Throwback Thursday: The Boy in the Box Pt. 1

Summary

Crime House 24/7

Episode Summary: Throwback Thursday – The Boy in the Box Pt. 1

Date: August 13, 2026
Host: Vanessa Richardson
Guest Host / Narrator: Carter Roy

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Episode Overview

This gripping “Throwback Thursday” episode reopens the haunting case of “The Boy in the Box,” an unidentified young child found dead on the outskirts of Philadelphia in 1957. The show chronicles the discovery, the initial investigation, the enduring mystery, and the relentless efforts of law enforcement and private individuals to solve one of America’s most chilling cold cases. The episode captures the frustration, heartbreak, and drive for justice that have surrounded the story for nearly seven decades.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Discovery of the Boy in the Box

(Starts at 00:50)

• Frederick Bonones, 26, found the body on February 25, 1957, while walking through a wooded area off Susquehanna Road, Philadelphia.
  • He originally claimed he was checking rabbit traps but was known for possibly spying on a nearby girls’ home.
  • When he opened a battered cardboard box, he first thought he’d found a doll, but realized it was a naked, bruised young boy—curled beneath a plaid blanket.
  • Bonones was so frightened he left the scene and initially did not report it, eventually telling a priest, who urged him to go to the police the following day.
• Officer Elmer Palmer responded to the call, finding the boy just as described. The boy was estimated to be four or five years old, naked and bruised, and the crime scene had already been disturbed by weather and time.

“At first, it just looked like trash... when he did, he saw something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.”
— Carter Roy (04:00)

2. Early Investigation & Forensic Findings

(Starts at 03:24)

• The box had promising clues:
  • Serial number and markings indicating it once held a baby’s bassinet from a nearby J.C. Penney.
  • A man’s cap from Eagle Hat and Cap Company, stamped and traceable to a local shop.
  • The plaid blanket the boy was wrapped in.
• The medical examiner’s autopsy revealed:
  • The boy was between 4–6 years old, small for his age, malnourished, with multiple bruises.
  • Cause of death: blunt force trauma.
  • Unusual features: never been to a dentist, recently bathed, crudely cut hair (likely to obscure identity), neat nails, and surgical scars suggesting prior medical care.
• Despite the clues, the boy had no dental, birth, or hospital records; no fingerprints matched any in state databases.

“The boy was small, just 3’3” tall and barely 30 pounds... most unsettling of all, the medical examiner determined his cause of death was blunt force trauma.”
— Carter Roy (07:47)

“Every search came back empty. It was like the boy had never existed at all, and whoever had killed him made sure his identity could never be discovered.”
— Carter Roy (10:43)

3. Following the Physical Evidence

(Starts at 14:44)

• Hat: Traced to a local shop, where a blonde man in his 20s had a custom order. Despite canvassing 143 local businesses, no further leads materialized.
• Box: From J.C. Penney, traced to 12 bassinets sold locally, but only eight purchasers could be accounted for; the remaining four couldn’t be tracked.
• Blanket: Traced to two possible manufacturers (North Carolina & Quebec), but distributed widely—rendering the trace inconclusive.
• Police made a desperate bid for public help:
  • Newspapers published the boy’s photo.
  • Detectives posed the child’s body, clothed, to make him more recognizable, distributing 400,000 flyers nationwide.
  • Over 10 states’ residents came to view the body; no one could identify him.
• Theories abounded—a missing New Jersey child, a boy lost to a Long Island abduction—but DNA and physical differences ruled them all out.

“They asked the city morgue to open its doors... Visitors came from 10 different states. Some said he looked like a child who had gone missing… None of it led them any closer to the boy.”
— Carter Roy (19:30)

4. Case Goes Cold & The Birth of a Legend

(Starts at 21:30)

• With all leads drying up, the FBI got involved, issuing a bulletin nationwide and searching orphanages, hospitals, and institutions—the boy remained unidentified.
• The boy was buried in a pauper’s grave five months later, still without a name. The grave marker read, “Heavenly Father, bless this unknown boy.”
• The lot where the boy was discovered was built over, and attention faded—though detectives remained personally haunted.

“The boy’s photo was no longer a call to action. It was a symbol of grief and failure… The wooded lot where he was found was bulldozed for new housing… Nature was scrubbed away, and with it, maybe, any remaining clues.”
— Carter Roy (20:08–24:10)

5. Theories, Obsession, and the Persistence of Bristow

(Starts at 27:31)

• Over the years, speculation raged: was he a European refugee, a circus child, or a local boy?
• Remington Bristow, a Philadelphia Medical Examiner investigator, became obsessed with the case, carrying the boy’s death mask with him, driven partly by the loss of his own child.
• Bristow investigated the Nicoletti foster home, suspecting the boy was the illegitimate son of the Nicolettis’ daughter; a bassinet found at their estate sale matched the J.C. Penney model. Yet, police were unconvinced, and the theory never stuck.
• Bristow’s obsession never waned. He filed reports, urged interviews, and compiled evidence until his own death in 1993.
• The boy’s grave became a site of devotion for detectives, and the term “America’s Unknown Child” replaced the stark “Boy in the Box.”

“His devotion to the case bordered on manic... When he passed away in 1993 at 72 years old, he was still convinced that the answer lay with that foster family.”
— Carter Roy (32:32)

6. Prelude to Breakthrough

(Ends at 34:45)

• Despite the shifting of times and the fading of leads, new players would eventually reignite the investigation, ultimately uncovering the boy’s name decades later—teased for the next episode.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the initial shock and horror:

  “Initially, Frederick thought it was a doll. Then he looked closer... that’s when he realized it was the small, naked body of a young boy curled under a plaid blanket, unmoving.”
  — Carter Roy (04:08)

• On the investigative dead ends:

  “Every promising lead got snuffed out. Every seemingly obvious clue ended up going nowhere... It was time to bury him.”
  — Carter Roy (20:58)

• On Bristow’s obsession:

  “He kept [the death mask] in his briefcase at all times, as if the constant reminder might help him solve the puzzle.”
  — Carter Roy (31:10)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:50: Setting the stage – the discovery in 1957
• 03:24: Details of the crime scene and initial police response
• 07:47: Autopsy and clues from the medical examination
• 14:44: Deep dive into the hat, box, and blanket leads
• 19:30: Massive public appeal, flyers, and failed identification attempts
• 21:30: Case goes cold, the burial, and the legend begins
• 27:31: Popular theories and the impact of the case on Remington Bristow
• 34:45: Close of the episode; preview of the forensic breakthrough to come

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Conclusion

Part 1 of “The Boy in the Box” delivers an immersive and comprehensive account of an unsolved tragedy that baffled Philadelphia—and America—for decades. Through evocative storytelling and detailed recounting of the investigation, listeners are drawn into the emotional and procedural labyrinth, while the episode honors both the victim and the relentless pursuit of the truth. Stay tuned for Part 2, which promises to explore the case’s late-breaking forensic advances and continued search for justice.

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Transcript

[Vanessa Richardson]

Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Are you the type to fall down an Internet rabbit hole and not come up for hours? You'll love Crimes of Reddit, a new Crime House original with Sabrina, Diana Roga and Alexis Linklater. Every week, one host brings real, true crime stories from Reddit, while the other reacts completely blind. No prep, no spoilers. Then they swap. It's the feeling of sending your group chat a thread at 2am that starts with you have to see this. Except Sabrina and Alexis are in the chat with you. Follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or subscribe@c Crimesofreddit pod on YouTube.

[Carter Roy]

This is Crime House

[Vanessa Richardson]

February 1957. A young boy, naked and bruised, curled inside a cardboard box on the outskirts of Philadelphia. No one reported him missing. No one came forward to claim him. Investigators had clues a shipping label, a hat, a plaid blanket. And still every lead ran cold. Welcome to crime house 24 7. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Twice a day, every day, we bring you the best, most timely and gripping cases from across the entire Crime House network, all in one place right here. And every Thursday is a throwback where we reopen a chilling case from before the age of DNA, a crime that's haunted us for generations. Today we're opening the file on the Boy in the Box, and this case is still moving. Decades after the boy was found, a forensic breakthrough finally gave him a name, and the investigation into who killed him and why remains open. With detectives and advocates still pushing for answers, this community exists because of listeners like you want even more. Join Crime House plus for every episode of Crime House 24.7ad free. Not only that, but you'll get complete access to an exclusive limited series every month and early ad free access to all Crime House shows and bonus episodes. Go to crimehouseplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. Tap try free at the top of the crime house 24. Seven page now. Carter Roy takes us back to the winter morning a stranger stumbled upon a child the world couldn't identify and the painstaking investigation that followed.

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[Carter Roy]

Exactly. Inexplicably good offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. It was February 25, 1957. 26 year old Frederick Bonones was walking through a patch of trees just off Susquehanna Road in northeast Philadelphia, a narrow rural stretch surrounded by empty lots and tall grass. He claimed he was checking rabbit traps, though there was a good chance he was actually trying to peek into a nearby home for girls. The police had recently warned him to stop spying on them. Whether or not Frederick was heeding the officer's advice, he never made it to the girl's home that day because as he was walking along, he noticed a large cardboard box lying just off the road. It appeared damp and beat up from the weather. At first, it just looked like trash. Discarded packaging from a department store, maybe. Still, for some reason, Frederick was compelled to look inside. And when he did, he saw something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Initially, Frederick thought it was a doll. Then he looked closer. That's when he realized it was the small, naked body of a young boy curled under a plaid blanket, unmoving. Frederick was so spooked, he took off. And even when he got home, he didn't call the police. He probably didn't want them asking why he was near the girl's home again. But as much as he tried to forget about his discovery, the image of the dead boy shook him to his core. A day later, on February 26, Frederick confided in a priest about what he'd seen. The priest urged him to make a report. Thankfully, he finally did. When the tip reached the police, officer Elmer Palmer responded. He arrived at the crime scene that day and found the boy just as Frederick had described, naked, bruised, still wrapped in a blanket. He couldn't have been more than four or five. Palmer felt sick to his stomach. He was a husband and father. He couldn't imagine something like this happening to his own child. But Palmer reminded himself he had a job to do. So he tamped down his emotions and started looking around. By then, several Days had passed since the boy was discovered, and the elements had wreaked havoc on the crime scene. Even so, Palmer was confident he'd crack the case in no time. Especially because there were multiple clues lying out in plain sight. The box the boy had been left in had a serial number and markings that read, furniture fragile. Do not open with knife. The shipping label showed it had once contained a baby's bassinet sold at a department store just a few miles away. Surely it could be traced. Nearby, a man's cap had been discarded. It was stamped with the logo of a small local business called the Eagle Hat and Cap Company. And then there was the blanket. If none of the other evidence panned out, they could examine it and see if it led anywhere. Still, Palmer didn't think they'd even need to track down leads, because at the end of the day, this was a child. A very young child. Someone, somewhere, had to be missing him. There was no doubt in Palmer's mind that someone would step forward and claim him right away. But first, they needed to learn more about the boy. After scouring the scene, Palmer brought the boy straight to the morgue, where the medical examiner performed a full autopsy. The investigators hope for quick answers, something to give the boy a name or at least clarify what had happened to him. Instead, the mystery deepened. The boy was small, just 3ft 3 inches tall and barely 30 pounds. The coroner estimated he was somewhere between 4 and 6 years old when he died. And there were clear signs of abuse. Not only was he malnourished, but his body was covered in bruises. Most unsettling of all, the medical examiner determined his cause of death was blunt force trauma. Back at the scene, detectives had assumed he'd died of illness or by accident. By now, it was clear he'd been murdered. And that wasn't the only shocking discovery the coroner made. Besides being malnourished, the boy seemed to have been neglected in other ways, too. He'd never been to a dentist, and his hair had been crudely cut either just before or after his death. Stray clippings were still stuck to his body. It seemed like someone might have tried to disguise his identity. On the other hand, his fingernails were neatly trimmed, and there were signs he'd recently been bathed. Then there were the scars. One under the chin, one near the groin, and one on the ankle. They looked medical, possibly from minor surgeries. To detectives, it didn't add up. It seemed like someone had cared enough about the boy to keep him well groomed and pay for his medical needs. But was it possible that the same person or persons were responsible for his murder. None of this helped detectives learn when the boy had been killed or left in the woods. Cold weather slows decomposition, and they had no way of knowing how long the boy had been exposed to the elements. The medical examiner's best guess was a few days, but it could have been much longer than that. The only real clue that came from the autopsy was the boy's surgical scars. So detectives started canvassing hospitals and medical establishments. They showed the boy's image to every doctor and nurse they could find, hoping someone might recognize a scar or birthmark. But no one did, and there were no medical records that seemed to match his surgeries. Still, investigators were hopeful. They took footprints and matched them against birth records from area hospitals. They lifted fingerprints and ran them through state databases. Surely this child had been born somewhere. He must have lived somewhere. But every search came back empty. It was like the boy had never existed at all, and whoever had killed him made sure his identity could never be discovered.

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[Carter Roy]

the bruised, lifeless body of a young boy was discovered in a cardboard box on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Initially, detectives thought the case would be open and shut, but after an autopsy raised more questions than answers, the investigation continued with no end in sight. Later that month, the case was assigned to an investigator named R.A. remington Bristow. Bristow was 35 years old, working the night shift at the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office when he first heard about the boy in the box. Bristow had seen plenty of unidentified bodies come across his desk but this one got under his skin. Years earlier, Bristow had lost his daughter to sudden infant death. Death syndrome. Now here was another child, gone far too soon. But this boy was unnamed, unloved, and discarded like trash. It broke Bristow's heart, and he couldn't let go of it. He and his fellow investigators still hoped that someone would come forward to claim the boy or report him missing. But if not, there were so many clues at the crime scene, they were certain they could untangle his past. The first piece of evidence they looked at was the hat that had been discarded near the box. It was a men's royal blue corduroy cap found lying in the brush about 15ft away. It was simple, with a leather strap and buckle, but what made it stand out was the label Eagle Hat and Cap Company. Detectives traced the hat to a nearby store where the owner actually remembered the man she'd sold it to. She said he'd come into the shop in May 1956, nearly a year before the boy was discovered. He was blonde, mid to late 20s, dressed in work clothes and alone. He spoke without an accent and didn't seem unusual in any way. He'd asked her to customize the cap with a strap and buckle, and she'd sewn it on herself. Afterwards, he paid in cash and left. He never gave his name, and he never came back. Police fanned out across the city with a sketch of the hat and a photo of the boy. They canvassed 143 businesses and stores in the area, but no one remembered anything. Not about the hats, the man, or the boy. So Bristow and his team moved on to the cardboard box angle, the one marked furniture fragile, do not open with knife. It turned out it had once contained a white baby bassinet and was sold by J.C. penney. Investigators traced it to a specific branch about 15 miles away from the crime scene. After speaking to the manager, detectives learned the store had sold 12 of the bassinets between December 1956 and February 1957. Each box had a serial number. But there was a small problem. J.C. penney had a policy of only accepting cash at the time, which made tracking down buyers difficult. So police put out calls in local newspapers asking for any customers to come forward. Eight of them did. Some of them still had their boxes. Others explained when and where they'd thrown theirs away. It was helpful to a degree. Local trash collectors told police their loads would have been incinerated by that point. If the boxes were thrown out, there was no double checking them now, as for the other four boxes, detectives were never able to track down who'd bought them. But as far as they could tell, none of the buyers were connected to the boy. Which left detectives with one final clue. The blanket the boy had been wrapped in. It was flannel, checkered with faded geometric patterns in rust, green, and blue. Investigators sent it to the Philadelphia Textile Institute for analysis. They traced it to one of two manufacturers in North Carolina and Quebec, Canada. But both companies produced these blankets in massive quantities, and the ones sold in the US Were widely distributed. There was no way to pinpoint where this one had come from. It seemed like each clue raised hopes, only to come to a dead end. Still, Bristow wasn't giving up, and before long, he got some help from the media. Within days of the discovery, the press gave the child a nickname, the Boy in the Box. His face was printed in newspapers across Philadelphia, alongside public pleas for information. The Philadelphia Inquirer published a front page black and white image of the child's face with a caption that read, do you know this child? They got no useful tips. After weeks of treading water, detectives took it a step further. In a desperate attempt to jog someone's memory, detectives propped the boy's body into a sitting position, dressed him in typical children's clothing, and photographed him again, this time to look more lifelike. It was a haunting image. A small boy in corduroys and a sweater, sitting upright, as though he might speak. Police printed 400,000 flyers with that photo and distributed them around the country. Even then, no one came forward. Feeling hopeless, detectives made an unusual request. They asked the city morgue to open its doors. They hoped that if they'd let citizens come and see the boy in person, someone might recognize him. Visitors came from 10 different states. Some said he looked like a child who had gone missing from their neighborhood, or others were convinced he was a relative. One man claimed the boy was the illegitimate child of a New Jersey man named Charles Spiess. Police tracked Spiess down, along with his very much alive son. Another tip came from a Marine who claimed the child was one of his 17 siblings. He wasn't. A few people suggested the boy could be Stephen D. Damen, a toddler who was abducted from a Long island grocery store two years earlier. Stephen was blonde, the right age and weight, and had a similar scar under his chin that also turned out to be a dead end. The boy in the box didn't have a freckle on his right calf like Steven did, and there wasn't any evidence he'd broken his left arm like Stephen had. When DNA testing became available years later, the theory would get ruled out completely. Every promising lead got snuffed out. Every seemingly obvious clue ended up going nowhere. The boy had no dental records, no fingerprints in any system, no hospital or birth record to be found. He didn't seem to exist on paper at all. Soon, detectives began to wonder. Was it really an accident that the child was anonymous? Or was it intentional? After nearly a month of trying to figure it out, the Philadelphia police had to admit they needed help. On March 17, 1957, the FBI got involved in the case. They issued a bulletin that went out across all 50 states. The boy's medical profile was circulated through the American Medical association, and Philadelphia. Police continued searching orphanages, hospitals and child care institutions. Anywhere that a missing child might have been able to slip through the cracks. None of it led them any closer to the boy. Before long, the case that seemed like a slam dunk began to go cold. The boy's photo was no longer a call to action. It was a symbol of grief and failure. The newspapers stopped writing about him. Detectives got reassigned, and leads stopped coming in. Authorities finally came to the conclusion that no one was coming to claim the little boy. It was time to bury him. But first, the medical examiner's office created a death mask of the boy. It was a complete three dimensional likeness of the face that they could always refer back to in the future. Eventually, five months after the boy was found, on July 24, 1957, detectives carried his tiny body to a pauper's grave in Philadelphia. The site was reserved for the city's unclaimed dead. A local man donated a headstone. It read, heavenly Father, bless this unknown boy. And just as he was laid to rest, it seemed like his case was too. The wooded lot where he was found was bulldozed for new housing. Susquehanna Road was paved and widened. The dirt trail was replaced by driveways. Nature was scrubbed away, and with it, maybe, any remaining clues. Still, the boy's memory lingered. For those detectives who'd seen his face, it gnawed at them. They couldn't shake the feeling that something was being hidden, that someone had gotten away with murder. Eventually, it became a kind of legend. The boy no one claimed and the case no one could solve. But that didn't mean they wouldn't keep trying.

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[Carter Roy]

After the boy in the box was discovered in February 1957, the investigation into his identity and his killer kicked in high gear. But after several years of dead ends and little to no leads, the case slowed to a standstill. And in the place of answers, the public put forward their own theories about the boy. Some believed he was a Hungarian refugee, one of thousands of displaced children who'd come to the US after a 1956 uprising in the country. One local newspaper had published a photo of a young Hungarian boy who looked almost identical to the boy in the box. If they were the same person, it would explain why the boy's footprints hadn't matched any birth records. Because they wouldn't have been taken in America. They would have been recorded in Hungary. Detectives followed up on the lead. They checked over 11,000 Hungarian passports, but none were a match. Others wondered if the boy belonged to a traveling circus or carnival family. A few workers had reportedly lost children under suspicious circumstances. Eventually, those children were also ruled out. As the years passed and the leads dried up, the authorities gave up hope of ever identifying the boy. Except for one man who refused to Take no for an answer. Remington Bristow, the investigator from the medical examiner's office, had been haunted by the case ever since it came across his desk. He'd papered the walls of his office with newspaper clippings and photos of the boy, and somehow he'd even managed to get the only plaster death mask of the child. He kept it in his briefcase at all times, as if the constant reminder might help him solve the puzzle. Bristow spent nights, weekends, and thousands of dollars of his own money on research. By all accounts, his devotion to the case bordered on manic. But Bristow didn't care. And in 1961, four years after the boy was found, Remington believed he was finally close to getting an answer. Like other detectives facing a hopeless case, Bristow was willing to do anything to crack this mystery, even consulting a psychic. The seer described a vision of a large stone house not far from where the boy's body had been found. It turned out the description matched a home that belonged to Arthur and Catherine Nicoletti, a couple who fostered kids. Usually they had about six or so in their care, but occasionally they had as many as two dozen at a time. Police had already visited the home during the initial investigation, but they had rumored ruled out any connection. Now Bristow wanted to double check their work. He tracked down former residents of the home. He pored over old statements, looking for clues that the boy had lived there. And then, shortly after speaking with the psychic, he was driving around the neighborhood when he saw an advertisement for an estate sale at the Nicoletti's home. It felt like fate. He showed up, and that's where he found it. A bassinet nearly identical to the one sold in the JCPenney box that had carried the boy's body. From there, Bristow began to shape a theory. He believed the boy had been the illegitimate son of the foster couple's unwed daughter, that he may have died accidentally, and the family, fearing scandal, got rid of his body in secret. To Bristow, even the child's appearance seemed to support this. His nails had been freshly trimmed. His hair had been cut. He believed that someone was taking care of him, maybe right up until the moment they let him die. Bristow shared his theory with fellow Philadelphia detective William Kelly, who'd been at the crime scene in 1957 and was also deeply invested in the case. But unlike Bristowe, Kelly wasn't convinced. He saw several holes in the theory, and he also saw how caught up Bristow was in the search for answers. In Kelly's opinion, Bristow was getting too emotionally invested. And while he couldn't rule out the possibility of the foster family entirely, he wasn't jumping on Bristow's bandwagon either, which meant Bristowe had to look elsewhere for support. He clung to his belief for decades and cataloged every scrap of evidence he could find. By 1985, nearly 30 years after the boy was discovered, he submitted a detailed report to the Philadelphia police. He pleaded with department officials to do another, more thorough interview of Arthur Nicoletti and to locate the daughter in question. Even when the department refused, Bristow didn't give up. When he passed away in 1993 at 72 years old, he was still convinced that the answer lay with that foster family. And he wasn't the only one who kept thinking about the boy in the box. Over the years, Bristow's fellow officers became the boy's family, visiting his grave on birthdays and anniversaries. They planted flowers and tended the site, keeping the boy's story from vanishing completely. By then, the child had a new name in the press, America's Unknown Child. It was used instead of the Boy in the Box moniker to soften the horror of what happened to him. He was the country's first child doe, a term now used for unidentified minors found dead without documentation or history. Currently, the national center for Missing and Exploited Children is assisting with more than 635 cases of unidentified children's remains. Some will remain nameless forever. Others are slowly beginning to get their names back. The Boy in the Box would turn out to be one of them, because after decades of silence, a group of unlikely sleuths decided to take on the case. And they wouldn't give up until they got the answers Bristow was looking for.

[Vanessa Richardson]

Thanks for listening to this episode of Crime House 24. 7. Be sure to check out our second episode on the Boy in the Box, dropping later today. And to enhance your listening experience, join Crime House plus and get every episode of Crime House 24.7 completely ad free, along with early ad free access to all Crime House shows plus monthly bonus episodes. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the crime house 24. Seven page.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

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