Shows
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime PodcastSOUNDS LIKE MORGAN HARRINGTON AND HANNAH GRAHAM WOULD NOT LET JESSE MATTHEW RUNThere are stories of famous people working on behalf of victims who were fans or friends. But James Hetfield and Metallica went after the predator of Morgan Harrington and other women, with their teeth bared. Morgan and Hannah Graham, a University of Virginia student went missing and their cases were linked by the horror of Jesse Leroy Matthew, Jr. Morgan, Hannah, Metallica and a Tip-Ster from Texas helped Law Enforcement find and arrest this monster who should have never been allowed on the street after numerous assaults in the past. Hear their stories here. H...
2024-05-2253 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime PodcastSOUNDS LIKE CARRIE CULBERSON THOUGHT SHE COULD LOVE EVEN HIMWhen we are young we sometimes believe our love can change or save someone. That very rarely happens. This is one of the more heart breaking cases I have heard. The most dangerous time for victims of domestic violence are when they make a decision to leave the abuser. It feels like this is what may have happened. The layers of this case with the strange interacations of multiple murders is just one part of the heart break. Hear Carrie's story here. Host-Melissa Morgan Co-Host - Joshua Bevan Editor - Matthew Kelly
2024-04-1156 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime PodcastTASTES LIKE JENNY SUE ILES IS STILL WAITINGWhen 7 year old Jenny Sue lles walked down her street to a friends house and never returned the city of Covington, Kentucky was turned upside down trying to locate her. Ten days later she was discovered on the second story of an abandoned house by someone collection alluminum. A suspect was arrested, indicted and convicted but that was overturned a short two years later. Jenny's case should not remained unsolved. If you know anything about this 1989 abduction, rape and murder of a 7 year old girl please contact the Covington PD 859-292-2222 Co-Host Joshua Bevan
2023-08-0840 minJust The Tip-Sters: True Crime PodcastFEELS LIKE MELISSA VS JOSHUA SMACKDOWN ON WHY WOMEN LOVE TRUE CRIMEIt all started with Joshua sent Melissa a meme. And a discussion ensued. Why do YOU think women consume true crime? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
2022-10-1538 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast208. Looks Like It's Good To Volunteer - The Missing Persons Cases Of Dane Elkins, John Stivers And Ron BrownOver the course of these first three-and-a-half seasons of this podcast, Melissa has been presented with a wide array of missing persons cases from Tip-Sters from around the world. Melissa has followed up, done her research, and presented many of them as episodes. The inspiration for “Just The Tip-Sters” itself was inspired by Melissa’s deep devotion to solving the 2017 disappearance of Will Cierzan – an ongoing mission that could be culminating soon with the trial of Will’s nephew Daniel. But hovering over every such case are questions – about the nature of the case itself – and how to actually help when help is...
2021-09-071h 00
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast207. Looks Like A Murderous Conundrum - Paul Kordenbrock, Sirhan Sirhan And The Puzzle Of Sentencing ReformIn this episode Melissa tackles the complex moral, ethical and practical aspects of sentencing reform – in particular the parole of those who have committed heinous murders – and the answers aren’t easy to come by. The focus begins with the murder of three innocent workers in Northern Kentucky in January 1980, when then 24 year-old Paul Kordenbrock and his accomplice Michael Kruse entered a Western Auto store in the town of Florence, stole a cache of firearms, then Kordenbrock shot Stanley Allen and store owner William Thompson in their heads while they laid on the floor. Allen died and Allen survived. Just 15 hou...
2021-08-3148 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast205. Looks Like Facts Over Rumors - Randy Sellers Update With Special Guest Concerned Citizen "Jeremy"This episode brings the first of what will be two updates on the ever-growingly infamous Randy Sellers case out of Kenton County Kentucky. It was at the County Fair in 1980 when 17 year-old Randy Sellers, after some rowdy behavior, was ostensibly driven home by Kenton County Police, who claimed they dropped Sellers off close to his home – only to have him go missing…forever. Melissa and the podcast have developed a keen interest in this case , and Melissa’s saga with the case, involving everything from misinformation, a possibly corrupt police agency and even a phone call with the FBI. If you hav...
2021-08-171h 17
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast204. Looks Like Melissa Witt Has A Champion - With Special Guest LaDonna HumphreyOn the morning of December 1, 1994, Melissa Witt (her friends and family called her “Missy”) had a small tiff with her mom over money. The 19 year-old college student, who was studying to become a dental hygienist at a local college, was out of cash, and she wouldn’t get paid at her part-time job until the next day. When she asked her mom for a loan, mom – in a lesson to her daughter about money management – told her no. And young Missy was not happy. She left to start her day in a huff. When Missy got home later in the day, she fou...
2021-08-101h 18
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast201. Looks Like A Ghost On Video - Leah Rowlands And Her Killer Who No One KnowsOne unseasonably cool (as opposed to freezing) late winter morning on March 10, 1997, at a small travel stop gas station and convenience store right off Interstate 80 in Cozad, a tiny farming community in the heart of Nebraska, a late model Pontiac Grand Am pulled into the parking lot and up to the pumps. Inside the store, 41 year-old Leah Rowlands was behind the counter on her very first day in her new role as manager – her hard work and happy attitude had earned her that position after just a few months. The divorced mother of two was finally getting her life back i...
2021-07-2055 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast194. Looks Like Ten Years Is Too Long - Stephenson Murders Update With Special Guest Det. Coy CoxTen years is a long time no matter how you look at it. But for the Stephenson family of Northern Kentucky, ten years is just simply too long. Because that’s how long it’s been since their family patriarch and matriarch Bill and Peggy Stephenson were murdered – brutally – in their Florence Kentucky townhome on Memorial Day weekend in 2011. And the devoted minister and his wife – both beloved members of the community known for their kindness and generosity – were killed in a most unusual – evil way. The killer (or killers) murdered the Stephensons late at night – and took their time. They not only...
2021-06-0158 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast192. Looks Like All Angels Go To Heaven - Judith Barsi's Sad FarewellTen year-old Judith Barsi was a bona fide, in-demand child actor in the 1980s. Between her fifth and tenth birthdays she appeared in 72 commercials and dozens of television movies and series. And her acting abilities and professional demeanor, even at such a young age, made it clear to everyone who worked with her that young Judith was destined for even greater things as she grew up. Sadly, Judith’s life ended not even one month past her tenth birthday. And the circumstances were nothing short of tragic. The only child of Maria and Joseph – immigrant parents who came to the United...
2021-05-1850 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast191. Looks Like Murder Without A Motive - The Illogical Tragedy Of Bonnie NeighborsThe holiday season was in full bloom in the small North Carolina town of Benson on Thursday December 14, 1972 when 33 year old Bonnie Neighbors was planning to pick up her oldest son Ken from school, taking her three-month old baby boy Glenn along with her. A witness even saw Bonnie’s car leave her driveway that afternoon – although, strangely, she seemed to be driving erratically and at a high rate of speed – and in the opposite direction of Ken’s school. When Bonnie’s husband (Ken, Senior) got a call from young Ken’s school telling him that no one had come to pic...
2021-05-1158 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast189. Looks Like It Wasn't Xenu - The Murders Of Penelope Edwards And Troy DunnPenelope Edwards had all but put her life back together in March 2012. After years of struggling with addiction and psychological problems – so bad that she had turned temporary custody of her two children over to her sister Gloria – Penelope was now sober, working through therapy, had her children back and even had a new boyfriend – Troy Dunn. By all accounts, Penelope, Troy and the two kids were living a happy life in Prescott Valley Arizona. But on March 16, 2012, evil visited that happy home – when Kenneth Thompson, the husband of Penelope’s sister Gloria – after driving 25 miles from his home in Missouri, took...
2021-04-271h 04
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast188. Looks Like It's Good To Be Kind - Vaccines, Nasty Notes And The Unkind Murders Of Gail Moody And Lori ArrowoodThis time around we have what a 1980s television marketing whiz would call a “Very Special Episode” of the podcast. And that’s because what is normally the intro is actually half the show – and there’s an important reason why. It’s because Melissa has had some things she’s been wanting to say for a while about kindness – being nice – and those things came to the fore this past week in the form of vaccine side effects and a particularly icky email she received from a clearly unhappy person. So in addition to the usual than-yous (and a dynamite discussio...
2021-04-2051 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast187. Looks Like An Ambush At The ATM - Matthew Chase's Final DepositMatthew Chase was just like a lot of young artists who move to Los Angeles to seek out their creative development and success. Back in 1988, then 22 year-old Matthew and his friends, brother-and-sister Steve and Teresa Dahl, were living together after all moving from their childhood homes near Medford Oregon. And – again, like so many other young transplants to Southern California, Matthew, Steve and Teresa moved into one of the grittier parts of Los Angeles, in the heart of the big city, not fully aware of just how “gritty” gritty really meant. As in: At the time, Los Angeles was plagued by o...
2021-04-1352 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast183. Looks Like Murder By The Side Of The Road - Finding Justice For Veronica Estrada - With Special Guest Ken LewisThis week we focus on a murder from December 1993 that occurred literally less than a five-minute drive from the Homestead Studios – although long before Melissa and Producer Mark moved there. The victim was a beautiful and accomplished 29 year-old martial arts instructor and black belt named Veronica Estrada, who left the studio where she was an instructor and, having had an argument with her boyfriend, decided to walk home instead of having him pick her up. The next morning, after no one had heard from Veronica, the owner of the studio, Ken Lewis, and another instructor at the studio named Stuart...
2021-03-161h 18
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast182. Looks Like Terry Meador Lost His Way - With Special Guest Detective Matt WhartonThis week Melissa’s special guest is the engaging (and really nice guy) Detective Matt Wharton from the Sweetwater County Wyoming Sheriff’s Office. It’s definitely Big Country in Wyoming, and Sweetwater County is big indeed – the 8th largest county by land in the United States – with miles and miles of rugged beauty – and winters that are not advisable to take on alone unless you know what you’re doing and know your bearings. And even then, you can get lost…which is exactly what appears to have happened to 74 year-old Terry Meador one cold day in October 2018, when he went lookin...
2021-03-091h 13
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast181. MURDERTIZER - Looks Like An Unassuming Interview - Melissa Chats With Dave KimballHey Tip-Sters! Surprise!!! We have a special between-regular-episodes MURDERTIZER (an appetizer of murder)! Last week Melissa appeared as a guest on a terrific podcast – the Don’t Assume Podcast hosted by Dave Kimball – a truly interesting and interesting guy who hosts people from all over the country from a wide array of professions and backgrounds and challenges his listeners to not assume they know what they think they know about those backgrounds and professions. Naturally, who better for Dave to discuss true crime podcasts with than our own Melissa? Enjoy this wonderful chat where you’ll have a chance to hear Melissa...
2021-03-0448 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast178. Looks Like Unrelated But The Same - Louise Paciarello And The Ladies Of BrownsvilleSometimes when researching a case, Melissa discovers threads that lead her in multiple directions. Every once in a while one of those threads leads to a clue in the case she’s investigating. But other times, they lead to cases clearly unrelated – but eerily similar – to the matter at hand. This week’s episode brings together two such cases. The cold case Melissa started researching involves the mysterious – actually downright strange – 2007 death of 78 year-old Louise Paciarello, a retired nurse’s aide who was a beloved neighbor and friend in her Yonkers, New York building and surrounding neighborhood. Tiny, frail and lovely, Louise by...
2021-02-1644 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast176. Looks Like A Spinoff Into Tragedy - The Senseless Murder Of Barbara ColbyThis week’s sad and (like most unsolved cases) totally frustrating case was discovered when Producer Mark read a bio of Academy Award and Emmy-winning actress Cloris Leachman upon her recent passing. In the article, a fascinating side note about the show “Phyllis,” a spinoff of the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” (which starred Leachman as the title character) mentioned that the spinoff lasted only two seasons, and part of the reason it didn’t continue was because of the deaths of three of its cast members, one of which, Barbara Colby, was murdered after only three episodes of the show had been...
2021-02-0252 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast175. Looks Like A Puzzle Waiting For Its Missing Piece - The Otha Young Jr. Mystery - With Special Guest Virginia BradenOn October 10 1996, a 65 year-old retired eyeglass maker named Otha Young, Jr., who had been admitted to a hospital in his hometown of Louisville Kentucky for a medical episode related to his Alzheimer’s - against the advice of the attending physicians and staff – checked himself out of the hospital, got in his car and headed north on Interstate 75. Along the way he was stopped by law enforcement and issued a traffic citation, and because he was driving without a license, the car was left on the side of the road and Young checked in to a Best Western hotel near t...
2021-01-261h 19
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast174. Looks Like Murder Made For Hollywood - Mabel Monohan And Barbara GrahamThis week Melissa jumps into the Tip-Ster Wayback machine and journeys to the rough-and tumble era of 1950s Los Angeles, where corruption ran rampant, the mob still held sway, mean jamokes with ill intent lurked in the shadows –and where Hollywood influenced everything from clothing to language to the very news being home-delivered every day. And right near the outset of that turbulent era – on March 9, 1953 – one of the decade’s most sensationalized murders took place on a quiet street in a tidy bungalow in suburban Burbank. There, in the shadow of the recently relocated Warner Bros and Walt Disney film...
2021-01-191h 01
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast172. SPECIAL: Smells Like An Incognito InterviewAs a between-season special, we thought we’d pass along this delightful interview with Melissa from last week when she visited the YouTube Live channel for The Incognito Society and its host, Elizabeth. In the interview, Melissa shares a lot about herself, her podcast, the relationship between podcasts and law enforcement, as well as a number of cases, including the vexing Delphi Murders out of Indiana, where Elizabeth and her channel are based, and upon which The Incognito Society and its followers focus much of their time searching for clues. We want to thank Elizabeth for allowing us to share...
2021-01-051h 18
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast171. Smells Like 18 Years Is Too Long To Wait - The Wideman Family MurdersMelissa wraps up Season 3 of the podcast with the tale of an horrific “family annihilator” mass murder from 2002 and the mysterious 18 year delay it took to bring a suspect to justice...mysterious because, right from the very beginning, all signs pointed – with big bright shiny, glowing arrows – to Jason Michael Walker, who was finally arrested on December 2, 2020 after nearly two decades following the murders in question. And those murders were as grotesque and incomprehensible as they come. On March 22, 2002, at approximately 3 a.m. local time, authorities were called to a burning house in the tiny town of Rebecca, Georgia. Inside the ru...
2020-12-2952 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast170. Smells Like Flim Flam Namaste - Buddhafield And The Attraction Of CultsOn this special episode, Melissa explores the phenomenon of outlier religious or alternative followings – otherwise known as cults. At the center of this fascinating discussion, Melissa focuses on the still-operating community known as Buddhafield – currently situated in Hawaii. The cult is the subject of the 2016 documentary “Holy Hell,” which was made by former cult member Will Allen, with footage taken mostly from his years as the Buddahfield’s official documentarian. Started in the 1980s by an out-of-work actor named Jaime Gomez (who soon thereafter changed his name to “Michel, Andreas, The Teacher or Reyji”) as a sort of hybrid of Eastern and Weste...
2020-12-221h 02
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast169. Smells Like A Lifting Fog - The Cheryll Spegal Case With Special Guest Beth RowlandOn October 19, 1971, ten year-old Cheryll Spegall was last seen running to catch the bus to school near her home in Highland Heights, Kentucky. No one saw her after that. No one, that is, except her murderer. Whoever that person is (or was), he has never been caught. Not yet, that is. Cheryll’s lifeless body was found nearly two weeks later, buried under a pile of rocks in a remote area in neighboring Pendleton County, by a milk truck driver who just happened to pull over at that particular spot on the way to his last stop. While Cheryll’s family and...
2020-12-151h 18
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast166. Smells Like Crystal Rogers And Will Cierzan UpdatesThis Thanksgiving week Melissa updates a couple of unsolved missing person cases – one we’ve not yet covered but which has been covered extensively and one we’ve covered extensively and almost no one else has…and as with all unsolved cases, it’s a mixed bag. The first update has to do with the 2015 disappearance of Crystal Rogers, the then 35 year-old mother of five from Bardstown Kentucky who went missing during the Independence Day holiday. The last person to see Crystal was her live-in boyfriend, Brooks Houck, who claims that Crystal was playing video games on her phone when he went t...
2020-11-2455 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast165. Smells Like An Exorcism Of Logic - Paul Bateson, Addison Verrill And The Six UnknownsYou wanna hear a really creepy ghost story? Well…actually…a really creepy satanic possession story…or something? Try this on for size: Guy gets really good at his job. So good that he’s given a cameo doing his job in one of the biggest horror movies of the century. A movie whose set became legendary for weird accidents, injuries, fires – even deaths! – during its making…and a few years later, same guy gets arrested for knocking his gay hook-up over the head with a frying pan and then stabbing him to death…and to top it off, same guy seems to be...
2020-11-1754 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast162. Smells Like: Who Would Do This To Big Tom Biedenharn?This episode takes us back to the Tri-State area (the Cincinnati Metro Area), where Episode 147 took us in an overview of the Bill and Peggy Stephenson murder investigation out of Kenton County Kentucky. The Stephensons were murdered in their townhome on a quiet suburban street over Memorial Day weekend in 2011 under strange circumstances. Across the other side of the Ohio River, to the northwest and about half an hour’s drive from the Stephenson residence, sits Hidden Valley Indiana, where in 2018, 73 year-old Tom Biedenharn (known to friends and neighbors as “Big Tom” because of his imposing physical size at 6-feet-7-i...
2020-10-271h 13
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast161. Smells Like Multiple Updates - Tanqueray And Scott PetersonThis week’s episode updates two podcasts from the first season of JTT – Episode 16, which focused on the weird death of Vicki Morgan, who had been a sort of paid mistress to Alfred Bloomingdale and (sometimes) his high powered friends – and Episode 19, which told the tale of Grade A Asshole Scott Peterson – who may or may not have murdered his wife Laci and the couple’s unborn son back in 2002. The Vicki Morgan case took a fascinating turn over the course of this year when photographer, writer and blogger Brandon Stanton began filling the pages of his Humans of New York blo...
2020-10-2043 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast160. Smells Like The Eyes Of A Hurricane - How Katrina Found DanaThis week’s episode is the third in a row wherein Melissa looks at a case revolving around a state of emergency – the first two are still technically unsolved – this one is solved but every bit as fascinating. Dana Marie Surette Pastori, who was known as "Polly" to her friends and to her customers at the Bourbon Street restaurant in New Orleans where she last worked in 2002, had lived a turbulent life. Divorced from her first husband and estranged from her two daughters by the courts after she had taken them to Puerto Rico to spare them from poor treatment...
2020-10-1347 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast159. Smells Like A Staged Disappearance - No Justice For Michele HarrisLast week’s episode concerning the disappearance of Sneha Philip right on the cusp of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11/2001 got Melissa to thinking about other cases revolving around major national emergency events. And so this week’s episode is about someone else whose disappearance – this one occurring just the day after 9/11 – is still a mystery and whose killer has never been convicted – although the authorities thought for sure they had identified that person…and arrested him…and tried him…FOUR TIMES… Michele Harris was splitting with her husband, Calvin (“Cal”) Harris, and the split was not going well. Both living togethe...
2020-10-0652 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast156. Smells Like 1881 In 1981 - Ken Rex McElroy And The Vengeance Of A Small TownIf you’ve never experienced small town life, it’ll be almost impossible to comprehend the now-infamous tale of tiny Skidmore Missouri and the day nearly forty years ago that forever changed it. That day – July 10, 1981 – was the day 47 year-old Ken Rex McElroy was gunned down in cold blood, in a hail of gunfire, in broad daylight while sitting in his truck alongside his wife, on Skidmore’s Main Street, with several dozen of its citizens surrounding the truck. And yet, almost four decades after the fact, not a soul has admitted to seeing what happened. How does this happen? How doe...
2020-09-221h 01
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast155. Smells Like Tragic Attraction - The Scorecard Killer Part TwoWhat makes a prolific serial killer like Randy Kraft – who authorities say brutalized, sexually assaulted and mutilated at least 61 (and almost certainly more unknown) young men in Southern California, Oregon and Michigan in the 1970s and early 1908s – prolific? How is it possible for such a large number of victims to fall prey to someone who is inarguably a monster? The answer appears to be that the best monsters know how to transform their image so that they appear as the exact opposite – as genuine, good people. And that is a terrifying thing to realize. In this, the second of two parts...
2020-09-1549 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast153. Smells Like A Possible Serial Victim - The 1978 Long Beach John DoeIt’s the big Tuesday after the Big Thursday of last week, when our gal got her first taste of TV fame in her home town of Cincinnati – and it’s time to get back to the business at hand with a brand new episode...In June of 1978 the body of a young man – aged 15 to 19 years old – was discovered face down on a back street/alley/parking lot in Long Beach, California. He was well dressed. His body appeared to be healthy – there were no drugs found in his system. There were no signs of sexual assault. He had been strangle...
2020-09-0149 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast152. Smells Like The Pathology Of Pathology - With Special Guests Drs. Nicole Croom And Jordan TaylorEven though Nicole Croom (originally from Stockton California) and Jordan Taylor (originally from Waterbury Connecticut) grew up 3,000 miles apart from each other, both of the two young women found themselves fascinated with pathology – specifically forensic pathology – you know: the science of cutting into dead bodies to see what’s what. As it happens both Nicole and Jordan found themselves first year pathology residents at the University of California at San Francisco – where, at a mixer held for all pathology interns, they discovered they had even more in common than just their love of forensic pathology and became fast friends. Both huge fa...
2020-08-251h 05
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast151. Smells Like The Truth Is Out There - Randy Sellers Update40 years ago this past weekend, on August 16, 1980, 17 year-old Randy Sellers went to the Kenton County, Kentucky Fair to meet with friends and hang out. Sometime during the evening, he had too much to drink, got into a fight, took a swing at one of the policemen who responded to the scene and was eventually taken away in a squad car. He has not been seen or heard from since. In early 2019, on Episode 69 of Just The Tip-Sters, Melissa interviewed the detective then assigned to the case. Then earlier this year on Episode 121, Melissa revealed the wild series of events that...
2020-08-1845 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast150. Smells Like A Warning Sign - Animal Cruelty, John Thompson And The Krystal Scott Case57 years ago psychiatrist J.M. Macdonald wrote a paper published in The American Journal of Psychiatry entitled "The Threat to Kill," in which he proposed that there is a link between three childhood behaviors - persistent bed-wetting past the age of 5, an obsession with fire and fire-starting, and cruelty to animals - and violent behavior, most notably homicidal and sexually predatory behavior. This formula for criminal behavior has come to be known as The Macdonald Triad, and while the theory is still debated by criminologists and criminal psychologists to this day, statistics over time have tended to bear out it...
2020-08-1141 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast149. MURDERTIZER - Smells Like Progress - Will Cierzan UpdateOne of the very reasons this podcast got started nearly three years ago was that Melissa became involved with her local community in searching for a man who seemingly disappeared into thin air back in 2017. As far as Linda Cierzan knew, her husband, Will Cierzan was at home making dinner on the evening of January 26, 2017. But when she entered the house upon returning from work, a chicken was sitting out of the oven, Will’s personal belongings (including his wallet and keys) were out in the open and Will was nowhere to be found. Melissa covered this case in Episodes...
2020-08-0926 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast148. Smells Like Rotten Excusers And True Crime AbusersOn this episode Melissa gets real about a couple of true crime-related issues - one about those delightful folks who use (far too) easy racism as a way to excuse or further their awful or simply stupid deeds - and the other involving the very nature of the True Crime genre itself. We start off with a silly story from a detective contact Melissa converses with from time to time - involving a car, a gun, an alleged carjacking, a bullet hole in a...er...um...very personal part of the male anatomy - and a "victim" who isn't r...
2020-08-041h 03
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast147. Smells Like A Gruesome Puzzle - The Stephenson Murders - With Special Guest Detective Coy CoxJust across the Ohio River and a few miles south of downtown Cincinnati lies the quiet suburban community of Florence, Kentucky. It was there, in an average condominium on a quiet residential street in the community of Oakbrook, on Memorial Day weekend, when Bill and Peggy Stephenson were brutally murdered in the early morning hours of May 29, 2011. And they were murdered for reasons - and by people - no one has yet been able to determine. Unsolved murders are, unfortunately, not a rarity - but it isn't often that an unsolved case is simultaneously so disturbing and so puzzling as...
2020-07-281h 11
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast146. Smells Like Adventure In Grand Theft Auto - With Special Guest Vic FerrariSometimes the life of a cop can be filled with danger and even terror. Sometimes with grief none but those wearing Blue can even begin to comprehend. But a police officer's day is also filled with a never-ending parade of examples of the weirdness and wonder of the human species - and oftentimes those examples can be amazing in their complexity and/or rife with outrageous (and sometimes gruesome) hilarity. So goes the second career of retired 20-year NYPD veteran Vic Ferrari, who has spent his post-police life writing books about his life in law enforcement - such tomes as...
2020-07-2150 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast145. Smells Like Mass Murder Times Two - The Limb Collector (Baton Rouge Serial Killers - Part Four)In this episode, the last of a four-part series on what came to be known as the "Baton Rouge Serial Killers," we meet Sean Vincent Gillis - the "other" of the two evil men who rained terror upon women in South Louisiana in the late 90s and early 2000s. The "original" killer, whom Melissa dubbed "The Key Collector" (because of his penchant for keeping victims' keychains as souvenirs) was Derrick Todd Lee, whose murders, arrest, conviction and death while awaiting execution were chronicled in the first three parts of the series. Gillis was arrested for the rape, murder and mu...
2020-07-1400 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast144. Smells Like Somebody Should Have Listened - The Key Collector Part Three - With Special Guest Chief David McDavidWhen you're a veteran cop in a small town, with a deep knowledge of your community and the bad guys in it - and you're smart and everyone knows it...well...you'd think that when a serial killer is loose in your backyard and your years of experience with, and detailed documentation about, one bad guy in particular points as clearly to that bad guy as being said serial killer - you'd think the eggheads and profilers and federal law enforcement hoo-hahs in charge of the case would pay attention to your evidence and perhaps look into that bad...
2020-07-071h 16
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast141. MURDERTIZER - Smells Like A Mid-June RoundupSometimes there's just too much to talk about at the top of a podcast without getting in the way of the episode's main subject matter. And so far this June, there are three separate cases that Melissa would have mentioned at the top of JUST THE TIP-STERS if they had happened at different times - but they all converged at once! All three are cases that Melissa isn't planning on doing an episode on - not just yet anyway - two of them are new and one of them is a well-known existing case with stirring new developments. So ins...
2020-06-2148 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast136. Smells Like A Flat Out Cover-Up - The Non-Suicide Of LaVena JohnsonIn one of the most rage-inducing cases she's covered so far, Melissa investigates the outrageous circumstances surrounding the official suicide of U.S. Army PFC LaVena Johnson while stationed at the Balad Air Base in Iraq in July 2005, just eight days shy of here 20th birthday. And we put the emphasis on "official" because the "official" position of the Army is...well..."suspect" is the kindest word we can think of. It took LaVena's family a lot of time, effort and connections to even see photos of the scene where the military insists the beautiful native Missourian set her ha...
2020-05-1956 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast128. Smells Like More Than Just The Dogs Got Rescued - With Special Guest Jon GrobmanHere's a major change of pace to bring a little springtime to your soul in this weird winter of our discontent - a stirring story of human redemption through the beauty of giving to, and caring for, other living beings - which, in turn, redeems and restores the lives of humans who find in themselves in the most dire of circumstances. Jon Grobman, in his own estimation, was not a good person in 2005 when he was sentenced to six separate 25 years-to-life terms plus 40 years in prison (that's a total of 190 years-to-life if you're counting), all for repeat non-violent offenses. Face...
2020-03-2456 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast126. Smells Like Sending Barbara Ann Home - With Special Guest Todd MatthewsYou may recall, dear Tip-Ster, way back in Episode 8, when Melissa recalled the tragic-yet-amazing story of "Tent Girl," a young woman whose body was found wrapped in a canvas designed to wrap circus tents, on the side of a road near Georgetown Kentucky in May 1968. Tent Girl's story is remarkable for two reasons. The first remarkable fact is that after a couple of years of trying everything that could be tried to learn Tent Girl's identity to no avail, the tiny town of Georgetown essentially adopted her as its own - even paying for her burial and a stunningly bea...
2020-03-101h 01
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast124. Smells Like Injustice In Fort Collins - The Peggy Hettrick Murder - With Special Guest Scott HowardIn the cold early morning hours of February 11, 1987, 37 year-old Peggy Hettrick left the Prime Minister nightclub in Fort Collins, Colorado, heading across the street to an open field, toward her ex-boyfriend's apartment on the other side of the field, where she hoped to get some shelter until she could get back into her own apartment, for which she had lost her key. As the sun rose a few hours later, a passing bicycle rider saw what looked to be almost a posed mannequin lying in the field - but when he noticed blood running into the street, he called t...
2020-02-2554 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast123. Smells Like The U.S. Marshals Got Peter ChadwickMelissa was lucky enough to be in beautiful Laguna Beach, California a couple of weeks ago,when a longtime friend of the show - "Detective Joe," a law enforcement officer who spent some serious time on loan to the U.S. Marshals, was able to drop by for a chat. And what a chat it is! You see,Detective Joe was attached to the U.S. Marshals unit that tracked down and finally caught suspected serial killer (and the world's lousiest alibi storyteller) Peter Chadwick,who spent nearly five years on the run after skipping bail in 2015. The Chadwick cas...
2020-02-181h 16
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast121. Smells Like B.S. In The Hog Pen - Randy Sellers, Melissa And The FBIIn 2019 Melissa covered the 1980 missing person case of 17 year-old Randy Sellers, who disappeared after attending the Kenton County (Kentucky) Fair, becoming drunk and disorderly and after taking a swing at one of the Sheriff's Deputies sent to deal with him. He was last seen in the company of four officers, who claimed to have dropped him off a mile from his home so he could avoid getting in trouble with his parents. Uh huh. Well. Let's just say that Randy Sellers never made it home. Or anywhere else. Since the original "Just The Tip-Sters" episode on this case, Melissa had th...
2020-02-0449 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast120. Smells Like Six Minutes And Gone - The Will Cierzan Case Three Years LaterThis is the case that inspired Melissa to start this very podcast. As she has since the first January of "Just The Tip-Sters," Melissa recaps and updates the "shouldn't-be-a" cold case of Will Cierzan, a regular guy living a simple life with the love of his life in the Southern California suburb of Santa Clarita - whose wife came home from work one early evening in January 2017 to find dinner sitting on the counter, Will's wallet and keys out in the open - and her husband - gone. Disappeared. Seemingly without a trace. Over the next days and months, as h...
2020-01-281h 02
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast110. Sounds Like Fighting Fear - Saugus High School And Simon Kenton High SchoolIn the aftermath of the horrific shooting deaths of two innocent high school students on November 14, 2019 - and the suicide of the shooter - in our home town of Santa Clarita, Melissa examines the facts known to date about this tragic incident and celebrates the hero first responders who ran toward the sound of gunshots. And in a moving dialogue on the causes and lifelong effects of such an event on the young people at the school that day, Melissa reminisces about a tragedy that happened 39 years ago when she was a Junior at Simon Kenton High School in N...
2019-11-1956 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast109. Sounds Like A Tough Way To Break Out Of Jail - The Multiple Lives Of Benjamin SchreiberWhen you kill someone and you're sentenced to prison "for the rest of your natural life," without the possibility of parole, you're done. Finished. Kaput. No more freedom for you, ever. Right? Right. Except. What does the "your natural life" mean, exactly? Especially when we live in an age where technology can actually revive someone who has literally died for a few seconds? And how does that phrase apply in the ostensibly cold, harsh light of legal interpretation? Enter one Benjamin Schreiber, a nasty fellow who was convicted of a brutal murder and was sentenced to spend the rest of his lif...
2019-11-1236 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast107. Sounds Like Anybody Coulda Dunnit - The Dumler-Wilson Murders - With Special Guest Detective Kellyanne BestOctober 1969. Nighttime in a quiet, leafy upscale suburban neighborhood in one of Cincinnati's toniest conclaves. A young couple with two young children, and the wife's mother, all presumably asleep inside. Except when the kids wake up the next morning and go to the neighbors to say they can't rouse mom and dad, what the neighbors find is simply horrific: The stabbed and shot bodies of Martin Dumler, age 29, his wife Patricia, age 27 and Patricia's 50 year-old mother, Mary Wilson. Looks like the young couple may have been tortured - but impossible to be sure. Looks like Mary just happened to be in...
2019-10-291h 08
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast103. Sounds Like A Real Pussycat - Lawrence Tierney Followup With Special Guest Cynthia HawkinsBack a few episodes ago (JTT Episode 98 to be precise) Melissa covered the puzzling 1963 murder of young Hollywood actress Karyn Kupcinet. Karyn's killer has never been identified, but her demise was surrounded in a shroud of weirdness, including a tie to the JFK assassination and a possible link to a tough guy matinee idol named Lawrence Tierney, who, Melissa was once told by a colleague of Tierney's, coulda just mighta well y'know maybe sorta was involved in the Kupcinet case...Fast forward to a few weeks later, when Melissa got a call from her friend - writer and witness C...
2019-10-0152 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast100. Sounds Like Tragedy On The Interstate - The Carrollton Bus CrashIt's the 100th episode of "Just The Tip-Sters" - and Melissa marks the occasion with a tragic story from her home state of Kentucky - in honor of those who perished and in celebration of the positive strides, both culturally and in the law, that sprang forth after that terrible day. On May 14, 1988, a converted school bus carrying 63 (mostly) young teenagers and four adults (including the bus driver) left the Assembly of God church in Radcliff, Kentucky to spend the day at the King's Island amusement park in Ohio. That night, on the way home, just south of the tow...
2019-09-101h 02
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast95. MURDERTIZER - Sounds Like Extradition - Peter Chadwick UpdateHere's a quick between-regular-episodes MURDERTIZER to abate your appetite for All Melissa, All the Time - and it's got some BIG NEWS - Peter Chadwick, the millionaire (alleged) wife killer who told cops one of the stupidest "my spouse was murdered" stories ever (allegedly) concocted and then, once arrested, got out on bail and (allegedly) skipped the country for four years - has finally been found in southeastern Mexico and extradited earlier this week. Join Melissa as she revels in the capture of a truly (allegedly) awful dude, work herself into a righteous froth remembering how the Newport Beach p...
2019-08-1034 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast94. MURDER NERD UNIVERSITY - Sounds Like Toxicology Saved Brigida McInvale - With Special Guest Dr. Jeff LapointSURVIVOR MONTH on Just The Tip-Sters begins with our first edition of MURDER NERD UNIVERSITY - where Melissa focuses on the sciences and practices and interesting people - both in the past and in modern-day criminology - that contribute to the art of criminal justice. In late 2017 Brigida Uto (who later changed her surname back to maiden name McInvale for reasons that will become obvious) got very sick for no apparent reason. The young special needs teacher, who by all accounts had a happy life and rewarding career, a naval officer husband and a young child - was suddenly se...
2019-08-061h 12
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast91. Savannah Spurlock Update - Sounds Like "You're Under Arrest"Back at Season 2, Episode 28 Melissa covered the missing person case of Savannah Spurlock, a young single mother who lived near Lexington, Kentucky and who disappeared after leaving a bar with two men in January of 2019. Her family's quick response to her disappearance and steadfastness in making sure law enforcement stayed relentless in finding out what happened has been nothing short of phenomenal. In this update of the case, Melissa reports on the recent discovery of remains and clothing in the back yard of one of the men Savannah left with the night she vanished, his arrest, and some puzzling q...
2019-07-1644 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast87. Sounds Like Light Shattering Darkness - Jennifer Ertman, Elizabeth Pena And The Quest For JusticeRecently a Tip-Ster from Boston - "Tip-Ster Jennifer" - brought a case to Melissa's attention that she had not been aware of - the 1993 murders in Houston Texas of 14 year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16 year-old Elizabeth Pena. The facts of the case are among the most gruesome and disturbing Melissa has ever encountered - but more than the horror of the crimes themselves were two compelling side-stories...one is that Tip-Ster Jennifer was a friend of Jennifer Ertman at the time she was murdered...and the other is the awe-inspiring story of Jennifer Ertman's dad, Randy who, along with his w...
2019-06-181h 16
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast85. Sounds Like The Cops Don't Trust Us - The Closed (Minded) Search For Peter ChadwickBy all appearances, Peter Chadwick is a pretty rotten human. A millionaire British ex-pat living in an exclusive Southern California enclave with his wife and three sons, he suddenly disappears, along with his bride, one day in October 2012. Early the next morning 911 operators some 100 miles away in San Diego get a call from Chadwick, who claims his wife had been killed the previous day, and that he'd been...well...kidnapped...or something...by the killers. Let's just say the police didn't buy any of it, and just a few days later when his wife's body was found (under astounding cir...
2019-06-0456 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast83. MURDERTIZER - Sounds Like San Joaquin Strangeness - Satwant And The Abandoned Big RigIn this special Memorial Day Weekend MURDERTIZER (an appetizer of murder!), Melissa takes a look at a case not even a month old. One that is seemingly solved...or is it? On May 15, 2019 sheriff's deputies in Merced County (in California's San Joaquin Valley) were alerted to a big rig parked on the side of a major Interstate highway. Unlocked. With its motor running. With the driver's wallet and cell phone inside. Strange? Yes. But wait. The driver's body was found several days later in a canal two miles downstream from where the truck was found. Okay, that's NOT necessarily strange. ...
2019-05-2631 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast82. Sounds Like 39 Years Of Frustration - The Tynong North And Frankston MurdersThis week, in a tip-of-the-cap to her growing band of Tip-Sters in Australia, Melissa focuses on one of the most agonizingly maddening murder mysteries our brethren Down Under still have no answers for - the 1980-1981 killings of six women in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. Known simply as the Tynong North and Frankston Murders (based on the two locations where the bodies of the victims were found and the general areas in which they lived), the six slayings were originally treated as two separate serial killer matters. Six women - aged as young as 14 and as elderly as 75 - t...
2019-05-211h 00
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast78. Sounds Like One Year Later: A Golden State Killer Update - And More!How about an update on the prosecution of one of our most fascinating topics - the Golden State Killer? One year after the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, Melissa has the latest on the (possibly politically-motivated) legal strategies happening in this continually mind-bending saga. Plus: It's been a crazy week at Tip-Ster Central, with updates on three (3) (count 'em!) additional previously-covered cases hopping over the transom just in time for this week's episode --- such as the latest on the incredible (s)hero and DNA sleuth Barbara Rae-Venter...the search to find what happened to Kentucky high schooler Randy Se...
2019-04-2357 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast75, MURDERTIZER - Sounds Like One Unlucky Leprechaun - David Cotton's Fatal MisadventureA rare MURDERTIZER (an appetizer of murder) in our regular weekly time slot - but as this week's podcast reveals, Melissa and Producer Mark have a lot on their plate - but Melissa wanted to make sure you, dear listener, had a zesty treat until the next full episode. And this one is straight out of the "it's so strange it MUST be true" department... in 2010 a bank robbery took place in Gallatin Tennessee that featured one David Christopher Cotton in the role of Armed Robber...with...a twist. Suffice it to say that while this tale does not en...
2019-04-0229 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast73. Sounds Like A Madman's Gang of Killers - The Savage Murders Of Clarence Ray AllenWhat kind of a sick monster would be so crass as to commit a burglary that he really didn't need to commit, then set out to murder anyone who not only betrayed him by telling on him, but also taking out anyone he THOUGHT MIGHT betray him...and recruiting others to do it for you? Our boy Clarence Ray Allen, that's who. Take a walk to the darkest side of Darkness Avenue with Melissa as she recounts the untold savagery and unexpurgated evil perpetrated by Allen and his dippy cohorts. And while she's at it, Melissa will also demonstrate how...
2019-03-1950 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast69. Sounds Like Randy Sellers Hasn't Been Forgotten - With Special Guest Detective Brian JonesWhen Kentucky teenager Randy Lee Sellers got into a drunken brawl at the Kenton County Fair in 1980, the police who arrived decided not to arrest the young man, and instead put him in their patrol car to take him home. And that's the last time his friends or his loved ones ever saw or heard of him again. The patrol officers stated that Sellers asked to be dropped off prior to getting to his house, and that they obliged. For the past 38-plus years the mystery of his disappearance has remained headline news in Kenton County, with theories of his...
2019-02-261h 02
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast67. MURDERTIZER - Sounds Like Developments Are Developin'Melissa's first MURDERTIZER (an appetizer of murder!) of 2019 catches us up on some important developments in the Will Cierzan and Thomas Brown cases. PLUS a preview of an upcoming interview with one of the world's top DNA experts - AND a report on Melissa's personal taste test on that Trader Joe's garlic dip she's heard so much about from Tip-Ster Charlotte. Oh and so very much more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
2019-02-1735 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast64. Sounds Like Will Is Still Missing: The Continuing Search For William CierzanThe very case that first inspired Melissa to host her own podcast - the case of the 2017 disappearance in Santa Clarita, California of Will Cierzan, beloved husband, brother and friend of just about everyone he met. On the two-year anniversary of his vanishing, Melissa takes another look, determined to keep the case alive until Will is found. The facts of Cierzan's disappearance (he has not been located to this day) are frustrating, angering - and above all, sad. In this episode Melissa catches up on the developments of the case in the past 12 months, the maddening slowness of the inv...
2019-01-2947 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast62. Sounds Like A PWOK In Feelingsville - With Special Guests Lorraine Schweikhard and Ginger WarrenIt takes a lot for Melissa to go wild over a podcast - there are plenty she LIKES but only a handful that turn her into a true fan. The "Big Feelings" Podcast with Lorraine Schweikhard and Ginger Warren shares that rare air. And for good reason - Lorraine and Ginger are hilarious, engaging, thought provoking and a true joy to listen to. Half chat-fest between two moms raising young children in the suburbs; half a unique exploration into the darker edges of true crime, "Big Feelings" is truly quirky and genuinely genuine - which is why Melissa fell in...
2019-01-151h 12
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast61. Sounds Like The Sky Is Falling - The Lost Souls Of JFK JuniorSeason 2 opens with a case that's haunted Melissa for 2 decades - the untimely deaths of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and Carolyn's sister Lauren. Amid the obvious story lines of the Kennedy family's tragic history, its place in U.S. culture as the closest thing to an American royal family - and the sadness surrounding the demise of the young 38 year-old John-John, his bride and sister-in-law, Melissa asks a question buried deep beneath the facts of the case to ask a harrowing question: Could JFK, Jr. have been a high-achieving, undiagnosed psychopath? Hosted by...
2019-01-0859 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast60. Tastes Like A Mother's Frustration - Finding Cody TurnerIn the Season One Finale of JUST THE TIP-STERS, Melissa is joined on the phone by Michelle Kramer Joe - whose son - Cody Turner - disappeared without a trace in July 2015 after going out for the night and never returning to his grandparents' home in Yakima, Washington. Michelle has spent the last three years struggling to keep Cody's name in the forefront of police and the press, both of which she believes have never given their full attention to the case due to the stigma attached to Cody's drug and alcohol abuse. As Melissa points out in her di...
2018-12-1841 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast56. The Grim Sleeper Part 3 - Tastes Like A Killer Cheese PizzaIn her third and final installment on Los Angeles' most prolific serial killer, Lonnie Franklin, Jr. - aka The Grim Sleeper, Melissa examines the details of the botched search for the killer over the decades, the Los Angeles Police Department's eventual recognition of the importance of catching him - and Franklin's arrest and conviction. Most compelling is Melissa's retelling of the victim impact statements during sentencing, and the brilliant work of LAPD detectives, who paved the road to Franklin's demise through his taste buds - and a piece of partially eaten cheese pizza. Hosted by Simplecast, a...
2018-11-2739 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast55. The Grim Sleeper Part 2 - Tastes Like More Than A Cat NapIt's the second installment of Melissa's recounting of the awful life and times of Lonnie Franklin, Jr. - the infamous "Grim Sleeper" killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles for three decades before finally being brought to justice. During those years Franklin, raped, tortured and murdered at least nine young women and killed one lone male victim - for reasons that are still only speculation. Join Melissa as she recounts the harrowing - absolutely terrifying - stories of two women who survived Franklin's assaults, and look into the abyss of the real possibility - the likelihood? - that the Gr...
2018-11-2047 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast54. The Grim Sleeper Part 1 - Tastes Like A Monster Hidden In Plain SightLonnie Franklin, Jr. was everybody's friend. Gregarious. Friendly to a fault/. Had good jobs, first at the City Sanitation Department and then as a mechanic for the LAPD. Lovely house on a corner lot. Lovely and devoted wife. Two kids. Kinda guy that would give you the shirt off his back - or perform sometimes complex repairs to your car for just 20 bucks. The epitome of a great neighbor. Problem is, Lonnie Franklin, Jr. had a side gig that wasn't so friendly. Turns out he was also one of the most prolific serial killers in the annals of crime. And he was...
2018-11-1247 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast53. Tastes Like Dead North - With Special Guests Laura Frizzo and Jeremy OgdenMelissa is joined via telephone by one of the most fascinating crime-fighting duos ever to bring really bad guys to justice! Except this bad "guy" was actually a female, but just as - or even more - evil than your average serial killer. Kelly Cochran was more than just a "black widow" - she is suspected of knocking off at least 10 men, including her last husband, Jason - whom she had enlisted in helping murder the man she was cheating on Jason with - Chris Regan. Cochran was finally brought to justice by the cunning, determination and sheer will of...
2018-11-051h 10
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast44. The Golden State Killer Part 6 - Tastes Like KGSK Is On The Air!Kicking September off with a Big Bunch of a Bang, Melissa covers some fascinating new ground in the ongoing prosecution of Joseph D'Angelo, the accused Golden State Killer. Including a discussion of the brilliant legal move made by the Contra Costa County District Attorney to turn what could have been a legal dead end into a possible new prosecutorial avenue to get justice for more victims...a background profile of one of the unsung (hopefully soon to be loudly sung) heroes of the case - a retired attorney-turned genealogist who played perhaps the biggest role in capturing the suspect...a...
2018-09-0445 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast42. Tastes Like That Time We Got In The Middle Of A Murder Investigation - The Tragic And Clumsy Homicide Of Pamela Fayed...so then...there was that time when Melissa and Producer Mark were sitting down to dinner...and then...the phone rang...and then... - And what a night it was, when Producer Mark's job called him down to the scene of a murder in a building owned by the company he works for. And guess who tagged along? If you guessed Melissa, you get a gold "Just The Tip-Ster" star! From that first harrowing night at the scene to the police investigation to the prosecution of the perpetrators, Melissa takes us deep into the brutal and horrifying death of Pam...
2018-08-281h 02
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast39. MURDERTIZER - GSK Update And Tip-Sters Two CentsA zesty MURDERTIZER wherein Melissa discusses the recent Oxygen Network documentary "Golden State Killer: Main Suspect," which features many new insights and interviews with friends and colleagues of accused GSK Joseph James D'Angelo. PLUS Melissa reveals breaking news regarding two new cases from 1974 and 1975 that send a strong hint that the Golden State Killer's murderous ways started long before anyone suspected - until now. AND Melissa checks in with listener comments and emails in another edition of TIP-STER TWO CENTS. More murder, mystery and mail than anyone deserves in a single podcast! Hosted by Simplecast, an Ads...
2018-08-1051 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast38. Tastes Like CSI-Aye-Aye: The Scripted Suicides of Alan Abrahamson And Tom HickmanWho woulda thunk it? Two very different guys - ten years apart - used the sub-sub story line of an episode of a TV crime procedural from 2003 and (almost) successfully make it work in real life! Or...er..death... On this episode of JUST THE TIP-STERS Melissa takes a look into the deaths of two men - one from just weeks ago in 2018 in Florida and another from a decade ago in New Mexico, both of which at first glance appeared to be murders But solid detective work and a search of the archives of the television show "CSI: Crim...
2018-08-0749 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast37. The West Mesa Murders Part 3 Featuring Todd Kohlhepp - Tastes Like Multiple Persons Of InterestMelissa wraps up her examination of the West Mesa Murders in Albuquerque with a closer look at the multiplicity of possible persons of interest in the case - and not just the most obvious ones. Along the way, Melissa introduces us to the story of creepy genius murderer Todd Kohlhepp - who, while not the most likely culprit in the New Mexico slayings, demonstrates the potential of how any number of nasty rat bastards could have buried all those bodies out on the mesa. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information ab...
2018-07-3158 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast33. Tastes Like Homicide Pie And A Bad Movie - The Murder Of Adrienne ShellyIn a delicious mix of serious storytelling, film reviewing and humor, Melissa cuts loose on bad screenwriting AND awful murder as she looks at the life, career and death of writer/director/producer/actor Adrienne Shelly - who was murdered in her New York City office apartment in 2006, just when things were just starting to hit the bigtime for her. Her indy film "Waitress" had just been named to debut at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival when she was killed, and the film has gone on since to become somewhat iconic - it's even become a Broadway musical. But...re...
2018-07-1041 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast30. The Golden State Killer Part 4 - Tastes Like No Plea And A S***load Of EvidenceIt's been less than two months since the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, the alleged Golden State Killer - but WOW has new information been pouring out about the case ever since. In this episode, Melissa goes through the search warrant served on the accused and the indictment - including new previously unpublicized allegations of creepy doings that are hard to believe (but, well, not that hard to believe). PLUS - a social media comment dialogue unearths a chilling, daring and ultimately hopeful confession from a would-be serial killer who has lived his entire adult life battling his demons. An...
2018-06-1949 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast29. Tastes Like A Hit Man Hired From A Yelp Review - The Mary Morris MurdersOne of the most frustrating cold cases in America comes to Melissa straight out of Houston Texas, where in late 2000 two completely unrelated women who happened to share the same exact first and last names were killed just four days apart. Could the first Mary Morris have been killed in a completely coincidental car fire? Could a serial killer be on the loose who hates the word combo "Mary + Morris?" Or is it more likely that the two murders were the result of a bizarre comedy/tragedy of errors? And could this be an instance of someone bungling so muc...
2018-06-1243 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast28. Tastes Like Life Imitated Art Imitating Life - John List and Ed Sherman and BLACKOUTA blast from Melissa's college days turns into a rollercoaster ride of Murder-to-Movie- to-Murder! A recollection of a movie from 1985 called "Blackout" - released when Melissa was still in college - pops in to her memory banks as she looks into the 1971 case of John List, who murdered his wife, children and mother in the most macabre way and went on the lam for nearly two decades before "America's Most Wanted" finally smoked him out. Was "Blackout" based on the List murders? You decide! BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Not long after the made-for-HBO "Blackout" was released into video stores, ano...
2018-06-0550 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast27. Tastes Like Half Of Buffalo Bill - The Horror Of Gary HeidnikWhen one of our beloved Tip-Sters - Laurencia all the way from Maine! - sent Melissa an email to suggest this gruesome little tale, we were surprised to learn that its subject - Pennsylvania's own Gary Heidnik - was one of TWO real-life killers writer Thomas Harris used to create his monstrous "Buffalo Bill" character in "Silence of the Lambs." We knew that Harris had used mass murderer Ed Gein to create his character, but we'd never heard of Heidnik. Laurencia - who's actually written a treatise on this case - set us straight on the story - which...
2018-05-291h 05
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast26. The Golden State Killer Part 3 - Tastes Like Southern CaliforniaIn the final years of GSK's known (and we stress KNOWN) string of vandalism, rapes and murders - from 1980 to 1986 - the killings were less frequent but far more brutal as he transitioned from Central to Southern California. In this, the third and final installment on the history of the Golden State Killer, Melissa examines not only the brutal, last known murders in his spree - she also divulges some recently-uncovered facts about where the killer may have been living and how he had access to the victims. Plus - Melissa discusses what might have been GSK's first murder vi...
2018-05-221h 12
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast24. The Golden State Killer Part 1 - Tastes Like The Early YearsIn the first part of a multi-part series focusing on the infamous, decades-long mystery of the Golden State Killer - and the recent arrest of a suspect after 42 years - Melissa investigates not only the story itself but her own fascination - even obsession - with the case. In this installment - "The Early Years" - Melissa pieces together facts from John James DeAngelo Jr.'s youth and his youthful career as a police officer to describe in detail each step of what now appears to be over 50 years of terror and terrorizing. Each of the East Area Rapist's at...
2018-05-081h 10
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast22. MURDERTIZER - Golden State Killer Preview - Tastes Like A Micro-Penis In LockupHe was only arrested a few days ago, but already the capture of Joseph James DeAngelo - the alleged "Golden State Killer" accused of committing 12 murders and innumerable rapes and robberies over a decade-plus crime spree, and who has eluded justice for over 40 years - has created a storm of media coverage. Some is speculative, much has turned out to be completely wrong. With all the facts still rolling in, Melissa has decided to wait for things to calm down in order to tell the full story not just of the arrest and prosecution of the suspect, but the fu...
2018-04-2830 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast21. MURDERTIZER - Tastes Like Zankou RevisitedIn a special zesty MURDERTIZER between full episodes, Melissa follows up on the Zankou Chicken Massacre with a lighter chat about her numerous visits - some with Producer Mark and some by herself - to the new Zankou Chicken outlet near the Homestead Studios. Funny and touching at once, Melissa relives her thrilling first visit to the new eatery and her subsequent interactions with the Iskenderian family following the store opening, and her appreciation for all the family has gone through. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection a...
2018-04-2716 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast20. Those Darn Peterson Boyz, Part 3 - Tastes Like MichaelMelissa completes her 3-part series on murderous men named Peterson with maybe the most fascinating of all - the tangled tale of Michael Peterson...who was convicted of killing his wife and making look like she fell down the stairs. One of the most highly-covered murder cases in the last 20 years, this case - like one of the nightclubs promoted by SNL's Stefon - has everything: late night hot tubs, microscopic raptor feathers, phony-ass blood spatter experts...and blowpokes. Yes, blowpokes. Come along for the ride as Melissa details the story of an innocent man who never gave up - o...
2018-04-2459 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast19. Those Darn Peterson Boyz Part 2 - Tastes Like ScottYeah, he probably did it. You can feel in in your gut, right? That's pretty much what the jury said when it convicted Scott Peterson of the murder of his wife, Laci in 2004. But is demeanor evidence really evidence? And does it prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt? In Part 2 of her series featuring three men named Peterson who were each convicted of murdering their spouses, Melissa takes an honest poke at how Scott Peterson - who by all accounts is a no-good, cheating, lying rounder, got convicted of first degree murder with special circumstances based on little more than the f...
2018-04-1749 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast18. Those Darn Peterson Boyz Part 1 - Tastes Like DrewWho would have guessed that three of the most notorious, murderous men in recent history all share the same last name? Not for nothing, ladies, but maybe if that dream date turns out to have a surname that starts with "P" and ends with "Eterson," you should reconsider Date No. 2. In this, the first of a three-part series on three dudes who had no connection to each other - other than the name Peterson...and long interviews with homicide detectives...Melissa leads us down the raunchy life-path of Drew Peterson, a choice butthead of a fella, who thought so mu...
2018-04-1035 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast17. MURDERTIZER - Tastes Like The Crusty Shell Of Charles Manson...crusty AND flaky too! Here's another palette-cleansing, tasty and refreshing MURDERTIZER between regular episodes - this time so that Melissa can catch everyone up on the recent court ruling involving the remaining remains of Charles Manson, now dead nearly half-a-year and frozen solid in Kern County California awaiting this decision. Melissa takes us through some of the bizarre details and even more bizarre characters involved in this battle, and offers up some of her own thoughts on what REALLY should have happened to Chuck's Cold Carcass... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com fo...
2018-04-0724 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast16. Tastes Like Nancy Reagan Comin' Up To Bat: Vicki Lynn Morgan And Alfred BloomingdaleA beautiful young girl with dreams of stardom moves from small town Colorado to Los Angeles to make her way to stardom...sound familiar? Vicki Morgan's story actually did lead her to fortune - but not fame - at least not right away. Over a 12-year period, she was the on-again, off-again well-compensated "kept woman" of millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale. When Bloomingdale died and his widow ended the flow of dollars, Morgan sued the Bloomingdale estate for palimony - finally finding her fame when her sugar daddy's connections to the rich and powerful in California and Washington DC made for spl...
2018-04-0336 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast12. Tastes Like Leopold, Loeb And Acid On The Genitals - With Special Guest PAUL ZOLLOMelissa is joined by author, singer/songwriter, columnist and photographer PAUL ZOLLO to talk about the infamous case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two young men who, in 1924 stunned the city of Chicago and the entire nation when decided that they could commit the perfect murder and proved themselves spectacularly and gruesomely incorrect. Melissa joins Zollo, a Chicago native who has been fascinated by the story for years, to discuss the deeper aspects of this weird yet spellbinding story of two sociopaths who found each other in the same neighborhood and attending the same schools - and who m...
2018-03-061h 03
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast7. Tastes Like The Astral Plane - with Special Guest PAM CORONADO - Psychic DetectiveMelissa is joined by renowned spiritual counselor and psychic detective PAM CORONADO, who for more than two decades has helped law enforcement solve a wide array of murders and other crimes. Known for her numerous appearances in film and television, including "Sensing Murder" and "The Unexplained," Coronado is also an educator and personal spiritual advisor. In this episode of "Just the Tip-Sters, Melissa and Pam discuss the essence of psychic detective work and re-visit Pam's very first case from 1996 - as well as the 2010 homicide committed by one of her former business partners - who may have m...
2018-01-301h 07
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast5. Tastes Like Lululemon, Yoga and MurderMelissa delves into the tragic 2011 "Lululemon Murder" in Bethesda Maryland by way of a riveting and personal exploration of one woman's passion for yoga. Often erroneously described as "the murder in the yoga store," Melissa discusses the Lululemon case through the lens of her own personal journey with yoga, how it's portrayed in popular culture, and the unfortunate way gullible, beautiful souls searching for spiritual healing and meaning can be co-opted by false gurus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
2018-01-1648 min
Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast4. Where There's A Will There's A Way - Will Cierzan (w/Special Guest Kari Hewitt)Melissa is joined by special guest KARI HEWITT of The Finders, a Southern California band of dedicated volunteers who work with law enforcement and other volunteer organizations to help families of missing persons find their loved ones. In this episode, Melissa and Kari discuss the strange, sad, maddening case of Will Cierzan, who appeared to have disappeared without a trace in January of 2017 when his wife returned home from work to discover the door unlocked, dinner ready, her husband's keys and wallet still in the house - but no husband. A fascinating look at a fascinating case and the to...
2018-01-0954 min