The Scarecast: Scary Stories, Mysteries, and True Crime

Michael Crutchfield

For almost a decade, The Scarecast—hosted by Michael Crutchfield—has captivated audiences with spine-tingling stories that explore the shadowy depths of real-life horror. Originally launched on YouTube as MaddMike, The Scarecast masterfully narrates true accounts of chilling encounters, from paranormal experiences to unsettling run-ins with strangers. With over a hundred episodes, The Scarecast stands out for its dedication to authentic, listener-submitted tales that leave audiences both unsettled and eager for more. Crutchfield’s storytelling prowess and commitment to sharing genuine scares have made The Scarecast a must-listen for fans of the eerie and unexplained. Get In Touch With Me: Instagram / TikTok / X : @thescarecast   YouTube / Facebook: The Scarecast Website: www.thescarecast.com Email (Send Me Stories): mike@thescarecast.com

  1. EP9 - The Dark History of Turnbull Canyon | Whittier, CA

    APR 16

    EP9 - The Dark History of Turnbull Canyon | Whittier, CA

    Turnbull Canyon looks like a peaceful four‑mile loop in the Puente Hills near Whittier, but generations of locals and investigators see it as a hotspot of tragedy, legend, and paranormal activity. In this episode, we go back centuries to the Tongva homeland, Spanish colonization, and mission‑era violence that left deep scars on the land and fueled claims of restless Indigenous spirits still haunting the canyon. You’ll hear how Mexican secularization, the rise of massive ranchos, and how the canyon got its name. The canyon was named after real estate mogul Robert Turnbull, who mysteriously passed away just after he sold his canyon property to Quaker founders. The episode also explores stranger 20th‑century chapters: inventor William Haight’s towering “Electrodome” weather‑control device built inside the canyon, later wrapped up in rumors of government interest and eerie abandonment after a mysterious final test on New Year’s Eve 1932. From there, we dissect the enduring but unproven tales of a forgotten asylum, the so‑called Gates of Hell, robed cults, and Depression‑era child sacrifices. Unlike many stories around Turnbull, some horrors are fully documented: the 1952 crash of Flight 416 and the modern crime cases of Gloria Gaxiola and Claudia Tecuautzin, both tied to the canyon’s roads and ravines. By the end of the episode, you’ll see how centuries of colonization, bloodshed, financial ruin, bizarre experiments, and verified crimes have all converged to make Turnbull Canyon one of Southern California’s most infamous “cursed” places — and why so many people refuse to drive it at night. In the next episode, we will be covering the personal accounts of people who have ventured into this very canyon, so make sure you subscribe and stay tuned. About The Scarecast: The Scarecast pulls you straight into the dark edges of real life. Hosted by Michael Crutchfield, it blends unsettling true stories, paranormal encounters, and mysterious passings with immersive sound design and atmospheric storytelling to make every episode feel like a late-night campfire tale you can’t turn off. From haunted locations and eerie listener submissions to cold cases and unexplained disappearances, The Scarecast is made for people who like their stories creepy, cinematic, and just a little too real. Make Sure To Subscribe To My Podcast for more cases and scary stories for your long drives:  Spotify (includes video): https://open.spotify.com/show/6imeikutQMImXC4kJfTZuB Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scarecast/id1071545581 All Podcast Destinations: https://linktr.ee/thescarecastpodcast Connect With Me On Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescarecast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thescarecast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescarecast/ Website: https://www.thescarecast.com/ Send scary stories or business inquiries to mike@thescarecast.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    40 min
  2. EP8 - 10 Scary Stories from the Colorado Street Bridge | Pasadena, CA

    APR 11

    EP8 - 10 Scary Stories from the Colorado Street Bridge | Pasadena, CA

    A few weeks ago, I visited the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, California—one of the most haunted locations in Southern California and a place infamous for its long history of incidents and paranormal hauntings. I went there with a couple of friends as part of Joshua Amen’s weekly paranormal scavenger hunt, and being on (and beneath) the bridge immediately brought back all the chilling stories listeners have sent me over the years. In this first volume, I share 10 terrifying encounters tied to the Colorado Street Bridge—stories of shadow figures, “ghost jumpers,” faceless apparitions, demonic roars, and things that stalk you from the darkness under the arches. You’ll also hear a quick rundown of the bridge’s past, from its construction in the early 1910s to the 150+ lives believed to have been lost there, and the hauntings people still report today. Joshua Amen's Paranormal Scavenger Hunt: https://amenparanormalresearch.com/ https://www.instagram.com/amen.paranormal.research/ About The Scarecast: The Scarecast pulls you straight into the dark edges of real life. Hosted by Michael Crutchfield, it blends unsettling true stories, paranormal encounters, and mysterious passings with immersive sound design and atmospheric storytelling to make every episode feel like a late-night campfire tale you can’t turn off. From haunted locations and eerie listener submissions to cold cases and unexplained disappearances, The Scarecast is made for people who like their stories creepy, cinematic, and just a little too real. Make Sure To Subscribe To My Podcast for more cases and scary stories for your long drives:  Spotify (includes video): https://open.spotify.com/show/6imeikutQMImXC4kJfTZuB Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scarecast/id1071545581 All Podcast Destinations: https://linktr.ee/thescarecastpodcast Connect With Me On Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescarecast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thescarecast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescarecast/ Website: https://www.thescarecast.com/ Send scary stories or business inquiries to mike@thescarecast.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    24 min
  3. EP7 - 5 Strange Cases Involving Scientists and Defense Employees

    APR 4

    EP7 - 5 Strange Cases Involving Scientists and Defense Employees

    In this episode, we follow a chilling pattern that no official agency has ever laid out in one place: a nine‑month window where scientists, analysts, and officers tied to America’s air and space power either vanished or had their lives ended violently, while the official narratives stayed fragmented and strangely incomplete. We start by going much deeper into the disappearance of rocket‑alloy pioneer Monica Jacinto Reza, whose work on the Mondaloy superalloy helped the U.S. break its dependence on Russian RD‑180 rocket engines, and who walked into the Angeles National Forest on a familiar trail in June 2025 and simply never came back. From the scrubbed “green burial” memorial and missing cell‑phone forensics, to a mysterious hiking companion known only as Subject A. Then we move to New Mexico, where Los Alamos employee and DOE advisory board member Melissa Casias returns home in the middle of the day, only for her family to later find both her personal and government LANL phones apparently wiped back to factory state on the very day she vanishes along Route 518. At Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base, we revisit the brutal triple incident involving AFRL project manager Jacob Prichard, finance specialist Jaymee Prichard, and top‑secret‑cleared analyst 1st Lt. Jaime Gustitus — a so‑called “domestic” case that still has no publicly stated motive and is being driven not by local homicide but by Air Force counterintelligence investigators. We also examine the murder of fusion physicist Nuno F.G. Loureiro outside Boston, targeted by a heavily prepared gunman who also carried out a mass shooting at Brown University after years of quiet planning, burner phones, and a pre‑staged storage unit in another state. Finally, we look at the murder of Caltech astrophysicist and NEO Surveyor scientist Carl Grillmair, shot on his rural porch by a man who had already been caught once on the property with an illegal rifle, then inexplicably released under a “dismissed in the interests of justice” gun case only eleven days before the homicide. Across these cases, the same eerie themes keep surfacing: wiped devices at nuclear and space institutions, missing phone data in an era where every step is usually logged, investigations steered by agencies that think in terms of threat surfaces, and a trail of elite technical workers whose deaths are labeled “motive unknown” or treated as isolated anomalies. No one in authority is saying these events are connected — but when you line them up side by side, the pattern that emerges might be too sharp, and too unsettling, to ignore. DISCLOSURE: All information in this episode is based on publicly available sources, open‑source research, and my own analysis. The patterns and connections discussed are speculative and intended for discussion and storytelling purposes only. Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as an accusation of wrongdoing by any individual, agency, or institution, nor as a statement of fact about classified programs or ongoing investigations. Listeners should remember that in many of these cases, official information is limited, and reasonable people can disagree about what the available evidence means. About The Scarecast: The Scarecast pulls you straight into the dark edges of real life. Hosted by Michael Crutchfield, it blends unsettling true stories, paranormal encounters, and mysterious passings with immersive sound design and atmospheric storytelling to make every episode feel like a late-night campfire tale you can’t turn off. From haunted locations and eerie listener submissions to cold cases and unexplained disappearances, The Scarecast is made for people who like their stories creepy, cinematic, and just a little too real. Make Sure To Subscribe To My Podcast for more cases and scary stories for your long drives:  Spotify (includes video): https://open.spotify.com/show/6imeikutQMImXC4kJfTZuB Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scarecast/id1071545581 Connect With Me On Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescarecast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thescarecast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescarecast/ Website: https://www.thescarecast.com/ Send scary stories or business inquiries to mike@thescarecast.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    45 min
  4. EP6 - The Disappearance of William “Neil” McCasland

    MAR 25

    EP6 - The Disappearance of William “Neil” McCasland

    On February 27, 2026, retired Air Force Major General William “Neil” McCasland walked out of his Albuquerque home and vanished, leaving his phone and glasses behind but taking his gun, wallet, and backpack. Once commander of Wright‑Patterson’s secretive lab and linked to UFO insider Tom DeLonge, McCasland disappeared just days after President Trump ordered the release of UFO and alien files. In this episode, we unravel his classified past, his eerie ties to UFO disclosure, and the leading theories about what really happened to the general who knew too much. About The Scarecast: The Scarecast pulls you straight into the dark edges of real life. Hosted by Michael Crutchfield, it blends unsettling true stories, paranormal encounters, and mysterious passings with immersive sound design and atmospheric storytelling to make every episode feel like a late-night campfire tale you can’t turn off. From haunted locations and eerie listener submissions to cold cases and unexplained disappearances, The Scarecast is made for people who like their stories creepy, cinematic, and just a little too real. Make Sure To Subscribe To My Podcast for more cases and scary stories for your long drives:  Spotify (includes video): https://open.spotify.com/show/6imeikutQMImXC4kJfTZuB Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scarecast/id1071545581 Connect With Me On Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescarecast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thescarecast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescarecast/ Website: https://www.thescarecast.com/ Send scary stories or business inquiries to mike@thescarecast.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    32 min
  5. EP5 - The Man Who Erased Himself: The Unsolved Mystery of Peter Bergmann

    MAR 20

    EP5 - The Man Who Erased Himself: The Unsolved Mystery of Peter Bergmann

    In June 2009, an unidentified man checked into a small Irish hotel under the name “Peter Bergmann” — a name that belonged to no one — and spent four days methodically erasing every trace of who he really was before his body was found on Rosses Point beach. This episode of The Scarecast dives into the haunting final days of this mystery man: the fake Austrian address, the cash payments, the cut clothing labels, the strange trips through Sligo with a purple plastic bag that always came back empty, and the chilling CCTV footage that shows him moving like he knew exactly where the cameras were and how to avoid them. We’ll walk through the discovery of his body, the baffling autopsy, and the five‑month investigation that scoured DNA databases, fingerprints, and missing persons reports around the world — and still came up with nothing. Was “Peter Bergmann” a terminally ill man staging his own disappearance, a former spy, a criminal with a past too dark to expose, or simply someone who chose to vanish on his own terms? In this deep dive, we follow every known step he took, explore the leading theories, and open the rabbit hole that has kept this case alive for more than a decade. Credit to Hew Morrison for Thumbnail Drawing of Peter Bergmann (also used in video) About The Scarecast: The Scarecast pulls you straight into the dark edges of real life. Hosted by Michael Crutchfield, it blends unsettling true stories, paranormal encounters, and mysterious passings with immersive sound design and atmospheric storytelling to make every episode feel like a late-night campfire tale you can’t turn off. From haunted locations and eerie listener submissions to cold cases and unexplained disappearances, The Scarecast is made for people who like their stories creepy, cinematic, and just a little too real. Make Sure To Subscribe To My Podcast for more cases and scary stories for your long drives:  Spotify (includes video): https://open.spotify.com/show/6imeikutQMImXC4kJfTZuB Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scarecast/id1071545581 All Podcast Destinations: https://linktr.ee/thescarecastpodcast Connect With Me On Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescarecast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thescarecast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescarecast/ Website: https://www.thescarecast.com/ Send scary stories or business inquiries to mike@thescarecast.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    20 min
  6. EP3 - The Boston Tickler: The Man at the Foot of the Bed

    MAR 10

    EP3 - The Boston Tickler: The Man at the Foot of the Bed

    On a quiet spring night in 2014, Boston College junior Jonny Goldowsky opened his eyes in his Foster Street bedroom and saw a man in a Gator‑style ski mask standing perfectly still in his doorway, watching him breathe in the dark. No threats, no stolen laptops, no smashed windows—just a silent figure who slipped back into the night and left an entire neighborhood wondering how many times he’d done this before. He wasn’t the only one. Within weeks, other BC students on Foster and Kirkwood started waking up to bedroom doors easing open, shadows at the foot of the bed, and in some cases, a stranger’s hand on their feet before he bolted down the stairs and out the front door. Once the stories hit the news, the sightings, the break‑ins, and the whispered rumors converged into a single, chilling name: the Boston Tickler. In this episode of Scarecast, we walk house by house through the 2013–2014 break‑ins around Boston College—unlocked doors on Foster Street, masked intruders in Brighton, and late‑night encounters that police confirmed were very real, even as they publicly downplayed the “tickling” itself. We’ll dig into conflicting suspect descriptions, a summer Peeping Tom who kept returning to the same window, and why some online sleuths now see this case as a possible early warning sign of something far darker. Was the Boston Tickler just a ridiculous urban legend that got away from the facts, or a methodical prowler testing how close he could get to his victims while they slept? If you enjoy this episode of Scarecast, follow, rate, and share the show, and send your own home‑intruder or campus‑legend stories to mike@thescarecast.com—you might hear them in a future episode. Get in touch with me: Instagram · TikTok · X: @thescarecastYouTube · Facebook: The ScarecastWebsite: www.thescarecast.comEmail (send me your stories): mike@thescarecast.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    17 min
4.5
out of 5
1,883 Ratings

About

For almost a decade, The Scarecast—hosted by Michael Crutchfield—has captivated audiences with spine-tingling stories that explore the shadowy depths of real-life horror. Originally launched on YouTube as MaddMike, The Scarecast masterfully narrates true accounts of chilling encounters, from paranormal experiences to unsettling run-ins with strangers. With over a hundred episodes, The Scarecast stands out for its dedication to authentic, listener-submitted tales that leave audiences both unsettled and eager for more. Crutchfield’s storytelling prowess and commitment to sharing genuine scares have made The Scarecast a must-listen for fans of the eerie and unexplained. Get In Touch With Me: Instagram / TikTok / X : @thescarecast   YouTube / Facebook: The Scarecast Website: www.thescarecast.com Email (Send Me Stories): mike@thescarecast.com

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