The Deck audiochuck

Loni Kai Okaruru made several stops on the morning of August 26, 2001, and interacted with several people, before she was beaten to death, her body left on a farm in Washington County, Oregon. Loni Kai’s murder was quickly labeled by police as a hate crime, but decades later her killer is still unknown.

A while back, our team at audiochuck received an email from Kirsten Leonard’s family asking us if we would cover her case. Specifically, the email was sent by her nephew, Karsten, who’s named in memory of his aunt… an aunt he never got the chance to meet.

That’s because in June 1986, at just 22 years old, Kirsten was murdered in what can only be described as a senseless and brutal crime.

In the spring of 2000, a 24-year-old woman was found floating in a Citrus County, Florida canal. Though answers have eluded authorities for more than two decades, a present-day sergeant is hoping that putting her story in the spotlight may help reveal the truth.

When Twana Smith’s body was discovered behind an abandoned building in Hartford in October 1997, she joined a growing list of the city’s vulnerable locals who fell victim to violent predators. And for decades, her case sat unsolved, gathering dust… even as detectives found the keys to unlock mysteries from the same era. But after years of dead ends, investigators now believe they're on the brink of a breakthrough… they just need a final push over the finish line.

A college campus in broad daylight in a town literally called “Niceville” might be one of the last places you’d expect a young collegiate to disappear from, but in March 1973, that’s exactly what happened.

Debra Espey’s case spans more than 50 years, includes a primary suspect from the beginning, and has long been thought to have connection to other unsolved cases in the Florida panhandle. But for all the twists and misdirections, detectives are hopeful they can close this case soon.

28-year-old Lola, AKA Kathy, Kat, or Lolabee, as her family lovingly called her, was excited for a fresh start just before the holidays in 1993. She’d just left her job at an Indianapolis nightclub and was wrapping up the process of moving two hours northeast of Fort Wayne to live with her older sister. Kathy was planning to take her life down a new road and go back to school, maybe start a family.

But before she could ever make good on those plans… something happened. Though, the specifics of what exactly that something was is still something we are trying to piece together today.