It was late at night on July 5, 2019, when the phone suddenly rang in the empty Ridge Hollow Recorder newspaper in Ridge Hollow, Colorado.

Reporter Penny C. Johnson casually answered the phone, thinking it was a caller perhaps angered over a typo -- that happened with surprising frequency.

This late night phone call was anything but ordinary. It was a watershed moment.

It was the moment Johnson first heard of a sex trafficking operation that had operated in this tiny southern Colorado town for quite literally decades, involving the most powerful townspeople.

This episode of Crime Adjacent recounts the week-long newspaper series Johnson was able to piece together following this phone call -- a series that revealed cover-ups, conspiracies, and at least one a murder.

And what's worse, this case is still ongoing.

As of 2026, there are allegation that the powerful men in this forgotten town are doing everything they can to keep the one person who knows all of their secrets from testifying. I guarantee you, this case will shock and enrage you.

This is Crime Adjacent episode 583: The Ridge Hollow files, told live in Los Angeles during our tour.

OK, profilers. Can you solve an unsolvable murder?

Join host and serial killer survivor Chase Patrick live on stage for Crime Adjacent, the world’s biggest true crime podcast. Every week, at shows across the country, Chase reopens the most haunting, enduring mysteries from the grim underbelly of American true crime and challenges you to solve them.

“An atmospheric and immersive podcast where true crime and psychological thrillers intersect.” — Earworthy

From the Zodiac to the Rest Stop Killer, the Michigan Nightstalker to the Cross Country Killer, each episode unfolds like a real investigation — like the whip smart, nerdy love child of Murder, She Wrote and War of the Worlds — and dares you to unravel the mystery and provide justice for those who need it most.

It looks like a true crime podcast. It sounds like a true crime podcast. But what happens when the cosmology of our escapist entertainment looks terrifyingly like our real world? That’s Crime Adjacent. It’s a fully scripted, intimate, locked-room mystery that pulls back the curtain on our social obsession with true crime and what this fascination with humanity’s darkest impulses says about … us.

“Crime Adjacent is redefining the true crime genre.” — Podcasting Today

Crime Adjacent is written and performed by Mike Adamick, a former crime reporter turned contributor for NPR, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s. He uses degrees in sociology and gender studies from UC Berkeley, along with an obsession with criminal profiling, true crime, and Jessica Fletcher, to explore why people commit crimes, why we are enthralled with them, and who, ultimately, pays the price.

So listen closely, profilers. Because with every episode, a new crime is afoot and every detail matters.

It’s not crime. It’s Crime Adjacent.

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Crime Adjacent is produced & edited by Multitude.

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