S07 Ep15: Spooky Train Day

Okay, here we are. Oh, Lenny decides to run right in the room right now. Hi, everybody. It's perhaps it's you. Hello. Your favorite Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast with your favorite pod dog, Lenny Briscoe. Did you hear Lenny just there? He said hi. Hi, Lenny. Does he know it's me? Maybe. He can't hear you. He seems very excited, though. Maybe he can't hear you through the headphones. Oh, no, my battery's low. Oh, this isn't bad. Everyone, we're recording at night, and it seems like unseemly. I mean, I've been away since four. I don't care for it at all. I gotta say it's not what I want to be doing.

No. But by the way, my name is Liz. Oh, and my name is Samantha. The person that's asleep at the mic. If you hear snoring, just you didn't. No, you didn't. Yeah, that didn't happen. That was a ghost. Yeah, it's been a minute since we had a regular episode. But we are live. And we're here to talk about Unsolved Mysteries.

I feel like, should we even do updates? I think we have some things to talk about. It's been a while since we've talked to our listeners. I feel like people are going to want to know about our reboot content, given that by the time they're hearing this, the first episode of the reboot will be out, comes out tomorrow at the time we're recording this. So I'm sure people are wondering where they can hear that Unsolved Mysteries Netflix content. That will be over on our Patreon starting in November because they are releasing the episodes weekly.

because Netflix is desperate for people to not cancel. They don't want you to, I'm not joking at all. They don't want you to binge on Self Mysteries and then log out forever and say, actually, I don't even spend $20 a month on this. They're releasing an episode a week. So in order for us to do our Patreon episode, we need two weeks to come out, blah, blah, blah, whatever. That is going to be starting over in November at our Patreon. Patreon.com. You only have to give us a dollar. I mean. Only a dollar. And if you tuned in last time we released an episode, I was going to say last week, it was the week before.

You got a preview of our Unsell Mysteries reboot content, which is a two-hour episode. You're welcome. It's so long. Because we did two episodes. I mean, maybe it's a mistake to do two episodes. I guess we'll see if there's so much to talk about from these new ones. Sometimes there's a lot to talk about with them, and sometimes there isn't. It's just kind of hard to predict. The first episode of the reboot, season one, episode one, is that we got real into it, and we went down some internet rabbit holes, and we had theories. And that's not really the case for every episode. I mean, some episodes we might really like. I remember really liking the tsunami episode, the tsunami ghost episode. But it wasn't like there was a lot of extra information that we could bring to the table besides just recapping the episode.

so I think that one might be a little shorter but regardless we do too an episode and so I feel like it's a bargain really for a dollar you get it so is some of them are just like a guy got out of prison and never went back and you're like okay like there's just there could be a lot to say about some of them that have more of a conspiracy aspect to them and then some of them are just like well that sucks but I don't know what happened right and I'm probably not gonna guess what I'm probably not the person that's gonna solve this case as much as I would love to be as much as I would like to pull up in my mystery bit Dan with my dog and as much as I'd like to pull up in my convertible full of pink poodles in a trench coat Get out with a giant magnifying glass and go, officer, I believe you'll find the culprit is you. You know, something like that. Yeah. That would be amazing.

Okay, so updates. We had in our Q&A episode, we had the sweetest ever question, which was what people could do to support us. And I thought of another thing, which is that we want to see your fan art. And we want to see your coloring sheets. Let me see if I can find this. I keep meaning to read this review on here, and then I never do. And it's a good one. Also, yeah, you should definitely be leaving us five-star reviews. If you hook up with someone, when they go to the bathroom, you should definitely take their phone. Do not look at it or any other stuff, but use it to leave us a five-star review. That's completely fine. I believe was it...

Was it November or September's coloring sheet was actually a Mad Lib? Yes. Very disappointed. Patrons, if you're listening, which I assume you are, I love you. But I'm a little disappointed that no one has posted a completed Mad Lib in our Facebook group. I've not seen one Mad Lib. I need you to corner your partner when they're least expecting it and force them to do the Mad Lib. That's what I did. That's what I did. And then post it in our Facebook group. I need to see it. Okay, this is the review that I was talking about. This is from Fingers Crossed. And this is from months ago, but whatever. It just says, wait.

I'm actually born exactly 30 years after BD Wong. We're both October 24th babies. So happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to BD Wong. But if you are printing out the coloring sheets at the library, which I truly, truly appreciate, we want to see the coloring sheets. Okay, how is this listener? Like, if I was going to create a character for the novel about this podcast and it was the listener of the show, it would be this person. Yes, the person has the same birthday as BD Wong and is going to the public library to use their printer, which is absolutely what you should do. And this person needs to share their coloring sheets with us. I need to see the completed Mad Lib. Do I need to say it again?

It's completely true. I thought it was pretty funny. I made Matt do it and I was pretty happy with the results. So it's a mad lib if you're writing an obviously fake letter that supposedly your partner wrote before skipping town. I really like the embellishments you added to the like unicorn sketch. I assume that's exactly like the original that it was inspired by. There's some doodles in the margins, you know, just like any type written goodbye forever, darling. You're the best lover I ever had. However, I'm leaving town with a totally real person.

Your car is Sarah. Sarah. And your car is definitely in the donut shop parking lot. Don't worry. You're not out of Corvette. You're just out of wife. Yeah. Great Mad Lib. Okay. So if you have, say you created fan art a while ago that we are aware of, we would love permission to put that on our website. We have a whole section for fan art. And one of the many things I'm telling myself I'm going to do next year is update our website, which hasn't been updated in literally years. That spelling error in the front, I assume. I think I actually fixed that, but I put a footnote.

If you got fixed up on a footnote, then it was previously an error. If you don't know what we're talking about, you have to go listen to old episodes. I'm sorry. But if you have made fan art for us that's not up on that website, we would love to share that as an example of the fandom, the five, the fandom. That sounds really weird. I don't like that at all. The five for when I supposedly work on the website next year. Also, we had questions about the zine. There will be another zine, but we don't have a deadline for that.

I don't even really want to think about it right now, honestly. But if you are working on something, it will go towards a thing. I just haven't made like a deadline that you have to send it in. But you can work on it. You can even send it in if you want. Perhaps it's you, podcast, gmail.com. We just haven't put like any definitive dates or anything on it. But if you wanted to make, you know, I don't know, a word search or a shadow puppet.

Or something else you can put on paper. Really anything that would be in like a children's activity book. We've had all kinds of things in the zines. Recipes, crosswords, poems. We had multiple cross-stitch patterns. Spells. I mean, there's been great zines. There's a couple left at our website. Perhaps it's you.com. You should probably go buy them because I don't think we're gonna print those again. So if you want it, go get them now. Otherwise.

Whatever. You were warned. My personal favorite contribution to ours. It's hard to pick just one favorite contribution, but the analytical. I know. The data analysis. So much work. And I suppose we were going to get an update. That data will be updated. The thing that they quoted that I don't even remember saying. Do I remember giving something five out of five tiers? No. So mystery was that sad. It was probably the orphan train. I don't even remember. We probably just don't want to think about it. And yeah.

Okay. We have gone on some. I was going to ask if we should talk about some of our fall outings because this is going to be the last episode in October. And we've done so many. We have multiple things coming up that we have not attended yet that we'll tell you about when that comes around. But we've done some fun spooky activities. As you might know, this is like our busy season. Granted, the last couple of years have been less busy because of COVID. Now I miss those years. Now we're double boosted. And you know what? We went a little hard. I feel like we've gone a little too hard.

I said earlier today that we flew too close to the sun. And it's, what is it, the 17th? And I'm already like, whew. I was getting my hair done today and my stylist asked me if I was doing anything for Halloween and I literally just groaned. Because I was like, we have so much stuff coming up that I was like, I don't even know where to start explaining. You know what I mean? I was just like, what? Yes. I was just like, uh, yes.

you're just like okay bitch oh i don't get that response it makes no sense why you would plan very fun social activities all surrounding your favorite thing in the world which is halloween and spooky season and fall and then complain about it and talk about how much you hate every second i mean that's not true like i do enjoy each individual event but i'm tired i'm tired i'm tired i'm so tired i'm so tired um Okay, so one of the things we did, this is a snack time update, I suppose, is we went to Anoka, the Halloween capital, I'll have you know, and we got this treat that Samantha has wanted for a while. I don't even want to say the name of this bakery because they were very nice, but this is a gross name, and it is called Sticky Cheats. And one of their specialties, I think this is a new offering, is a cotton candy burrito. Look, I love cotton candy. I love burritos.

Some things do not need to be combined. Now, to be fair, that sounds like it is savory plus concanic. It's not. It's totally necessary. No. Also, it's a very involved process.

It involves a mountain of cotton candy. Folks, I am not kidding. So much. So much cotton candy. Did you take pictures of the cotton candy mountain that they used to make this burrito? I showed up and I did it. It is insane. And the woman who was making it was like, this is going to look crazy. Don't worry. It all compresses down. Except that it kind of doesn't. It's still the size of a basketball when they hand it to you. She was like, don't worry. This is going to look like a lot. But yeah, it's less fluffy. Don't worry. It's less when it's done. Which is not really true. This thing that's like the size of my head.

And I was like, no, this still looks crazy, actually. And there was a mountain of cotton candy with a tiny little bit of ice cream in the middle. And toppings, which are like cereal or sprinkles or like fucking just straight up candy. And then they flatten out, sort of. They sort of flatten out the mountain of cotton candy. And then they put like a line of ice cream in the lines of the toppings and they just roll it up. But that means there's just like a tunnel of the topping. It's like not mixed in with the rest of the concoction at all. I don't know. I don't know about this.

We had seen like, I don't know if this article went viral or whatever, but like there was a, it was in the news, like local news. And there was an article about the cotton candy burrito online. And the thing about that article is that it looks like a burrito. It looks like something you could fit. You could take a whole bite out of it and you could get a bit of everything. Maybe the person making it for us is not the master, but I sort of felt like she was the owner though. I kind of did. I don't know. But then I called her up to make the burrito.

They were like, this is the burrito maker. And then what we got was a giant thing of cotton candy. I will say, I like parts of it. I've never had chocolate cotton candy before. So good. And they did recommend the chocolate and strawberry flavors. And I thought that combination was delicious. I would have preferred to just eat that, to be honest. However, you chose three flavors of cotton candy, three, ostensibly three flavors of ice cream, and then three toppings. They didn't have vanilla. They didn't have vanilla ice cream. And none of the other ice cream flavors really made sense for what we had ordered, which was regular cotton candy, which is vanilla.

chocolate and strawberry and we'll get to that we'll get to the cotton candy a second because that went awry as well not like none of the other flavors made sense with that and so we were like we'll just get chocolate but then they i'm 99 certain instead of vanilla cotton candy we got watermelon i am 100 percent of this fan and so it was chocolate strawberry and watermelon cotton candy which tastes like watermelon bubble gum with chocolate ice cream and all of it mixed together was A little off, a lot off-putting. I wanted just like regular cotton candy flavor in there. And they were like, oh, that's the pink vanilla. And I was like, great, put that in there. And then I think she grabbed the wrong pink container and put it in the watermelon. Okay, what about, so she's like making the cotton candy and like handing it over this plexiglass wall to us so we can taste it while she makes it. And so I'm standing there with this glob of cotton candy and I just offered it to this random woman.

Because we had already gotten so much cotton candy. She didn't give the extra to us. And I was like, if I keep eating this cotton candy, I'm not gonna be able to eat this fucking giant mouth of cotton candy you're making. I have to eat a giant cotton candy burrito. I cannot eat three appetizers of cotton candy also. Liz turned and offered a huge thing of cotton candy to this woman standing behind us in line. And she was like, uh, no thanks. I guess she didn't want, she could have, okay, Samantha was like, she doesn't want to say your sticky fingers touch, get it? But she could have ripped plenty off of the top.

But apparently I'm the psycho. Offering free cotton candy to people. They don't appreciate it. I mean, if it were me, I would take it, obviously. I would have taken it. Except that I was going to eat, like, an entire lifetime's worth of cotton candy in seconds after that. If I had it to do over again, I would... Which, by the way, we're never getting this again. I would go all out with the flavors. Like, I would get sour apple and blue raspberry and bubblegum and... I think I held you back. Whatever the weirdest... I feel like it would still be not good, but... Would you get the gummy worms on there? Yeah.

except they would just like I feel like they would just fall out I don't know there's like nothing really holding it together I feel like in the picture that I saw it was all like highly squished yeah yeah which maybe people didn't like that because it was like I don't know I don't know maybe you lose some of the cotton candy texture that you want if it's like pressed into a okay but it was impossible to eat it was impossible to eat we sort of picked at it with a fork in our fingers and it was it was weird but it was a fun experience and honestly Okay, we're sitting outside eating this. Our resident history nerd, Rochelle, was there too. The three of us couldn't even eat half of this thing. It was ginormous. So we're sitting outside. Literally, there's like plastic skeletons set up outside for their Halloween decor. So we're sitting with plastic skeletons, like we're hanging out, eating this giant concan burrito. And the woman that makes it walks by and asks how it is. And I just said, it's something. I was like, it's something.

She's like, I'm so glad you like it. And it was, you sort of wanted to be like, that is not what I said. Not what I said at all. The lady went inside and I was like, yeah, I did not say that I liked it. But I asked if anyone had ever finished it. And it sounded like one 11-year-old boy. You know those scrawny kids that can eat an entire cow and are still hungry? What are those kids? I was like, of course. Three grown women aren't going to be able to eat this. But one very skinny 11-year-old could do it. I really liked the story that she told us of apparently the only person to ever finish it because she said that.

he ate half of it and then he went inside to proudly announce to her that he had eaten half of it and then he went outside and proceeded to eat the rest of it yeah and my immediate thought was like and the ending of the story is him puking in the nearest garbage can because I can't even imagine but of course probably not yeah he probably was still hungry his stomach just soaks all that up somehow because it's young and nubile yes but his stomach's like more more cotton candy burritos please I would say it was an experience I will never forget I don't necessarily regret it um I mean check that off the list exactly We got to hang out with some plastic skeletons. Like Brian, I've checked this off my list. Check it off the list. And of course, I love a trip to Anoka, the Halloween capital of the world. It's just a vibe. It's like Halloween town. It's just so fun to be there this time of year. Yeah. Every storefront is full of Halloween items and decorations. And all of the street signs are orange with jack-o'-lanterns on them. It's just so fun. There's so many goths walking around. It's the best. Yeah, that's what's really funny. We were there the same day. They were having like a vintage market outside, which is the first time they've done that. And it attracted quite a crowd. And a lot of that crowd was goths, which is amazing because this is like small town Minnesota.

But they really lean into this Halloween thing. So it was like, yeah, I don't know. It was just great. It was like people there with their families and then just like goths looking at old plastic pumpkins debating if they really want to spend $17. You know, it's just like. How many Beanie Babies do you think we saw in those antique shops? Oh, my God. So many. And you may have bought one. No, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. I cannot confirm or deny that Liz had one more Beanie Baby than she did before. That was, yeah, a little Beanie action. Oh, God.

Your new camera phrase. What about that very sweet elderly woman coming up to me and saying that there was a pumpkin she thought I would appreciate? And then it was a plastic pumpkin with some pipe cleaners taped to it for arms and legs. Rochelle bought it. It's very grumpy. I like the grumpy face, I will say. It's just very funny that in that entire store, the one thing she was like, you're going to fucking love this. Have I got something for you? And then it's this little pumpkin. Just this little grumpy pumpkin that someone just hot glued some pipe cleaner arms to. It's so funny. I do love that Rochelle has it now.

First of all, I made that woman's day. That's how I bought that. She's been trying to hard sell that for years and it finally worked. I feel like we bought stuff that they were like, man, I thought no one would ever get that. That's been sick of the shop so long. We definitely did. Oh yeah. It was a good time. Good time. Do we have time to get into spooky train day? Okay. Well, now that you said it, I feel like the listeners have got, are going to want to know about spooky train day. Honestly, they're going to be jealous. They're going to be so jealous. So I may have, I was just looking for wholesome fall activities to do. And I happened to notice that two train related things.

Liz is going to claim she stumbled upon this. She doesn't love trains. She doesn't subscribe to train monthly or whatever. I'm sorry, monthly? Not enough. Weekly, bitch. I noticed that two different train museums in the area were having a Halloween event on the same Saturday afternoon. And I was like, this is very funny to me. What is it like living in Minnesota? Two different train museums are having a Halloween train event on the same day. And I was like, I wonder if I can get anyone to go to this with me. I was a train.

This is so dorky. So I sent the information to Samantha and to Michelle. And they were both like, sure, why not? Whatever, Liz. And they clearly didn't really look at what I had sent. And I was shocked anybody was willing to do this. And I was like, all right, spooky train day. It's a thing. So we meet at like a cute cafe first in St. Paul. They're both in St. Paul. I see Samantha getting out of her car. And she's like, there's two of these things. Listeners, she was honestly low-key mad. She was acting like I had tricked her. I got convinced you didn't.

it's because she didn't bother to really scroll through my message and see what i was saying no this is the problem is that especially at night when i'm like getting ready for bed and i'm not reading all of my messages i like skim maybe like there's a conversation going and i skim them and i i only saw the link to one of the train events and i was like oh yeah whatever we'll go see some miniature trains with some pumpkins on them it'll be cute whatever it'll be fine and then you sent the itinerary for the day before and i was like wait a second what is this train event i don't remember a hobo being involved i don't remember a train a ride on a train well that was the first event i said You just scrolled right past it. Okay. I really did. So I got to give Samantha a hard time. She was like, this is a much longer day than I was expecting. And I was like, well, I'm sorry. Sorry you have to spend time with me. I'm sorry on this beautiful fall afternoon you have to hang out with your friends. I apologize.

So we had a delicious lunch. But anyways, in the area, 36 Cafe. Oh my God, it was so good. Souffle pancakes. I had the blueberry and lemon and a delicious fancy latte. It was amazing. Amazing. So like affordable? Weirdly affordable? It was weirdly affordable for how fancy it was and how delicious it was. And the atmosphere is pink. It's extremely, extremely curly and I love it. Very Instagrammable. Then we went from there to the train. Then we went to the Minnesota Transportation Museum to an event for children.

They're haunted. They're haunted. Roundhouse. Roundhouse. Not clear to me what a roundhouse is. I'm going to say we didn't learn a lot at this event. We did walk around and we saw some like dollar store Halloween decorations taped to some trains. That was fun. The problem is this is a small museum. I'm sure they have a small budget. Also, this came out of someone's pocket. I'm not sure the museum even paid for these decorations. Also, guess what? It's a train museum. It's all run by men in their 60s. Probably closer to 80s. Yeah.

the best closer to 80 to 60 maybe not the best like party planners maybe that's not their strength so obviously i bought tickets to get an event um which yeah was like a lot of paper decorations you can like go inside old trains they have displays of like things that used to be on trains i don't know most of it is the same as it always is they just like put a stuffed witch But of course, we are such dorks. And we found this all really funny and great. But also, definitely one of the reasons I wanted to go is they said they had a resident hobo there. And that he would, I think I claimed he would make s'mores. That did not happen. He was not making s'mores. But he did give us some moon pies. And he taught, honestly, I learned the most from the hobo. It's true. The resident hobo, lucky. Which, guess what, was just a guy wearing suspenders. But he did teach us about a lot of old-timey hobo codes. Like how to warn people about police presence, which I appreciate. Thanks, hobos.

yeah i really i found honestly i found it fascinating i i don't know how much of it was true but i thought it was interesting and he was really into it I looked it up later, and I don't know that it's true, but it's definitely the information that's out there. Okay. So he clearly also Googled hobo codes and then wrote down what came up. They actually have moving trains there, which I think is wild. We got to ride on a little caboose. It kind of went up the track a little bit and came back. It was thrilling. The car we were on was full of families with children and then one older couple that was really into trains. At least the husband was. I don't know if the wife was just humoring him. And then us, of course. I think I've said this on the podcast before, but gender is not real, yet I have never met a woman who's into trains.

Liz says this as a person. Planned an event to go to two train events. We've only talked about the first train event we went to. Why didn't you have a good time? I actually thought it was fantastic. I would go again next year. It was hilarious. It would be exactly the same. I guarantee it. We bought shirts. I immediately put mine on. Before I bought the shirt, we were talking to a volunteer who was very serious about this. And I jokingly, of course, said, we love trains, which was sarcastic. But he thought I was dead serious. He wanted to give me an application to volunteer. He gave Samantha the whole spiel about why she. It turns out you can learn how to actually drive a train.

His suggestions to me about what I could volunteer. I could be a blacksmith. I could be a track switcher. The person who like switches the track. I could weld. Are you looking at me? I appreciate that these were not sexist suggestions. He didn't say you could punch tickets and dust things. Fair, fair. He gave you the whole range of volunteer options, which for volunteering in a museum, usually I would expect you like, yeah, like hand out pamphlets or something.

clean up cups and put them in the trash can after people drank out of them. They were like, you could drive a train. I was like, holy shit. We could take a class to learn how to be a conductor and drive a train. That's honestly kind of cool. I've never done it. I'm trying to get Mac to do it. That'd be amazing. Yes, I actually, us and the children had a great time at the train museum. I don't even know the line of where I was joking and when I was serious was. I actually had a really great time.

Yeah. We were kind of there. You were like, oh, you really, Liz, you went to this train museum? Like, ironically, it's like, I don't know. Kind of, I had an amazing time. I mean, we kind of did initially go to it, ironically, but then ended up having... The charm just wore... Was it when I did that jig? Is that really... It may have been when you did the jig and the old guy clapped for you. They had a band that was just three old dudes and their teddy bears, and they sang about the teddy bears, I think. I don't know. That's how creepy that was. It was very wholesome, actually.

I mean, all of this is for children. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that might be getting that vibe. But also old men. And what has convinced me is that, okay, so boys under 10 really into trains, right? Men over 60 really into trains. I think, men, if you're between 10 and 60, it's okay. You're allowed to be, you're allowed to like trains. I like that this is just a thing that we're like, we've decided like, no, men are going to play with trains when they're old. And it's like, I wish there was that, like, women are just going to sit around and play with Bratz dolls when they're old. Like, I wish there was a museum for that.

Oh my God, maybe you should start one. I mean, I'm actually not the right age group. I'll have to start like a Polly Pocket Museum or something. Okay, we have to talk about our second spooky train event or I'm going to turn into a pumpkin because I need to go to bed. Okay, so the second one is much shorter. We went to the Twin City Model Train Museum. Okay, this is actually really cute. Which is doing an event they literally call spooky trains, which is just they turn off the lights in their big room that just has model trains in it. And they are set up like sort of Halloween-y. Though I will say the people who are in charge of the Lego train section did a stellar job. Very Halloween-y. They have a whole section that's just the Minnesota State Fair recreated in Lego.

Yeah, mind blowing. And the little trains going through it. It's all very cute. You can look at the whole thing in like 15 minutes, honestly. But if you're there with kids, which I do think this would be a great place to take a kid. I'm sure they love it. Because they have all these buttons you can push to make the model train do things, you know, little Ferris wheels go around or whatever. So you can really take a kid through it. And it probably is going to take you a half a day because you can push all these different buttons. There's all kinds of different things to see. And all the model trains have little details. Yeah, they can make a little train. Like it's very kid centric. I mean, we went through it pretty quickly, but also we were a little, I want to say burnt out.

Well, I've been dancing a jig and talking to a hobo, so I only have so much energy. I'm not sure if they are doing any more spooky train events this year. They might. But it looks like they also did something that might be very popular called Night Train, which I feel like is the same thing. Maybe without the Halloween, where they turn the lights off. It's just the Railroad Museum is dark. But, you know, I learned there's a whole club for people to get together and make Lego trains, and I just think that's incredible. Yeah. We learned a lot. We did. Our souls were enriched by spooky train day. One of my favorite things.

was how many times we got hyped about the trains and said things like, it's spooky train day, motherfucker. Yeah, yeah. Around little children. Not that loud, but little children in the vicinity. I tried not to stand right to them, but I do know I'm not great about that. No one took me up on my, can I get a choo-choo? Okay, so they either really roll in their guest book, perhaps it's you podcast, and then just choo-choo. And every so often I think about that and I just fall over laughing.

You were the one saying that you wanted to have your birthday at the Model Train Museum and get a stripper dressed like a conductor and keeps going like all aboard. That would be great. I don't know if they would be into it. I don't think they're going to approve that. Do they want women in the model train world or not? They seem a little uptight. My other idea was just to keep referring to everything as mini and cute until men don't like it anymore. Oh, this is precious. Oh, look, the train is so small. They're like, we hate you. Never mind. We're getting a new hobby. Fishing it is. Okay. Oh, my God.

So before Samantha falls asleep, what episode are we even on? I don't know. We're talking about the Alamo, so I am going to immediately just conk out. Well, fortunately, this is my mystery. It starts off with a treasure, and Samantha is very happy that she didn't get it. About the Alamo. I know, the mystery is who the fuck cares, but anyway, we're still going forward. Part of the lore of the Alamo is a story that dates back to 1836, the same year as a famous battle. That January, a group of, quote, rugged frontiersmen traveled across southern Texas, and some fools say they were carrying a load of gold and silver. This was the legendary San Saba treasure, said to be worth millions, but of course.

The treasure was intended to finance the Texas Revolution against Mexico. Their leader was Jim Bowie, forever remembered in knife form, a colonel in the Texas cavalry. Two months later, Bowie and Davy Crockett were among the men fighting the Battle of the Alamo against 6,000 Mexican soldiers. Guess what? They died. But the legend of their treasure has apparently endured, though I have never heard about it before, but I don't really care about treasure. So Stack shows us that there was an excavation going on at the time of the filming of this episode, which I believe was in 1991. So you can see people digging around the Alamo. And Stack says, just a few feet from where I'm standing, legend and science have crossed paths with an unsolved mystery.

Oh, my God. So anyway, we are seeing the excavation, which is three weeks in. They were digging up the street in front of the Alamo Chapel, which that's really the only part of the Alamo that remains. It was a much bigger complex at one time. I do really like that some of the people working on the dig were wearing T-shirts that say, I dig the Alamo. If someone can get me one of those shirts, I want it. The dig was organized by Frank Boxbacker, a professional fortune hunter, which to me sounds like scammer-ness, but okay. He started this quest in 1986 when he met Maria Gomez in Mexico, who was both a museum curator and psychic slash prophetess.

And I was like, why isn't this just about her? She sounds fascinating. Yeah. But anyway, she told him of a treasure left at the Alamo. And now we see a reenactment of him hearing this story. Maria has a translator who is wearing the most ridiculous fake mustache I've ever seen. And that mustache is called El Falso. Now we see the map that Maria sketched out for him of where this treasure was. She points to the bottom of an old well. And now we see a not great reenactment of the battle. Okay, it's fine, honestly. They're fighting the Battle of Alamo. And they're like, oh, no, we have to protect this treasure in order to finance our independence from Mexico for some reason.

So they decided to throw the treasure into the well so that even if they died, people could retrieve it, even though no one would know where it was. I don't know. This makes no sense. Yeah, I mean, yeah. And we have an expert who immediately comes on and tells us why it makes less than no sense. But even before that, you are looking at this like, this makes no sense. Yeah, okay. So the problem with this theory is that who would have lived to know that that's what they did? Because they all died. And also, who were they expecting to retrieve it? I guess maybe they thought someone would survive. I don't know. Also, as they point out in the episode, at the time they supposedly tossed this treasure into the well, they didn't know how long they were going to be under siege. So why would you poison your well with heavy metal? Yeah.

Shush. Okay. So where that well was is now a road, and that's what they were digging up for the excavation. The woman that Samantha was talking about, I didn't get her last name, but she's named Gail, and I referred to her as a very irritating woman. Sorry, Gail. And she was a daughter of the Republic of Texas, and she is explaining that she doesn't think they were guarding a treasure, that they were fighting for their lives and for honor. But then she also makes this very good water contamination point. Okay. So originally, Frank inspected the area with ground penetrating radar, and he found what he thought was the remnants of a well.

Then he spent three and a half years getting the necessary permits and financing for the dig. Oh, my God. Do something else with your time. Yeah, there's a Lego train club. Frank, go join that. Go spend your time getting high and putting together Legos. Actually, I doubt they get high, but it just sounds more fun that way. And putting together Legos and making a little mini Minnesota State Fair. That sounds really fun. Way better than digging up the Alamo. Just digging up the road in front of the Alamo and finding whatever trash and debris people left that they didn't bother to clean up because they put a road on top of it. But anyway, the update is that the excavation uncovered several artifacts, but obviously no treasure because there's not treasure there. Okay, Samantha, it's your turn. Isn't the treasure the garbage we found along the way?

Which this reminds me that I recently posted a poll for our patrons of what tote bag they would like us to release next. And the clear winner by far was there's never a treasure. Nice. So at some point we will be making there's never a treasure tote bags and you can wear them around and think about how there was not a treasure in the well at Alamo. something i frequently think about oh wow i remember the alamo particularly that there's not a treasure there okay so we have uh kind of quick uh wanted next uh this is we're looking for a dirtbag yeah dirtbag on the run with with a name like randall utterback Could you be anything but a dirtbag? I feel like this was written in there. Sorry to all the nice Randall Utterbacks out there, but it does have a very, it actually has like a very, maybe I'm just saying this because I'm watching my nightclub. It has a very Christopher Pike quality to it where you're like, that's not someone's name. That's like a weird YA book name. Randall Utterback.

He's the abusive ex-boyfriend who kidnapped a young woman at gunpoint, but escaped from custody before he could be tried. So we're trying to find him. In January, 1994, in a small Missouri town called Mexico. Which, what? If anybody lives in Mexico, Missouri, please get in touch. I want to know what's up with your town. What is up with Mexico, Missouri? 19-year-old Denise Williams was shot at and run off the road by her ex-boyfriend, 31-year-old Randall. Boo. Red flags.

Randall. Now, obviously, Randall, as we'll see as the story goes on, seems to target young women. Yeah, he's just a textbook abusive dude. Yeah, exactly. I don't think we used to talk about this stuff so much, though. So I assume that meme of the guy on one knee holding up a bouquet of red flags was actually based on him. I think it was him. That was Randy Utterbag. Stop it. It's worse with Randy. Stop it.

So they had met at a party a year and a half earlier. Okay, if you were in your 30s, you should not be going to party with teenagers, by the way. Gross. Highly gross. So according to Denise, he seemed, quote, dangerous enough to be exciting. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Oh my God, I'm so glad I don't have children. Oh my God, no. No, no, no, no, no. I hate it so much! So the good news is, is we know immediately that Denise is not killed because she's interviewed for the episode. And she tells us that she was impressed by his motorcycle. He owned a mountain lion.

red flag I've ever heard in my life. This guy was, like, the Tiger King. I don't think this was, like, a baby. A mountain lion. Bizarre. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just picturing me, like, I have to be an adult in a situation, you know, I have a teenage daughter, and she's, like, sitting on her bed crying, and I'm like, absolutely not. You can never see Randy and his mountain lion again. My mother! He has a motorcycle, and he's 31. And I'm mature for my age. He's just dangerous and not going to be interesting. Oh my god. No, he's just dangerous. She's a radiator.

So she claims that everyone talked very highly of him. He was outgoing. Yeah, probably because he bought them beer, Denise. probably uh he would take it seems like he love bombed her so i realized that was not a term back then but he took her to nice concerts and restaurants um he made her feel really special and she's like you know the thing is you get to an age where you're like i'm not a kid anymore i'm so sophisticated and it's like yeah okay but you're not an adult either like right but you think that you are in that time and it's only when you look back that you go like oh my god that's so embarrassing but i just i just feel for her because obviously like She was impressed by all these things that as an actual adult with a fully formed brain, you would be like, no, I gotta go. Mountain lion. See you. See you never, I hope. But, um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So things were really great until they really weren't. After about two weeks, which is, I'm going to say a quick turnaround time. Maybe not when you're like, how old is she? Like 17.

Maybe that feels a little long time. I don't know. I don't know. He starts getting controlling after about two weeks. And she does say that it was gradual. It started out like little things where he would make comments about how she shouldn't wear makeup or hairspray or perfume. And then it grew into don't hang out with certain people or you have to choose me or your friends. Samantha, you don't understand. He was nice for like five whole days.

He was irresistible. He got to pet a mountain lion. Yeah, there was a mountain lion. She got to ride on the back of a motorcycle. She got to go to a concert where people were drinking. Yeah. The world was so exciting for those five days when he was nice. The thing about this dude is that you know he knows what he's doing. Oh, totally. Yeah.

So it's just like, oh, you're such a derp bag. So Denise did go off to college. And at this point, she hoped that putting some distance between them would improve their relationship. Because at this time, she really feels like, this is not great. I'm not having a good time. Also, she needs to break up with him. But I'm sure that was a scary thing to do. Oh, for sure. And also, I'm sure she's thinking about the good times that they had together and thinking, is there something I could do? Not having very much experience in relationships. Is there something I could do to fix this? Or whatever. She thought, in this case, that maybe going off to college and putting some distance between them would help their relationship. Now, it did not.

Maybe he really will get me that snow leopard like he promised. Right, exactly. I can't handle that he has a mountain lion. I can't handle this piece of information. I can't imagine a real person having a mountain lion. And his name is Randy Utterbeck.

It's wild. It's wild. So she says that he remained controlling and manipulative. She would have to call him when she was going to the cafeteria just in case he called. And if she wasn't there to accept his phone call, he would think that she was out with other people. She needs to go to the bathroom, Randy, or do her homework or take a nap or not talk to you. Get some shitty food from the cafeteria. This guy is such a dick. So according to Denise, her family was shocked when he talked her into enrolling in a community college closer to him.

He had her convinced that he was the only one who was there for her. She says he had her isolated from her family and friends. And of course, looking back on this, she can see this clearly. But as a young person, you know, being manipulated, being controlled. She's in love. Right, exactly. But looking back on it, she was like, he clearly isolated me from my family and friends and knew exactly what he was doing. So at this point, several months had passed and this abusive pattern continued until Denise finally reached her breaking point. Because she says that he would call her names, he would tear her down. She wasn't allowed to have that.

opinion seems like she wasn't even allowed to do anything um she says that during an argument he became enraged um and broke up with her um and she says that she immediately felt relief she said i realized basically she said that at that point she realized that she wanted to get away from him she had enough so utterback on the other hand was stunned when she didn't come crawling back to him um and he began to stalk her waiting until she was alone and unprotected um he would frequently follow her in his car while she was in her car he would follow her he would uh ram her car he would drive her off the road he would confront her and say things like if she didn't take him back, something bad would happen to her or her family. He would say he wanted to marry her. Of course, yeah. The most romantic proposal you can think of after you've just run someone off the road. She did press charges. He was arrested for felonious...

restraint and aggravated stalking, which I'm not entirely sure what that means. But the restraint part, I don't really know what that is. But he was arrested and he was in jail for a week before he posted bond. There was a restraining order that barred him from seeing or talking to Denise. But by January 1994, Denise had finally began to relax. She thought that, you know, he was respecting the restraining order.

She finally had some freedom. Unfortunately, according to Unsolved Mysteries, she had let her guard down too soon. Okay, what? That's not on her Unsolved Mysteries. Yeah, no, it's not. Also, the sick thing about being in a situation like this is that you go like, oh, he probably found someone else. You like hope that your stalker...

moves on to another person right like he's probably lost interest in me he's probably found someone else to go bother you get the like relief of some space and some safety oh it's horrible yeah so she says that she was driving home from school when she saw a black car behind her she didn't think it was him um i think he had a different car typically um she thought maybe it was just some school kids driving home from school driving like you know kind of like dummies um but she says the next thing she knew it pulled up beside her and she looked over and it was randall um he was like motioning for her to pull over She did not want to. She was scared, and so she sped up. But as she sped up, he sped up and got beside her again. At that point, he pulls out a gun and fires at Denise, at which point she panics, drives off the road in an attempt to run away.

He comes after her. She's not hit by any gunfire, I don't think. But she did run her car off the road and kind of crash it into like a little embankment. That's just been so terrifying. Yes. It seemed like they were in the middle of nowhere. Like there was no one else around. She got out of her car and ran from him. Of course, he gave chase and he caught her. She tried to spray him with mace. In the struggle, he bit her hand. No, sorry. She bit his hand. No.

Someone bit someone's hand. I don't know. Okay. The mountain lion bit his hand. My notes are not clear. Let's see. Yeah. Yeah. Someone was bit and the gun was dropped. At that point, he dragged her into his car and drove off with her. All the while he was begging her to take him back and also insulting her, saying he was going to kill her. Like, he wanted her to kill him and he was going to kill her. It was the most ridiculous thing. She pleaded with him to stop the car. He finally pulled over and fled. Denise's father had apparently...

like become concerned and flagged out a sheriff and they were out looking for her. This is the point where they found her. There was like a little search party going on. The deputy started asking her questions and eventually decided, you know, they decided she would get in his car and he would drive her to the emergency room. On the way there, they spotted Utterbeck's car. And I don't know why you would do this. Maybe there's just no more police around, but he decided that with her in the car, he would give chase to her attacker. She was petrified and like in the field position in the front seat.

um uh the deputy did pull him over though and placed him under arrest um he was utterback was charged with stalking felonious restraint again and armed criminal action he was yeah go ahead sorry he was imprisoned without bond um several months later while being transported to the hospital he managed an escape and at this point he was still on the loose um which is a fact that denise says keeps her awake at night as you can imagine terrible she says that she's living her life in fear she's afraid he'll come back at any point um she doesn't want to go anywhere by herself she's afraid that um basically to be alone or to live her life um so it's very very terrible um i do believe they caught him i'm pulling up the oh wait they didn't what he's still out there randy i didn't Right down. Yeah. According to Unsell Mysteries Wiki, he's still considered wanted. I hope the mountain lion ate him. I hope so. What was that case with Carole Baskin where she was saying to put like sardine oil on someone? I don't remember that. She like makes this weird reference that sort of makes you go, okay, maybe she killed her husband. I don't know. She was like, well, a tiger wouldn't just eat someone unless you did this. Anyway, I'm hoping that that's what happened to him. Yeah, I don't think they ever got him. He was featured on America's Most Wanted. Yeah, according to the Unsell Mysteries Wiki, he is. So I feel.

Even worse for her now. That's terrible. That's terrible that she had to worry about that forever. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm assuming he got himself into some other bad situation and got himself killed. Probably. I doubt he's, like, alive and good health. You know what I mean? No. That seems kind of unlikely. I don't think so. Well, and how old would he be? Very old. Very old for a Randy. Very old for a Randy? What? Do you meet any children named Randy? No.

Oh, he would be 59. Oh, not that old at all. Randy, if you're out there, you are not allowed to listen to the podcast. When I say friends and enemies, I'm not including you. No. Okay, I have a very weird one now. This is an unexplained death. This one is wild. Okay, this is the case of Pam Littleton from Sulther, Louisiana. She was a cheerleader. She was voted most popular. Prettiest girl, which is apparently something you used to vote on in school, which sounds terrible. She was homecoming queen. After school, she married a man named Eric Ellender, who was a businessman who ended up working for her father. They had a baby girl.

Nearly every day, Pam would walk over to her parents' house so that her parents could be involved in their granddaughter's childhood. It seems like it's a very good life. This is apparently exactly what Pam wanted. She had wanted to grow up to be a wife and mother and housewife, and she was living that dream. Until February 11th at 8.54 p.m., this is in 1991, Pam got a call from Eric at her parents' house to let her know that he was home from work. So Pam left their house 30 minutes later. The next afternoon, her parents hadn't heard from her all day, which was pretty unusual, and they were...

I don't know if they were concerned, but they were like, that's odd. And then Huey, which is her dad, Pam's dad, got a call from his mother-in-law saying that she was at Pam and Eric's house and that something was amiss. And she didn't fully say what it was, but told him to call the sheriff. And he was like, well, I'm going to call the sheriff in an ambulance. And she goes, just call the sheriff. Well, and didn't she say, I have the baby. The baby's fine. She was like, yes, I have the baby. The baby's fine. You need to call the sheriff. And he goes, I'm going to call the sheriff in an ambulance. And she goes, just call the sheriff. Oh, it's so fucking sad. Not good.

So he runs over there to beat his mother-in-law and the sheriff at the house, and that's when he learns that both Pam and Eric are dead in their bed. They had been killed by a shotgun blast to the head. So two different shotgun shots. Fortunately, the baby daughter, who's unnamed in the episode, was unharmed. Okay, so this is a very sad case. And of course, Unsolved Mysteries takes it in a really weird direction. The weirdest possible direction. Well, that's kind of the fault of Pam's dad, Huey, who we hear a lot from. And he just, I mean, obviously he's very close with his daughter. Even though she was grown, he saw her every single day, right? Like they were sort of helping with the childcare of their granddaughter and raising her all together. So they were this incredibly close-knit family and then just this horrible sudden tragedy rips her out of his life when everything was going so well. He doesn't take that so well. So things end up getting a little weird. But okay, the day after the murders, 18-year-old Chris...

i'm sure i said that right wrong i'm sorry i'm sure i said that right um you know what he's you know what just be confident about it yeah i'm sure i said that right chris prudhomme who was a resident of sulfur also was arrested in baton rouge along with three of his friends the reason he was arrested was because he was in possession of eric's toyota forerunner At that time, he confessed that he had murdered them both and apparently expressed no remorse, which is odd. He was put into custody. 17 days later, Chris was found hanged by his neck in the jail shower room. He was taken to the hospital, but he never regained consciousness and died shortly thereafter. A suicide note was found in his cell, taking full credit for the murders. We see a shot of the suicide note and like a couple sentences on Unsell Mysteries, but not the whole thing. But the gist of it is that he took full credit for the murders and said that his friends who were also arrested, you know, like maybe they were all in the car, but they didn't take place in the murders, right? Right. However.

Back to this dad, Huey. You might think, well, this guy confessed to the murder. Then he killed himself. That sort of ties everything up. No, not to Huey. It doesn't. It does not. Because Huey is a private detective and also is grieving the loss of his daughter and not dealing with it well. So he became convinced.

Okay, here's the thing. Huey goes on to interview 100 witnesses about his daughter's death. More than 100 witnesses about his daughter's death. I don't know how big Sulphur Louisiana is, but that seems like a lot. We're not 100 witnesses to this crime. No. This is not said on Self Mysteries, but I am suspicious that he was paying people to talk to him. Because the stories that he gets talking to these 100 witnesses get...

Wilder and wilder. Wilder and wilder. And I'm trying to understand the motivation people would have to lie to this grieving man. And I'm wondering if, I don't know, they got 20 bucks if they went and talked to him. I'm not really sure. I don't know. Was it like the thing all the kids were doing where they were like, oh, it's so dark. But like, really? Like, what's the craziest thing you can get this man to believe and you're going to get 20 bucks out of it? I'm just, I'm just making up the part about the money because I don't know. I'm trying to understand. This is, what you're about to hear is clearly false. And I just want to know who said it and why.

And I'm just guessing there was some financial motive, but I don't really know because someone told Huey that Chris and his friends belong to a satanic cult called the skaters. The skaters. The skaters. The skaters. The skaters. You know, what are you trying to think of? What can I name my satanic cult? It really evokes the devil himself. When people hear it, it's going to strike fear into their hearts. Yeah. The skaters. I got it. Perfect. No notes.

boomer pick of who you think is bad is to be like kids on skateboards they're in a real rough crowd okay but well what we're leaving out is that skaters is an acronym and it stands for a totally real thing you would totally name your satanic murderous cult which is satan's kids against the establishment and I want a dare style t-shirt that says skaters say it's kids against the establishment so bad and we're just gonna have to make that for t-shirt I cannot tell you how much I need someone to design this I can't design shit I need someone who has graphic design abilities to design a skater's kids against the establishment which that doesn't even spell skaters I want to point out I'm staring at it right now I'm like where's that other r where's the r where's that that spells just what it just spells skate But anyway. Well, so the cult is called Skate, but they're skaters if they're in the cult, you know? Are you just making that up right now? Yes, but I assume that's it. Okay, okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Okay. And I don't know who told him this, and I don't know why he didn't immediately go, well, that's fucking bullshit. No, no satanic cult is out there murdering people. I don't care what the 80s says. But also, if they were, why would they name their organization Satan's Kids Against the Establishment? Kids? Kids? Okay, whatever. Satan's Kids. I would love everything about it. I am Satan's Kids. We're not dead.

The girlfriend of one of the skaters, which immediately makes me know this is true, told Huey about a meeting that took place the morning after the murders about making up an alibi for Chris. According to her, the skaters entered the house to burgle it. I think that's probably true. But they were high on LSD, also possibly true, ended up murdering Pam and Eric instead using one of Eric's shotguns. Okay, one of the things he learned from talking to over 100 people in this town is that the skaters hosted a party at the crime scene just hours after the murders.

We hear from a witness named Nikki who reported a lot of drinking and drug use, but had no idea that two bodies were lying in the bedroom until she saw the house on the news the next day. Do you think this party thing is real? I mean, I don't think it was a satanic orgy. I don't actually. Do you think they had a party in this house? I don't. No. I think this is a burglary gone wrong. Yeah. I don't think they've been. Weren't they in their beds though? Weren't they shot in bed? I don't know. Okay. Yes. We don't see this crime scene. That's fine with me, but I don't know how in bed they were. Sure. Okay. We'll get back to it. We'll get back to what I think happened. Okay.

But this person, Nikki, says that they held a party while two people were dead in the bedroom. The sheriff's office looks into all of the information that Kiwi brings them, which I'm not usually one to compliment the police, but I think that was very generous of them. And they concluded that most of this information was, to be polite, unreliable. There is no evidence of a party being held in the house, for example. Okay, what I do not believe is that these teenagers killed two people, held a party in their house, and then cleaned up afterwards.

I don't believe they went around and picked up all the red Solo cups and put them in a trash bag and then they took that trash bag back to their own house. So no, I don't think a party happened. We then learned the disturbing thing where another witness claimed there was a party and that the dead bodies were sexually molested during the party. I really don't think that happened. This piece of juicy gas we get from a guy named Chip Richard.

Okay, what does Chip have to say? He is wearing an amazing purple striped shirt, I'll have you know. And he has a mustache, which I called the dinner theater bullshit. It looks like the mustache someone who works at a theater theater would have. Chip, tell us what the skaters are up to. Chip Richard, which I don't know why I think that name is funny, but I do. He told Huey that he was not there that night, but that he saw videotapes that were made.

which opens up a lot of questions. All right. He said that the video included both murders and people molesting the bodies during the party, which means that someone, let's say, goes over to Chip's house, has a VHS tape and goes, Chip, man, you got to see this. Puts the tape in the VCR, starts playing it. Chip sits there. You better rewind it. Chip sits there, watches two people get shotgun blasted in the head and doesn't stop watching the tape. He keeps watching. He keeps going until they're like doing weird sex stuff to the dead bodies.

And then, at that point, yeah, turns the tape off, rewinds it, and goes, I should probably tell someone about this. It's a weird chip thing to do, I gotta say. I have a lot of questions. Well, don't worry, because that did not happen. Yeah, that didn't happen. He said that the tape included, quote, just basically everything that really goes on. Yeah. What? Okay. This is how you know it really happened, is because of Chip's detailed recounting. I don't know what is up with this. If life in sulfur is so boring that these kids are like...

That grieving family, we're going to tell them people did weird sex stuff to the bodies. Like, why are you making this stuff up? It's clearly made up. It's very clearly made up. The reason you know that is because they're like, okay, Chip, what the fuck happened? What did they do? And he's like, you know, all the stuff. Just basically everything that goes on. You had the murders. I had the murders. And I watched the murders. And then I kept sitting there and I watched them molest the bodies. And then, Chip, are you serious? Like, what? What do they do with those bodies? Sex stuff.

Okay. I've never had sex, so I can't really tell you what they did, but it was sexy and there was a dead body there. I don't know. Chip, I have a lot of questions about Chip, but I actually don't want them answered. Okay. But he claimed Chris was not actually the murderer anyway, but he had volunteered to take the fall for his fellow skaters because he was becoming the leader of the cult. And I was like, that's not how the leader of a cult acts. Good move. What? He felt like he owed them for their loyalty. And I was like, no, he would, if he was the leader of a cult, he would make someone else be the fall guy. Chip, you don't even know anything about cults to make up this lie.

I don't know. Anyway. Now, we hear about Huey talking to a woman named Pearl. Froogie? Okay. How come none of these names sound real? Is this just me? Okay. That's such a fucking Riverdale name. All right. So this Pearl woman, she comes in to throw her cousin Kim under the bus, claiming that Kim was at the house the night the murders took place. And Huey's like, well, can we get her to go on the record if she was there? That's kind of a big deal. And she's like, well, she's my cousin. It's like, bitch, you already told on her. Anyway.

She's like, she's my friend and my cousin. I don't know. But Pearl went on to record a conversation with Kim where she describes the murders in detail, but never admitted to being in the house herself. According to her, they went into the house to steal stuff. Chris bumped something and Eric woke up. Eric went for his gun. So Chris shot him first. This woke up Pam and the second man that was with Chris shot her. Chris supposedly wanted to kill the baby, but was urged not to, presumably by Kim.

It's weird because she's talking about it in kind of a third-person way, not admitting that she's there. And it also sounds like Kim got the baby and laid it next to their dead bodies for some reason. Oh, my God. Okay, this tape's conversation was presented to the grand jury. However, afterwards, Pearl's lawyer held a press conference to say that the tape was false and that Pearl and Kim had concocted the story, scripted out their conversation beforehand because it was what the police wanted to hear. More confusingly, Pam does not stand by this. She tells Unsolved Mysteries that the tape was true and that her and Kim were not lying.

Okay. That's where the segment ends. Okay, so to get back to what do I think happened? I think this story that's on tape is at least mostly true. I think we have dumb kids broke into a house to steal stuff. We're possibly high. Made some noise. Eric was reaching for a gun.

because there's two strangers in his house. They get a gun first, kill him, then have to kill Pam. So maybe they were like, Eric's like partly out of the bed. I don't know if he's literally like tucked in the bed asleep, right? Maybe he's like starting to get out of the bed. He has a gun by his bed. And so they end up killing him. And then they feel like they need to kill Pam. I really hope someone didn't go get the baby and put the baby next to their corpses. I hope not.

Why? How traumatizing. What? To come upon the scene. I know. I mean, you kind of understand why Huey has gone on this crusade. I realize it's a little misguided, maybe a lot misguided, but I kind of understand. I don't understand why people were clearly pulling his leg. I feel very bad for him, but there are no skaters. There's no satanic cult. There's also no real evidence of any cult activity. Nothing about this is cult-like. No. I don't think they really had a party. Maybe they did. I'm guessing they just took stuff from the house and maybe that was at a party later or something. I think your point about...

They did not have a party and then clean up after the house is very astute. And the police photos did show it being somewhat messy. We don't know if these people kept a clean house. My house is messy. It wasn't ghost teenage party. No, no. I think it would be very obvious if people had come in and had a party. I'm going to give it to the cops that they could probably figure that much out. If they say there's no evidence of a party, you know, there's not like beer cans and shit, then no, they didn't have a party. Maybe they had a party in that same cul-de-sac or something. Maybe there's a reason these stories got conflated, but I don't think that's what happened. I don't think there's any evidence of Satanism. I think this is just...

people who should not be burglarizing things. And unfortunately, these two people ended up dead. Anyway, so we do get an update. Let me read this from the Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. So, okay, first of all, Chris killed himself, so he's kind of out of the equation. This case is considered solved. On February 5th, 1995, Robert Atkins was indicted for the murders. Philip Lido and Kurt Reese were charged as accessories after the fact. Those were the other two teenagers that were with the car when that was recovered the next day, right? So they were in possession of that stolen property, I guess. And maybe they helped.

Chris and Robert here escape. Five years later, Robert entered a plea of two counts of manslaughter. The district court sentenced him to two 20-year sentences to run concurrently with credit for four years served for helping steal Eric's car. However, the judge suspended the 16-year sentence and placed him on five years probation. He soon violated probation on several occasions and received minor punishment for the probation violation. Philip was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to four years in prison. Kurt pleaded guilty for being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to two years in prison. Authorities no longer believe that anyone else was involved in the murders and the case is now considered closed.

QE passed away in 2019 at the age of 83. So what it sounds like to me is, yes, two teenage boys, possibly high, maybe just drunk, decide it's a great idea to rob a house at night while people are in it, which, listeners, please, no, don't do that. Yeah, and they're armed, so it ends up being deadly. Right. The baby gets left there. I don't know where, I don't know why people are lying to this man. It seems pretty clearly a burglary gone wrong by two dumb kids. Anyway, I'm joining the skaters, everyone.

I think they got some real cool ideas. That is the end of the episode. There is an unnecessary update at the end. It's so unremarkable that Samantha couldn't even remember if we had talked about it before. True. True. Okay, let's rate this one. All right, mysteriousness. Okay, kind of mysterious. Right? Or no, not at all. I was like, well, there's no treasure, and this burglary thing is not mysterious. We don't know what happened to Randy Utterback. He could be in your backyard right now. Oh, God, do not say that. He's riding a mountain lion in my backyard right now, coming to love on me. It's not going to work, Randy.

get over me you're upset randy yeah don't worry bullshit yeah yeah if you ever wonder why guys like that are always pursuing 17 year olds it's because the rest of us rest of us might know better um i guess sideways i'm mysterious then fine i wish we had gotten people in robes chanting the word skaters i do oh satan we are the kids establishment um i wish the satanic party would have been cooler i wish Like, I feel like they really could have gone all out, and it would just kind of look like a lame party. It looked like a very normal, non-satanic party, despite apparently sex stuff happening. Yes! Which, by the way, that didn't happen. Also, I really want to know how Chip knew that tape was from that. If he really saw this, like, snuff film, how does he know where that's from? Where was Chip that night? How would he know that's from this house and these people? This is grainy 1991 home camcorder footage. This is not, like, movie quality. It's probably like a dark room. And he was like, oh, no, that was definitely your dead daughter I saw in that. Like, how does he know?

Oh my god, Chip. I'm not sure about the reenactments, honestly. Yeah, I'm gonna say thumbs down. Possibly because I had to learn about the Alamo, and I don't like that. Oh my god. Thumbs down. Way down. Fashion. The only thing remarkable was Chip's shirt, and I hate Chip, so... Yeah, there was a fake mustache, though.

That's true. Elf also. That's not carrying the episode, I gotta say. Nope, still thumbs down. Not memorable enough. We should have learned more about Maria Gomez. I want to know about the career of someone who works in a museum, but is also a prophetess. It's a diverse resume. Yeah.

Agreed. Robert Stack? Not in it enough. And two jams about the Alamo also. Agreed. Get your shit together, Robert Stack. No one cares about the Alamo. That's what, Robert Stack was an old man, and so he's like, we're at the Alamo, and I was like, boo, who cares? He's headed to the train museum after this. Yeah, he probably was. And he saw me dance in a jig, and he was like, all right, that's how you do it. Let's get this girl a volunteer application. You should have seen his face when Samantha and I really bought sweatshirts.

So we were like, because he was like, someone told us that they had sweatshirts for Sam. We were like, oh, we're going to get some. And I'm sure they were like, yeah, right. And then we really did. We really did. We spent way too much money on those sweatshirts. In my defense, in our defense, they're honestly, they look really cool. I immediately put mine on. And then I passed that man on the way out. His eyes were like, whoa. He was like, you bought a sweatshirt. I'm like, hell yeah, I'm leaving here with merch. He was shocked. He was shocked. That's a direct quote. I told that man, hell yeah, I'm leaving here with merch. After you told him that we're, quote, really into trains, you liar. I mean, I got a movie. I was lying about you.

I got a moon pie from a hobo, and I clearly have it on a shelf, like on display. My moon pie. Oh, I ate mine, so I can't display it. I knew what a bindle was. The hobo was so happy. He was very impressed by your hobo knowledge. As you should be, as everyone should be. Okay, wait, what were we talking about? We're talking about the train museum again. Oh, my God. Just another day of Perhaps It's You, which was also your favorite train podcast. Choo-choo! Can I get a choo-choo? All aboard! I don't even know where we're at. I think we have to give this a Robert Stack rating. Oh, yeah. I feel like this is a pretty good episode.

It was decent. I hate to say this because it's a horrible place on this country, but I was glad to get another satanic panic mystery. I was like, oh, it's been a while. We're sort of in the grips of another satanic panic. We are. So like, I don't know, antique satanic panic is almost quaint at this point. Oh, retro. Oh, skaters. Yeah, I can't wait to join. I hope the skaters let me in. Yeah, do you think they will? Probably not because I'm an old lady who likes to go to the train museum.

Yeah. That's probably a requirement for the Satan's kids against the establishment. That's on the application. Have you ever been to a train museum? It's immediate in the carpet. More than one on one day. No. Oh, God. Oh, we're not cool. This is just occurring to you right now. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that you thought I'm having an unsolved mystery podcast. Made you cool. Made you cool. As cool as Cart McFall.

Oh, God. Okay. So, wait. This episode was pretty good. I'm going to say three and a half. I think that's fair. It's better than average. We could have got four mysteries instead of an update at the end. Oh, my God. Yes. Absolutely. And did we have to learn about the Alamo? Oh, no. So, to be fair, I learned very little. It's true. I'm not sure I learned anything about the Alamo. I think I've been to the Alamo, but honestly, I'm not even sure. Sorry. I've been to San Antonio. Surely I went to the Alamo, right? You at least saw it out of the corner of your eye. Yeah. It's good enough.

I assume people do that thing from Pee Wee's Big Adventure every day where they go in and ask to see the basement. And then they're like, there's not a basement at the Alamo. And I bet they're so fucking sick of that. But that's all I would want to do is go in and be like, when are we going to see the basement? Anyway, Samantha doesn't know what I'm talking about. Sorry, I was yawning. Yeah, so we're going to skip recommendations this week because our recommendation is to go to your local train museum. Yes, you'll have a surprisingly good time. And I'm going to say not eat a candy cane. I can't even talk more. Definitely don't eat a candy cane cotton candy. That would be terrible. But chocolate cotton candy is shockingly good. Honestly, yeah, chocolate and strawberry cotton candy, if you can just get that mixed together somehow, I would recommend. Do not make a massive pile of it. Ice cream in the middle. Some nerds.

Fruity Pebbles. Fruity Pebbles and Coco Puffs and mix it all together and try and eat it. Yeah, absolutely never, ever do that. You'll question all your life choices. I'm really glad my dentist does not listen to this podcast because I don't want her knowing that I ate that. Yeah. There's just this time of year I just want to give all of Minnesota a big hug. It just seems so wholesome and cutesy to me. But maybe that's because I went to two train museums. I mean, I do feel like we're in the afterglow of the train museum. Did you notice that there was, I think, an afterglow of the train museum?

Yes, sorry, what? Did I notice what? That's the thing I said. Yeah. Isolate that audio on Repod, everyone. I absolutely will. Did you notice that there was, I don't know if it was a mom and a daughter, an aunt and a niece or what, behind us in line at the Sticky Cheeks Cafe. And after they saw, she was going to order the cotton candy burrito. And after they saw ours be made, she changed her mind about something else. I mean, that kid's smart. That kid's learning from our mistakes like everyone should. Yeah, smart. Wise beyond her years. I feel like everybody in this state is so good at putting up with me. I really appreciate it.

where i really was like we got okay we literally went and rode on a train while a kid first of all is going this isn't spooky this is a normal train oh no they put up some streamers kid that's what you get they had some orange and black streamers with some duct tape literally so poorly put up and so we're you know we ride our little train and we get off and then we go to the hobo camp and i saw these like poster boards with the hobo codes on them and i literally was like what's that And the guy was like, and I was like, teach us about hobo codes. So I made this guy like go through his 10 minutes field. His whole presentation, which was long. For us. Well, Rochelle recorded it. And then I made him take a photo with me holding his bin. I like went and got his, I was like, no, you have to hold his bindle. You're not a true hobo unless you have your bindle. And everybody was such a good sport about it. I love when he quizzed you about the bindle stick. And he was like, and what is this called? He's like, you know what a bindle is? And what is this called? And we were like, a stick. And he was like, no, it's a bindle stick. I was like, okay. And it's right.

I'm sorry. I'm still embarrassed about this. I can't believe you brought that up. I didn't know a bindle stick wasn't just called a stick. I'm sorry. But I did get Rochelle a very convenient bandana that has all the Hobo cards on them. For easy reference. For easy reference. Look, I'm sorry you couldn't all be there. This would be the best Perhaps It's You meetup. At the train museum? At the train museum for the haunted roadhouse thing. Could you imagine if we rolled in with a crowd and we were just pumped? We got our little conductor's hats on? Shoot! Shoot!

Just hyped. That's what I want. Next year, we should do a meet up there. If it's successful at their last meetup, there will literally be two people there. So it'll be great. Oh, God. You're welcome, Minnesota Transportation Museum, which, by the way, only features one mode of transportation. I don't know why this museum is called the Transportation Museum. It's only trains. I think it used to be called the Train Museum, and they changed it for some reason. Why? It's still into trains. I don't know. But stuff in there referenced the Train Museum, and I was like, that's not what this is called. It's called the Transportation Museum, despite the fact that it only features one mode of transportation. The thing is, Samantha, there's a different model train museum right by my house that we didn't go to.

Are you telling me? There's another one. We could have gone to three train museums in one day. Yes, because there's both one in St. Paul and one in Minneapolis. There's a dueling model train museum. I wonder which one's better. There's only one way to find out. All aboard!

Okay, that is it. For perhaps it's you so Samantha can go to bed. I feel like I'm half delirious. You probably are. I feel like I haven't stopped giggling this whole episode and everyone's going to hate it, but whatever. If you don't hate that, you can sign up for our Patreon or follow us on social media or join our Facebook group where everybody is very chill and nice and a sweetie pie. Everyone has homework, okay? You have to post a picture of your Mad Lib in our Facebook page. Yeah. Post a picture of you by a train.

Yes. If you've been to your local train museum, I want to hear about it. I want to hear how great it is. Because we're into trains now. Because we're really into, we're certainly into train museums. I don't know about trains, but. Okay. I'm so sorry. I'm just thinking about Smith writing choo-choo in the comments of that guest book. Choo-choo. Just wait till I get that stripper. It's going to be lit.

I think the transportation museum would be more open to it than the model train museum. They seemed more laid back. They seemed much more laid back. If you just promised to do like a volunteer shift in exchange, I feel like they would be all about it. They'd probably want to come see it. I'd be like, yeah. They would. You're right, Randall and Fred. Come on over. Oh, not another Randall. It's just what I assume every old man is called. Fair. Fair.

Just Randall or Fred. Those are the only options. They're probably all named John, honestly. Well, yeah. Okay, God. We're done. We're plugging our shit. I mean, I think we did it. Whatever. Five stars. Rate us. Follow us. Smash that subscribe button. All those things. Yep. And we'll be back in two weeks. Or not. I don't know. Well, you'll hear our Patreon episode, certainly. Should we tell what we're doing this month? We are doing what was voted the worst episode of Bones.

I don't remember what it's called, but if you Google worst episode of Bones, it'll probably come up. Someone rated them on a list. I think it's based on IMDB ratings, so that's what we're going to be watching. Bones is Travis's favorite TV show. I don't know how you'll feel about us watching the worst episode. It's not his current favorite TV show. Oh, okay. I'm not sure it ever was his favorite. It was just the show that he watched if he needed to binge something, like he was homesick or whatever, he would watch Bones. Well, we may be relying on his Bones knowledge. So I'm going to have to ask him if he's seen this episode, if he has an opinion of it.

There is a point where every show has gotten to this point where it jumps the shark. And I don't know. I didn't look what season this was. I don't know if it's at the point where most people were like, all right, I'm done. Shit's getting weird. I'm done with these bones. For some reason, I find the fact that that is the title of the show funny every single time I say it. It's literally just called Bones. It's very funny. It's very funny. Okay. So that will be our Patreon content. If you have a paranormal tale, like you were riding a bus and you saw a ghost, we want to know. And that's perhaps podcast at gmail.com.

And I think that's pretty much it. So bye everyone. We probably covered it. Bye. Keep working. All right. That was our most unhinged episode. I love how we circled back to the trade museum. No, you got to. You got to. Okay. I'm going to lose you now. All right. Bye. Bye.