Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast She Goes by Jane: A True Crime Podcast

In October 1985, 19-year-old Mary Colette Rawlinson walked out of a home in San Diego, California, telling her boyfriend she'd be right back. She was never seen again.

As more women disappeared from El Cajon Boulevard and the surrounding communities, investigators struggled to answer a troubling question: were these isolated crimes, or was someone hunting women across San Diego County?

In Part Two of our three-part series, we widen the lens beyond a single case to examine the growing pattern of disappearances and murders targeting women living at the intersection of addiction, poverty, and survival sex work. Through the stories of Mary Colette Rawlinson and the women who vanished alongside her, we look at how fear spread through the community while families fought to convince authorities that their daughters deserved to be searched for.

The mounting number of victims would eventually force law enforcement to confront the possibility that the cases were connected, but by then, many women were already gone.

This is Part Two of our three-part series, San Diego's Lost Women.

📍 San Diego, California  | October 1985

📖 Featuring an original poem written and read in her honor by Lahna Turner.

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

More about Lahna Turner:

Lahna Turner is a comedian, filmmaker, writer, producer, co-director, and published comic book author whose work spans stand-up, television, film, music, publishing, and documentary storytelling.

For more than two decades, Lahna has built a loyal following with fearless comedy, sharp observations, and an unfiltered perspective on relationships, motherhood, grief, family, and the messy realities of life. Her credits include NBC, Comedy Central, Netflix, Hulu, VH1, Animal Planet, CMT, truTV, and SiriusXM.

Known for blending stand-up with original music, Lahna’s one-hour special A Song About It and albums including If These Lips Could Talk, D!@k Jokes and Other Assorted Love Songs, and Limeade showcase her ability to find humor in life’s most uncomfortable truths.

She is also the creator and published author of the four-book Pounds of Power comic series, and the producer and co-director of Come What May, the documentary chronicling the life, legacy, struggles, and impact of comedian Ralphie May.

Whether on stage, on screen, or on the page, Lahna Turner tells stories that make people laugh, think, feel, and connect.

In the 1980s, dozens of women disappeared from San Diego, California. One of them was 26-year-old Cynthia Maine.

Cynthia was a daughter, sister, mother, and woman trying to survive addiction while working along El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego’s notorious red light district. By 1986, she was rebuilding her life. She had found work as a waitress, but she was also serving as a police informant. Just months before she vanished, she had allegedly begun an affair with one of her police contacts. 

Late in February, she told her family she was going to watch a movie. 

She never came home.

As investigators searched for Cynthia, few realized they were witnessing the beginning of one of the largest unsolved series of murders and disappearances in California history. 

In the first episode of this three-part investigation, we examine Cynthia's disappearance alongside the murder of her friend Donna Gentile. Together, their stories reveal a hidden world of vice squads, confidential informants, police corruption, and the extraordinary risks faced by women living on the margins of San Diego in the mid-1980s.

This series asks how so many women could disappear from one city and why so many of their cases remain unsolved decades later.

📍 San Diego, California  | February 1986

📖 Featuring an original poem written and read in her honor by Aimee Baker.

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

In 1997, as the internet connected strangers across state lines, Minnesota-native Toni Bachman formed a close bond with a man in West Virginia. Friends say she was thinking seriously about change. About leaving. About building a future that looked different from the life she had.

Then she disappeared.

At first, there were questions no one could answer. Did Toni leave her marriage behind? Did she run away to begin a new life? Or did something happen inside the home she shared with her husband and stepchildren?

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we explore Toni’s life before she vanished: her marriage, devastating personal losses, career instability, and the online relationships that became a source of comfort during one of the hardest periods of her life.

If you have information about the disappearance of Toni Bachman, please contact the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office at 651-266-9670.

📍 White Bear Township, Minnesota  | April 25, 1997

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by actress Astrid Rotenberry.

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

More about Astrid Rotenberry: 

Astrid Rotenberry is a New York–based actress best known for her role as Catherine Kelly in Netflix’s His & Hers. Other credits include The Four Seasons, Law & Order: SVU, and the upcoming Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed on Apple TV+. Originally from Tennessee, she holds a BFA in Theatre Performance and is passionate about making the arts accessible and encouraging young artists to pursue their dreams. 

Though Dr. Sneha Philip, who lived just blocks from the World Trade Center, is last seen on September 10th, she is added to the list of 9/11 victims. That is until the NYPD starts investigating her personal history and this investigation leads to her removal. Over the years her family fights for her to be recognized as one of the victims and, in 2008, she finally is. Despite this, what one judge calls rank speculation about her, and her disappearance, continues.

This week our guest reader is Sakina Jaffrey. Sakina can currently be seen on the Showtime series Billions and the TNT Drama Snowpiercer. She can also be seen on Apple's limited series Defending Jacob. She was a series regular on the NBC series Timeless. Sakina starred as White House Chief of Staff Linda Vasquez in the Netflix series House of Cards, recurred on Little Voice, the Apple series, Lost in Space for Netflix, American Gods for Starz, and on Homeland for Showtime. Recent films include Red Sparrow, directed by Francis Lawrence, Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories and Equalizer 2, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Greatest hits include her role as 'Nilma,' Kate Hudson's bat-wielding neighbor, in Garry Marshall's Raising Helen. Among her dozens of films, she has had the privilege of working with Jonathan Demme, James Ivory, Sidney Lumet and Frank Oz.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our June 2024 selection is the memoir Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Story by Kristine S. Ervin.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

New York City, September 10th, 2001. The day before the attacks on the World Trade Center is a day when most New York City residents are going about their regular business. The same was true for Dr. Sneha Philip who left her Battery Park apartment that evening to run some errands. It wasn’t unusual for her to spend the night out in the city, but when she doesn’t return home by the next day, her family knows something is wrong. The problem? With all eyes on the terrorist attacks, can they get anyone to listen?

This week our guest reader is Sakina Jaffrey. Sakina can currently be seen on the Showtime series Billions and the TNT Drama Snowpiercer. She can also be seen on Apple's limited series Defending Jacob. She was a series regular on the NBC series Timeless. Sakina starred as White House Chief of Staff Linda Vasquez in the Netflix series House of Cards, recurred on Little Voice, the Apple series, Lost in Space for Netflix, American Gods for Starz, and on Homeland for Showtime. Recent films include Red Sparrow, directed by Francis Lawrence, Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories and Equalizer 2, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Greatest hits include her role as 'Nilma,' Kate Hudson's bat-wielding neighbor, in Garry Marshall's Raising Helen. Among her dozens of films, she has had the privilege of working with Jonathan Demme, James Ivory, Sidney Lumet and Frank Oz.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our June 2024 selection is the memoir Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Story by Kristine S. Ervin.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

In December 1990, a woman accidentally drowned in the Passaic River in New Jersey. Despite these tragic circumstances, her story garners little media attention. She becomes one of the tens of thousands of individuals who are currently unidentified in the United States. Researchers call these tens of thousands of unidentified our “silent mass disaster.”

This week our guest reader is award-winning actor Crystal Balint. Crystal has appeared on many renowned productions over the span of her career, working alongside some of North America's finest talent with notable credits including CW's The 100 and Supergirl, Disney's Mech-X4, and dramatic series such as ABC’s The Good Doctor and FOX's Prison Break. In 2019, Crystal’s leading role as Iris Bearden in Britbox’s spin-off series The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco won her a Best Actress Leo Award. Crystal also appeared as a series regular on both of writer/director Mike Flanagan's critically acclaimed Netflix original series, Midnight Mass (2020) and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). She can be most recently seen as a heavily recurring character on the CBC series Allegiance.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our June 2024 selection is the memoir Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Story by Kristine S. Ervin.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

On March 22, 2011, employees at Dr. Promila Mehta-Paul’s medical office arrive and get ready for another busy day of patients and appointments. There’s one problem? The Doctor never arrives. Always reliable and communicative, they know it’s unlikely that she wouldn’t have called if something came up and soon they, along with Promila’s family and friends, are flooding the local police offices with calls wondering where she is, but when police check her home, it’s clear she hadn’t been there for several days. 

This week our guest reader is Mouzam Makkar. Mouzam is an actor, writer and filmmaker. She was last seen recurring as Commander Nouri on Paramount+’s “Seal Team” and in the series regular role of Jennifer McDuffie on Ava DuVernay’s “Naomi” for The CW. She also voices two characters on the recently released, space action RPG Xbox game, Starfield. Mouzam has also been a series regular in ABC’s “The Fix”, and NBC’s “Champions”, created by Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy. She has recurred on shows like “Law & Order: SVU”, “NCIS”, “The Exorcist”, “The Vampire Diaries”, and “Chicago Fire” with guest star roles in “American Horror Story”, and “Bones”, to name a few. Mouzam is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf and the Improv and Sketch Writing programs at The Second City in Chicago. During the strike she wrote, produced and starred in the short film, “Maggie’s Not Okay”, which is currently in post-production.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our June 2024 selection is the memoir Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Story by Kristine S. Ervin.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

At 3:30am, a 13-year-old Deanna Merryfield shows up at her uncle’s trailer and wakes her twin who is sleeping inside. The two talk for just a moment before Deanna, startled by her uncle waking up, bolts. This is the last confirmed time she was seen alive. Since 1990, the year she disappeared, until now, there are a few clues that she might be out there somewhere: a collect call, a police computer search, a sighting, but are any of those proof she’s still out there? 

This week our guest reader is Alison Arngrim, the actor, comedian, activist, and New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated. Alison is best known to viewers world-wide for her portrayal of the incredibly nasty “Nellie Oleson” on the much loved, long running hit television series "Little House On The Prairie.”. Her one woman show “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch”, which started at Club Fez in New York in 2002, has now become a world-wide phenomenon. As a stand-up comedian, Alison has headlined at nightclubs and theaters worldwide. She is currently starring in two comedy series pilots: “Life Interrupted” and “C.P.R. – Child Performers Resurrection Talent Agency.”

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our May 2024 selection is the fiction book Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

In 1952, a man comes across the burned body of a woman in Cottonwood Gulch, just outside of Black Hawk, Colorado. He returns to this site several times before reporting what he found to the sheriff’s office, a fact that will immediately cloud his actions in suspicion. Without any identifying information, she becomes known as Maria to some, or more often as the Pyre Case for the way she was murdered. It’s been 72 years since she was murdered, and there are questions if she will ever be identified. You see, her remains are missing.

This week our guest reader is Dedee Pfeiffer. Dedee landed her first movie role in John Landis' film Into the Night. She went on to star in the horror cult classic comedy Vamp, in the film Red Surf, and made numerous other appearances in films such as Falling Down, and Tune in Tomorrow. Dedee played numerous roles on multiple television shows for the past 40 years such as her role as a series regular on Cybil as Cybil Shepherd's daughter Rachel. Pfeiffer and the rest of the cast were nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series. Pfeiffer went on to star in the series For Your Love and guest starred in iconic shows such as Simon and Simon, Murder She Wrote, Ellen, Seinfeld, Friends, two CSI series, ER, and Supernatural to mention a few. Dedee won awards and nominations as an actor and producer on her short films, The Tub and Laredo. She also appeared in the award-winning film L.A., I Hate You. Pfeiffer took a 10-year break from Hollywood to earn her Master of Social Work degree from UCLA, and returned to acting as a series regular on the ABC drama Big Sky for the past 3 years. She is a proud single parent who has raised her two boys and is grateful to be recovering out loud in the hopes to help reduce the social stigma and shame that still surrounds those suffering with their disease of addiction. This is where her podcast “Down with Dedee” comes in.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our May 2024 selection is the fiction book Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

Perhaps you’ve seen the photo before. A young woman with her hands bound, tape over her mouth, laying in the back of a van with a similarly bound little boy. This photo has, for better or worse, become synonymous with the case of Tara Calico, a 19 year old young woman who disappeared while riding her bicycle in New Mexico in 1988. But beyond that photo, many don’t know much about Tara or her disappearance. And this year, she’ll have been missing for 36 years, almost twice as long as she was alive.

This week our guest reader is Lauren Robertson, an LA based actress / comedian who received her training from Chicago establishments like iO Theatre and Second City (Conservatory program), where she then went on to write and perform in shows around Chicago and LA. TV credits include "Modern Family", "Baskets", and "Sorry For Your Loss". She has been in several national commercials including McDonald's, Pepsi, and NY Life Insurance. She is a published author at "Darling Media" and has written, produced, and starred in web content in conjunction with Funny Or Die and Hello Giggles. Her favorite mention in the press is: "Especially good...even inside all of that blue spandex" - Chicago Tribune. Follow her on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our May 2024 selection is the fiction book Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

In 1977, a young hitchhiker accepted a ride from a man who promised to take her home. Within hours, she was dead.

Investigators quickly identified her killer. But they could not identify her.

For decades, the young woman became known as Precious Jane Doe, a name given in the hope that someone, somewhere, would recognize her and help return her identity. Instead, she remained unnamed for more than forty years.

In this episode, we examine the case of Lisa Roberts, formerly known as Precious Jane Doe, and the decades-long effort to discover who she was. We explore the investigation that followed her murder, the questions that lingered after her killer was identified, and the role investigative genetic genealogy played in finally restoring her name.

At its heart, this is a story about identity, remembrance, and the extraordinary work required to return a woman to her family after decades of uncertainty.

📍 Everett, Washington | August 9, 1977

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by Heather Morris

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.


📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

More about Heather Morris:
Heather Morris  is best known for her comedic breakout role as Brittany S. Pierce on FOX’s hit series, Glee. She is currently recurring as Judy in the CBS hit comedy So Help Me Todd and is executive producer and writer on the dark comedy Podcast The Bystanders available on all podcast platforms. Morris has appeared in numerous indie films including the upcoming comedy Cora Bora starring Meg Stalter and Manny Jacinto and voiced the role of Katie the Mammoth in the Multimillion dollar franchise Ice Age: Continental Drift. Aside from a successful career as an actress, Heather is an incredibly established dancer who began her career with Beyonce and currently travels the country teaching for HEAT Dance Convention

In 1968, the body of a young woman was found in rural Pennsylvania. She’d been shot to death. Months later, another young woman is found just a few miles away. Their only connection? They wore the same leather sandals. It will take nearly fifty years and an online database dedicated to missing and unidentified persons to identify who they are. But even with this development in their case, their murders are still unsolved.

This week our guest reader is Kelsey Wang is a Chinese-American actress who can be seen on television, film, and theatre. She is a graduate of Duke University and Yale School of Drama’s Summer Conservatory. Her television credits include Magnum PI, The Young and the Restless, and Netflix’s Daredevil. Her theater credits include the U.S. Premiere of Chimerica at the Studio Theater in Washington, D.C. and Pan Asian Repertory Theater's production's Off-Broadway production of A Dream of Red Pavilions. You can follow her on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and untwidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our April 2024 selection is the nonfiction book Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

In August 1993, a man walks into a police station and gives a statement about the disappearance of 16-year-old Sequoya Vargas. In it, he details the brutal assault and murder of the teenager, placing blame for these on his two friends. This statement of what happened to Sequoya will be just one of many that’s given over the years by the three men. They’ll be full of contradictions and blame, but one thing will be certain, Sequoya didn’t survive her encounter with these men.

This week our guest reader Tonantzín Carmelo, the award winning actress, voice artist, and choreographer playing lead and supporting roles for film, television, video games, theater and more. Her credits include a series regular as Paara on NBC’s La Brea, Touching Ground in the BBC Mini series The English, Kendra Daniels in the original video game Dead Space, and Shayla Stonefeather in the independent film Imprint. In addition, she has guest starred on a number of TV shows including The Rookie, Animal Kingdom, Undone, American Dad and Spirit Rangers.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our April 2024 selection is the nonfiction book Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

In this episode we highlight Where’s Sequoya? by Dove Johnson, Sequoya’s sister. It’s available on Amazon.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

An unidentified woman found living in Honolulu in 2004 remains without a name—exploring the rare and overlooked reality of living Jane Doe cases in the U.S.

In 2004, an unidentified woman was found living in a beach park in Honolulu, Hawaii—alive, but unable to say who she was.

Known as the Honolulu Jane Doe, she was diagnosed with dementia and schizophrenia, leaving her without a name, a history, or a way to return to whatever life she once had.

In this episode of She Goes by Jane, we examine her case and the broader, often overlooked reality of living Jane Does in the United States. What happens when someone is found alive but cannot identify themselves? Why are these cases so difficult to resolve? And what does it reveal about the systems meant to protect the most vulnerable?

We situate her story within larger conversations around mental health, identity, and the gaps in investigative processes that leave some women unnamed, even in life.

📍 Honolulu, Hawaii | 2004

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by Louise Penny, bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series (Three Pines).

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—follow, rate, and share this episode.

➡️ Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. 

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook

 📚 Doe by Aimee Baker — available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon

📰 Subscribe to GIRLHUNT for more women-centered true crime

About Louise Penny:
Louise Penny is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series, adapted into the television series Three Pines. Her work has received numerous awards and is internationally acclaimed.

In 1993, 16-year-old Sequoya Vargas hitchhikes with a friend to her friend’s home. Later that evening, the man who gave them a ride asks her to go to his cousin’s house to watch movies. She never returns home. Despite this being out of character for her, the police brush aside her mother’s pleas to search for her daughter, sending her family and friends on their own quest to find out what happened to Sequoya that night.

This week our guest reader Tonantzín Carmelo, the award winning actress, voice artist, and choreographer playing lead and supporting roles for film, television, video games, theater and more. Her credits include a series regular as Paara on NBC’s La Brea, Touching Ground in the BBC Mini series The English, Kendra Daniels in the original video game Dead Space, and Shayla Stonefeather in the independent film Imprint. In addition, she has guest starred on a number of TV shows including The Rookie, Animal Kingdom, Undone, American Dad and Spirit Rangers.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our April 2024 selection is the nonfiction book Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

In this episode we highlight Where’s Sequoya? by Dove Johnson, Sequoya’s sister. It’s available on Amazon.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

Detective Lorie Howard was once told that the only way the case of the unidentified woman she was working on would be by the grace of god. This gave her the name Grace Doe and she was known by this for years until she was finally identified as Shauna Garber. A few weeks ago, investigators made public new information, filling in gaps in Shauna’s story including an update to her name and revealing what happened to her the night she was murdered. 

This week we’re joined by actress Teryl Rothery. Four-time Leo-nominated Rothery is best known and loved for her portrayal of Dr. Janet Fraiser on Showtime’s “Stargate: SG-1” and her starring role opposite Andie MacDowell in the Hallmark Channel Original Series “Cedar Cove.” Rothery can most recently be seen recurring in Amazon’s “Upload.” and Netflix’s “Virgin River.” You can find Teryl on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our April 2024 selection is the nonfiction book Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

Tot Tran Harriman survived the Vietnam War. She witnessed history when she was evacuated on the last boat out of Saigon before it fell. She lived through being held in a refugee camp in Pennsylvania along with 20,000 other refugees. And made a life for herself in Maine, raising three children, starting new businesses, and helping other refugees. But in 2001, she also became one of America’s missing women. 

This week our guest reader is actor, writer, and producer Porter Duong whose work showcases stories within the Asian narrative and diaspora. She is a first generation Vietnamese-American, born to refugees of the Vietnam War and the proud daughter of her mother, a gifted singer who found her way to freedom as one of the many "boat people." Her first lead role in the independent film, Touch, garnered a Best Actress and Audience Choice Award. A groundbreaking story of the dynamics of an immigrant family and their identity in America while navigating the afterlife of war. It opened in Vietnam to rave reviews, despite concerns regarding the complicated relationship with the Communist government. She has had significant roles on Emmy award winning shows such as NBC’s This is Us and HBO’s Silicon Valley. Her nonprofit work through The Chimaera Project aims to support and fund women and nonbinary filmmakers. Porter is currently working to publish a collection of poems and short essays woven by love and grief, dedicated to her late mother. You can find Porter on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our April 2024 selection is the nonfiction book Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

On a hot summer’s day in 1992, 63-year-old Bessie Kutnak goes to look for her missing cattle near her home in Cameron, Texas. Witnesses say she seemed disoriented and was seen asking for directions before she disappeared. When family members realized she was missing, a full-scale search of her began, but no trace of her was ever found.

This week our guest reader is actress Catherine Mary Stewart. Perhaps the most recognizable title on Catherine’s resume is the classic comedy, Weekend at Bernie’s where she starred as the lead, Gwen. She has also starred in Days of Our Lives as Kayla Brady, in The Last Starfighter, and Mischief. She has also starred in the television mini-series Hollywood Wives, New Amsterdam, Limitless, and White Collar along with many roles on Hallmark, Lifetime and in independent movies.  

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our March 2024 selection is the novel The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

On July 11, 2007, a 31-year-old Carma Purpura was last seen getting into the cab of a truck driver at a rest stop near Indianapolis. The next day, he’s arrested in Nashville under suspicion he’s involved in the murder of another woman. Inside his cab, investigators find Carma’s phone and credit card and so much of Carma’s blood detectives are certain Carma is no longer alive. Four years later, a skull along with some other remains are found in Kentucky. With few clues to go on, she becomes one of the state’s unidentified women. Even though it takes five more years to identify her as Carma, it brings some amount of resolution to her case.

This week our guest reader is comic Jann Karam whose numerous TV credits–stand up performances and series acting roles–include repeat appearances on both The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, HBO’s legendary 13th Annual Young Comedians’ Show, How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life), Comics Unleashed, The Arsenio Hall Show, Norm, Mad About You, Politically Incorrect, Dr. Katz, and many others. She was a regular sketch player in the last incarnation of The Carol Burnett Show and, in the now classic Seinfeld episode “The Switch.” Her latest claim to fame—bantering with comedy genius Larry David during her two co-starring roles on both season 11 and 12 of Curb Your Enthusiasm She’s released three successful comedy albums—Live at the Blue Loon and Same Guy, DifferentShirt, most recently, Live at the Wren Theater, and taped her own documentary special, Beyond the Set.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our March 2024 selection is the novel The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

On Valentine’s Day in 1991, a young woman is seen hitchhiking along US 1 in the Florida Keys. The next morning, a pair of windsurfers find her body in a densely wooded area. She’d been beaten to death before being strangled with her own bikini top. For years this young woman was known only as Valentine Doe, named for the last day she was seen alive. But investigators never give up on her case, utilizing new tactics and techniques to identify her.

This week our guest reader is Patricia Rae, a dynamic Latin American actress and producer born and raised in New York City, currently based in LA. She starred in John Polson’s cult classic “Swimfan” and starred in a major supporting role in the Academy Award nominated film, “Maria Full of Grace”. She also recurred on “All Rise” on OWN for three seasons as Judge Delgado. Her long list of television credits include NCIS: Los Angeles, Blue Bloods, The Mentalist, and Chuck. She is currently co-hosting podcast “Believe This” on Spotify with Chris Crimy, from the Scientology survivors podcast “Come Get Sum”. Patricia also produces the cooking segments “Cooking With Patty” that can be viewed on instagram and her youtube channel @cookinguppatty. You can also find her on X and Facebook.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our March 2024 selection is the novel The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

In 2001, the Green River Killer was finally caught, ending one of the most horrific eras in the Pacific Northwest and ending a decades long investigation dedicated to identifying this mnan. Convicted of 49 murders, this man confessed to even more, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. It would take over twenty more years to identify three of his young victims with the most recent being identified in 2024.

This week our guest reader is actress and creative Tabitha Brownstone who is originally from Los Angeles. As an actress Tabitha’s credits include Kaljillionaire, Domino, The Middle, and The Real O’Neals, to name a few. As a creative, Tabitha wrote and produced her own live comedy show, having sold out five consecutive shows during the Fringe Festival, later touring abroad in Europe and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also co-created and starred in Fickle, a series that was acquired by two streaming services. You can find her on Instagram and TikTok. You can also find her podcast “Overthinking It With Liz and Tabitha” here. 

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our March 2024 selection is the novel The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

When he spoke of what happened to his daughter Shelley, Ed Sikes said, “It was a crash course in good and evil.” In 1986, when Shelley was 19, she was working as a waitress at a popular restaurant in Galveston. The night she disappeared, she left work and headed to her boyfriend’s house, but Shelley never made it there. Based on eyewitness accounts and, eventually, the confessions of her killers, investigators were able to piece together a pretty detailed account of what happened that night. The one thing they don’t know? Where Shelley is now.

This week our guest reader is actress Gus Birney. Gus can currently be seen in her second season starring opposite Courteney Cox in the Starz series SHINING VALE, for which she received a Saturn Award nomination. This past year she also made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated revival of THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW. She can currently be seen returning to the BAM stage in the New York premiere of OUR CLASS. Her other television credits include Apple TV’s Dickinson, Spike TV’s The Mist, and on Insatiable, Blue Bloods, Bull, Jessica Jones, Instinct, Law & Order: SVU, and Chicago Med. You can follow Gus on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our February 2024 selection is the true crime book The Hunt for Brianna Maitland by Greg Overacker.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

McDonald County, Missouri. In 1990, a woman and her husband find the remains of a woman near an abandoned house. She’s been bound, her hands and legs tied behind her back. With no identification on her, and no one coming forward to claim her, she becomes one of America’s unidentified women and is given the name Grace Doe, because it will be only through the Grace of God that her identity will be returned to her. And, for over thirty years, that’s true. Until one day, science, and a determined detective, give her her name back.

This week we’re joined by actress Teryl Rothery. Four-time Leo-nominated Rothery is best known and loved for her portrayal of Dr. Janet Fraiser on Showtime’s “Stargate: SG-1” and her starring role opposite Andie MacDowell in the Hallmark Channel Original Series “Cedar Cove.” Rothery can most recently be seen recurring in Amazon’s “Upload.” and Netflix’s “Virgin River.” You can find Teryl on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our February 2024 selection is the true crime book The Hunt for Brianna Maitland by Greg Overacker.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

Cleveland, 1934. A man collecting firewood along the shores of Lake Erie is startled to find the partial remains of a woman. Though investigators are able to determine that she was brutally murdered, they are unable to identify the woman, naming her the Lady of the Lake instead. What they didn’t know yet was that the next four years the Cleveland area would be terrorized by a man they called the Cleveland Torso Murderer or the Butcher of Kingsbury Run who left a wake of sadistic murders behind. Even now, 90 years later, he, along with many of the victims, have never been identified.

This week our guest reader is Dee Wallace who played the role of Mary in E.T., The Extraterrestrial, as well as in 10, The Howling, Cujo, and The Frighteners. With over 250 film credits to her name, Dee is one of the most prolific actresses in Hollywood. She has five series and hundreds of commercials under her belt and has just concluded her 560th segment of her live radio show, Conscious Creation. As a writer, Dee is the author of six books on the art of self-creation. Her latest release is BORN: Giving Birth to a New You (Briton Publishing). You can find Dee on Instagram and Facebook.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our February 2024 selection is the true crime book The Hunt for Brianna Maitland by Greg Overacker.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

If you grew up in the 1980s, you may have seen Tammy Lynn Leppert without ever knowing her name.

A model, aspiring actress, and rising presence in Hollywood, Tammy appeared in films like Scarface and Spring Break. With her striking look and growing momentum, 1983 was supposed to be the year everything changed.

Instead, it became the year she disappeared.

On July 6, 1983, Tammy left her home, telling her mother she would be back shortly. She was last seen in Cocoa Beach after an argument with a friend. She has never been seen again.

In this episode of She Goes By Jane, we look beyond the headlines and theories to focus on who Tammy was—her ambitions, her discipline, and the life she was building before it was abruptly interrupted.

We explore the days leading up to her disappearance, the unanswered questions that remain, and the ways her case was shaped by early assumptions and missed opportunities.

This is a story about visibility, vulnerability, and what happens when someone can be seen by so many and still vanish without a trace.

📍 Cocoa Beach, Florida | July 6, 1983

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by actress and author Kathy Garver..

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

More about Kathy: KATHY GARVER is most fondly remembered for her starring role as “Cissy” in the long-running CBS international television hit, Family Affair, Kathy Garver has also garnered critical acclaim in movies, stage, radio, voice-over animation, speaking and audio book narration.

To add to her long list of credits and accolades, Kathy was nominated for a 2026 Grammy Award for the Best Audiobook, Narration, Storytelling Recording for Elvis, Rocky and Me.  She also received the Golden Era Award in March of 2026 and will receive the Margaret O’Brien legacy award in December of 2026.

In addition, Ms. Garver added author to her long list of accomplishments. Her first book, The Family Affair Cookbook, published by Bear Manor Media is a tasty trip down memory lane with anecdotes and photos.  Her memoir, Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood  was released next  and sold out in three months -- a reprint was ordered and  now is also available in the paperback version.  X-Child Stars: Where Are They Now was launched in 2016 and is already planned for a reprint.  Holiday Recipes for a Family Affair was next in 2019 .  The Family Affair Scrapbook was released in 2022 to critical claim.  Her newest book released appropriately on St. Valentine’s Day is Romancing with the Stars, a tome about long term relationships in Hollywood along with a travel guide in each of the 27 chapters to recreate romantic moments and places the stars now made famous.

The talented Ms. Garver has also won acting accolades such as Best Actress from the Family Television Awards, and continues her award-winning presence by securing recognition from the entertainment world.  Recent awards include two more Audie Awards, one for her narration of The World’s Best Short Stories, the other for her direction of Amy Tan in The Opposite of Fate, read by the author.  She was also recognized by the Young Artists Foundation with the “Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award” and the Emerald Award from the Southern California Motion Picture Council. In 2013, this prestigious organization also bestowed on Ms. Garver the highly-esteemed Golden Halo Lifetime Achievement Award previously given to Mickey Rooney and Margaret O’Brien.

In 1969, 21-year-old Linda Peogeot and her daughter, Lori Mae, leave a department store with all the supplies they need to celebrate the little girl’s third birthday party happening the next day. And there, in the parking lot, they’re abducted by a man in broad daylight with witnesses just feet away. This abduction spurs a nationwide manhunt as investigators race to get Linda and Lori Mae back to safety. 

Liz Moore is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Long Bright River, which was a Good Morning America Book Club pick and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2019, as well as the acclaimed novels Heft and The Unseen World. A winner of the 2014-2015 Rome Prize in Literature, she lives in Philadelphia. You can follow Liz on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our February 2024 selection is the true crime book The Hunt for Brianna Maitland by Greg Overacker.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

In southern Texas, there’s a strip of highway that runs between Houston and Galveston. From the 1970s until today, it’s a place where many women and girls have gone missing or were murdered. Most of these crimes are unsolved and this area has become known as the Texas Killing Fields. But nestled along Interstate 45 in League City, Texas, is a 25 acre field where this name originated. There, between 1984 and 1991, the bodies of four young women were found in this field. Two were identified immediately, but two more spent 30 years known only as Jane and Janet Doe until one day, that changed.

This week we’re joined by actor Briana Evigan who has been on a quest to give a voice to the voiceless, shine a light on darkness and create a positive impact. She co-founded MoveMe Studio, a woman-led production company creating inspiring media that compels action. Briana has a successful career in film, TV, music, and dance. Her first foray into Hollywood was everyone’s favorite dance film Step Up 2: The Streets and the reinstalment Step Up 5: All In. Her TV career includes starring in From Dusk Till Dawn, Trooper, and Longmire. To follow Briana’s incredible advocacy work, follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our January 2024 selection is the thriller Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

Dorothy Arnold, a young socialite, vanished without a trace in 1910. Born into wealth and privilege, Dorothy's life seemed idyllic, but her family didn’t support her aspirations to become a writer nor her budding romance with a man named George Griscom Jr., both of which she kept hidden from her family. With her disappearance, a tangled web of theories emerges, including rumors of elopement, a clandestine abortion, and even suspicions of sex trafficking.

This week we’re joined by Sharon Lawrence who was recently a series regular role in the Paramount + series Joe Pickett. Previously she starred in On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Home Before Dark , Rebel , Criminal Minds, Shameless, The Ranch, and Sugar. Sharon continues to be recognized from her multiple Emmy nominated and SAG Award-winning portrayal of Ada Sylvia Costas Sipowitz in NYPD Blue and as Izzy's Mom on Grey’s Anatomy. Her 5th EMMY nomination came in 2021 as Lead Actress in a digital series The Gaze. Sharon is the Second Vice President of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.  You can find Sharon on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our January 2024 selection is the thriller Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

When 30-year-old Pah Pow leaves her apartment, the only witness is her young son who says she left with a man he recognized but whose name he didn’t know. Her family thought she was with family, her family thought she was with friends. This mistake meant nearly a week passed before anyone realized Pah was missing. An immigrant from Thailand, Pah lived with her husband and children in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She has been missing since April 2016.

This week, we’re joined by Rainbow Dickerson, the proud daughter of a brave Thai mother who came to the United States during the first small wave of Thai immigrants in the 1960’s. Rainbow is also of Rappahannock and Caucasian descent and is honored to lend her voice to this project. She became a TIFF Rising Star for her work in the feature, BEANS, for which she also received other awards and nominations. She can be seen next in Netflix’s live-action, Avatar: The Last Airbender, premiering February 22nd, 2024. Other selected screen credits include Gone, Chicago Fire, and Banshee. In addition, Rainbow has performed on Broadway and at many of the country’s top theatres, recently closing an Off-Broadway run of Manahatta at The Public Theatre in NYC. Other favorites include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, American Players Theatre, and Native Voices. Rainbow currently resides on unceded Tongva/Gabrieleno territory, also known as Los Angeles, CA. Represented by Liberman Zerman Management.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our January 2024 selection is the thriller Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

“Got married. Leaving town. Will not be back. Don’t worry. Babe.” That’s what the telegram read that Beverly Sharpman’s parents received the night of September 11, 1947. But, according to her mother, there was one problem: Beverly wasn’t seeing anyone at the time. This, and the unanswered questions surrounding her disappearance send one mother on a decades long quest to find her daughter.

This week, we’re joined by American voice actress Susan Bennett. Susan, a former backup singer for Roy Oribson, is best known as the female American voice Apple’s Siri personal assistant since the service was introduced on the iPhone 4S and remained the voice of Siri until the iOS 7 update. You can find Susan on Instagram and Facebook.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our January ‘24 selection is the true crime book The Hunt for Brianna Maitland by Gregory Overacker.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

Just the evening before, on September 10, seventeen-year-old Beverly had told her mother that she wanted to confide something to her. By the time her mother returned with cups of tea for them both, Beverly had evidently reconsidered and went to bed without revealing her secret.

The next day, Beverly Sharpman went to her high school to register for classes and, once back home, snuck out of the house with just a small suitcase in tow. The telegram she sent her parents was dispatched from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station not far from her home in Philadelphia.

Her mother believed that the telegram had to be sent by someone else because, as far as her parents and friends knew, Beverly wasn’t dating anyone. And, Beverly’s message contained one clue, it said that she “got married,” but investigators were unable to find a marriage certificate in her name.

Soon, though, evidence began to stack up that Beverly actually had chosen to leave her family. She had withdrawn money from her account in advance and quit her job, telling co-workers that she planned to go to Chicago. It’s also believed that she bought a train ticket to Chicago on the day she disappeared.

Still, her mother spent the rest of her life looking for Beverly and so, like many missing person’s cases, Beverly’s story is as much a family’s story and how this disappearance fundamentally changed all of their lives.

Beverly Sharpman (unsolved missing person case)

In Ohio, a black woman’s body is found beneath a bridge and labeled Victim #8. In New York, a black woman found dead inside a storage tote will become known as Peaches for the heart shaped peach tattoo on her breast. And in Georgia, a black woman’s bones are found in the underbrush by a man walking his dog. Like many women of color who came before and after them, their stories fade from news coverage - if they’re covered at all. What is missing white woman syndrome and how does it translate to unidentified bodies cases? We explore the stories of nine unidentified black women from across the United States and spanning over seventy years in order to find out what happened and why media coverage matters.

This week, we’re joined by Wendy Williams and Beth Williams, hosts of the award-winning true crime podcast Fruitloops. Fruitloops was born out of their desire to create a podcast with diverse voices covering diverse stories. You can listen to Wendy and Beth on Fruitlioops, now with over 200 episodes, wherever you get your podcasts including as part of the Evergreen lineup of podcasts.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our December ‘23 selection is the thriller Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

There are more than 57 million miles of Alaskan wilderness. Between the 1970s and 1983, a serial killer used this vast expanse to hunt his victims like wild animals, knowing they could never escape.

In 1980, the skeletal remains of a young woman were found in Eklutna, Alaska. Her murderer claimed she was his first victim and may have been a topless dancer or a sex worker. He suspected she came from Kodiak, but investigators believe she may have come from California. “Eklutna Annie” is his last remaining unidentified victim.

This week, we’re joined by singer and songwriter Kelly Moneymaker. She is best known as a member of platinum-selling trio Exposé and her music has been placed in over 25 other media productions. Kelly's multicultural roots have inspired her passion for indigenous storytelling and the environment, which led to her directing the Award-winning documentary VAKA. Her current project, Drum Song: The Rhythm of Life, is about Indigenous climate adaptation in her homeland, Alaska. You can find Kelly on Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our December ‘23 selection is the thriller Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

They said they were going to go babysit, but secretly had other plans to meet up with a friend. When teenagers Cynthia and Jackie Leslie left their Mesa, Arizona home in 1974, no one was worried. After all, everyone assumed they were exactly where they said: babysitting. When they didn’t return home, though, their family was plunged into a mystery now almost 50 years old. In this episode we cover both what was reported by the media and what was contained in their over 200 page police file.

This week, we’re joined by writer Catherine McKenzie. A graduate of McGill in History and Law, Catherine practiced law for twenty years before leaving the practice to write full time. She’s the author of numerous bestsellers including HIDDEN, FRACTURED, THE GOOD LIAR and I’LL NEVER TELL. Her works have been translated into multiple languages and PLEASE JOIN US and I’LL NEVER TELL have all been optioned for development into television series. You can find Catherine on Instagram and TikTok. 

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our December ‘23 selection is the thriller Have You Seen Her by Catherine McKenzie.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

Honoring the Lives of Missing Women Through their Stories and Poetry Aimee Baker, co-host of the She Goes By Jane podcast, joins Bill Huffman, host of Who Kills..?, to discuss various cases. Were they touch on the mysterious disappearance of Brianna Maitland, who went missing in 2004 in Vermont. Despite the efforts of her family and detectives, the case remains unsolved. In this episode, we also look into the complexities surrounding cases where the media coverage was lacking and were eventually forgotten. She Goes by Jane tells the stories of America's missing and unidentified women through episodes that honor women and their lives without focusing on gratuitous violence or perpetrators. Each episode features an original poem by Aimée Baker read by a special guest.

Bill Huffman is a veteran podcast host and journalists with a penchant for true crime and breaking news.

https://killerpodcasts.com/who-killed

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our November ‘23 selection is the true crime selection Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

In this update episode, we return to the Texas Killing Fields—specifically the 25-acre stretch of land off Calder Road in League City, Texas, where four women were found murdered over the course of years: Heide Fye, Laura Miller, Audrey Cook, and Donna Prudhomme.

For decades, their cases remained unsolved.

Investigators pursued multiple leads and named several persons of interest, but one name continued to surface: Clyde Hedrick—a local man later convicted in the 1984 death of Ellen Beason.

In March 2026, investigators finally questioned Hedrick about the Calder Road murders.

Hours later, he was dead.

But the case did not end there.

In the weeks that followed, authorities arrested Hedrick’s associate, James Elmore, charging him with manslaughter in the death of Laura Miller, as well as tampering with evidence in both Laura’s and Audrey Cook’s cases.

In this episode, we revisit the history of the Texas Killing Fields, the failures that allowed these cases to go unsolved for so long, and the lives of the women at the center of it all—particularly Audrey Cook and Donna Prudhomme, who remained unidentified for decades before finally being named.

We also examine the long-standing suspicions surrounding Clyde Hedrick, the investigative threads that tied him to multiple victims, and what these new developments could mean for long-awaited answers.

This is not a resolution.

But for the first time in years, it is movement.

📍 League City, Texas  | 1984-1991

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by actor and advocate Briana Evigan.

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

More about Briana:

Briana Evigan has been on a quest to give a voice to the voiceless, shine a light on darkness and create a positive impact. She co-founded MoveMe Studio, a woman-led production company creating inspiring media that compels action. Briana has a successful career in film, TV, music, and dance. Her first foray into Hollywood was everyone’s favorite dance film Step Up 2: The Streets and the reinstalment Step Up 5: All In. Her TV career includes starring in From Dusk Till Dawn, Trooper, and Longmire. To follow Briana’s incredible advocacy work, follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

In 1992, a truck driver pulls onto an interstate turnout on I-80 in Wyoming. There, she spots the body of a woman laying face down in the snow. The unidentified woman becomes known as Bitter Creek Betty or Rose Doe for her rose tattoo. The only clue to her identity is a tattoo artist from Tucson who remembers giving her the distinctive tattoo. In this episode we discuss what investigators have released about her, her link to another unidentified woman, and the arrest of their killer.

This week, we’re joined by Ginger Strand, the author of one novel and three books of narrative nonfiction, as well as many magazine features. Her book Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate, tells the entwined stories of the American interstate highway system and the serial killers who haunted it, looking at how America became more mobile and more violent at the same time. You can find Ginger on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our November ‘23 selection is the true crime selection Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

When a teenager disappears from a movie theater in Covina, California, police initially believe she’s run away. In the decades to come, Cynthia Hernandez stays a missing person despite her remains being found just a month after her disappearance. We cover one of our rare solved cases to talk about what happened in those years and why it took so long for Cynthia to come home.

This week, we’re joined by actress Gabrielle Ruiz who is best known for her starring role in the CW series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She can be seen next in the upcoming feature film Man in the Long Black Coat opposite Christopher Lloyd and Dermont Mulroney. You can find Gabrielle on Instagram and TikTok. 

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our November ‘23 selection is the true crime selection Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

What if a serial killer has the only clues to an unidentified woman’s identity? When a serial killer on death row begins talking about his crimes, investigators are shocked to learn of the 1986 murder of a woman in Texas that indicates his killings began much earlier than they thought. Despite this confession, that woman, whose name he thinks could be Norma, remains unidentified even now.

This week, we’re joined by Emmy-Award winning Jeané Coakley. With more than twenty year’s of broadcast experience, Jeané serves as SNY’s lead New York Jets reporter and regularly contributes to SNY’s sports and entertainment news shows. She has covered everything from the Super Bowl to March Madness to the Indy 500. You can find Jeané on Instagram and X. 

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our November ‘23 selection is the true crime selection Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

Who or what scares witnesses so much that many of them ask to remain anonymous when speaking to investigators? That’s what happened in the disappearance of Nahida Khatib who suddenly vanished from her home one October morning in 1976.

This week we’re joined by award-winning actress and activist Kathy Najimy. Kathy Najimy is well-known for her over 40 film roles including Sister Act and Hocus Pocus. She is also known for her television roles which include, most recently, on The Big C, and prior work as Peggy Hill on the Emmy Award-winning King of the Hill. As an activist, she was named Ms. Magazine’s Woman of the Year enthusiastic supporter of women’s and girls’ rights, AIDS awareness, animal rights, and a woman’s right to choose, and frequently travels around the country to keynote speak on these issues. You can find Kathy on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our November ‘23 selection is the true crime selection Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

What happens to unidentified remains when their cases go cold? Most often, they’re held in evidence or buried. That’s not the case for three unidentified people who were found in Washington’s Pierce County in the 1970s. Instead, two were sent to a local landfill and one was lost.

This week, we’re joined by one of CMT’s Next Women of Country, singer-songwriter Stephanie Quayle, who is one of the most active female artists with a consistent presence on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, and ranks in the Top 10 of Current Female Airplay over the last two years. This Rebel Engine Entertainment singer-songwriter has performed at the Grand Ole Opry, historic Ryman Auditorium, and taken the stage with the likes of Willie Nelson, Brett Eldredge, Jon Pardi, and more. You can find Stephanie on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and listen to her music on Spotify.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our November ‘23 selection is the true crime selection Lay Them to Rest by Laurah Norton.

Find more about Stephanie here: https://linktr.ee/stephanie.quayle

Stream Stephanie's song Jane here: https://orcd.co/janesq

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

As one of the most recognizable unidentified persons cases in the United States, she was known for decades as “Buckskin Girl.” For 37 years, her identity remained unknown.

In 2018, she was finally identified as Marcia Sossoman King through advances in forensic DNA and genetic genealogy.

In this episode, we explore Marcia’s life, the circumstances that led to her becoming unidentified, and the investigative work that helped restore her name after nearly four decades. Her case is one of the earliest and most well-known examples of how modern DNA technology can bring answers to long-standing cases.

📍 Troy, Ohio  | 1981

🎙️ Featuring a guest reading by actress and voice actor Mercedes Rose, known for her work in What the Bleep Do We Know?, Portlandia, Leverage, and as the voice of Rosalina in Nintendo titles.

📖 Featuring an original poem written in their honor, read by our host, Aimee Baker

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

More About Mercedes Rose:
Mercedes has appeared in films such as What the Bleep Do We Know? and television shows like Portlandia and Leverage. She’s also done voice-over work, most notably for Rosalina in several Nintendo titles, and is the one of the stars and creators of Haunting of a Sunshine Girl. Find her on Instagram.

Bigfoot took her. That’s the explanation a 43-year-old man gives after he takes 16-year-old Theresa Bier out hiking and doesn’t return with her. But despite extensive ground and air searches for the teenager, there’s little evidence about what truly happened to Theresa in 1987. 

If you know anything about the disappearance of Theresa Bier contact the Fresno Police Department at (559) 621-7000.

This week, we’re joined by Canadian Screen Award winning actress Lauren Ash. Lauren currently stars in the ABC Comedy Not Dead Yet and is well-known for her role is Dina in NBC’s Superstore. You can find Lauren on Instagram and TikTok as well as hear her on her award-winning true crime podcast True Crime and Cocktails.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our October ‘23 selection is Louise Penny’s Still Life.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

Alien queens, evidence planting, witness threatening: just three ways in which the trials for Girly’s murder become so outlandish that the media starts to lose sight of Girly Chew and the fact that she’s still missing. In this second part to Girly’s story, we talk about what happened during the trial and what was done to try to bring Girly home to her family.

If you are experiencing intimate partner violence or domestic violence, please call: 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788

This week, we’re joined by actress Raven Goodwin. Raven Goodwin has recently starred in Being Mary Jane, SMILF, The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, and Single Black Female. Follow Raven on Instagram and TikTok.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our October ‘23 selection is Louise Penny’s Still Life.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

What if everything you believed about your partner wasn’t true at all? Not where they went to school. Not their job. Not even their name. That’s what happened to Girly Chew when she left her home in Malaysia and married the monster who would eventually murder her. This week, we’re joined by Raven Goodwin as we shine light on Part 1 of Girl’s story.

If you are experiencing intimate partner violence or domestic violence, please call: 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788 

This week, we’re joined by actress Raven Goodwin. Raven Goodwin has recently starred in Being Mary Jane, SMILF, The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, and Single Black Female. Follow Raven on Instagram and TikTok.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our October ‘23 selection is Louise Penny’s Still Life.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

In 2004, an unidentified woman was found living in a beach park in Honolulu, Hawaii—alive, but unable to say who she was.

Known as the Honolulu Jane Doe, she was diagnosed with dementia and schizophrenia, leaving her without a name, a history, or a way to return to whatever life she once had.

In this episode of She Goes by Jane, we examine her case and the broader, often overlooked reality of living Jane Does in the United States. What happens when someone is found alive but cannot identify themselves? Why are these cases so difficult to resolve? And what does it reveal about the systems meant to protect the most vulnerable?

We situate her story within larger conversations around mental health, identity, and the gaps in investigative processes that leave some women unnamed, even in life.

📍 Honolulu, Hawaii | 2004

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read by Louise Penny, bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series (Three Pines).

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—follow, rate, and share this episode.

➡️ Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. 

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook

 📚 Doe by Aimee Baker — available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon

📰 Subscribe to GIRLHUNT for more women-centered true crime

About Louise Penny:
Louise Penny is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series, adapted into the television series Three Pines. Her work has received numerous awards and is internationally acclaimed.

In 1978, a series of disappearances and murders terrified Morgan City, Louisiana. 

Sixteen-year-old Mary Rodermund vanished after leaving home to run a simple errand. Hours later, her parents received a phone call—it was her kidnapper. He forced Mary onto the phone, where she told her parents she was okay.  It would be the last time anyone ever heard from her.

Weeks later, nineteen-year-old Bridget Cantrell Sons disappeared from the grocery store where she worked. When police arrived, her cigarette was still burning. Seventeen-year-old Gordon Canella Jr., who had been with her, was also missing. 

Then, in May, fourteen-year-old Bertha Gould and fifteen-year-old Judy Ann Adams left a school fair together. A witness saw the girls get into a car with a man.

 Authorities eventually connected the cases to Robert Carl Hohenberger, a former California sheriff’s deputy living in Louisiana under an alias and with a history of violent assaults. Investigators believe he used his position and perceived authority to gain the trust of his victims.

In this episode, we examine the disappearances of Mary Rodermund and Bertha Gould, the murders of Judy Adams, Bridget Cantrell Sons and Gordon Canella Jr., and the unanswered questions that remain decades later.

📍 Morgan City, Louisiana  | 1975

📖 Featuring an original poem written in their honor, read by our host, Aimee Baker

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

➡️ Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. 

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.

When Mary Shotwell Little doesn’t show up for work the morning of October 15, 1965, her boss immediately knows something must be wrong. That afternoon, police find her car at the shopping center she visited the evening before with a friend. Inside the car are her groceries and a small amount of blood. 

What happened to Mary? And did a mysterious admirer who sent her roses at work have something to do with her disappearance?

This episode, our guest is New York Times bestselling author and new media creator Paige McKenzie. You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram, and find her book series Haunting of a Sunshine Girl at Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

For full episode transcripts and show notes, head to our website.

On the night of March 19, 2004, 17-year-old Brianna Maitland left her job at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, VT. Shortly after, witnesses saw her car less than two miles away, crashed into an abandoned farmhouse. Despite this, days pass before anyone realizes that Brianna is missing.

What happened to Brianna that night and what will it take for someone to finally come forward with answers?

This episode, our guest is actress Marypat Farrell. A Vermont-native, Marypat has appeared on Night Court, 9-1-1 and On The Verge. You can follow her on Instagram. 

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

For full episode transcripts and show notes, head to our website.

In 2013, a woman was walking her dog on a beach in Lattingtown, NY, along the Long Island Sound when she found the skeletal remains of a woman. Today, this unidentified woman is known only as Lattingtown Jane Doe or Nassau County Jane Doe, and the strongest clue to her identity is the 24k gold pig necklace found with her body.

Who is she? What happened to her? And is she connected to the Long Island Serial Killer?

This episode, our guest is ballet dancer and Broadway actress Erica Wong who performed in The King & I, An American in Paris, and Phantom of the Opera. You can find her here and on Instagram.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

For full episode transcripts and show notes, head to our website.