My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 312

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

This week’s hometowns include a geode expert and something hiding in a garage.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We at Wondery live, breathe and downright obsess over true crime and now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music, Exhibit C. It's truly criminal. Hello. Welcome to my favorite murder. The mini-soad. Here it is. Here it is. Email reading time and listening time. Hey, get your email ears ready, everyone. Who wants to hear an email? Can you go first? Okay. The subject line of this email is unsupervised in West Cork. Hello to all you gorgeous humans, cats, dogs and mustaches. For years, I've tried to think of a hometown murder, but I kept coming up short. Then I realized if you're looking for stories about

parents neglecting their kids in the 90s, I got you covered. A while ago, my older sister messaged me saying, what would you think of parents leaving their 10 and 12 year olds in a bed and breakfast full of strangers completely alone for the weekend? And I answered, what kind of awful people? Oh, wait, was that our parents? And then she went on to remind me about the time that our parents were invited to stay with friends in Skull, West Cork, circa 1991. We lived in Dublin, but my parents decided they would love to go and sure we'd make a little family holiday out of it. The catch, though, is that there was no room at the friend's house for us kids to stay. The obvious solution to this problem was to leave me and my sister in a bed and breakfast for three nights completely alone

in the middle of nowhere with only a Simpsons cassette tape and sweet Valley High books for company. The fact that we had to use the shared bathroom down the hall only added to the trauma. Oh my God. I must have blocked out these memories, but according to my sister, we freaked out and as we had no phones, we had to wait until my parents returned the next evening. They couldn't see what all the fuss was about. In fact, one of the evenings we all went out to dinner and afterwards our parents put us in a taxi back to the bed and breakfast without any parental supervision. What the fuck? Ten years old and the 12 year olds in charge, you know, right? It's me and my sister. That's how we lived our whole lives. Oh my God. That's why my sister has

so much anxiety because she was a parent from the time she was like four fucking years old. Pictured desolate roads in the pitch darkness. Yeah. Anyway, my parents have both passed away in the last few years, so I can't ask them what the hell they were thinking. They were genuinely good parents, but obviously very naive to the possible dangers. It would be five years later that Sophie Tuscan de Plontier would be murdered at her holiday home along those very same dark desolate roads. Thanks for all your hard work. Keep it up. Stay sexy and always hire a babysitter, Sue, she, her. Yeah. Listen to the podcast Westcork. If you want to hear about that story, it's a really great podcast. Wow. How scary. I kind of liked the way Sue put that email together.

It's like kind of funny and whatever, but then you think about that in terms of how we actually, people who followed true crime know Westcork for it. Oh, holy shit. They're out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. And there was a murder there. Oh my God. But also the idea of a shared bathroom, like you cannot, you're not dropping your kids off in a secured hotel room. You're not. No. No. Crazy. All right. This is called a brush with death question mark, lighthearted. It's lighthearted. Don't worry. Okay, all. I'm a little behind, but I was listening to a recent episode and it reminded me of a story. Years ago, I was dating a guy. I'll call him Steve. Steve and I had plans to go to his friend's house for a big family friend cookout.

As we were getting ready, we got a terrible call from his friend. The cookout was off. That wasn't the terrible news. Her brother, Bob, had gotten into a really bad accident on his way to her house to help set up. She was almost hysterical on the phone, but didn't have a lot of information yet. All she knew was that his car had gone off the road and flipped down a ravine. He'd been life-flighted to a nearby hospital. The family was heading over there and she promised to update us as soon as she knew more. I didn't know Bob at all, but I was absolutely sick with worry. Fast forward about an hour, she calls and says the cookout is back on and that she would see us soon. This seemed absolutely insane to me. Didn't she want to be with family? How could

they have a cookout at a time like this? Steve and I packed up and headed to her house and that's when we got the full story. As Bob was driving to her house, windows down and jamming to the music, a bee flew into his car. Bob was deathly allergic to bees. He panicked and drove his car right off the road, flipping his car five to six times as it tumbled down the hill. He ended up completely upside down, suspended by his seatbelt. Where's seatbelts, everyone? After a patdown, he realized he was actually completely unhurt. Amazing, right? Well, he was unhurt until the bee pissed off from the ride down the hill, landed on his face and stung him right in his GD cheek. Luckily, someone had seen him drive off the road in an already called 911. By the time

help arrived, he was in full anaphylactic shock and had to be life-flighted to the nearest hospital. That's why he had to be life-flighted. This is because of a fucking bee. The whole family showed up to the ER crying and leaning on one another to find out he needed Benadryl. He was released from the hospital very quickly and waits straight to his sister's house, windows up this time. We spent the evening celebrating the most expensive antihistamine ever. Thank you for everything you do. I won't go on and on, but I hope you know how appreciated you are. Stay sexy and roll those windows up. Shannon, she, her. Shannon, okay. The brother, okay. If I rolled a car five times. Yeah. I don't want to go to your barbecue. No, the barbecue's still off.

I'm sorry. The barbecue's still off. I would use that as an excuse to not do anything for four years. Some people like doing things. That wasn't that weird? I know. But also, maybe, I wonder if the brother had some sort of like, because it was a truly near-death experience, like double near-death experience. Yeah. Then maybe he's like, fucking give me a beer. I want to party and live, live, live, because he almost died. Can you drink on Benadryl? Give me a beer. I want to fucking party. Is beer better on Benadryl? Is Benadryl better on beer? B-B-B-B. Bring your own Benadryl. B-Y-O-B. B-Y-O-B. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping, and prepping handled,

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which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for ransom. Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry. As the air supply for the trapped children

dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. The subject line of this is I followed a stranger into the forest because I'm stupid. Then it just says, what up y'all? I've written in before about my badass grandma. So if this is the first of the two that you read, I'm incredibly sorry for the most random story you will ever read. I've listened to every episode you've ever released, countless hours, days, even weeks worth of your content. And if I've learned anything, there are two very important rules to follow as a murdery now. Number one, stay out of the forest. Number two, no secondary locations. And yet, I fucking blew it on both

of these. I have recently taken up mushroom hunting slash foraging slash learning. Yee-haw for neuro divergent hyper focuses. What a treat. And I spend a lot of time in the biggest urban park space in North America. Yesterday, I was at a park that lays parallel to the North Saskatchewan River. I go there often to let my dog get her zooms out, as well as to look for mushrooms to take pictures of or to take home for identifying. I came out of the meadow with fresh picked mushrooms in hand as my dog ran to a couple just ahead who had a puppy. As I stood at a respectable distance to show that I'm not interested in talking, but I will watch my dog play with your dog. I love you. It's literally every time I went to the dog park with George. You just smile down. It would just be like

staying way back where it's just like super. Our dogs can be friends. I do that too. It's the old, I already have enough friends, stamps that you take. Okay. So they're there with the couple. And one of the two do not pick up on this social queue and walked up to me and asked, are those mushrooms? I looked at my hand that was indeed clearly full of mushrooms. And I said, that yes, these are in fact mushrooms. This person then asked me the strangest thing. Do you hunt asparagus? Pardon me? Do I hunt asparagus? I was intrigued. I responded asparagus. No, just mushrooms. I don't think asparagus grows wild here, does it? They gasped, oh yes, it does all over this park. Look, they showed me their phone of the pins in the map that I was

assuming was where they had found asparagus. Now I was invested. And this person could tell that I was a massive nerd for weird things growing out of the ground on the account of the fistful of mushrooms that I'd had. They asked, do you want me to show you? I don't usually offer to strangers because I like to keep my location secret, but I think you'll really find it interesting. Oh my God, you're going to get murdered. You're the easiest target. The things I was thinking as I read this email for the first time, okay, this person asked me not only to follow them into the woods, but follow them into the woods with the promise of secret asparagus. Any normal person would see this as an obvious red flag, but unfortunately, I'm no normal person. And I said,

fuck yeah, show me that asparagus. I followed this absolute stranger into the forest and four seconds into embarking on our asparagus hunt, I realized what a fucking idiot I was for following this person into the woods with the promise of something that's not even cool to most people. No, I love this. That's like you're basically a wood nymph and I'm totally into it. You're just a sucker for nature. Yeah, it's cute. However, 10 minutes into my journey with them, they shouted that they had found the asparagus and showed me. It was one of the most wild plants I have ever seen and it was very cool. I was shocked by how it looked, but also by the fact that there really wasn't asparagus plant growing and it wasn't some weird fucking way to lure some nature nerd

to their death. This is the rare occasion that it actually worked out, but it could have easily been some sort of ploy. Anyways, stay sexy and don't follow strangers into the bush for any reason. Like Jesus Christ, what was I thinking? Lenin, they, them. I like it. I think on this one occasion, I'm going to, I'm going to allow it for real. I honestly thought when I first started reading this that them saying, do you want to see some secret asparagus was a dick reference. I could tell. So I was like, oh no, she like, they're going to follow this random person into the forest and then they're going to turn and be like, here's your asparagus right here. I got really excited. I was like, I'd go, I would follow someone for wild asparagus that I could

buy in a grocery store, but that just sounds really exciting. And then I wouldn't eat too. Cause I'd be like, I bet this is poisonous. Yeah. That's it's, if it's in a public park, it probably has a little bit of DDT on it or some, or just a lot of dog pee dog piss. That's exactly right. Yeah. All right. Okay. I'm not going to read you the subject. Oh, but I'm not going to read you the line of that. That gives it away, but then it says in the subject line, also you reading the email, you look great. Have you done something with your hair? Incredible. Someone's trying real hard to get their email read and it worked to get Alejandro to pick there. That's right. Okay. It just starts. Hi. I'm the youngest of five with four older sisters

who are always looking out for me to make sure I didn't accidentally kill myself. We grew up on a farm. So there were always plenty of opportunities for this story. I was just a toddler. So personally, I don't remember it at all, but I've heard about it a lot. Picture it. Rural farmhouse, the year is 1999. Who knows what's going to happen? I'll tell you, two of my sisters, ages seven and 13, were all ready to go to karate lessons and found me by the broom closet, sucking on a bottle of pine soul. Not a Zen way to get ready for karate. They knew my mom, I just bought a new bottle of pine soul. And here was one in my wee hands, empty. Apparently, chaos ensued. Was I going to die? Someone ran to the barn to get my mom. Emergency room was

discussed. They took turns spelling my breath while I cried. Then our mom remembered she had placed the new bottle of pine soul in the garage. So this was the old empty bottle that I had found because we don't throw away perfectly good bottles. My sisters aren't sure if they still went to karate that night, but they do say that the scent of pine soul still hits different. Stay sexy and maybe recycle a couple of those poison bottles and maybe also take karate and also maybe don't make cleaning products smell so good. Morgan from Manitoba, that's Canada above North Dakota and Minnesota. Love you. Bye. She heard they, them all good. Thanks for everything you do. Heart emoji. What was the name? Sorry, Morgan. Morgan, yeah. From Manitoba, that's Canada.

Manitoba hates us. Manitoba things were dumb and you know what? They're right. They're probably right. Here's what's funny to me. Like this smell of pine soul, I think is so gross and it's like it's a grammar school bathroom being cleaned is what it smells like to me. So the idea that a baby wants to be closer to that where it literally is like pine, like it's that pine soul. Yeah. Keep your mouth away from that. Okay. I'm not going to read you the subject line of this. Hey, MFM crew. At this point, it may be a fever dream, but I'm sure that you asked for geode stories. So here's mine. No, there's no way, but I love it. They're sure we asked for geode stories. But you know, we could have in that way of like geodes look like treasure and if you find one or

make money off of them, who knows? I'll take it. I'll allow it. Yeah. I mean, always allowed at this point. A few months ago, a bunch of our friends went to the river to celebrate my sister's birthday, sunshine drinks and a dry riverbed full of rocks. I instantly thought of the geode TikToks that I've been seeing lately of people picking up rocks, smashing them open and finding treasure inside. Someone suggested that we go for a walk and I knew this was my time to shine. Well, on the walk, I spotted it around rock with a small crack in it already jackpot. I'm a geode hunter. I excitedly gathered all my friends around me to witness my expertise. Like the asshole that I am. I go on explaining how you need to hit the rock just right. It only takes two hard taps.

I'm absolutely losing it as I crack the geode open. This is it. Now begins my geology career. To realize I am holding and have just cracked open a nugget of petrified poop. I tried to say face by examining it. Oh, no. Best follow up line ever. Totally. I tried to say face by examining it and wondering aloud what animal it could have been from when my sister's friend knocked it out of my hand, suggested I stop touching shit, and we grab more drinks. Oh my God. You'd had too many white clothes at that point, I guarantee it. Yeah. I mean, luckily there's a river right there to wash your hands, but holy shit. Needless to say, my geology career was short-lived. Thank you for being so open about

mental health and for being human, making mistakes and owning them. I'm a preschool teacher and one thing I say with my kids every day is I am a good kid. I make mistakes and that's okay because that's how we learn. Cough touching poop instead of geodes cough. Stay sexy and wash your fucking hands, leave. I love that. That's a good one. That's a good one. You know, for all the geode stories we ask for. Yeah. Come here. Should we ask for geode stories now? Hey, send us your geode stories. What did you pick up and think was a geode and put your hands all over and had everybody come and look at that actually was not? Okay. This one, my last one's called The Monster in the Garage and it goes, it starts, Stephen. Hey, y'all. I restarted the podcast about two months into

quarantine, so I don't know what you're requesting for hometowns now, but I thought you might dig this story. We don't either. No. My husband and I decided to clean out the garage on a hot day. We were about halfway through with all our stuff laying around the driveway and I decided to go inside for a drink. Well, I was in the kitchen having some water. Yeah, right? You're having a white claw and you know it. My husband, a fairly large, strong man, burst through the back door and said, oh my God, something's in the garage and it growled at me. Come outside. He said he couldn't see whatever it was, but it was in the back of the garage and he didn't know what to do or how to get it out. I walked back outside and grabbed a kayak paddle ready to fight whatever

it was that had scared him and on high alert waiting to be attacked. After maybe two seconds of silence, I clicked my tongue hoping to draw out the beast and out from the darkness trotted a basset hound puppy. Just all wrinkles and ears. Behind me, I husband say, are you fucking kidding me? Karen, a basset hound puppy. Like there's no cuter puppy on the planet. Unless he had a Sherlock Holmes hat on. Oh my God. In a little kerchief. Oh my God. A little pipe. The little guy had gotten loose from somewhere and taken refuge in our garage. He had tags and we were able to reunite him with his owner, but I'll never let him live down that he was terrified of this little darling and his first instinct was to come ask me to get it. Thank you for all the laughs and the

advice. Never stop, Rian. Rian, that's the best story. That's it. Short and sweet. Yeah. And also how lucky you got a basset hound puppy stuck in your garage. You're so lucky. I know. I want that. It's a good omen. Well, if you have any geode basset hound children on their own in the world together. Yeah. Stories. We want to hear them. That's right. Please send in the my favorite murder a gmail. And also stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton. Our producer is Alejandra Keck. This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris. Our researchers are Marin McClashen and Gemma Harris. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays

to myfavoritmurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at myfavoritmurder and Twitter at myfavemurder. Goodbye. Listen, follow, leave us a review on Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Prime members, did you know that you can listen to my favorite murder early and add free on Amazon Music? Download the Amazon Music app today. You can support my favorite murder by filling out a survey at wendery.com slash survey.