Every Town Has A Dark Side - BEST of 2024n

This episode of TruRed CRIME wraps up 2024 with a chilling compilation of three of the year's most disturbing true crime and mystery stories, each revealing the dark underbelly of seemingly ordinary towns. The first story centers on Alaska’s staggering missing persons rate—173.5 per 100,000 people—far exceeding any other U.S. state. This anomaly is explored through the lens of indigenous Tlingit legends of the Kushtake, or 'otter men,' shape-shifting creatures said to lure and devour humans. Real-life encounters, including a 1900s account of a man fleeing a pack of hairy, screaming human-otter hybrids and a 1972 plane disappearance, fuel speculation about the Alaska Triangle—a region where planes and people vanish without a trace. The second story dives into the real-life monster behind the Staten Island urban legend of Cropsey, revealing Andre Rand, a former Willowbrook State School custodian who murdered at least 12 people over decades, using the island’s Greenbelt as his dumping ground. His crimes were fueled by a warped psyche, and his victims were often children or vulnerable adults. The third and most harrowing tale is that of Herbert Boeumeister, the 'I-70 Strangler' of Indianapolis, a respected businessman who lived a double life as a serial killer. He murdered up to 25 men—many gay or vulnerable—luring them to his Fox Hollow Farm, where he strangled them, burned their bodies, and buried the remains across his estate. His eventual suicide in Canada after police closed in underscores the terrifying reality that monsters often wear the mask of normalcy. The episode closes with three bonus stories: the haunted Ohio River, the unsolved disappearances of mother and daughter Annette and Karina Malinoski in South Carolina, and the mysterious Soviet Antarctic camps known as the 'Unknown Expedition,' where an entire team vanished without a trace. Together, these tales illustrate that every town harbors secrets—some buried in forests, others beneath lawns, and some in the minds of those we trust most.