MFM Minisode 468

Summary

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My Favorite Murder Minisode 468

Podcast Theme: Listener-Submitted Hometown True Crime Stories and New Year's Anecdotes
Hosts: Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark
Release Date: December 29, 2025

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Episode Overview

Minisode 468 of My Favorite Murder is a special New Year’s edition, featuring listener-submitted hometown stories centered around the holiday, along with a few superstitions and humorous mishaps. As always, Karen and Georgia bring their mix of empathy, laughter, and admiration for the resilience (or audacity) of both storytellers and their subjects. The stories run the gamut from chilling, to heartwarming, to utterly outrageous, all wrapped in the familiar banter that has come to define the show.

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Key Discussion Points and Listener Stories

1. Reflection and New Year’s Hopes

• Karen and Georgia kick things off remarking on the close of 2025 and reflecting on gratitude and hope going into the new year.
  • Georgia: "Hopefully you have hope." (03:22)
  • Karen: "We're all trying here. That's all you can do." (03:25)

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2. Story 1: The Snow-Covered Churchyard – Nicola Dixon’s Murder & Law Changed

[03:28 – 06:47]

• Listener Ellie (from Birmingham, England) writes in about the New Year’s Day murder of Nicola Dixon in 1997.
  • Nicola, a 17-year-old, was found murdered in the snow-covered grounds of a local church after leaving a social club on New Year’s Eve.
  • The case involved a massive investigation with over 11,000 people interviewed and highlighted on the TV show Crimewatch.
  • A DNA match six years later linked local man Colin Waite to the crime, after he was arrested for an unrelated road rage incident.
  • Notable Quote: "Nicola's lasting legacy is that due to her case, her parents fought for a change in the law. That means DNA is taken from prisoners as standard practice and will hopefully prevent other families from going through the same agonizing wait." – (06:08)
• Hosts express amazement and empathy, especially about the law change:
  • Karen: “Wow. Yeah, Ellie.” (06:47)
  • Georgia: “Real true crime one there.” (06:49)

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3. Story 2: Robbery and Murder-for-Hire in Ohio

[07:11 – 09:41]

• Listener Julia shares a complex story involving her mom, a bank deposit robbery, and a later connection to a murder-for-hire.
  • In 2012, Julia’s mom was robbed at gunpoint, but got away (deposit bag stolen).
  • Fast forward two years: Brandi Daniels, a coworker of Julia’s mom, was murdered in a plot linked to her abusive ex-husband, Josh Daniels.
  • Julia’s mom realized her coworker (the murder victim) had also been the one robbed during the earlier bank deposit incident – orchestrated by her own ex-husband.
  • Notable Quote: “That robbery and him getting hit and everything. It was like he knew the guy that robbed them. He was in on that? Yeah, he was a criminal. And he was also an abusive husband that had his wife like murder for hire.” – Karen (09:28)
• Georgia: “Awful. Jesus.” (09:41)

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4. Story 3: The Neighbor Who Saved – and Took – a Life

[13:09 – 15:54]

• Listener E from Toronto recalls being saved from an oncoming car by her neighbor, only for that neighbor, Paul Hindle, to be arrested for the murder of his girlfriend Lisa Lybitka the very same day.
  • As a child, E didn’t understand the gravity of seeing her neighbor handcuffed or her own story during “what I did over the break” in class.
  • Notable Quote: "It will always give me chills thinking about my neighbor picking me up, saving me from oncoming traffic with the same hands that he took life with." – E (15:30)
• Karen and Georgia reflect on the unfathomable duality in people:
  • Karen: "You want to believe that you know the full constitution of a person who's going to murder their girlfriend, right? Like… that's a sociopath, that's a psychopath… Yes, they do [have feelings]." (15:54-16:12)

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5. Story 4: Drunk Parents, Underage Driver, and a Legendary Bribe

[16:12 – 22:44]

• Listener Cammie recounts a New Year’s memory as a 12-year-old who drove her drunk parents home, successfully navigates a police checkpoint (where the officers were also drunk), and bribes them with a bottle of whiskey.
  • Cammie’s poise and negotiation skills at 12 are the highlight; she tells the officer, "I'm 12, but sober, and I've been driving for four years." (20:08)
  • The officer: "We might not take your car, but we could call Child Services. You're too young to be responsible for your parents." (20:32)
  • Cammie barters whiskey, switches bottles for a better bribe, and gets her family home safe—all while starting to pursue a PhD.
  • Notable Quote: "How can I help you tonight, officer? How about I bargain with this?" – Karen, narrating Cammie's exchange (23:00)
  • Karen: “Cami’s a legend.” (22:55)
  • Georgia: “Legendary. … She starts low and goes high! So smart.” (22:56–23:06)

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6. Story 5: New Year’s Superstitions

[26:40 – 27:34]

• Listener Hannah (from Georgia) shares two family superstitions:
  1. Never wash clothes on New Year's Eve or Day (said to ‘wash away’ a loved one).
  2. Eat a meal of collard greens (for money), black-eyed peas (for luck), and pork (for prosperity).
  • Hosts discuss their own experiences and connections, including TikTok as a source of superstition knowledge.
  • Georgia: "I'm from Georgia… Thanks for making me laugh when I really need it. Stay sexy and please don't wash your clothes on New Year's. Hannah." (27:34)

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7. Story 6: It Actually Was a Mannequin

[28:03 – 29:44]

• Listener Emma from Maine recounts a drunken New Orleans trip where she mistook a Halloween store mannequin for a murder victim, only for bewildered employees to point out she was, in fact, at a Halloween store.
  • Notable Quote: "They looked bewildered. One of them sighed and said, ma'am, this is a fucking Halloween store." – Emma (29:09)
• Karen: “Emma from Maine: Oh, being a know-it-all when it hits you right in the you’re—” (29:44)
• Georgia calls for more drunk parent and funny trauma stories from listeners.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On why listeners keep sharing:
  "Love that people still send these in. And that that connection is the connection that people have with true crime stories." – Karen (06:54)
• On trauma and dark humor:
  Georgia: "...this feels like childhood trauma. A little bit." (21:46) Karen: "It's trauma. Except for what a success... The fine line of it's only happened once, it’s a funny story.” (21:52–22:04)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Intro/Reflection: 03:10 – 03:28
• Nicola Dixon Story: 03:28 – 06:47
• Ohio Robbery & Murder: 07:11 – 09:41
• Toronto Neighbor Story: 13:09 – 15:54
• Drunk Parents Mini-Epic: 16:12 – 22:44
• Superstitions: 26:40 – 27:34
• Mannequin in New Orleans: 28:03 – 29:44
• End-of-Year Reflections: 30:06 – 30:18

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Tone & Vibe

Warm, irreverent, and darkly humorous—even at its most macabre. Karen and Georgia are supportive of their “murderinos,” express deep empathy for tragedy, and never miss a chance to find levity or common ground ("Let’s believe what we want to believe."). They openly celebrate the community formed around true crime, dark comedy, and personal storytelling.

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Summary Takeaway

Minisode 468 captures My Favorite Murder at its best: empathetic, outrageous, and unexpectedly uplifting—each story knit together with genuine host reactions and an affirming, comedic spin on life’s darkest turns. The episode is a testament to listener courage, the weird unpredictability of true crime, and the enduring power of sharing the wildest hometown tales.

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Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered!

Transcript

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is exactly right.

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[Karen Kilgariff]

It's the season to come together over your holiday favorites at Starbucks, warm up with a creamy caramel brulee latte, get festive with an iced gingerbread chai or share a velvety peppermint mocha. Together is the best place to be at Starbucks. My favorite. Hello and welcome to my favorite Murder the Minisode.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We read you your stories.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's incredible how you send them to us.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You just keep doing it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Do you want to go first? Sure.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay. Oh yeah. We're going to do a special New Year's one, guys.

[Karen Kilgariff]

20, 25, wrapping up. How do you feel? You got your presents, you've eaten a bunch of food. Hopefully you're grateful for some things.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Hopefully you have hope.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hopefully there's stuff to work toward.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right. We're all trying here.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's all you can do.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Let's start with a fucking horrible one, shall we? A snow covered churchyard and a hometown that changed the law. All right ladies. I'm from a sleepy little town on the outskirts of Birmingham, England. It's as crime free as anywhere can be and generally considered very safe. And then it says in parentheses, I mean apart from the garden down the road that was recently dug up to discover a body and potentially solve a 32 cold case. And a fantastic I survived story about a woman eight months pregnant who was stabbed 24 times in our town center by her ex partner and survived to testify and jail that motherfucker. But all those are stories for another day. What? So crime free except for not so.

[Karen Kilgariff]

British of that person to just dangle all of those. Unbelievable. They better write in that survival story.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes, well, this is a good one too. I was 13 when on New Year's Day the local news exploded with the discovery of the body of a 17 year old girl from my school, Nicola Dixon. Nicola had been due to go away with family free New Year's but stayed home as she had a driving test scheduled. She went to the local social club on New Year's Eve and Left at about 10pm to meet friends in the town center. A 10 minute walk tops. She never made it to her friends. Instead on New Year's Day 1997, her body was found in the snow covered grounds of the local church. From the analysis of the scene, police concluded that Nicola had almost escaped over a fence but had been dragged back by her attacker. She had been alive when he fled the scene and bruises on her knuckles indicated that Nicola put up one hell of a fight but eventually died from the devastating head injuries inflicted on her. The police conducted what was called by Nicola's father a snowflake to snowflake search of the scene and launched what became a nationwide manhunt. They interviewed over 11,000 people during the investigation and took 6,000 statements and featured the case on a British TV show. I'd imagine you guys would have loved had you grown up in the UK Crime watch.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, we've heard of Crime Watch?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, yeah. Despite their best efforts, they were unsuccessful in their attempts to find her killer. Until six years later, when a local man, Colin Waite, was arrested after a road rage incident in Birmingham. And routinely DNA tested, he was a perfect match for the hair and bodily fluids left at the scene of Nicola's murder. He protested his innocence, but it took the jury 30 minutes to sentence Colin to life imprisonment. Turns out Colin had been in prison since Nicola's murder for assaulting his partner. But due to a clerical error, his DNA was not able to be processed. And it was just incredibly lucky that he'd got all ragey that night. That led to his arrest and the police were able to test him again. Wow. Just a fucking fluke.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Well, but also a person that can't control themselves. So it's like it's going to happen again.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Clearly, he and Nicola were complete strangers. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nicola's lasting legacy is that due to her case, her parents fought for a change in the law. That means DNA is taken from prisoners as standard practice and will hopefully prevent other families from going through the same agonizing weight they had to. It's been over 20 years, but it's still all I can think about when passing that church. I'd like to get sentimental, but let's face it, it just makes us all uncomfortable. So I'll simply say, thank you, Karen and Georgia. You've helped me in so many ways and never failed to make me laugh, even during the horror show that is this pandemic. Oh, man, this is an old one. Holy shit. Ssdgm. Ellie.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Wow. Yeah, Ellie.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Real true crime one there.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. You know what's weird? I started mine with a real true crime one too.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Shit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Love that people still send these in. And that that connection is the connection that people have with true crime stories.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right?

[Karen Kilgariff]

I pass this yard and I think about this girl who's all by herself going through this horrible thing and that that's how people do it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. Could be any of us.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Or sometimes their mom's involved.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, shit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay, so this says hometown story. Dateline hometown. Hey, kids, this is a longish one, but hang in there with me. Most of this story occurs in Muskegon County, Ohio, on New Year's Day 2012. My mom was taking the deposit to the bank for the clothing store she worked at. She pulled her car up to the curb and was waiting for her co worker to come out and get in the car when she saw a guy in A ski mask start jogging up to the car. He struck her co worker with his gun and pointed it at her. She hit the gas and pulled away. The man took the deposit bag and jumped a fence and was gone. Hell of a way to start the new year. Don't worry, the year got better when I birthed twin granddaughters for her.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Holy shit. Let me, let me help you out here.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Thank God I'll bring two human beings in the world and maybe that'll make things better. Fast forward to 2014. A 25 year old mom, Brandi Daniels is murdered in her parents rural driveway on her way home from work late at night. She was in the midst of divorcing her abusive husband who was in Alaska at the time. That husband, Josh Daniels, was my mom's co worker that was hit with the gun when she got robbed.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Holy shit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

A lot of police work, phone records and a couple battered ex girlfriends willing to talk to police. And the connections between a string of robberies and four suspects became clearer. Sirius Underwood, one of the men who helped with the robberies, offered to murder Brandi. Brandi and Josh were having a contentious divorce and custody of their five year old daughter was part of it. Daniels gave Underwood Brandi's movements after communicating with her under the guise of when she would be home to have a phone call with their daughter. Underwood shot Brandi three times in her parents driveway. Brandi Daniels murder was covered on season two, episode 22 of Dateline. The episode's entitled Out There in the Dark. My mom had several polygraphs and quite a stressful go of the robbery. When she was asked to be a grand jury witness, she went, she is a badass. Also, we saw your show at the Lyric in Baltimore and really wished we could have told her hometown, but we didn't want to break the rules. Stay sexy and don't let the bastards get you down. Julia.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh my God. So the co worker was the ex husband. Meaning he staged the whole thing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, that robbery and him getting hit and everything. It was like he knew the guy that robbed them. He was in on that? Yeah, he was a criminal. And he was also an abusive husband that had his wife like murder for hire.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Murdered. Awful. Jesus.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Well, this is the way to celebrate New Year's.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We've gone and done it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Listen, it's how we do it.

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[Georgia Hardstark]

Here is kind of another true crime ish one. I'm not going to read you the subject, it just starts. Alrighty. I wanted to write in for a while, but my severe dyslexia and crippling anxiety have kept me from doing so. Here I go. I live in a quiet upper middle class neighborhood in the heart of Toronto. The type of place where yoga moms walk their labradoodles with wine at night. That changed in January 2010. Just before New Year's I was outside hanging decorations on my front porch when one flew away. I went to chase it across the road and just so happened that a car was coming straight for me, but I was too focused on catching the dollar store decorations. Then a four thousand pound car coming my way. And later they'll say that they were 8 years old in this. Before I knew it, my neighbor scooped me up in the middle of the road. If he didn't, I would have been flattened like a pancake. I thought nothing of it, said thank you and went on with my decorating. My God, I know. Fast forward to New Year's day and over 12 police cars were outside that same neighbor's house. He had reported his girlfriend missing two days prior. The police searched his house and found the girlfriend, Lisa Lybitka, wrapped in a rug underneath her own child's bed. In this trial, it came out that he had smothered her with a pillow. This took place on the very same day that my decoration flew across the road.

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[Georgia Hardstark]

That's right. My neighbor Paul Hindle saved my life the exact same day he took another.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That doesn't make any sense.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I know. Being an oblivious 8 year old at the time, I watched him get handcuffed and loaded into a police car from my front window. I remember asking my mom why he was handcuffed and she replied, oh honey, everyone has to get handcuffed to go in the back of a police car. Just trying to like make it seem, yeah, nice cover. And then she says, I guess she's not lying. Before the end of my Christmas break, my older brother explained to me that my neighbor was in fact charged and not just going for a ride along with the police while being handcuffed. Still not grasping the concept. I remember going back to Grade 4 after winter break and going around in a circle as a class saying, the most exciting thing you did over the break. I said, my neighbor got murdered. I believe this is what got me into true crime at such a young age. It will always give me chills thinking about my neighbor picking me up, saving me from oncoming traffic with the same hands that he took life with. Soon after, every kid on my street got therapy after this. Except me. Probably because my parents thought I was too young to care about what happened. Oh, if only they knew of the little murderino I was. Good thing I just started seeing a therapist last week.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Just in time.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's never too late. Stay sexy and always look both ways before crossing the road. Love, E. She her God, it's like unfathomable.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You want to believe that you know the full constitution of a person who's going to murder their girlfriend, right? Like, that's a sociopath, that's a psychopath, that's a person that doesn't have feelings. Yes they do.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right. It just doesn't make any sense to us because we could never fathom that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Wow. Okay. This is still crime based, but we're gonna take a little turn into the normal minisode comedy that I enjoy so much. This is an incredible email. I'm not gonna read you the subject line. It says, hi yous, I was raised in a very magical way. And then in parentheses it says, not for commercials. I don't know what that means. However, there is one experience that I have engraved in my mind that I think it ticks a lot of your requests. Drunk parents, crime and holidays. Here we go. When I was 12 years old, my big Latino family had our usual New Year's party at my grandma's, which normally starts in New Year's Eve and ends around 7 or 8am New Year's Day.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Jesus.

[Karen Kilgariff]

They party out all night long. These parties are incredibly lively with a lot of dancing and eating and drinking. And usually we have a designated driver in our family that would drive everyone home. All 67 of us.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Holy shit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And then a parentheses that says, no one likes that job.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's so crazy. This particular year, after waiting for the designated driver for an hour or so, I felt old enough to suggest myself to drive us back home. And my parents were drunk enough to agree with me. 12 years old?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh no. 12.

[Karen Kilgariff]

12 years old. After my dad stole the last two bottles of whiskey, one cheap and one all caps fancy, we left my grandma's place to our home. We live on the outskirts of our city on a farm, so I think it needs to be said here as a farm child, not really not the child of farmers, but grew up in a rural area. Kids start driving when they're like eight years old.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Really?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You have to like regular cars or just regular cars and like around the land kind of.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Exactly. So you jump in a. To go feed the cows for you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Because like from suburbia, like I never know.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. I think that's that the whole thing of like this is the way things have to work on this farm where it's like the kids are farm workers like everybody else. So like we collected the eggs, we fed the chicken and the chickens and.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The geese and driving from your house to the thing on the same land isn't a big deal.

[Karen Kilgariff]

No. And usually, I mean like we didn't do it as much. It's more like cattle ranchers, kids. Or if they had to get up at 5 in the morning to go feed 100 cows, they're going to take a truck to do it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And they'll be fine doing that.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And if they are there with their brother who's 12 and they're eight.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

They all of that kind of stress. First of all, there's nothing to hit you or whatever.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You can't hit cows. They're.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Easy to miss.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And then you just kind of start getting used to it anyway. I just want to put that out there.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No, it's really fascinating to me because I had never. I have never experienced that coming from the suburbs.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You know.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So after leaving the city and entering the county highway, I see a few transit police checkpoints. To be super clear. I don't have a driver's license. My family is cheap and they don't pay car insurance and our registration is expired. Yeah. So I'm panicking within reason. I asked my mom what to do and she was in her drunk, sleepy place where no one can reach her.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I have one of those.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I turn to my dad and he was in an incoherently loud state, hugging his whiskey bottles. It was too late to go back. So now I was driving through the checkpoint praying not to be randomly picked to be asked for my papers.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Well, I was definitely picked.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Of course.

[Karen Kilgariff]

When the officer came to the car, I was actually very relaxed. And then in parentheses it says, my upbringing prepared me for this. I had my window already down and I start to notice that the officers in parentheses, all of them were very drunk themselves. What I asked what I could help them with.

[Georgia Hardstark]

How can I help you, fifth grader? I'm sitting on a fucking phone book. How can I help you?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like you have your wrist on the, on the drive on the steering wheel. What can I Help you with?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. What's the problem, Officer?

[Karen Kilgariff]

So I asked what I could help him with, and he asked for my age. And I said, I'm 12, but sober, and I've been driving for four years.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Fucking legend. He asked for the car's papers. I pass them to him, hoping he doesn't pay attention to the expiration dates. He doesn't gives me the papers back and finally asks who I was driving. I say, my parents. They're in no condition to drive, so we all thought we'd be safer with me driving. Wow. He looks at me and says, we might not take your car, but we could call Child Services. You're too young to be responsible for your parents. Which is true.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

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Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

In general.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

If she had to do that all the time.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's when. That's true.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Sure.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Christmas. Come on.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay. New Year's.

[Karen Kilgariff]

New Year's.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Come on. Christmas or New Year's. Which one takes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's New Year's. Sorry. Okay. So it says, I'm freaking out. This possibility never crossed my mind. However, I did say I was prepared for this. I said, I can help you continue your party with your fellow officer friends with this whiskey bottle.

[Georgia Hardstark]

How are you so brilliant at 12?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Just fucking and handling shit.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I think. Oldest daughter, I would guess.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And I pull up the cheap whiskey bottle. The officer laughs and says, I'd be more inclined to let you leave if you give me that Johnnie Walker blue label your dad is hugging.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Ooh.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I turned around, looked at my dad in the backseat hugging his bottle like he was holding his life and grab it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

He holds on tight and shouts, mine.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So I smoothly switch it with the cheap one, quickly give it to the officer and say thank you and Happy New Year and drive away as fast as possible. We arrive safely home. I open the windows of the car to let my parents sleep in it until they are well enough to come inside.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Holy shit. We're laughing so hard. But this feels like childhood trauma. A little bit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's trauma. Except for what a success.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, it's funny. It's either trauma or it's the funny story that you tell at the holidays.

[Karen Kilgariff]

The fine line of it's only happened once.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's a funny story.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But it's like she didn't get home and then start getting yelled at by those same parents. Or, like, beaten, but I mean, what do I know? But here's the assumption. The reason she was able to handle it the way she was is cause her parents are smart. And cool. And treat her like a real person and empowered her to do it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay, let's go with that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Let's believe what we want to believe. Yes. Okay. Until they're well enough to come inside on their own, I'm not gonna carry them. Sorry for the length of the story. I do hope you enjoy it also. Thank you for walking with me to and from university. I'm in my last year of my PhD in chemical engineering. Then.

[Georgia Hardstark]

They did a great job. They did a great job. That's amazing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And for making me laugh every single time. Ta ta for now. And stay sexy. And always have a good bottle of liquor to bribe the officers. Cammie.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Cammie. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Cami's a legend.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Legendary. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

12 year old. That's like. How can I help you tonight, officer?

[Georgia Hardstark]

How about this? How about I bargain with this? No. And like, she starts low and goes high. Like, so smart.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But also there's a tacit threat in her bargain, which is. Right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You're fucking drinking.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know you're drunk. I'm the only one in this whole group that isn't fucking drunk. How about you don't fuck with me?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right? It's brilliant.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's so good.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's brilliant.

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[Georgia Hardstark]

My last one is Family Superstitions. Hello MFM gang. My name is Hannah. She her pronouns. Yes, you can use my name. Okay Hannah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Great. Perfect.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I just listened to minisode 304 asking for superstitions. I have two family superstitions traditions. 1. My grandmother and mother have always told me never to wash clothes on New Year's Eve or to day. I've heard that one you have says washing your clothes is equivalent to washing away a loved one. I've never heard that before.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And then number two, the New Year's Day meal tradition. Your meal should include collard greens for money, black eyed peas for luck, and pork for prosperity.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That sounds like a Southern tradition.

[Georgia Hardstark]

These are two Southern superstitions and might be more common than I thought. I'm from Georgia. I've binged the podcast from the beginning and have finally caught up. Thanks for making me laugh when I really need it. Stay sexy and please don't wash your clothes on New Year's. Hannah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's A good one, Hannah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, I didn't know that washing clothes thing at all.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I heard about that. Well, it's a TikTok thing. When you're addicted to TikTok, you learn about all the traditions.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I mean, it's not like I would have a pro. Like, I would be threatening to wash my clothes on New Year's because I'm hungover and I wouldn't have done it anyways.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But, yeah, yeah, that could be a thing where like, a mom was like, no, no, we can't do laundry.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No, we can't do laundry today. Or it's a. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And no yelling.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, that's a TikTok thing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay. The subject line of this email is that time. It actually was a mannequin, which kind of gives it away.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hi, Karen and Georgia, longtime listener here. Love you both. Love the show, et cetera, et cetera. This is the story of the time. It actually was a mannequin. Back in 2018, or maybe 2019, my friends and I traveled to New Orleans for New Year's. I was the only one who'd ever lived there, so I was being kind of obnoxious about knowing my way around.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Of course you gotta.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, here's where the bagel shop used to be.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Actually, this one is better than that one.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is a bar I don't recognize, but I'm picking this one instead. One night, we were walking through the French Quarter when I saw out of the corner of my eye a naked woman's body, half hidden in a shop window. She was totally naked, covered in bruises, fully visible from the street. What? The shop door was propped open and the lights were on.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I know what's going to happen, right?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Fueled by a lot of liquid confidence, I broke away from my friends to investigate. Did I think to call the cops? Of course not. I was clearly the hero of this story. I stepped inside and inched toward the body. She was sprawled on checkered vinyl tiles, limbs all wrong, hair falling across her face in a way that was too perfect, too shiny, too something. It very slowly dawned on me. It was a mannequin. I looked up and saw two very confused employees staring at me. What the fuck, y'? All? I demanded. Why would you have this in your window? It's terrifying. They looked bewildered. One of them sighed and said, ma', am, this is a fucking Halloween store. Sure enough, rows of costumes bagged in cellophane, fake cobwebs plastered plastic, severed limbs. I drunkenly stumbled into a year round Halloween store, convinced I was about to solve a murder. Anyway, that's the time it actually was a mannequin. Love ya all. Emma from Maine.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Emma from Maine. Oh, being a know it all when it hits you right in the you're.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Being a know it all to people who are from there, right? And who aren't drunk, right?

[Georgia Hardstark]

All of the drunk people. Send us your drunk stories at my favorite murdermail. We love them. We hate them. Send us your parents ones, the ones that are funny. The ones that traumatized you. Yes, and that hilariously traumatized you.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And hey, congratulations because this year is almost over, thank fucking God. And the freshness of it won't be your laundry that's fresh, but the year will be fresh and things will start again. And here's to 2026.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's right, stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye Elvis. Do you want a cookie?

[Karen Kilgariff]

This has been an exactly right production.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[Georgia Hardstark]

This episode was mixed by Liana Squillace.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Email your hometowns to my favorite murdermail.com.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Follow the show on Instagram at My.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Favorite murder Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Or Watch us on YouTube. Search for my favorite murder and then like and subscribe. Goodbye.

[Karen Kilgariff]

At cvs, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

When you need us, day or night, and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Your craving for a tasty and, yeah, healthy snack.

[Karen Kilgariff]

At cvs, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So Visit [e-mail] or just come by our store.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's the season to come together over your holiday favorites at Starbucks, warm up with a creamy caramel brulee latte, get festive with an iced gingerbread chai, or share a velvety peppermint mocha together is the best place to be at Starbucks.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Looking for a fantasy that will keep.

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[Georgia Hardstark]

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