Missing Magnolias tells the stories of the murdered or missing but certainly not forgotten. Too often we sensationalize the offender and undermine the victim. This true crime podcast combats the norm by offering a curation of interviews with victims, criminologists, experts, and truth- seekers who begin the dialogue: what is the "real true crime experience?"
Dr. Michelle Jeanis interviews Capt. McCullan “Mac” Gallien about how they caught a serial rapist who was a law enforcement officer, revealing investigative tactics and psychological profiling.
14 Jan 2026
The Carpool Detectives: Six Feet Apart, Fifteen Years Deep
Four women. One ravine. A cold case that refused to stay buried.
Joining us are Marissa, Jeannie, Samira, and Nicole—the investigators behind The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan. What began during the isolation of the COVID lockdown as curiosity—sparked by a grainy video of a car being pulled from a ravine after what was ruled an “accident”—evolved into a years-long investigation uncovering financial irregularities, resurrected cell phones, institutional resistance, and evidence pointing to a double homicide.
Hovering just out of frame is Michelle McNamara, another Southern California mother whose legacy looms large in this work—proof that amateur sleuths can help move cold cases when official systems stall. But as these women note, McNamara carried the emotional toll largely alone; they carried it together. Though the case did not end with arrests and ultimately intersected with unsettling hints of organized crime, their work gave the family something they had been denied for over a decade: truth, validation, and answers. On the horizon, the team looks ahead to their next case—a series of Jane Doe murders from the 1970s and 1980s, where untested DNA may finally give names back to the forgotten.
Be sure to purchase The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan. (https://www.amazon.com/Carpool-Detectives-Story-Bodies-Mysterious/dp/0593733223)
And follow the team on their Insta (https://www.instagram.com/thecarpooldetectives/?hl=en)!
22 Oct 2025
Class, Let's Tap into the Hive!
Can a high school class crack a serial killer case? In Elizabethton, Tennessee, sociology teacher Alex Campbell and his students did just that. What began as a lesson in victimology became the Redhead Murders project, where students assembled thefirst behavioral profile of the offender who targeted red-haired women along southern highways in the 1980s and ultimately renamed him the “Bible Belt Strangler.”
The class collaborated with FBI profilers, cold case experts, podcasters, and social media. Their groundbreaking work, not only pointed to long haul trucker Jerry Johns, who died in prison in 2015 but also definitively linked six of the victims— whom the class calls the ‘Six Sisters.” Their dedication even led to the identification of Tina farmer, the only victim officially tied to Johns through DNA evidence. The project reshaped how we think about true crime, proving that ‘hive knowledge,’ grassroots efforts, and social media, are valuable tools in solving cold cases.
There’s still a lot of work to be done in the redheadmurders investigation, but the class has since expanded their efforts. With support from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, the students created JusticeForTracySue.com (https://www.justice4tracysue.com/media-kit)and established a tip line (1-800-TBI-FIND) for more information about Tracy Sue Walker.
Be sure to listen to Alex’s acclaimed ten-episode podcast series with iHeartRadio: Murder 101 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-101/id1724019923)
Inside a recent episode
LIVE: Hunting Lafayette's South Side Rapist
Published 24 Jun 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] And I wonder how many cases are sitting in the lab right now that have never been run. Probably a lot. Yeah, that was a problem. What I decided to do, and my supervisors allowed it, me and another investigator got in a car and we drove to Beaumont, Texas. Well, first we drove to Lake Charles, then Beaumont, then Houston, and then Dallas, Shreveport. Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and back to Lafayette. Because we didn't have the nice computers that we have now. And the only way we could get our packets out were to go to all these places and say, hey, I'm Detective Galleon. Here's a packet. […]
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