podcast episode – CRIMEandSTUFF

Mary Theresa Simpson was 12 when she disappeared while walking home in Elmira, New York, on March 15, 1964. When her body was found four days later, buried under heavy rocks, no one could predict that it would take more than six decades before there were answers to that city’s only unsolved murder. Rebecca presents. […]

It’s March. It’s cold [where we live], it’s ugly. We’re tired of it. So, to lighten the mood a little before we get back to our usual content, we have a cabin fever reliever! Updates on the Maine woman who buried her friend in the backyard and is now facing charges, Maine man Michael Colin […]

Maine had 21 homicides in 2025, and we take a look at them. Guns and domestic violence continue to be the dominant themes, with mental health issues also a troubling contributing factor. From people who know each other all too well, to the bizarre seemingly random shooting of a guy on his motorcycle, there are […]

We wrap up our three-episode look at the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide list, diving into the 1990s and beyond, looking at the cases of Lorna Brackett and Vincent White, Susan Hannah, Joseph Savitch and Louis Alexander, and Neil Salisbury, the most recent unsolved homicide on the list. We also look at the introduction of […]

We continue our look at Maine’s cold cases with a dive into the 1980s: Beverly Polchies, Theresa Duran, Vincent LaVopa, Brian Kowalczyk and Alice Hawkes. Would they have been solved if they happened today? Should they have been solved four decades ago? We discuss. If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea […]

While we wait for the state of Maine to release the 2025 homicide list, we’re taking a look at another list: Maine’s Unsolved Homicides. In this first part of a three-part series, we dive into the Maine cold cases of the 1970s (and one from the 1960s), and discuss the still-unsolved cases of Effie MacDonald, […]

Darrel Parker starts serving a life sentence. Wesley Peery is incarcerated in Ohio, doing “30 to 75 years,” which we know means he’ll be out soon. And Wesley’s gonna be Wesley. As Nebraska officials pull out all the stops across decades to keep an innocent man in prison for the rest of his life, Peery […]

It’s April 1956, and Darrel Parker is going to trial on first-degree murder charges in the murder of his wife, Nancy. The evidence? A confession wrung out of him by soon-to-be famous crimimologist John Reid, with the help of a lie detector and some very willing Lincoln, Nebraska, cops and county attorney Meanwhile, career criminal […]

Sit back and rip the wrapping and bows off our annual holiday special. With special holiday “Am I the Asshole?” And two special holiday Negative Nellies Reviews! Enjoy! And Merry Whatever Holiday You Celebrate! If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novels, including the award-winning (seriously!) Dying for News, click […]

In case you missed it, from January 2023: Brian Walshe’s many victims. Brian Walshe was found guilty on Dec. 15, 2025, of murdering his wife, Ana Walshe, and dismemembering her body. As promised, we’ll have an episode on it in January. But if you want the full background on Brian Walshe, check out this episode […]

Lie detectors. The Reid Technique. You’ve been listening to us rant about them for nine years. One case, in 1955, was not only the perfect storm of both, but also launched John Reid’s interrogation method into national use, changing criminal justice methods throughout the U.S. into what is now the norm. But the funny thing […]

Singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye made beautiful music, but what most people didn’t know until his tragic death at his father’s hand was that his life growing up with Marvin Gaye Sr. had been anything but. What led up to the Gaye’s April 1, 1984, shooting death? Rebecca tells the story. Maureen takes on iconic […]

The cold case of an arson fire that killed one Portland, Maine, resident in 1994 and injured seven others has finally been solved. The disappearance of a New Sweden, Maine, 13-year-old a year ago hasn’t, despite many red flags. We take a look at these two Maine minis, as well as update what happened to […]

Philip Willoughby goes on trial for the Dec. 3, 1983, Maine murder of Paula Roberts, but it doesn’t go smoothly. Not at all. Prosecutors never really let go of Trial 1, and justice takes a hit. But does anyone care? Maureen wraps up the Paula Roberts series. Rebecca does an NNW review of the Netflix […]

When David Willoughby is arrested and charged with the abduction and murder of Paula Roberts, it seemed like the beginning of the end of the case of the 21-year-old store clerk who was taken and killed during an Augusta, Maine, robbery in December 1983. But it was just the beginning. The tangled tale of the […]

December 3, 1983, was just a normal night in Paula Roberts’ busy life — she was working the evening shift at Summer Haven Ice Cream shop in Augusta, Maine, one of three jobs she worked to help pay her way through college. But that changed fast when two men burst into the shop, hit a […]

Tamla Horsford was a little nervous about going to the “girls night” birthday of a friend in Cumming, Georgia, in November 2018. She didn’t know many of the other women, she had a husband and five sons at home to take care of, and on top of it, she was a Black woman in a […]

Michael Gaine was well-known and well-loved in his town of Kenmare, as well as around County Kerry in Ireland. So when the 56-year-old farmer disappeared in the middle of a routine morning in March, the alarm was immediately raised. It wasn’t long before everyone realized it was foul play. Even before the horrific details of […]

We wrap up our summer vacation series with some more of our ever-popular Am I The Asshole advice discussion, as well as Negative Nellies Watching reviews of “Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage and Reckoning” streaming on HBO/MAX and “Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil,” streaming on Hulu. We’ll be back next week with a regular […]

We have a Maine mini on the murder of Sunshine Stewart, who was paddleboarding on a lake in Maine July 2 when she was killed. We have all the up-to-date information! Since it’s July, hot, and busy, who has time for a full-blown story? So we’re also talking about Jaws, 50 years after we saw […]

Fourth of July party poopers, bridesmaids who “ruin” the wedding, unruly kids at the pool and at home, vacation home SNAFUs — and more! Who really IS the asshole? As the weather heats up, so do the offenses. We take you on a a wild ride through our special summer edition of advice, judgment and […]

We pick up the Danny Wood Jr. murder with his parents taking polygraphs, and 1954 creeping toward 1955 with no more progress on figuring out who killed the Gray, Maine, 12-year-old. Not that there weren’t plenty of suspects. What’s happened in the 71 years since Danny was killed and will his case ever be solved? […]

In July 1954, 12-year-old Danny Wood Jr. told his mom in Gray, Maine, that he was going fishing with a friend. Ten minutes later, he called her from a payphone three miles away, in town, telling her he was going to help a door-to-door salesman. She told him not to go with the guy, but […]

In Episode 85 we brought you the story of Kathleen McLean, killed in her Dover, Mass., home in May 2020 by her husband, Ingolf Tuerk, a doctor. This episode we bring you the rest of the story, after Tuerk finally goes to trial. Maureen presents. Rebecca also does an NNW review of the Hulu doc […]

Our sister Liz, the history professor, joins us from the Pacific Northwest with another tale of of (possible) murder from that dark corner of the country. The Martin family — Mom, Dad, and three daughters — left their Portland, Oregon, home for a drive up the Columbia River gorge December 7, 1958. They never came […]

What does the Karen Read case have to do with Brian Walshe (Episode 136) and Ingolf Tuerk (Episode 85)? Our update explains it all. We also bring back fan favorite Am I the Asshole? To cap it off, Maureen does an NNW review of the movie “American Fiction.” If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s […]

Emma Cline should’ve been thrilled — at 25, she’d achieved every writer’s dream. But her $2 million book deal for her bestselling debut novel “The Girls” was too much for her ex, who slut-shamed her, threw false plagiarism and cyber-spying charges at her, and dragged in friends in a years-long campaign to bring her down. […]

The state of Maine recorded 35 homicides in 2024, a pretty high number, though the rate has been steadily going up in recent years. Ages of victims ranged from 22 months to 90 years. We’ll take a look at some of their stories. Rebecca gives NNW treatment to the classic movie 12 Angry Men.

A decade after he was acquitted — twice — of charges related to Jon Pownall’s murder, Truman Dongo finds himself at the wrong end of a gun. Dongo disappeared from his apartment in Falmouth, Maine, on Sept. 21, 1983. His body was found nearly a month later, in the woods of Stowe, Maine, nearly 60 […]

Like the Little Drummer Boy, we bring to you what we can — a holiday gift that includes a JonBenet mea culpa, some very special holiday Am I the Asshole discussions, some recommendations, some gripes, and lots of fun! Happy Holidays and here’s to a great 2025! If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based […]

The Jon Pownall murder case didn’t end with the trial of Herb Schwartz and Truman Dongo. There was so much more… particularly with the prosecution’s star witness, who couldn’t stay out of trouble after he moved back to his native New Jersey. Rebecca continues to report. Maureen gives the NNW treatment to the Netflix doc […]

All Jon Pownall wanted was to make his own movies after two decades of filming marketing spots and commercials. It looked like it was all coming together, too, as production began on his film “The Salem Six.” It all ended, though, on August 30, 1973, when he was found shot to death in the Portland, […]

We take a look at the official report on the Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 24, 2023, shooting, that killed 18 people, and injured many more. The report, released on Aug. 20 by a governor’s commission set up to look at the shooting spent nine months investigating, and it goes step by step through the months that […]

Back by popular demand! Am I the asshole? Asks the guy who’s pissed because his wife wrote a “secret book” that netted a book deal. The woman who yelled at her boyfriend because he thought that it was emasculating to him that she talks to her cat. The guy who’s divorcing his wife because her […]

Rebecca picks up the story with Sabato Raia’s trial. Will his self-defense strategy for shooting Nick Patenaude, Dana Matthews and Kevin Pinette pass jury scrutiny? Maureen gives NNW treatment to the Amazon Prime doc series “Debi Marshal Investigates: Frozen Lies.” Also, Maureen gives the NNW treatment to the Netflix doc How to Rob a Bank. […]

On a hot June night in 1997, a dispute between Portland, Maine, bar owner Sabato Raia and three acquaintances – Nick Patenaude, Dana Matthews and Kevin Pinette – ended with the three men lying dead in the street in front of Raia’s apartment house. They’d all been shot in the head. Self-defense? Or just a […]

How did a simmering lead-up to war between England and Spain, a 16th-century government coverup, fake news about piracy, a likely hoax by a college professor, dismissal of indigenous culture, early American white Christian nationalism and misogyny (of course) influence California history and short- change Oregon? Our sister Liz, the college professor, guest-hosts to discuss […]

When Everett Savage staggered out of the woods of Fairfield, Maine, on a June day in 1958, the Augusta businessman had been missing for two days and had quite a story to tell. But it took a while for him to get to the lead – that mother of five Patricia Wing, who’d also been […]

In the early morning hours of Easter in 2006, Joseph Gray was shot through the window of his living room in Milo, Maine. Several hours later, William Elliott was shot when he answered the door of his home in Corinth, Maine. What drove Stephen Marshall to kill two men he never met? The question spurred […]

Many members of Lori Jane Kearsey’s family didn’t consider her lost, even though they hadn’t heard from her since November 1983. But the 21-year-old left behind a daughter when she “joined the witness protection program” eight months after marrying into the powerful Massachusetts Angiulo crime family. It turns out that there was much more to […]

There’s no doubt that Kenneth Eugene Smith, along with another man, killed Elizabeth Sennett in Alabama in 1988, a murder paid for by her husband, Charles Sennett. But the long road to Smith’s execution, which took place in January 2024 by a new method, nitrogen hypoxia, raises troubling questions about the death penalty, how it’s […]

We explore the age-old question, “Am I the asshole?” with situations curated by Rebecca from the sub-Reddit world. Maureen also does an NNW on the Max docuseries Onision In Real Life. Enjoy!

Charles Terry wasn’t a good guy, especially when it came to women. He liked to beat, rape and strangle them. He was convicted for several attacks and just out of prison in 1951 when Shirley Coolen, a Brunswick, Maine, single mother was found dead, strangled in a yard on the town’s fancy Park Row. But […]

In our third episode looking at the “justified” killings of Maine citizens by the state’s law enforcement agencies, we go back to one that spurred a lot of changes over the past decade, but also — spoiler! — not some of the things that really matter. Katherine Hegarty, shot in her remote Maine cabin by […]

Ambroshia Fagre was just 18 and likely an innocent bystander when she was killed by police in Maine in February 2017, along with Kadhar Bailey, 25, who police suspected of an armed home invasion. The two were among 13 people shot by police in Maine that year, nine of whom died. Maine police have shot […]

One of Maine’s 2022 homicides was Drew McKenna, 24, accidentally shot by his older brother Shay. In 2023, the McKenna family suffered a second tragedy when the lost Shay, who was shot by police. We also update the 2023 homicide list — it’s up to 54 now, and talk about the texts dismissed by police […]

We bring you our annual Maine homicide list with 2023’s 51 homicides, a record year and more than twice the average annual number. Even without the Lewiston shootings that killed 18, it was the worst year for homicide in Maine in decades. The list wasn’t yet available from the Maine Department of Public Safety, but […]

Enjoy the figgy pudding, fireworks, airing of grievances, or however else you celebrate! Here are some recommendations on what to watch to get you through until our next episode in two weeks. Happy holidays!