Triggered - The True Crime Podcast

On January 11, 2013, students walking into the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, made a discovery no one should ever have to make. Seventeen-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a three-sport athlete with dreams of going pro, was found upside down inside a standing, rolled-up gym mat. His shoes were behind his knees.

Authorities were quick with their answer: a tragic accident. Kendrick had crawled in to retrieve a shoe and couldn't get out. Case closed.

His family had a different word for it: murder.

What followed was more than a decade of competing autopsies, federal investigations, surveillance footage alleged to have been altered, missing internal organs, lawsuits, and a community split. Every official inquiry closed with the same conclusion. Every closure left new questions behind.

The case has never fully made sense and Kendrick Johnson's parents are still fighting to change the death certificate to this day.

This week, we go to Valdosta.

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A dream vacation to Mexico… turned into a nightmare that still doesn’t make sense.

In March 2023, 23-year-old Kiara Agnew was found brutally beaten to death inside a luxury resort in Playa del Carmen. Just hours earlier, she had been celebrating her birthday with her boyfriend, Ryan Friesen. But what investigators found next would shock even seasoned authorities: Friesen discovered asleep beside her body, covered in blood, with visible injuries to his hands and feet.

He was charged. Then acquitted. And now, after a dramatic legal reversal, declared guilty of her murder… while still maintaining his innocence.

In this episode, we unravel a case that feels more like a psychological puzzle than a clear-cut crime. Conflicting forensic evidence. Questions about what really happened in those final hours. And a justice system thousands of miles from home that may have gotten it wrong. Because the most haunting question remains: if he didn’t do it… then who did?

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***EARLY RELEASE - HAPPY EASTER***

In November 1970, a hiker in the Isdalen valley outside Bergen, Norway, made a grim discovery: the burnt body of an unidentified woman, surrounded by an almost deliberately erased trail. Her labels had been cut from her clothes. Her passport photos showed her in disguise. She had checked into hotels under at least eight different aliases. Norwegian authorities ruled her death a suicide, but almost nothing else about her story is simple.

Who was the Isdal Woman? A spy? A smuggler? A victim? More than fifty years later, she remains one of Europe's most haunting unsolved mysteries. In this episode, we trace her final journey through Norway, examine the forensic breakthroughs that have brought us closer to the truth, and ask why a case this strange has gone unsolved for so long.

Some people disappear. Others are made to disappear. The Isdal Woman might be both.

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The McStay family seemed to vanish into thin air. In February 2010, Joseph, Summer, and their two young sons disappeared from their California home without a trace, no signs of struggle, no goodbye, just an eerie silence. For years, investigators chased a theory that the family had voluntarily fled to Mexico, fueled by grainy border footage that appeared to show them crossing on foot. But behind that narrative was a far more disturbing truth. When the remains of the McStay family were discovered in the desert years later, buried in shallow graves, the case took a chilling turn...one that would expose betrayal, greed, and a killer hiding in plain sight.

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Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka became known as two of the most disturbing and controversial offenders in Canadian history, an outwardly normal couple whose crimes shattered communities across Ontario. Behind closed doors, their relationship was rooted in manipulation, violence, and escalating depravity that led to the assault and murder of multiple young girls, including Karla’s own sister. Their crimes, committed between 1987 and 1992, exposed not only the depths of human cruelty, but also critical failures in the justice system that allowed their violence to continue longer than it should have.

What followed their arrest only deepened the outrage. A controversial plea deal saw Karla Homolka serve just 12 years in exchange for her testimony against Bernardo, who would ultimately receive life imprisonment, despite later evidence revealing her far greater involvement in the crimes. The case ignited national debate, raising uncomfortable questions about justice, accountability, and how evil can hide in plain sight. Decades later, the story of the so-called “Ken and Barbie Killers” remains one of Canada’s most haunting and polarizing cases.

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