A Heavy Weight

Episode 9 examines the rumor map around Bryan Haltom’s unsolved murder: the road-rage story, Trevor’s account, Keith Flynn, money, drugs, law enforcement, and the people who may have stayed quiet. Rumor is not proof, but after nearly thirty years, the same names and questions still point back to one thing: someone knows why Bryan stopped.If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243

Nearly thirty years after Bryan Haltom was killed, Episode 8 looks at the classmates, friends, rumors, party houses, drug scene, and fear that surrounded his case. What did people know, what did they only hear, and what did they carry for years without realizing it might matter?If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243

Bryan Haltom was shot on Highway 231, but his final day may have started somewhere else: Keith Flynn’s house near Stinesville. In Episode 7, we look at the adult world forming around Bryan, the rumors that followed Flynn’s name, and why one house became impossible to ignore.If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243

Episode 6 of the Bryan Haltom series focuses on Trevor Powell, the passenger in Bryan’s red Trans Am and the only known surviving witness to Bryan’s murder. His account shaped the case from the beginning: a maroon car, a traffic confrontation, a chase through Spencer, and one shot on Highway 231.But nearly thirty years later, that story still has unanswered questions.If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243

Episode 5, Sixty Feet, of the Bryan Haltom series goes back to the road itself. After following Bryan’s final known hours, this episode examines the physical scene: where Bryan’s car was stopped, where his body was found, what the autopsy showed, where the shell casing was reported, and why the official road-rage story still leaves so many questions.If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243

In episode 4, The Last Night, we follow Bryan Haltom through the final known hours before he was shot and killed on Highway 231 outside Spencer, Indiana. From the fair to Falk’s, from Trevor getting into the car to the road-rage account that shaped the case, this episode asks what we actually know about Bryan’s last night.If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243.

In Episode 3 of A Heavy Weight’s Bryan Haltom series, we look at the months before Bryan was killed, when small moments that once seemed like normal teenage trouble began to look different in hindsight. A missing T-top, a black eye, a school incident, a party, a worried girlfriend, and a new crowd all raise the question Bryan’s family has been asking for nearly thirty years: was something building before the night on Highway 231?If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243.

If you want to understand Bryan Haltom’s case, start with who he was.Not the rumors.Not the theories.Not the road-rage story.Bryan.The son.The friend.The first love.The kid in the red Trans Am.Episode 2 is out now.If you know something about what happened in Spencer, Indiana in July 1996, Detective Kent Rohlfing with Indiana State Police can be reached at [email protected] or 812-837-3243.

Episode 1: The Sign on Highway 231For years, I drove past a small sign on Highway 231 outside Spencer, Indiana.It asked one question:Who killed Bryan Haltom?Bryan was eighteen years old when he was shot and killed on July 17, 1996. The early story was road rage. A stranger. A maroon car. A driver who disappeared into the dark.But the deeper I looked, the less simple that story became.This week on A Heavy Weight, I’m beginning Bryan’s story, a story about a mother who has spent nearly thirty years searching for answers, a small town full of rumors and silence, and a case that still feels solvable.Episode One is out now.Listen, share, and if you know something about what happened to Bryan that night, it's time.Someone knows why Bryan stopped his car.Someone knows who he walked toward.Someone knows who fired the shot.

In June 1985, 19-year-old Cassandra Rhines disappeared from Minneapolis after telling a friend she planned to attend her goddaughter’s birthday party. Nearly thirty years later, her remains were found in a secluded part of Gooseberry Falls State Park. Her murder is still unsolved.

In July 1975, 21 year old Diane Marie Schofield was found murdered in the trunk of her own car near the Des Moines airport. This episode follows Diane’s final known movements, the timeline investigators had to revise, and the unresolved questions that still surround her case more than 50 years later.

Charlotte Lysdale was 68 years old when she disappeared from Pine River, Minnesota.She loved needlework, knitting, family dinners, geraniums, and reading the paper.More than 40 years later, her disappearance remains unsolved.In this episode of A Heavy Weight, we look at Charlotte’s life, the case that followed, the trial of Jerome Bye, and the unanswered question that still remains.Where is Charlotte Lysdale?

On a freezing February night in 2001, Rachel Anthony vanished while closing a small-town liquor store in Pine River, Minnesota, leaving behind her car, purse, and coat. Six weeks later, her body was found, but more than two decades later, the question remains: who killed Rachel Anthony?

In this special episode of A Heavy Weight, we look at the federal conviction of former Kokomo police officer Sinmi Asomuyide, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a fourteen year old girl while on duty. This case raises urgent questions about power, vulnerable youth, police accountability, and what happens when the person expected to protect a child becomes the source of harm.

Renata Fernandez-Ramon was thirty years old. She was a mother to two young children. In October 2011, Renata was last heard from. The next day, her husband, Jose Francisco Munoz-Teran, picked up their children from school and said they were moving to Mexico.Weeks later, Renata’s body was found in a shallow grave in rural Big Stone County.This case is solvable. Investigators know who they are looking for. He just needs to be found.

On December 30, 1987, 20-year-old Marie Kline answered the door at her home near Elkhart, Indiana.She never came back inside.For years, her father Wayne held onto the sound of that doorbell, the sound of his daughter leaving the room, and the questions that followed.This episode of A Heavy Weight follows Marie’s case, the investigation that stalled, the family that kept pushing, and the DNA evidence that finally gave them some answers.Listen now wherever you get podcasts.

In September 2024, Indiana University student Gregory Gabler was arrested after a reported assault inside an on-campus dorm. He was originally charged with serious felony offenses, but in 2026, the case ended with a plea to felony criminal confinement resulting in bodily injury, six years of probation, a no-contact order, and no prison time.In this episode, we break down the timeline, the plea deal, the survivor-centered questions this case raises, and why campus sexual assault cases often leave the public asking whether the legal outcome matched the harm.

Two young women. Two Minnesota roads. Two cold cases still waiting for answers.In part one, we look at the unsolved homicide of Juanita “Wendy” Wear, a seventeen year old who was last seen at a party in Farmington in December 1976. She was reported missing on December 25, and nearly two months later, her body was found by juveniles in a construction area in Apple Valley. The public record is painfully thin, but the silence around Wendy’s case is part of the story. In part two, we turn to JoAnn Bontjes, a twenty one year old beauty salon operator from Sherburn who disappeared after spending an evening with friends in Trimont in October 1975. Her car was found abandoned along Highway 4. The next day, her body was found in a rural ditch. Nearly fifty years later, new DNA testing has brought renewed attention to her case. These cases are not known to be connected. But together, they ask us to sit with what remains after a young woman disappears: the roads, the rumors, the evidence, the unanswered questions, and the people still waiting for the truth.

In June 1987, twenty-two year old Anita Carlson was working the late shift at Pete’s Place West, a gas station and convenience store just outside Bemidji, Minnesota. Anita had recently graduated from Bemidji State University with honors and was building toward a future in broadcasting. But sometime after customers last saw her around 11 p.m., Anita disappeared.The next morning, her car was still behind the store. Her purse was inside. The store was in disarray. Days later, Anita was found in a wooded area off State Highway 89. Her murder remains unsolved.

Two young men disappeared from South St. Paul on May 2, 1993. Eleven days later, Chad Birkeland’s body was recovered from the Mississippi River near Hastings. Todd Hanson was never found, and the case remains unresolved.

A woman works an overnight shift she wasn’t supposed to take.Sometime between 3:10 and 4:30 in the morning, Toni Monette is stabbed to death inside a 7-Eleven in Mounds View, Minnesota. She’s found in the store’s back room. Nothing is taken. No clear motive is ever established.More than 40 years later, the case remains unsolved.

A woman gets into a van at 3 a.m. and disappears.Days later, Eden Young is found beaten to death in a quiet yard miles away from where she was last seen. Her clothing is discovered along a highway. Investigators later say her killing wasn’t random.But no one is ever charged.Eden Young wasn’t the only one.In the early 1990s, multiple women connected to sex work in the Twin Cities were found dead — beaten, strangled, left in fields and along roads.Advocates said there was a pattern.Law enforcement wasn’t sure.

An 18-year-old leaves work to run an errand and never returns.In August 1973, Teresa Osborne disappeared after picking up pastries from a bakery in Seymour, Indiana. Ten days later, her body was found in the trunk of her burned car in a remote wildlife refuge.Investigators interviewed hundreds of people and followed countless leads, but no one was ever charged.A detail uncovered months later suggests Teresa may have been afraid of “some man or men” before she vanished.More than fifty years later, her case remains unsolved.

Seventeen-year-old Hailey Buzbee left her home in 2026 after months of online communication with a man she thought she knew. What followed exposed the realities of grooming and the gaps in a system still trying to catch up.https://www.change.org/p/pass-hailey-s-law-pink-alert-and-mandated-grooming-awareness-education-in-schools?utm_medium=custom_url&utm_source=share_petition&recruited_by_id=5757cf30-e8a5-012f-1742-4040b91ba155

In 1993, Lola Fry went to a party in Indianapolis and never came home.The people who were with her told police a story — but it’s one that has never fully made sense.Lola disappeared along with her car. Neither have ever been found.

In October 1995, Wilma Cheek was found shot to death in her car at Willow Grove Cemetery in Fountain City, Indiana. It was late morning. Daylight. A place that should have felt quiet, familiar, safe. Thirty years later, her case remains unsolved.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/pendleton-district-investigations/wilma-cheek-10301995/

A new case in Bloomington, Indiana. An arrest tied to alleged child sexual abuse material. In part 1, we slow down the headline and walk through what’s been publicly reported so far, how these cases often start, what digital evidence can and can’t prove at this stage, and what research says about who gets caught with csam and how often this behavior happens in secrecy. This episode avoids graphic details and centers accuracy, prevention, and the reality that harm can be amplified long after abuse occurs.

We're sharing our coverage of the waverly two case again as Terence and Ferrone work towards their deserved full exoneration after their release.In 1998, Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne of Waverly, Virginia, were sentenced to life for a murder they were acquitted of, exposing systemic flaws like withheld evidence and a judge’s power to override a jury’s verdict. In this episode, we examine the controversial mechanism of acquitted conduct sentencing and the tireless advocacy work aimed at righting this profound injustice.

In Bloomington, two rape charges against a former Indiana University student ended without a trial. The charges were dismissed, a plea to battery remained, and the sentence was one year of probation. This episode follows the gap between what the public thinks the system does and what the rules of proof allow it to do.

This episode tells the story of Lisa M. Wallace, a 25 year old woman from Cadiz, Kentucky, found behind a truck stop near Interstate 70 in eastern Indiana on May 19, 1992.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/pendleton-district-investigations/lisa-m-wallace-05191992/

A Stillwater teen pleaded no contest to 11 rape related charges and walked out of court with a fully suspended 78 year sentence under Oklahoma’s youthful offender law. This episode follows the case of Jesse Butler, the outrage it sparked, and what it reveals about race, power, and who the system believes deserves another chance.

Theresa “Terry” Rideout was 36 when she vanished over Labor Day weekend in 1994. She finished a shift at Burger King in Evansville, made the night deposit, and never came back to her home in Chandler, Indiana. A week later, her fiancé, Jack Barnett, died by suicide in a Mount Vernon motel room, leaving behind a note that never mentioned Terry. With her paycheck still unclaimed, and her belongings left behind, investigators suspect foul play – but three decades later, her body has never been found and her case remains unsolved.

A Heavy Weight is re-releasing our coverage of Wilma June Nissen, a young mother of three whose homicide remains unsolved nearly five decades later. On October 4, 1978, Wilma’s body was found along Highway 182 in Lyon County, Iowa, near Rock Rapids, by a utility worker laying cable. With little usable evidence at the scene, investigators could not identify her at the time, and she was listed as a Jane Doe for years. In 2006, a forensic technician matched the unidentified victim’s fingerprints to an earlier arrest record from Los Angeles, finally restoring her name. Since then, Wilma’s daughter, Krissi Haas, has continued to push for answers and accountability, while investigators have pursued leads and tested limited physical evidence, including DNA that was reportedly too mixed to be useful at the time. Authorities have also publicly asked for help identifying people connected to the case, including individuals known by the aliases “Sugar” and “Peaches.” If you have credible information about Wilma June Nissen’s homicide, you can contact the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office at (712) 472 8300 or submit a tip through Lyon County’s online tip form. Tip submissions are not monitored 24 7, so emergencies should go to 911. For anonymous reporting and possible reward eligibility, Project Cold Case notes you can contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 222 TIPS.

In November nineteen sixty nine, twelve year old Nora Kathylene “Kathy” Jones left her house in South Nashville with her roller skates over her shoulder, headed for the roller dome on Thompson Lane. She never made it home.Two days later, searchers found her in a vacant lot. More than fifty years later, her murder is still unsolved.https://nashvillecoldcase.gov/1969-124859-nora-kathylene-jones/

Halloween night, 1981. Sixteen year old Debra Mae “Debbie” Fulton leaves her house in Hammond, Indiana, with a little cash and a simple plan: walk to the Roller Dome, skate with friends, come home.She never makes it.The next day, a boy playing under the Calumet Avenue bridge spots a body in the Grand Calumet River. Debbie has been killed by a blow to the head. Within weeks, her case is being used as an example in debates about runaway youth and juvenile law. Headlines call her a chronic runaway. Officials argue over whether she should have been locked in a secure facility “for her own protection.”Forty years later, her killer has still not been identified.In this episode of A Heavy Weight, we trace Debbie’s final walk, revisits the investigation into her death, and looks at how the label “runaway” can obscure the reality of kids in crisis. Along the way, we dig into what research now tells us about runaway youth, their risk of violence, and what it means to build safety without defaulting to incarceration.If you lived in Hammond in 1981, skated at the Roller Dome, or crossed the Calumet bridge that Halloween night and remember something, please consider reaching out to the Indiana State Police or Hammond Police Department. Someone in that community still holds a piece of what happened to Debbie.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/lowell-district-investigations/debra-fulton-10311981/

In 1974, a young woman was found shot and hidden beneath a mattress off a rural road in South Bend. It took six months before anyone knew her name: Victoria Lynne McDonough. No arrests were ever made. This episode revisits Victoria’s life, the investigation that failed her, and the questions that still haven’t been answered.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/bremen-district-investigations/vickie-mcdonough-11271974/

Episode 10 brings together the most unsettling pieces of Joseph Smedley’s case — the late-night messages, the odd cell phone pings, the missing belongings — and confronts the gaps that remain. This episode is a call for truth, transparency, and for anyone holding a piece of the story to finally come forward.

For Joseph’s family, this is year ten. Ten years of rereading the same note. Ten years of asking for his case files. Ten years of watching other IU students’ cases become national stories while his slips out of view.Coverage sits inside that imbalance. We talk about media bias and what it means to keep showing up for a family long after everyone else has moved on.Thank you for listening, sharing, and saying his name with us. Episode 9 is out now.

In this episode we return to the death of Indiana University student Joseph Smedley, whose body was found in Griffy Lake with a backpack weighed down with rocks. Drawing on a twenty year study of suicide by drowning and the insight of forensic pathologist Dr Darin Wolfe and forensic aquatic death investigator Andrea Zaferes, we ask how likely it really is that Joseph died by suicide in the way his case was closed. We unpack the challenges of determining cause and manner of death in bodies recovered from water, revisit the original autopsy and the attempted second autopsy, and explore the confusing trail of cell phone pings that suggest Joseph was not alone in his final hours. Along the way, we raise larger questions about how death determinations are made, what it means when a case is labeled suicide instead of undetermined, and why some missing students receive wall to wall coverage while others are met with silence.Content note This episode includes discussion of suicide, death, and possible foul play.

Joseph Smedley’s death was ruled a suicide by drowning, with alcohol and cannabinoids listed as contributing factors. In this episode, we slow down and examine that conclusion through the lens of Joseph’s autopsy and toxicology reports.Forensic pathologist Dr. Darrin Wolfe and drowning expert Andrea Zaferes walk us through what those reports can and can’t tell us in a decomposed body recovered from water. We talk about the rare nature of suicide by drowning, the backpack filled with rocks, conflicting details about how Joseph was found, and the critical questions his family still doesn’t have answers to, about his phone, the handwritten note, and missing scene photos.This is not about solving Joseph’s case in one episode. It’s about understanding why so many people, including experts, see his death as extremely unusual.Content note: This episode includes discussion of a death that was ruled a suicide. If you’re thinking about suicide, worried about someone, or need support, please reach out. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 or chat via 988lifeline.org for 24/7 free, confidential help. If you’re outside the U.S., please contact your local crisis line or emergency services.

Joseph Smedley vanished from Indiana University on September 27, 2015. Five days later, he was found in shallow water at Griffy Lake with a backpack full of rocks strapped to his chest. Police pointed to suicide. His family, and many friends, do not agree.In this episode, we revisit the early investigation handoff from IUPD to BPD, the decision to route updates through Joseph’s father, the autopsy overview, and the contested narrative around a possible confidential-informant angle. We also introduce experts who will help unpack what the evidence can, and can’t, tell us.

Episode 5 rebuilds Joseph Smedley’s final hours: 11:30 p.m. last seen, 4:15  a.m. text to his sister, a note found later, and a phone path toward Old State Hwy 37.

A recovered group chat, a shifting timeline, and a discovery at Griffy Lake reframe Joseph Smedley’s final week.In Episode 4, we examine digital evidence recovered from Joseph’s laptop: a fraternity group chat from the days he was missing. The conversation’s tone and priorities raise hard questions about what people knew—and when. We then trace the search to Griffy Lake, where Joseph was found with a backpack holding over 60 pounds of rocks strapped to his body.

In this episode, we step deeper into the growing confusion surrounding Joseph’s disappearance, the conflicting stories, the strange notes, and the data that didn’t add up.Detectives traced Joseph’s last cell-phone pings to two vastly different locations: one in the center of Bloomington’s busy nightlife district at 7th and Walnut, and another miles away on Old State Road 37, near the woods surrounding Griffy Lake. The distance between them was too far to walk in the time frame the phone suggested, leaving Vivianne convinced that her brother wasn’t alone that night.As rumors spread through campus, new details emerged, including mentions of a cryptic note found weeks before Joseph disappeared and another discovered in place of a bottle of scotch he’d been saving for his wedding. Meanwhile, messages uncovered from Joseph’s Sigma Pi fraternity group chat hinted at a scramble to control the narrative, rather than to find him.This episode traces Vivianne’s search for clarity through the haze of half-truths, unanswered texts, and institutional indifference. As she pieces together what little evidence she has, the story takes a darker turn, one that will lead her to the woods outside Bloomington and a discovery that changes everything.

The morning after Joseph Smedley vanished, his sister received a text message from his phone: “Viv, I’m sorry. I have to leave the country…” Hours later, police discovered a handwritten note in his room, signed Smedley and dated a day after he disappeared.In this episode, we follow the first week of the investigation: the confusion, the missteps, and the rumors that began inside Joseph’s fraternity. What did his brothers mean when they said he was hiding things? And what did Vivianne find on Joseph’s laptop that made her question everything they told her?Ten years later, these details still raise more questions than answers, about Joseph’s last hours, and about how far institutions will go to protect themselves.

On the tenth anniversary of Joseph Smedley’s disappearance, we return to Bloomington, Indiana, to re-examine the night it all began. Under the eerie glow of a rare Blood Moon, Joseph left his off-campus house and vanished. Five days later, his body was discovered in Griffy Lake, weighed down by rocks.In this first episode, we hear a never-before-released 911 call, revisit Joseph’s last known hours, and introduce the questions that have haunted his family for a decade: Did Joseph walk to Griffy Lake that night? Could he have carried the weight that pulled him under? And if not — then who brought him there?With new evidence and reflections ten years later, this series asks not just what happened to Joseph, but what it means when stories like his are left unsolved.

On June 12, 1994, twenty-year-old Delmar Wilson was found shot in his car on Radcliff Road in Washington County, Indiana. The engine was still running. The headlights still on. His foot still pressed on the brake.Police believe Delmar knew his killer. But in the three decades since, the case has passed from detective to detective, with no arrests and no answers.

On December 27, 2004, 37-year-old Michelle Asher was last seen walking along Route 33 out of Russellville, Illinois, heading toward Vincennes, Indiana. Two weeks passed before she was reported missing. By then, police and volunteers searched the countryside, but no clues turned up.Five months later, fishermen on the Wabash River made a discovery: Michelle’s body tangled along the riverbank.The official story said no foul play was found. But Michelle’s sister never believed it.

July 2007. A Nashville truck stop. Police approach a mustard-yellow cab and arrest a long-haul trucker suspected in murders across multiple states.But this isn’t a story about him. It’s about the women.We investigate the unsolved 1997 murder of Andrea Michelle Hendrix-Steinert in Gibson County, Indiana, and ask: when predators use the highway, who is left behind?

On a cold morning in October 1997, the body of 28-year-old Andrea Michelle Hendrix-Steinert was found in a ditch along County Road 350 in Gibson County, Indiana.Andrea was a mother, a daughter, and a pharmacy clerk who was just turning her life around. Years later, a prison inmate confessed to her killing, but no charges were ever filed.This episode of A Heavy Weight tells Andrea’s story in full: her life, her death, and the silence that followed. We confront the systemic bias that leaves women like Andrea overlooked, forgotten, and buried twice.Because every victim deserves justice. And every life deserves to be remembered.