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Murders & Minivans

Murders & Minivans

Video Podcast

by Tali & Stephanie

Season 1

The Shafia Murders: A Family Project

On June 30, 2009, a black Nissan Sentra was found submerged at the Kingston Mills locks on the Rideau Canal with four bodies inside: Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, Geeti Shafia, 13, and Rona Amir Mohammad, 52. The family called Rona the girls' aunt. She was their father's first wife, in a polygamous marriage Canadian immigration knew nothing about. Within three weeks, Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, and their 18-year-old son Hamed were charged with four counts of first-degree murder. A jury convicted all three in fifteen hours. But the murders are not the hardest part of this case. The two years before them are. Teachers knew. Two separate child protection agencies were called. Police interviewed four terrified children on a street corner ten weeks before the drownings. An immigration lawyer was offered $10,000 to make one of the victims disappear from the country. A relative in Sweden was invited to help commit the crime. And three girls said out loud, repeatedly, to adults whose job it was to listen, that their father was going to kill them. Every single time, the file was closed. This episode traces the whole thing: Rona's diary, Zainab's Valentine's Day note, Sahar's plan to become a doctor, Geeti's request to be placed in foster care, the Google searches, the two scouting trips, the seven pieces of broken headlight that cracked the case, and the argument about what we should call these killings that is still going on today.

Mica Miller: Death of a Pastor's Wife

mica miller: the trial that isn't about her death mica miller was found dead on april 27, 2024, at lumber river state park in robeson county, north carolina, about seventy miles from her home in myrtle beach. she was 30. the robeson county sheriff's office determined she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. the north carolina medical examiner ruled her death a suicide. investigators said there was no evidence her estranged husband was involved in it. that is where most cases end. this one didn't. on december 18, 2025, a federal grand jury in columbia indicted john-paul miller, 46, pastor of solid rock church in myrtle beach, on one count of cyberstalking and one count of making false statements to federal investigators. the indictment alleges a pattern beginning in november 2022 and running until the day mica died. what the indictment alleges repeated unwanted communications, including more than fifty contacts in a single day tracking devices placed on her vehicle a nude photograph of her posted online without her consent interference with her finances and daily activities damage to her car tires prosecutors also say miller admitted hiring a private investigator to keep mica from buying a firearm. timeline november 2022: the alleged harassment begins, per the indictment april 27, 2024: mica miller is found dead at lumber river state park may 2, 2024: the death is first reported publicly may 6, 2024: the robeson county sheriff's office refers the matter to the u.s. attorney's office in south carolina 2024: mica's family settles a civil suit against john-paul miller june 1, 2025: john-paul miller remarries december 18, 2025: federal grand jury returns a two-count indictment january 12, 2026: arraignment in florence, south carolina. not guilty plea, released on $100,000 unsecured bond august 13, 2026: judge joseph dawson iii grants a continuance, moving the case to the october 2026 term where it stands john-paul miller has not been charged in connection with mica's death and has denied responsibility for it. he faces a maximum of five years on the cyberstalking count, two years on the false statements count, and a fine of up to $250,000. these are allegations. he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. the case has been continued four times. that is not unusual in a federal prosecution with this much electronic evidence. why this case matters beyond itself the gap between "no evidence of involvement in her death" and a federal stalking indictment is the whole story. advocates in south carolina have used it to push for domestic violence law that recognizes coercive control, meaning patterns of surveillance, isolation, financial control, and intimidation that leave no bruises. sources u.s. attorney's office, district of south carolina, indictment and press release, december 18, 2025. robeson county sheriff's office. north carolina office of the chief medical examiner. federal court records, district of south carolina.

The Freeway Phantom Murders

between april 1971 and september 1972, six young Black girls disappeared from southeast washington, d.c. they were ten to eighteen years old. they were walking home from the store. going to work. going to night class. coming home from a boyfriend's house. their bodies were found along highways in and around d.c. and maryland. Carol Spinks. Darlenia Johnson. Brenda Crockett. Nenomoshia Yates. Brenda Woodard. Diane Williams. at first the murders were not connected. different detectives worked different cases in a city overwhelmed by homicides. the media barely covered it. by the time investigators recognized the pattern, most of the girls were already dead. the killer named himself. a note torn from brenda woodard's own school notebook was signed "free-way phantom." handwriting analysis determined she had been forced to write it before she died. in this episode we go through all six cases. the phone calls made to the victims' families. the semen that was never tested. the reports of a body in the grass that police did not act on for a week. the missing shoes and shoelaces. and the two theories that were never closed: robert askins and the green vega gang. neither was ever charged. we also talk about Romaine Jenkins, the homicide investigator who built the largest private collection of records on this case, and the reinvestigation that found what the original one lost. the case is still open. the reward is $300,000. more than fifty years later, no one has been charged

The Lizzie Borden Story

On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were killed in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Ten months later, Andrew's daughter Lizzie was tried for both murders and acquitted in about ninety minutes. Nobody else was ever charged. Everyone knows the rhyme. Almost none of it is true. The weapon was a hatchet. Abby was Lizzie's stepmother. And the autopsy records eighteen wounds to Abby and ten to Andrew, not forty and forty-one. This episode isn't an attempt to solve it. The case can't be solved. The volume of the inquest transcript holding Lizzie's first day of testimony is lost, and Bridget Sullivan's inquest testimony is gone entirely. What we do instead is sort every claim into four buckets and say out loud which one we're standing in: primary documents, 1892 newspapers, modern scholarship, and folklore. Then we go through the house and its bolted doors, the poisoning fear two days before the murders, the refused prussic acid, the note nobody ever found, the barn loft dust, the burned dress, and the two rulings that decided the trial. We also follow Bridget Sullivan to Montana, and we test a 2025 book's claim to have solved the case against four people who testified under oath. For Source Info: murdersminivans@gmail.com

The Tylenol Murders

Seven people in Chicago died in three days in 1982 after taking Extra Strength Tylenol laced with cyanide. Nobody has ever been charged. Every seal on your medicine bottle comes from this case. On September 29, 1982, a twelve-year-old girl in Elk Grove Village named Mary Kellerman took a capsule for a sore throat before school. She was dead within hours. By the end of that week, six more people were dead across the Chicago suburbs, including three members of the same family who took capsules from the same bottle on the same afternoon. It took two off-duty firefighters comparing notes on a phone call to figure out what the deaths had in common. It took a nurse named Helen Jensen going back to a victim's house and counting the capsules to prove it. In this episode, we walk through all seven victims, the seventy-two hours it took anyone to connect them, the lot numbers that proved the bottles were poisoned after they reached store shelves, the extortion letter demanding a million dollars, and James Lewis, the man investigators spent forty years trying to charge and never could. We also get into what happened after. Thirty-one million bottles pulled. Tamper-evident packaging on every over-the-counter product in North America. A federal anti-tampering law. The case is still open. Victims: Mary Kellerman, Adam Janus, Stanley Janus, Theresa Janus, Mary McFarland, Mary Reiner, Paula Prince. Source Info: murdersminivans@gmail.com FOLLOW US! Instagram: @murdersandminivans Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MurdersMinivans

What Happened to Nolan Wells?

Nolan Xavier Wells was an 18 year old wide receiver from ocean springs, mississippi, preparing for his freshman season at southwest mississippi community college. on july 4, 2026, he traveled to horn island with a large group of friends on multiple boats. the boat he rode out on took on water from a failed bilge pump and turned back early. nolan was not on it. his body was found in the water on july 6. in this episode we walk through the full case in order: who nolan was, the geography and currents of horn island, the boat that took on water and the released sea tow distress call, the conflicting accounts of his final hours, and a 22 page timeline review that found a material gap in his last confirmed hours. we cover the multi agency search and the two competing explanations, what both autopsies found, the independent one that ruled cause and manner undetermined without excluding foul play, and the official state autopsy that is complete but sealed while prosecutors prepare a grand jury presentation. we also cover the unresolved details around his phone and keys, his clothing, and the tides, the family's legal team led by ben crump, support from tyler perry, colin kaepernick, and al sharpton, and the new two sided legal fight as three of the friends, publicly named, hire attorneys and assert their innocence while three strangers face charges for threatening people connected to the case. this is an open case. as of recording, no one has been charged in nolan's death, the cause and manner of death remain undetermined, and the friends have publicly stated they are innocent. we report only publicly available information.

The Husband Did It (A Love Story)

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing from her modesto home on christmas eve 2002. four months later, her body and the body of her unborn son conner washed up in the san francisco bay, just miles from where her husband scott said he had been fishing alone that day. this episode walks through the full case. we cover the timeline of Laci's disappearance, scott's shifting story, his affair with amber frey, the wiretapped phone calls, and the evidence that led to his conviction. we also get into the 2020 ruling that overturned his death sentence and where the case stands now. in this episode: who Laci peterson was and the life she and scott were building the events of december 24, 2002 and scott's fishing alibi amber frey and the affair scott was hiding the search, the tips, and the media frenzy that followed the discovery in the bay and what the evidence showed the 2004 trial, the conviction, and the death sentence the 2020 sentence reversal and the ongoing appeals

Amy Mihaljevic: The Phone Call Before the Crime

in october 1989, ten-year-old amy mihaljevic left her school in bay village, ohio to meet a man she had spoken to on the phone. he told her that her mom had gotten a promotion. he said he wanted her help picking out a gift. she was never seen alive again. her body was found four months later in a field in ashland county, more than fifty miles from home. what most people don't know is that amy wasn't the only girl who got a call. other girls in the area received the same kind of pitch around the same time. some said no. some hung up. one didn't. more than three decades later, the case is still open. the fbi still has the tip line. investigators still believe someone knows the voice on the other end of that phone. this episode covers the call, the abduction, the search, the discovery in the field, and the details that have kept this case alive for a generation. we talk about what made amy trust him, why the phone angle still matters, and the evidence that still hasn't been matched to a name.

Casey Anthony | What the Jury Never Saw

everyone remembers the verdict. almost nobody knows about the google search the jury never saw. on the last day Caylee Anthony was seen alive, someone in the anthony home searched "fool-proof suffocation" — and the state never found it, because investigators checked the wrong browser. this week: the full casey anthony case from the primary record. the 31 days, zanny the nanny, the deputy who wouldn't walk thirty yards, the chloroform number that collapsed mid-trial, and the two web sleuths who found what the state missed using free software. this isn't the story of a jury getting it wrong. it's the story of everything that never reached them. for source info contact us at murdersminivans@gmail.com. we're on YouTube! @MurdersMinivans follow us on Instagram!! @MurdersandMinivans

Framed by a U.S. Marshal | The True Story Behind Netflix's A Toxic Love Story

She spent 88 days in jail for a crime that never happened. The person who framed her was her own ex-fiancé: a deputy U.S. Marshal. This is the true story behind Netflix's A Toxic Love Story (2026). In 2016, Michelle Hadley was a 29-year-old grad student with a marketing job at Disney when Anaheim police arrested her for stalking, criminal threats, and six counts of attempted rape. Her bail was set at $1 million. She was facing life in prison. The problem? She had never done any of it. Michelle's ex-fiancé, deputy U.S. Marshal Ian Diaz, and his new wife of four months, Angela, had spent months building a fake online version of Michelle. They used her real writing style, pulled from private emails only Ian had access to. They created the "Lilithistruth" alias. They posted Craigslist ads directing strangers to Angela's home. They staged a garage attack. And they weaponized a federal badge to make local police believe every word. The Orange County District Attorney would later call it "diabolical." In this episode: The whirlwind romance and the Rockefeller Center proposal The Anaheim condo dispute that started everything The real breakup emails that became the blueprint for the frame Angela's history of forged sonograms, fake cancer, and impersonating Ian's other exes The Craigslist "rape fantasy" ads and the plan to stage a real assault The 17-year-old who nearly became a victim 88 days in jail: the death threat, the letters home, the swagger coaching How Michelle's parents cracked the digital evidence at their kitchen table Michelle's exoneration and Angela's plea deal The $1.795 million civil settlement that finally exposed Ian The federal conviction that came the same day Michelle gave birth to her daughter Watch: A Toxic Love Story, directed by Alexandra Lacey, premieres on Netflix July 22, 2026.

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