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Hell And Gone is a true crime podcast from iHeartPodcasts and School of Humans that follows journalist and private investigator Catherine Townsend as she investigates unsolved deaths. 

Now in its fifth season, Hell and Gone is going weekly. 

Over the past five years of making true crime podcast Hell and Gone, host Catherine Townsend has received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that’s affected them, their families and their communities. 

In past seasons of the show, she’s only been able to focus on one case. But now, she’s hosting a new weekly show called Hell and Gone Murder Line. Every Thursday, Catherine features a new case, adds updates to old ones, and helps as much as she can to get the word out about unsolved murders. 

If you have a case you’d like Catherine and her team to look into, you can call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.

Hell and Gone

On June 10, 2006, 21-year-old Deidre Harm was headed to a night out with friends. She had a four-month-old daughter, Vegas, and had hired a babysitter to watch her. She and her friends went out downtown in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. And then, she never came home. She never called her babysitter. She simply disappeared. 
 
For months, Deirdre’s friends and family looked for her, sharing her missing poster all around town. But they found no trace of her. Police eventually began to believe that they were on the trail of a serial killer. The investigation spanned 19 years and several states - and focused on a man living a double life. A man who police believe is responsible for at least three murders, and there could be other victims out there. 
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145
 
Follow us: @hellandgonepod 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Christopher Revak

On Sunday June 17, 2024, Jay Slater, a 19-year-old bricklayer’s apprentice who lived in Lancashire, England was on his first ever foreign holiday. And he seemed to be having a blast. 
 
He had gone to the island of Tenerife in Spain with a female friend named Lucy and a guy named Brad. That night he and Lucy went out to a music festival called New Rave Generation. It was held at Papagayo Beach Club, along a strip called Veronica’s Strip that has a ton of nightclubs and neon signs.
 
It was there he met two British men and somehow they made a plan to go on to their Airbnb. 
 
The next morning, Lucy got one last frantic call from Jay just after 8 am, saying he was lost, didn’t know where he was, and was panicked. He never showed up again. 
 
So was Jay kidnapped and murdered, did he wander off into the wilderness or did something else happen to him? 
 
This case is wild. It has exposed the seedy underside of this island and the criminal underworld that are operating there, including drug lords and mobsters dubbed the timeshare killers. And everyone from police detectives to psychics and TikTok stars have descended on this tiny island in the Canaries to find a young man who was partying and vanished without a trace right in the middle of an island full of tourists.
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. 
 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jay Slater (Archive Episode)

On Monday September 30, 2004, 18-year-old college student Brittany Phillips was found dead in her apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was a student at Tulsa Community College, went to her evening chemistry class with her friend Lydia. 
 
She was found lying next to her bed. Clothing was found scattered all around her in a haphazard way, and the balcony doors to her second floor apartment were open. Investigators believed she had been dead for at least a couple of days. 
 
News reports said that she had been raped, and strangled, but he medical examiner’s report stated that there was no definitive evidence of sexual assault. 
 
What happened to Brittany Phillips? And could her killer already be behind bars, or is he still out roaming the streets? 
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Brittany Phillips Part 2

Hello, Disorganized Crime Listeners! We want to share a new show you might enjoy, Hell in Heaven: A Mysterious Death in Paradise
 
About the show: John and Ann Bender had hundreds of millions of dollars and one dream: to build a glittering glass mansion deep in the Costa Rican jungle. But paradise soon gave way to paranoia — with abduction plots, armed guards and a bedroom blazing with hundreds of Tiffany lamps. And then one night, it all ended in blood.
 
Hosted by award-winning journalist Becky Milligan, Hell in Heaven is an eight-part limited series from Blanchard House, Exactly Right Media and iHeart Podcasts.
 
Follow Hell in Heaven wherever you get your podcasts — and see rare photos from the story at @exactlyright on Instagram.
 
Listen here and subscribe to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing: Hell in Heaven: A Mysterious Death in Paradise

On Monday September 27, 2004, 18-year-old Brittany Phillips, a student at Tulsa Community College, drove home from campus with her friend Lydia. They just took a chemistry test, and Brittany was looking forward to hanging out and celebrating her nineteenth birthday, which was coming up on October 4. 
 
But then as the week rolled on, Lydia didn't hear from Brittany. And then, she noticed that Brittany didn’t show up for their next class on Wednesday. Lydia was unsure if she was overreacting, but her gut told her that something was wrong. 
 
She called in a welfare check, and when first responders and police arrived, they found Brittany’s body in the bedroom of her apartment. News reports said that she had been raped, and strangled. 
 
In the two decades since, ex-boyfriends and strangers have been questioned, sex offenders have been investigated, DNA swabs have been taken, but there are still no suspects. And the information that we found made me question if a lot of the “facts” that have been reported about this case are true at all. 
 
We’re going to be going back to the beginning and ask some fundamental questions. Could the timeline of Brittany’s murder be off by up to 48 hours? Was Brittany definitely raped? Was this the work of someone who knew her and staged the crime scene, or could it have been a serial killer? And could that person still be out there? 
 
And finally, could police have been on the wrong trail all this time?
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Brittany Phillips Part 1

This week, we continue with the disappearance of Jennifer Wix and her daughter Adrianna.
 
Could Jennifer have left voluntarily and started a new life? Could she have left with someone in that white car and then that person harmed her or Adrianna? 
 
Or, could, as the Wix family suspects, the answers lie closer to where Jennifer was last seen on or around the 100 acres owned by the Bentons?
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jennifer Wix Part 2

On March 25, 2004, 21-year-old Jennifer Wix was in crisis. 
 
Jennifer lived in Robertson County, Tennessee and was a single mother to her two-year-old daughter, Adrianna, who she adored. 
 
She and Adrianna had moved in with her boyfriend, William Joseph “Joey” Benton, and his parents, Cynthia and Franklin Joseph Benton, a few months before in December. 
 
But the situation at home was volatile - Before moving in with Joey’s family, Jennifer lived with her mother, Kathy Nale, and her younger half-sister, Casey Wix. 
 
Casey told us that Jennifer had been calling home and complaining that she wasn’t getting along with certain members of Joey’s family. So even though they were only hearing Jennifer’s side of the story, Casey and Jennifer’s mom were forming an impression of Joey, based on what Jennifer told them, that wasn’t great. 
 
Over the months, Casey says that the situation at the Benton home had become increasingly strained. 
 
Then on March 25, something happened. 
 
At some point during the day, Joey got a call at work and left suddenly, saying that he was going to deal with a situation at home. 
 
He told police that he picked up Jennifer and Adriana at home and that they went for a drive. During that drive, Joey claimed that he and Jennifer decided to end their relationship. After that, Joey told police that he stopped at a grocery store so that Jennifer could use the phone, and then he drove her and Adriana to a nearby gas station in Cross Plains. 
 
Joey said at that gas station, which he said was in Cross Plains, a town a few minutes away, Jennifer and Adrianna got into a vehicle, which he described as a white four door sedan. 
 
The two were never seen again.
 
But from the beginning Jennifer’s family was suspicious of this story. They say that they don’t believe that a young mom with a toddler would leave without any of her things and without ever calling her family. Also, they pointed out that Jennifer could have stayed with multiple family members who lived in the area. Why drive off with someone else? 
 
It’s been almost 20 years, and those years have been filled with rumors, several searches of a property, shifting stories about what really happened that day, a wrongful death lawsuit, and most recently, a severed body part connected to a family member were found in a creek. 
 
And yet no one has found any trace of Jennifer Wix or her daughter Adrianna.
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jennifer Wix Part 1

The morning of Friday May 25, 1979, started out like just another day for Julie Patz; her husband Stan, a photographer; and their children, eight-year-old Shira, six-year-old Etan and two-year-old Ari. 
 
It was a busy morning. Julie ran a daycare out of her Soho loft at 113 Prince Street in New York City, and she was getting her own kids ready for the day and at the same time, preparing for the influx of kids who would be arriving soon. 
 
Shira didn’t want to roll out of bed, but Etan, who his family described as a sweet, loving and friendly boy, was excited to start the school day. 
 
Six-year-old Etan asked his mom if he could walk the two short blocks to the school bus stop alone - for the very first time. 
 
Since it was the last few weeks of the school year, his mom said that would be okay. 
 
Etan had a plan. He had a dollar in his pocket, which a neighborhood handyman had given him the day before when Etan helped him in his workshop. Etan was going to stop at the corner bodega at Prince and West Broadway, and buy a soda before getting on the bus. 
 
Julie walked Etan downstairs, and as she watched him walk down the street before going back upstairs, she told herself that it was only two blocks. 
 
That was the last time that Julie ever saw her son. 
 
This case became a huge story not just in New York but in the entire country. Etan Patz became the literal poster child for missing children, and Julie and her husband Stan were the living embodiment of every parent’s worst nightmare. What if your child disappeared one day, and you never found out what really happened to them? 
 
Forty-six years later, this case is still active. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Etan Patz

On August 24, 2012, a Vietnam veteran who had been staying at the Lake Lanier Club Apartments off Dawsonville Highway in Gainesville, Georgia with his daughter and grandchildren, was taking a walk through the woods behind the complex. The man liked taking nature walks, and he was also following up on a report that he had made to the apartment management about a missing manhole cover. He later told police that he wanted to see if it had been replaced yet. 
 
It was around 7:30 pm in the evening, and still almost full daylight, and when the man paused near a stream bed, he saw something disturbing...something that he at first thought was a mannequin. Upon closer inspection, he realized that he was looking at a dead body. He called 911 and told them that a young lady, about 18 or 19 years old, was dead and looked like she had been dead for two or three days. 
 
The young woman was 16-year-old Hannah Truelove, a student at Gainesville High School. She had been missing since the night before. And even though her exact cause of death has not been revealed, police said she died a “violent death." She had been stabbed multiple times and left in the stream bed a quarter mile away from home; her flip flop was found a few yards away, tangled in some branches. 
 
Who killed Hannah Truelove?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Hannah Truelove

At 1:40 AM on Saturday, September 28, 1974, police got a call about a traffic accident on State Highway 77 in Crittenden County Arkansas, three miles north of the Lake David Overpass. When they got there they found a 1964 Chevrolet which was stopped in the southbound lane of the highway. 
 
Near the abandoned car in a ditch, they found the body of 35-year-old Fred New Jr., a married father of three who worked the night shift at a local trucking company. Fred had been shot, three times, at very close range, with a shotgun. He had been shot in the neck, the side and the elbow. 
 
His shoes and socks had been removed and he had no identification. His pockets were turned out and the money he had on him which according to his wife was around $200, had been stolen. There was blood in the front of the car. Fred was lying in a pool of blood near the back of the vehicle - so either his killer or killers threw him out of the car, or he stumbled out after being shot and his killer fired the final shot or shots outside the car. 
 
Police got the call about Fred’s car after another driver ran into it, as it was stalled on the highway. But that driver fled the scene. And then, near where Fred’s body was found, police learned that a local gas station had been robbed. So they had a robbery, a hit-and-run, and a brutal execution style murder - all in the same night in the same small town.
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Fred New Jr.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been covering two cases in Arkansas: the murder of Gail Vaught, whose body was found on March 17, 1980, and Dennis Flowers.
 
Police believe that Dennis was responsible for the execution style murders of Lee Dickson, a pharmacist who had become addicted to cocaine and started dealing it with Dennis, and Lee’s wife Karen Dickson who was eight months pregnant. A few days after the brutal double homicide, Dennis’ body was found under extremely mysterious circumstances, cause of death was listed as drowning in less than three feet of water and his manner death was ruled suicide. 
 
One of the questions that have come up in these cases and so many others is were these crime scenes as they appeared to be, or could they have been staged?
 
This week Catherine Townsend speaks with investigator Arthur Steve Chancellor. who runs a company called Second Look Training and Forensic Consulting that provides investigative and forensic case consultation and training.You can find the company online at secondlooktraining.com or reach them at 919 360 3518. 
 
If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.
 
 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Interview with Crime Scene Expert

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