MFM Minisode 428

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This card is issued by the Bancorp Bank NA, pursuant to license by MasterCard International, Inc. Hey, it's Haley Steinfeld.

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at davidsbridal.com. Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder, the mini-sode.

You ready for some stories from your mouths and pens?

And fingertips.

Fingertips.

You go first.

It always has to be a third thing.

Okay.

This, I love when we just start out with a regular old hometown.

And this one, well, it's pretty bad.

Oh, jeez.

I won't read you the subject line. It says, hi, guys.
My name is Eva, and I'm a fan from Belgium. Hey.
We didn't go to Belgium, did we? No, but I've been there. I have, too.
That's where the little statue of the boy peeing. Oh, yeah.
The world famous, right? Yeah. And the sprouts, of course.
I started listening a couple of months ago, starting from the first episode. So when I listen to you guys, I feel like I'm in a time capsule from the past.
I'm now listening to episode 91. Here's my hometown murder.
Seven years ago, I moved to Herentout. There's no way that's right, but I just went for it.
The village where my boyfriend lived his whole life. I love to watch true crime.
And in Belgium, there's a TV series with Belgian murders. One of the episodes tells the story of a murder one kilometer or 0.6 miles from our house where we live now.
A few years ago. Okay, so this is basically the closest.
Like it's such a close, a true hometown for this person. A few years ago, there was a couple that moved here from the seaside to a village nearby.
And a few months later to Herentout. Herentout.
It sounds right. Our village.
It feels right. Yeah.
I'm kind of giving a little spice at the end. But the woman had two children, but the man hit them and they were put under guardianship of their grandmother at the seaside.
The woman chose to stay with the abusive boyfriend. Always heartbreaking.
The daughter called her mom every Sunday. A few weeks after moving to the grandmother's house, the daughter couldn't reach her mom and started contacting people on Facebook.
Nobody had seen the mother for weeks. In the meantime, the boyfriend apparently had a new girlfriend and told other people that the mother had run away.
The strange thing was that she left her dog and her purse in the house. A few weeks had gone by and some guy from the water supply company came by and had to check the meters in the basement.
The man told him that he lost the key. There was also a weird smell in the house and the basement door was taped off.
He told the guy that he lost the key and the refrigerator in the basement was broken and the smell was coming from rotting food. The water guy left without checking the meters.
Imagine checking the meters and discovering the horror that was really going on. Meanwhile, the man was living with his new girlfriend.
One week later, the police arrived because the mother didn't show up to the appointments at her new job.

They thought the story of the guy was really weird. They had a weird feeling about it.
They searched the house and found her murdered body at the bottom of the basement stairs. Apparently, they got into a fight.
He strangled her and threw her down the stairs and did not try to cover things up. He just closed the door, taped it off because of the smell,

and then continued his life with the new girlfriend inside the house.

Holy shit.

He's now in jail for murder. A couple of other people have lived in the house since because

it was very cheap rent. Of course.
A year ago, it sold and the new owners are doing a major

renovation on it. This was my hometown.
Thank you guys for the extremely funny episodes and big love from Belgium, Eva. Wow.
Jesus.

It's like a typical terrible story of a woman being murdered.

That we've heard too many times.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I have a hometown as well.
A traditional hometown.

Okay.

It's called Pretending to be Rich to Scope Out a Crime Scene. Hello, ladies.
Day one listener. Remember the Facebook group you had to shut down? I was in it.
Love you both. Miss the Facebook group a little.
A little? In the very beginning, it was golden. It was so fun.
Yeah. When I was doing my student teaching back in 2011 in my hometown of Andover, Massachusetts, recess ended early when we got word that two bodies had been found in a nearby home murdered.
The story goes that local grandparents, John and Geraldine Maggi, were brutally shot to death and were discovered by their age four and eight sweet baby angel grandchildren who would eagerly run into the home to see their grandparents while their mother went Christmas shopping. Both John and Geraldine were shot in the neck and the bullets went through the floor to the basement.
It's presumed they were lying face down on the floor in execution style. Although I can't confirm these details, so much of this case is local rumor.
The couple's Lexus SUV was found that same day, 25 miles away, and Boston's north end completely burned. This area of Boston is often tied to mob activity, but many speculate that leaving the burnt car there was actually a way to throw off the police by making them suspect the mob and therefore botch the investigation, as it seemed unlikely the mob would bring that evidence back to such an obvious area.
John Maggi owned a local construction company, but after years of investigating, nobody can find a reason why this couple was targeted. Apparently, they were the most well-loved and kind couple in town.
This murder is somehow still unsolved and remains the talk of the town each year when the anniversary rolls around. Hopefully, there will be an soon, but at this point it seems unlikely.
Such a bummer. The home where the murder took place recently went up for sale.
It's near my parents' house, and the open house happened to be going on while I was visiting my parents. The only problem is that the house is for sale for $1.8 million.
I'm in my 30s on a teacher salary, so that's not happening. And then it says it has an indoor pool.
My fellow murderino sister and mother and I devised a plan to be able to see the crime scene because we are nosy as fuck. And then it says maybe we could solve it.
I would pretend to have a $2 million budget and be house hunting for my family. I figured no one would check up on me because it would be so busy.
Wrong. We were the only people, including my four-year-old daughter who thought we were getting it into her pool, who were at the open house.
Boy, did we have to keep our story straight about school districts and bedrooms and square feet and bathrooms, etc. that I was looking for.
The real estate agent continues to contact me months later with listings in Andover in my 2 million price range that she thinks would be perfect for me. I feel terrible and I don't know how to get out of the situation.
So I'll probably tell her we went bankrupt or something. Yes, I gave her my real name and information.
Maybe the only way out is to get rich. SSDGM.
And then it says, I think I have to remain anonymous? Question mark. First of all, go to that real estate agent and explain yourself in full and in truth.
They absolutely will be like, oh, that makes sense. Oh, of course.
And maybe they'll be your new best friend. Like you'll both have a laugh over it and then you can become besties.
Yeah. This is my new Seinfeld approach where it's like, be a little bit more fine with just being that way because it's very human.
Where it's like, of course we wanted to come here and see what this house looks like. Yeah.
Don't let her remain hopeful that she's going to get a sale, a $2 million sale in that area. I mean, that's a huge number.
It's going to follow you around forever. Yeah.
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Here's another real one. The subject line of this email is Bear Brook and call to support park rangers.
And then it says, ahoy hoy, and then in parentheses, bringing that back, which I absolutely love. I remember the first time you said it, and it made me laugh so hard.
It's one of my favorites. In the summer of 2018, I was about to graduate college and start working toward my goal of becoming a national park ranger.

I was preparing for an interview with start working toward my goal of becoming a national park ranger.

I was preparing for an interview with the New Hampshire Conservation Corps when I started typing the name of the state park where I'd be stationed, Bear Brook, into Google. To my delighted horror, it auto-completed with murders.
As I know you're aware, four unidentified bodies, one woman and three children,

had been found in two barrels in the park a couple decades earlier. While the murderer had been identified and died in jail, the victims remained unnamed.
For most people, four grisly murders would be a deal breaker, but for a Rangerino like me, it was truly the best of both worlds. I landed the position and moved to the park in January of 2019.

In the Corps, or as we called it, our nature cult, 30 members lived together in the woods and did environmental work, including education and trail repairs. We slept in small wooden cabins in the middle of the woods with no electricity and only wood stoves for heat.
A main lodge housed our industrial kitchen, workspaces, a TV, and shared bathrooms,

but no Wi-Fi, cable, or cell service.

Wow, it's like working in a space station or something.

Yeah.

Like working on Mars.

It's bananas.

Do you hate everybody?

Go work in the National Park Service.

This probably sounds like a nightmare for the don't go into the forest crowd.

Not if there's 30 people around. I think I'm okay with that.
Yeah, that actually sounds really fun. Yeah.
Get some board games going. But for a teamwork and nature loving fool like me, it was a dream come true.
One night we were returning to the park from an outing and spotted news crews along the side of the road. A quick search before reentering the woods revealed the incredible news.
Through the tireless work of a citizen sleuth and a genetic genealogist, three of the four bodies in the barrels had finally been identified. They were Marley's Honeychurch and her children, Sarah McWatters and Marie Vaughn.
To this day, the fourth victim remains nameless. I feel grateful to have borne witness to the selflessness and dedication that gave Marley, Sarah, and Marie's names back.
I survived the Corps and have been a National Park Ranger since 2022. I have more insane stories than I can count about life as a park ranger.
But in light of current events, I'd like to use this space to advocate for rangers and all federal employees. As we face illegal firings and further understaffing, it's an extremely stressful time to work in this field.
If you plan on visiting a national park anytime soon, please be kind, give grace, and thank a ranger. We're doing the best we can.
Stay sexy. Ranger Sarah.
Wow. Oh, my God.
That was amazing was amazing i mean to work in bare brook to be there when they finally yeah like are able to crack that case in a meaningful way and then yeah it's i've been watching on tiktok yeah the all the park rangers and all this kind of like oh they're just going to cut all that the funding so that we can have the people, the experts running those parks and like, you know, taking care of those parks. Ridiculous.
It's crazy. All right.
Well, here's an uplifting one. Our hero dog.
My last one's a hero dog one too. No way.
Yep. This isn't my last one.
I have another one. Oh, okay.
Okay. But yeah, two three dogs in one is good.
It starts, hey, y'all, long time listener, first time writer, let's get to the good stuff. Before I was born, my family had a beautiful black Great Dane named Shauna.
She was not only a genius, but also a tough old broad that survived a car accident in my mother's convertible VW Rabbit, which sent her soaring headfirst first into the windshield can i just point out really quickly that they have seatbelts for dogs now like that you can get at the pet store nice although a great day in being in a car it's like that's like a very large football player being in your car that's the entire windshield right there i'm sure all dogs go to heaven but shauna likely received sainthood when she got there for what she did for my family. When my brother Craig was two, a baby named Craig and a dog named Shauna, like these people just knew how to name shit.
They are ready for their Fox animated series yesterday. When he was two, he was toddling around the driveway with Shauna while my dad worked on something or other in the garage things were peaceful until shauna started barking with her full chest a habit that drove my dad a little crazy shauna is the girl with like black eyeliner in the water line and like smoking when she's 13 absolutely such a specific name vibe to me that then you're like that's a great dane also her hair's Her hair's crimped.
Oh, absolutely. He sparkles.
By the way, I'm bugging. I'm a Great Dane.
NBD. He yelled at her to quit it.
She did. And he went back to whatever task was engaging his attention.
But she quickly started up again. And her bark was deep and booming and impossible to ignore.
So my dad finally looked up to see what she was barking at. He turns his eyes to her just in time to see Shauna take her massive head and whack my brother, two-year-old brother, straight in the chest with the side of her face, sending him flying backwards and driving him to wailing tears.
My dad marches over and then it says, open palm at the ready to discipline her the way a Texan would would in 1989 yeah acknowledging it thank you yeah until he sees what shauna is facing a nearly five foot long copperhead reared up to strike and only inches away from where my brother had been standing moments before oh my god shauna had just saved my brother's life or at the very least save my family a trip to the er copperhead bites aren't usually fatal but for a two-year-old question mark yeah it's not good for a two-year-old my parents were grateful they didn't have to find out the hard way my dad scooped craig up pulled shauna away by the collar and secured them both inside before grabbing a shovel and going after the snake. He killed it, brought Shauna back outside so that she could see that he took care of the threat, and then rewarded her with all the treats and belly rubs she could possibly want.
I hope you all found this piece of our family lore entertaining. I bet it would have been more fun to listen in my father's southern drawl, but here's hoping I can hear Karen or Georgia read this on the pod on the pod sometime in the future hey it's happening your dreams are coming true i love you too and i'm so grateful to have you in my ears three times a week stay sexy and pay close attention to your dog's warning barks cecilia oh at least they got cecilia shauna and craig and then they were like let's let's get cecilia that's a good one cecilia is a great name, too.
It's beautiful. But I love that.
That's that kind of thing of like the dog is tracking that little kid so closely. Just like that's what it's all for.
Babysitter dogs. I just fucking lose my mind over.
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Hey, it's Haley Steinfeld. When everything requires your attention, it can be tough to figure out what to prioritize.
But I'm here to talk to you about something that you should always put first. Your breast health.
In fact, if you're 40 and over, you should be getting screened once a year.

And if you're under 40,

it's never too soon to visit yourattentionplease.com

to learn about your breast cancer risk.

So go on, pay the girls some attention,

and take the time to find out your breast cancer risk

at yourattentionplease.com.

Trust me, your future self will thank you.

Okay, follow-up hero dog story? Yes, always. It says, G'day.
Got an Australian on our hands. About a year ago, you asked for hero pet stories, and today I'm overwhelmed at work, so I thought now would be the perfect time to write in.
That's how you do it. The heroes of this story are Jake and Ronnie, two Australian Kel kelpies i've never heard of that kind of dog before

maybe they mean otters normally highly trained farm dogs due to their intelligence and stamina we adopted ours from drought stricken farms and they're living their best suburban lives australian kelpies i wonder if that's just our version of australian shepherds yeah to set the seen's 2021, and we had just brought home our newborn baby after five weeks in the NICU. My husband, being a typical Australian male, had vented his feelings about almost losing his wife and baby by almost single-handedly pulling down our old garage that needed to be replaced.
He's going to go work it out in the garage. I don't want to talk about it.
Men will rebuild entire garages instead of going to therapy.

While we waited for the new one, all of our garage stuff was piled next to our house under tarps.

We had just put our baby to bed for the night, and we were getting ready to go to sleep.

Jake and Ronnie were outside doing their nightly patrol of the yard when they just started barking and would not stop.

Frustrated and wondering what the hell was going on, I looked outside and saw fire.

I yelled to my husband, who ran outside to the hose, and I grabbed a bucket and started filling

it with water. Luckily, we managed to get it out by ourselves pretty quickly.
The culprit?

A lithium battery had caught fire. We only lost our tent, Christmas tree, and some power tools,

but it wasn't until the next morning that we realized how close we had come to losing it all. The fire stopped only a meter or two away from our lawnmower, which was full of petrol.
Holy shit. That's gas to you and me.
It still makes me feel sick to this day to think about. If it wasn't for our dogs, we would have gone off to bed, no idea that a fire had started and God knows what would have happened oh my god jake and ronnie Oh, my God.

Jake and Ronnie also recently saved the life of our neighbor's elderly, Jack Russell.

One morning they were outside, this time for their morning patrol, and again started barking.

Our neighbor thought it was weird how long they had been barking, and then in parentheses it says,

I slept through all of this.

And it says, Anne came out to investigate, found his 11-year-old dog had fallen into their pool and couldn't get out. Oh, no.

And he was struggling to swim and had obviously been there for a long time. Oh my God.
Being only about 5.30 in the morning, it would have been about two hours before anyone would normally be up for the day and they may have lost him. So now anytime my dogs do something like piss on the Christmas tree, eat my dinner right off the table, or bark when I'm putting the baby to sleep.
I mean, it's a fucking tree. Like, of course.
What do they know? Yeah. Why not get a Christmas fire hydrant if you're going to be so tempting toward dog pee? They're like, thank you for bringing this in the house for me.
This is so much more convenient. I try to remember the heroes they are and how different life would be if we didn't have them.
Stay sexy and always remove your lithium batteries before storing them. Cheers, A.
Wow. That's great advice.
That makes my heart so happy. That little puppy with its tiny little Jack Russell leg.
Oh, my God. Those were great.
Those made my heart feel good. Okay.
My last one, it's going to sound like braggy. It's like a thank you to us.
However, I want to call for more of them. Not because of that.
However, keep them coming. However, this person tells us what has been happening in the past nine years since they've listened to this podcast, which I think is such an interest.
Like, I love having those like, can you believe what your life was like here and what it's like now? And I think a lot of listeners who've been listening for a long time have that. And so this person tells us and it's really awesome.
Great. And they also compliment us a lot.
Even better. Yeah.
It's called My Favorite Life. Hi, Karen in Georgia.
I'm listening to The Rewind, episode 34, and I was reminded of what an impact your show has made on my life. I remember the first time I heard you speak on anxiety and how it helped me in a dark time when I needed to be in therapy for depression and anxiety.
I've now been in therapy for almost nine years consistently and on Lexapro for over a year. Since the start of your podcast, I have quit my job I was unhappy in and had the courage to join a police department, which led me to my current role as a detective.
Whoa. I never would have had the bravery or belief in myself to do this without your podcast.
I first even learned of my love for this career when you began your working relationship with Paul Holes. I met my core group of friends from my favorite murder Chicago Facebook group,

one of whom is getting married in October

and I am her maid of honor.

It's crazy to listen back to rewind episodes

and think where I was in my life

and how far I've come.

I know this is just a true crime comedy podcast

and you may never see this,

but you've made my favorite life

and I'm so grateful.

Stay sexy and follow your dreams. See in Chicago.
That's gorgeous. I know.
Also, just I love my favorite life because you know what? This is what we get. And this is, you know, my life was very different before this podcast started and we got this nice upwards trajectory.
And I would have never thought that I would be able to say this is my favorite life that this is best case scenario and it really it really is and you just don't know you just don't know because you go day by day and you don't think about the amount of time it's passed but there yeah the gifts this has given us is like you can't even begin to fathom them yeah because that we get emails like emails like that from C where it's like you guys got together because you love to talk and you're narcissists or whatever and now my life is better where it's like, well, then this turned out great for all of us. I think the shout out to Paul Holes is great too because it kind of takes it away from us a little so that feels a little bit less narcissistic.
So I appreciate that um thanks for writing in and thank you guys for being here for nine years we appreciate it you guys are our favorite if you want to tell us about your past nine years we would love to hear about it it's delightful and it gives us a good sense of you know time passing yeah what it's been like what's your favorite life life? Tell us. My favorite murder at Gmail.
Please. Yeah.
And until you tell us, stay sexy. And don't get murdered.
Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production.
Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith.

Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

This episode was mixed by Liana Squalacci.

Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com.

And follow the show on Instagram at myfavoritemurder.

Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page.

And while you're there, please like and subscribe. Goodbye.
Goodbye. I feel so alone.
I'm embarrassed to talk about it. How can I help my kid if I can't help myself? I can't remember when I wasn't stressed.
I don't want to go into inside. When you feel overwhelmed by your thoughts and emotions, it's okay to get help.
You are not alone. CalHOPE is here for you with free, safe, and confidential mental health resources for youth, young adults, families, and you.
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