A "no body" murder trial in Mississippi. A Wisconsin dad fakes his death. Plus, keeping your home safe during the holidays.

27m
Listen to this week's episode of the Dateline: True Crime Weekly podcast with Andrea Canning. The body of missing Ole Miss student and gay activist Jay Lee has never been found, but prosecutors charged his secret lover with his murder. The man pleaded not guilty and last week at his trial, the jury weighed in. In August, a dad took his kayak out to go fishing on Wisconsin's deepest lake. He didn't come home until December. Plus a new charge for alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann, and Vicky Nguyen is back with tips on how to keep your house safe while you're traveling for the holidays.

Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com

To get new episodes every Thursday, follow here on Apple and Spotify:
Apple: https://apple.co/3Vx5THG
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5utP1NZyMUlyaUUv7XNq7j

Press play and read along

Runtime: 27m

Transcript

Speaker 1 Digline is sponsored by Capital One.

Speaker 3 Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees.

Speaker 4 Just ask the Capital One bank guy.

Speaker 1 It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way.

Speaker 3 What's in your wallet?

Speaker 1 Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank, Capital One NA Member FDIC.

Speaker 6 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger.

Speaker 6 Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers.

Speaker 6 Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800GRanger, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.
Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 8 Let's go.

Speaker 8 So this is a story we've talked about before.

Speaker 7 You're listening in to Dateline's morning meeting in 30 Rockefeller Center.

Speaker 8 She is married to Diddy's lawyer.

Speaker 10 Wow, really?

Speaker 8 Yeah, the one who represented the Nixium guy.

Speaker 7 Our auditorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country.

Speaker 8 I think only four charges stuck, right? She's breaking her silence, actually. He offers an inmate $15,000 to go kill somebody else.

Speaker 7 Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning.
It's December 19th, and here's what's on our docket.

Speaker 7 The Wisconsin kayaker who made headlines around the world when he faked his own death and fled the country is back in the U.S. to answer to a judge and his family.

Speaker 11 This was a very meticulously planned out staged death, or so he thought.

Speaker 7 In Dateline Roundup, a big development in the case of the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer. And finally, a verdict in the trial of the man accused of murdering tech mogul, Bob Lee.

Speaker 12 According to the sketch artist, Momeni wiped away a few tears after the verdict was read.

Speaker 7 Plus, NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent Vicki Wynn will be here with some tips on how to keep your home safe if you're traveling over the holiday.

Speaker 13 You don't want to actually close all of your curtains. That is a surefire sign to signal to burglars: hey, nobody's home.

Speaker 7 But first, we're heading to a college town in Mississippi where a case without a body made its way to trial more than two years after the victim disappeared.

Speaker 7 On July 8th, 2022, Stephanie Lee woke up to a text from her 20-year-old son, Jay. The University of Mississippi student wished her a happy birthday.
I gave him a text back with a smiley face.

Speaker 7 That's Stephanie testifying two weeks ago at the trial of the man accused of murdering her son. The prosecutor asked her what she was expecting after sending the text.

Speaker 7 I was suspecting his call at that point. Hey, mama, it's your birthday.
Happy birthday. I love you.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 7 did you get a response?

Speaker 3 No, I did not.

Speaker 7 Stephanie never heard from her son again, and his body was never found.

Speaker 7 But just a few weeks after he went missing, police in Oxford, Mississippi arrested Sheldon Timothy Harrington for Jay Lee's murder.

Speaker 7 They say Harrington, who pleaded not guilty, killed Lee to cover up their secret sexual relationship. His defense team, meanwhile, said there was no proof.

Speaker 3 Not one bit bit of direct evidence.

Speaker 7 Last week, the blockbuster trial came to a stunning and abrupt conclusion. Dateline producer Esar Harpaz was in Mississippi for the trial.
He joins us now to tell us what happened.

Speaker 7 Isar, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 14 Glad to be here.

Speaker 7 To start, what can you tell us about Jay Lee? Who was he?

Speaker 14 Jay Lee had graduated with honors from the University of Mississippi, was about to enter grad school. He was a community activist.
He was also out and proud.

Speaker 14 You know, somebody who performed in local drag shows. He was unapologetically who he was.

Speaker 10 Nice.

Speaker 14 He also was a family person. You know, his mom and him literally talked every day of his entire life since he had been born, sometimes two, three times a day.

Speaker 7 Isar, what do we know about the relationship between Jay Lee and Timothy Harrington?

Speaker 14 What trial testimony has revealed. Unlike Jay Lee, Tim Harrington was hiding his sexuality.
He was not out.

Speaker 14 His parents didn't know anything about it. His best friends didn't know anything about that.

Speaker 14 The grandfather was a bishop at the church that he founded for 42 years. And so his relationship with Jay Lee was fairly secretive.

Speaker 7 Okay, so a big part of the prosecution's case was that Harrington was the last known person to see Jay Lee alive.

Speaker 7 The prosecutor told the jury that the men met up on July 8th in the early morning hours, and then Lee left after an argument.

Speaker 7 And at trial, the prosecution presented evidence of a Snapchat conversation between the two that helped them sort of piece together what might have happened next.

Speaker 14 It took the police a while to trace this Snapchat account to Tim Harrington, but they were able to do it. Tim Harrington says, Come back.
And Jay Lee says, Are you luring me in?

Speaker 14 Are you going to beat me up or something? And Tim says, Why would I do that?

Speaker 14 Come by now.

Speaker 7 One of the problems the police have here is that there's no body. They haven't found Jay Lee, right?

Speaker 14 Yeah, that is correct.

Speaker 7 Aside from Jay Lee being with Harrington, what other evidence did the prosecution present to make their case against Harrington?

Speaker 14 So they had some pretty powerful visual and surveillance evidence, right?

Speaker 14 They They get word on July 10th, two days after they disappeared, Jay's car was found at this apartment complex about seven miles away from Tim Harrington's apartment.

Speaker 14 And so then they say, okay, well, maybe we can see some surveillance video of how this car got there.

Speaker 7 Could they tell who was driving it when it came into the complex?

Speaker 14 They could not tell who was driving it. But nine minutes later, a person is seen jogging.
out of the apartment complex.

Speaker 7 Could they make out a face on the jogger?

Speaker 14 Could not make out a face, no. But as they were looking at the video footage, they see the same jogger come out into a gas station and get into a car and drive away.

Speaker 14 So now they have a car that, you know, they try to find the car's owner, right?

Speaker 14 And the car's owner comes in and his name is Kazaya Carter. And he says, yeah, yeah, a friend of my girlfriend's just flagged me down.
Well, what's the name of your friend? I says, Tim Harrington.

Speaker 14 Five minutes after he picks him up, he gets stopped by police for speeding. So we actually have body cam cameras

Speaker 14 of Tim Harrington being in that car with him. If he had just not flagged down a ride, right, they would have probably not known who that person was.

Speaker 7 They had some other, you know, evidence that didn't look so good for Tim Harrington.

Speaker 7 He goes over to his parents' house. He's wearing rubber boots.
He's carrying a shovel and getting a wheelbarrow. That doesn't make him a killer, but when you add it all together, it doesn't look good.

Speaker 14 The defense was trying to say one of his jobs was manage some of the rental properties that his grandfather had. There was no schedule to it.

Speaker 14 And so this may have been one of those days, although they didn't present any evidence that he actually did that. But remember, there is no physical evidence.

Speaker 14 They didn't find anything in his apartment. They didn't find anything in Jay's car.
They didn't find anything in Tim Harrington's car. There's no sign of a struggle.

Speaker 7 Was there anything else, Issar, that really stuck out to you from the defense?

Speaker 14 Yes. I mean, the defense did try to imply some alternate suspects.

Speaker 14 They always said, oh, we're not saying that they did it and we know they were eliminated, but the police should have investigated further than that.

Speaker 7 Things moved very quickly after closing arguments.

Speaker 14 Two hours after they started deliberation, there was a note. What if we can't agree on a verdict?

Speaker 14 Judge sent them back and said, try it. So another two hours there, they said, I think we're deadlocked.

Speaker 14 He brought them out and he said, without telling me whether it's guilty or not guilty, just tell me me what's the split. And the jury foreman says, 11 to 1.
I confirmed later on, 11 guilty

Speaker 14 and one not guilty. The judge sent them back.
They were inside for another five hours. Yeah.

Speaker 14 And finally, they came out and they were totally deadlocked.

Speaker 7 How did Tim Harrington react to a hung jury? It's very, you know, on one hand, it can be, it's good for the defendant in some ways, but then this still hangs over their head.

Speaker 14 There wasn't any happiness on his face. There wasn't any relief on his face.
Tim has to deal with a lot of, you know, a lot of has been revealed that his family may have not known.

Speaker 14 And so he has to face that as well.

Speaker 7 Are they going to try Tim Harrington again?

Speaker 14 They're definitely going to retry it, but there is a possibility, and some people are speculating on that, that the defense will reach out to see if they can get a plea deal.

Speaker 7 All right, Isar, thank you so much for taking us through this really sad story. We appreciate it.

Speaker 14 Thank you so much, Andrea.

Speaker 7 Up next, new details in the investigation into the missing Wisconsin dad who staged his own death and ended up on the other side of the world.

Speaker 7 And the sheriff who refused to give up on bringing him home.

Speaker 13 Chevron with Techron provides unbeatable mileage and possibilities. And no other gas cleans your engine parts better.

Speaker 13 So you can fuel up on more adventure, fuel up on more memories, or even quality time. Chevron with Techron, fueled by possibility.

Speaker 2 Looking to crack the code on your career?

Speaker 1 Well, maybe it's time to get your degree.

Speaker 2 Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 programs you can complete online.

Speaker 1 No set class times means you can do it all on your schedule.

Speaker 2 And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., they make getting your degree affordable, too. Get started at snhu.edu dateline.

Speaker 4 That's snhu.edu slash dateline.

Speaker 5 Hey, this is Jeff Lewis from Radio Andy. Live and uncensored.
Catch me talking with my friends about my latest obsessions, relationship issues, and bodily ailments.

Speaker 5 With that kind of drama that seems to follow me, you never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 13 You can listen to Jeff Lewis Live at home or anywhere you are. Download the SiriusXM app for over 425 channels of ad-free music, sports, entertainment, and more.

Speaker 13 Subscribe now and get three months free. Offer details apply.

Speaker 7 At around 10 p.m. on August 11th of this year, 44-year-old Wisconsin native Ryan Borgwart took his kayak out for a paddle on the state's deepest lake.
It's called Green Lake.

Speaker 7 But Ryan, married with three kids, he never came home. His family reported him missing the next day, and our affiliate NBC NBC26 was on the case.

Speaker 7 Green Lake County Sheriff's deputies are still looking for a Kayaker reported missing on Monday. Is there a chance that Kayaker is still alive?

Speaker 14 No, it's definitely a drowning.

Speaker 7 Over the next eight weeks, cadaver dogs and dive teams tirelessly searched the lake for a body. But then, in November, police held a press conference.

Speaker 15 We got to go a different direction. We do not know where he is.
We know that he's not in our lake.

Speaker 7 When investigators tracked him down, Ryan was very much alive and hiding in a place no one expected. Police urged him to come back and face law enforcement and his family.

Speaker 15 Brian, if you are viewing this, I plead that you contact us or contact your family.

Speaker 7 Last week, Ryan did just that. Here to fill us in on how investigators track down a man who didn't want to be found and what happens next is NBC News correspondent Marquise Francis.

Speaker 7 Marquise, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 11 Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 13 Okay, this is a crazy story.

Speaker 7 What do we know about Ryan Borgward?

Speaker 11 Yeah, I mean, to say it's crazy, it feels like almost an understatement.

Speaker 11 He's been married to his wife, Emily, for at least 22 years, and they lived in Watertown, Wisconsin, which is a small town of about 23,000 people.

Speaker 11 Ryan's wife, Emily, she did say that Ryan was an entrepreneur.

Speaker 7 August 11th, Ryan goes out on his kayak at night. He never returns home.

Speaker 7 How did the investigation play out from there?

Speaker 11 So the following day, after August 11th, Ryan's wife reported him missing.

Speaker 11 And the local county sheriff Mark Pottle went to the lake and discovered Ryan's car in a trailer near the lake at a park where people launched their boats from.

Speaker 11 And then he also discovered a kayak that was overturned in the lake where the depth goes up to 200 feet. And so for the next 54 days, there was an all-out search for Ryan launched.

Speaker 11 Locals helped out, cadaver dogs were brought in, and even divers were sent into the water looking for Ryan or at least clues.

Speaker 11 Two fishermen found a fishing rod that Ryan's wife confirmed belonged to her husband and a tackle box with Ryan's wallet, license, and keys in it, but ultimately no Ryan after nearly two months.

Speaker 7 Obviously, if you're the family, I would imagine you're thinking that this doesn't look good. My, you know, husband, father is gone.
He's drowned.

Speaker 7 But over the course of a few months, police went from expecting to find a body in the lake to tracking down a live man.

Speaker 7 What was that turning point?

Speaker 11 Right. That local sheriff, and I want to keep saying his name, Mark Pottle, he was not playing around.
He was not willing to give up on this case.

Speaker 11 After hitting so many dead ends, the sheriff widened his search. And so he learned from Canadian authorities that Ryan had used his passport the day after he was reported missing.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I mean, I wonder, you know, how he got to Canada. Like, did he call an Uber?

Speaker 11 The local sheriff's department said on August 11th at 10 p.m., Ryan drove to that lake.

Speaker 11 He capsized his kayak, he dropped his phone in the water, and then he got back to shore in this like inflatable child-sized boat.

Speaker 11 He then hopped on an e-bike that he'd stashed somewhere nearby and then drove that e-bike 70 miles through the night to Madison, Wisconsin. Oh my gosh.
Yes, he was dedicated.

Speaker 11 And then then he took a bus from Madison to Detroit and somehow from there, he crossed over into Canada. So this was a very, dare I say, meticulously planned out staged death or so he thought.

Speaker 11 Ultimately, Ryan left his laptop behind and a digital forensic analyst was able to search the laptop and find that Ryan had replaced the hard drive and cleared his browser history.

Speaker 11 And then earlier that year in January, he took out a $375,000 life insurance policy out on himself. He also had opened up a foreign bank account and moved money there.

Speaker 11 And then police found out he'd been communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan for months.

Speaker 11 Once police started putting these details together, it started to create a story that went from a disappearance to now a faked death situation.

Speaker 7 So Ryan ends up in Canada. Where does he go from there?

Speaker 11 Ryan flew from Canada to Europe, landed in Paris, at some point ended in Central Asia, and then he spent a significant time in Eastern Europe, in Georgia.

Speaker 7 With this woman from Uzbekistan?

Speaker 11 We're still trying to figure out exactly who he was with.

Speaker 7 Was there any thought about where he did? I'm assuming maybe he met this woman online, like in some type of a place where you can actually.

Speaker 11 I think a lot of people are speculating as to what happened, right? I talked about this story with some of even my coworkers, and they've heard similar stories. All we can do right now is speculate.

Speaker 11 And so, I don't want to put anything out there in terms of who exactly he was with without really knowing.

Speaker 11 Police said they were finally able to get in contact with Ryan after speaking to a woman who spoke Russian.

Speaker 7 Yeah, and they heard from Ryan over video, which they played at a later press conference.

Speaker 10 Good evening. It's very important.

Speaker 10 Today is

Speaker 10 November 11th.

Speaker 10 Stay secure.

Speaker 7 So, what was it ultimately that brought him back to America? Did he do it on his own or did they find him and force him to come back?

Speaker 11 Ultimately, Ryan did come back home on his own. In the presser last week, the local sheriff talked about speaking to Ryan for at least a month.

Speaker 11 And he really said he pulled at Ryan's heartstrings, wanting Ryan to come home before the holidays, specifically for his family.

Speaker 15 On December 10th, Ryan...

Speaker 11 arrived on U.S.

Speaker 18 soil.

Speaker 10 I said,

Speaker 11 could be a really good Christmas.

Speaker 7 Where is Ryan now? Is he with his family at home?

Speaker 11 It's unsure exactly where Ryan is. Ryan is facing a pretty serious charge of obstructing an officer where he faces up to a $10,000 fine and nine months in prison, but he is out on bail.

Speaker 7 A judge entered a not guilty plea for Ryan last week. Last question, Marquise.
Has his wife said anything about how she feels about him coming back?

Speaker 11 Last Thursday, she did file for a separation from Ryan, citing the marriage is irretrievably broken.

Speaker 7 That's a tough one to recover from. Marquise, thank you so much for joining us and taking us through this wild story.
We really appreciate it and have a happy holiday.

Speaker 11 Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 7 When we come back, it's time for Dateline Roundup.

Speaker 7 New charges for Rex Huerman, the man accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer, and a verdict in the case of the tech executive stabbed to death on a San Francisco street.

Speaker 7 Plus, for anyone planning to travel this holiday season, we'll have some tips for how to keep your home safe.

Speaker 13 Hi, I'm Jenny Slate. And believe it or not, someone is allowing us to have a podcast.

Speaker 10 I'm Gabe Leidman.

Speaker 16 I'm Max Silvestri. And we've been friends for 20 years.
And we like to reach out to kind of get advice on how to live our lives.

Speaker 7 It's called I Need You Guys.

Speaker 16 Should I give my baby fresh vegetables?

Speaker 7 Can I drink the water at the hospital?

Speaker 19 My landlord plays the trombone and I can't ask him to stop.

Speaker 12 You should make sure that you subscribe so that you never miss an episode.

Speaker 10 I need you guys.

Speaker 13 If you're an experienced pet owner, you already know that having a pet is 25% belly rubs, 25% yelling, drop it, and 50% groaning at the bill from every vet vet visit.

Speaker 13 Which is why Lemonade Pet Insurance is tailor-made for your pet and can save you up to 90% on vet bills.

Speaker 13 It can help cover checkups, emergencies, diagnostics, basically all the stuff that makes your bank account nervous. Claims are filed super easy through the Lemonade app and half get settled instantly.

Speaker 13 Get a quote at lemonade.com slash pet and they'll help cover the vet bill for whatever your pet swallowed after you yelled drop it. Why are more women than ever choosing natural cycles?

Speaker 13 The hormone-free, side-effect-free way to take control of your fertility. Natural Cycles is a birth control app that uses your temperature to find your fertile window.

Speaker 13 It is more than a basic cycle tracking app. Natural Cycles is the only FDA-cleared and CE-marked birth control app and has helped millions prevent and plan for pregnancy naturally.

Speaker 13 Save 15% when you sign up today with code RADIO15. Learn more at naturalcycles.com.

Speaker 7 Welcome back. Joining me for this week's roundup is Dateline Digital Producer Veronica Mazeka.
Hey, Veronica.

Speaker 13 Hey, how are you?

Speaker 7 Okay, for our first story, we are off to Suffolk County, New York, home of alleged serial killer Rex Huerman and the notorious Gilgo Beach murders.

Speaker 18 Good morning.

Speaker 18 As we all know by now, today my office filed a superseding indictment charging the defendant Yerman with a seventh charged murder in the second degree.

Speaker 7 We have a seventh murder charge now.

Speaker 12 Yeah, so this week the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office announced that the latest victim is a woman named Valerie Mack, and this happened in 2000.

Speaker 12 Previously, Huerman, who was an architectural consultant, he had been accused of six murders in the Gilgo Beach, Long Island area.

Speaker 12 And over the years, they've found that there are other unidentified human remains that they've not linked to him until...

Speaker 7 this one. How were they able to finally charge him with this additional murder? This is over two decades, you know, since the first of Valerie Mack's remains were found.

Speaker 12 Really, what it came down to was there was a hair found on Valerie Mack's left wrist that was linked to Huerman's wife or daughter, and neither of them are suspected in this case, but that is definitely a big tie.

Speaker 12 Also, they found a planning document on Huerman's computer, which in that document, it lists alleged dump sites.

Speaker 12 And one of the things listed was a place called Mill Road, which is actually where Valerie Mack's remains were found.

Speaker 7 Fascinating. Huerman has denied all the allegations against him and has pleaded not guilty to this charge and the six other charges.
So we will keep an eye out on this one.

Speaker 7 Next, we're off to Minnesota, where there was an emotional sentencing this week in the case of Adam Fraville, the man convicted of the 2023 murder of Madeline Kingsbury, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his children.

Speaker 7 What happened, Veronica, with this sentencing?

Speaker 12 Yeah, so he was found guilty in November of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder after the prosecution laid out the argument that he strangled Maddie and dumped her body near his parents' home.

Speaker 12 And this weekend's sentencing, her sister Megan gave a really powerful victim impact statement.

Speaker 12 She focused on how it's been really difficult, not just for them, but for Maddie and Adam's two children as well.

Speaker 12 Our affiliate, KTTC, was actually in the courtroom and captured some of the sentencing.

Speaker 20 Today, on this day of sentencing, I ask the court to reflect on what Adam's actions have done to the children in our family.

Speaker 20 The children in our family don't get to walk through their young lives shrouded in a cloak of childhood innocence anymore.

Speaker 20 It was ripped from each of their tiny shoulders, stomped on, shredded, destroyed. Adam gave each of us a life sentence as well.

Speaker 7 Very sad for all involved. What was Adam's sentence?

Speaker 12 So he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which is the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Minnesota.

Speaker 7 For our final story, we are off to San Francisco, where there is finally a verdict in the trial of Nima Momeni, who was accused of fatally stabbing Cash App co-founder Bob Lee back in 2023.

Speaker 7 All right, what did the jury decide?

Speaker 12 So he was originally charged with first-degree murder. And after seven days of deliberating, the jury acquitted him of that charge.

Speaker 12 They did, however, find him guilty of a lesser charge, which was second-degree murder with enhancement, and that's the use of a deadly weapon.

Speaker 12 One of our Dateline producers, Brittany Tom, she was actually on the podcast a couple of times talking about this case.

Speaker 12 She was in the courtroom when the verdict was read, and she said that there was actually a slight gasp when he was found not guilty of first-degree murder.

Speaker 12 And then, when the guilty charge was read for second-degree murder, it was silent. According to the sketch artist, Momeni wiped away a few tears after the verdict was read.

Speaker 7 Definitely a lengthy deliberation for this case. So, what is next for Momeni? When is his sentencing?

Speaker 12 So, there's a hearing in January. It's on the 10th to set his sentencing date, and he faces anywhere from 16 years to life in prison.

Speaker 7 All right, thank you so much for the updates, Veronica.

Speaker 12 Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Speaker 7 The holidays are just around the corner, and while you might be planning to hit the road to celebrate with your loved ones or just leaving the house to go shopping, you don't want unexpected guests to break in on your holiday fun.

Speaker 7 So, here to share some tips on how to keep your home safe is today's show, Senior Consumer Investigative Correspondent Vicki Wynn. Hey, Vicki.

Speaker 13 Hey, good morning.

Speaker 7 Hey, so let's start with just some of the basics of this.

Speaker 13 The most basic thing, Andrea, is to lock your doors and windows. I know people want to say, oh, I live in this neighborhood.
It's so great. We leave our doors unlocked.

Speaker 13 Well, there are bad guys and they may drive into your neighborhood. So the most basic, simple security thing that you can do is making sure you lock your doors and windows.

Speaker 13 If you are planning to leave for an extended period of time, talk to your neighbors.

Speaker 13 Let them know that you're going to be gone, the dates, leave a key with them so that they can keep an eye on your property for you.

Speaker 13 Something else to think about, a lot of times people have home security systems, but they don't really use them when they're at home. Test it.

Speaker 13 Make sure that thing works and that you know that it's hooked up to your phone and it will alert you if something's going on at your home when you're gone.

Speaker 13 And finally, remember what you're posting on social media matters as well.

Speaker 13 We talk about this with our kids, but you don't need to post in real time your location because what you're doing is letting anybody who knows you know that you're not at your home.

Speaker 13 Save those vacation photos, those family photos for posting when you get back.

Speaker 7 Yeah, you say one of the most important steps to keeping your home safe is to actually make it appear like someone is still at home.

Speaker 13 Yeah. These days there are so many simple and inexpensive ways to do that when it comes to lighting.

Speaker 13 For example, installing some basic motion lights that just have lights coming on and off when someone walks by or walks onto your property. Another one is setting a light on a timer.

Speaker 13 I mean you can buy these timers for under $20. They're relatively easy to install and you just set them to go on and off at random times.
That makes it look like someone's at home.

Speaker 13 Something else to always remember for the magazine subscriptions, the newspapers, the mail, there are simple ways to pause delivery.

Speaker 13 Or if you've got that trusted neighbor asking them to send a kid over for the week that you're gone to come by and collect your mail every day. And then finally, this tip I think is very interesting.

Speaker 13 Having a car parked in your driveway, moving in and out definitely makes it seem like someone is home. Ideally, you're parking your car in your garage.
That's the most secure.

Speaker 13 But maybe you have a neighbor who has a teenager who has an extra car and they're always parking it on the street. Offer up your driveway for the week or two that you're gone.

Speaker 13 That's a great way to make it look like someone's home and to protect your property.

Speaker 7 So

Speaker 7 when we think of holiday burglaries, I'm going to do the home alone reference.

Speaker 7 Instead of setting up actual booby traps and cardboard cutouts of

Speaker 7 people, is there anything that you can do inside your house to deter a burglar?

Speaker 13 Well, number one, consider investing in one of those safes that you can put and don't put it in your

Speaker 13 closet in your primary bedroom. Put it in an unexpected location because sometimes those burglars can take the entire safe with them.
But it's good not just for when you're away.

Speaker 13 It's good for fireproofing documents as well as valuable, expensive jewelry. So getting a safe, putting your most valuable things into that safe out of sight is important.

Speaker 13 Another very simple thing to do though, make sure that your laptop, your tablets, your car keys are not within the visual sight line of anybody looking into your kitchen window or your living room window.

Speaker 13 Some people go so far as to move and rearrange their furniture so that you can't see their television or their valuable china that's in a cabinet. If you can do that, go for it.

Speaker 13 You might be inclined to just say, I'm not going to bother with any of this, Vicki. I'm just going to close my curtains.
You don't want to actually close all of your curtains.

Speaker 13 That is a surefire sign to signal to burglars, hey, nobody's home. All their windows and curtains have been closed this entire time.
So just strategically close some of them.

Speaker 13 The ones that are open, make sure there's nothing of value within the sight line.

Speaker 7 And break-ins, unfortunately, they're not the only thing that you have to worry about when you're traveling.

Speaker 13 Unplug your appliances. Not only is that safe in case there's a power surge, but it's also going to save you some money on your energy bill.

Speaker 13 The Fire Safety Research Institute also recommends closing every door in your home because that can slow down the spread of a fire. You can go on YouTube and see it.

Speaker 13 It's remarkable the difference between what happens inside a room when the door is closed versus when it's open.

Speaker 7 Vicki,

Speaker 7 really, really good tips for the holidays. We want everyone's holiday to go off without a hitch.

Speaker 13 Have a great holiday. Great to be with you.

Speaker 7 That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. Next week, we'll have a special episode for you with some special guests.

Speaker 7 Josh, Dennis, and Keith will be here to take a look back at the biggest stories of 2024. We hope you'll join us for Dateline True Crime Weekly's year-in review.

Speaker 7 And coming up this Friday, after a woman survives a brutal attack, investigators work tirelessly to identify a suspect. Only she's convinced they have the wrong man.

Speaker 21 And I said,

Speaker 12 what?

Speaker 21 I was like, there's a mistake. This is not real.
This is not right. This is not accurate.
My whole world is flipped upside down.

Speaker 7 Watch Keith's classic two-hour mystery, Left for Dead, airing this Friday at 9-8 Central on NBC, or stream it starting Saturday on Peacock.

Speaker 7 And for even more Keith this holiday season, starting on Friday, you can listen to him read classic Christmas stories wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 7 To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. Thanks for listening.
Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Frannie Kelly and Katie Ferguson.

Speaker 7 Our associate producers are Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey. Our senior producer is Liz Brown Kuriloff.
Production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadir. Veronica Mazeka is our digital producer.

Speaker 7 Rick Kwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jesse McGinty.
Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Paul Ryan is executive producer.
And Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.

Speaker 12 Thanks, everyone.

Speaker 21 Bye.

Speaker 12 Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena, and I'm Ash, and we are the host of Morbid Podcast.
Each week, we dive into the dark and fascinating world of true crime, spooky history, and the unexplained.

Speaker 9 From infamous killers and unsolved mysteries to haunted places and strange legends, we cover it all with research, empathy, humor, and a few creative expletives.

Speaker 12 It's smart, it's spooky, and it's just the right amount of weird.

Speaker 9 Two new episodes drop every week, and there's even a bonus once a month.

Speaker 12 Find us wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 11 Yay! Woo!