Serial Napper will be taking a hiatus over the summer. Thank you for your support. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyBy Nikki Young

Before dawn break, on New Year's Day, 1998, 21-year-old Ben Smart and 17-year-old Olivia Hope were looking for a place to crash after spending the evening celebrating with other partygoers in the Marlborough Sounds, in New Zealand. They were last seen getting out of a water taxi and boarding a yacht after a strange man offered them a place to sleep…

It was the early evening hours of Sunday, April 19, 2015. Vincent Viafore and his fiancee Angelika Graswald were trying to enjoy a kayaking adventure in the Hudson River, but the water was cold and choppy, and they were not adequately prepared for the conditions. For one - Vincent wasn’t wearing a life vest and his kayak was missing a drain plug. D…

The date was March 6th, 1984, the night before Mardi Gras. Hailing from New Orleans, The Brown family, which included parents Johnnie Mae and Aubrey Brown and their 10 children, spent the evening getting ready to celebrate. Excitement was in the air in anticipation of the music, food and floats that they were going to be able to enjoy. The kids wer…

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Tokyo was the smiling faces of J-Pop idols posted everywhere - large billboards, moving trucks, subway cars. Japan has the second largest music market in the world, mostly due to the rising popularity of J-Pop, with millions of fans in Japan and all around the world. One man, known as Johnny Kitagaw…

It was the very early morning of March 9, 2019 - around 3:30 am, before the sun came up. 25-year-old Aubrey Dameron walked into the living room and told her mother and brother that she was off to meet a friend. She doesn’t specify who this friend is - but she leaves home without her purse or her anti-seizure medication, which she is supposed to car…

On September 4th, 2023, at around 5:53 am, 19-year-old Noah Presgrove was found dead on the side of an Oklahoma highway. It was a bizarre scene - Noah was found wearing mismatched shoes, with only one of the shoes belonging to him. His shorts were found a few feet away from his body, along with three pieces of white metal chain and part of his toot…

It was the morning of February 26, 2024, and it was supposed to be a day like any other. At around 6am, Katie Proudfoot walked into the bedroom of her 15-year-old son, Sebastian Rogers, to wake him up for school. To her shock, she found his room empty - he was gone. Not in his room and nowhere to be found elsewhere in their Tennessee home. Yes, Seb…

It was the summer of 1995. 13-year-old Thad Phillips had fallen asleep in his living room watching a movie. Suddenly, he awoke to the feeling of someone lifting him up and carrying him away - initially he thought maybe it was his dad, bringing him upstairs to bed. But it wasn’t. The person holding him was an older teen boy named Joe Clark. Joe carr…

One early morning in February 1977, the Chicago fire department responded to a call reporting billowing smoke coming from one of the units at the Pine Grove Avenue apartments. After putting out the flames, they discovered that this was much more than a simple fire - it was a crime scene. Inside the smokey apartment, they found the body of Teresita …

“If he catches me, he will make me disappear,” was one of the last things wife and mother of three, Amy Mullis, allegedly told the man she was having an affair with just a few months before she was found lying face down with a corn rake sticking out of her back. She would die from her injuries received in what was initially believed to be a freak f…

28-year-old Kanika Powell was a young military veteran who lived in an apartment by herself in Prince George County, Maryland. She has been described as a strong, independent woman, whose life experiences made her very capable of handling stressful situations. However, all of that would change in August 2008, when Kanika would receive a series of s…

John Christie was a World War 1 and 2 veteran who lived with his wife Ethel in the bottom floor flat of 10 Rillington Place, a low-income apartment building in London’s Notting Hill district. In the 50s, there was a media storm when one of the tenants living in the same building as John, a man named Timothy Evans, was convicted of murdering his pre…

In 1950 Timothy Evans was accused of murdering his wife Beryl, and their baby girl, Geraldine. Timothy, a simple man who couldn’t read or write, lived with his little family in London’s Notting Hill district in the top floor flat. He refuted the accusations, instead claiming that it was actually his downstairs neighbour, John Christie, who killed h…

In the early morning hours of September 1st, 2017, around 1 am, a North Carolina 911 dispatcher receives a phone call from 29-year-old Matthew Phelps, an aspiring pastor. He says, “I think I killed my wife. I had a dream, and then I turned on the lights and she’s dead on the floor…I have blood all over me and there’s a bloody knife on the bed and I…

In the early morning hours of May 24, 1987, Kenneth Parks got up from the sofa where he had been watching TV, got into his vehicle and drove 20 km - or 12 and a half miles - from his home in Toronto to his in-laws home in Scarborough. He used the spare key that they had given him to enter the residence and proceeded to the master bedroom, where he …

14-year-old British Columbia teenager Reena Virk struggled to fit in. She was relentlessly bullied from elementary school, all the way to high school. Self-conscious about her looks and struggling with her strict religious parent's rules, times were tough. So on Nov. 14, 1997, when she received a phone call inviting her out to a social gathering, s…

Life was not always easy for 20-year-old Amanda Wienckowski. At one point, her friends and family had to watch her struggle with an addiction that had her spending time with undesirable people on the wrong side of town. But she was trying to get her life back on track, even enrolling in a criminal justice course at her local community college. Howe…

In 2014, YouTuber and experienced hiker, Kenny Veach, who went by the handle ‘snakebitmgee’ seemingly vanished while looking for a mysterious cave in the Mojave Dessert. The first time he discovered this cave, which was shaped like a perfect letter ‘M’, he said his whole body began to vibrate and the feeling only grew stronger as he got closer to t…

One night, as he stumbled out of a bar with only $3 in his bank account, Dan Saunders made a simple decision that would change his luck and his life forever. He stopped at an ATM on his way home to try to withdraw cash from his nearly-maxed-out credit card and discovered a glitch in the system. Somehow, the bank machine allowed him to withdraw a lo…

The story of the unsolved disappearance of eight-year-old Relisha Rudd is particularly tragic because, in her short life, she had already survived so much: Neglect, poverty, homelessness and a cycle of trauma within her family. Her mother, Shamika Young, grew up in foster care, struggled with behavioural issues and at one point even had to be place…

Zohreh Sadeghi was a 33-year-old young woman living in Redmond, Washington. She was an immigrant from Iran, a successful software engineer and a podcaster, who shared her lived experiences talking about how to find a job in the tech industry as a newcomer. In the summer of 2022, she would have the chance to meet one of her listeners, another Irania…

Barbara Mackle would regret answering the door in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 1968. On the other side was a masked man, 23-year-old Gary Stephen Krist, who had been researching all of the intricate details of Babara’s life for the last several months. He forced her into the back of a car he had waiting around the corner and drove her out to…

When 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman received a phone call from her best friend asking if she wanted to go for a hike, she jumped at the opportunity. The plan was to spend the day at Thunderbird Falls, a scenic hiking trail with a beautiful waterfall view. But Cynthia, who was developmentally delayed, had no idea of the secret sinister intention behind…

Although the most well-known case of Munchausen syndrome involved a woman, according to webMD, it’s actually more common for men to have the disorder. Tonight we’re talking about Jack Barron, the first man recorded to be suffering from Munchausen by Proxy. Jack loved the attention he received after his wife mysteriously died so much so that he desp…

It was the summer of 2013 in Campbelltown, New Brunswick, Canada. Noah and Connor Barthe, who were 4 and 6 years old, had spent the day having a blast with family friends at a farm. That evening, they had a sleepover at their best friend's house, which was located just above an exotic pet store that his father owned. Not all of the animals were kep…

Nicola Furlong was a 21-year-old Dublin City University student who was studying University in Japan as part of an exchange program. In May of 2012, she enjoyed a night out at a Nicki Minaj concert with one of her girlfriends. When the concert was over, they planned to continue their night barhopping until the first train arrived in the morning to …

There was a movement all across North America in the 60s and 70s that had people hitchhiking their way across the country. It was a way for young folks to get around economically while also being a bit rebellious. There was an element of adventure, as one never knew the stranger behind the wheel of the car they were getting into. But for much of We…

On April 22, 2012, several residents living in a quiet neighborhood located in North Bend, Washington, called 911 after seeing flames coming out of the windows of a neighboring home. Thankfully firefighters arrived on the scene and were able to put out the fire quickly. But when they took a closer look at the remnants of the house, they would make …

On Easter Sunday, 1991, a gas station in Bloomington, Illinois would be robbed at gunpoint. Tragically, Billy Little, the attendant working that night, would be killed - shot to death for the money in his cash register. Investigators collected evidence from the crime scene including fingerprints, shoe prints and even a DNA sample, but they struggle…

The date was May 19, 1971. A Japanese peach farmer was perusing his orchard, located in Yuba City, California. Suddenly, he spotted something unusual. A large seven-foot-long hole, that was approximately half a foot deep, which looked like an improvised dug-out gravesite. His was private property, no one was supposed to be digging on his land. With…

Tonight I’m talking about a 57-year-old Canadian man, named Kenneth Law. He stands accused and charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder for his plot to sell poison through the mail to individuals contemplating taking their own life. He may be linked to as many as over 100 deaths through his suicide-by-mail scheme. If he is found guilty, he wi…

On June 23rd, 2021, 24-year-old Daniel Robinson was enjoying his dream job working for an engineering company at a remote job site in an Arizona desert. It was raining that morning, so he and his co-worker would have to wait for the weather to clear up before they could start. For some unknown reason, Daniel decided not to wait. He got into his 201…

49-year-old Erin Patterson is many things. She’s a divorced mother of two, the heiress to a multimillion-dollar property portfolio, and a deadly chef. She now stands accused of feeding her ex-husband’s parents and his aunt one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world as part of a fatal Beef Wellington lunch. Her ex-in-laws, 70-year-old Don and …

Steven Clark was a 23-year-old young man from Colchester, Essex, in England. When he was just three years old, he had been hit by a truck, rendering him permanently disabled. On December 28, 1992, Steven spent the afternoon with his mother walking on the beach near their home in Saltburn, England. At around 3 pm, they used the public toilets, each …

On June 20, 2006, nursing student, 21-year-old Frauke Liebs, was enjoying a night out pup hopping watching the football world cup, which just so happened to be taking place in Germany that year. At around 11 pm, she began to walk back to the apartment that she shared with a longtime friend, however, she would never make it back. When she didn’t sho…

It was the summer of 1992. Teenagers Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall had just graduated from high school, spent the evening celebrating with friends and were gearing up for an incredible summer before their adult lives began. Stacy was going to be sleeping over at Suzie’s mother’s home that night - and then they had plans to go to a water amusement…

When 25-year-old Alexandra Pesic married her husband, Joe, she believed she had found the man of her dreams - that the couple would live out the rest of their years in blissful matrimony. What she didn’t realize at the time, was that she was getting much more than a life partner. She was also getting a meddling mother-in-law, named Jelka Pesic. Whi…

Linda Chen was a 32-year-old mother of one with a history of dating terrible, abusive men. She thought her luck had finally changed when she met her fiance Mats Alm. The couple lived together in an apartment in Sweden and were just a week away from their wedding when tragedy struck. Linda was last seen on a grocery store surveillance camera with he…

The date was October 31st, 2008 - Halloween night. A young Seattle woman, 24-year-old Arpana Jinaga had plans that evening to participate in a Halloween party at her apartment complex. Several of her neighbours and Arpana would decorate their apartments and open their doors to guests who would pop in and out over the course of the evening. She was …

Tonight we’re talking about McKamey Manor, which is said to be an "Extreme Haunted Attraction," and "Survival Horror Challenge", according to their website - but some believe it is actually just a straight-up modern-day torture chamber. Guests who meet seven basic requirements can expect to experience up to eight hours of extreme horror that may in…

Tonight I’m talking about the experience of hundreds of girls who innocently signed up to work in clock factories hoping to generate money to feed their families and help on the homefront during World War I. They used luminous paint made of radium on the clocks and dials, getting it onto their clothing, skin and even in their mouths. Yet, they had …

There have been a few hundred cases of spontaneous human combustion reported, with some reported instances from as early as the 17th century. They were highly debated as to whether they were truly a case of spontaneous combustion or something else - and the vast majority went ignored, written off as nothing more than an urban legend. However, when …

This is the story of the Glatzel family, whose youngest son, 11-year-old David, was allegedly possessed by multiple demons. With the assistance of infamous paranormal investigators and demonologists, Lorrain and Ed Warren, he would endure several exorcisms to relieve him of the spirits and demons fighting over his soul. During one of these exorcism…

Picture this: you’re in the car with your family coming home from a nice night out. You’re driving down the highway, when suddenly you feel the vehicle drive over something and the tire goes flat. You have to pull over to the side of the highway to investigate the damage and change the tire. It’s dark out, so you want to get this done as quickly as…

It was supposed to be a rags-to-riches story. Christian Kazadi was a 29-year-old budding entrepreneur and the founder of a start-up digital marketing agency called Click Media. He started this company with the last $30 in his bank account and was really beginning to make waves in South Africa, where digital marketing was in its infancy. In April of…

This is the heartbreaking case of Andrea Venter, a young South African woman who suffered years of horrible domestic abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren. Like many young romances, the beginning of the relationship was perfect - everything she dreamed of. However, as time passed, he became emotionally and physically abusiv…

Anika Smit was 17 years old on March 10, 2010, when she stayed home from school with a nasty throat infection. Her father would return home from work later that day to find the front gate unlocked, guard dogs corralled in the side yard, and two cups of undrunk coffee on the kitchen table. The house looked chaotic as if there had been a struggle, an…

Daisy De Melker, a young woman from Grahamstown, South Africa, came from dirt and decided she wanted more out of life. She was willing to do whatever it took to ensure she lived a pampered, cushy life far from the poverty-stricken home she grew up in - this meant crushing anything and anyone who stood in her way. Daisy was a mother and a wife - and…

Neil Tulley was a 54-year-old stepfather to two older children, 23-year-old Joshua Ellis and his little brother, 14-year-old Jerome Ellis, who he didn’t get along with. Both had a dysfunctional childhood, which would only get worse when they moved into their mother’s home, where she lived with Neil. Neil was known to be a violent drunk with a crimi…