Going West: True Crime Real Crime by Going West

In May of 2008, a 19-year-old man left his friend’s house in rural Minnesota, taking the back roads instead of the highway. Shortly afterwards, he accidentally drove his car into a ditch, and called his parents asking for help. During a frustrating ordeal in the middle of the night, his parents couldn’t find him amongst the flat farmland, even though he was confident he was in a particular area and giving them clear instructions. Almost an hour into their call, he shouted an expletive, and the call ended – leaving his parents even more frantic to find him. Eerily, when police located his vehicle the next day, it was in a ditch 25 minutes away from where he thought he was. So what happened to him after that call dropped? This is the story of Brandon Swanson.
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In June of 2007, the family of an 18-year-old woman in North Dakota was having trouble reaching her over the weekend, leading her father to visit her apartment for a check-in. When he arrived, he saw his daughter dead in her bedroom, with police quickly determining that she had been murdered. But when they looked through her texts and interviewed those close to her, multiple people seemed suspicious of the act: including a man with a crush on her, her roommate, a neighbor, and a local maintenance worker. But with a shocking update years later, police feel confident that they know which of them killed her. This is the story of Anita Knutson.
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In June of 2023, two recent Illinois college graduates headed to Germany for much-needed trip before settling into the work force back in the United States. When they arrived to the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle known for it’s scenic views and likeness to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, they met an American man who would change the course of their lives forever; with both women plummeting off a bridge nearby after following him to a more desirable viewpoint. This is the story of Eva Liu and Kelsey Chang, also known as The Murder at Neuschwanstein Castle.

In November of 1997, a 14-year-old girl was invited to a party under a bridge in Victoria, British Columbia, by a group of peers who were previously known to bully her. And thus, an evening that she thought would be filled with innocent teenage fun turned into a nightmare that ended in her death. This is the story of Reena Virk.

In April of 2001, a 20-year-old man seemed to vanish into thin air from the yard of his father’s house after heading out to the shed to get something. As his disappearance was investigated, police locked in on numerous different people, including one who was known to perform illegal surgeries for his own sick pleasures. Eerily, this was far from the first strange thing to happen in his tiny Missouri town, which has been regarded as the Creepiest Town in America. This is the story of Branson Perry.

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In August of 2016, a 27-year-old woman was on a run in a rural area of Princeton, Massachusetts and never returned home. When her body was found that evening with disturbing injuries, including burns to various parts of her body, a man-hunt ensued to catch the culprit. And when police found their perpetrator, multiple women came forward to tell their stories about him. This is the story of Vanessa Marcotte.
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