Shadows In The Pines

pn7pnpf5dy
  • 3.7 (3)
  • True Crime

True crime podcast focusing on crime in the Pacific Northwest. 

  1. 2d ago

    Diane Downs and Old Mohawk Rod - Part 2

    🔎 Part 2 of our Diane Downs series is available now.   As detectives continue pulling apart the story from Old Mohawk Road, the investigation begins shifting in a dramatic direction. What started as the search for a mysterious roadside gunman slowly becomes something much darker as timeline problems, forensic evidence, and survivor statements begin pointing investigators toward an unthinkable possibility.   In Part 2, Dan and Bekah cover Christie Downs’ recovery and testimony, the mounting case against Diane, the arrest that shocked the nation, the bizarre courtroom behavior that captivated the media, Diane’s own testimony, the guilty verdict, the prison escape that reignited national headlines, and the lasting impact left on Christie and Danny.   We also examine how the case evolved into a cultural phenomenon through endless television coverage, public fascination, Ann Rule’s Small Sacrifices, and the disturbing way the offender nearly overshadowed the victims in the public consciousness.   At the center of it all remain three children in a car on a dark Oregon road in May of 1983.   One never came home.   Two survived.   And the questions surrounding that night continue to haunt people decades later.   🎙️ Shadows in the Pines Hosted by Dan Morgan & Rebekah Haler   🕯️ New episodes premiere every Sunday at 8 PM Pacific.   #ShadowsInThePines #DianeDowns #TrueCrimePodcast #OregonTrueCrime #PacificNorthwest #OldMohawkRoad #AnnRule #SmallSacrifices #TrueCrime #CrimePodcast #ChristieDowns #DannyDowns #SherylDowns #OregonHistory #CourtroomDrama #PrisonEscape #ColdCaseCommunity #TrueCrimeCommunity #SpotifyPodcasts #PodbeanPodcast

    58 min

  2. May 25

    Diane Downs and Old Mohawk Road Part 1

    🚨 This week on Shadows in the Pines, we head to Springfield, Oregon for one of the most disturbing and psychologically unsettling cases in true crime history: the case of Diane Downs.   On a dark stretch of Old Mohawk Road in May of 1983, three children were shot inside a family car. Seven-year-old Cheryl Lynn Downs was killed. Eight-year-old Christie and three-year-old Danny barely survived. Their mother claimed a bushy-haired stranger stepped out of the darkness and opened fire.   But almost immediately, detectives began noticing things that didn’t feel right.   The timeline. The crime scene. The interviews. The smiling.   As the investigation tightened, the horrifying possibility at the center of the case became impossible to ignore: what if there never was a stranger at all?   In this episode, Dan and Bekah follow the full chronology of the Diane Downs case — from Diane’s chaotic early life and obsession with Robert “Nick” Knickerbocker, to the shooting on Old Mohawk Road, the media circus that followed, Christie’s devastating testimony, the nationally televised trial, Diane’s bizarre courtroom behavior, and the prison escape that somehow made the story even stranger.   This is not just the story of a murder investigation.   It’s the story of three children trapped inside a car on a dark Oregon road… and the mother a jury believed pulled the trigger.   🎙️ New episodes premiere every Sunday night at 8PM Pacific.   🕯️ Follow, rate, and share Shadows in the Pines wherever you listen to podcasts.   #ShadowsInThePines #DianeDowns #TrueCrime #PacificNorthwest #OregonTrueCrime #OldMohawkRoad #TrueCrimePodcast #AnnRule #SmallSacrifices #SpringfieldOregon

    1h 26m

  3. May 18

    Robert Lee Yates Jr - Final

    Just a soft recap of what we’ve learned and final thoughts along with show announcements

    24 min

  4. May 16

    Mini Pines - Blue Bucket Mine

    🏔️🪣 This week on Mini Pines, we head deep into the high desert of eastern Oregon for one of the strangest lost-treasure legends in American history — The Blue Bucket Mine. 🌵✨   In 1845, a wagon train following the infamous Meek Cutoff became hopelessly lost in the Oregon wilderness. Families starved. People died. And somewhere during the nightmare journey, children playing in a dry creek bed may have unknowingly filled a blue bucket with raw gold nuggets years before the California Gold Rush ever began. ⛏️💰   But there’s a problem.   Nobody could ever find the creek again. 👀   For nearly 180 years, treasure hunters, prospectors, historians, and explorers have searched the deserts and canyons of eastern Oregon trying to uncover the legendary mine that may not even exist at all. 🗺️☠️   Tonight, we’re talking about the Meek Cutoff disaster, Stephen Meek’s deadly “shortcut,” pioneer survival, lost gold, and the eerie possibility that one of America’s greatest hidden treasures is still buried somewhere beneath the sagebrush. 🌙🔥   Welcome to Mini Pines. 🌲🎙️

    32 min

  5. May 11

    Robert Lee Yates Jr. - Part 3 - The Net Closes

    September 24th, 1997. A Spokane patrol officer pulls over a white Corvette near East Sprague. The driver is Robert Lee Yates Jr. He’s ticketed and allowed to go. The officer fills out the field interview report and writes one word in the vehicle make field. Camaro. In Part Three of the Robert Lee Yates Jr. arc, Dan and Becka follow the investigation from the inside — the task force, the databases, the September 1999 interview where he sweats through his shirt and walks out a free man, the Corvette that finally closes the net, and the morning of April 18th, 2000 when it all ends on Market Street. Then the sentencing hearing, 408 years, and Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg’s decision that he is not bound by anything Spokane negotiated. Content warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of homicide, sexual violence, and the failures of institutional response.

    1h 11m

  6. May 5

    Robert Lee Yates Jr. - Part 2 - The killing years

    Shadows in the Pines — The Killing Years (Robert Lee Yates Jr., Part Two) East Sprague Avenue, Spokane. The late 1990s. A social worker named Lynn Everson parks a Winnebago on the strip once a week and keeps a bad-trick list of over a hundred and forty entries. The man in the white Corvette is never on it. In Part Two of the Robert Lee Yates Jr. arc, Dan and Becka spend time with the thirteen women he killed between 1996 and 1998 — who they were, where they came from, and what investigators found. From Shannon Zielinski, who was scheduled to testify in a murder trial, to Melody Murfin, who was buried in his yard while his family walked past. From the task force that formed too late to the one woman who survived him and didn’t know she’d been shot for seven months. This episode is about the victims. All of them. Content warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of homicide, sexual violence, and substance use.

    1h 22m

  7. May 3

    Mini Pines - The Thing In The Lake

    The Thing in the Lake: Idaho’s Sharlie In the mountains of central Idaho, there’s a lake that drops nearly 400 feet into darkness. Cold. Still. Old. And for over a century, people standing along its shoreline have reported the same thing—something moving beneath the surface. Long. Deliberate. Not a wave. Not a fish. They call it Sharlie. Tonight, we head to Payette Lake in McCall—a place where folklore never really faded. From early railroad workers in the 1920s to modern-day sightings, the descriptions stay eerily consistent: a massive, multi-humped creature slipping through deep, glacial water. But what are people actually seeing? A relic of the prehistoric world? A misidentified giant sturgeon? Something simpler… or something we don’t fully understand? This episode isn’t just about a lake monster. It’s about why stories like this refuse to die—and what it says about the places that keep them alive. Because sometimes, the mystery matters more than the answer. So if you ever find yourself standing at the edge of a deep, dark lake… and the water shifts— You’ll understand why they still whisper the name. Sharlie. ⸻ 🎧 Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts #ShadowsInThePines #TrueCrimePodcast #PNW #Idaho #Sharlie #Cryptids #Folklore #LakeMonster #McCallIdaho #PayetteLake

    30 min

  8. Apr 27

    Robert Lee Yates Jr Part 1

    The Predator Next Door — Robert Lee Yates (Part 1) Shadows in the Pines   Spokane, Washington. A quiet city tucked beneath pine-covered hills and long stretches of highway. The kind of place where routines feel safe… and danger doesn’t look the way you expect it to.   In the late 1990s, women began disappearing—many from the edges of society, their lives overlooked, their absences barely making headlines. Some were last seen along East Sprague. Others simply vanished into the night. At first, the cases felt disconnected. Isolated. Easy to ignore.   They weren’t.   Because moving quietly through Spokane was a man who knew exactly how to blend in. A husband. A father. A decorated veteran. Someone who didn’t fit the profile people thought they were looking for.   In Part One of our four-part series, we begin at the surface—before the name Robert Lee Yates meant anything at all. We trace the early disappearances, the missed connections, and the growing sense that something wasn’t right. And we examine how an entire pattern of violence can take shape… without anyone realizing what they’re seeing.   This is the story of how a predator hides in plain sight—and how a city slowly begins to understand the truth.   🎧 New episodes weekly. 📍 Based in the Pacific Northwest. 🌲 In the pines, the truth never stays buried.

    1h 2m
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Ratings & Reviews

3.7
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

True crime podcast focusing on crime in the Pacific Northwest. 

Information

  • Creator
    pn7pnpf5dy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Shadows In The Pines

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