Heart Starts Pounding Season 4, Episode 56: Reddit Scary Stories: Terrifying Cult Encounters With Amanda Montell

Who Killed John O'Keefe?: The Karen Read Trial

When John O'Keefe's body was found in the snow in January of 2022, there were more questions than answers. Eventually his girlfriend, Karen Read, was charged with his death. But as the case unraveled in court, dark secrets, illicit affairs, and police coverups came to light, proving that the truth would be hard to find.

43 min

The Cases That Keep Us Up At Night // The Parlor (feat. Psychopedia)

I sit down in the Parlor of the Rogue Detecting Society Headquarters with my good friends Tank and Investigator Slater for a chat. They tell me about some of the cases that keep them up at night, and we chat about Slater's work investigating abuse cases within the Boy Scouts and Catholic Church.

60 min

Horror In The Mountains: The Khamar-Daban Incident

7 people hiked up a mountain in August of 1993, but only one made it down alive. What she saw up on the mountain had rendered her completely speechless and has mystified the world for over 3 decades.

41 min

Real Life "Purge": Killers Inspired by Horror Movies

In 2016, Jonathan Cruz went on a four day killing spree inspired by the movie "The Purge". In 1985, Mark Branch wanted to live out his fantasy of being Jason from "Friday the 13th". What causes some people to be inspired by horror movies to commit horrible acts of violence?

42 min

Brandon Lawson: The Chilling 911 Call That Baffled Investigators

In August of 2013, Brandon Lawson made a concerning 911 call, and then was never heard from again. However, just a few weeks ago, there was a huge update in the case. Get the full story in this episode.

43 min

Mysterious Reappearances: Steven Kubacki and The Lake Michigan Triangle

In 1978, Steven Kubacki went skiing near Lake Michigan and vanished without a trace. Danny Filippidis was heading to his car to grab his phone when everything went dark. What happened to these men, and do the strange areas where they were last seen have anything to do with their disappearances, and their even stranger reapparances?

39 min

Terrifying True Urban Legends: Bodies, Bodies, Bodies

A street in Turkey that swallows people whole. A lake full of mysterious bones in India. And a changeling in America. These are times that the legends were true

37 min

Lovesick: A Tale of Poison

In March of 2023, an office manager at a dentist office in Colorado received a package that would make her blood run cold. It was cyanide, and it was addressed to her boss, whose wife had been in the hospital with a strange illness...

34 min

Backrooms Horror

In 2019, a photo of a liminal office space spawned a whole genre of horror called The Backrooms. But what are they, and what entities lurk inside? And are they a real place where some people actually get trapped?

34 min

Staying In The Most Haunted Airbnb in Salem (Feat. Two Girls One Ghost)

In part one of our series, I chat with Corinne and Sabrina from the Two Girls One Ghost podcast from inside the most haunted Airbnb in Salem, Massachusetts, The Henry Derby House. We talk about the dark history of the house, how it was involved in the Salem Witch Trials, and the entities people have reported seeing inside.

43 min

Starvation Cult Uncovered in Backwoods of Kenya

In 2024, over 600 bodies were found buried in shallow graves on a compound in the Shakahola forest. Paul Mackenzie had told his followers if they reduced their food intake, they would meet Jesus. This left many with the question- how did things get this bad?

47 min

Australia's Most Haunted Prisons

Does the devil stalk the Isle of the Dead near the Port Arthur Prison? And what supernatural force keeps people out of cell 17 at Old Melbourne Gaol?

40 min

Glennon Engleman: The Serial Killer Dentist

Dentist by day, con man and serial killer by night. Glennon Engleman manipulated the women around him to kill their loved ones in a get rich quick scheme, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake.

45 min

Backwoods Horror: Unexplained Disappearances in the Alaska Triangle

A man disappears in the middle of a race. A woman walks into the woods and is never seen again. And a small town called Portlock swears there is something evil stalking them in the woods. Some say there's something supernatural happening in the 'Alaskan Triangle'.

42 min

Has The Martin Family Been Found? Case Updates And Answering Your Darkly Curious Questions

Has the Martin Family's car been found in the Columbia River? What happened to the Brazilian poisoner who tried to kill her husbands family? What is Hantavirus, the incredibly rare illness that killed Gene Hackman's wife? I'm opening my mailbag today to ask some of your burning darkly curious questions

33 min

Morbid Medicine: Spontaneous Human Combustion

On December 22nd, 2010, a man named Michael Faherty was found in his home nearly burned to ash. Nothing else around him had been torched by the fire, however. The official coroners report read: Spontaneous Human Combustion.

37 min

North Sea Horror: Terrifying Creatures, Lost Cities, and Submersible Disasters

The North Sea has the internet talking about how scary it is, but did you know people have been terrified of the sea for Centuries? Let's take a morbid tour through the history of the North Sea and talk about creatures from legends, the lost city that supposedly sits at the bottom of it, and the disaster known as the Byford Dolphin Incident.

34 min

Ghosts on the Appalachian Trail, Creature Encounters in The Backwoods, and more Listener Stories

A man sees someone who might not exist on the Appalachian Trail. Someone is lead into the forrest by strange lights, and one woman smells something decomposing coming from a closet on her campus... These are Listener Stories, sent in from you guys.

33 min

Deathbed Confessions: Small Town Murder // I Am DB Cooper

In 1957, a man approached a young girl in Illinois and asked if she wanted a piggyback. That was the last time she was seen alive. And in 1971, a man known as "DB Cooper" hijacked a plane, stole $200,000, and disappeared without a trace. Both of these cases involved shocking confessions that were made with dying breaths.

35 min

She Said She Was a Social Worker. Then Children Started Disappearing.

For 20 years in Tennessee, a mysterious woman appeared on the doorstep of single mothers, claiming to be a social worker. She would then disappear with their children.

37 min

America's Most Notorious Baby Thief: Georgia Tann

For 20 years in Tennessee, Georgia Tann ran America's biggest black market for children, trafficking over 5,000 kids. We cover how she built her business, and how some children eventually found their families.

43 min

Brazilian Horror Folklore: Animated Corpses, Old Hags, and Backwoods Creatures

Let's look at three of the scariest legends from Brazilian Folklore: Corpo Secos that rise from their graves, Pisadeiras that creep into your room at night, and the mighty Mapinguari that stalks the rainforest.

36 min

The Burari Deaths: One Family, Eleven Bodies

In 2018, 11 people in the Chundawat family were found dead from what looked like a ritual sacrifice. It left the public with questions: was the family corrupted by a evil guru? Was this a robbery gone wrong? Or was there something even darker at play?

45 min

Reddit Scary Stories: Feral People, Hospital Hauntings, Close Calls with Killers, and more

Today, Morgan and I share our favorite scary stories from Reddit. Which ones haunt you the most?

50 min

The Ghosts of Kadena Air Base

Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, isn't just the largest U.S. military installation in the Pacific-- it's also one of the most haunted. From shadowy figures trying to enter through the gates to abandoned buildings that drive occupants to the edge, and the chilling laughter of ghostly children, Kadena's legends are as eerie as they are enduring. But are the hauntings rooted in the base itself... or in the haunted history of Okinawa Island beneath it?

31 min

Appalachian Trail Horror: Strange Encounters, Feral People, Mysterious Light, and more

A strange man stalks two women on their camping trip. A strange dog has been caught on a loop for hundred of years at the foot of a mountain. And lights that have no source, and no explanation. Today, we're taking a trip through the Appalachian trail. Bring your flashlight.

35 min

The Mysterious Death of Cindy James Part 1

In 1989, the body of a woman was found hog tied off the side of a road in Richmond British Columbia. What followed was one of the longest coroners inquest in Canadian history. An inquest that would say the woman had died by an unknown event. Although she was found with her hands and feet tied with nylon behind her back, although she had told police that for 7 years she was being harassed by an unknown person, a jury of her peers wasn't convinced that any crime had taken place... But how could that be? Well, today we are going to get into the very, very complicated death of Cindy James.

34 min

The Mysterious Death of Cindy James Part 2

In 1989, the body of a woman was found hog tied off the side of a road in Richmond British Columbia. What followed was one of the longest coroners inquest in Canadian history. An inquest that would say the woman had died by an unknown event. Although she was found with her hands and feet tied with nylon behind her back, although she had told police that for 7 years she was being harassed by an unknown person, a jury of her peers wasn't convinced that any crime had taken place... But how could that be? Well, today we are going to get into the very, very complicated death of Cindy James.

34 min

Zombie Illnesses: Rabies, Parasites and Prions

What kind of illness turns deer into stumbling, soulless shells of themselves-- bodies wasting away, but never truly dying? Or drives healthy young men into violent frenzies that leave them strapped to hospital beds, terrified of water? This week, we're diving into the terrifying world of zombie illnesses-- real diseases that hijack the brain and erase what makes us human.

35 min

Annabelle's Tour of Terror

The internet freaked out last month when the haunted doll Annabelle was taken on tour around the country. Stories started circulating of buildings burning down in her wake, prisoners escaping, and even that she went missing at one point. But what was really going on, and why was the Annabelle tour such a spiritually chaotic event?

34 min

Camping Horror Stories // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2

A young girl vanishes without a trace in the Alaskan wilderness. A camper loses 10.5 hours on his camping trip with no memory of what occurred in that time. And a young couple goes to a secluded part of a camp site, only to run into someone they're not expecting.

Rebecca Coriam: The Cruise Employee Who Vanished // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2

In 2011, a 24 year old woman vanished from a Disney Cruise that was heading back to LA. And what at first seemed like an open and shut "man overboard" case quickly started to seem like something much darker. Leaving us with the question, does Disney know more than they're saying??

43 min

Unsolved Mysteries of The Great Lakes: Ghost Ships, Lost Crews & Ancient Curses // DS VOL. 2

Mysterious disappearances, lost shipwrecks, the Lake Michigan "Stonehenge", strange lights above Lake Erie and more. There's something strange happening in the great lakes. These lakes in North America are much bigger than you would ever imagine, they hold about a fifth of the entire world's freshwater. But they also hold some of the greatest unsolved mysteries. They are quite literally full of secrets.

36 min

Reddit Scary Stories: Terrifying Encounters (feat. Investigator Slater)

From dodging serial killers, to fake ride share drivers, to finding someone in your room in the middle of the night, today we're talking all about terrifying close encounters.

67 min

The Mysterious Disappearance of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon // DS VOL. 2

In 2014, while looking for two missing hikers, Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers, in Panama, officials came across a digital camera in the forest that they believed belonged to one of them. The photos they found on that camera were disturbing, to say the least. And they held terrifying clues as to what happened to the missing girls.

49 min

Abandoned Amusement Parks: Hauntings, Disasters, and more // DS VOL. 2

Summer is the perfect time to visit an amusement park, but for every park that's open and bustling during the warmer months, there's one that's fallen into disrepair and sits there abandoned. But what causes this to happen? Well, sometimes a series of horrible accidents cause the public to lose faith in a park, and ticket sales plummet. Sometimes, a once in a generation disaster occurs and an entire city must evacuate, leaving the park inside empty. And other times, a park somehow winds up built on an ancient graveyard, and unexplained, supernatural events scare the public away. Today, we're talking about River Country, Pripyat Amusement Park, and Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park.

37 min

What Was Hiding in Germany's Göhrde Forest? The Göhrde Murders // DS VOL. 2

This story starts with a police officer who was investigating a suspect in a missing woman's case. When the officer went down into the man's basement, he found a secret, locked leather door in the far back corner of the room. Now, to understand what was in that room, and who that man was, we need to start all the way at the beginning, and go deep into the Göhrde Forest where in 1989, multiple bodies were discovered deep within the woods.

43 min

The Mysterious Disappearance of The Beaumont Children: Australia'sMost Puzzling Unsolved Mystery

In 1966, three children vanished without a trace in Australia, and no one knows what happened. It's a mystery that still plagues the country to this day, and may credit it as the reason people started locking their doors there. But today, we have a much clearer picture of the crime, who might have been responsible, and there's even been updates on the case as of this year.

50 min

How Did This Yacht Crew Vanish Into Thin Air? The Kaz II Disappearance // DS VOL. 2

The idea of a "Ghost ship"-- a ship that is floating completely off course with its crew mysteriously gone or dead, has become more ridiculous over the years. Sure, maybe back in the day, with a lack of GPS tracking and communication a whol crew could vanish, but that could never happen today. Right? The Kaz II which has been coined "The Ghost Yacht", perhaps a more modern version of a ghost ship, and the fate of those three men-- Derek Batten, James Tunstead, and Peter Tunstead-- still remains a mystery to this day.

36 min

Reddit Scary Stories: True Camping Horror Tales (feat. National Park After Dark)

From a recent and tragic double murder in Devil's Den State Park, to a hiker entering a time warp, to unknowingly encountering a serial killer while camping, today we're talking through all the terrifying and mysterious national park stories.

76 min

Lost Media You'll Never See: The Nickelodeon Tapes, Children's Program Hijacks and more

Lost media, TV urban legends, and the moments kids' networks never wanted you to see. This episode investigates the rumored Nickelodeon "destroyed tape" from Legends of the Hidden Temple, real broadcast signal hijackings (including the infamous Handy Manny incident), and a haunting stop-motion short known only as "The Butcher". From grueling game-show sets to vanished DVR recordings, we dig into how media disappears and why people won't stop looking for it.

38 min

Tortured Live on Stream: The Death of Jean Pormanove

At 4:47 AM on August 18th, 2025, after 280 hours of torture streamed live to thousands of viewers, Jean Pormanove died in his sleep while on camera. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest. But what really killed him was a system perfectly designed to monetize human suffering, to turn degradation into content, to transform a vulnerable man's destruction into entertainment. The streaming continues. The algorithm watches. And somewhere, another Jean Pormanove is typing his first message to this mother: "I feel like I'm being held hostage." The question isn't whether this will happen again. It's happening right now, the only question is whether we'll keep watching.

36 min

Reddit Scary Stories: Reddit Stories That Could Be True Crime Docs (feat. Annie Elise)

From a woman's mother in law attempting to kill her with latex gloves, a near child kidnapping where the biological parents were doubted, to having to take matters into your own hands with your stalker, these are all real Reddit Scary Stories so dark they could be True Crime Documentaries.

59 min

The Vampire: Peter Kurten, the Blood Sucking German Serial Killer // MONSTERS SERIES

In 1929, bodies were turning up all over Dusseldorf, Germany with one horrifying thing in common. It looked like someone had bitten their necks, and in some cases, tried to drain them of blood. Immediately word of a vampire spread throughout the city, but that did little to stop the attacks, which would eventually point back to one of the most depraved human beings that we've covered on this show...

41 min

HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 1 "It's Just a Game."

HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 1 "It's Just a Game." 17-year-old Charlie (JUDAH LEWIS) shows up to his job at Funland to find his co-worker, Blake, dead and the building on fire with an ominous message scratched into the break room door: Tick Tock. Believing the message may be connected to the 13 Keys video game Blake was playing, Charlie tries to learn more about Jacob Fairchild, the game's creator. He and Gama (Arjun Athalye) discover a copy of 13 Keys on Blake's computer. Charlie chooses to play, against Gama's wishes, starting the clock and giving him 24 hours to find the 13 keys hidden in the game. If he fails? The Timekeeper comes.

29 min

The Siren: Belle Gunness, The Husband Luring Serial Killer // MONSTERS SERIES

What would happen if you read an ad in a newspaper for your dream partner. They're rich, they're beautiful and they are looking for someone to share their life with. Would you answer, or is that too good to be true? Well, in 1906, dozens of men around the country had that exact problem, except when they answered these ads and went to go meet their future wife, they vanished without a trace.

48 min

HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 2 "He's Always Watching"

After the video game behaves weirdly, Charlie and Zama pay a visit to Zoe (Chandler Kinney) to try and figure out how it works. Charlie storms out when Zoe's boyfriend arrives, but calls on them for help once he comes to believe The Timekeeper is somehow watching him play.

31 min

Spooky Listen! Jack the Ripper | CLUES Podcast

Today I'm sharing a special bonus episode from Clues, where Morgan Absher and I dig into the chilling mystery of Jack the Ripper. In 1888, a brutal killer stalked London's Whitechapel district, leaving behind mutilated victims, taunting letters, and a mystery that still grips the world. Jack the Ripper claimed at least five lives, and more than a century later, the clues he left continue to baffle experts and fuel debate. We're diving into the evidence, the suspects, and the chilling theories surrounding one of history's most infamous unsolved cases.

107 min

The Boogeyman: Hinterkaifek, The German Family Slaughtered By A Stranger // MONSTERS SERIES

Imagine you hear a strange sound coming from your attic one evening. What is scarier? That it's paranormal? Maybe a ghost haunting your space? Or that it's a person, an unknown intruder watching you from inside your own home? That is a question that a family in the German countryside had to ask themselves a hundred years ago. But we would never know their answer, because after hearing strange sounds coming from their attic, the entire family and their chambermaid were found brutally slain inside of their barn. What was tormenting the Gruber family?

47 min

HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 3 "Shady Pines"

Charlie, Zoe and Gama head toward the coordinates Tim wrote down while he was playing the game, hoping to find him alive. Charlie keeps playing and finds more keys, but he can feel the Timekeeper closing in as his clock ticks down.

30 min

The Werewolf: H.H Holmes and His Murder Castle // MONSTERS SERIES

Step inside the legend of H.H. Holmes and the chilling labyrinth he built during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. We'll follow a string of disappearances through the "Murder Castle" he built: a three story building with the sole purpose of killing as many people as discreetly as possible. Was Holmes a criminal mastermind, or has time twisted the tale?

50 min

HSP Presents: The Timekeeper Ep. 4 "Win Or Die"

Charlie and Zoe race against the clock as they confront the true horror of Shady Pines and learn the truth behind Fairchild's death.

35 min

Skinwalkers, Stalked In The Backwoods, And Other Terrifying True Stories From Listeners

A strange whistling in the desert. A suspicious man lurking for young hikers. A timeslip. A house whose inhabitant might not be living. And More. The spooky tales we received from listeners like you, with special guest Morgan Absher from Two Hot Takes!

69 min

Terrifying True Urban Legends: Cropsey and The Missing Children

Today, I want to tell you about a horrifying urban legend that haunted a community nearby the ruins of the abandoned Willowbrook State School in Staten Island for decades. Eventually, children started really disappearing from this community, so let's explore the real story behind the urban legend...

35 min

Mount Everest Horror: The Lost Climbers of the Death Zone

Last year, a group of adventurers with National Geographic were hiking Mount Everest when they saw a human foot sticking out of the ice. Now, it is not rare to see dead bodies on the mountain, there are at least 200 of them scattered around Everest, and many of them act as markers for trails, frozen forever in time where they fell. But this human foot in particular, had been on the mountain for 100 years and solved a century old mystery...

35 min

Cold Cases Solved This Year

Cold cases can sit on shelves for years without answers, but this year we've seen some amazing advancements in cases that police thought would never get solved. I want to tell you about three of them today, with twists that no one saw coming. We'll cover the Yogurt Shop Murders, and the shocking discoveries that led to arrests in the murders of Aliza Sherman and Doris Worrell.

44 min

Christmas Horror Folklore: Krampus, Frau Perchta & The Other St. Nick

Today I want to tell you about the dark origins of Christmas, before Santa Claus ever existed. We're diving into Frau Perchta, a Christmas witch who visited homes with iron scissors and a taste for porridge...whether she had to cut it out of you or not. We'll also cover the real Saint Nicholas and his disturbing miracles, and the demonic Krampuses who worked alongside him to drag sinners straight to hell. This beloved holiday is actually as dark as a Brother Grimms fairytale...

33 min

Vanished At Christmas: Two Mysteries That Will Make You Question Everything

Today, I want to tell you about two winter mysteries that have haunted New York for over a century. The first is about Dorothy Arnold, who disappeared on a cold December day in 1910 after leaving a bookstore in Manhattan. And the second is about a devastating Christmas night fire in Staten Island in 1843, and the legend of the witch who started it.

40 min

Lost Media Vol. 2: Missing Holiday Media

What happens when beloved holiday entertainment crosses the line? From Disney's The Santa Clause hiding adult Easter eggs that horrified parents, to the 1997 Macy's Day Parade disaster NBC tried to erase, to Vincent Price's final grief-stricken performance that Disney deemed "unusable". These aren't just missing tapes, they're pieces of holiday history someone decided we shouldn't remember.

34 min

"Something Is Mimicking My Sister" and Other Terrifying True Stories From Listeners

36 min

Inside the World's Most Haunted Castles | True Ghost Stories

This week, we're exploring three of the world's most haunted castles-- and the dark histories that made them that way. At Windsor Castle in England, we'll encounter the ghost og a beheaded king who appears whole. In Austria's Moosham Castle, we explore the only male dominated witch trials. And finally, we visit Himeji Castle in Japan to meet Okiku, the servant girl whose ghost inspired one of the most iconic images in horror.

41 min