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Serial Napper | True Crime for the Chronically Tired

Advertise on podcast: Serial Napper | True Crime for the Chronically Tired

Rating
★★★★★
4.6
from
175 reviews
Categories
Country
United States
This podcast has
210 episodes
Language
English
Publisher
Cloud10
Explicit
Yes
Date created
2020/04/08
Latest episode
2026/11/06
Average duration
56 min.
Release period
4 days

Description

True crime for the chronically tired. Serial Napper descends into the darkest corners of real‑world crime with a calm, steady voice and an unflinching focus. Every episode examines cases of disappearance, manipulation, violence, and murder, told with quiet intensity and deep respect for the victims whose stories deserve to be heard. Created for the chronically tired who still feel compelled to understand the shadows, this podcast offers deliberate, no‑nonsense storytelling without theatrics or filler. Just the truth, the evidence, and the haunting details that linger long after the headlines fade. So settle in. Let me lull you to sleep… or perhaps give you nightmares. If you’re ready to confront the darkness, press play and step inside one case at a time. New episodes every Friday.

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Check latest episodes from Serial Napper | True Crime for the Chronically Tired podcast


The Long Way Home: Melina Frattolin and Her Last Phone Call
2026/11/06
On July 19, 2025, nine-year-old Melina Frattolin was supposed to be returning home to Montreal after a week-long vacation in the United States with her father, Luciano Frattolin. But that evening, Luciano called 911 from upstate New York with a terrifying story. He claimed that two men in a white van had kidnapped Melina from the side of the highway. Police launched an urgent search, issuing an Amber Alert and stopping vehicles matching the description. But as investigators tried to retrace Luciano's movements, they began finding inconsistencies in his account. The following afternoon, Melina's body was discovered in a remote wooded area near Ticonderoga, New York. What followed was an investigation involving cellphone records, surveillance footage, handwritten notes, and evidence that raised serious questions about what had happened during the final hours of Melina's life. Sources: https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/07/frattolin_redacted.pdf https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/current/3dseries/2026/2026_05235.shtml https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/documents-show-police-zeroed-father-frattolin-case-21335399.php https://troopers.ny.gov/node/24481 https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/montreal-father-faces-judge-daughter-s-killing-22476316.php https://www.mynbc5.com/article/luciano-frattolini-trial-day-5/73299407 https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/documents-show-police-zeroed-father-frattolin-case-21335399.php  https://winnipeg.citynews.ca/2026/08/15/her-daughter-never-came-home-the-hours-before-the-death-of-melina-frattolin/ https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/police-issue-amber-alert-9-year-old-abducted-lake-20777199.php/ https://apnews.com/article/daughter-drowned-adirondack-region-luciano-frattolin-pleads-19b1df205cbab3dea98e9ccf85ff137a https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/10/14/father-set-to-be-sentenced-in-new-york-for-the-murder-of-nine-year-old-montreal-girl https://infonews.ca/news/7810536/her-daughter-never-came-home-the-hours-before-the-death-of-melina-frattolin/ https://www.collingwoodtoday.ca/national-news/father-charged-with-murder-in-new-york-in-death-of-montreal-nine-year-old-10968833 https://www.yahoo.com/news/melina-frattolin-father-hid-9-175313545.html Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rapunzel: Delimar Vera | The Baby Who Vanished in a House Fire
2026/11/02
In December 1997, a fire tore through a Philadelphia home. Ten-day-old Delimar Vera was believed to have died in her crib, leaving her family devastated. But her mother, Luz Cuevas, never stopped questioning what happened that night. Six years later, at a child's birthday party, Luz noticed a little girl who looked remarkably familiar. The resemblance was unsettling, but it was one tiny detail that made her wonder whether the impossible could actually be true. What followed was an extraordinary investigation involving five strands of hair, DNA testing, and a woman with a troubling connection to the night of the fire. For the final episode of *Serial Nightmare*, we're revisiting the story of Rapunzel through the real-life case of Delimar Vera, a little girl whose disappearance was only the beginning of a much more complicated story. Sources: https://www.ranker.com/list/bizarre-true-crime-twists/chrissy-rose?fbclid=IwAR0qev8Z5bqknM-RQqWZAjL1dLcOmnS0wvjOh2FNA9gmouQP7RPKhpjm0XE https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2004/03/21/murky-details-cloud-girl-s-return/  https://www.reddit.com/r/mrballen/comments/vslejy/delimar_vera_1998_stolen_years_a_baby_who_was/  https://phila.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?GUID=A64C0F8A-17BB-4BAC-B1AC-4A7943ED46F0&ID=1227921 https://time.com/archive/6737931/back-from-the-blaze/ https://puertorico-herald.net/issues/2004/vol8n12/LittleGirlFound.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/03/03/a-mothers-instincts-borne-out/5a932e90-773b-4609-9d65-3db46cdf93fd/ https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080725__Little_Girl_Lost___Lifetime_movie_based_on_kidnapping_of_Feltonville_baby.html https://www.firehouse.com/home/news/10526350/woman-in-pennsylvania-kidnap-arson-case-surrenders https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914b4f4add7b0493476fa35 https://puertorico-herald.net/issues/2004/vol8n12/LittleGirlFound.html https://phila.legistar.com/ViewReport.ashx?GID=30&GUID=9BD121DE-1315-466B-9B11-EA3EDCBCFDC3&ID=1276386&M=R&N=Text&Title=Legislation+Text https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/oct/24/i-was-thought-to-have-died-in-a-house-fire-at-10-days-old-in-fact-i-was-kidnapped Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sleeping Beauty: Carl Tanzler | The Dead Woman He Called His Bride
2026/10/29
In 1940, a woman in Key West, Florida, made a horrifying discovery. Her sister, Elena, had been dead for nine years, but her body wasn't where the family believed it had been buried. It was inside the home of Carl Tanzler, a man who claimed he'd been destined to love her. Carl had met 20-year-old Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos while she was receiving treatment for tuberculosis. When she died in 1931, he refused to let her go. Two years later, he secretly removed her remains from a cemetery, reconstructed her body using wire, wax, and other materials, and kept her inside his home for years. But the discovery of Elena's remains was only the beginning of another disturbing chapter. As newspapers turned Carl into a tragic romantic figure, thousands of strangers lined up to see the woman at the centre of his obsession. For this episode of Serial Nightmare, we're revisiting the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty through one of the strangest true-crime cases in American history. Sources: https://www.kwahs.org/exhibit/ghosts-of-east-martello https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/DocumentCenter/View/22013/20180116---Historic-Jail---Historical-Structural-Report---Final-Report google.com/url?q=https://www.keyslibraries.org/post/october-6-2026 https://www.ripleys.com/stories/carl-tanzler Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hansel and Gretel: Matthew Hoffman and the House of Leaves
2026/10/26
In November 2010, a mother, her two children and a family friend seemingly vanished from a home in Apple Valley, Ohio. The investigation would lead police from an abandoned pickup truck to a stranger in a parking lot, a trail of unusual purchases, and eventually a small house in Mount Vernon, unlike anything they expected to find. Inside, the floors were covered in leaves - and somewhere in the house, police made a discovery that completely changed the case. For this episode of Serial Nightmare, we're returning to the dark forests of Hansel and Gretel through the disturbing crimes of Matthew Hoffman, a case involving a house in the woods, a trail investigators had to follow, and two siblings whose story would end very differently from the fairy tale. Sources: https://abcnews.com/US/bodies-missing-people-found-ohio-police/story?id=12184250 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-girl-found-alive-bound-no-word-on-others/ https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/columbus-oh/tina-herrmann-10670725 https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/tina-herrmann-maynard-obituary?id=9269815 https://vindyarchives.com/news/2010/nov/13/authorities-seeking-4-missing-from-home/ https://abcnews.com/US/missing-ohio-family-prompts-college-lockdown-search/story?id=12139637 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-family-mourned-murdered-mother-son-friend-remembered-ahead-of-funerals/ https://www.aetv.com/articles/killer-matthew-hoffman-victims-in-tree  https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ng/date/2010-11-18/segment/01 https://tfpl.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/Newspapers/Times-News_2010-11/PDF/2010_11_21.pdf https://www.wosu.org/news/2010-11-19/bodies-of-three-missing-knox-county-residents-found https://www.thehour.com/norwalk/article/Bodies-of-missing-Ohio-family-found-8297265.php https://legalclarity.org/the-tina-herrmann-murders-rescue-trial-and-aftermath/ https://websleuths.com/threads/oh-two-women-child-killed-13yo-abducted-apple-valley-10-nov-2010-9.120603/page-16 Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rumpelstiltskin: The Radium Girls | The Deadly Price of the Glow
2026/10/24
What if the miracle everyone wanted came with a price no one bothered to tell you about? At the beginning of the twentieth century, radium seemed almost magical. It was rare, extraordinarily valuable and celebrated as a scientific breakthrough that could transform medicine, consumer products and even something as ordinary as a watch. During World War I, young women were hired to paint luminous numbers onto watches and military instruments using radium-based paint. The jobs were coveted. The pay was good, the work was considered glamorous, and the women were taught a simple technique to keep their tiny brushes sharp: Lip. Dip. Paint. They were told it was safe. Then the women began getting sick. Teeth loosened. Jaws deteriorated. Bones fractured. Mysterious illnesses appeared years after some of them had left the factories. When the women began questioning whether their work was responsible, they found themselves fighting not only for their lives, but to be believed. Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/tuesday-ferry-boat-survivor-radium-girls-author-no-possum-drop-and-more-1.2941016/remembering-mae-keane-the-last-of-the-radium-girls-1.2941019 https://www.buzzfeed.com/authorkatemoore/the-light-that-does-not-lie  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRkeghENceY https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/madame-curies-passion-74183598/#:~:text=Marie%20extracted%20pure%20radium%20salts,purified%20and%20converted%20into%20chlorides. https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2018/01/04/the-radium-girls-at-the-national-archives/ https://www.dolphin-geoscience.ca/resources/death-by-numbers-the-mysterious-illness-of-the-dial-painters https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/b-reactor-health-physics-exhibit-an-order-for-safety.htm Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Red Riding Hood: The Lin Family | The Wolf Was Already Inside
2026/10/21
In July 2009, fifteen-year-old Brenda Lin left her home in Sydney, Australia, for a school trip to New Caledonia. When she returned, her entire immediate family was gone. Her parents, Min and Lily Lin, her twelve-year-old brother Henry, her nine-year-old brother Terry, and her aunt Irene had all been murdered inside the family's quiet North Epping home. There was no obvious forced entry. The electricity had been cut. Nothing significant appeared to have been stolen. And whoever moved through the darkened house seemed to know exactly where they were going. At first, police looked everywhere for an explanation. An armed robbery connected to the family's business. Financial dealings in China. Organized crime. Even the possibility of professional killers. But as the investigation stretched from months into years, detectives began looking much closer to home. What followed was an extraordinary investigation involving secret surveillance, bloody shoeprints, a tiny and fiercely contested DNA stain, an alleged improvised murder weapon, undercover officers, a jailhouse informant, and a family relationship that was far more complicated than investigators first understood. Sources: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-07-20/sydney-murders-dead-dad-witnessed-armed-robbery/1360030 https://www.abc.net.au/lateline/archive/articles/2009/12/17/s2775222.htm https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-11/xie-trial-told-blood-stain-linked-to-lin-family-murder/6461520 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-29/murdered-sydney-boys-involved-in-struggle-robert-xie-trial-hears/7552572 Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cinderella: Sophie Lionnet | The Nanny Trapped Inside a Deadly Delusion
2026/10/19
When 20-year-old Sophie Lionnet left France for London, she hoped working as an au pair would give her a little independence, help her improve her English, and allow her to build a future working with children. Instead, she found herself inside a home increasingly consumed by suspicion. Sophie's employer, Sabrina Kouider, had spent years making extraordinary accusations against a former boyfriend, Mark Walton, a former member of the original Boyzone lineup. She believed he was stalking her, hacking her accounts and somehow interfering with her life, even after he had moved thousands of miles away. Eventually, Sabrina's suspicions turned toward Sophie. There was just one rather enormous problem. Sophie had never met Mark Walton. But inside the house on Wimbledon Park Road, the truth became increasingly irrelevant. Sources: https://expressdigest.com/chilling-audio-tapes-reveal-murdered-nannys-interrogation-ordeal/ https://www.tf1info.fr/justice-faits-divers/francaise-au-pair-tuee-a-londres-sophie-lionnet-temoignages-amis-elle-etait-la-gentillesse-personnifiee-2065271.html https://www.rte.ie/news/uk/2018/0524/965702-sabrina-kouider-ouissem-medouni/ https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2018/04/17/proces-lionnet-a-londres-j-aurais-du-lui-acheter-un-billet-et-la-renvoyer-chez-elle_5286481_1653578.html https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/19/french-nannys-body-was-thrown-on-a-bonfire-jurors-told https://www.itv.com/news/london/2018-05-24/nanny-verdict-sophie-lionnet-ripe-for-exploitation-by-abusive-employers-court-told https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/sophie-lionnet-murder-couple-jailed-for-life-over-murder-of-french-nanny-lose-appeal-bids-a4150016.html https://decider.com/2026/09/18/the-seemingly-perfect-family-movie-true-story-sophie-lionnet-netflix-lifetime/ https://news.sky.com/story/couple-guilty-of-murdering-french-nanny-sophie-lionnet-11383710 https://www.bfmtv.com/police-justice/obseques-de-sophie-lionnet-on-va-commencer-a-faire-notre-deuil_AN-201806070035.html https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/le-dernier-adieu-a-sophie-lionnet-06-06-2018-7757349.php Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Snow White: Alexandra Pesic | And Her Wicked Mother-in-Law
2026/10/15
Alexandra Pesic knew something was wrong. The former beauty queen and young mother had begun noticing a white car appearing around her. Then a disturbing package arrived in the mail: a true-crime book about a woman who had reported years of stalking and terror before her mysterious death. Certain passages had been deliberately marked. Days later, something described in those pages seemed to happen outside Alexandra’s own home. But Alexandra didn’t ignore the warning signs. She wrote down a licence plate. She told people she was afraid. And when she still couldn’t get answers, she hired a private investigator to find out who was watching her. Then, on August 5, 1992, 25-year-old Alexandra was shot outside the Vancouver-area dental office where she worked. What investigators uncovered afterward would involve a stolen red Camaro, a mysterious white car, $30,000 in cash, multiple suspects and evidence Alexandra herself had gathered before her death. For this chapter of Serial Nightmare, we’re telling Alexandra’s story through the dark fairy-tale lens of Snow White. Because sometimes danger doesn’t arrive looking dangerous...Sometimes it comes disguised as someone you once trusted. Sources: https://tricitiesdispatch.com/payoff-cash-in-1992-murder-for-hire-scheme-finally-forfeited/  https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/jelka-pesic-spurs-more-outrage-over-her-daughter-in-laws-murder https://www.oxygen.com/killer-relationship-with-faith-jenkins/crime-news/jelka-pesic-organized-murder-of-former-daughter https://nationalpost.com/news/grandmother-who-hired-hit-man-to-kill-daughter-in-law-seeking-early-parole  https://www.scc-csc.ca/cases-dossiers/search-recherche/26020/ Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beauty and the Beast: The Girl in the Box | Colleen Stan
2026/10/12
In May of 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan was hitchhiking through California when a young couple stopped to offer her a ride. With a woman and a baby inside the vehicle, Colleen believed she had found a safe way to finish her journey. She was wrong. For the next seven years, Colleen would live under the control of Cameron Hooker, hidden from the world even as life carried on around her. But perhaps the most difficult part of her story to understand came when the physical barriers began to disappear. Colleen was eventually allowed outside. She worked. She interacted with other people. She even returned home to visit her family. And still, she went back. For this episode of Serial Nightmare, we're exploring the dark side of Beauty and the Beast through the story of Colleen Stan, and how fear, coercion and years of psychological control can create a prison without walls. Because unlike the fairy tale, Colleen didn't return to the Beast because she'd fallen in love with him. She returned because she'd been taught to believe that leaving could be even more dangerous than staying. Content warning: This episode discusses kidnapping, captivity, sexual assault, physical and psychological abuse, coercive control and torture. Sources: https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-the-girl-n-the-box/cat-mcauliffe https://allthatsinteresting.com/colleen-stan-the-girl-in-the-box https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/crime-news/girl-in-the-box-where-is-colleen-stan-now  https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1771222.html https://abc7news.com/post/trial-considers-fate-girl-box-kidnapper-cameron-hooker-jurors-weigh-sexually-violent-predator-status/19183056/ https://www.aol.com/articles/jury-blocks-release-infamous-girl-160009000.html https://www.dsh.ca.gov/Treatment/Sex_Offender_Commitments.htm https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1771222.html Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Goldilocks: The Boy Behind the Wall | Daniel LaPlante
2026/10/02
This October, Serial Napper is opening the storybook for another season of Serial Nightmare. This year, we're taking familiar fairy tales and looking at the very real cases that echo their darkest themes. We begin with Goldilocks. In 1986, the Bowen family began noticing strange things inside their Massachusetts home. Food disappeared. Objects moved. Tina and Karen heard unexplained noises and became convinced that something was inside the house. Their father wasn't so sure. Then one evening, Frank Bowen opened a closet and found a teenage boy standing inside. His name was Daniel LaPlante. What followed would turn an already terrifying home invasion into one of the strangest true crime cases I've ever covered. Because when police searched the house, Daniel seemed to disappear, nd the truth about where he had been hiding was only the beginning. In this episode of Serial Nightmare, we'll follow the Daniel LaPlante case from the Bowen family's disturbing discovery through the events that followed: the investigation, trial, appeals, and the legal decisions that would eventually change the sentence he received. Because Goldilocks is a very different story when someone enters your home without permission...and doesn't leave. Sources: https://www.grunge.com/369653/the-truth-about-murderer-daniel-laplantes-childhood/  https://www.talkmurderwithme.com/blog/2021/2/3/daniel-laplante https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/daniel-laplante-priscilla-gustafson-murder-1987-townsend/ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/03/A-teenager-accused-of-holding-a-man-and-his/7669565506000/ https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/daniel-laplante-murder-priscilla-gustafson-family https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/22/killer-three-townsend-seeks-sentence-reduction/g05AdJcWXPBZiAS9rvHYDI/story.html https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/volumes/482/482mass399.html https://www.joeturnerbooks.com/post/daniel-laplante Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Inside the Disturbing World of the “Vampire King of Fresno”
2026/09/29
On March 12, 2004, two women arrived at a converted commercial building in Fresno, California, with one goal: they wanted their children back. Inside was their extended family, led by 57-year-old Marcus Wesson. What began as a tense family dispute soon turned into something much darker. Because Ruby Ortiz and Sofina Solorio knew things about Marcus that the police standing outside did not. They knew about the strange world he had created around his family. They knew what happened when someone challenged his authority. And they knew about a plan that was never supposed to be put into action. By the end of the day, Marcus Wesson would become the centre of one of the most disturbing cases in Fresno history, eventually earning the bizarre nickname “The Vampire King of Fresno.” But the vampires aren't the most frightening part of this story. Sources: https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/LUH/LUH20050401-V97-04.pdf https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jun-04-me-wesson4-story.html https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/supremecourt/default/documents/8-2580-s136171-app-supp-brief-081426.pdf https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article237506244.html https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/case-information/briefs-argued-cases/september-9-2026-oral-argument-cases https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/case-information/oral-arguments/webcast-library https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suicide-pact-in-fresno-deaths/ https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/dockets.cfm?dist=0&doc_id=1867849&doc_no=S136171&request_token=NiIwLSEnPkw3WyApSCI9TENJUFA0UDxfICM%2BQz1TICAgCg%3D%3D& Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
He Woke Up to His Mother on Fire: The Michael Politte Case
2026/09/25
Fourteen-year-old Michael Politte woke to smoke filling his bedroom. His friend Josh was asleep on the floor nearby, and an orange glow was coming from underneath his mother's bedroom door. When Michael opened that door, he found his mother, 40-year-old Rita Politte, lying on the floor with her upper body on fire. Rita hadn't died in an accidental house fire. She had been brutally attacked. Within days, investigators turned their attention to Michael. What followed was a case built around fire, gasoline, a teenage witness whose story seemed to change, and a boy who insisted from the beginning that he did not kill his mother. Michael would spend more than two decades behind bars. But years later, some of the evidence that helped put him there would come under serious scrutiny, raising new questions about the investigation, the conviction, and what really happened inside Rita Politte's home on December 5, 1998. Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-politte-rita-politte-missouri-sleepover-murder-investigation/  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-politte-rita-politte-murder-missouri-48-hours/ https://www.the-sun.com/news/8554794/michael-polittee-found-mom-rita-murder/ https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2021-09-29/michael-politte-has-served-22-years-for-murdering-his-mother-experts-say-hes-innocent https://www.kwch.com/2022/04/14/team-lawyers-work-prove-innocence-14-year-old-convicted-mothers-murder/ https://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=180456 https://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=184233 https://themip.org/clients/ https://law.justia.com/cases/missouri/supreme-court/2023/sc99813.html https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-moed-4_22-cv-01169/pdf/USCOURTS-moed-4_22-cv-01169-0.pdf https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca8/26-1476 Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
He Told Police He’d Been Stabbed. Then They Handcuffed Him: Henry Nowak Was Dying
2026/09/22
Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak had only recently started his first semester at the University of Southampton. He was studying accounting and finance, playing football, making new friends and building a life away from home for the first time. On the night of December 3rd, 2025, Henry went out with friends before beginning the walk back to his student accommodation. Along the way, he crossed paths with a stranger. Less than an hour later, police arrived on Belmont Road following reports of an assault. They had been told who the victim was and who they believed had carried out the attack. But as officers tried to make sense of the scene, Henry was on the ground telling them something was seriously wrong. He said he'd been stabbed. He said he couldn't breathe. And then he was placed in handcuffs. What followed would become a murder investigation involving phone recordings, bodycam footage, a missing weapon and a secretly recorded conversation inside a police van. But after the criminal case was over and the public saw footage of Henry's final conscious minutes, his death became the centre of a much larger and increasingly political debate about policing, race and religion in Britain. Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvpv2xylgeo https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/01/henry-nowak-two-officers-under-gross-misconduct-investigation https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-statement-on-henry-nowak https://www.cps.gov.uk/wessex/news/henry-nowak-killers-mother-jailed-after-removing-murder-weapon https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/britain-murder-henry-nowak-debate-race-9.7222123 https://www.hampshire.police.uk/news/hampshire/news/news/2026/may/man-convicted-of-murdering-student-in-southampton/ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/world/europe/henry-nowak-murder-uk-stabbing.html  https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Digwa-Final-Sentencing-Remarks.pdf https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/henry-nowak-police-transcript-video-b3002166.html https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2026-05-20/sikh-man-tells-court-he-stabbed-student-in-self-defence-after-he-was-abused https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2026-05-22/sikh-man-on-trial-for-killing-student-pleads-not-guilty-to-manslaughter https://www.gov.uk/government/news/solicitor-general-refers-vickrum-digwa-to-court-of-appeal https://www.aol.com/articles/digwa-dad-brother-plead-not-162315000.html https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/news/iopc-investigating-conduct-two-officers-henry-nowak-case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ2rcv_zGw0 Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We’re Here for the Party: Yoshihiro Hattori's First American Halloween
2026/09/18
On October 17th, 1992, 16-year-old Yoshihiro “Yoshi” Hattori was getting ready for his first real American Halloween party. Yoshi had recently arrived in Louisiana from Japan as an exchange student. He was outgoing, adventurous and determined to experience everything his year abroad had to offer. That night, dressed in a white tuxedo inspired by John Travolta, Yoshi headed to a party with his 17-year-old host brother and friend, Webb Haymaker. But they got lost. When the boys approached a house they believed might be hosting the party, they rang the doorbell. Nobody answered, so they started walking back toward their car. Then a door opened. What happened next would devastate two families, spark outrage across Japan and force uncomfortable conversations about fear, self-defence, gun culture and the assumptions people make in a matter of seconds. Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50063364 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/22/gun-control-japanese-mother-march-for-our-lives-campaign-parkland-students https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260312/p2a/00m/0na/024000chttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/20/yoshihiro-hattori-mistaken-address-shooting-japan/ https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/95-0144-app-1-888785175 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-16-mn-39293-story.html https://yoshi-c.com/Alyssa-and-Yoshi-message_jp.html https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/05/20/Lawyer-claims-exchange-student-shot-in-defense-of-home/5929737870400/ Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Story Behind the Interrogation: What Happened to Ryan Waller & Heather Quan?
2026/09/15
On Christmas night in 2006, Ryan Waller’s parents became worried when their 18-year-old son didn’t show up for dinner and stopped answering his phone. They drove to the Phoenix home he shared with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Heather Quan, but no one came to the door. When police entered the house, they found Heather dead from a gunshot wound and Ryan alive, badly injured and deeply confused. Ryan was taken to the police station, where detectives tried to figure out what had happened. He struggled to answer even the simplest questions. He couldn’t remember basic details about Heather. His story wandered into strange territory involving two men, “bow and arrows,” and a former roommate named Richie. To investigators, very little of it seemed to make sense. Until suddenly, it did. What followed was an investigation that would lead to two murder trials, a controversial interrogation, a years-long fight over Ryan’s medical treatment, and a change to Arizona law carrying Heather Quan’s name. Sources: https://unquestionablycriminal.medium.com/police-interrogate-a-dying-man-with-two-bullets-in-his-brain-accusing-him-of-murder-28644de1a899 https://law.justia.com/cases/arizona/court-of-appeals-division-one-unpublished/2013/1-ca-cr-08-0781.html https://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=185 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-azd-2_19-cv-03755/pdf/USCOURTS-azd-2_19-cv-03755-0.pdf  https://celebsuburb.com/what-happened-to-ryan-waller-the-untold-truth-about-his-death/#A_Few_Details_On_Ryan_Waller_Early_Life https://www.okaybliss.com/ryan-waller-story/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI8G0KOOtqk Follow me here: ► YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SerialNapper/ ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/serialnappernik/ ► Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SerialNapper/ ► TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@serialnappernik  *Go Ad-Free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SerialNapper * Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcast reviews

Read Serial Napper | True Crime for the Chronically Tired podcast reviews


4.6 out of 5
175 reviews
★★★☆☆
FNOMINL 2026/11/03
Voice
A bit high and sharp for my listening taste but I like that she gets straight to the story
★★★★★
Kk1435! 2026/09/29
Good
Great podcast I don’t want to listen to a lot of other podcasts that have a lot of banter and bs I wanna hear the story I go to sleep listening to tc ...
★★★★★
hgreen83 2026/05/29
Glad to have found this!!
I heard about this podcast through one of my favorite (other) podcasts, Our True Crime Podcast. So happy they introduced Serial Napper to their audien...
★☆☆☆☆
MissHoliday 2026/05/08
Listened to Fall Asleep Ended Up Annoyed
Alright, Brown people, this podcast is not for us. I started noticing subtle bias throughout the episodes, but one case really confirmed it for me. W...
★☆☆☆☆
MistressFallon 2025/11/18
Interesting
The host seems genuine, there’s just so much victim blaming and her viewpoints and research skills show she needs an education.
★★★★★
Jersey Girl in Vermont 2025/06/15
Just found you!
The host of this Podcast has the sweetest , most caring voice. Her episodes are interesting and cases I have never heard of before. Glad I found this...
★★★★★
nene4747 2025/03/30
Love your voice!
Great job I think your podcast is gonna be one of my new favs 🫶🏽🙌🏽🫶🏽
★★★★★
PTKM86 2025/02/20
A new fave of mine!
Recently learned of this podcast and I so enjoy it! Add to your weekly rotation and you won’t be disappointed!
★★★☆☆
Jana1469 2025/01/09
I wanted to give you a higher rating buuut…
You’re easy to listen to. Nice voice. Although, it does sound like you’re using some other podcasts story. But I stuck it out. UNTIL YOU JUST SAID…....
★★☆☆☆
Bunniixo 2025/01/02
Eh not the greatest not the worst
She mispronounces words constantly and doesn’t research very throughly. She also has some really bad hot takes on important cases like Kendrick Johnso...
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