Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

A private eye takes a dead girl's case for a father who can't afford him, and comes home with a box of gardenias that have been cut for a month and still smell fresh.

EPISODE PAGE (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/noir-gardeniasonadeadlane

TRANSCRIPT: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/55nmcphx

THE REAL CASE BEHIND THIS STORY: The story in this episode is a fictionalized dramatization. Invented for it are the detective, his office, the gravedigger, the specific conversations, and the telephone call, and every name of a person or a place has been changed. The case underneath it is real.On the night of Thursday, June 24th, 1948, seventeen-year-old Mary Jane Reed, a switchboard operator, went on a first date with Stanley Skridla, a twenty-eight-year-old Navy veteran and telephone lineman from Rockford. They drank in taverns in Oregon, Illinois, a town on the Rock River in Ogle County, and the last place anyone could name was the Stenhouse, out on Route 2 at the south edge of town. They left around eleven-thirty. Skridla was found the next morning in the ditch along County Farm Road, shot with a .32. Mary Jane was found five days later along Silica Road, now called Devil's Backbone Road, shot once through the head, her slacks off her and her mother's wedding ring still on her hand. Roughly fifty people were questioned within a week. Nobody was ever charged, and the case was off the front pages by autumn.The casings, the photographs and the investigation reports all disappeared in the decades that followed. On November 15th, 1999 – Mary Jane's birthday – an untraceable floral arrangement addressed to her arrived at the old Stenhouse, by then the Road House, on a day the bar was closed. The owner, Mike Arians, had just been elected mayor, and the case has occupied him ever since. Her brother Warren Reed had her exhumed on August 23rd, 2005. Inside the burial vault, beside the casket, investigators found a dress and slip wrapped in newspapers dated June 25th, 1948 – four days before anyone found her. In 2007, forensic anthropologist Linda Klepinger examined the remains released to the family and reported that the skull and one vertebra had come from a different person. The DNA test that would settle it has never been run. Skridla was exhumed in 2015 on Arians's theory that Mary Jane's skull had been hidden in his coffin; it held one man and nothing else, though two .32 slugs came out of the ground with him and neither matched the gun Arians submitted.Warren Reed died on December 23rd, 2023, at eighty-one, without ever learning whose skull was in his sister's grave. The homicides remain open and unsolved.
The full account – the fifty interviews, the suitor in La Crosse, the missing wallet the record can't agree on, the six years of court fights, the $25,000 reward for a skull nobody ever produced, and the haunting at the roadhouse – is documented in detail here:
Mary Jane Reed's Illinois Grave Held Someone Else's Skull.

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Originally aired: August 28, 2026

A young London couple rent a room in a house that has stood unlivable for four hundred years, and the one woman who has ever managed to live there tells them the tenants who never left are already expecting them.

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Double-Take” (July 28, 1978) ***WD
00:45:31.411 = The Weird Circle, “The House And Brain” (July 15, 1943)
01:12:40.459 = The Whistler, “Accident According To Plans” (May 07, 1945) ***WD
01:42:34.731 = Strange Wills, “Miser’s Gold” (October 05, 1946)
02:12:18.216 = Witch’s Tale, “Power of Lucifer” (February 22, 1934) ***WD(LQ)
02:38:53.520 = X-Minus one, “Caretaker” (January 30, 1957)
03:00:31.427 = ABC Mystery Time, “Suicide Club” (June 07, 1956) ***WD(LQ)
03:22:14.023 = Appointment With Fear, “And The Deep Shuddered” (November 20, 1945) ***WD
03:47:57.688 = Arch Oboler’s Plays, “Johnny Got His Gun” (March 09, 1940)
04:17:48.094 = Barrie Craig, “The Paper Bullets” (December 05, 1951)
04:47:10.982 = Tales of the Frightened, “Deadly Dress” (1957-1963)
04:51:49.238 = Beyond The Green Door, “Morton Gale – Vacation In Maine” (1966) ***WD
04:55:21.249 = Tales From The Tomb, “Do You Know Where The Children Are” (1960s)
05:00:31.667 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0757

In March 2000, a 23-year-old from North Carolina left a note about Jack Kerouac, packed her Jeep, and drove west toward a mountain she'd only read about – and what searchers found in the woods nine days later still has no explanation.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/LeahRoberts

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y6mnafrd

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: If you have information regarding Leah Roberts’s disappearance, contact the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office at 360-778-6600 or the Whatcom Communication Dispatch Center at 360-676-6711. A free-spirited young woman set off on a soul-searching road trip inspired by Jack Kerouac — but what she left behind in the wilderness was a wrecked Jeep, a haunting mystery, and no trace of herself. What happened to Leah Roberts? (Leah Roberts’ Last Road Trip) *** In the tropical beauty of Antigua, a chilling mystery unfolds as locals continue to vanish without a trace — leaving a trail of grief, fear, and dark speculation. (The Mystery of Antigua’s Missing People) *** Would you still eat a special love-attracting cake if you knew it was covered in someone's sweat from their armpits and... everywhere else? (The Horrifying History of Love Potions) *** As if death isn’t unnerving as it is, science is now suggesting that you might still be conscious after death — aware your body has failed, but powerless to escape the darkness. (We Might Know We’re Dead When We Die) *** Some believe doppelgängers are omens of death – and some found out personally. (Haunted By Your Own Ghost) *** Biblical legend, Cold War espionage, and decades of silence — the hunt for Noah’s Ark might be stranger than fiction… and it includes the CIA. (The CIA Searches For Noah’s Ark) *** What if a murderer didn’t act alone… but under orders from a mind-control program no one was supposed to know about? (Programmed To Kill: The MKUltra Murders)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:00:59.741 = Show Open
00:03:16.502 = Leah Roberts’ Last Road Trip
00:13:30.991 = Programmed To Kill: The MKUltra Murders ***
00:22:12.690 = The Mystery of Antigua’s Missing People
00:26:30.224 = The Horrifying History of Love Potions
00:35:18.384 = We Might Know We’re Dead When We Die ***
00:39:41.170 = Haunted By Your Own Ghost
00:46:44.479 = The CIA Searches For Noah’s Ark
00:54:56.045 = Show Close
*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break

LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS:
Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps
*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

SOURCES and RESOURCES:
“Leah Roberts’ Last Road Trip”: https://www.ranker.com/list/what-happened-to-leah-roberts-disappearance/jenn-dzikowski, https://charleyproject.org/case/leah-toby-roberts, “The Mysterious Disappearance of Leah Roberts” (Investigation Discovery)
“Programmed To Kill: The MKUltra Murders”: https://theintercept.com/2019/11/24/cia-mkultra-louis-jolyon-west/
“The Mystery of Antigua's Missing People”: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0jrk81qpwo
“The Horrifying History of Love Potions”: https://www.ranker.com/list/real-love-potion-recipes/cleo-egnal
“We Might Know We’re Dead When We Die”: https://www.ranker.com/list/study-shows-brain-works-after-passing/matthew-lavelle
“Haunted By Your Own Ghost”: https://www.ranker.com/list/historical-figures-with-mysterious-doubles/chuck-stern
“The CIA Searches For Noah’s Ark”: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14547623/cia-noahs-ark-search-document-biblical-ship-found.html
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.
Originally aired: April 07, 2025
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

The indictment read aloud in a Vinton County courtroom Wednesday names how Gary Siders Jr. is related to the child he is accused of abusing, his bond went up by a quarter of a million dollars in the same hearing, and two felony cases no news outlet has reported sit on a docket two counties away.

SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/SidersCase20260827

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

A government hunter tasked with tracking down escaped experiments begins to realize the monsters he captures may not be the only things he should fear.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-containmentfailure

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “I Hunt Down The Government’s Mistakes” by Devon Hoover: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/39m68p6w

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 27, 2026

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL