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Crime House 24/7
First Watch: A 60-Year Cold Case Solved & A Fake Nurse Treats 4,486 Patients
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Crime House has the perfect new show for spooky season Twisted Tales. Hosted by Heidi Wong, each episode of Twisted Tales is perfect for late night scares and daytime frights, revealing the disturbing real life events that inspired the world's most terrifying blockbusters and the ones too twisted to make it to screen. Twisted Tales is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts New episodes out every Monday. This is Crime House. There are major developments today in a nearly six decade old cold case. After a discovery at the bottom of the Mississippi river, investigators believe they found the remains of a man who went missing in 1967. Last Sunday, while fishing on the Mississippi R, a fisherman using sonar equipment in Sartel spotted a car on the river bottom. Roy Benn vanished in 1967 after breakfast at a cafe. Now a fisherman's sonar has revealed his Buick at the bottom of the Mississippi along with his remains inside. Nearly 60 years later, the river gives up its secret. But was it a tragic plunge or murder? Hi, I'm Katie Ring, a true crime analyst, self defense instructor and fierce advocate for victims. And this is Crime House Daily, your essential true crime companion. Every weekday morning and night here at Crime House Daily, we dig into the true crime stories making headlines right now, where justice is unfolding, arrests are happening, and new evidence is emerging. Every morning, First Watch gets you up to speed on the biggest cases. Every night, Night Watch takes you deeper. If you want to follow a case from the first 911 call to the final verdict, this is the place for you. Follow Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review and for ad free listening, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. For video, check out our YouTube channel, Crime House Daily. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We're covering two major cases in the news. The first case takes us back nearly six decades to the 1967 disappearance of Roy Benny, whose Buick and remains were just pulled out of the Mississippi river in August, finally solving one of Minnesota's oldest cold cases, but leaving behind haunting questions of whether it was an accident or a murder. And next, we'll break down the case of Autumn Bardisa, a Florida woman accused of posing as a nurse and treating more than 4,000 patients without a license. She's now behind bars, but investigators warn the full scope of her deception may only just be coming to light.
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I want to start today's episode off with a quick story I saw in the news this week. A college student at the University of Pittsburgh died in a fire that erupted in her home in early September. Her name was Lakin Shelby and her mom, Carly Shelby, survived the fire. Carly told investigators that when she told her husband he couldn't stay in the house anymore since they were separated, her husband Brian threatened to burn the house down. Then Carly and her daughter Laken allegedly heard Brian pouring gasoline in the garage. Brian Shelby was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, aggravated arson and causing or risking catastrophe. He's actually admitted to his crime, so the Crime House team is on standby for his sentence. For today's story, we're covering a breaking development in a case that's been cold for nearly 60 years. In 1967, 59 year old Roy George Benn went missing in Minnesota after last being seen eating breakfast at a gas station. He was never seen again. Until now. Let's get into it. On August 9, 2025, a man named Brody Locke goes fishing with a friend. Their boat drifts along the northern end of the Mississippi river in central Minnesota near the city of Sartel. All of the sudden, Brody's friend catches something, so they stop the boat. As the fish gets reeled in, Brody looks down at the boat's sonar device. Something big catches his eye, but it's not a fish. It's a large, shadowy object. He and his friend continue down the river, but Brody's curious about what he saw. So the next day, August 10th, he returns with his family to check it out. This massive object is still there. Brody's not sure what to make of it, so he calls the police. On August 13, the Stearns Benton County Sheriff's Office dive team investigates and realizes this shadowy object is actually a car. They work with a towing company to recover a 1963 Buick Electra from the river bottom. 24ft below the surface. Police run the vehicle identification number and discover the car is registered to a man named Roy George Benn from the nearby town of Sauk Rapids, who'd been missing for almost 60 years. 59 year old Roy was last seen alive on September 25, 1967 around 4am he was eating breakfast at King's Supper Club just north of Sartel, which was a cafe attached to a Shell station. Roy was dressed well, in a dark suit, in a French cuffed white shirt with gold and pearl cufflinks. He also had a large sum of money on him, possibly up to $5,000, which is worth about $48,000 today. Apparently that wasn't unusual for him. Roy was the kind of guy who paid for everything in cash and he was generous with it. If Roy went out drinking with a friend, he'd be sure to pick up the tab for him. Money wasn't really an issue. Roy owned a successful appliance service business in nearby St. Cloud, Minnesota. And six weeks earlier, he'd purchased another revenue source in the form of a 12 unit apartment building. So he was still planning for his future, even though he'd recently endured a terrible loss. Just over a year before his disappearance, Roy's wife, Evelyn Benn, had died at the age of 54. They didn't have any kids and Roy was left to navigate life on his own. But there were still friends and other relatives who cared about him. And after that breakfast on September 25, 1967, someone realized Roy was missing and called the police. The authorities put up a nationwide bulletin, but nothing turned up. So they go out searching. In October 1967, four divers probed the bottom of a 60 foot deep granite quarry in Sauk Rapids. But they didn't find anything. Afterwards, they searched the channel on Little Rock Lake next to King's Supper Club, where Roy was last seen. The police search on land too, flying low over wooded areas. But there's no sign of Roy anywhere. Their final glimmer of Hope is on March 29, 1968, about six months after Roy's disappearance. That day, the water level at another rock quarry drops and a man working nearby sees a car. It's blue, just like Roy's Buick. But unfortunately, it's not his. That was the end of Benton County's investigation, at least for a while. Roy's brother Walter Benn suspects foul play, but there are rumors that Roy might have gotten fed up with work and left for Florida. Walter doesn't buy it. Roy's not the type to just up and Leave. So he continues searching on his own. He puts up posters all over the United states offering a $500 reward for for finding his brother and another $500 for finding his brother's car. But it doesn't lead anywhere. In the meantime, Walter tries to run Roy's appliance business, but it's too much for him to handle. On June 8, 1968, nine months after Roy's disappearance, Walter sells the contents of the appliance store at auction so he can stop paying taxes on it. But that doesn't mean Walter is giving up on his brother. He wants to hire a professional deep sea diver to probe the bottom of yet another rock quarry. He thinks there are about five or six cars at the bottom and wants their license plate numbers. It's not clear if that search ever happened or not. Walter mentioned he was thinking about it in an interview with the St. Cloud Times, but there was no follow up. Either way, Roy's car wasn't there. So the mystery of his disappearance endures until 1971, when someone comes forward saying they have information on him. That year, an inmate at the St. Cloud Reformatory says he'd helped bury Roy's body. He tells the police where he is and the names of the three other men involved in Roy's murder. After an inmate at the St. Cloud Reformatory says he knows what happened to Roy Benny, Investigators take his claims seriously enough to search the wooded area near Little Rock Lake about a half mile from where Roy was last seen. But they don't find Roy's body, and no arrests are made. This was just one of many tips about Roy Ben throughout the years, but none of them led anywhere over time. Benton County Sheriff Leonard Trushensky claims to develop his own theory, although he never shares it with the public. Other officers assume Roy was murdered for his cash and that he and his car were pushed into a distant, secluded quarry or somewhere else that was hard to access. And without Roy's body or some hint of what happened to him, his loved ones are forced to wait in limbo. In order to declare someone dead, a person must be missing for at least seven years without a body or other compelling evidence. Until then, the person's estate can't go through probate, Their assets can't be distributed, and the life insurance policy cannot be paid out. So Roy's family is forced to wait until eight years after his disappearance when he's declared legally dead by District Court Judge Paul Hoffman. With that, Roy's assets are left to his family. But his story remained unfinished. Until his car was finally discovered in August of this year. And thankfully, there's a lot of evidence inside. Police are surprised that the incredibly rusted and deteriorated vehicle comes out of the water intact, along with human remains. They're too deteriorated to ID Roy right away, so they're sent off to the Midwest Medical Examiner's office. And on September 4, 2025, the medical examiners announced that DNA evidence proves it's Roy. Ben. Unfortunately, they're not able to determine the cause and manner of death, at least not yet. Which means there are still so many questions to answer when it comes to this case. The good news is the Benton County Sheriff's Office is still investigating. Hopefully Roy's remaining relatives will get more answers now that his remains have been found. And we'll bring you all of the major updates as soon as they come in. The next case we're looking at today isn't cold, but it is blood chilling. Between June 2024 and January 22, 2025, a woman named Autumn Bardisa treated 4,486 patients while posing as a nurse without ever obtaining a valid license. This past August, Autumn was arrested and charged with multiple felony charges, including seven counts of practicing health care without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification. As of this recording, she's being held in custody on a $70,000 bond. This case is still developing, and we'll learn more soon in Autumn's first hearing this month. But how did we get here? During her job interview at Advent Health Palm Coast Parkway, a hospital in Northeast Florida, Autumn claimed to be an education first registered nurse. That meant she'd gone to school and passed her classes, but hadn't taken the national licensing exam yet. And it's true that she'd graduated from the Rasmussen University in March 2022 and had taken the exam, but she had failed it. So on July 3, 2023, 27 year old autumn is hired to work as an advanced nurse technician under the supervision of a registered nurse. During the hiring process, she tells the hospital she'd passed her exam and gives them a valid license number. It even matches her first name, but the last name is different. Autumn says she just gotten married and changed her last name, and the hospital wants to be absolutely sure. So they request to see her marriage license for confirmation, But Autumn never shows it to them and it ends up slipping through the cracks. She goes to work every day without arousing Suspicion, and by June 2024, it appears that she's allowed to work without supervision. Autumn even does well enough that in January 2025, she's offered a promotion. The sheriff's office later says this offer led to, quote, interest from her colleagues. One of them looks into Autumn's license, and she realizes that she isn't a registered nurse at all. She is only licensed to be a certified nursing assistant, and it's expired. Her colleague passes this information along to the hospital and they start investigating. And it's not long before they realize that she never gave them a copy of her marriage license like she was supposed to. And on January 22, they fire autumn and refer her case to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office for criminal investigation. After Autumn Bardisa's case is referred to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, the investigation lasts for seven months. They're able to find out that the nurse whose license Autumn allegedly used was one of her nursing school classmates, although they didn't know each other, and that they also worked for the same health provider in Florida, but at different hospitals. So the authorities feel like this is proof that Autumn Bardisa fraudulently posed as a nurse. And the next question is, how many people did she put in harm's way in the process? It takes a while for the Sheriff's office to find out because they have to work with HIPAA laws which protect patients identities. So they have to file the correct subpoenas, which can be a drawn out process. But by the end of it, they come away with A list of 4,486 names of people who Autumn had treated. With that many victims, they worked with the 7th Judicial Circuit of Florida State Attorney's Office to determine the scope of charges. Since Autumn was employed as what the hospital thought was a certified RN for seven months, they settle on one count per month that she worked without proper documentation, which breaks down to seven counts of practicing a healthcare profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification. With charges in hand, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office is able to obtain a warrant. And on August 5, 2025, Autumn is arrested for medical fraud. Ironically, she's wearing scrubs in the video of her arrest because she actually did pass the nursing exam and had been hired by another company. But after she's taken into custody, Autumn is brought to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, where where she is now being held on a $70,000 bond. Her arraignment was set for September 2, and her attorney has filed a not guilty plea on her behalf. Her next court date is set for October 22nd. Thankfully, there was no serious injury or death in this case. In fact, to the police and hospital's knowledge, nobody was hurt at all. But even if no one was hurt, people's lives were still put at risk. Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staley put it well. He said, quote, this woman potentially put thousands of lives at risk by pretending to be someone she was not and violating the trust of patients, their families, Advent Health and an entire medical community. Staley's office is asking potential victims to come forward, which could help with this case, and they've created an email address dedicated to the issue. So if this could be you, make sure to reach out to fakenursecaselaglersheriff.com what did you think of today's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments and follow us at crimehouse247 on TikTok and Instagram and subscribe on YouTube at crimehouse daily for ad free listening. Join crime house plus on Apple podcasts. You stay curious and I'll stay on the case. See you next time.
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