Carter Roy (5:23)

Was Halloween night, 2001. Penn State students crowded the streets around campus in an array of colorful costumes. Girls dressed as Britney Spears and Beyonce mingled with characters from Harry Potter and Shrek. Cindy Song wove through the mob on her way to a party, arm in arm with her friends. She was finally 21, old enough to drink and on the threshold of adulthood. Five years earlier, she'd moved to the US From South Korea to start a new life in the States. It had been a long road, but now she had just one more semester left before she graduated with a graphic arts degree, and she was ready to celebrate. She dressed as a bunny, complete with a set of ears and a cotton tail attached to a white tennis skirt. This was classic Cindy. She wasn't into scary or gruesome costumes. She preferred to look cute, even on a night about fear. Her friends Stacy Paik and Lisa Kim guided Cindy to the Players Nightclub a few blocks from campus. They danced, drank, and let loose. After a busy week of classes. At 2am the bar closed, but Cindy and her crew weren't ready for the party to end. They made their way over to a friend's place to hang out for another couple of hours. By 4 in the morning, the party had finally wound down. Cindy had had some drinks, but she wasn't drunk, just a little buzzed. So she caught a ride home with a friend who was less intoxicated. The friend dropped Cindy off outside her apartment complex and watched her go inside. It was the last time anyone would see Cindy's song. The next day, her friends texted her but didn't hear back. They figured she was just busy or sleeping in after their big night out. Her roommates noticed she was gone, but assumed she was crashing with friends. But after a full day had passed with no word, Cindy's friends started to worry. It wasn't like her to go radio silent. Still, there was no reason to panic just yet. Cindy was an incredibly responsible person. They assumed that if she wasn't responding to their calls, there was probably a good reason. But three days after the party on November 3, things were looking different. Cindy missed a shift at the Seoul Garden Korean restaurant where she worked. That was a major red flag. She never missed work. Her friends flooded her phone with calls. When she still didn't answer, they drove over to her place. That's when they learned her roommates hadn't seen her in days. Her friends decided right then and there to call the police and file a missing persons report. Detectives started their investigation by searching Cindy's apartment. At first glance, nothing seemed out of place. All of Cindy's stuff, including her backpack and cell phone, were still in her room. She'd already registered for next semester's classes and had tickets to an upcoming Britney Spears concert. Investigators were baffled. This did not look like someone who'd run away. They took a few items, along with her private diary, into evidence. But just before they left, detectives realized there were a few key items missing. Cindy's keys and her purse, including all of her credit cards, had vanished so far. Bank records showed the cards hadn't been used, but investigators decided to monitor her accounts carefully going forward. In the meantime, there wasn't much else they could do. But they did need to alert her loved ones. They made an international call to Cindy's family back in South Korea to report her disappearance. Her parents were just as shocked as her friends. They knew Cindy to be a dutiful daughter and a good student. She'd been excited to move from South Korea to Virginia to pursue an education in the States. A couple of years later, she graduated high school and enrolled in Penn State. Her parents were proud of all her achievements. There wasn't any obvious reason why Cindy would have suddenly abandoned her life. Her parents had a feeling that something else was going on, so they hopped on a plane to Pennsylvania to help with the investigation. Meanwhile, the police interviewed Cindy's friends and classmates. Unfortunately, none of them had any idea where she might have gone. When asked if she had any reason to go off the grid, a few mentioned a recent breakup. About a month before Halloween, Cindy and her boyfriend Patrick had split. One by one, detectives exhausted the more innocent possibilities. There was zero evidence that Cindy had gone on a last minute trip with girlfriends or a romantic getaway with a new guy. Without any leads, police had to go back to the drawing board. Their next move was to launch a massive search of the wooded area surrounding Penn State. Planes scoured the landscape from overhead while K9 teams raced through the woods, hoping to catch Cindy's scent. Meanwhile, detectives pored over her diary, searching for anything out of the ordinary. There weren't any obvious skeletons in her closet, but in a few entries, Cindy wrote about smoking marijuana and taking ecstasy with her classmates. Since they had nothing else to go on, investigators theorized that drugs might have had something to do with her disappearance. They tracked down the friend she smoked with, hoping they knew where she'd gone. But these trails led nowhere. As far as investigators could tell, Cindy really was just an average, well adjusted college kid. She drank on occasion and went to parties on the weekends, but she wasn't involved in anything illicit. The K9 and air searches also failed to turn up any evidence. It was looking less and less like Cindy left town willingly. The police were forced to turn to darker possibilities, including the chance that she was the victim of a random abduction. Cindy regularly visited a grocery store down the street from her apartment complex. Some detectives believe she might have gone there after her friend dropped her off at her apartment on Halloween night at around 4 or 4:30am if that was true, it was possible Cindy had been snatched off the street. But that meant the culprit could be anybody. If detectives couldn't link her disappearance to someone Cindy knew personally, it was going to be a lot harder to nail the right suspect. By the time the cops reached that point, Cindy had already been missing for close to a week. Though her parents had arrived in Pennsylvania, they couldn't shed any more light on the disappearance than her friends. Detectives asked to search the apartment again, but her parents had already cleaned the place thoroughly. If there was any lingering Physical evidence left, it was probably gone now. Sadly, the case had reached a standstill. Authorities blanketed the Penn State campus, asking for any tips that might lead to an arrest. In the meantime, all anyone could do was wait. Eventually, the police did get a tip about Cindy, but it wasn't from a college student. Instead, it came from a woman nearly 200 miles away in Philadelphia. She claims she saw someone matching Cindy's description downtown. According to the tipster, the woman she saw seemed to be in distress. She tried to call for help, but was silenced by an unidentified man she was with. With high hopes, police traveled to Philadelphia to follow up on the lead. Unfortunately, the woman who gave them the tip proved difficult to trust. She changed her account several times under questioning, and her claims were hard to verify. Still, detectives tried their best to figure out who the man in her description was. Unfortunately, nothing came of the search, and the case went cold again. It was now more than a month after Cindy's disappearance, and hardly any progress had been made. Penn State students were afraid to go out at night, Convinced a prowler was still on the loose. Volunteers covered the surrounding areas with flyers of Cindy's picture and description. The university even offered a $27,000 reward for anyone with information about the case, worth almost $50,000 today. Two months later, the reward was still unclaimed. But on January 18, 2002, there was finally a new development. That night, a local got a call from an unknown number. When they answered, they heard a young woman's voice on the other end of the line. She sounded like she was in pain. The caller claimed her name was Cindy, then said, my place is a mess, and my leg is bleeding, before hanging up. The resident reported the call to police, who were able to trace it. Three days later, sadly, it turned out to be a couple of teenage girls pulling a nasty prank. They were charged with disorderly conduct. By that point, Cindy's parents were starting to think they would never see their daughter again. That spring, they gave a heartbreaking press conference. Through the aid of an interpreter, they said Cindy would have been graduating this May if she were here. It's spring now. There are flowers, and she's not here to see it. Detectives felt like they'd hit a brick wall. They continued to hope for new tips, but leads were few and far between. Two full years passed, and the case officially went cold. But just when it seemed like most people had forgotten about Cindy's song, there was one last breakthrough. In June of 2003, a convicted murderer named Paul Weekley contacted police from prison with some shocking information. According to him, his former partner in crime, Hugo Zelensky, and another man named Michael Kurkowski kidnapped a woman fitting Cindy's description On Halloween night in 2001. Paul claimed they took Cindy back to Hugo's home, locked her in some kind of walk in vault, and left her there to die. It was a chilling story. Hugo had been to prison before for armed robbery. A man with gray eyes and a stormy temper, he was implicated in multiple cases of extortion and theft. But the police had never suspected him of murder. When confronted about Michael's accusations, Hugo, who was already incarcerated at the time, adamantly denied any involvement. Detectives wished they could ask his partner, But Michael Krakowski had been missing for over a year. Back in 2002, he disappeared along with his girlfriend, Tammy Ferrett, While Michael was awaiting sentencing for a drug conviction. Police believed he was on the run with $800,000 of missing drug money. With his whereabouts unknown, authorities searched Hugo's house in Luzerne County, A little more than 100 miles away from the Penn State campus. To their horror, authorities discovered five bodies. Two were found buried in the yard and three more in a massive body burn pit behind Hugo's house. Many of the bones were scorched beyond recognition. Investigators ran tests on all the remains. Two of them belonged to Michael Krakowski and Tammy Ferrett. Because of the severity of the burns, the other three were impossible to identify at the time. But there was no sign of Cindy Song's DNA in the sample. It was a tricky spot to be in. Paul Weekley's tip closed the open case on Michael and his girlfriend. But there was no indication that his story about Cindy was true. On a hunch, a detective checked a computer Paul had access to before giving the tip. He found that Paul had already researched Cindy's case before coming forward. And that suggested he may have fabricated the story in hopes of making a deal with police in exchange for a lesser sentence. For his part, Hugo Zelensky denied any connection to Cindy Song. And since his partner, Michael Kurkowski, was already dead, there was no one else they could interrogate. Now, more than two decades after the disappearance, Cindy's case remains open and unsolved. We can only hope that her family and friends have been able to find some closure. Her story is a reminder that too often, the real monsters out there don't wear masks. But their identities remain hidden nonetheless. So good. So good. So good.

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Carter Roy (21:01)

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Carter Roy (21:32)

A decade after Cindy's song went missing, another Halloween horror story shocked a tight knit community on the night of October 31, 2011. Practically everyone in the small Canadian town of Armstrong was itching to get into their costumes and celebrate. But no one was more excited than 18 year old Taylor Van Diest. Taylor loved Halloween. She was a traditionalist. While other teenagers dressed up as Jack Sparrow or one of the Angry Birds, Taylor stuck with the classics. She was going as a zombie. She spent hours that afternoon doing her makeup. It was realistic, bloody and unnerving. All the while, she texted back and forth with her boyfriend, Colton. They were planning to go trick or treating with some friends one last time before they were considered too old for the tradition. They agreed to meet a little after 6 o'. Clock. Taylor told Colton she was going to walk over to his place. It was nearby and there was a popular trail alongside the railroad tracks that led her straight there. With her makeup finally done and a smile on her face, Taylor left her house at 5:50pm she passed a group of kids playing outside the elementary school as she approached the railroad tracks. Ten minutes later, she was nearly at Colton's house. That's when she noticed someone was following her. A man in a pickup truck slowly rolled behind her for several blocks. The hair on the back of Taylor's neck stood up. Something didn't feel right. She texted Colton two chilling words as the man's engine roared and he pulled up alongside her. Being creeped. Colton responded almost immediately, asking if Taylor was okay, but there was no answer. After a few minutes of anxious waiting, he couldn't take the silence anymore. He and two of his friends ran outside and jumped into his car. They drove around for nearly 30 minutes looking for Taylor, but there was no sign of her. Word spread quickly through the neighborhood. Armstrong is a small town of 5,000 people. A lot of residents knew Taylor when they heard she was missing. Any Halloween plans were forgotten. Spontaneous search parties assembled and marched through the streets looking for Taylor. But it wasn't until more than an hour later, around 7:30, that anyone found a clue. Some local boys were playing near the railroad when they discovered Taylor's discarded phone. Word got back to her mother, who rallied the search parties and focused their efforts on the tracks. Around 8:45, they finally found her. The scene was brutal. Taylor had been strangled and badly beaten. The damage was so severe that first responders initially assumed she'd been hit by a train. But the truth was far more terrifying. Her head was laying on a steel pipe. She was clearly the victim of a violent attack. Despite the extreme damage, Taylor was still breathing when she was found. She was alive, just barely. EMTs rushed her to the hospital. Sadly, she succumbed to her injuries. Later that night, Taylor Van Diest had been brutally murdered, and the entire town had one thing on their minds. They vowed to find Taylor's killer and bring him to justice. Based on the crime scene, local detectives thought this had been an impulsive attack. Whoever was responsible left the murder weapon, a steel pipe, near Taylor's body. And detectives believed a more calculated killer would have taken a key piece of evidence like that with them. They tested the pipe while a medical examiner performed an autopsy. Soon they confirmed that Taylor had fought back against her attacker. Her neck was scraped and her fingers were broken. That, more than the steel pipe, proved to be the most important clue in the case. Taylor had scratched her assailant multiple times. That meant his DNA was lodged under her fingernails. The nurse clipped the nails and passed them along to investigators who searched their database for matches. Lo and behold, there was a hit. But it wasn't definitive. The DNA matched a sample taken during a sexual assault investigation six years earlier. In June of 2005, a man visited an escort agency in the town of Kelowna, about an hour's drive south of Armstrong. There, a sex worker whose identity is protected gave him their rates and a tour of the place. At one point, she crossed in front of him. The man grabbed her by her ponytail. Before she could react, he threw her to the floor, pressed a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her. Then he bound her hands with duct tape and fled. The sex worker reported the crime to police, and a doctor took a semen sample from the attacker. For some reason, authorities failed to follow up on that lead and the assailant was never found. But now that the attacker had murdered an 18 year old girl, authorities reopened the case. In 2011, detectives visited the sex worker and got a full account of the crime. Though it had Been six years, she still had a strong memory of the man's face. Thanks to her, investigators were able to do what they should have done back in 2005. They put together a composite sketch of the attacker and sent the picture to local news agencies. Between that and passionate posts on social media from the residents of Armstrong, the drawing of the killer reached thousands of people. The response was immediate. The authorities received around 30 tips from the town of Cherryville, about an hour's drive southeast of Armstrong. While 30 tips might not seem like that many, Cherryville only had a total population of 614. That meant roughly one out of every 20 people in town was sure they knew someone who matched the sketch. And they all gave police the same name. Matthew Forster. With odds like that, investigators were confident they were on the right track. Matthew was 25 years old, round faced, with distinctive facial hair that resembled the man in their sketch. So they traveled to Cherryville to talk to him. But when they arrived at his apartment, he wasn't home. Not only that, but the place had been completely cleaned out. Police did some digging and learned that Matthew had abruptly quit his job days earlier. While the police hesitated to jump to conclusions, they could guess what had happened. It seemed like Matthew had seen a picture of himself on the news and went on the lam. The police fanned out across British Columbia looking for Matthew. While they canvassed the nearby towns and kept an eye on the highways, they also pursued a more targeted approach. They focused on his dad, Steven Forrester. You see, Stephen had quite a rap sheet himself. Among his many previous charges, there was one for evading custody by going on the the run. That rang alarm bells for investigators. They worried he'd advised his son to do the same thing. So they got a warrant to wiretap Steven's phone. It wasn't long before Matthew called his dad. Steven warned his son not to reveal any details about his location over the phone. But the bug proved to be the gift that kept on giving. During hours of conversation, Steven patiently walked his son step by step through the process of how to hide from the cops. Not only that, but he also helped Matthew get access to forged documents. Steven bought his son a phony driver's license, a bank card, and even a social insurance card for only $500. Thanks to his dad, Matthew had a brand new identity. Little did he know, the police were only a few steps behind. They monitored the wiretap for a full five months, waiting for Steven and Matthew to slip up. And In April of 2012, six months after Taylor's murder, they finally got what they were waiting for. They discovered that Matthew Forster was living all the way across Canada in the small town of Collingwood, Ontario. He even had a job at a factory there, working under a fake name. But not for long, because Matthew was about to be unmasked. 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Carter Roy (31:57)

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Carter Roy (33:19)

On April 4, 2012, Canadian police arrested 26 year old Matthew Forster in Ontario. He was accused of murdering 18 year old Taylor Van D in 2011, as well as sexually assaulting a sex worker at knife point six years earlier. As detectives dragged him into the interrogation room, they made it clear that he was in deep trouble. Not only did they know his DNA was under Taylor's fingernails, but they also had a witness to his attack in 2005. As if that wasn't enough, they could also prove he'd forged his identity. On top of everything else, they had hours of tape recorded conversations between Matthew and his dad. Although they spoke mostly in code, there was still plenty that was incriminating. The evidence was piling up before Matthew had even opened his mouth. Investigators advised him to make a deal and come clean sooner than later, because if the cases ever made it to trial, he didn't stand a chance. Matthew kept his eyes downcast in the interrogation room. He knew the police were right and apparently his lawyer agreed. Because pretty soon he agreed to confess. But before he spilled the beans, detectives had one last loose end to tie up. As they looked over Matthew's past brushes with the law, they found another previous crime that hadn't gotten enough attention. Back in 2004, a year before Matthew attacked the sex worker, he was implicated in yet another assault. One night, 19 year old Kaylee Paul woke up in her room to movement at the foot of her bed. Still bleary eyed from sleep, she thought it might be her dad coming to wish her goodnight. Instead, a masked figure lunged forward and grabbed her by her shirt. He lifted her up and threw her against the wall and said her name in a gruff whisper. Then he shoved her into the wall a second time. The impact was bad enough to split her head open. As blood poured down Kaylee's cheek, the man grunted in her ear. He drew a steely black pistol and showed it to her. When Kaylee asked what he wanted, the man answered, I want you. She panicked and broke into a stream of Babel, tearfully begging for her life. Her attacker seemed unnerved, especially when she told him she thought she was going to faint. In the end, he let her go and fled the house. Kaylee immediately called called the police to report the assault. Though her attacker was wearing a mask, she thought she recognized his voice. He sounded a lot like her little brother's friend, Matthew Forrester. But because she was in such a panic during the attack, she couldn't be sure the local police brought Matthew down to the station. Back then he was just 18 and had a relatively clean criminal record. He was interrogated, but his father Stephen covered for him just like he would again in 2011. Stephen gave his son an alibi and the police dropped their charges against Matthew. When Matthew was arrested eight years later, the cops looked back at this assault charge. Since they already had their culprit up against a wall, they took the opportunity to needle him about the old case. They wanted the whole truth. A confession for every crime he had ever committed. That was his only chance at getting a plea bargain. Matthew was between a rock and a hard place. His only option was to tell the police everything. So that's what he did. At points, his confession was a little difficult to understand. Like many criminals, he had a skewed view of his own crimes, starting with the 2004 assault. He told investigators he had a crush on Cayley Paul. But he never thought a relationship between them could work. That pathetic excuse was apparently his only motivation for the attack. After the first confession, the others came tumbling out. First, he admitted to sexually assaulting the sex worker around eight months later. His account matched her initial report exactly. Next, it was time to come clean about the murder of Taylor Van Diest. And Matthew's explanation for that crime was just as strange as the rest of his testimony. He told police that he drove to Armstrong on Halloween night looking to pick up a woman for consensual sex. By 6pm he had already spent most of his day doing drugs. By his count, he drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and did mushrooms. As he was driving around, he spotted Taylor walking along the railroad tracks. He got out to talk to her. When she refused his advances, he hit her with a large metal flashlight and then the steel pipe that was found at the scene. A violent struggle ensued, with Taylor fighting back hard. But Matthew was much larger. In the end, he strangled her with his shoelace before fleeing in his truck. The police already knew the rest. After his confessions, Matthew Forster pleaded guilty to all charges. In December of 2014. He was sentenced to six years in prison for the 2004 attack and six more years for the 2005 sexual assault. The sex worker chose not to attend the proceedings. But Kaylee Paul spoke out against her attacker. She told the court that after being assaulted, she experienced dizziness, paranoia and insomnia. Even a decade later, she was still suffering. She eventually had to move away from her hometown because she was afraid her attacker was still out there waiting to strike again. Throughout her testimony, Matthew kept his eyes on his shoes. But his time in court was just beginning. He still had to face his worst crime of all. The murder of Taylor Van Diest. The final result came four years later in 2018, when the 32 year old was sentenced to life in prison to be served concurrently with his previous charges. He'll be eligible for parole in 2029 when he's 43 years old. Matthew's dad, Steven, also faced charges for helping his son evade the police. In 2014, he was sentenced to three years in prison for being an accessory after the murder. Though, Taylor's family and Matthew's other victims were relieved her murderer was finally behind bars, not everyone was happy. Taylor's mother believes he should never be eligible for parole, emphasizing that Matthew seems to lack remorse. While he sent his other victims letters of apology, she noted that he didn't mention Taylor's name a single time. It goes to show that sometimes catharsis can't be found in the courtroom. Instead, it's up to the community of Armstrong to honor Taylor's memory. In 2013, Taylor's mother and twin sister established a memorial near the site of her murder. The dirt path she walked that night has been paved and surrounded with flowers. An elegant statue of an angel marks what is now known as the Taylor Jade Van Diest Memorial Trail. The path serves as a tribute to a vibrant young woman whose life was taken too soon. Her legacy continues to live on in the hearts of those closest to her and the footsteps of everyone who walks the trail. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next week for the story of a new murder and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two part series, you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back on Thursday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertovsky, Rachel Engelman, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Tara Wells, Hania Said, Spencer Howard and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong is perfect for spooky season. Dive into the real life events behind the world's most terrifying blockbusters and beyond. Twisted Tales is a Crime House original. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes out every Monday.