On January 7, 1995, at around 12:50 pm, two women, Monica Jones and her girlfriend Cheryl Edwards were driving down Highway 56 near Brockwell, Arkansas when Cheryl saw smoke coming from a trailer at the residence of 43-year-old Connie Townsend. The two women pulled over and ran up to the trailer to try to help. At around that same time, another woman, Billy Browning arrived. Monica and Cheryl both desperately tried to get inside the trailer, but the heat was too intense. The trailer was already engulfed in flames. By the time the first officer from the Izard County Sheriff's Office and the Calico Rock fire department arrived on the scene, it was chaos. According to the police report, the officer noted that there were about 20 to 25 people standing in the yard. Connie Townsend burned to death while it seemed like half the town stood outside, and multiple people told police about threats that she had allegedly received, some of them earlier that day. And yet, 30 years later no one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with her death. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Theresa Bier
On June 1, 1987, Theresa Ann Bier was about to go on an adventure… into the woods to look for Bigfoot. Theresa was sixteen years old, and was wrapping up her freshman year at Fresno High in Fresno, California. She was one year behind a lot of her classmates, which wasn’t surprising because she was living in a very abusive environment with her uncle John Richmond, his two young sons, and his 17-year-old girlfriend. Theresa’s plan was to skip school June 1 and drive into the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the day with a 43-year-old friend of her uncle’s, Russell “Skip” Welch. But Theresa never came home, and soon, the man who took her into the woods was rambling about Theresa being taken by a monster. The case made local news, and on Friday, June 19, 1987, The Fresno Bee published a newspaper article about this case with the headline “Man blames Bigfoot for missing girl.” But this was more than a tabloid story. This case would involve allegations of sex slavery, serial killers, drug use, Bigfoot colonies - and at the heart of this story, a system that completely failed a young woman on every single level - a system that allowed a sixteen year old to vanish without a trace. If you have a case you’d like Catheerine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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RERUN Hell and Gone Murder Line: Justin Gaines
It was Thursday night, November 1, 2007, and 18-year-old Justin Gaines was getting ready for a night out with his friends at Wild Bill’s, a club in Duluth, Georgia. Justin was a freshman in college. He had just started at Gainesville State college, which was about an hour away from where his family was. Justin was 5 '11, 210 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair in a buzz cut. He was a handsome, clean cut, preppy guy. Justin didn’t take a wallet out with him that night, so he had no credit cards, just cash, a couple fake IDs, and his cell phone. He caught a ride with his friends to the club. But when they arrived, his friends didn’t want to pay the cover charge and left. Justin saw someone in line who he knew and was able to get in for free and went into the club on his own. He said that it was no problem. He would find a ride. This was something he did often. A while later, in the early morning hours of November 2, 2007, Justin walked out into that parking lot in Duluth, and no one ever saw him again. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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RERUN Hell and Gone Murder Line: Audrii Cunningham
On February 15, 2024, 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, a fifth grade student at Creekside Elementary in Livingstone, Texas, never made it to the bus stop. And when she didn’t come home after school, her family knew that something was very wrong. Audrii lived with her dad, and on that property, there was someone else living there: a 42-year-old friend of the family’s who lived in a camper. And even though he had a very disturbing criminal record, this man was allowed to babysit for Audrii. Once Audrii went missing, people started taking a look at what was really going on behind the closed doors of this house in rural Texas. We talk about stranger danger, but with this case, sometimes the most terrifying people can be living inside our home. If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Introducing: Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. Listen here and subscribe to Betrayal: Season 4 on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hell And Gone is a true crime podcast from iHeartPodcasts and School of Humans that follows journalist and private investigator Catherine Townsend as she investigates unsolved deaths.
Now in its fifth season, Hell and Gone is going weekly.
Over the past five years of making true crime podcast Hell and Gone, host Catherine Townsend has received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that’s affected them, their families and their communities.
In past seasons of the show, she’s only been able to focus on one case. But now, she’s hosting a new weekly show called Hell and Gone Murder Line. Every Thursday, Catherine features a new case, adds updates to old ones, and helps as much as she can to get the word out about unsolved murders.
If you have a case you’d like Catherine and her team to look into, you can call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.
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