MFM Minisode 353

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[2] The minisodes.

[3] That's right.

[4] We re -jew a story, a couple of them, actually.

[5] And they're probably yours.

[6] Yeah.

[7] So stay tuned.

[8] Does anyone ever think to do that at the top of a podcast?

[9] Hey, stay tuned.

[10] Stay tuned for some hot minisode action.

[11] You want to go first?

[12] Sure.

[13] The subject line of this is just creepy hotel story.

[14] And it says, bonjour everyone.

[15] Love you all.

[16] Done.

[17] I've been sitting on this story.

[18] to tell you for quite a while and I'm finally getting down to type it.

[19] I'm a flight attendant in Canada and I've been training new hires for years now.

[20] In one of our lesson plans, we talk about how to best prepare for any flight and layover, how to be safe during layovers against weather and possible intruders in our hotel rooms.

[21] And then in parentheses it says, it happens a lot more than you think.

[22] And that's actually very true.

[23] There's a whole area on TikTok where it's flight attendants showing you different tricks to use inside your hotel room to keep your door closed.

[24] Terrifying.

[25] One of my participants once told us a story that happened at his previous airline.

[26] They were on a layover and it was time to be picked up from the hotel to go to the airport.

[27] One flight attendant was missing.

[28] They called her room and she was saying that she couldn't find her work shoes.

[29] They couldn't be anywhere but in her room since she got there with them on.

[30] Two people went to go help her.

[31] After a while, one of them opened a drawer, which she had never used before, and here they were.

[32] She was obviously confused.

[33] When they picked up the shoes, they noticed a note that was hiding under it.

[34] And it said, it was nice to watch you sleep at night.

[35] No. Oh, my God.

[36] Now, this sounds just like an urban myth.

[37] It does.

[38] But flight attendants and the hotels that I'm sure that they stay at or that are close to the airport, this seems highly likely to me. Yeah.

[39] So this ends by saying, sadly, we do not know who entered her room or who was hiding in her room when she got in it.

[40] The only thing we know is how extremely lucky she is that nothing else happened to her.

[41] Be safe out there, everyone.

[42] SSDGM, JP.

[43] Oh, my God.

[44] That is so terrifying.

[45] It's crazy.

[46] They sell little devices that you can, like, put in your door and it holds the lock a certain way.

[47] Yeah.

[48] Because when you watch the videos of showing how someone gets in, it's so fucking easy.

[49] It's so easy.

[50] And on top of that, there are often people who have room keys for whatever reason.

[51] That's like, I've heard lots and lots of those stories on like, let's read and let's not meet and stuff where it's just like, suddenly there's a person walking in and he's got a uniform on him.

[52] I mean, so horrifying.

[53] I thought I'd kick it off with the worst vibes possible.

[54] Stay safe out there, guys.

[55] And be nice to your flight attendant.

[56] Okay.

[57] Well, how about we go from flight attendant to crime scene cleaner?

[58] sounds good to me all right i'm going to read the intro after i say that in parentheses they say yes i said that in the cat tone we all know well hi you know what i'm talking about oh yeah well hi the best cat of all time oh cookie did not like that oh so not a typical hometown but i hope you enjoy okay i realize the word enjoy feels odd to say i used to be a crime scene cleaner so i was very up to date on the violent scene happening in two different cities I lived in out in California.

[59] Here's a case that stuck out to me. A homicide in a parking garage in downtown L .A. An ex -boyfriend shot and killed his ex -girlfriend on the third story of a parking garage.

[60] The body was still on scene at the time I arrived as police were still processing the scene.

[61] The blood drained down all three floors and made for a really tricky cleanup.

[62] I don't know if you've ever followed a pool of blood down multiple stories with a scrub brush and pressure washer, but does not make for a fun 2 a .m. late night out.

[63] Honestly, at first, I was also quite anxious about the gunman circling back because he hadn't been caught yet.

[64] Then, about half hour before I finished the job, he did circle back to attempt to get his vehicle that he ditched, but police were still on watch as I was working.

[65] So after a stand down and hiding in my truck for what felt like fucking years, they got him into custody.

[66] What the F. If you're wondering how my mental health is now, a few years later, it's actually going strong and has really balanced out in the last year.

[67] I struggle with remembering things sometimes.

[68] However, I decided to get out of the crime scene clean up business and decided to chase a career path where I can still help people who are typically alive when I arrive on the scene.

[69] I now work in emergency medicine as a paramedic and balance the occasional weight of that job out with firefighting.

[70] This person is a fucking superhero.

[71] We need to talk about what balance means, but that's.

[72] That's fine.

[73] Fair enough.

[74] Cudos and fucking hoorays to my wife for being on my side the entire time.

[75] Thanks for reading.

[76] Apologies for the length.

[77] I often listen to your podcast while driving long distances to wildfires.

[78] And it makes the time go by quicker.

[79] So I'm always thankful to the both of you.

[80] Stay sexy.

[81] Sarah.

[82] Sarah, thank you for your service in pretty much every emergency industry that has existed.

[83] Save a couple.

[84] And the idea that it's going from crime scene cleaner to EMT to firefighter.

[85] What a trajectory.

[86] She's an adrenaline junkie, I bet.

[87] It's like climb a mountain or become a firefighter.

[88] And what's the C option?

[89] Go to in and out.

[90] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.

[91] Absolutely.

[92] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash.

[93] Exactly.

[94] And if you're a small business owner, you might know Shopify is great for online sales.

[95] But did you know that they also power in -person sales?

[96] That's right.

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[105] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify .com slash murder.

[106] Important note, that promo code is all lowercase.

[107] Go to Shopify .com slash murder to take your retail business to the next level today.

[108] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[109] Goodbye.

[110] Okay.

[111] I'm not going to read you this subject line.

[112] It's so long.

[113] The subject line is so long in this email.

[114] It's hilarious.

[115] Okay, so it just starts like this.

[116] I grew up in a suburban dream neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, in the late 90s, early 2000s.

[117] Normal neighbors with rigorous lawn schedules and kids running amok, with the wildest thing that could happen being the occasional black bear rummaging through your trash.

[118] Oh, God.

[119] That was until my neighbor decided to hold his girlfriend and her brother hostage in June of 2002.

[120] I remember the exact date because it was all.

[121] my sixth birthday and thought the street was closed and lined with police cars to honor me, which is, it says L .O .L. in parentheses, but it's also like, oh, that's such a little kid imagination of like, everyone's gathered for me. And then it's like, actually, it's something truly horrible.

[122] Go to your room.

[123] That is a six -year -old, you won't even hear about.

[124] We won't tell you anything about it.

[125] Our house was wakened by the Anchorage SWAT team evacuating us out of the home as the manic shooting neighbor had already led out several shots at neighboring homes, but nobody was injured, thankfully.

[126] My dad, born and raised in Anchorage and always lived within the same 15 -mile range, was a social butterfly.

[127] Growing up, we always ran into a friend of Stanley, who he inevitably went to high school with.

[128] Why would a SWAT evacuation go any differently?

[129] So picture this.

[130] It's 4 a .m. My sleepy family is being led by the SWAT team out of the house.

[131] As my dad stops us all for a photo with his childhood friend, working on the SWAT team.

[132] This was before we were evacuated to safety.

[133] My dad thought the whole situation was cool and loved seeing his friend at work and wouldn't miss the opportunity to capture it.

[134] That's beyond insane.

[135] Needless to say, Stanley got his photo with all of us enthusiastically posed with his smiling SWAT team friend.

[136] Stay sexy and don't stop the SWAT team from evacuating your family from an active shooter for a photo op regardless of the Christmas card potential.

[137] love may and that's m a i may p s a few years later the anchorage serial killer israel keys would be caught and convicted in this neighborhood just a street down from me holy shit my mom will forever tell the story of how she stopped his truck and yelled at him for speeding and erratic driving in the neighborhood with kids nearby i guess shout out to my mom chilling to think of what or whom he was rushing back to oh my god Nothing happens in Anchorage.

[138] Excuse me. That's what you'd like to think.

[139] That's what you're telling yourself.

[140] Right.

[141] Those are huge.

[142] Okay, I'm not going to read the title of this next one, but it's about Red Lobster, so I had to pick it.

[143] Karen and Georgia, I second literally every person who has written in and told you how much you mean to your listeners.

[144] I'm a long time listener since 2018.

[145] How is that a long time ago?

[146] Oh, my God, it is.

[147] Because it's 2023.

[148] It's the end of 2023.

[149] September's over, by the way.

[150] Like, if you had any September plans, they're pushed.

[151] I'm wearing a fucking Halloween shirt already.

[152] Hey!

[153] I'm resending this because I'm nothing, if not hopelessly, optimistic.

[154] Have you ever experienced the joy that is a cheddar bay biscuit from Red Lobster?

[155] Yes, I have.

[156] I hope so, because I need you to know how good those biscuits are to fully appreciate this story and the lengths my hometown went to to get this restaurant.

[157] I will try to keep this short, but I am not known for telling any story quickly.

[158] P .S., I'm sorry in advance for all the parenthetical statements.

[159] I was diagnosed as a 29 -year -old with severe levels of ADHD, and it shows in my excessive use of parentheses and clarifying statements.

[160] Hi, have you read, stay sexy, and don't get murdered, all my chapters.

[161] That's all it is.

[162] That's all it is.

[163] Footnote after footnote.

[164] Right.

[165] In 1984, my grandfather, Roger, was mayor of our hometown, Huntington, West Virginia.

[166] At this time, we had a population of around 100 ,000, according to the internet, I wasn't alive yet, so I have no clue.

[167] Huntington was, and still is, a small but thriving city sitting next to the Ohio River.

[168] West Virginia borders Ohio and Kentucky, so it's easy enough to travel between the three states.

[169] So in 1984, Huntington was apparently in desperate need of a red lobster.

[170] So much so that my grandfather, as the mayor and 549 other residents, drove in a five -mile -long caravan from Huntington, West Virginia, to Lexington, Kentucky, a drive of 127 miles to the nearest red lobster in, quote, protest over the absence of the restaurant back home.

[171] According to a local newspaper article I found, this included five charter buses and 50 cars, vans, motorhomes, etc. Grandpa didn't start this mission to get a chain seafood restaurant in town.

[172] It was organized by radio station, WGND, after two local radio personalities mentioned they wish there was a red lobster in the area.

[173] They struck a nerve.

[174] Pioneer, like podcasting pioneers, essentially.

[175] Yeah, they are.

[176] Get into the people with what they want to talk about, what they want to gather around.

[177] We owe them.

[178] This caravan of 550 people did give the Lexington Red Lobster advance notice, and Grandad gave the mayor of Lexington a key to Huntington.

[179] It sounds like a whole festival.

[180] Like a shrimp festival, for example.

[181] The whole caravan ate seafood and appetizers in the parking lot of the Lexington Red Lobster and gathered some media attention.

[182] Apparently, this was a great day.

[183] I'm sad I was born eight years too late and missed it.

[184] The city did successfully gain a red lobster in 1985, mission accomplished.

[185] Hell yeah.

[186] Huntington gets their own cheddar bay biscuits, and Lexington now has a key to a city in West Virginia.

[187] Everyone wins.

[188] Especially my granddad, the humble.

[189] bragger, who has never set foot in the restaurant without telling every single employee he can find.

[190] This is usually just random teenage hosts who truly cannot be bothered, and whichever lucky server has him seated in their section, that he helped bring Red Lobster to the area.

[191] Which as mayor, he kind of did, but he wasn't the organizer.

[192] So again, the tendency to humble brag and or embellish a story is strong in this man. Since I know you love grandparents' names, his wife is named Jinks because their first state was a disaster.

[193] He decided she was a jinx to him.

[194] 61 years later, no one uses her real name, and she gets very angry when you try.

[195] They love each other fiercely, and I'm proud to be their granddaughter.

[196] Stay sexy and do whatever it takes to get a red lobster in your hometown, Maggie.

[197] Oh, Maggie.

[198] That was like the most beautiful slice of life.

[199] Wasn't it?

[200] Yes, it really was.

[201] Wait, what state is that town in?

[202] West Virginia.

[203] Oh, God.

[204] Send us your stories that are like that, where this, like, random, fucking thing happened and everyone gathered around you have some kind of familial connection maybe maybe not include names like we want maybe it's just it's something that like you're proud that everyone got into because it was like something positive and good and fun yeah so you know i do not care for seafood right the only reason i know about cheddar bay biscuits is because one year at my sister's friend adrian's thanksgiving dinner her adrian's mother -in -law and got the recipe and made cheddar bay biscuits for everybody.

[205] And she made it, I believe she made it so everyone could have two.

[206] Wow.

[207] So there was like just a ton of them because everyone loves them so much.

[208] I haven't been in literally 20 years.

[209] Remember when we were on tour some, oh, was it South Carolina?

[210] Probably.

[211] And we had some time between the show, but you and I were working.

[212] And so Vince didn't have to go in yet.

[213] And he went across the highway to the Red Lobster by himself.

[214] I was so jealous.

[215] Oh, yeah.

[216] I do remember that.

[217] I feel like could it have been in Massachusetts?

[218] It's the last time we took an Uber to their show because it was so late.

[219] And I was sweating and angry by the time we got there.

[220] And Vince is like, I'm just going to start sending a car to pick you guys up.

[221] It's like, oh, yeah.

[222] Yep.

[223] Because we were just like, was that one where it's like somebody was just like, it just the Uber itself made us wait?

[224] Or was it the ride there?

[225] Yeah, it was like a small town Uber driver who was like, yeah, I'm going to get out of my, off my couch and come pick you up.

[226] And we're just used to fucking Los Angeles where they're just constantly circling.

[227] Oh, the road, oh, the road.

[228] Tour stories.

[229] Okay, here's my last story.

[230] I'm not going to, it's Halloween hometown lighthearted.

[231] Hello.

[232] I'm assuming they mean that like Mrs. Doubtfire.

[233] Absolutely.

[234] If there's that many of us.

[235] This is my absolute favorite time of year.

[236] and I'm so excited to write in and share my Halloween story with you guys.

[237] A few years ago, I was training for a half marathon.

[238] Partway through my run, I realized that I had miscalculated my miles and needed to add a few more in before I met up with my husband at the finish.

[239] I was just entering downtown and decided to swing a left and run along the path that bordered the river.

[240] I don't usually run that way because it isn't the best part of town and I was running alone, but it would add the three miles I needed and I decided to go for it.

[241] It was early October, and the weather was perfect, cloudy, overcast with a slight fog lingering above the wet ground.

[242] As I wound around the path, I noticed a figure crouching in the trees up ahead, and I was startled to realize that they were intently staring at me. I was getting seriously creeped out by this person, and I was glancing to my right to see if I could make it up the embankment to the road when I stumbled upon a bloodied person laying in the middle of the path.

[243] I stopped running.

[244] I'm going to quickly remind everybody right now that I said at the beginning of this, this is a Halloween hometown and lighthearted.

[245] Just a reminder.

[246] Okay, I'm with you.

[247] I stopped running, trying not to panic, when the person suddenly reached out to grab my leg with their bloody arm.

[248] Just as the person lurking in the trees jumped out at me, I have never been so terrified as I was in that moment.

[249] I screamed, kicked out at the person on the ground, and high -tailed it up the embankment to the road.

[250] When I reached the top, gasping for air, I desperately looked around me for help.

[251] What I found instead was a large group of runners complete with their bibs and timing chips, gleefully being chased by zombies.

[252] I've never been so relieved, embarrassed, and absolutely mortified to find that I was actually not being attacked by a serial killer, but unknowingly participating in a zombie fun run.

[253] Stay sexy.

[254] That does not sound like fun.

[255] You can't call that a fun run.

[256] It's not a fun run if you don't know you're in it.

[257] That's the key.

[258] You have to have signed up yourself.

[259] It can't be a surprise zombie fun run.

[260] Oh my God.

[261] Which is what they went through.

[262] Stay sexy and don't kick out at innocent people when you accidentally find yourself in a zombie run, Jamie.

[263] Man, they needed some kind of like, wear a purple shirt if you're part of the fun run or some shit like that.

[264] But the thing that sounds super funny is it just seemed to the actors dressed up as zombies.

[265] like she was the fastest runner.

[266] She was out ahead of everybody.

[267] They're like, let's get her.

[268] She kicked me. Oh, my God.

[269] That's like the best case scenario of that story.

[270] Oh, my God.

[271] It starts as a scary story.

[272] It moves into, oh, my God, we've gone into full true crime story.

[273] And then the grabbing begins.

[274] And it's like, oh, no, it's a dystopian apocalypse of the undead.

[275] She was right to kick, I will say.

[276] A hell yes.

[277] That's on whoever created that event.

[278] That's on them.

[279] We have to find someone to blame.

[280] Always.

[281] There's always someone.

[282] How about a police lineup, Meet Cute?

[283] Hi, friends.

[284] In Minnesota 214, you asked for Meet Cute stories, and I excitedly ran to get my iPad so I could send you this story.

[285] I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where my dad worked as a homicide detective for many years.

[286] Growing up, he would casually tell me stories about murders he worked, usually as we were driving past the locations where they happened.

[287] I think this was in an effort to warn me not to walk home alone, but it inadvertently turned me into a total murderino.

[288] He even worked the murder of Brenda Sue Schaefer, which Georgia beautifully, I think you, covered in an episode that I just don't have the energy to look up.

[289] However, that is not what this email is about.

[290] This is the story about how my dad picked up my mom out of a police lineup.

[291] In the 80s, my mom worked as a paralegal at the U .S. Attorney's Office.

[292] I can't remember all the details, but I guess a blonde woman with big hair and even bigger shoulder pads had committed a crime because my mom and some of the other women from the office were asked to be part of a police lineup.

[293] My dad, being a homicide detective, was around and saw my mom standing in the lineup.

[294] After it was confirmed she had not committed the crime in question, my dad asked for her phone number.

[295] My mom was not impressed and a little embarrassed and allegedly told him if he was a good detective, he could find her number himself.

[296] I say allegedly because it just seems too smooth.

[297] As the story goes, he did, don't trust your fucking parents.

[298] As the story goes, he did use his detective skills to get her number.

[299] They started dating and 30 -ish years later, here we are.

[300] It worked out.

[301] I hope you love this story as much as I do.

[302] I personally think the image of my Irish Catholic mom in a lineup is hilarious.

[303] Thank you for creating a podcast that makes me laugh every week.

[304] As someone from Louisville, Kentucky, thank you for using your platform to say Brianna Taylor's name.

[305] Stay sexy and try to get in a police lineup.

[306] Shelby.

[307] Shelby.

[308] Shelby.

[309] Shelby.

[310] One of my favorite names.

[311] Really?

[312] Yeah, that's a joke with me and my sister because Shelby is a very popular girl's name in my hometown.

[313] And that's my joke that you know, because girls softball is very popular and very kind of like important in my hometown.

[314] And I always tell my sister, that's how you know you're at a Petaluma Girl Softball.

[315] ball game.

[316] If someone's going, get up there, Shelby, do it.

[317] Shelby A. Shelby A, go get them.

[318] Focus.

[319] Shelby.

[320] I don't know why people have an accent, but that's how we usually do it.

[321] On Petal, Lou.

[322] Shelby.

[323] Shelby, send in your story, wouldn't you?

[324] Won't you?

[325] Won't you?

[326] Shelby, please.

[327] Support us.

[328] Yeah, we appreciate you.

[329] We appreciate all the Shelby's.

[330] And if you are a member of the fan cult, you can watch this right now.

[331] I was kind of trying to fix my hair almost the entire time we were recording it's got it's very layered but yeah there's video of this so you can go under the fan cult and watch it yeah if you want if you want have fun my favorite murder .com thanks for listening stay sexy and don't get murdered a good bye Elvis do you want a cookie this has been an exactly right production our senior producer is alex our editor is aristotle osavito This episode was mixed by Leanna Squalachie.

[332] Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail .com.

[333] And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and on Twitter at My Fave Murder.

[334] Goodbye.

[335] Follow My Favorite Murder on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen so you don't miss an episode.

[336] If you like what you hear, rate and review the show.

[337] Visit exactly right store .com to purchase my favorite murder merch.