Our True Crime Podcast: May 2023

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

214. Death Of A Cover Girl: Raudha Athif

This is a case that has stuck with Jen for a few years now.

In late 2015 a breathtaking image of nineteen-year-old Raudha Athif wearing a snow-white sleeveless dress, standing chest high in the cerulean, teal swirl of the Indian Ocean. It wouldn’t take long before the image snagged the attention of Vogue magazine. While being a model is a dream for many young women. Raudha had aspirations of being a doctor like her father.

After receiving a scholarship to Islami Bank Medical College, Raudha headed to Bangladesh, which was quite a culture shock. Raudha adapted beautifully. When her Vogue cover hit the stands in October of 2016, the happiness Raudha felt soon gave way to concern. The students at the school began to treat her differently. She received threats and insults for not dressing in a manner appropriate for a Muslim girl. Raudha adhered to the dress code while at school, but modeling, in general, is looked down upon in some of the factions of Islam. To have her depicted in the magazine with exposed arms, shoulders, and hair made matters even worse.

By the end of March 2017, Raudha was found dead in her dorm room. While doctors in Bangladesh ruled her death a homicide, Raudha's family believes it was foul play.

Join Cam & Jen as they discuss "Death of a Cover Girl: Raudha Athif."

Call or text 988 if you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support. The Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States.

In the UK, you can call Samaritans' 24/7 hotline at 116 123
In Australia, you can call Lifeline’s 24/7 hotline at 13 11 14

Research and writing by Lauretta Allen
Listener Discretion by OctoberpodVHS & OctoberpodAM
Producer Music & Editing by Nico at We Talk of Dreams

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK7d1U-SALY
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/death-of-vogue-cover-girl-raudha-athif-was-work-of-extremists-parents-say/news-story/654ee6a51a345e8f712bf043da038cd4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raudha_Athif https://www.thedailystar.net/city/news/raudha-died-suicide-pib-1721938
https://www.india.com/viral/vogue-cover-girl-raudha-atif-allegedly-murdered-for-wearing-jeans-in-a-muslim-college-in-bangladesh-2009544/
https://mujunaeem.com/2017/04/02/the-case-of-the-missing-instagram-users-from-raudha-follow-list/
https://www.9news.com.au/world/60-minutes-team-forced-out-of-bangladesh-while-investigating-models-alleged-murder/29a5ce22-3b80-4963-bb5a-2c5b6069aa65
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives https://www.archdaily.com/999412/a-brief-history-of-the-maldives-culture-contemporary-architecture-and-tourism
https://www.britannica.com/place/Maldives
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/bangladesh.htm http://rarolae.com/tragic-maldivian-vogue-model-raudha-athif-found-dead-in-dormitory-police-call-it-suicide/
https://globalvoices.org/2017/03/31/sudden-death-of-aqua-blue-eyed-model-shocks-maldives/#:~:text=In%202015%2C%20she%20became%20a,for%20her%20supposedly%20risque%20attire.
https://www.frukmagazine.com/model-raudha-athif-maldivian-girl-with-aqua-blue-eyes-commits-suicide/
https://twitter.com/DrMohamedAthif/status/1200074091648016384 https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/raudha-athif h
ttps://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/maldivian-model-s-father-accuses-kashmiri-best-friend-of-murdering-her-in-college-hostel/story-ESWOPTunVqIk68DQB8fanJ_amp.html
https://edition.mv/news/2875

Saturday, May 27, 2023

213. Trolling for Murder: The Killings of Billy and Billie Jean

It is January 31, 2012, and a family member decides to drop by the home of 24-year-old Billie Jean Hayworth and her fiance 35-year-old Bill Payne. The couple, who shared a 6-month-old son, had recently gotten engaged and we were excited for the future. A family member who regularly stopped by to check in on the young family was always greeted by the baby crawling around. This time it was different. After not being invited into the home, she entered through the unlocked door. She was immediately thrown off since there was not the usual hustle and bustle of the morning. Instead, pure silence. The women called out to them but no one responded. As she made his way through the hallway, she looked into the bedroom and saw Bill Payne lifeless on the bed. Then he came upon Billie Jean on the floor, covered in blood, with her still clutching to her baby boy. The baby had her mother’s blood on him but seemed to be unharmed. The woman makes a frantic call to 911 in shock from what she has witnessed and tries to soothe the baby. Police head to the location nervous about what they will discover. This is not the norm in this quiet Tennessee town of Mountain City, population 2415. Agent Scott Lott from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reports to the scene. He determines Bill Payne had a gunshot wound to the face and his throat had been slit. Billie Jean had a gunshot wound to the head as well. The house did not seem to be in disarray indicating this was not a burglary gone wrong. What it did indicate was that someone wanted both of them dead and made sure to make that happen. The murders looked clean, as in a hit.

Join Jen and Cam on this episode of Our True Crime Podcast entitled ‘Trolling for Murder: The Killing of Billy and Billie Jean.’

Listener Discretion courtesy of @octoberpodVHS

Music is courtesy of our executive producer @wetalkofdreams

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m40-nbJzKLE
https://abcnews.go.com/US/social-media-feud-led-murder-young-tennessee-couple/story?id=34346840
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/matriarch-of-tennessee-family-convicted-of-infamous-facebook-murders-pleads-guilty-after-being-granted-new-trial/
https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/mother-daughter-convicted-in-facebook-murders-case-to-appear-in-court-tuesday/
https://www.timesnews.net/one-of-three-facebook-murder-convictions-overturned-mother-granted-new-trial/article_4aea9524-0618-11ec-a093-8b71991a842d.html
https://www.thetomahawk.com/news/article_495b5c6e-83ce-541f-92b3-26b9a209e73c.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/court-of-criminal-appeals/2019/e2015-02261-cca-r3-cd.html
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/matriarch-of-tennessee-family-convicted-of-infamous-facebook-murders-pleads-guilty-after-being-granted-n/ew-trial

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

212. Unsolved in Massachusetts: Deanna Cremin

On March 29th, 1995, 17-year-old Deanna Cremins completed a project at school in which the assignment instructed her to list the five most important goals in her life.

These were Deanna’s answers:

To graduate high school.
To find a successful job that I enjoy.
To have a dark green convertible Mustang.
To have a happy family.
To live a long time and healthy. When the assignment asked which of the five things she would choose as the most important, Deanna answered: To live long and healthy.

No one could have known when she handed in that assignment that she would not achieve those goals because she had just hours left to live.

Join Cam and Jen as they discuss "Unsolved in Massachusetts: Deanna Cremins."

Anyone with any information regarding the murder of Deanna Cremin,
please call 617-448-3842

This episode was requested by Russell through our Twitter page. Thank you!

Promo this week is for our friends Mike and JT at Brew Crime

Research and writing by Lauretta Allen
Listener Discretion by OctoberpodVHS & OctoberpodAM
Producer Music & Editing by Nico at We Talk of Dreams

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Maria_Child
https://www.flufffestival.com/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-killed-deanna-cremin/id1473081850?i=1000468277808 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Hill_Gang
https://www.trailwentcold.com/?s=deanna+cremin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Deanna_Cremin
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/03/29/20-years-without-deanna/

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Dear Katherine: The Murder of Katherine Foster

One of the scariest yet most exciting things is letting go of your child as they become an adult and go to college. As a parent, you have done your job getting your child to this point; now, you will drop them off at college, trusting they will be safe and have a blast while getting an excellent education. That is how it is supposed to go, but sadly that isn’t always the case.

Today we are headed to the southern united states to Mobile, Alabama, which struggles with New Orleans to claim the right to be the one Mardi Gras city. Debate is to which city helps the first Mardi Gras. It is a cute small, safe town. In Mobile, you will find the University of South Alabama. Now if you are a local or a student, it is simply South.

The year is 1979, and 18-year-old Katherine Foster is excited to start college. Katherine has a beaming smile and friendly personality, but she also has the brains since she was the salutatorian of her class. What should be the best time of her life ends before she even really had a chance to get started.

Join Jen and Cam on this episode of Our True Crime Podcast entitled "Dear Katherine: The Murder of Katherine Foster."

Music by @wetalkofdreams

Listener Discretion @octoberpodVHS

Sources:
http://www.doc.alabama.gov/InmateHistory
https://www.foxnews.com/story/woman-arrested-at-homeless-shelter-for-1980-murder-of-alabama-student
https://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2008/11/25/28-years-later-arrest-made/
https://thecinemaholic.com/katherine-foster-murder-where-is-jamie-kellam-letson-now/
https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-t0pdxt/nightmare-next-door-season-6/?episode=b-rj1emr
https://www.facebook.com/InvestigationDiscovery/posts/the-body-of-freshman-katherine-foster-is-discovered-in-a-wooded-area-near-the-un/10150974067484902/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3038426/
http://www.mobilebaytimes.com/foster051710.html
https://www.wlox.com/story/9399395/cold-case-arrest-unearths-painful-memories-in-pascagoula/
https://www.thoughtco.com/woman-arrested-1980-murder-katherine-foster-3969309
https://www.al.com/live/2010/05/jamie_letson_convicted_of_1980.html

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

210. The Secret Life of Jeffrey Pelo

CONTENT WARNING

This episode contains discussions of sexual assault.

Bloomington-Normal is a metro area of about 130,000 people in north-central Illinois. Located just two hours southwest of Chicago, Blo-No, as it is affectionally called, is one of those cities in America that’s known for being, well, normal. It’s flat, there’s not much to see, and it's surrounded by cornfields. One local real estate agent describes Bloomington-Normal as the town that “has everything you need and nothing that you don’t.” It's a town where people feel safe.

So, it was quite disconcerting when on the 4th of April in 2003, a twenty-five-year-old woman, who was sound asleep in her home in Bloomington-Normal, was suddenly and terrifyingly woken in the middle of the night by an intruder. This was the second rape in four months, and police noticed that the details of that case were terrifyingly similar. It was unusual for the town to have even one occurrence of stranger rape at all, let alone two. Something was horribly wrong. The police had the sickening suspicion that the town had its very first-ever serial rapist.