A (0:00)

One night In December of 2009, a man dug through a pile of papers and photo albums inside of an RV parked in Texas. This man had recently bought the trailer after its previous owner had died, and it was full of junk that he was now trying to sort through. As the man rifled through documents, he stumbled upon a stack of old notebooks. And he opened one and began reading it. And as he did, he felt his heartbeat pick up. Because these notebooks were actually diaries and they were full of handwritten rantings about demons, monsters, and this deal with the devil. But that really was not what scared this guy. What really scared him was at some point, discovering the writer's horrifying confession. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, if you please replace the follow button's shampoo with motor oil. Okay, let's get into today's story.

B (1:22)

Mazda. Once you discovered the Mazda CX5 Mazda, it doesn't take long to get it. With standard all wheel drive, a premium interior and advanced safety features, it's an SUV that gives you more at every turn. It will have you saying Mazda, the Mazda CX5. It's made to move you.

A (1:40)

Every Mazda SUV offers you an elevated driving experience and refined performance. Discover it at your local Mazda dealer today.

C (1:51)

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well, from roof repair to emergency plumbing and more done well. So the next time you have a home project, leave it to the pros. Get started@angie.com.

A (2:11)

On the night of July 24, 1987, 30 year old Susan woods stood at the entrance to a local fair in a little city called Hico, located located in central Texas. Along with her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend. And the three of them were standing there trying to decide if they wanted to continue to stay here or leave. Now as they're standing there, they can hear people having fun on all the rides. There's kids laughing and they're screaming. I mean, it's a Friday night. They had chosen to come here. This was the activity. But you know, so far the night had really not been that great. So Susan's best friend, whose name was Cindy Hallmark, and and her boyfriend, whose name was Roy Hayes, had convinced Susan to come out with them and come to this fair because Susan's life of late had been really quite bad. She was in the middle of this very ugly divorce and the new guy that she was dating had sort of wound up being very pushy when it came to physical intimacy. And so she had recently dumped him too. And so, you know, Susan's life, certainly her relationships anyways, were sort of in rough shape. And so Cindy and Roy had convinced Susan to come out with them and just, at least for one night, come enjoy this fair. Just forget about everything else and just come have some fun. And so Susan had agreed to go. However, sort of ironically, once they actually got to the fair and the three of them were walking around and playing games and going into the haunted house and doing all the things you do at the fair, it had been Cindy, not Susan, who had ultimately said that they weren't really having a good time, that they were feeling kind of bad. Cindy said that she just had this really intense feeling that something bad was about to happen. It was like this constant anxiety and she couldn't shake it and it was making it really hard to enjoy the night. And so that was why the trio is, you know, standing at the gate wondering if it's even worth staying here any longer. And ultimately Roy finally just said, you know what, why don't we just leave and head back to Stephenville? That's where they all lived. It's where they grew up too. And he said, why don't we go back to Stephenville and we'll just drive around for a bit and eventually we'll go to the Dairy Queen restaurant and we'll get some ice cream. And when Roy suggested this, both Susan and Cindy thought that was a great idea. And so they left. They hopped in Roy's truck and they began the drive back to Stephenville. About an hour and a half later, Susan, Cindy and Roy walked into the Stephenville Dairy Queen. They ordered ice cream sundaes and then sat down at a booth. By this point, Cindy's feeling of dread, you know, that something bad was going to happen, had mostly gone away. And so the mood was much lighter. And Susan especially was actually having kind of a great night, you know, the first in a long time. It felt like the last six months or so had been some of the worst in Susan's entire life. Her ex husband, Michael woods, who she had been with since she was in her early 20s, had effectively abandoned her back in February, taking her car and also some expensive crystals that she had collected. And he had left behind a viciously mean tape recording of all the things he hated about her, along with dozens of cruel notes with insults on them hidden all over the place. And so Susan had filed for divorce. And then instead of trying to get her car back from her husband, who was long gone, she just began doing a ton of overtime at the sandpaper factory in order to afford another car. And so in these few months immediately following the. The breakup with her ex and all this extra work she was doing, Susan had really fallen into a deep depression. But it had been Cindy and Roy who had helped kind of pull herself back together. Susan was naturally very shy, and she did not have a big social circle. But Cindy, on the other hand, was very extroverted, had a ton of friends and a lot of close cousins. And so she had persuaded Susan to begin coming to their regular meetups with all her friends and cousins. The core group that typically attended these meetups was Cindy, Roy, Cindy's cousins Regina and Scott Hatley, and then maybe one or two others. And collectively, they referred to themselves as the members of the roundtable. Because often these meetups consisted of just spending the whole night sitting around Cindy's round kitchen table, talking and drinking. The first time Susan had gone, it had seemed like such a tight knit group that she really just kind of felt like a third wheel and did not belong. But everyone had really treated her like she did belong. And these days, she did not miss a meetup because this was like her new community. It really made her happy. And so slowly but surely, Susan had begun to feel better, largely because of these meetups. And so now, as she looked across the table at Cindy jokingly trying to force feed Roy all this ice cream, you know, Susan just smiled. Roy was this big guy, but he was losing the fight, and he had chocolate sauce all over his chin. They were just kind of goofing around. She just thought to herself, you know what? Tonight was a great night. My life, it's turning around. And suddenly she had an idea. Susan stood up from the table, and without saying anything, she walked up to the counter, and she promptly ordered a second hot fudge sundae. And when she carried it back over to the table with a big grin on her face, Cindy and Roy kind of looked at her surprised, you know, and were kind of impressed even, which was exactly the reaction that Susan was hoping for. Normally, Susan was very conscious of her weight and wouldn't even finish one Sunday. But tonight she just felt like, you know what? I have been set free. I'm just gonna have fun. But unfortunately for Susan, the ice cream sundaes were really the Last fun thing she got to enjoy that entire weekend because she spent all day Saturday on the line at the sandpaper factory where she worked. And then all day Sunday she was grocery shopping, doing laundry and straightening up the house. By about 8pm Sunday night, she had put away all of her laundry. She had made the bed and picked up the last few items off the bedroom floor. Her house was small, but it was finally starting to feel like hers again. When her ex husband Michael had first left, even though he had gone a thousand miles away to Indiana, she had felt afraid in her house, like he might suddenly come back. And so she'd actually had Cindy sleep over her house for a while to help her feel safe. And also she asked Roy to literally nail all her windows shut. But despite fortifying her living space, what Susan couldn't escape from were all these awful little notes that Michael had left behind and hidden all over the house. All these awful messages just basically telling Susan all these terrible things about her and how much he hated her. She kept finding them all the time. But as of right now, the house was neat and tidy. And Susan by this point believed she had found, you know, almost every note, or certainly close to every note. So to celebrate, Susan headed over to the couch and sat down and turned on the tv. Her plan was just to watch a couple of shows and just enjoy the peace and quiet and then go to bed because tomorrow she would have to get up early for work. As she was sitting there flipping through the channels, trying to figure out what she wanted to watch, she heard a knock on the front door. If your idea of a good night is getting lost in a dark documentary or a twisted true crime series or a wild mystery, you can't stop watching. Well, Philo is your next obsession. Philo offers an accessible way to stream live and on demand TV. With one simple affordable subscription. For just $33 a month, you get over 70 channels plus access to HBO, Max Basic. With ads, AMC and Discovery. You can stream standout new series like the Pit or Welcome to Derry or Flight Risk and the Secret Order. True crime fans can dive into the cult of the Real Housewife, American Monster and the Murder Tapes. With unlimited DVR and the ability to skip ads, Philo makes it easy to catch all of the cults, thrillers and mysteries that you love. HBO Max is also the place for blockbuster movies that complement Philo's must see tv. There's no contract, so you can cancel anytime, but with all this to stream, you probably won't want to. Philo is where all the best TV comes together sign up now at Philo TV. This is an ad by BetterHelp. If I'm being honest, one thing I'm definitely letting go of in 2026 is just trying to carry everything myself. Somewhere along the way, I convinced myself that I had to keep every plate spinning perfectly. Well, not anymore. I'm setting that down and I'm stepping into the New Year a whole lot lighter. The New year is your opportunity to feel lighter too, and you don't have to become a new person to do it. Signing up for therapy with BetterHelp can shine a light on what's been weighing you down and illuminate possibilities for the year ahead. BetterHelp handles the initial therapist matching work for you, and if your match is not the right fit, switching to a different therapist is easy. Let BetterHelp provide you an unbiased perspective on your life so you can head into the New year taking only what truly serves you. You can't step into a lighter version of yourself without leaving behind what's been weighing you down. Therapy can help you clear space. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com MrBallPod that's betterhelp.com MrBallPod. Two days later, at 6pm on the afternoon of July 28, Susan's father, Joe Atkins, at home when his phone rang and when he picked it up it was Susan's manager at the sandpaper factory, which was weird. The manager told him that he was calling because Susan had not shown up to work for the past two days and nobody could get a hold of her and so he was wondering if Joe knew where she was. Joe frowned and said no, he didn't know, but he would go find out. He hung up and he immediately dialed Susan's number and when she didn't answer, he didn't think twice. He just put the phone down, grabbed his keys, hurried out to his truck and started driving towards Susan's place. A half an hour later, Joe pulled up outside of Susan's house and he went up to her front door and when he knocked, nobody answered, but he could hear the TV on inside and when he tried the doorknob he found the door was unlocked. He opened the door up a little bit and he poked his head inside and he called his daughter's name but he didn't get a response so he stepped all the way inside. The house was basically clean except there were snacks out on the coffee table and the TV was still on and it was on pretty loud, but also there were some Cigarettes that had been burned out in an ashtray on the coffee table. And Joe knew his daughter didn't smoke. And so at this point, everything told him, something is wrong. So Joe walked through the living room and into his daughter's bedroom. And his daughter was not in there. But the bed was a mess. The sheets and the bedding had all been ripped off and were sitting in a heap on the floor. And the mattress itself was hanging off the box spring. Joe was about to leave and search the rest of the house when he noticed the bathroom door in the bedroom was open. Joe forced himself to step toward the door, and as he did, his heart began to hammer in his chest. And then when he leaned around the door and looked inside the bathroom, he just froze. For what felt like a very long time, but was very likely only a few seconds. Joe didn't move or breathe. Then it's like he broke out of his fog. He stumbled backwards. He ran to the living room, grabbed the phone, and he called 911. Sergeant Donnie Hensley of the Stephenville Police Department had just gotten home after a pretty long shift when he got a call from dispatch to head back out again. A homicide had just been called in, and every available officer had to head to the scene right away. The dispatcher did not have many details, but they did know that the victim was a young woman and that she had been found by her father inside of her home. When Hensley got to the address, he found there was an ambulance there and a couple of fire trucks and police cars and a whole bunch of police officers that were already out and about stringing up crime scene tape. But he also saw someone that he was not expecting to see. It was a friend of his, a guy he knew who volunteered at the town's golf course. His name was Joe Atkins. So he walked over and he asked Joe, like, hey, what are you doing here? But the instant he asked that question, and when Joe turned around to look at him, Hensley understood why he was here. He suddenly remembered that Joe had a daughter. And based on the look on Joe's face, clearly his daughter was the murder victim. Joe had found her. Hensley was a hardened detective who had been to plenty of crime scenes by this point, and he had seen some terrible things. But the pure grief on his friend's face was too much for him to bear. He knew there was nothing he could do to take Joe's pain away. So instead, without saying anything, Ensley took Joe's hands. And the two men just stood there and prayed. And then, after a Few minutes, he let go of Joe's hands, and then he turned and walked up Susan's front steps to begin the search for her killer. The crime scene unit was already inside of Susan's home, hard at work, by the time Detective Hensley walked through the front door. A supervisor walked over and brought Hensley up to speed. They told him that Susan's body was in the bathroom, and from the looks of it, she'd been dead for a while. The front door had been unlocked, and there was no sign of forced entry, which suggested that Susan may have let her kill her inside. Detectives were now dividing up the house into quadrants to examine each part of the crime scene. And Hensley would be working primarily in the bedroom. But the supervisor warned Hensley that the crime itself was incredibly brutal, likely bordering on torture, and he should just mentally prepare himself. Hensley nodded, and for a moment, he just stood there and collected himself and took stock of the scene. He looked over at the coffee table in the living room, and he saw it was covered with snacks, including a bag of potato chips, a pack of Twinkies, and an open Coke can. And there was an ashtray with six cigarette butts inside of looked like more food and more cigarettes than one person would reasonably consume. And so maybe Susan had had company. But otherwise, the house was clean and pretty unremarkable, except for one thing that took Hensley a minute to notice. And what it was is all the windows were nailed shut from the inside. Susan clearly must have been scared of somebody breaking in. And so naturally, Hensley wondered if maybe the person she was scared of breaking in was the same person who wound up killing her. But if that was the case, why had she apparently opened the door for this person? At this point, Hensley moved into the bedroom, and as soon as he did, he could tell there had to have been a struggle in here because the mattress was hanging off the box spring, the sheets had been pulled off, and they were heaped up on the floor, and there were all these scuff marks on the floor that suggested the bed very likely had been moved, dragged around inside of the room. There was also a white extension cord lying on the mattress. And also there was this pillow that had all these strange black smudges on it. Hensley walked over and looked at this pillowcase, trying to figure out what the smudges could be. And then he realized it was mascara. The pillow must have been held over Susan's face to suffocate her. But when Hensley walked into the bathroom and saw what was in there. Despite the warning he was given about how brutal it was, he still was taken aback and found himself gasping. Susan's body was draped over the side of the tube with her head still in the water. Her hands had been tied behind her back, using the sleeves of her own shirt, but other than that shirt, she was naked. At first glance, it was obvious Susan was dead because her head and shoulders that were underwater were severely decomposed from being in the water. And the water was dark from all the blood. There also were all these streaks of blood on the floor that made it look like Susan had been dragged to the tub. There was also a raw red line across Susan's throat, like she had been strangled by something, perhaps that electrical cord that had been out on the bed. And so at this point, Hensley realized that whoever murdered Susan had likely sexually assaulted her, strangled her, smothered her, and then held her body underwater. I mean, this had been a savage attack committed by a monster. However, Hensley also realized that this monster, whoever had done this, had made at least one mistake, because one of the crime scene techs that was in the bathroom was pointing at the tub with excitement. And when Hensley looked at what they were pointing at, you could see perfectly clearly there was a set of palm prints almost certainly left behind by the killer. The following morning at around 10am Sergeant Hensley walked into the Stephenville police station and promptly filled up a paper cup from the bullpen water cooler and drank it down. It was over 90 degrees outside, and he had just spent all morning and a lot of the previous night canvassing the neighborhood where Susan had been murdered. But despite all their efforts, they really hadn't gotten much. Susan had been found on Tuesday, but nobody had reported seeing her on Tuesday or the Monday before or the Sunday before, which left a window of three days for this murder to have taken place. One of Susan's neighbors did remember seeing a, quote, large framed man park his truck near Susan's house on Sunday night. But that described a lot of the men in Stephenville, so that didn't really narrow anything down. Now, the police chief had not yet assigned a lead investigator to Susan's case, but because Sergeant Hensley knew Susan's father personally, he was hoping to stay involved. So after drinking a second cup full of water, Hensley headed down the hall to the chief's office, where he asked to see Susan's autopsy report. The chief secretary handed it over, and Hensley quickly began to thumb through the pages. But he quickly realized there really was almost nothing here that he didn't already know. The report confirmed that Susan had been sexually assaulted, but her body was so decomposed, it was impossible to determine exactly how or when she had died, although the coroner estimated she'd been in the tub for roughly two days. But right at that moment, another investigator named Lieutenant Ken Maltby walked up and grabbed the report right out of Hensley's hands. And before Hensley could protest, Maltby walked back to the bullpen and wrapped his knuckles on a door frame to get everybody's attention. Then Maltby announced that he would be taking over Susan's case. So everybody else, Hensley included, should back off. And Hensley did not like this. Not only because, you know, he had this closeness with Susan's father, but also because he had a feeling that Maltby was only interested in this case because he thought it would help his career. However, Maltby outranked Hensley, and Hensley already had a full caseload of work, so there really was very little he could do here. So with a resigned sigh, he headed back to his desk. Two days later, around 2pm on July 31, Sgt. Hensley stood in the back of a small crowd, sweating through his suit as Susan's casket was lowered into the ground. Hensley was at this funeral really to support Susan's father, Joe, because he was not really a part of the investigation. However, he couldn't help, you know, scanning the mourners, you know, through a detective's lens to see if anybody seemed suspicious. There was a group of people in their 20s and 30s that were standing towards the front, and Hensley assumed they must be Susan's friends. He remembered what one of Susan's neighbors had said about a large framed man, and he looked at all the men, taking note of their size. At the center of the group, there was a blonde woman who was sobbing, and Hensley recognized her as Susan's best friend, Cindy Hallmark, who was leaning on her boyfriend, Roy Hayes. The two of them had actually come to the crime scene by coincidence on the day Susan's body was found. And they had totally broken down when they realized what had happened. But now Hensley was suddenly noticing just how physically enormous Roy was. And so in that moment, Hensley thought to himself, if he was in charge of this case, he knew Roy would be somebody he'd take a close look at. But that was not his decision. But then Hensley noticed that there was actually one person who was conspicuously absent from this funeral, and that was Susan's ex husband, Michael Woods. From what Hensley had heard around the station, nearly all of Susan's friends and family were convinced that it was Michael who was the killer. But there was a problem with this theory. Michael lived a thousand miles away in Indianapolis. And word around the police station was that during that window of time where Susan was murdered, over those three days, Michael was in Indianapolis, and he was around loads of people who would vouch for him being in Indianapolis. Which meant that as far as Hensley knew, there really was no way for Michael to be the killer. And so Hensley just hoped that Lieutenant Maltby had another, better suspect in mind. For the next few weeks, Sergeant Hensley focused on his own cases while still keeping tabs on Susan's. Every couple of days, her dad would call him up and ask why Michael hadn't been arrested yet. And Hensley would always tell him that the case was in good hands and they're working on it. But as the weeks passed by with no arrests, Hensley started to wonder, like, what was going on here? Something needs to happen. Why is nothing happening? Then one day in early October, so roughly two months after Susan's murder, Hensley walked into the bullpen to find Maltby celebrating. Not because of any progress in the case, though, but to celebrate his big promotion. Maltby was going to be the lead of a new narcotics unit, and his open cases that he had been working on were just going to be, you know, given to other investigators or filed away altogether. And so, as Maltby accepted congratulations from other officers and just made a whole scene, all Sergeant Hensley could think was, well, what's going to happen to Susan's case? It could easily fall through the cracks here. And so, without even talking to Maltby, Hensley walked straight to the chief's office and asked to take the case over. The chief shrugged and just said, sure, you're welcome to try, so long as this case does not get in the way of his other work. Hensley agreed and then went to get Susan's file. And then, after he had it in hand, he hurried back to his desk and began rifling through the pages. And he was stunned to find that there was almost nothing in there besides the original autopsy report. And that's when hensley remembered that Lt. Maltby claimed to have this photographic memory, and so he almost never took notes. And so Hensley was basically gonna have to start all over from square one. Let's face it, we all want to eat better, but the meal prepping and planning usually makes that feel impossible. Well, blue apron just fixed that and they did it with a massive twist. No more subscriptions. You heard me right. You can now get chef designed nutrient dense meals delivered right to your door with no subscription needed. Every Blue Apron meal is crafted by chefs and informed by nutrition, striking the perfect balance between delicious flavor and purposeful nourishment. You get the quality you love and you order what you want when you want it. Here's what surprised me. A couple of weeknights ago, my wife and I were both exhausted and Blue Apron gave us actual options instead of another debate over food. We made pasta and meatballs with breadsticks for us and Mac and cheese for the kids and it was all so good. It all tasted like something we planned, not something we rushed through just to get dinner done. Order now@blueapron.com get 50% off your first two orders plus free shipping with code MrBallen50. Terms and conditions apply. Visit blueapron.com terms for more information.