Hell and Gone

On December 17, 2013, 20-year-old Heather Elvis headed out on a first date in Carolina Forest, South Carolina, west of Myrtle Beach in Horry County. Heather grew up in this area, which is known for its beautiful beaches. Her parents and her younger sister described her as a kind fun-loving young woman who had dreams of working in cosmetology. After graduating from high school in 2011, Heather was making her dreams happen. She was working two jobs. She was a hostess at the Tilted Kilt in Myrtle Beach and at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach. She was also studying cosmetology. She had moved into an apartment in Carolina Forest with a friend of hers named Brianna. Even though the population was just over 23,000, their apartment was located in a huge, busy subdivision. But Heather's life had taken a pretty dark turn over the past few months. She had gotten into a relationship with a man much older than her, and it had been dramatic. She was starting to date again, and her friends and family said that she seemed more like herself. It seemed like life was finally getting back to normal. But something happened after Heather got home that night. She got a call, and then, she changed into her favorite outfit, and she went out, driving her green Dodge Intrepid. After that, she vanished. Where did she go that dark that night? And what happened to Heather Elvis? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On January 7, 1995, 43-year-old Connie Townsend’s home burned to the ground in Brockwell, Arkansas in front of over 20 witnesses. Connie was moving out of her house that day. She had separated from her estranged husband, David Townsend years earlier. David had been staying with his parents, Dale and Ramona, and also with his girlfriend of three years, JoAnn Ellis. But according to Connie’s daughters, Stacy and Amber, David was angry that day and had threatened Connie. They also said that David had threatened to burn the house down in the past. Connie’s body was found in a utility room; she was lying face down with a pair of sewing scissors underneath her body. Investigators said that Connie had died of smoke and soot inhalation, and according to the autopsy report there was no tissue left. And it seemed like after investigators went through the charred remains of her trailer, they had a lot more questions. Was Connie’s death due to an accidental fire, or murder and arson? We had heard from Connie’s daughters that Connie’s body was found in a junk room, a bedroom that they kind of used as a utility room. If there was a fire, why would Connie shut herself into a closet in the back of the utility room, a place where there was no escape? Or could someone have put her in that closet? If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On January 7, 1995, at around 12:50 pm, two women, Monica Jones and her girlfriend Cheryl Edwards were driving down Highway 56 near Brockwell, Arkansas when Cheryl saw smoke coming from a trailer at the residence of 43-year-old Connie Townsend. The two women pulled over and ran up to the trailer to try to help. At around that same time, another woman, Billy Browning arrived. Monica and Cheryl both desperately tried to get inside the trailer, but the heat was too intense. The trailer was already engulfed in flames. By the time the first officer from the Izard County Sheriff's Office and the Calico Rock fire department arrived on the scene, it was chaos. According to the police report, the officer noted that there were about 20 to 25 people standing in the yard. Connie Townsend burned to death while it seemed like half the town stood outside, and multiple people told police about threats that she had allegedly received, some of them earlier that day. And yet, 30 years later no one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with her death. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On June 1, 1987, Theresa Ann Bier was about to go on an adventure… into the woods to look for Bigfoot. Theresa was sixteen years old, and was wrapping up her freshman year at Fresno High in Fresno, California. She was one year behind a lot of her classmates, which wasn’t surprising because she was living in a very abusive environment with her uncle John Richmond, his two young sons, and his 17-year-old girlfriend. Theresa’s plan was to skip school June 1 and drive into the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the day with a 43-year-old friend of her uncle’s, Russell “Skip” Welch. But Theresa never came home, and soon, the man who took her into the woods was rambling about Theresa being taken by a monster. The case made local news, and on Friday, June 19, 1987, The Fresno Bee published a newspaper article about this case with the headline “Man blames Bigfoot for missing girl.” But this was more than a tabloid story. This case would involve allegations of sex slavery, serial killers, drug use, Bigfoot colonies - and at the heart of this story, a system that completely failed a young woman on every single level - a system that allowed a sixteen year old to vanish without a trace. If you have a case you’d like Catheerine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was Thursday night, November 1, 2007, and 18-year-old Justin Gaines was getting ready for a night out with his friends at Wild Bill’s, a club in Duluth, Georgia. Justin was a freshman in college. He had just started at Gainesville State college, which was about an hour away from where his family was. Justin was 5 '11, 210 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair in a buzz cut. He was a handsome, clean cut, preppy guy. Justin didn’t take a wallet out with him that night, so he had no credit cards, just cash, a couple fake IDs, and his cell phone. He caught a ride with his friends to the club. But when they arrived, his friends didn’t want to pay the cover charge and left. Justin saw someone in line who he knew and was able to get in for free and went into the club on his own. He said that it was no problem. He would find a ride. This was something he did often. A while later, in the early morning hours of November 2, 2007, Justin walked out into that parking lot in Duluth, and no one ever saw him again. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On February 15, 2024, 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, a fifth grade student at Creekside Elementary in Livingstone, Texas, never made it to the bus stop. And when she didn’t come home after school, her family knew that something was very wrong. Audrii lived with her dad, and on that property, there was someone else living there: a 42-year-old friend of the family’s who lived in a camper. And even though he had a very disturbing criminal record, this man was allowed to babysit for Audrii. Once Audrii went missing, people started taking a look at what was really going on behind the closed doors of this house in rural Texas. We talk about stranger danger, but with this case, sometimes the most terrifying people can be living inside our home. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. Listen here and subscribe to Betrayal: Season 4 on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2012, six years after 21-year-old college student Nina Ingram was strangled at her apartment in Fayetteville, there was an arrest and a man named Rico Cohn was charged with Nina’s murder. But after a key witness died suddenly, the criminal case against Rico was dismissed. His legal team filed a CIVIL LAWSUIT against the Fayetteville Police Department, suing several officers who worked on his case as well employees as the Arkansas State Crime Lab. They alleged that the case against Rico Cohn was weak, basically nonexistent - that there was no physical evidence against Rico Cohn and that the witness, Randee Applewhite, told them that she was NOT at all sure that Rico had committed the crime. Eventually, the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed. And the ENTIRE case against Rico Cohn was sealed by a judge. Now as we said last week the lawsuit is obviously only one side of the story. But there are a lot of details in the civil lawsuit about investigations that were done by Rico’s attorneys for both the civil and criminal lawsuits - and about leads that the Fayetteville Police Department allegedly failed to follow up on. One of them was a person described as Person of Interest B - who, from reading through the events of the case file, appeared to match the description of Jarvis Allan Harper, a man who worked with Nina Ingram at the Sixth Street Walmart at the time she was murdered. So we went back and tried to figure out how did Jarvis's name first come to the attention of the Fayetteville Police Department and if there were other leads that should have been investigated. What else did the police miss? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometime after ten pm on April 21, 2006, 21-year-old college student Nina Ingram was brutally murdered inside her apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The cause of death was ligature strangulation, and The Arkansas State Crime lab ruled the death a homicide. Despite the fact that detectives interviewed dozens of Nina’s friends, coworkers and her significant other, they had no viable suspects for years. The Fayetteville Police Department considered this a cold case, their only unsolved one at the time since the 1970s. But then in 2012 they arrested and charged 26-year-old Rico Tavarous Cohn with Nina’s murder. But the case against Rico Cohn was not as solid as it appeared to be on the surface. He spent over three years behind bars, and then, the case against him was dismissed. Three years later in 2018, Rico filed a civil lawsuit against the Fayetteville Police Department detectives and employees at the Arkansas State Crime Lab who he alleged violated his civil rights. This lawsuit claimed that there were several people of interest who police interviewed who were potential suspects...suspects that the lawsuit alleges were overlooked. The person who murdered Nina has never been found. This person is still out there. Could the answers to finding Nina’s killer be there and is this person still out there? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometime after 10 p.m. on April 21, 2006, 21-year-old college student Nina Ingram was brutally murdered inside her apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It became big news, at the time it was one of only two unsolved murder cases in Fayetteville since the 1970s. Police interviewed Nina’s neighbors, her boyfriend, her friends and family but failed to identify a single suspect. Her case went cold. Until six years later in 2012 when a 26-year-old man named Rico Tavarous Cohn was arrested and charged with Nina’s murder. If you have a case you’d like the Hell and Gone team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What Happened to Talina Zar unravels the chilling mystery of a woman who vanished during the COVID-19 lockdown, the internet sleuths who wouldn’t let it go, and the dark subcultures and betrayals they unearthed. Listen here or on the iHeartRadio app. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was April 21, 2006, and 21-year-old college student Nina Ingram was coming home after a long day. Nina had a very busy life. She was two years into her business degree at Northwest Arkansas Community college in Bentonville, Arkansas and also worked full time at Walmart, part of the loss prevention team, basically a security officer. That night, Nina had worked her shift, ate dinner at her boyfriend's apartment, and then drove back to her apartment complex a little after 10 pm. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. But the next day, no one heard from Nina. At around 2 pm her other brother, Noah, and his partner, Chad, drove over to Nina’s apartment to check on her. They knocked on the door, but Nina didn’t answer. So her brother climbed through an open window into the kitchen. Chad waited outside while Noah unlocked the door and the deadbolt, which were both locked. Seconds later, he heard Noah scream. Chad went in through the now unlocked front door and raced into Nina’s bedroom in the back of the apartment; he and Noah saw her lying face up on the bed with what Chad described as very visible red scratches and bruises around her neck. Chad told police that he knew immediately that she was dead. Was Nina Ingram murdered by a serial killer, was this a random attack, or was it someone she knew? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Sept. 1, 1995, a police officer in Fort Smith, Arkansas pulled over a vehicle. A man named Jerry Cogan was driving and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Lori Murchison, was the passenger. Lori worked at a local nursing home. She had a four year old daughter, Britney, and adored her little girl. But Lori had been battling an addiction to drugs, according to what her friends told police, mainly to methamphetamines and also alcohol. Because of that, Lori had been living with her mother, Nancy, in between staying at different local motels, and Nancy had been taking care of Lori’s daughter on and off. Lori and Jerry had been at a bar that night. When the officer pulled them over, he believed that both of them had been drinking. So, he placed Jerry under arrest for DUI, and Lori for suspicion of public intoxication. Lori was taken to the Sebastian County jail. And she was released sometime after 5 AM on September 2nd. She told detectives that she planned to get money and come back to bail Jerry out. But she never returned to jail. The last time she was seen alive was at the Continental Motel, when she was picking up a key to a room. Her family had no way of knowing where she was - or that the hunt for this missing mother would eventually involve charges of corruption at the highest levels of government. If you have a case you’d like the Hell and Gone team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On April 12, 1971, a 27-year-old woman named Pauline Storment was walking down South Duncan Avenue in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She didn't know someone was following her in the darkness. And then, while she was walking and just a few blocks from her apartment, someone attacked her, stabbing her eight times in a frenzy that lasted several minutes. When Pauline started screaming, a lot of people in the area heard her, and there were several witnesses. But her killer escaped into the night, and despite the police questioning tons of people, lots of theories being explored over the years an arrest, Pauline’s killer has never been found. If you have a case you’d like the Hell and Gone team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In October of 1995, something strange was going on inside the Flick home at 302 McNabb Street in Rector, Arkansas. This family was made up of 36-year-old David Flick, his wife 34-year-old Barbara, their daughter 11-year-old Andria Flick, and Barbara’s son 17-year-old Aaron Michael Hodge, who she had from a previous relationship. Barbara was a nurse, and her husband David had a transmission shop that specialized in fixing transmissions. Friends and family said that they were a happy couple. Andria played basketball and did beauty pageants. Aaron was well liked by his friends as well, and both Andria and Aaron were popular at school. Andria, Barbara and David were planning on going to Florida to visit relatives, leaving Aaron at home. And like many teens at home alone, he threw a party. This seems perfectly normal… except that David, Barbara and Andria never arrived in Florida. And several days laters, the police discovered their bodies, all shot to death in their house. On the surface, this appeared to be a perfect family, but detectives quickly discovered that things behind closed doors were far from what they seemed. What happened to turn the seemingly perfect family into a house of horrors? If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Saturday, November 2, 2024 15-year-old Tripp Brazeale headed out of his house in Forrest City, Arkansas on a four-wheeler. After dark and into the early morning hours of Sunday November 3, Tripp, two family members, and a friend were hanging out in a part of the woods called Crow Creek, riding ATVs. Now it’s mostly illegal to ride four-wheelers on paved roads in Arkansas and in many other places, but out there in the country, it’s a common mode of transportation for teens. There were police officers nearby that night. Deputy Trey Bynum and Sgt. David Kinney from the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Office were responding to a call regarding with a missing girl and boy from Cross County. Deputy Bynum wrote in his report that while they were checking out a residence in the woods, they heard ATVs driving around erratically. When they finished up and got back into their vehicles, Sgt. Kinney went to go find them. He was the first one to make contact; he was talking to the people on one of the four-wheelers, basically telling everyone to slow down. As Deputy Bynum approached, he saw one of the four-wheelers slow down like he was about to stop but then, he said, take off and pass him at “a high rate of speed.” The driver of that ATV was Tripp Brazeale. At that point Deputy Bynum started his pursuit, trying to pull Tripp over. The high speed chase went on up a hill and back down a hill, and that’s when something happened...something that caused Tripp to abruptly stop and jump off his four wheeler at 12:42 AM and run into the woods. He didn't come back after Deputy Bynum called after him. He fled into the woods and kept running. And then, he disappeared. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Kevin Abel died, and his death was ruled a suicide, Stacie Reeves was scared. Kevin’s friend Jordan said that Stacie told her that Kevin was in serious trouble - that he owed a lot of drug money to people - and that she was planning on talking to police officers about what she knew. One of the officers she spoke with was Jerome LaStraps, an officer Jordan didn't trust. There’s no evidence that Jerome LaStraps did anything wrong, but police did later call him in for questioning about KK’s Corner, asking what he knew, and when he knew it. We’re trying to understand all these relationships, because in Calcasieu Parish, they run deep. Jordan told us about one of her last conversations with Stacie: "Stacie goes, 'Hey, do you know a Jerome LaStraps?' And I looked at her and I said, 'Yes, I do.' And she said, 'Because I've been talking to him about Kevin's case.' And I said, 'Stacey, you don't need to do that. He's dirty.' She said, 'Well, I know who killed Kevin.' And I said, 'Who?'" If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On July 6, 1997 in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Marty LeBouef, Stacie Reeves and Nicole Guidry were all shot execution style in the head. Their bodies were left in the cooler at KK’s Corner. Thedr murders were shocking. And soon, people were talking about another death. One that some people in the community thought could be linked to KK’s Corner’s massacre. On Saturday, May 17, 1997, not even three weeks before the triple homicide at KK’s Corner, Kevin Abel was fatally shot in the head at home. Police ruled Kevin’s death a suicide, but Stacie Reeves, who had been dating Kevin, believed that he had been murdered and that his murder could be tied to law enforcement, and possibly to alleged drug deals at KK’s Corner. Stacie Reeves arrived at that crime scene with her young twin daughters only minutes after police showed up there. She told police that she and Kevin were going on a date that night and that she had been planning to pick him up with her girls. And she said that he owed a LOT of money to drug dealers, who had been taking his truck as collateral. What really happened to Kevin Abel. Did he kill himself? Who were the drug dealers that he owed money to? And did Kevin’s death have anything to do with the KK’s Corner killings? If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just after midnight on July 6, 1997, 21-year-old Marty LeBouef, 26-year-old Stacie Reeves and 14-year-old Nicole Guidry were fatally shot in a triple homicide at KK’s Corner convenience store near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The killings shocked the community. For months police struggled to find answers. No one seemed to have seen anything, and there was no real physical evidence. Eventually, a suspect was arrested: Thomas Cisco. Police questioned Cisco. He confessed that he had been at KK’s Corner on the night of the murders and said that he was involved. But as we explained last week, Thomas told a lot of conflicting stories, and a lot of the details that he gave to detectives trying to confirm his stories didn’t make sense. Was it Thomas or something else? Was he even there that night? And if he was there, who was the second man? And could the killers or killers still be out there? If you have a case you’d Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a few minutes before midnight on Saturday July 5, 1997. 21-year-old Marty LeBouef was working behind the counter as a cashier at KK’s Corner convenience store on Highway 14 in Calcasieu Parish, a few miles from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Marty and his co-worker, 26-year-old Stacie Reeves, were working together that night. There was someone else there too. Stacie had a friend, 14-year-old Nicole Guidry, there with her. Nicole sometimes babysat for Stacie’s twin daughters, who were 23 months old, and was keeping Stacie company until the store closed. Then the plan was for her to ride home with Stacie and spend the night with her kids while Stacie went crabbing. Nicole was turning fifteen later that summer and was about to start the ninth grade. Marty hadn’t been scheduled to work that night, but one of his coworkers had called in sick, so Marty stepped in. Closing time was midnight. That time came and went. And Marty, Stacie and Nicole never made it home. Around 5 a.m. on July 6, one of Marty and Stacie’s coworkers showed up to open the store, and she immediately noticed that something was very wrong. The cash register was open. Money was missing from the drawer. The alarm was off. And Marty and Stacy were nowhere to be found. The employee went to the office to use the phone there and called the police. Once the deputy got to the store, he noticed Stacie and Marty’s cars in the parking lot. Inside, he found the door to the back office had been kicked in, and the safe was open. At first he thought that this had been a robbery and that Stacie and Marty may be restrained in the back of the store, locked in the cooler. But once he opened the door to the cooler, he saw the bloodbath. There were three bodies - Marty, Stacie and Nicole lying on the floor. All three had been shot multiple times, execution style. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.