Crime&stuff

While we wait for the state of Maine to release the 2025 homicide list, we’re taking a look at another list: Maine’s Unsolved Homicides. In this first part of a three-part series, we dive into the Maine cold cases of the 1970s (and one from the 1960s), and discuss the still-unsolved cases of Effie MacDonald, Mary Olenchuk, Judith Hand, Joyce Tannarillo, Robert McKee, Ellen Choate, and James Cassidy. Would they have been solved if they’d happened today? Would they have even happened today? If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novels, including the award-winning (seriously!) Dying for News, click here. Looking for a cool Crime & Stuff T-Shirt, or another cool shirt designed by Rebecca? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.

Darrel Parker starts serving a life sentence. Wesley Peery is incarcerated in Ohio, doing “30 to 75 years,” which we know means he’ll be out soon. And Wesley’s gonna be Wesley. As Nebraska officials pull out all the stops across decades to keep an innocent man in prison for the rest of his life, Peery is free once again, with no one fighting against it, and does exactly what he’s done every single time he’s been let out of prison since the 1940s. When Darrel Parker was convicted in 1956, it set John Reid’s star on a trajectory that did change criminal investigation in the U.S. forever. What happened over the next 50 years, including a stunning twist, shouldn’ve altered that course. The fact it didn’t is the biggest crime of all. Maureen wraps up the three-part Darrel Parker saga. Rebecca gives an NNW review to one of her all-time favorite TV shows.

It’s April 1956, and Darrel Parker is going to trial on first-degree murder charges in the murder of his wife, Nancy. The evidence? A confession wrung out of him by soon-to-be famous crimimologist John Reid, with the help of a lie detector and some very willing Lincoln, Nebraska, cops and county attorney Meanwhile, career criminal Wesley Peery continues to wreak havoc in Lincoln and the surrounding area. He can’t have killed Nancy, of course, though he’s showing himself to be a violent rapist. He passed a lie detector test, so he’s been cleared. Part 2 of our look at how the Reid technique and lie detectors and the false confession they elicited launched John Reid to national fame and influenced criminal investigations in the U.S., an influence that continues to this day. Maureen presents. Rebecca gives an NNW review to the Netflix doc series “Missing: Dead or Alive?” If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea myst

Sit back and rip the wrapping and bows off our annual holiday special. With special holiday “Am I the Asshole?” And two special holiday Negative Nellies Reviews! Enjoy! And Merry Whatever Holiday You Celebrate! If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novels, including the award-winning (seriously!) Dying for News, click here. Looking for a cool Crime & Stuff T-Shirt, or another cool shirt designed by Rebecca? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.

In case you missed it, from January 2023: Brian Walshe’s many victims. Brian Walshe was found guilty on Dec. 15, 2025, of murdering his wife, Ana Walshe, and dismemembering her body. As promised, we’ll have an episode on it in January. But if you want the full background on Brian Walshe, check out this episode from January 2023 that looks at his long history of fraud, including ripping off his father — twice! It’s not just about the Warhols. We also have a special holiday issue coming later this week, and Part 2 of The Case That Changed Crime Investigation History coming up in the next couple of weeks. If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novels, including the award-winning (seriously!) Dying for News, click here. Looking for a cool Crime & Stuff T-Shirt, or another cool shirt designed by Rebecca? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.  

Lie detectors. The Reid Technique. You’ve been listening to us rant about them for nine years. One case, in 1955, was not only the perfect storm of both, but also launched John Reid’s interrogation method into national use, changing criminal justice methods throughout the U.S. into what is now the norm. But the funny thing about the investigation of Nancy Parker’s 1955 murder and the conviction of her husband, Darrel, is that it’s a huge honking cautionary tale of what can go wrong in an investigation. Maureen presents. Rebecca gives the Netflix documentary “Sunday Best,” an NNW review. So, on our ninth anniversary [!!!] check out a really good shooooeeee… [That’s an Ed Sullivan reference, kids, not misplaced ego]. If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Maine-based Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novels, including the award-winning (seriously!) Dying for News, click here. Looking for a cool Crime & Stuff T-Shirt, or another cool s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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