Tonight, we talk about real-life Halloween tales gathered from internetland, ranging from the absurd, to the comical, to the truly horrifying.  It's enough to make you just want to stay at home and eat candy, where it's safe.  Or is it?

On Halloween in 1974, a man named Ronald Clark O'Bryan would commit a horrific act that would have a continued impact over the next 5 decades and become the basis for the urban legend of strangers poisoning candy handed out to children on Halloween.  Now, while this urban legend has been mostly debunked, there are small bits of truth that help enforce the idea that people are using Halloween candy as a method to harm children.  We discuss these incidents over the years, as well as whether or not a myth can become reality over time.

Tonight, we discuss topics from past episodes in which the mystery surrounding them has been solved since we last covered them.  The Murders at Steve's Motel, the Gabby Petito disappearance, and even the one that started it all, the Ruth Price 911 call are up for re-evaluation.  So welcome back, and enjoy this walk through the archives.

From 1894 until 1997, the United States and Canada ran a schooling system for Native Americans that equated to systemic genocide- children, some as young as newborns, were taken from their families and forced to live in boarding schools with the intent of assimilating them into Christian society.  Not allowed to engage in their native languages or religious practices, these children endured horrific physical and mental abuse as they were stripped of their culture, many times culminating in death via disease, abuse, or suicide.  Over a quarter million native children in the U.S and Canada were forced into these schools, with thousands upon thousands never returning home, as evidenced by the discovery of unmarked mass gravesites at many of the schools, with more being found every month.

For 84 years, there existed a small, dark stain in the heart of America.  A place where travelers of the night passing through a small town in Ohio were likely to be surrounded by rapists, drug dealers, murderers and sex traffickers and not realize it.  Despised by some, loved by others who knew it was a place where anything goes, it's notoriety reached it's peak in 1991 when a triple homicide occurred, the victims being the couple that owned the property along with their six-year-old daughter, in what appeared to be a professional hit.  The case was never solved, and it, along with the very acknowledgement of the existence of the place has been swept under the rug by locals, and it was finally demolished in 2021.  This is the legend of Steve's Motel.

This week, we each choose what we believe to be the most haunted place in America, and discuss our reasons why.  A quaint southern town known for having more ghostly inhabitants than live ones, a mental health facility with a hellish reputation, and a house in Kansas with a haunting so incredible it was captured multiple times on network television.  So grab your Halloween candy, and enjoy!

Over the last few years, there has been a growing trend in horror- the Extreme Horror Experience.  Evolved from the notoriety of "Extreme Haunted Houses" like McKamey Manor and Blackout, these experiences look to disturb and unnerve visitors by blurring the line between safety and danger.  Although what actually happens in these experiences is rather secretive, there are reports of intentional physical harm and borderline sexual assault. But are these places just sadism in disguise?  Are they actually scary, or ridiculous cash grabs?  We'll tell you what we think in this fun episode.

At the base of the tallest mountain in Japan, there is a place where hundreds of people a year go to purposefully never return from.  Curious visitors to the area may encounter corpses, curses left behind by the dead, or sometimes, hear screams from deep within the trees.  Though there is some debate over whether or not Aokigahara is haunted in the traditional sense of the word, there is no doubt that there exists a dark allure that compels people to enter the forest and end their lives.  - Warning:  This episode contains discussion about suicide and Japanese suicide culture.  If you are feeling suicidal or experiencing extreme depression, *please* reach out to someone for help.  The National Suicide Prevention lifeline is available 24/7 in North America at 800-273-8255.  For those abroad, below is a link to the various suicide lifelines available in different countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

Tonight, we discuss the case everyone is talking about- the disappearance and death of Gabby Petito, while traveling cross-country with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie.  This case has a series of oddities and downright bizarre coincidences, including a double murder that occurred in an area of Utah that Gabby and Brian happened to be in at the same time.  At the time of this recording, Brian Laundrie's whereabouts were unknown, and Gabby's remains had not been yet confirmed.  Do our theories make any sense?  Listen and decide.

On April 1st 2014, two young students from the Netherlands, Kris Kremmers and Lisanne Froon, disappeared while hiking the forests during their trip to Boquete, Panama.  Despite an extensive search and investigation by both Panama and Dutch authorities over 10 days, no traces of the two girls were found.  Then, 10 weeks later, a backpack containing items belonging to the two missing girls mysteriously appeared on a riverbank in a small neighboring village.  Partial remains of the girls were also discovered in the area.  After investigating the items in the backpack, which included a digital camera that contained 90 photos taken 7 days after the disappearance, all taken in a three-hour span (One of the photos in the sequence had been deleted), the "official" explanation by the local authorities was death by misfortune, as tourists perishing after being lost in the jungle is not all that uncommon...  however, Boquete has a dark history and present and it may lead to the answer of the question of what *really* happened to two women in the jungles of Panama.  We sink our teeth into that dark history, and find some very interesting facts that lead to even more interesting theories.