
A young woman is living in a small Concord, New Hampshire apartment with her husband and their little boy. Their marriage is rocky, and he comes and goes often, leaving Judy alone with their toddler. During those stretches, she was said to have been uneasy and fearful, convinced someone might break in. Neighbors didn’t quite understand her worry until one summer day in 1975, when Judy was found dead inside her apartment. In the dec...
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A Killer At The Door: The Unsolved Murder of Virginia State Trooper Johnny Bowman

September 29, 2025 • 34 mins
In the early morning hours of August 19, 1984, a Virginia State Trooper answered his front door and was ambushed. In an attack lasting no more than three minutes, he was fatally stabbed more than 40 times in front of his wife, brother, and sister-in-law, as well as his toddler daughter – who had been asleep in bed with him prior to the attack. From the over-the-top disguises left behind at the crime scene to suspects no one would e...
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Lover's Lane: The Murder of Cathy Britt

September 22, 2025 • 30 mins
In May 1983, a young couple parked near the Loch Raven Reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland, was suddenly ambushed when gunfire shattered the quiet night. Just four weeks earlier, another couple had been shot in a similar lovers’ lane attack, but they managed to survive. This second tragedy claimed the life of a 22-year-old woman and left the community shaken with fears that a serial predator was on the loose. Then, as suddenly ...
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A Mountain Town's Code of Silence: The Murders of Earl and Clarissa Gonzales

September 15, 2025 • 31 mins
High in the mountains of northern New Mexico, overlooking the village of Questa, a father and his young daughter lived in the dream home he built with his own hands. Friends and neighbors knew him as the kind of man who always offered help and kept his door open to anyone in need. But that open door would one day invite in evil. In early September 1999, both he and his 9-year-old daughter were found murdered inside their home. Now,...
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Disappeared from the Dorms: The Unsolved Case of Michael Negrete

September 8, 2025 • 40 mins
It was the end of the semester at UCLA. Students were finishing exams, celebrating, and preparing to head home for the holidays. A freshman named Michael joined friends at a dorm party before winding down with a late-night computer game with another friend in the building. In the early morning hours, he stepped out to congratulate his friend on the win, then headed back toward his room. From that moment on, Michael was never seen a...
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Abducted From The Playground: The Kidnapping of Megan Garner

September 1, 2025 • 32 mins
In the spring of 1991, a three-year-old girl was playing outside with her siblings and cousins while her mother and aunt were inside. She knew the rules her mom had set—especially not to cross the parking lot alone. That simple rule left her briefly apart from the older children, and in those few unguarded moments on the apartment playground, she disappeared. At first, her mother believed she had only wandered off, but panic set in...
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Nothing Is What It Seems: The Unsolved Murder of Donna Emmel

August 24, 2025 • 64 mins
If you look up this case online, you’ll see one version of events repeated over and over: A young girl leaves a hangout spot to walk home, takes a cut-through trail, and never makes it back. Her body is later found in a nearby ditch, and a witness claims they saw a man follow her into the woods. That’s the story I first read, and it’s the one most people believe. But in recent years, Donna’s cousins have worked to unravel the truth...
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I'll Be Right Back: The Unsolved Murder of Sharon Thor

August 18, 2025 • 22 mins
Sharon was a talented high school dancer with a bright future in ballet. One afternoon, a phone call pulled her from the safety of home. She told her mom she’d be right back, then stepped outside and into a waiting vehicle. She was never seen alive again. Days later her body was found, leaving her family and the small New Jersey community reeling. More than forty years have passed, but those who know the truth have yet to come forw...
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House of Horrors: The Disappearance of Martha Martinez Maxwell

August 11, 2025 • 33 mins
A 41-year-old Texas woman is trapped in a violent marriage. After barely surviving a previous attack, she gains distance and the hope of a fresh start. But slowly he lures her back into his web. And then one day, she vanishes. Her family receives a letter from her stating she’s leaving her husband, but they grow suspicious when they don’t hear from her. Her husband was uncooperative and maintained that she just up and left the fami...
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A Frightening Chain of Events: The Unsolved Murders of Julie and Terry Dade

August 4, 2025 • 32 mins
In scary movies, there’s always that moment—the chase, the panic, the victim just steps away from help when they’re suddenly pulled back into danger. It’s a trope meant to shock us and keep us on the edge of our seats. But in 1970, in a quiet Oregon town, that moment wasn’t fiction. It was real. A young woman, terrified and desperate, made it all the way to the doorstep of help, only for the killer to catch up and drag her away.
In...
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He Walked Into The Night and Vanished: The Disappearance of Ellis Faison Sr.

July 28, 2025 • 28 mins
People in the midst of a mental health crisis are at a much higher risk of going missing. In the late summer of 1989, a 64-year-old man from North Carolina became part of that troubling reality. That evening, police had been called to his home multiple times in response to what seemed like episodes of paranoia. But later that night, he stepped outside into the dark and was never seen again. It was easy for some to assume that he’d ...
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An Empty Bed and Unending Mystery: The Unsolved Disappearance of Zachary Bernhardt

July 21, 2025 • 36 mins
  An 8-year-old boy in Clearwater, Florida spends the evening with his mother and asks if he can sleep in her bed. After putting him to sleep, his mother struggles to fall asleep due to typically working the overnight shift. As the hours tick on, she finally decides to leave Zach alone to get some fresh air. When she returns, he is nowhere to be found. This is a complex case with very few confirmable facts, rather rumors and theori...
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The Classified Ad: The Murder of Linda Sue Dearth

July 14, 2025 • 39 mins
It was late January of 1973. Across the country, people were mourning the passing of former President Lyndon B. Johnson. His funeral was set to be broadcast on national television, and schools across the U.S. closed for the day so families could watch. In a quiet neighborhood near Dayton, Ohio, that unexpected day off meant a teenage girl was home alone—just for a short while. But during that small window of time, someone entered t...
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The Answering Machine Message: The Unsolved Murder of Jennifer Clemmings

July 6, 2025 • 47 mins
A beautiful and vivacious 32-year-old woman had hit a sweet-spot of success in her life. She was a high-ranking sales consultant for the beauty company Mary Kay and on pace to be one of the top ranks in the company. But one evening in 2002, all of her momentum would be halted when her life was snuffed out by a violent sexual predator.  When she realized she was in danger, she heroically placed a covert phone call to a friend which ...
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Darkness of the St Charles Trails: The Disappearance of Scott Kleeschulte

June 29, 2025 • 42 mins
It was the last day of school, and 9-year-old Scott from St. Charles, Missouri, was ready to dive into summer. He started the season like so many other kids—riding his bike and exploring a nearby wooded area popular with local children. But in a single moment, Scott vanished. That same afternoon, a powerful thunderstorm swept through the area, triggering flash floods. At first, many believed he may have been caught in the rising wa...
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Mystery at the Lake Superior Shoreline: The Unsolved Murder of Dale Wheeler

June 23, 2025 • 37 mins
Send us a textOn an unseasonably beautiful fall day in Duluth, Minnesota, a 33-year-old mother decides to take time for herself to bike the beautiful scenic Highway 61 along the shoreline of Lake Superior. After pulling off to take a breather and enjoy the sunshine along the shore, she is brutally attacked in broad daylight. Even though there were bicyclists, drivers, joggers, and boaters everywhere - nobody seemed to have witnesse...
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Trailer: A Simpler Time True Crime

June 18, 2025 • 58 secs
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/a-simpler-time-true-crime--6665681/support.
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The Fishing Trip: The Unsolved Disappearance of Walter "Greg" Fowler

June 16, 2025 • 39 mins
Send us a textOn this podcast, I often share cases filled with mystery — where there are multiple suspects, possible outcomes, and unanswered questions about what happened or who was responsible. But for every one of those cases, there are just as many where both the loved ones of the missing or murdered person and law enforcement feel certain they know what happened — they just don’t have the evidence to prove it beyond a reasonab...
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Lured Away At The Park: The Abduction of Hattie Jackson

June 9, 2025 • 39 mins
Send us a textFriday July 21st, 1961 was ranked the fourth hottest day in Washington DC that year, coming in at 93 degrees. And so, the children on their summer school break were trying to keep cool. Amongst those was a young girl named Hattie, who went to play at Rock Creek Park with some friends and her older brother. But the water at Rock Creek Park wasn’t safe to swim in and a series of events surrounding this would provide opp...
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