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True Crime Garage
The Best of True Crime Garage 2025 ////// 896
00:55:35
Happy New Year! True Crime Garage is wishing the very best in health, happiness, and prosperity for you, yours, and everyone in 2026! We are kicking the year off in a traditional fashion by discussing some of the highlights of last year. In this episode Nic and the Captain discuss their favorite True Crime Garage episodes of 2025. We hope that you didn’t miss these gems. Tune in for the very best (according to the Garage guys) of True Crime Garage 2025. Thank you all for another great year, cheers!
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- [00:00]
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Will Trent Promo Voice
Will Trent, ABC Tuesdays, you run from the dark.
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Nick (The Colonel)
That's why it chases you.
- [00:21]
Will Trent Promo Voice
Get out of my house. The hit series Will Tread is back.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Will, this is a manhunt, not a.
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Captain
Murder that needs to be solved.
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Will Trent Promo Voice
And the truth, this man killed my mother and left me to die is out.
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Nick (The Colonel)
I think if we don't catch this guy then he's going to go off.
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Will Trent Promo Voice
The deep end of control.
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Nick (The Colonel)
They won't even see you coming.
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Will Trent Promo Voice
I have to end this will tread. Tuesdays 87 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick and with me as always, is a man who is once, twice, three times a captain.
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Captain
Here is the captain and don't you ever forget it. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening and thanks for telling a friend.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Weidman's has been brewing beer since 1870. It was George Weidman way back then. So this is a beer brewing tradition for over 150 years. And we are featuring one of their beers called Wake Me Up. It's just another great offering from the fine folks at Weedman's Brewing Company. First in Newport, Kentucky, now in Cincinnati, Ohio. It's a delicious hazelnut coffee milk stout. The milk and hazelnut mask the bitterness of the stout and coffee, but both of those provide the roasted flavor that I like so much. Garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five. And let's raise a glass and give some cheers to our good garage friends. First up, a shout out to Michelle Hargis in Austin, Texas.
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Captain
And a big tall cans in the air goes to Sea Dog and Longmont, Colorado.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Next we have a cheers to Carrie in parts unknown. And last but certainly not least, we have cheers to Hannah and Anishti Ireland. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to truecrimegarage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fund for the beer run. And for that we say thank you.
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Captain
Yeah, we're roasty and we're toasty. B W E Double R U N beer run. Make sure you check out truecrimegarage.com sign up on the mailing list and Colonel, that's enough of the B. Is Ness.
- [03:23]
Nick (The Colonel)
All right, everybody, gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. It was another great year in the garage. In fact, it was the year 2025 was the year when we celebrated 10 years of garage goodness. And thank you all for listening, both new listeners and ones that have been with us for the entirety of the ride thus far. And we say thus far because I don't think that this flying garage ship is going to slow down anytime soon. So please gather around, grab a chair, grab some more beers, and let's continue talking about some true crime together for many years to come. But today, let's take a peek at the rear view mirror. Right? Let's see what is in the rear view.
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Captain
Let's stick up our. Stick our heads up our asses and check out what's happening.
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Nick (The Colonel)
We've done this most years. I won't say every year. We probably should have done it every year. We would have been smarter to have done so, but did not. Sometimes when we hit that turn of the year, going into early January, where it would be most appropriate to do this type of show, we find ourselves really enthralled in a particular case and excited to get to that one, and it kind of clouds our judgment. So this year, we've sifted through the fog and the clouds and we are back at it again. We are going to talk about our favorite.
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Captain
Yeah.
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Nick (The Colonel)
The Colonel and the Captain's favorite True Crime garage episodes of 2025. So if you missed some episodes, we don't hold it against you, but here's your opportunity. I do to let us tickle your earballs a little bit and maybe you go back and dial these up on your garage radio dial and tune in to what you may have missed or if you agree with us, go back and listen again. The thing I love about this here, Captain, this is the perfect time for us to ask the listeners. Hit us up on Instagram on X. Let us know your favorite True Crime garage episodes of 2025.
- [06:09]
Captain
Yeah. Give us your top three. When we decided, hey, we should. We should do this again. It's fun. I. I can't remember if last year we did our top five or what we did, but top three is fun. I think top three is the way to go. But I was actually surprised because I was like, okay, I got to open up my podcast app, click on True Crime Garage. I got to scroll through the episodes and see which ones I even remember, but I was actually shocked how many. I was like, oh, that's a good one. Oh, that one was a good one too. I thought this list would be a lot easier and not just because like, I actually thought like, okay, well, maybe it was just like, it felt like a good year, but like going back, I was like, man, you could make an argument that these are some of the best episodes we've ever done.
- [07:01]
Nick (The Colonel)
Yeah, I agree 100%. So when we first talked about doing this, there were four, right. We said we'll do a top three. There were four immediately that I was like, oh my three live within this four here.
- [07:15]
Captain
Right.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Then when I went back, because what I wanted to do was I wanted to figure out when those episodes were released. And I'm looking through the 2025 catalog and there were like several others that I think make a strong argument to be in that top three, maybe hold that third spot. So the waters got a little murky. A little murky. Once I started sifting through, I was really impressed with our 2025 catalog here. And you're right, it ended up being a little more difficult than I had originally anticipated. If you're fine with it, Captain, I'll go ahead and kick things off with my number three.
- [07:58]
Captain
Yeah, kick it off.
- [07:59]
Nick (The Colonel)
This one might feel like cheating a little bit, but you know, most weeks we are doing two episodes. Most cases we cover, there are two episodes on that case. So I guess in that regard there would be no cheating. But with my number three is actually a six part series that we did all the way back in April of 2025. And the title of that six part series was Hate American Made. I should, maybe I shouldn't lead out the gate with this because it's kind of. Well, I feel like this one might have been met with some mixed reviews. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. But I have to put together my top three based off of my experience. Right off of the listeners experience.
- [08:49]
Captain
Right.
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Nick (The Colonel)
And, and the thing here with this one, for me it was much like in the movie Christmas Story, right? Where Ralphie has to write a paper about what he wants for Christmas. Remember, he's so impressed with this paper and he thinks that the, the teacher is just going to, she's going to, to love and dote on him because she, because he did such a fantastic job on this, on this paper. It's the best thing he's ever written. He turns it in and then when he gets it back, reality sets in. He got a C plus or C minus maybe, I can't remember, but. But you know, he was expecting an A plus plus plus plus. Plus, I shouldn't say that that's what I was expecting here, but I feel like I kind of felt like Ralphie in the moment once these episodes were coming out. And I think the reason why it was mixed, it had mixed emotions is that I think that we're living in a day and age where for us anyway, as adults, for the listeners, when I say us, I mean all of us collectively. It feels like we are just bombarded with so much politics and political rhetoric and all that, all that bullshit, because that's really what it is at the end of the day. Bullshit. I mean, I. People can have their strong opinions and their strong feelings, but let's clear our heads because at the end of the day, none of them really care about any of us. And I don't want to go down that road too far. But I think that it's an opportunity, if we can see it for what it is, to realize we don't need a battle with each other because they, they won't, they won't battle for us, so we shouldn't battle for them. That's just my opinion and I can see why this would be met with, hey, there's too much politics in this world right now. The other thing we need to pump the brakes on too is the too much politics thing. I keep hearing that, keep hearing that, keep hearing that. If you go back, I'm. I'm a person who enjoys learning about history and continuing that learning for the rest of my life. This is something that's happened regularly throughout the history of our country and many, many other countries. This isn't anything new. This is not the worst it's ever been. It, it just is what it is. People argue and bicker about politics. Yeah, we weren't trying to join in those arguments with these episodes. The reason why I liked doing these episodes, this six part series is rarely do we do a six part series. One and I not going to lie, I'm a little jealous of some of the shows out there that can dedicate an entire season to a single case or dedicate an entire season or 10 episodes, 12 episodes, 12 weeks of listening pleasure to one storyline. It's rare for us to be able to live in that case in that story for weeks. And here doing the research for this, while each episode was about a different story, we found in our research that a lot of these stories, they were somewhat tied together or have reason to be suspicious that they all could be tied together. As dark as the subject is, I hate to say it's fun it was fun to live in that world for like three, four weeks where, where all I had to do for the, that three and a half weeks was examine these stories. So I'll break it down best I can here for you. The six part series, it ran in April of 2025. It was titled Hate American Made. The purpose of that title was not to any slight at our country. It will be hard for you to find garage guys more patriotic than, than us.
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Captain
Yeah, it just. Yes, I love America and I love the people and sometimes the, sometimes us as a society, we act a little strange or we, we forget that we're all in this together and we need to be kind to each other. And like you said, I think they, I think, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it's like, I think the people in power like it when you pick the red team or you pick the blue team, when it's like you should pick team people, you know, always pick team people. And, and if you are kind to each other, don't let people distract you and separate you.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Well, and you know my joke, I've said it probably five times throughout our 10 years here together, but pull my finger. John Wayne Gacy was a Democrat, Ted Bundy was a Republican. That's why I'm an independent. That is, Those are perfect examples to be an independent. And look, when we put this together and when we put together other episodes, you know, there's a, an American flag that flies proudly outside of this garage, right in front of the garage here. Flies every day. Now I will take it down if it like we have like a windstorm or something because I'm not going to let, I'm not going to let old Glory get beat up. But when we, when we put these together, none of this is ever for the right or the left or the red or the blue or even the middle. This is a show for the people, right? And, and that's it. And we don't care where you stand, what side you're on.
- [14:21]
Captain
Well, also to be clear, when we sat down initially, well, one, we didn't think it, I don't think we even thought it would last a year, let alone 10 years. But one of the reasons why people listen to podcasts is to fill part of the conversation. And we don't want to talk about politics because that again, that can be something that divides us. And we want people to feel like they're coming into the garage and drinking a cold beer just like that's what we used to do. Would sit in your Garage, drink beer. And we'd be talking about Ted Bundy. And it's just like, we just want people to feel welcome no matter what your views are politically. Because why are we here? We're not here to talk about politics. We're here to talk about crime.
- [15:13]
Nick (The Colonel)
Well, and hate American made again, not against the country. What that title is for is at the center of each one of these stories that are all loosely tied together, there is a very hateful individual or group of individuals that caused a lot of harm, a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, death, murder and what have you. And at the center of that is always an American born individual that you would think if, if, if I could tell you these stories and we didn't have to live them or see them on the news, read about them in the newspaper, know somebody that, that experienced them directly, if we didn't have to have that in our lives. If I told you these stories and removed all the names, I bet you most people would go, yeah, that had to be committed by somebody that wasn't born and raised, that hates America. Right? That just hates Americans. And that wasn't the case. And so for those that are not familiar and, and look, I get the mixed opinions and views on these episodes because when I, when I sit back and had a chance to look at it two weeks afterwards, I was like, damn. Every part of this is uncomfortable. Every part of this story is uncomfortable. You have white supremacy, you have gun control, you have religious freedoms, you have domestic terror.
- [16:43]
Captain
Leaves more religious than freedoms, but religious beliefs.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Beliefs. Yeah. Well, in government shutting down a religious group, you have the ATF who acted irresponsibly at times, you have again, domestic terrorism. So there was no way that this was not going to be met with that. And you know what? I'm glad that it was now in hindsight, I'm glad that it was because it was appropriate. And it's, and it's, it's good to get riled up over these things. It would be abnormal not to. So it was six episodes. The first episode was titled the White Supremacist, which starts with Richard Wayne Snell. And he just had a hatred. He was a white supremacist who had hatred in his heart. And he did not believe that we were all created equal, that we're all created equal and we deserve to live a life of equality. And he murdered other individuals. His hate fueled more than hate. It turned violent and it turned dead deadly. Now, his episode wasn't just the first one because his hate crimes took place before these other stories. He has ties to all of these groups that we talked about throughout the telling of this story. So episode two was Ruby Ridge, when Randy Weaver and his family had fought it out with the FBI, with federal agents over Randy Weaver breaking some gun laws and really turned into a tragedy that I think and that I hope we did a good job of explaining so that we believe could have been completely avoided. Was Tony. Totally unnecessary. In fact, we refer to it as a series of errors created unnecessary bloodshed for the Weaver family and for federal agents at Ruby Ridge. And then the third episode was the Prophet, which was about David Koresh and his rise within the branch Davidians. Episode four was the Waco Siege, the ATF raiding Mount Carmel. Episode five was the Soldier, which was about Timothy James McVeigh, who was a decorated American soldier during Operation Desert Storm, who through other influences plus the Waco tragedy, he said, inspired him to carry out what is episode six, the Oklahoma City bombing. Oddly enough, the bombing took place on the same day that the state of Arkansas was executing Richard Snell. It is said that he had asked to watch the news that day shortly before the bombs went off and killed so many people. April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City. Coincidence? Maybe. Difficult to say. I liked doing those episodes because sometimes I think powerful shows can be uncomfortable. As said, I enjoyed having the opportunity to examine each one of these cases, have the opportunity to do them back.
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Captain
To back to back because they're all connected.
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Nick (The Colonel)
Not just because they're connected, but it gave me the chance to analyze them, keeping that in mind while putting together the research and not tailoring any of our storytelling to present that, but to live in that, try to put ourselves in those moments and see this is the dark side of history. This is the dark side of, of our American history. We can't shy away from it. Just like we don't shy away from the cold cases and we don't shy away from telling you this murder has not been solved. It's the same. We, we almost must recognize and attempt to understand the mistakes and errors that others have made so that we do not repeat them.
- [20:48]
Captain
Yeah, one of the things on our 10 year journey, journey that has been interesting for me is when we first started and there wasn't a ton of true crime shows out there. We get a lot of requests for cases that have been discussed a lot, or maybe there was documentaries or books about those cases. And then the requests started becoming, hey, what about this case that nobody's really talked about? This hasn't got a Lot of attention. But I've, but as that turned it seemed like there was a good couple years of a lot of suggestions for cases I never heard of, I've never heard other people talk about. And then after a couple years of those types of suggestions, we started getting suggestions of like, again, like a Waco or a Ruby Ridge or Oklahoma City bombing. You get these requests because the listeners are like, hey, I've heard other people talk about these major crimes. What are your thoughts? Or maybe they just like the way that you're presenting the case. I thought it was a very good series. I guess I can't say I wasn't surprised. Like you'd read some of the comments on social media or some of the emails we got. Like one email would be accusing you of being a Republican and the next email would be accusing you of being a Democrat. And you're like, we didn't talk anything about politics or our politics on, on those episodes. But, but yeah, it was a good series.
- [22:21]
Nick (The Colonel)
Those are, there's no way to tell those stories without talking about some of the politics or the sides involved.
- [22:31]
Captain
Yeah. Or the beliefs of the individuals.
- [22:33]
Nick (The Colonel)
Yeah, yeah. And that's, that's why unfortunately that hate was driven to the point where it was, where, where it, where it killed people, where people died, where people. It was unnecessary suffering because of the hate in the hearts of some of these individuals.
- [22:49]
Captain
Yeah. The hate and the beliefs. Well, my number three, I really enjoyed it's just a two part series episode 880 and 881, a killer Halloween. And I guess I'm going to turn it over to you on what was your idea about a Killer Halloween?
- [23:08]
Nick (The Colonel)
That was a conversation that I had with the author of the book that I had recommended that week and a friend of mine, he had put out a book where he picked several cities and talked about some of the serial killer. Well, a serial killer from each city. And I enjoyed the book because it was a, like a dark road map. If you were to just say, you know what, I'm gonna hop in my car and cross the country. And if, if one were to want to do this, as much as I'm into true crime, I would have no desire to stop off in each city and try to live through or relive some of these crimes. I, I can't say that I'm, I'm not guilty of that. On some like I did do a bunch of Jack the Ripper stuff when I was over in at for CrimeCon UK in London. It was only the second time I've had the opportunity to go to the great city of London and and of course, first time I was there it was just work non stop. I was there for in my past life for a work trip. This time it was CrimeCon. I was lucky enough to be able to get there a day in advance. Stay a day too long. I got to do some of the Jack the Ripper stuff. So that was fantastic. And Boulder did a little bit of the bold stuff. We won't go into, into that, into.
- [24:36]
Captain
Any great but get off my lawn.
- [24:39]
Nick (The Colonel)
I thought to me, I always enjoyed the slasher films growing up and you and I have talked Halloween, that's one of our favorite franchises. We've talked about slasher films quite a bit on, off the record, especially around Halloween time. And to me the, the serial killer unfortunately is the real life slasher film. I always believe that truth is stranger than fiction. Real life is scarier than fiction. And so as somebody who likes to be scared, especially at Halloween time, I thought, you know what, let's highlight some of these cities and some of these serial killers. It also gave us an opportunity to discuss some killers that we've not covered yet. We've not learned much about yet. And we recently just one of one of the killers that we covered in a killer Halloween. There was a recent update with him. They just linked him to another murder many, many decades after the fact. So I, with the permission of the listeners and with you, that's something I think we could revisit in the future because I enjoyed the research part of it and I enjoyed hanging out with you in the garage and it and I, I know the listeners enjoyed it as well.
- [26:00]
Captain
Well and as, as the guy that does the episode artwork.
- [26:05]
Nick (The Colonel)
The artwork was cool. It was very cool. I thought.
- [26:08]
Captain
Yeah, it always cracks me up when another podcaster goes, hey, I just saw your recent episode. That's cool artwork. Who, who do you have do that? Like, well, I do or they don't know. I do the music and they'll go, hey Captain, who does the music for your show? Well, I do. And they'll go, well, who's doing your research for the show? Well, we do. You know, like it's basically a two man operation. That's how it, that's how it rolls. So yeah, that's my number three. And we'll get back to our list after this quick beer break.
- [26:52]
Nick (The Colonel)
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- [29:53]
Will Trent Promo Voice
Tuesdays you run from the dark.
- [29:55]
Nick (The Colonel)
That's why it chases you.
- [29:56]
Will Trent Promo Voice
Get out of my house. The hit series Will Tread is back.
- [30:00]
Nick (The Colonel)
Well, this is a manhunt, not a.
- [30:02]
Captain
Murder that needs to be solved.
- [30:03]
Will Trent Promo Voice
And the truth? This man killed my mother and left me to die. He's out.
- [30:07]
Nick (The Colonel)
I think if we don't catch this guy, then he's gonna go off the.
- [30:10]
Will Trent Promo Voice
Deep end of control.
- [30:12]
Nick (The Colonel)
They won't even see you coming.
- [30:13]
Will Trent Promo Voice
I have to end this will tread. Tuesdays 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
- [30:20]
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- [31:02]
Captain
All right. Happy New Year's, you filthy animals. Onward and upward. Cheers, mates. And let's get back to the best of True Crime Garage 2025.
- [31:15]
Nick (The Colonel)
True Crime Garage Best of 2025, according to the captain in the Extra Crispy Colonel.
- [31:23]
Captain
It's just a show of us patting ourselves on the back. We did a really great job, guys.
- [31:29]
Nick (The Colonel)
That's the other part of this, too, is I had mentioned Ralphie turning in his paper earlier, and that happens frequently, right? Like, we. When we put together an episode, we've. We've lived in it for a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on what the schedule is. But when, when somebody will comment and say, you know, not your best episode. The problem for the way that we have to do things and other podcasters live in this world, too. So we're not, we're not alone. And I'm sure it works the same for television. But once you've done all the prep work and the research and the writing for an episode, that's the episode. Right. You can't, you can't be. I think maybe only once or twice in our 10 years together did we go about halfway through the recording and go, nope, nope, Right. That one can't come out. You throw it out there. And you are always kind of hoping for the best, because you never know, will they? The large crowd of folks that we are so lucky to have listening feel the same way we felt about it. And you never know. And that's why we love having the conversation. And we, we. Look, if you don't like the episode, we encourage you to tell us. We, we. We want.
- [32:55]
Captain
We're fine with that. Yeah.
- [32:57]
Nick (The Colonel)
I think because we want it. Every week, my only goal is to do a better job than last week. And every week, the same goal is to put together the best True Crime podcast episode that we possibly can in the amount of time that we have allotted for that.
- [33:13]
Captain
Yeah, but it's a. It's a combination of many things. So you Get a case that's suggested to you, well, how interesting is that case? Are there twists and turns? Are there things that are things in cases or details in cases you've seen before? Are there bizarre things? Does the information make you question anything, whether it's a solved case or unsolved case? But then you have to gather that information up and figure out what timeline of the story and how do you want to tell the story so it becomes, well, is the case interesting or not? How well did you research it? How well did you deliver the information? How cool was the artwork? Was the music? Did the music enhance the episode or did it hinder the episode? Was it embarrassing? You know what I mean? There's. There's a lot of components and. But what's nice. And we've. We've had it happen many times where you feel like the case is fascinating. You feel like we research it well, we feel like we laid it out the best way we could, and it felt good when we recorded it. And sometimes when I'm editing those episodes, I'm like, man, this one's. This one's pretty good. And. And then when you put it out, you get. The crowd goes wild. And sometimes you can feel great about it an episode and put it out, and it's just crickets. But that's life. And like you said, all we can do is to do the best we can and move forward. Number two.
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Nick (The Colonel)
My number two is from September 2025, and it's our Yogurt Shop Murders update case. It was from September 29th of last year. And part of that was, this was a case for me for many, many years. It was a head scratcher, the kind of case that keeps you up at night. The. The case, the type of story that has you constantly analyzing and then reanalyzing the same information over and over again and trying to figure out, what does it mean, what does it tell us about the suspect or suspects? And this case is so complicated because you had false confessions, you had false. You had wrongful convictions. You had four victims, you had four men who were once teenagers. Teenagers at the time of the crime, that police went. Austin Petey went after very, very hard. In fact, landed two of those guys behind prison bars, right? Those guys end up getting their release from prison. And then it wasn't until September of this year that we get the answers. To back up how much this case wrapped me up, got its hooks in me, is we covered the yogurt shop murders in episodes 81 and 82. Then we covered the Yogurt Shop Murders again, it was titled yogurt shop murders 30 years later in episodes 539 and 540. And then the documentary came out last year, the Yogurt Shop Murders documentary. And that gave us the opportunity to revisit the case again.
- [36:48]
Captain
Yeah, because the documentary gave us more insight and more details. Those were interesting episodes because it's also. When you see some of the stuff visually and you get to hear new details and hear stuff from the source, does it change the way you view a case that you have covered so many times?
- [37:07]
Nick (The Colonel)
So that was episodes 866 and 867 in August of 2025. Now when we did, every time we revisited this case, of course we were hoping that they would solve it, they finally figure this thing out. By the time we did those episodes after the documentary had come out, I had pretty much lost all hope that the case would ever be solved, but that it was September of this year that after more than 33 years, we finally got some closure in the infamous yogurt shop murders case that haunted Austin, Texas, since that sad and tragic night when four teenage girls were brutally murdered. And the statement we got from the Austin Police Department and we went into to as much depth as we could with the information out at the time regarding the answers and them finally solving this. But from the Austin Police Department, they said, we've made a significant breakthrough, breakthrough in the 1991 I can't believe it's yogurt murder case with new information. They never quit working this case. That's. That's obvious. You have the four victims, Jennifer Harbison, her sister Sarah Harbison, and their friends Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayers. All four innocent lives taken senselessly and far too soon. Via DNA testing. They identified a suspect, his name, he's deceased. Horrible evil man, serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers, who committed suicide in 1999. While I had some difficulties with the outcome, I was so overjoyed that they finally had. Had figured out who was responsible. This guy, as we discussed in that episode, he was a monster before he killed those girls at the yogurt shop. He was a monster afterwards. This is one of those guys. We talked about him recently and off the record as well. He's one of these guys that none of us would be surprised. None of us should be shocked when they find out months from now or even years from now when they link him to another murder. And that other murder that they link him to could be in another part of this country. But yeah, it was. It was cause for a small celebration. And I'm thankful for the work that Austin PD has done on the case, and I. I applaud them for seeing it through. There's a handful of cases that I can mention that I don't think have been worked. Look. And they were wrong. They were wrong a handful of times in this case. Right. But they stuck to it. And there's other departments out there that could learn from. This is a case that leveled that city, that broke the hearts of everyone in that city. And I think that is what led to. This became personal for Austin pd. And when it becomes personal, there are going to be mistakes that are made. But I. You know what? I'm not, and I will not hold it against a department for taking a case and making it personal. Sometimes that's what you got to do. That's what you have to do. So, anyway, yogurt Shop murders update case that we did, episode we did in September of 2025, and also all the other coverage on the yogurt Shop murders case that we did over the years.
- [40:55]
Captain
I came up with this analogy the other day, which I. I actually thought was brilliant. Sometimes I surprise myself. I was also told on YouTube that I'm as dumb as wood, which is probably correct. But I. I said, I. If I'm going to be as dumb as wood, I want to be as dumb as pine wood. But I came up with the analogy of, you have these. Let's say you're watching, like, a documentary on the NFL and you have a team that was amazing, that got to the super bowl and they just didn't play well. But it's something. They lost the game, and it's something that lives with those players for the rest of their lives. But in these crime cases, with these detectives, they live with these cases for their whole lives, whether they're still working the case or not. It just sticks on them. And the fact that they can keep going over it and keep working it and finally get answers for the victim's families like that, it's a. It's amazing because, like, if you ask any of these players, would you want to replay that game? They'd say, hell, yes. You know, give me the chance again, unlike sports, that's something these detectives can do. They can keep working and fighting for answers.
- [42:20]
Nick (The Colonel)
So my number two, shout out to Phil Rivers. Yeah, he's getting a chance. He's got a chance to go back every. Yeah.
- [42:29]
Captain
So correct me if I'm wrong, but I want to say this was like a Couple years ago, I said something to you of, oh, it'd be because I wasn't clear. When I was watching the Mindhunter series, which was on Netflix, I knew that it was basically a biopic or a docudrama of them creating the behavior science unit at Quantico. And so some of the big people, like when you see scenes of the BTK or them interviewing different serial killers, I was like, okay, well that's probably all pretty factual, but what about these small cases that they're solving when they're doing their, what do they call it? It was like road school or something like that.
- [43:18]
Nick (The Colonel)
Yeah, the road school.
- [43:19]
Captain
But I didn't know if those cases were real or if they were just made up or if they're based off on whatever. So I believe it was like a few years ago I suggested something to you and then you get case suggestions. I get them, we kind of write them down on this master list. And as we're talking and scheduling some cases out, you were like, hey, I got this idea for this Mindhunter series. And I was like, okay, that's cool. But other than me being able to re watch it, I had no clue of how you were going to present it, what you're going to do, how good it would be. And it was almost like, yes, I was in the garage. But it was like a treat to listen to the, the details. I'm, I, I remember like talking to friends and other podcaster friends and going, man, Nick is just knocking this series out of the park. So yeah, it was just an absolute joy. And, and it, and I had no clue what was coming. That's what she said.
- [44:26]
Nick (The Colonel)
Captain, we park our cars in the same garage. We have sharing opinions here because the Mindhunter series that we did in 2025 episodes, 868 to 871, a four part series was my favorite of 2025. Part of it was that I got the opportunity to go back and watch the first season again. The other part of it too, that I really enjoyed was some of our accomplishments as well. Because when you think about Mindhunter, the series, the TV show, and really the true story of it, there were three people at the center of that story. John Douglas, Robert Ressler, and Ann Burgess. When the two of us sat down in the garage the first couple of times and hit record and one, we didn't even know we were going to have a show to release to anybody. And then when we did release it, we didn't know anybody would listen. And then we didn't think we would be doing this, as you said earlier, for all of these years. It's not always difficult, it's not always easy to do the show or put the shows together. But when you get the opportunity to do a show with John Douglas, do a show with Ann Burgess, God bless it, Robert Ressler, I wish he was around. We probably would have got the opportunity to do a show with him as well. I think we've. We've had John Douglas, the mindhunter on our show, I think three times. Dr. Ann Burgess, probably my favorite interview and conversation, true crime conversation ever. Really? Absolutely. I. She's such a gem, such a joy.
- [46:11]
Captain
So here's what's funny too though is John Douglas is very hard to edit and Ann Burgess is very easy to edit. So it's a polar spectrum, but it's. Both of them are fascinating. Listens.
- [46:29]
Nick (The Colonel)
Well, Douglas is the genius that's going to track down the unknown killer based off of the crime scene. And so his mind is just racing like 10,000 miles a minute, where Ann Burgess is more of the brilliant academic who knows how to lay things out in a textbook style. And she was so while she was never a real true sworn in FBI officer agent, she was a consultant and hired and paid by the FBI for many, many years. And we originally had Ann Burgess. That episode was off the record. It was an off the record episode. As brilliant as I always believed her to be, and as much as I always enjoyed her work, I didn't know the conversation would go as well as I thought that it did. And so when we did Mind Hunter series, which was an examination of the dramatization of the Mind Hunter story put out on Netflix, I sat down, pen to paper, watching every episode and going, all right, is that killer real? Is that part of this story? Is this something that was true? Did it even down to the point of a. A Time magazine cover that was in a scene on. Sitting on an end table or coffee table, like is. Was that really a Time magazine cover at any time or was that just something planted there? And we. One of the scenes that I had never picked up on before until I'm looking at it with a magnifying glass, is the scene where the Ann Burgess character is talking to the Robert Ressler and John Douglas character in her office and she's got her bookshelf behind her and I was looking at the spines of every one of those books on that shelf and one of them, in fact, was a John Douglas book that was released in the 90s. And we know people that have Watched the show, know that Mindhunter, this series starts off and takes place in the late 70s. So that book wasn't even out yet. That was just something that, that the, the director and the smart folks that worked on that show kind of planted in the background is something, something fun.
- [48:47]
Captain
Easter egg. Yeah.
- [48:48]
Nick (The Colonel)
And so I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to go back and watch it again. And it was also a good excuse for us to within that series right before we kicked off our series. And this was.
- [49:00]
Captain
Well, the Mindhunter series was episodes 868, 869, 870 and 871. Four part series for your earballs, which.
- [49:11]
Nick (The Colonel)
All took place in the middle of September. What we did was we bookended those with a refill of two of our John Douglas episodes, which I think he's been on for five. I know he's been on three different times. I can't recall if they were all two parters. That was when we had the opportunity to talk with John Douglas about the. Some of the older cases, more infamous cases that the folks out there know, the Zodiac case, the West Memphis 3 JonBenet Ramsey, things of that nature. And then at the other end of that we released our what was originally the off the record episode with Dr. Ann Burgess. Again, she's a first generation Mindhunter along with the other two gents that we mentioned. And her level of understanding and expertise when it comes to victimology and post offense behavior of your suspect is so genius and so valuable to their investigations and their, their manhunt for the criminal, the unknown criminal at the time. So love talking with her. Love talking with John Douglas, of course. And I really enjoyed putting together this series. I'm hoping we can find time in 2026. Maybe we do season two as well.
- [50:31]
Captain
Yeah. So when we did our best true crime documentaries of 2025, we had nothing that overlapped. But on this list of the best of True Crime Garage 2025, we have two that are overlapping because my number one is the yogurt Shop Murders update episode which was episode 874. And it's simply because we've talked about that case, we've looked at that case a bunch of. Again, you want to be hopeful, but I just wasn't. And anytime anything came out about it, I just wasn't. And then there was that documentary that came out which I thought was very well put together, great production. It reminded me of true crime documentaries of old. But when it was all said and done, it didn't leave me with a lot of hope. And then I still remember where I was at. I was laying down on my bed and my phone went off and then it went off again, and then it went off again and I went, who the hell's texting me so late? And there was three or four texts. Did you see that they solved the yogurt shop murders? And I couldn't believe it. I was like, I got up, ran to my computer and I remember finding a news clip about it and posting it, because I like to do that. If you follow us on Facebook or you follow us on Instagram, I'm constantly posting little clips of whether they're cases that we've covered or we're going to cover or cases that we haven't got to yet. I try to just post stuff. So if you're into true crime and what's going on in the true crime world, that's what I do. I, I also do stuff when I hear about a new documentary coming out, I'll post, hey, I heard this new documentary is coming out in a month. So follow us on Instagram and Facebook. But was it our best episode? I don't know. But I never thought the case would get solved. It was a joyous episode because you go, here's this case that's so old that it's a case that there's so much stacked up against you. You have a lot of victims, you don't have that many eyewitnesses. It's a small town. Then we have, you know, teenagers that are accused. You have a fire that, that destroys evidence. You have the firefighters coming in to put out the fire that destroys evidence. And you just wondered, whatever they had, was it solid information, was it solid evidence, were they ever going to solve it? And out of all the cases that you'd want solved, I mean, of course you want them all solved, but we all have like a handful of cases that we're hoping for one day. Like I tell people all the time, if they ever solve the JonBenet Ramsey case, that will break the Internet for a good week. So it was a case I never thought would get solved. And then here we are. And hopefully in 2026, a bunch of cases, a bunch of unsolved and cold cases get solved in 2026.
- [53:58]
Nick (The Colonel)
Thank you, Captain. I love looking back and checking in on our work for 2025 and it's an inspiration for 2026. My top three, my favorite projects, episodes that we did for 2025. Number three was Hate American Made, a six part series that kicked off in April of 2025. Also number two, the Yogurt Shop Murders. Update. Our continued coverage of the Yogurt Shop Murders from Austin, Texas. We did those episodes in September of 2025. And then our Mindhunter series, four parts episodes 868 to 871 is my top choice for 2025.
- [54:49]
Captain
And my list is number three, a killer Halloween. Number two, the Mindhunter series. Number one, the yogurt shop Murders. Update. But man, looking back on all the episodes, we did some of the cases that it's weird because some of them, you, you see the artwork and you go, oh, that doesn't seem like it was that long ago. And other ones were like, wait, we did that this year? I thought that was like two years ago. But man, some wild cases like God's Misfits or David Glenn Lewis, Ellen Greenberg, Killing for Chaos. And I mean, the Missing Solder Children. Like I was like, am I allowed to put that on my list? We just, we just covered it. But I, I thought that case was fascinating and, and I think we did a good job. But who, who freaking knows?
- [55:48]
Nick (The Colonel)
I had a bunch of honorable mentions. Killing was purposeful. Five part series. Back in May, Stolen the Angie Houseman Story. A three part series. The Park Bench Murders. A case that we've continued. A case here from Northeast Ohio that we continue to revisit. The Santa Rosa murders, the Hitchhiking Murders. We did a four part series on that. Killing for Chaos was a bizarre story. Yeah. It always seems to surprise and fascinate me when we sit down and we look at a case. It's not every week, but it is most weeks where I'm like, when am I going to stop being shocked and surprised by the details of these true crime stories?
- [56:34]
Captain
Do you have a favorite off the record episode of last year?
- [56:38]
Nick (The Colonel)
That's a great question. Not one that I anticipated. I will say, though, it doesn't really answer your question. I'm going to go throw this out there. I know I've already referenced it, but of course the Ann Burgess interview was my favorite off the record of all time. Of, of Right. What we've been doing off the record eight of the 10 years that we've been doing True Crime Garage.
- [56:59]
Captain
Yeah, nobody stop counting.
- [57:01]
Nick (The Colonel)
It's a mystery to us. That's somebody, somebody should do an episode on that. Off the record with Ann Burgess, my favorite one of all time.
- [57:08]
Captain
Yeah, we just put out an episode last week called Lifesavers. And going back and editing the episode, it was actually cracking me up, which normally doesn't happen because I'm focused. You know, I got to be extra focused when I'm editing, so. Or the Brian Schaefer Update 1. Even though it was like bogus bullshit information, it was still fun to talk about because that's something. We're going to dive back into that case again this year and I think people are going to be shocked about what we're learning. If you're not subscribed to off the Record, it's the best way to support the show. It's us and the listeners and that's it. And we appreciate everybody that supports True Crime Garage and supports off the Record and we want to thank everybody for joining us here in the Garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother, thanks for telling your brother, and for the long.
- [58:00]
Nick (The Colonel)
Time listeners, thanks for joining us back here for a whole nother year of True Crime Garage.
- [58:05]
Captain
So yeah, onward and upward in 2026. Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
- [58:12]
Nick (The Colonel)
Yes. This week we are recommending Below the Surface, a new true crime podcast. And we have a preview here for you for Below the surface. It's from Abjack Entertainment and hosted by Olivia McKenzie. And every episode you'll hear about a different fascinating, sometimes bizarre case. Some of these cases are solved, some still remain unsolved. And there's always one common theme. Water. The first two episodes are out now and you can find Below the Surface everywhere you listen to podcasts.
- [58:49]
Olivia McKenzie
A missing person, a strange death, a vanished vehicle, a series of unanswerable questions. In so many true crime mysteries, the answers remain elusive. But in many instances, the clock clues lead right to the water's edge. And sometimes the truth lies below the surface. Hi listeners, my name is Olivia and I'm host of the true crime podcast Below the Surface from abjack Entertainment, the podcast that features bizarre cases with a common theme. Water. You can listen to Below the Surface on every major podcast platform or app. Be sure to subscribe today so that you don't miss an episode.
- [59:35]
Captain
For everything True crime, check out truecrimegarage.com and until next week, be good, be.
- [59:40]
Nick (The Colonel)
Kind, and don't litter.
- [60:19]
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