This episode explores the true story behind Lifetime’s Husband, Father, Killer: The Alyssa Pladl Story. From adoption and reunification to manipulation, abuse, and murder.

We examine the escalation of violence, the deaths of Katie, her adoptive father, and her infant son Bennett, and how systemic failures allowed danger to go unchecked. We also separate fact from dramatization in the Lifetime movie, highlighting the real people behind the headlines.

Warning: Discussion of incest, domestic abuse, and multiple deaths, including an infant.

Sources:

https://www.mylifetime.com/movies/husband-father-killer-the-alyssa-pladl-story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bH9b8zLQF0

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/news/2018/04/13/911-call-reveals-new-details-in-triple-murder--suicide

https://abc11.com/post/classmate-of-man-who-killed-wife-infant-in-incest-case-recalls-unusual-behavior/3338606/?userab=abc_web_player-460*variant_b_abc_dmp-1901%2Cotv_web_player-461*variant_b_otv_dmp-1903%2Cotv_web_content_rec-445*variant_b_less_popular_bias-1850%2Chp_banner-426*variant_e__tall_white-1781

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43747225

https://www.aetv.com/articles/steven-pladl-murders

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1976, a chilling horror film hit theaters, introducing the world to Damien, the Antichrist child. But while audiences were terrified on screen, strange and deadly events were unfolding behind the scenes. The Omen didn’t just scare moviegoers, it seemed to haunt its cast and crew in real life.

Was it coincidence? Or did the dark subject matter of Satan, prophecy, and the Antichrist bring real-world consequences? In this episode, we’ll explore the chilling events, behind-the-scenes horror, and the enduring legend of The Omen curse.

Sources:

Cursed Films: The Omen

The Omen

https://www.cineworld.ie/static/en/ie/blog/the-curse-of-the-omen-facts-the-first-omen

https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/omen-movie-curse-42514085

https://screenrant.com/omen-1976-cursed-set-scarier-than-movie/

https://eosty.medium.com/the-curse-of-the-omen-real-story-1964c1c355d4

https://www.ripleys.com/stories/the-omen

https://fiveable.me/key-terms/cognitive-psychology/invisible-gorilla-experiment

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we take a closer look at the tragic abduction of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman—an event that would go on to reshape the way communities respond to missing-child emergencies. We explore the circumstances surrounding Amber’s disappearance in 1996, the investigation that gripped the nation, and how her legacy inspired the creation of the AMBER Alert system used across the United States today.

We also discuss the 2006 made-for-TV film Amber’s Story, examining how one heartbreaking case sparked a nationwide movement to protect children and mobilize communities.

Sources:

Amber: The Girl Behind the Alert

https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2021/still-searching-for-ambers-killer

https://people.com/who-killed-amber-hagerman-8752172

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we dive into the extraordinary story of actress Theresa Saldana. A rising Hollywood star whose life was nearly cut short by a brutal attack in 1982. From her disciplined childhood in Brooklyn to her breakout roles in Raging Bull and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Theresa seemed destined for fame.

But one terrifying encounter with a delusional stalker changed everything. We explore the stabbing that almost ended her life, the bravery of the stranger who intervened, and her grueling journey through physical and emotional recovery.

Theresa’s story was so compelling it inspired the 1984 TV movie Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story, in which she bravely played herself reliving her attack and survival for the world to see. Hear how she transformed trauma into advocacy, founding Victims for Victims and becoming a pioneering voice for victims’ rights.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdGGHTjKIRM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFIctvhD-0Q

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/arts/television/theresa-saldana-actress-and-attack-survivor-dies-at-61.html

https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/152/961.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-05-me-5386-story.html

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In July of 1993, a group of Florida teenagers committed one of the most shocking and senseless murders in modern true crime history. The crime, later dramatized in the 2001 film Bully, was not the work of hardened criminals or masterminds, but of suburban kids. At the center of the story were two childhood friends: Marty Puccio, quiet and impressionable, and Bobby Kent, a young man many described as charismatic but deeply controlling. Those closest to them claimed Bobby bullied, manipulated, and terrorized Marty for years. Marty’s friends convinced themselves the only way to escape Bobby’s influence was to kill him.

What followed was a clumsy, chaotic, and brutally violent attack carried out in a remote swampy area of Broward County. Their plan unraveled almost immediately, leading to multiple arrests, wildly different prison sentences, and decades of debate about what was true, what was exaggerated, and what was simply self-serving testimony. Was Bobby Kent truly the monster the killers claimed he was? Or did a group of teenagers justify murder by rewriting the story after the fact?

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtfrPpqoqI

Bully

Bully:The True Story of High School Revenge by Jim Schutz

https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/tag/lisa-connelly/

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In this episode, we uncover the terrifying true story behind Taken In Broad Daylight, the Lifetime movie based on the abduction of 17-year-old Anne Sluti. In April 2001, Anne was kidnapped in broad daylight from a Nebraska shopping mall by convicted felon Anthony Steven Wright. What followed was a harrowing six-day ordeal that stretched across multiple states and showcased Anne’s remarkable courage, intelligence, and determination to survive.

We’ll break down how the real-life events unfolded, explore how accurately the film portrayed her experience, and discuss the psychological strength that helped Anne turn from victim to survivor.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSZZCNFjSs

https://nebraska.tv/archive/what-ever-happened-to-anne-sluti

Deadly Demands Season 1, Episode 6

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abducted-girl-returns-home

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/340/724/588043/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we start with Abducted at an HBCU: A Black Girl Missing Movie a gripping Lifetime film that dives into the disappearance of a young woman at a historically Black college. When a student suddenly vanishes, her counselor refuses to look the other way, uncovering a system that too often dismisses missing Black women and girls. The story is fictional, but its message hits painfully close to home.

The film shines a light on how the media and institutions frequently overlook these disappearances. How urgency fades, headlines never come, and families are left to fight alone for attention and answers.

From there, we turn to the real-life disappearance of 18-year-old Cleashindra Hall, a decades-long missing person case that deserves to be remembered.

Cleashindra, or “Clea,” as her family calls her, was an honors student from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with dreams of becoming a pediatrician. On the evening of May 9, 1994, she finished her shift working for a local business and called her mother to say she’d be home soon. But Cleashindra never made that second call, and she was never seen again.

Over the years, her family has searched tirelessly for answers. There were searches, interviews, and countless leads — yet no arrests have ever been made, and no trace of Cleashindra has been found. Despite the time that’s passed, her loved ones have never given up.

Like the story told in Abducted at an HBCU, Cleashindra’s case reflects a painful reality: when young Black women go missing, the attention they receive rarely matches the depth of the loss. This episode is about remembering her, and about refusing to let these stories fade into silence.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3odKv1Fin0

https://www.the-sun.com/news/11962351/lifetime-abducted-hbcu-black-girl-missing/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Cleashindra_Hall

Black Girl Gone: The Disappearance of Cleashindra Hall

https://www.kark.com/news/local-news/family-of-cleashindra-hall-still-hopes-for-answers-nearly-30-years-after-her-disappearance/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Z4loP9G5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63MC4OwNYmE

https://news.morehouse.edu/professor-avery-o.-williams-86-writes-screenplay-for-lifetime-original-abducted-at-an-hbcu-a-black-girl-missing-movie

https://www.fox16.com/news/only-on-fox16-transcribed-interviews-from-larry-amos-following-teenagers-disappearance/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/family-cleashindra-hall-still-hopes-221635171.html

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the early 1990s, the college town of Gainesville,Florida was paralyzed by fear. Over just three days, five students were brutally murdered in their own apartments, victims of Danny Rolling, the man the press would call The Gainesville Ripper. His crimes were savage, his methods deliberate, and the terror he left behind felt like something straight out of a horror movie.

Years later, screenwriter Kevin Williamson watched a documentary about those killings while home alone. That fear he experienced while watching that documentary became the spark for Wes Craven's Scream (1996). Set in the quiet town of Woodsboro, Scream follows a masked killer who taunts his victims with phone calls and deadly games, blurring the line between fiction and reality. What began as a true story of terror became a movie that made us all ask the same question…

“What’s your favorite scary movie?”

Sources:

World’s Most Evil Killers: S3,EP13

https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/psyc%20405/serial%20killers/rolling,%20danny%20-%202004.pdf

https://www.ksla.com/video/2024/03/29/archives-murders-tom-julie-sean-grissom-shreveport-la-1989/

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/crime/2019/11/08/grissom-family-murders-shreveport-louisiana-gainesville-murders/4157607002/

https://www.aetv.com/articles/how-serial-killer-danny-rolling-inspired-scream-with-his-1990-slayings

https://people.com/serial-killer-gainesville-ripper-danny-rolling-exclusive-11763591

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Rolling

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/02/20/5-dead-may-have-been-stalked/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvIh8rC4ak

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.