Crime Adjacent
Episodes
Two days, four murders
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Northern Michigan lake country had seen a murder in years. And then all of a sudden there are four, in just two days?It didn't make sense to Sheriff P...
An Accomplice
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Meeks said he had an accomplice, someone who gave him information about which cabins were rented by single women and then paid him to go scare all...
Interrogation
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How do you get information out of someone who absolutely, positively, doesn’t want to give it? And what if you raise the stakes even more? ...
Arresting the Nightstalker
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The plan to use Deputy Swanson as a decoy to lure out the Nightstalker failed miserably.Swanson was stabbed. The Nightstalker got away. And although S...
How serial killers get their names
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The same thing that happened in California, in the 1980s, happened in Northern Michigan. Residents wondered: What do we call this guy?In the beginning...
A huge mistake
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We had to get ahead of this guy. That was my thinking. The clown creeper was breaking into cabins with impunity, and now he was in downtown Petos...
A loud clue
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Just a few blocks from the Clinton Street house where Allison Barnes was murdered that Saturday, Realtor Ebony Aster was hosting her own open house on...
A timeline for murder
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Can you kill a person in five minutes? And then appear perfectly reasonable when the cops arrive?These questions were floating through Sheriff Press's...
Who belongs in town?
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As more and more cabins were broken into and more and more visitors were assaulted, or murdered, the town grappled with a sticky moral dilemma.Who bel...
A new suspect
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Best-selling author Aitana Ruiz heads to Walloon Lake every September to put the finishing touches on the latest book in her popular series Daggers an...
Crimes of duress and sextortion
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Can you get away with murder if someone is forcing you to do it?This episode looks at crimes of duress and just how far some people force others to go...
The worst town bully in the world
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Someone was following me. At the diner, at the bookstore, the cafe, the town square. Wherever I went that day, the same day the clown struck again, th...
Sociology, clothes, and murder
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Do you know about those fancy shoes with the red soles? How about that brand with the plaid design crawling over coats and purses? What does a belt wi...
The punch heard round the world
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
United States Olympic Rugby gold medalist Aubrey Ertz went to Walloon Lake for a short vacation and a team-building retreat. The 2028 Olympics are fas...
A murder in Traverse City
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Sept. 3, 2024, Realtor Yuki Sugita was hosting an open house in a rural neighborhood on the outskirts of Traverse City.Sometime between 1:30 and 3:...
A prelude to murder
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Beginning in January 2024, the town began experiencing an odd but noticeable rash in crime. The high school science teacher suddenly began sendin...
Hidden cameras, private moments
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever stayed in a short-term rental while on vacation and wondered: Is that fire alarm real? Or is there a camera in there?Because that's exac...
Clowns and crime: Why do they scare us?
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Clowns are supposed to be happy, entertaining figures. And yet, they factor into true crime cases all the time -- from bank robberies to burglaries to...
A break in on Walloon Lake
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Early in the morning on Sept. 26, 2024, a man in a Halloween clown mask broke into the cabin of a single, vacationing woman in Northern Michigan. ...
The Rest Stop Killer
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the annals of true crime lore and media representations, serial killers are far too often held up as loner geniuses and masterminds. But the truth ...
Red Handed
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Everything pointed to Daniel Palmer as the main suspect in the Rest Stop Killer case. All of the victims were found on his property, either in the val...
Coming soon: The Michigan Nightstalker
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On a quiet lake in Northern Michigan, in the early morning hours of September 26, 2024, a man in a long tan coat and a Halloween clown mask broke into...
Serial killer souvenirs
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ed Gein took skin. BTK took jewelry and trinkets. The Zodiac took pieces of a bloody shirt. In Ridgewood, police knew exactly what the Rest Stop ...
The Ridgewood City Council murders
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the winter of 2023, three city councilmembers from the city of Ridgewood were abducted. One, Gary Pugh, was murdered, his body dumped in a val...
A Show You'll Love: Harlem Queen
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode title: Stephanie's Great EscapeThis episode tells of Madame Stephanie St. Clair's great escape from prison and flight to France, aided by her ...
Bea Macy
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bea Macy was born in a small town in Wisconsin but, just like Len Macy, she made her way to Ridgewood in a roundabout fashion following the Summer of ...
Parking lots
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s something undeniably eerie about a parking lot. The rows of silent cars, or worse, the vast swaths of empty space. The distant echo of foots...
End game
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the span of a week in December 2023, two Ridgewood city council members were abducted and assaulted. One, Gary Pugh, had been murdered. The other...
Tokens
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
True crime is littered with cases of killers who tied to throw investigators off their tracks. These cases are also littered with the tiny, dumb mista...
Fraud
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Dec. 13, 2023, Ridgewood resident Mollie Miller came to one of the Crime Adjacent live shows in San Francisco. She had a message for us: The Rest S...
Rehearsal Fantasy
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
True Crime stories are riddled with serial killers and their crimes. But how do they get started? From BTK to The Nightstalker to the Rest Stop K...
Margie Miller
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Margie Miller spent her life trying to escape Ridgewood. But a series of unfortunate events always pulled her back home, and right back into the heart...
The Lake
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Sept. 27, 1969, the Zodiac killer donned a black hood and approached a young couple on the shores of Lake Berryessa — just a few miles north of R...
Michelle Diaz
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The disappearance of Michelle Diaz happened at the worst possible time in a small town with limited resources and in a media environment desperate for...
Going Home
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It was Mollie Miller who alerted me to the death of Gary Pugh. It was Mollie Miller who said the Rest Stop Killer was back, who said the Palmer family...
A Show You'll Love: Kingscreek
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Curiosity is a dangerous thing. Kingscreek is a weekly horror semi-anthology podcast, with weekly episodes. Follow Damien Bachman as he reads through ...
Gary Pugh
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The killer disappeared for nearly 30 years. Police thought he moved or was caught or just decided to call it quits, which happens occasionally with se...
Len Macy
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Len Macy arrived in San Francisco in 1967 for the Summer of Love, he was immediately tempted by the cults and charismatic narcissists who preyed ...
Daniel Palmer Jr.
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Three Ridgewood men have been abducted and murdered, their bodies found in a valley on the outskirts of town. And the same man found two of them. This...
Gone Cold
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One man built a flamethrower and patrolled the town’s sewer system, positive the killer lurked underground. A posse of women formed an armed vigilan...
Panic
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After the abduction and murder of Bobby Briggs on Jan. 20, 1996, Ridgewood exploded. There was a killer among them, taking men. Off busy streets. Stom...
A New Zodiac Victim?
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The similarities between the abduction of Bobby Briggs and one Zodiac survivor were so striking that Detective Jones had to check it out. Briggs ...
Bobby #2
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With the discovery of a third body in the valley just off Interstate 80 in Ridgewood, police realized the killer emerged every other Saturday night. O...
The Doodler Links
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Detective Ida Jones had seen this before. Gay men were being murdered while the police and the entire town looked the other way. Like a nightmare...
The Timeline
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bobby Calvin had everything going for him. Smart, handsome, a former D1 star quarterback at Stanford, where he almost led the team to a national ...
Bobby #1
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Exactly two weeks after the discovery of Tommy Coulet, another man was found on the outskirts of Ridgewood.Same valley. Same injuries. Same horrible m...
The Profile
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With no leads, no clues, and no suspects, Tommy’s case went cold, almost instantly. But as more men were abducted in Ridgewood, investigators reache...
Tommy
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tommy Coulet left home at 9 p.m. on Dec. 23, 1995 and would never return. His body was discovered the next morning in a known lovers’ lane spot on t...
Crime Adjacent. New season: The Rest Stop Killer
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty years ago, someone began snatching men from a small Bay Area town and dumping their bodies in a quiet lovers’ lane just off Interstate 80.But...