Episodes

  • The unlaced boots toppled from the roof and emptied a life

    The unlaced boots toppled from the roof and emptied a life
    Oct 6 2026
    A pair of unlaced rubber boots stand upright on an icy roof at Clearwater Station, and a missing man’s last movements hook a town’s fragile secrecy.

    The unlaced boots toppled from the roof and emptied a life

    In this episode, we follow the morning someone spotted two boots on a roof at Clearwater Station and trace how that small scene exposed discrepancies in records, people’s movements, and a man’s disappearance. The episode asks how a community’s routines and documents can hide what actually happened, and whose hand wrote the ledger that dictated departures.

    Person: Wayne Rice
    Date: January 9, 2013
    Location: Clearwater Station, Harlan Falls, Indiana
    Event: Two unlaced rubber boots found upright on grain building roof
    Document: Departure ledger entry dated January 8 showing Wayne’s name with cord-wood retrieval purpose

    - Peggy Price photographed a barred owl before she noticed the two upright, unlaced boots on the steep, icy roof at roughly nine in the morning.
    - The roof had no footprints; investigators concluded the surface couldn’t be crossed without leaving marks or using equipment.
    - Wayne Rice’s name appears in the compound’s spiral-bound departure ledger on January 8 with a stated purpose; handwriting analysis later identified that entry as Terry Lusk’s.
    - A laminated three-by-five card dated 2006 listing Wayne Rice alongside a choir rehearsal schedule was found sealed inside a wall cavity in the grain-storage building.
    - Mark Jones purchased Clearwater Station in 2003, ran a late-night AM show called The Sovereign Hour, and attracted at least forty-one people to live on the compound over the following years.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 mins
  • The intercom readings that shaved his nights and unmade him

    The intercom readings that shaved his nights and unmade him
    Oct 5 2026
    A thrown workbook and a remote homeschooling compound where nightly intercom readings reshape a man’s language - how do you fall from that high?

    The intercom readings that shaved his nights and unmade him

    In this episode, we trace how a discarded mathematics workbook leads a journalist into a locked educational compound and the slow unmaking of a sixty-two-year-old widower. What happened on Canaan Road, and how did daily routines, altered language, and enforced nights keep him inside?

    Person: Gregory Carter
    Date: December 12, 2011
    Location: Canaan Road, Harwick Falls area
    Event: discovery of a child’s workbook that began the investigation

    - A thrown workbook with a child’s name landed spine-up in the snow at the base of a locked gate, noticed by a sixteen-year-old on a paper route.
    - The Hearthstone Learning Covenant incorporated in 2002 listed a leader called Reverend Dale Underwood and a non-existent Harwick Seminary.
    - Gregory Carter joined HLC in 2002, wrote regular letters to his daughter Karen that gradually adopted HLC vocabulary over thirty-six months.
    - Intercom logs show nightly “reflection readings” that kept members awake until one a.m., contradicting the printed lights-out rule of ten p.m.
    - During Gregory’s regular Thursday absence, Underwood searched his room, found an unsent letter expressing doubt, and Gregory was moved to restricted quarters with supervised daily schedules.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 mins
  • The laminated debt card pushed her off Pier Fourteen and into freedom

    The laminated debt card pushed her off Pier Fourteen and into freedom
    Oct 4 2026
    A barefoot woman with a laminated debt card steps off Pier Fourteen into Harrow Cove - can its “cooperative” keep her?

    The laminated debt card pushed her off Pier Fourteen and into freedom

    In this episode, we follow how a young woman left a converted trawler community after months of grueling labor and a mounting balance displayed on a lanyard. What kept twenty-two adults tied to three vessels was not force but a ledger-and one man who ran the arithmetic.

    Person: Rhonda Hughes
    Person: Brian Sullivan
    Location: Pier Fourteen, Harrow Cove, Pelican County
    Date: November 19, 2011
    Topic: Harvest debt ledger and cooperative membership

    - At 5:42 a.m., road-grader operator Holly Edwards found a barefoot woman in yellow bib-overalls and gave her a ride.
    - The woman wore a laminated card on a lanyard reading "HARVEST DEBT - $14,340 - BALANCE DUE."
    - Rhonda had lived aboard a converted fishing trawler for eleven months, working fourteen-hour days and sleeping four hours a night.
    - Membership required surrendering paychecks to a "Harvest Fund," signing a voluntary agreement, and accepting an entry debt of $2,100 that later grew.
    - Access and movement were controlled by Dennis Marsh, the dock steward, and members had only an eight-minute unsupervised walk each morning.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 mins
  • A laminated doctorate convinced him to hand over his savings

    A laminated doctorate convinced him to hand over his savings
    Oct 3 2026
    A Dellford accountant gave his savings to a private “language school,” faced isolation and exhaustion - how do you fall from that high?

    A laminated doctorate convinced him to hand over his savings

    In this episode, we follow the path that led twenty-three people to live and pay high tuition to study a constructed language on a fourteen‑acre compound outside Dellford. We trace the methods used to recruit, control, and financially drain residents and ask what lets a fabricated credential and a rigid system of rules become a trap.

    Person: Vernon Slater
    Location: Fourteen‑acre converted orchard outside Dellford
    Date: October 4, 2011 (card photographed); October 6, 2011 (sheriff cleared compound)
    Topic: Ardean Circle immersive language compound
    Status: Convicted (man who built Ardean Circle), resident speech therapy (Linda Prue, 14 months)

    - Slater presented himself as a historical linguist with a framed, laminated doctorate from the University of Carver that later proved fake.
    - He purchased a compound after scouting an unguarded rear service entrance and set up an immersive language school charging $4,200 per month.
    - Recruitment targeted people like Norman York through careful, repeated conversations that built trust before mentioning Ardean.
    - Daily life was rigid: a Tongue Keeper maintained sleep-rotation logs ensuring no one slept more than four and a half consecutive hours.
    - Financial records kept by treasurer Marta Bess tracked every tuition payment and escalating fees that depleted residents’ savings.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 mins
  • The nine‑second voicemail that emptied her life from the top

    The nine‑second voicemail that emptied her life from the top
    Oct 2 2026
    A beloved art teacher vanishes into a traveling troupe, her nine‑second voicemail the last the outside world hears. How do you fall from that high?

    The nine‑second voicemail that emptied her life from the top

    In this episode, we trace how Cheryl Price’s steady life unravels after she joins a traveling theater troupe and fades from the routines that anchored her. We follow the timeline of calls, rehearsals, van notes and a mysterious table on a trail to ask: what did routine become, and who was keeping the ledger?

    Person: Cheryl Price
    Date: September 4, 2019 (last confirmed voicemail)
    Location: Aldermoor area (Millbrook Trail; Keller's Diner; touring five‑county circuit)
    Person: Eugene Carter
    Event: discovery on Millbrook Trail (folding table, mirror, twelve greasepaint tins, laminated card reading "DOROTHY")

    - Cheryl Price was a thirty‑one‑year‑old seventh‑grade art teacher known for routine: the same Tuesday booth at Keller's Diner and a predictable life.
    - In June 2019 Cheryl attended a community theater open call and met Lena Marsh, who introduced her to The Meridian Players and its leader, Eugene Carter.
    - The Meridian Players traveled in a leased twelve‑passenger van with a beige three‑ring binder scheduling nightly ten‑p.m. performances and five‑thirty morning "intention" sessions, implying about three and a half hours of sleep.
    - A green financial ledger in the van listed twelve bank routing numbers with the phrase "role‑maintenance funds" beside each; Cheryl’s routing number was seventh.
    - Sharon Bowers found, on Millbrook Trail at 6:12 a.m. on September 17, 2019, a deliberately arranged station: a folding table, mirror, twelve labeled greasepaint tins and a laminated card reading "DOROTHY," with no other signs of a second person.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 mins
  • The brass key that opened the gate - and the woman who walked away

    The brass key that opened the gate - and the woman who walked away
    Oct 1 2026
    A utility worker finds a sealed box with a brass key at a padlocked gate to a compound - How do you fall from that high?

    The brass key that opened the gate - and the woman who walked away

    In this episode, a routine stop on a utility route becomes the hinge of a larger story about a closed community, the records that governed it, and the woman who planned an escape. We trace the path of evidence from a cardboard box at seven fourteen on August 23, 2011, back through years of recruitment, control measures, and one meticulous act of departure.

    Date: August 23, 2011
    Time: 7:14
    Location: Dellford, Tennessee
    Person: Ruth Lewis
    Topic: Brass key, sealed box, compound records

    - Charles Davis, four stops into his route, found a sealed cardboard box against a padlocked gate on an unmarked gravel road.
    - The compound behind the gate covered fourteen acres and kept a master ledger logging every resident’s sleep in fifteen-minute increments.
    - Twenty-three manila envelopes, each addressed to a different family, were stacked inside the box with a brass key taped to the lid.
    - Ruth Lewis, a former librarian, spent five days preparing the envelopes after memorizing the records-room lockbox location during a power outage.
    - On August 19, 2011, Ruth left the compound and four days later placed the box where a utility worker would discover it.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 mins
  • The grocery receipt that began Ledger House's collapse

    The grocery receipt that began Ledger House's collapse
    Sep 30 2026
    A woman finds a mason jar with a laminated badge in an empty farmhouse. How do you fall from that high?

    The grocery receipt that began Ledger House's collapse

    In this episode, we follow the discovery in a converted farmhouse that unravels a nearly two-year pattern around a grief group called The Renewal Path. We trace who attended, what rituals and documents tied them to Ledger House, and the questions raised by a single jar and a taped grocery receipt.

    Person: Monica Adams
    Date: July 28, 2011
    Location: Ledger House, converted farmhouse on Route Nine
    Group: The Renewal Path (Ledger House)
    Document: taped grocery receipt showing ninety-eight ready-meal trays every seventy-two hours

    - Darlene Kowalski found a mason jar with a laminated badge submerged in amber liquid on the kitchen table of an otherwise empty house.
    - Monica Adams, a forty-four-year-old middle-school art teacher and widow, had written a July 1 letter saying she’d gone abroad and voluntarily surrendered her cat to Harwick Animal Control.
    - Ralph Harris led grief circles at St. Agatha’s, created a smaller continuation group, and moved meetings to Ledger House calling it The Renewal Path.
    - A yellow legal pad contained Harris’s coded assessments of members’ vulnerabilities, listing Monica with “cat - morning - isolated - asset est, thirty thousand.”
    - A taped grocery receipt in a kitchen cabinet recorded ninety-eight ready-meal trays purchased every seventy-two hours, implying a controlled feeding rotation for the fourteen members.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 mins
  • The laminated NASA badge Scott zip‑tied to the fencepost started her exodus

    The laminated NASA badge Scott zip‑tied to the fencepost started her exodus
    Sep 29 2026
    A laminated NASA badge found on a trailpost sparks doubt and departures from a remote compound preparing for a predicted solar convergence.

    The laminated NASA badge Scott zip‑tied to the fencepost started her exodus

    In this episode, we follow the documented account of how the Meridian Covenant formed, who joined it, and the daily life on a thirty-four-acre compound as a predicted Meridian Date approached. What choices did members make when a promised solar convergence failed to arrive, and how did one badge become a turning point?

    Person: Nancy Carlson
    Person: James Rice
    Date: June 14, 2011
    Location: thirty-four acres off Sutter Mill Road, near Harlow Creek, Oregon
    Event: Meridian Date countdown and compound life

    - Scott Beaumont, a trail walker, found a laminated NASA badge zip-tied to a fencepost on June 22, 2011, eight days after the Meridian Date passed.
    - James Rice, calling himself the Meridian Guide and claiming to be a former NASA atmospheric scientist, drew followers with talks, figures, and a laminated credential.
    - Members transferred about $340,000 into Rice's control; the group peaked at around twenty-eight people from Oregon, Washington, and northern California.
    - Daily life on the compound was structured: Guidance Sessions three times a week, assigned roles, a points system, and tightly managed outside contact including one four-minute weekly calls.
    - Investigators later linked Rice to a 2003 Medford Community College enrollment under the surname Ricci and found the compound-made lamination kit produced the same badge template.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    24 mins