Small Town Murder - #502 - Runaway Husband - Walton, New York

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

This week, in Walton, New York, a happy couple renovate an old farmhouse, and begin their mission to grow the largest pumpkins in the world... until the husband leaves, for another woman. As the wife tries to pick up the pieces with a new relationship, but has a very minor legal problem that leads to a wild reaction. Death, a blazing inferno, and the unravelling of the mystery of the missing husband! Did he actually run away??Along the way, we find out that some people pay money to look at goats, that the world record pumpkin is over 2,700 pounds, and that sometimes you think there's no murder, and there's actually a whole bunch of murder!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. She was a romance mystery writer. They gloomed on the fact that she writes stories like this. There are murders in all of the books. From Wondery, the makers of Ghost Story and Feta, this is a story about a murder that rocked my little community. Binge all episodes of Happily Never After ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

Yeah, choo choo. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today. All aboard the murder train.

Hop on, punch your tickets and do all that good old timey stuff because we are pulling away from the station with some crazy, crazy murder train. Hop on, punch your tickets, and do all that good old timey stuff, because we are pulling away from the station with some crazy, crazy murder today. This is a real weird one we got for you. We're coming hard. We're trying to make every week be better than last week. That's what we want to do, and we've been trying to do for years, and so hopefully we're doing that.

But before we get started very quickly, shutupandgivemur give me murder calm the place to go For everything that involves the show merchandise tickets for live shows, especially That's right. You're up next Minneapolis September 20th. This will be our biggest show ever if you sell this out you can beat Chicago. It's gonna be great Holy shit, we can't wait. We're so excited next night is Milwaukee and that's at the Pabst, which is a beautiful place It's just about sold out. So if you want two big shows back to back two tickets left there Yeah, Minneapolis the State Theater and it's a beautiful theater. My god, we're so excited for it

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This week for crime and sports, nothing to do with sports, a lot to do with death. It is industrial disasters we're gonna talk about. It's crazy, just people getting melted by molten steel. It's insane. Whole reason OSHA exists. It's wild. Oh yeah and a lot of these are from other countries where you're like, Oh my god There's no regulations for that, huh? And then for small-town murder we're gonna talk about a very weird tale the cannibal cop story If you remember from about ten years ago a little bit more Very weird will fall will delve into it. Did this guy actually want to do anything? Was he trying to do something was he oh some kind of weird fantasy writer? We'll figure it all out there

We'll talk about all out there. We'll talk about it. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show too. So that's a lot of fun. You'll get your name mispronounced. Everybody wants that. It's like getting your weight guessed at a carnival.

Like you know they're not going to get it right and you know you're not going to get the name right either because names are hard. I'm telling you they are difficult so I sympathize with you. That said I think it's time everybody. I think it's time wherever you are. I think it's time to sit back, ignore the surroundings. I don't care where you are. Where are you?

At an ear, nose and throat doctor's waiting room? It doesn't matter. Bunch of people sniffling and snorting around you. I want you to stand up, throw your arms to the sky, and let's all shout, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it. We are going to New York this week. Oh, fantastic. So not too far of a trip for us here. We are going to Walton, New York, which I have never heard of. No, first I was like, Oh, Walden. No, no, Walton. It's farther. It's like kind of central New York is the best psych. South central New

York kind of near the Pennsylvania border ish in that region. Oh, we've never really done this region. It's always been the Western over by Rochester and Buffalo or we've done one in the capital region, but Long Island, Hudson Valley, that sort of thing. But we're going here. It's about an hour to Binghamton. That's where the area is. About three hours to New York City if there's no traffic. And then three hours the other way to Penfield, New York. That's our last our last episode We were in New York episode 457 the kinky killer so Yeah, so three hours to New York City three hours to the Rochester area So this is kind of right in the middle of the state here population

5,260 and Yeah, and this is like kind of like farmland idyllic. This is like when you drive through Central, Pennsylvania This is what this looks like it's that sort of thing where it looks like shit would grow there big balls of grass Big ball big grass fucking yeah spools that way We have big spools of grass you'd call looks like a big fruit roll up like a big grass roll up Yeah, big grass pinwheel there you you go. Median household income here, much lower than the national average. It's 45,250.

Average is about 70,000. Median home price, though, same thing, way low, 165,900 dollars. What is happening here? I'm telling you, this is the land time forgot in this area. It's wild. The town motto here, and this might tell you why,

because it's sparse, we'll put it that way. The scarecrow capital of the world. So you know there's a lot of fields, because you don't have scarecrows without fields, so that's what it tells you. When was the last time you saw one of those in the wild? Just like, and not be like sarcastic, like a real one? Not being ironic.

One that's actually meant to scare crows away. I don't know, I'm not on a lot of farms, I guess. Maybe. I haven't seen one in a minute. It's been a bit, yeah, I gotta say. History of this town, little bit of history of this town here. The town, I guess, people came here after the American Revolution because people in the city were pissed off at each other about some of them were British supporters and some

of them were, they were loyalists to the king and some of the people were from colonists and they didn't like each other. So some people moved out to here to get away from people they didn't like essentially. So Okay, yeah, 10%. Yeah, like political movement here. Weird. So the town was formed in 1797 by the New York State Legislature. First town meeting was held in a log church in 1797. William Walton, who it's named after,

was a wealthy New York City merchant who owned a lot of property in New York City. You're telling me this was named after Bill Walton? Yeah, Bill Walton. He came here with his hookshot and everything. Hell yeah. Big Irish weirdo. And he averaged 12 rebounds a game so we were pretty impressed with the guy. I gotta be honest with you. How timely. Rest in peace sir. It's gotta happen. Yeah, yeah, he did die. Walton is the birthplace of William B Ogden everybody from here is named William by the way. It's one of the rules William Ogden is the first mayor of Chicago. So there you go So reviews of this town four stars. Here we go. Walton is a great neighborhood free from violence

The people here are very polite and friendly free from violence, the people here are very polite and friendly. Well, that's not true. That's not true at all. I go to school every day and meet so many nice people that make my day a lot better. This is a child. There's such great traveling access. She can go anywhere. It takes forever to get anywhere.

There's a road, James. There's roads out. They have roads out of this town. I love how four stars. We have roads. Hey, look at that. You can roads out. They have roads out of this town. I love how four stars, we have roads. Hey, look at that. You can get out. The scenery is very beautiful and relaxing. I sit in the bus every day on my way to school,

admiring the beautiful trees and plants and buildings in Walton. What a fuckin' nerd. This person just stares out the, yeah. They're not trying to make friends, fuck around, burn the seat with a lighter and make a smiley face. They're not doing anything that you're supposed to do on a bus, none of that shit.

Just smoke a cigarette, bud. Yeah, you could do it in the back row with the window open. We used to smoke weed back there, for Christ's sake. The neighborhood does have some loudness when it comes to cars. During the night, the car can be very loud, waking me up from my sleep. The car.

There's a car that goes by that wakes me up. That's what the one star taking away from. There's one person down with a loud car. Somebody bought some Borla exhaust and it's annoying. Wow. Oh shit. Two stars, Walton is a small country town. It has a very friendly, homey feeling.

There are many active citizens who play a vital part in the community. What it needs though, here we go, is to upgrade, to have small business growth. There are not many job opportunities available. Many graduates have to leave the area to go to school and then seek a job because it's a small fucking town. It's a farm town.

If you want to farm, there's a place. And its location has like, it's made it nearly impossible for the economic growth, it's so far from everything. Yeah, it's in the middle of nowhere and that's all it is, is there's just, where are you gonna work? It's kind of awesome but it sucks. It's nice if you work from home, you know what I mean? Like, you know, if you can zoom to your job, then great,

yeah, fuck it, you can make a- If it's a well-paying job know, if you can zoom to your job, then great, yeah, fuck it. You can make a- If it's a well-paying job, but if it's a fucking shit job, then you're stuck, man. You're kinda stuck there. Things to do, here it is, the PorchFest. Yeah.

PorchFest. Porch-sittin' capital of the world. Well, PorchFest concerts are held throughout North America in over 125 locations and this year Delaware County residents will have the opportunity to experience it right in their backyard. Oh, they got their own. A variety of musicians will perform on front porches or at other venues in the area and visitors can walk from venue to venue to experience music, different music genres and performers.

Now there's not a lot of different music genres. I'll put it that way. No, there's not a lot of different music genres, I'll put it that way. No, there's a lot of countries. Mainly one particular music genre. But they have all of this, the Open Horse Show they have, that is not music, that's just a show. The Open Goat Show, which sounds crazy.

Donut, yeah. Crazy, man. Vesper Service is one of the bands that we'll be playing. Then they have an open meat goat show, so you got that. Oh, meat, M-E-E-T. No, no, no, meat. Like these are goats that we kill for meat. These are like goats you eat, these goats.

There's a whole exhibition on canning tomatoes, so if you wanna figure that out, we're gonna talk to, or not talk to, hear from Buffalo Barfield, which is a band. There's just an illusionist in the entertainment court. Not even tell you who he is. He's pulling shit out of hats, though. There is also the Driftwoods,

and then it says country in parentheses. We inferred. Driftwoods. No I would expect that. The Nate Gross band who is blues and southern rock will be there. The singing oldies Mary Frances Perricone will be there. And finally the Beatle brothers, B-E-A-D-L-E, the Beatle Brothers who sing Today's Country and More. Oh yeah. And they claim to be high energy. Also Yesterday's and probably the day before that. They're going to make, and also Tomorrow's. They're going to get your boots a-tapping I'd say. You betcha. High energy and also Cowboy Circus will be there,

or whatever the fuck that is. Clowns for the rodeo? I think it's a band. Oh, nice. Yeah, it's a band named Cowboy Circus. Trust like rodeo cowboys? So, that said, if there's no murders at this event, besides goats.

There should be. I don't like meat your dinner, I don't want that. I don't like that at all. They also have meat for cows, too. So that said let's talk about a murder What do you say here? Let's do it. Here we go. Let's introduce ourselves to some people Howdy folks. Here we go. Hi there Randy Sundstrom step on up Randy Sundstrom born in 1963 Randy is Randy is from Roscoe, which is another town around here. Yeah, up here. He's one of three children. His parents

were farmers. Charles and Florence. Florence the farmer. He joined the army in 1981 after he graduated from high school. Yeah. Served two years in the army because there's not, didn't really know what to do. One of those people who doesn't really have any interest in college at the time and he's more into mechanical things and not a lot of jobs. So they joined the army and there's a couple years to kill to figure it out. So he then came home and operated a small engine repair shop. So that's what he was small engines, small engine repair

shop. Yeah. Small. Basically it's the place where Billy Bob Thornton works in sling blade. I picture. Yeah. It's exactly. It's not like small 273. It's like lawn mowers. I feel like, you know, I'll get that mower humming again and then you pay him in french fried potatoes and it's all good. It's a good day there. 1989 here, he's got several girlfriends Randy. Randy's not at the same time or anything but Randy, he's got a girl here, a girl there. The ladies don't hate him. Put it that way. You know what I mean? Handsome guy and everything.

He ends up. Well, Cuss has got his own job. He's got his own company. He ends up going and working for other places we'll talk about. I don't think this really, as in Slingblade, which it didn't look like a real lucrative business going on there.

It doesn't. Fixing like one lawn mower every three days. I don't know how much that you can charge for that. It looks like they bring the mower in and he says, yeah, give me a couple of days with it. Then in two days he says, nope, flat broken, can't even repair it. They're like, all right, then you just hang on to that. I'll go buy a new one. And then he hangs it on the wall. He has a storage like a storage room full of old lawn mowers and he lets irreparable

shit he lets mentally challenged murderers sleep in it Which makes a lot of sense so he uses it makes it uses them to make weapons if you've never seen sling blade We just described it. That's it, but it's a great movie. That's the crazy part Fantastic it's great movie. So watch it if you haven't seen it you're looking for something good So 1989 he's got this girlfriend and he knocks her up. Yes, gets her pregnant and fathers a child with her. This is in 89-ish. So it's a daughter, her name's Mindy, and he ends up just taking off when she's about a year old. He's done. He's done. Well, not just not to run away from the child,

but for another woman. He meets a woman that he likes, and he moves like 30 miles away, but never talks to or sees that kid ever again. 30 miles down the road, and never sees her. Well, she'll tell you exactly how, but basically that she, she like didn't even, she got like a couple of birthday cards here and there, sent her

a gift card for high school graduation. That's pretty much it. Like nothing else. Like a necklace for a birthday one time. Not like never like, never picked her up or like gave her a ring or nothing. So that's rough, man. Yeah, no ice cream, just those two things. Not even a pick up and we'll stop on the way and get you a necklace and get

some ice cream. It just came in the mail. She was like, oh, I guess that's from dad. The woman that he left for is named Deborah Ryman, and R-I-E-M-A-N is her last name. She's a couple years younger, but same ballpark. She's also from the area around here. Her parents are William and Sandra, and she has three siblings, two sisters and a brother, and she graduated from high school,

and she grows up in Walton. So this is like her main hometown and graduates from high school in Walton in 1984. And so Randy takes off, okay? Walton is about 30 miles away from Livingston Manor, which is where his girlfriend and his baby are. So the daughter here said quote, I didn't really know him. He wasn't around until I was about two. That's when he met Deborah and moved to Walton and I didn't

see him again. Rambling man. That's it. He's a rolling stone. He sent a few birthday cards a necklace for Christmas one year and a gift card when I graduated from high school That was it. That's the sum total of his parental involvement in her life. That's her relationship with her dad Wow, that is rough, man. I hope she's getting some some therapy there. She's gonna end up with an asshole. So She said from our belief from everybody's belief. It was Deborah that kept him away from me so that's what everybody says Deborah did not want him having anything to do with that daughter and He and Deborah don't have any kids either

So I don't know if she just has an intro isn't interested in kids and doesn't want kids around Yeah, it's not even that he's too busy with a bunch of other kids Like we have three kids or I want you to pay attention to my kids, or whatever it was, it's not like that. So these two end up buying a house. They end up buying a farmhouse, an old little farmhouse built in 1900 on a half acre lot. And it's a little tiny place, a little two bedroom place, not a big place, but they fix it up all nice how they like it. It's at 1884 South River Road in Walton, and later on, I'll give you the Zillow stats on that at the end, because I know everyone's, our people are like, let me look that up. I'm riveted.

Yeah. So, Deborah gets a job working with the Delaware County Social Welfare Agency. She works there for years and years. Randy, for a long time, commuted to Oneonta, which is a good distance away. He worked in the warehouse for Drogon's Home Furnishings, which I've never heard of. Drogon's? That's a beautiful couch.

What is that? Oh, it's a Drogon. I got it from Drogon. Ew, what? Yeah, it sounds disgusting. Right? Sounds like there's like jizz in it. I don't want that couch.

Sounds like everything is ugly. Everything's ugly. Everything's green. Drogons, we specialize in the hideous. Drogons for shitty motel furniture. That's what they make. Motel furniture where bodily fluid stains won't show up. That's they have a special lab. That's they have a special lab.

Yeah, they have a special lab with like, they put together patterns that don't show anything. They're like, we finally did it. This doesn't show blood, mud, semen, anything. It's amazing. The most unsellable furniture. It's disgusting. Then he ended up getting a job at Scott Machine Corp,

which is an engraving place. They do a lot of engraving, so that's in Walton, so he didn't have to commute anymore. The place things remembered sends all their shit. Essentially, yeah, that. Yeah, the guy at the mall isn't fucking doing it. He doesn't do that. When you go up there, there's a 21 year old chick selling you a Zippo. She's not gonna go in the back and engrave a message to your grandfather in there. It's not gonna happen. Oh, we're gonna throw this to FedEx. They're gonna take it to Scott's in New York.

They're gonna take it to some hillbilly and he's gonna carve it in it. That's how this is gonna work. So by the late 90s, this couple gets into some, they get into some weird shit, man. Now normally on this show when I say they get into some weird shit It's like the occult or you know, they're having orgies or they're having like, you know Meth sex parties in a barn or something that are like sponsored by a local soda company or some weird shit We get all sorts of weird shit Bloodletting yeah, they're doing something even stranger in my opinion. They begin an obsession with growing giant pumpkins. Didn't expect that, did you? Yeah. Trying to figure

out how big they can get this pumpkin. If you want to know where giant pumpkins come from, here is where they come from. This area is big in the giant vegetable fruit growing world. Really? Absolutely. They grow giant watermelons. But competition level. Shit for just weight and stuff like that. This became their whole life. They want the best, biggest pumpkin. Remember when we had the guy in the box there

that got found in the box 40 feet away from the trailer, that lady. And they got real into that like that shooting thing like the Target shooting or they dressed up Western period. Yeah, that's what these people do except with pumpkins so huh, it's very strange here Randy was the founder and president of the New York State Giant Pumpkin Growers Association the NYS GPGA That's a oh too much the New York State Giant Pumpkin Growers Association, the NYSGPGA. Too much.

There's a lot of letters on your shirts there. Randy, you should have picked a better acronym there, I think, that's not an acronym that you wanna have there. Yeah, that's what they do. In 2004, he ended up telling the Daily Star newspaper that he found pumpkin growing habit-forming. Because you get obsessed with growing the next one and the next one. And he said their goal, they said in 1999,

they set a goal to break the state record for pumpkins. That's what they're gonna do. They're gonna be pumpkin champions. Oh, we'll go over all the pumpkin stuff, don't worry. Okay, all right, all right. First of all, you need a pumpkin mentor. Don't worry. All right. All right. First of all, you need a pumpkin mentor. Yeah.

Who's the big pump? You can't just fly blind in this pumpkin fucking world. Can you? No. They have Bill Boebier. That's their pumpkin mentor. That's him. Well, he also owns a chimney cleaning business in the area as well.

So that's what he does for his job. But he also- He's doing a Disney job as head gourd? He owns the business. I don't know if he gets all dusty and does fucking dances in the street with street urchins. I'm not sure if that happens or not. It could. Don't get me wrong.

I'm not putting it past him. With the shitty umbrellas? With the shitty umbrellas and just covered in soot. But he met them and when Randy called him and said, listen man, you don't know me, but I could really use some pumpkin guidance and maybe you could like hook me up. And the guy was like, no problem.

And he became their pumpkin mentor and close friend. Unreal. Yeah, he's the pumpkin whisperer, this guy. He's gonna do it. They would have barbecues at each other's homes and spend many days together at pumpkin way-offs. That was... Way-offs?

Everybody's weekend consists of getting trailers loading your giant fucking pumpkins onto them and then trucking them to a way-off and hanging out. That's their social life. They do it every weekend. Oh, boy. Yep. Every Christmas, Randy bought two collectible jack knives with pumpkin motifs. He would give the same one, identical knives, and he would give one to Bill and then keep

one for himself. So every year they had like a little, one of those little heart necklaces. Oh matching knives! Yeah. He put them together and it says Bill and Randy forever. It's really cute. That's really cute, isn't it? And adorable. Jack knives. Well, isn't it? Isn't that adorable?

Jackknives. Well, wow. Matching blades. Yeah. Matching blades. Let's do it. Bill described Debra as always happy and smiling and as Randy as a really great guy. Just a terrific guy.

Bill said, we never saw issues, so to speak, like between the couple. The couple was always getting along. He said, they always just seemed perfect for each other. They were both into gardening do it yourself They were home bodies homesteading type of things It seemed like they really enjoyed doing stuff together growing together canning together cooking together Their whole life. They don't have any other activities that they do He said Randy was the type of guy who that didn't burden anyone with his problems. He was outgoing with his friends but he kept any problems to himself.

He's a gentleman. Yeah he's the type of guy that people like generally. It's a good friend. Yeah keep your personal shit out of this we're having a beer. He's one of these guys good guy real funny good, wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful. That's what some old redneck would say about him. That's exactly what they like. So their religion here, let's talk about. Okay, not only do they have pumpkins,

but dozens of tomato plants and other vegetables as well. They grow blueberries and grapes. This isn't a half acre. This isn't a lot of land, too, to be growing all this shit. Yeah. Are they praying to a sun god? I don't know. They didn't hang out at bars, didn't go to church, didn't go to social events other than that, didn't go out to dinner, just pumpkins and pumpkin-related things. Their friend Bill said they garden. That was their religion.

Gardening. Gardening gardening that's a religion I can get behind shit grows yeah you're getting happen there's a there's a definite result giant sure yeah giant pumpkin that's that's something that's amazing 2007 they participate in the PBS I believe it was on PBS on the documentary Lords of the Gourd.

Oh boy. Oh yeah, this is one of those extreme, extreme pumpkining, man. So they say in this, Lords of the Gourd, viewers encounter offbeat and endearing growers who tend, pamper, and coddle their plants as if they are children, coaxing them to grow to unnatural size.

One pumpkin person said, I can't go any place. Someone will ask me, how's your pumpkin doing? He's a pumpkin celebrity. He's like, I can't even walk down the street. People just come up to me with pumpkin questions. They said they have to, you have to test the soil frequently, you have to nourish it, water, fertilizer, and everything has to be measured very precisely

when you're pumpkin growing. They said that it turns, the hefty squash turned gingerly and supported carefully when you're moving it. Yeah, you gotta roll it, yeah. You gotta do that. Some devoted disciples tuck their pumpkins in with blankets every night and greet them enthusiastically with a tape measure every morning.

What? Let's see how big you are little pumpkin. It sounds like a comic book villain like growing something that's going to eat the city and it's like, oh, there you are my darling. Look at you getting hungry. You're going to eat everybody. Seymour didn't even measure... That's the first thing I thought of, was Rick Moranis doing that too. He's not out there checking it. Nope. There are rumors of creative techniques used by determined growers. They're on the juice, man! They're roiding! This is crazy.

That's not natural. Look at all the pimples on it. It looks, look at that fucking pumpkin. It looks like Barry Bond's head. What are we talking about here? A lot of bumps on that gourd. Oh, that's not right. People who'll go to any lengths to raise a winner, spraying the fruit with milk. Not milk!

Oh God, now that's uncalled for. Or injecting it directly into the flesh, cradling the pumpkin in its own hammock, talking to it. How's that illegal? That should be the standard. What's the problem? Surrounding the pumpkin patch with end-to-end mousetraps. Oh, to keep things from eating it, yeah. There'd be a lot of scarecrow here, I bet. Oh, you bet.

Lord of the Gourd follows Joe Pukos and fellow competitors Bill Bobier, that's their guy, Bernie Potter, Deb and Randy Sundstrom, and Matt Verschneider, and through the final harrowing days of harvest, and then on the long journey cross state with the bulging behemoth strapped into the backs of their pickups. You gotta be careful with it then, you don't want to hit-diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers, and strange rashes. Though our minds tend to spiral to worst-case scenarios, it's usually nothing, but for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting

symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery. Like the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter, whose body was found at home by his son, except it looked like he had been cremated. Or the time when an entire town started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their ceilings. Hey, listeners, it's Mr. Ballin here, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast. It's called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at night.

Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music. SkaMers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagge. And we're the host of SkaMfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery

that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims and what's left once a facade falls away. We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit filed by Larry King, and no real product to push. He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs. To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Giudice, what should have proven

to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now on Wondry+. Poucos is a contender for the top prize until last minute rumors circulate that another grower has a pumpkin that will break the world record. At the Cooperstown Weigh Off, the massive gourds are hoisted one by one onto the scales and the moment of truth arrives. This is Ver Schneider says, you go to enough competitions and you can't help it.

You're addicted. You do anything you can to hopefully come back with a larger one next year. Oh my God. This is my penis. I'm talking about now. Pumpkins is a whole different thing. Right. Um, so in 2008, the sunstroms grew a pumpkin that weighed. How much you think it weighed? I didn't know anything about this. so... I'd guess three, four hundred pounds. Fourteen hundred fifty-nine pounds! That's what they grew!

A fifteen hundred... how do you fucking move that? That's what I mean! You need like a crane, they pick it up and then... Yeah, you gotta have a hoist! A hoist and everything else. That was tenth in the United States that year, by the way. There were nine bigger! Nine bigger. I have a list of biggest pumpkins ever here. Oh I can't wait. Quick side track in 1900 the biggest pumpkin was 400 pounds.

Yeah that's it. That's right. It quickly grew by 1990 the biggest pumpkin was 816 pounds. Double. It took 90 years to get to that. But then it's going to double from that real quick. It doesn't take 90 years. Then by 1999, 1331 pounds.

By 2000 and beyond, now 2006, 1502 pounds. By 2014, 2323 pounds. Who the hell grew that? Well I'll tell you right now. Benny Meyer from Switzerland grew that. Nobody knows him. Nope. And then finally Travis Geinger from Minnesota in 2023 grew a 2749 pound pumpkin.

That is the current world record. Nobody knows him. Maybe he out Stefano cut rupee from Italy who has a 2,703 pounder and he is That is so big Calls the pumpkin a disgratsiade. Disgratsiade, ah, oh! Kicking holes in it. Son of a bitch. All this time for nothing.

For nothing. Travis Ganger says that he grows pumpkins. He named the giant pumpkin before it set the record. He named it Michael Jordan for its perfectly round shape like a big basketball. Oh, and it looks great. And it looks great. He said, the greatest basketball player of all time is now the greatest pumpkin of all time. What the fuck are you talking about? What does he do?

I don't know. He said, I thought it was going to be a basketball round, but it's not. It grew into this. So there you go. He beat it. So that was his third time. He hauled a pumpkin all the way from Minnesota to one of the pumpkin weigh-offs in Half Moon Bay,

which is south of San Francisco. He drove a pumpkin 2,000 miles. It's fucking insane. The grand prize he won though $30,000. Okay that's worth it. How long does that take? A long time and you have to have a day job. He operates a gas fire table business. What the fuck is that? Oh he makes propane oh, it's propane tanks in it. Stupid propane. Yeah, yeah, for your patio.

Those are douchey. Pretty good. Yeah. They are, let's be honest. Our two opinions are clashing. Fucking douchey. Get the hell out of here with those things. It's nice to have a little table out front.

I like it. Oh, there's a, it's always like douchey restaurants that have that on their patios. It's useless. Bad motels. I mean, you're not putting marshmallows on it. No. It doesn't warm. Doesn't do anything.

It just sits outside of a home two suites while you fucking walk through the door. Burned provane. He did say 30,000 isn't even the biggest deal. It's that they gave me a jacket. It's like for the masters, but probably more important. He's got his orange jacket. It's gotta be an orange jacket, right?

It has to be bright orange. Fucking better be. It has to be, it has to be. So anyway, that's what's going on here. That's what they're doing. That's 2007, 2009, they're growing this crazy pumpkin. So you think? It should culminate in like a giant carving

of that thing for Halloween, right? With Michael Jordan's face in it, absolutely. You could put some sick designs in that. Do the Jumpman logo. There you go. That's amazing. That's what it should be. So you think everything's going great for them.

In 2009, they're 1400 pound pumpkins. It's incredible. It's going great. 2010 comes around. You'd imagine this couple is just cooking along, man. Everything's the pies they have pumpkin pies coming out of their ass just all over the place. You just sell that thing to Costco, right? To make their pies. Just boom. All of it. That's all your pies. There you go. There you go. 3000 pounds. Get after it. Now, February 19th, 2010, Randy takes off. Come on here too. No, he's gone. 3000 pounds. Get after it. Now February 19th 2010, Randy takes off.

He's gone here too? No he's gone. Takes off. Yeah. Randy's a bounder boy. When he's done, he's done apparently. And she tells all the friends, all the whole pumpkin people, Randy left me! She's upset. She comes up. People are hugging her. They feel terrible. And she said to one friend quote He ran off with another woman. Believe me. You don't know the real Randy good riddance

Again done done with him. Yeah, he's a scumbag and he's running away and he made me think that he was interested in pumpkins And he's really not so He's out She told everybody the co-workers neighbors friends his friends, his job, because they called the house, and he goes, he didn't show up there either? Well, yeah, he left me, because he's a dirt bag, and he took off. And yeah, even she'll have a boyfriend.

She even tells the story to the boyfriend's mom and all this, his whole family. You know, I had this husband, we were one of the lords of the gourd, and yeah, he took off on me. She then tells everybody too, that she found out that his new girlfriend is pregnant as well.

So that's- He wanted kids after all. Yeah, he knocked somebody else off, took off, and then also on top of that she said, I'm happy he's gone because he used to beat me. And he was aggressive? He would beat me and he took off now, so good riddance fuck

him you know what I mean? And Bill was like what are we talking about here? My pumpkin jackknife brother? There's no way. Yeah he's my guy. My pumpkin brother? Yeah he said that she pretty much told us that Randy had met someone else, she got pregnant and he'd just taken off to start a new life. We thought maybe he was embarrassed or whatever. I always felt that when it was time for him to get in touch, he would. Like, I don't know. It's hard to tell your friends, I accidentally left one in somebody.

Well yeah, especially to the pumpkin friends, because those are like both of their friends. Those aren't like his friends, that's like their social group. So you might just run from everyone if that happens. For sure. So Bill said he saw De Deborah a few times after that on a visit once and at a pumpkin way off in Cooperstown.

He tried to stay in contact, but she just kind of would change her phone number all the time and just didn't really stay in touch with any of the pumpkin people, just kind of drifted off on her own. Bill said that it just didn't seem like the same her, that she was very upset and very bitter with Randy. She was bitter, and she was always smiling before that. Now he said she seemed wrathful, is the way he put it.

And the fact that he can't be around him too. I can't be around him, it's shameful. A man just left me. Yeah, that's the other thing. It's so embarrassing. And if you go hang out with Randy now, now if you were a couple and you hung out with them, now your wife's pissed at you,

what are you doing hanging out with him? So it's tough. And he said, this is Bill, he said, quote, she said, you don't know the real Randy. And she told my wife a story about him coming home late one night. She had the door locked, so he tried to break into the house.

She said he hit her, and she hit back on the arm with a bat is what she said and that was the final blow up and then he left. He was like fuck you, I'm outta here. Now he takes off, no one, Randy's got no family by the way. Really? So that's what I mean. It's not even like you could call his mom

and be like where the fuck's Randy? I need to get like a bill to him or something. His parents are both dead. He's got two siblings, but he doesn't keep in contact with them. He hasn't talked to either one of them in years. He doesn't talk to anybody except for Deborah and the pumpkin people.

Doesn't even talk to his own daughter. His daughter, his brother, nothing. And they both live out of state too, so him not contacting them isn't anything new. And his few close friends are their close friends. So they know of Deborah, but they don't, he took off and they don't talk, he doesn't talk to them either.

Now one neighbor of theirs, a guy named Al Boudin, and he's a neighbor who runs the Walton Pistol Club, which is a gun club, in his barn in his yard. That's where the club is. So a few weeks ago we had a guy that ran a gun shop out of his garage. Yeah. Gary's guns and stuff. And then now we got this guy who runs a pistol club out of the barn. That doesn't seem dangerous. You know what I mean? No, it's fine. That's what I'm saying. This is, it's odd. I don't care how safe you preach it.

That seems small. It can't be that big, right? How big of a fucking barn can it be? Honestly. I mean honestly, how big of a barn can it be? Are we firing guns off or is it just a bunch of tables where guys come and sit and talk about guns and get away from their wives for a while? Are we firing guns indoors?

I sincerely hope we're not firing guns in a barn. I really hope not. How many people are a member too? Like was there 50 people firing guns off in a barn? That's insane. This is soon going to be a deaf society. It is. Yeah, that's exactly what's going to go down right now.

They're all going to shoot each other in a mess. And lose their earring over it. It's just too close. That's all, it's fine to go to a gun club and shoot things, it's just too close. It's not. Is this a BB gun, a paintball? Oh no, no. So. It's real weapons.

Al Boudin, this guy, he says that quote, I don't believe in spreading rumors oh now what's he gonna do right now tell you some rumors he said but this is not rumor I know it cuz I saw it oh okay he said that Deborah twice ran across the street to his house seeking refuge after she was quote beat to hell by her husband oh yeah he said that he couldn't recall the dates but he knows that one of the seeking refuge after she was, quote, beat to hell by her husband. Oh. Yeah, he said that he couldn't recall the dates, but he knows that one of the incidents

was reported to local law enforcement. I tried to find any record of that. I couldn't, but I don't have all the police files, so that's a separate thing. So he's gone. Deborah doesn't know what to do. She kind of stops growing her pumpkins. She stops with all that stuff, And she gets a new job.

She starts working at a grocery store as a cashier at the Big M supermarket. That's where she's working. The owner, Jim Groff, said that she was a hard worker and a favorite of all the customers. Her line was the longest, because people like talking to her and all that kind of thing.

Spring of 2012, she moves on and finds a new boyfriend, because fuck, it's been a year. He's gone. He's probably bouncing a baby on his knee by now. I don't need that shit. Well, he has to be, yeah. Yeah. So she meets Dominic Bosco, just like the chocolate shit there. B-O-S-C-O.

And he goes by Nick. Nick Bosco over here. Nicky Bosco. Good to see you. Nicky Bosco sounds like a nickname that someone in the mob gives you. You know what I mean? Hey, it's Nicky Bosco over here. Yeah, because he likes black chicks. Nicky Bosco. You know what I mean? That's like that's a mob name they would give you. So he's about 50 years old. He's a couple years older, but still in the ballpark. He graduated, he's from Long Island, this guy. He doesn't even live in this town. His family has a house here and he comes here all the time

to stay there, because he likes it. So he graduated from Bellport High School in Long Island and he would always come out to Walton as much as possible, his brother said. His brother said he loved the outdoors, we grew up in a farm-like atmosphere on Long Island. Our father raised cows It was very rural back then We're talking in the 50s and 60s before Long Island became all the suburbs

It was farmland and then they slowly, you know Knock that farmland down and put yeah and put you know houses there instead put cul-de-sacs and shit Yeah, so he said that um So he said that he began dating Deborah and he was pretty happy. He lived in Long Island, but Walton is like a second home for the whole family because when they were a teenager, the father, John, he bought a house there.

He bought a property up there on John Lockwood Road up off of the East River Road and it's a couple miles from Walton Village. It's kinda out there on its own little area. It's not a heavy populated area. So they built a house out there because they bought the land and they built a house out there.

And over the years, they would come out there as a family all the time and they bought 200 acres, 200 acres altogether. So they kept buying more parcels and more parcels. They build up 200 acres around this nice little house that they built up there where they could all come and spend some time in nature. So Dominic worked for a tree service on Long Island. This fucking guy loves trees, loves them, wants to be among them.

He wants to trim them. He loves them. When work would slow down in the winter, because in New York in the winter, there's no tree people, they're just dead anyway, so they'll be back in the spring. So he would spend more time at the Walton house, and that's how that would go.

His, I guess, his brother Patrick had got the house from the parents, and the one friend said Nick was always up there helping Patrick out around the house. And that one of the visits he came up was when he met Deborah and they got along and they started going out. So then he was spending even more time up there. So now the brother, this is Nick's brother, John Bosco, John Bosco Jr., they told his, he told his mother

that my mom had a conversation with Deborah at some point. She said she'd been in an abusive relationship, that her ex-husband used to hit her, and that she said her ticket out was when he fell for someone else and took off. So they felt bad for her. They were like, oh, that's, well, we're glad you found Nikki Bosco here.

He'll be great for you. There's a lot of people running off, man. People are just running away from everybody. So February 2013, she loses her job at the supermarket, which seems crazy. Oh, no. Customer favorite. What's she losing her job for? She is accused of stealing a purse

that a customer had left at the store. She stole it. Rather than turning it into lost and found, she just took it. We don't know why, we don't know what the deal is with this, but she did, and the person pressed charges too. They pressed charges and she's charged with larceny, but she fails to appear in court.

She doesn't show up. What? Doesn't show show up so they issue a bench warrant for her so she still doesn't show up so about a week later this is February 19th 2013 actually the three-year anniversary of the day Randy left the day Randy took off the cops go looking for to serve her with this bench warrant for stealing a purse. This is, it's literally a larceny charge. It's a misdemeanor. It's nothing huge.

So sad. She didn't like wrestle it out of an old lady's hand and then push her to the ground or anything. It was just, it was left behind. She took it. So the law enforcement here, they track her to a house on a dead end road on the other side of Walton at 294 John Lockwood Road where she was staying with Nicky Bosco at his family house up there.

They knock on the door and they said they expected a very routine, it's a larceny charge. It's a, you're gonna come in, we're gonna fingerprint you, you're gonna go home. There's not gonna be bail, there's not gonna be any of that shit. Like it's gonna be a quick thing. Instead. Real dumb.

Yeah, petty, it's a petty theft, it's nothing. So they learned that that's where she spent time. So about 2 p.m., middle of the afternoon, you'll be back before dinner, don't worry about it. Walton Police Chief and Investigator Carl Vox of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office. They go to serve the warrant. She answered the door. They told her we have to arrest you. Yeah. Obviously, you know, it's we have that charge. You missed your court. So

this works. You got to arrest you. You know, you can't trade pumpkins for, you know, favors. We're sorry. She was in her nightgown and stuff still. Like she had like a robe and nightgown. She was just lounging around. So she said, is it all right? Can you at least give me a minute to put like normal clothes on so I don't have to like go into town and to the police station like this. And they said, yeah, sure, go ahead.

The cop said, we just received information that she might be at this residence, which was a seasonal residence. She initially answered the door, but she was only dressed in a night shirt. So she asked the cops if she could, if she could have a minute to get changed. And that's when the lieutenant says, quote, she shut the door and it was within a minute they heard two shots. Yeah, not expected. This is a larceny arrest. This is nothing. Two shots. So they said, what the fuck?

They burst in through the door, they kick it open, they run in there. As they're charging upstairs, the fucking house is on fire. It's in full fucking blaze. Within a minute, she set the house on fire and two shots are taken in a minute. Wow. It's in a blazeze they're trying to fucking

get to her upstairs. Two shots that's rare for a suicide. Well the first shot, do you want to talk about being an asshole? Yeah. It's one thing to kill yourself. The first shot she shot her dog. What? With a 30-30 rifle. What to make sure that it works? Like what the fuck did you do that for? Her Australian shepherd named Shadow. Oh God. Who by the With a 30-30 rifle well to make sure that it works like her Australian Shepherd named oh By the way was her constant companion always walking the dog always I guess she figured if I'm going yeah if I'm going No one can take care of shadow yeah So then she turned the gun on herself and shot herself with the same 30-30 which takes talent cuz that's all you have to It's a lot of rifle. You gotta have a certain length of arm to be able to pull that off

So the cops as they're trying to get up there the flames are too much. They can't get up there They just see the bodies and like we can't fucking do anything They run out of the house before they're overtaken by the flames the entire house burns to shit well as to cinders leaving only the wraparound deck, a fireplace chimney, and some cordwood near the door. Which is amazing because that's the firewood. That's what it's for. And that's the only thing that didn't burn.

She bought some shit wood. Yep. The firefighters did save a detached garage from complete ruin. So there's that. Unbelievable over a purse. Over a fucking purse. So they said the rifle was located in the residence

on Lockwood Road and that the residence was owned by a family member of Nick Bosco. That's what they, when asked about the rifle ownership. So now she's dead, the dog's dead, which I know the dog's dead and that's horrible, we're all very sad. And Nick's family lost their fucking house. They lost their house.

Where the fuck is Nick, by the way? Because Nick, where was he in this? It's his house. Where's he? Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels. She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef. But this story didn't end with a happily ever after. When I stepped into the kitchen,

I could see that Chef Brophy was on the ground, and I heard somebody say, call 911. As writers, we'd written our share of murder mysteries. So when suspicion turned to Dan's wife, Nancy, we weren't that surprised. The first person they look at would be the spouse. We understand that's usually the way they do it. But we began to wonder,

had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own novels... There are murders in all of the books. ...that she was playing them out in real life? Follow Happily Never After, Dan & Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan & Nancy, early and ad free right now

by joining Wondery Plus. When the matriarch of a prominent Princeton family is found stabbed to death in her locked basement, investigators look from a serial attacker to her family, to Princeton University students. One hot-blooded investigator sees a conspiracy. Is he way off base, or does privilege let you get away with murder? You can listen to In the Shadow of Princeton exclusively and ad-free with Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts.

Well, he's a big guy too, Nick. Big, rugged, he's a tree guy for Christ's sake. 225 pound, you know, sturdy cat. Well, when they clear everything off, they find his body at the bottom of the basement steps. He's dead. He's dead. And they said, this is his brother said he didn't take this while looking straight at the person who killed him. He would have been able to defend himself. That's why we think she got him while he was sleeping or with poison, something very premeditated. They find out that he was dead up to three days before this fire was set.

What the shit? So they knocked on the door and she said, oh, fuck, it's over. They're going to find that. They said, we're here to arrest you for the purse. But she's like, eventually. They're going to find the body. Yeah, it's over. So she freaked out.

They said, the investigator said they hadn't been able to determine the cause of death for him because of the extensive burns, but they had been able to determine it happened days before the fire. They didn't know exactly. Unbelievable. How many days. So then the state police find out that she's married because they're looking for someone next of kin to tell somebody about you gotta you gotta make a

notification so they're like oh shit she has a husband let's find him to notify him yeah so you know that they can find Randy if no one else can and they can't find him though they're doing checks they're doing you know electricity bills everything and they're trying to find no one can find him and they said well where the fuck is he and then they found out that Quote it had been about since 2010 since he was last seen so we wound up looking into Deborah Sundstrom's residence The cops said initially we weren't looking for his body initially We were investigating the fire at the house and one thing led to another body. Initially we were investigating the fire at the house and one thing led to another. This is three days after the fire, police trying to find him. So they bring a cadaver

sniffing dog to their house, Randy and Deb's house, sniffing all around and the dog, you know, notifies on a barrel behind the house. Yup. And they pull it out and it's Randy. He's stuffed inside a 55 gallon barrel, about 25 paces from the back door of their farmhouse. She just left him there. For three years he's been there. Neighbors have come over. Wow.

All of this shit. He's right there stuffed into the fucking, into this gallon. She's just telling everybody he's a Bob Seeger song. He's a, yep, he's going, he into the fucking end of this gallon. She's just telling everybody. He's a Bob Seeger song He's a tell you up. He's going he's a fucking oh my it's insane So she said that a cop said there's no girlfriend that we know of and he said investigators were unaware of Allegations of domestic violence between them adding that it was not germane to the case at this point What was she gonna do, just kill every guy?

Can you put him there forever? Yeah. I don't know what she was gonna do with Nick. Put him in a barrel, I guess. I mean, she's at his family's house. Maybe he was too big. I don't know what her deal was. She left him, I guess she just shoved him

down the basement stairs. Was like, I'll put him there for now. Also. Is he bigger than a 55 gallon drum? Is that the problem? Did she shove his body down there, like roll him down the steps while she came in, like from the cops, was he laying in the living room

and she was like, better get him downstairs, roll, fire, shot, who knows, or did she put him down there to begin with, I don't know. So it's pretty wild though, I would say. They asked her parents, did she ever tell you about any abuse and they would not talk to the cops at all. They said, she's dead, it doesn't matter. It does matter.

It matters to everybody. It matters to us, because this is fucking weird. And I'm curious. You guys, there's two dead bodies. Let's talk. There's three at this point. And Shadow. Yeah.

Four. And the dog. Make it four. And a burned down house, man. So the cops here, this is the lieutenant again, he said that Deborah is the sole suspect in the deaths of both Nikki Bosco and her husband. He said, we haven't ruled out anybody else,

but at this time we don't have any other suspects. She doesn't know anybody else. This is crazy. Now this barrel was only 100 feet, not from her house, it was much closer there, but 100 feet from the entrance to the Walton Pistol Club of which Randy used to go all the time yeah so Al Boudin the guy who runs it said I must have mowed past that spot a hundred times oh my god he just mowed right how do you Randy cheese as your mows around the, he probably weed whacked

around that fucking thing. You know he did. You know he did. Yeah that thing just ate up spools as that little nylon thing hit the side of that tin. That goddamn tin is fucking up my weed whacker. Insane. They said, well did you know the Sundstroms well?

And he said, I thought I did. I mean, I didn't know Randy was in a barrel, so I guess not. He said he believes that the domestic violence was ongoing and that that was the motive for Randy's murder. He said, there's only so many times you can get hit by a shovel before you get hit back. Come on, a shovel?

I don't know, I think that was just a saying of his, it's probably, she just finally snapped and then they said sir We're the oxygen network. Would you possibly be interested in a deal? Could you could you give us that title? Please really want that. Can you do that? It's gonna be what's it about again exactly. This is what it's about every week. It's the same show See this lady she's gonna be the one who killed somebody guaranteed. It's the same show. See this lady? She's gonna be the one who killed somebody, guaranteed. It's the same fucking show.

We need a guy like you every week too, that weed-wax around a barrel. That's right. Like, on this show, you never know who's gonna be the murderer. Could be anybody. Could be the eight-year-old. We have no fucking idea.

On that show, you go, well, the wife's gonna kill him, so that's how this works. That's the show. Well, well the wife's gonna kill him, so that's how this works. That's the show. Well she's had enough. I think she's gonna get pissed off. This is Mary, she's probably had about enough. She's about to snap, yeah. This is Mary, Mary's had enough of Randy's shit.

Over the next hour and 10 minutes, we're gonna tell you how and why. Just hire us to do the show. It will be much more entertaining. Much more entertaining. So Al Boudin said he had no doubt that Deborah was strong enough to kill her husband and fold his body into the barrel and wheel it behind the garage. He said she could outwork any man.

She's a farmer. She grows pumpkins that are bigger than your car. into the barrel and wheel it behind the garage. He said she could outwork any man. She's a farmer. She grows pumpkins that are bigger than your car. So Randy's daughter, the never seen daughter, she said that she was gradually drawn into the whole drama surrounding her father, and she said that she wouldn't have recognized him if she passed him on the street, but still it was fascinating that it was her father

who was murdered. She said it was just a crazy conversation. She said, I wanted to let you know that Deborah committed suicide last night and caught the house on fire. And I was like, okay, shocked and everything. She said that they did not know where my father was and that they were trying to find him.

For the next few days days she monitored the developing story and she said, I saw on the Walton Reporter website they found a second body and I was freaking out. What if it's my father? Well, what if? Then they said it wasn't. They said it was Dominic, the second body. She said, they said, I really hate to tell you

this news over the phone, but your father's dead. That's what they told him. We'd tell you in person if you'd ever seen him. That's the thing. Any kind of what they told him. We'd tell you in person if you'd ever seen him. That's the thing. Any kind of actual relationship with him. You have a phone notification relationship with your dad. We're sorry to tell you. As a child who grew up without a father for 28 years, they have no idea how many times she has conjured and wished for this exact scenario. I hope that motherfucker is murdered somewhere.

She seems to have just like a real detached curiosity about it. She doesn't seem to have a real anger about it, which I don't know if she got like a stepfather who was like a father to her and she wasn't in need of that. Yeah, that's a great point because you win enough awards at school to have just your mom sitting there. You feel like a piece of shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It sucks, man.

So she, Jesus Christ, man. This is fucking crazy, but they had to tell her over the phone, they're like, listen, if your father would have came to your house, then so would we, but he won't come over, so we're not gonna come over either. Sorry, Mindy, that's just bad. Yeah, that was a shitty thing to do.

Shitty thing to do, Randy. Just take off like that. You can take off, but fucking, you know, take care of things. Come on, man. You're 30 miles away. Yeah. She said, I still don't know how to feel about it. This is stuff I see on CSI on television.

She said, then the next day they called him again. They called her again. They called her back. She said, they told me I was the legal next of kin and I had to take care of his body. Oh my God, no. I don't know this man. Put him back in the barrel and kick it down a hill. It's fine.

I don't know. There's a basement there, put the ashes over it or the other, I don't know what to tell you. Done, I don't know what to tell you. I'm not paying for this. I've got a necklace and a gift card. That's not gonna cover the cost here. The gift card is much lower than the burial fees.

You have to give your children more over the course of their lives than your funeral costs or else they don't have to bury it. Don't you worry. She said it just, oh my God, threw me for a loop. I didn't know what to do. I could have said he wasn't there for the 23 years of my life so why should I be there for him now but that's just not who I am I have a bigger heart than that so she instead organized a send-off for

her dad including a military burial because he was in the army for two years and during peacetime yeah that's that helps yeah yeah at the Sullivan County Veteran Cemetery, she said she appreciated that a number of pumpkin growers, including Bill Bobier, attended the funeral. Yeah. She said, they all told me some funny stories that lightened up the situation. They also said that he did mention me

and that he really wished he was a part of my life. You would tell her that, no matter, even if he never, if you said, this is the first time I knew he had a daughter, you'd go, he talked about you all the time. I mean, it was just Mandy, Mandy, oh, I'm sorry, Mindy? Mindy, Mindy, Mindy, sorry, that's what I meant. I don't remember.

I don't remember, whatever. I put pumpkin seeds in the casket with a watering system, so hang tight, and in a few years, you're gonna have a big ass pumpkin. I have to go spread milk on my pumpkins, I'll be back later. They should have just thrown that cord of wood inside that barrel and thrown in a match. Done deal. Yeah. Wipe your hands and walk away. That's that like a Vegas card dealer. Done and done. There you go. She said that that put a big smile on my face. My father in their

eyes was an awesome friend and a great man. Well where the fuck was he when I needed that? Oh, you tell me he treated you like a son? That's nice. Thanks a lot, yeah. So why wasn't he missing? They said, quote, he was never labeled as a missing person. If no one looks for you, you'll never be missing. That's a great point.

That's what it is, no one looked for him. Period, that was that. He was never called in as a missing person, the lieutenant said, and said that family members That's a great point. That's what it is. No one looked for him. Period. That was that. He was never called in as a missing person, the lieutenant said, and said that family members told investigators they hadn't had contact with him, quote, for many years, so they didn't think anything of it. Wow. They said the investigation's going to continue.

They're looking at mental health histories, whether there was a history of domestic violence. They're trying to figure out the cause of death, everything like that. They said everything with her right now, actually all three subjects is under investigation. We're fielding a lot of phone calls, people who know all of the people involved in this. We know more about pumpkins. The dog didn't shoot her, so. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So they got a forensic psychologist to try to figure it out, and she said it seems like she was backed into a corner and could see no way out. She can't think of another solution to this awful situation so she snaps. Okay another one that's the husband but what about Nikki Bosco and the dog because she's not tied into that situation she doesn't even live there she could just go to her house. This guy lives like fucking 300 miles away. It's like, I don't understand what the snapping to him, why'd she kill him? And why'd she

kill a fucking dog? How about this? Open the door, let the dog run out and fucking do it. The cops would have found the dog and rounded it up. I'm sure it's better than burning it or killing it. What an asshole. I don't know what her deal is. It feels like she was just going to kill everybody that wronged her forever forever For just whenever it comes up and then hide it so every year about 750 intermarriage killings take place Yes, that right, but 750 marriages go just short of divorce. Let's say With this

People find out how much divorce costs and they choose the opposite. They choose the opposite. They said most of these are influenced by alcohol or sometimes drugs too. This is in the house, they're drunk, one person kills another person. They said the rare one is Deborah here

because among spousal murders, the male is the victim in only two out of every 10 cases. Which is funny, but as far as female killers go they kill their male partner more than they kill anybody else besides their own children. The female killers really for the most part when like a woman kills another woman on this show it's fucking rare it's always their spouse or their children or they kill the guy and the baby. Yeah, yeah. Well if they kill a woman it's or they kill the guy and the baby. Yeah It's usually to cut the baby out of the baby. Yeah

Without that like a baby motive. There's it's rare. It's rare. Yeah, it's really rare. So the reactions are this is Bill Bobier again He said what kills me the most? Kills me kills me Not Deborah. Yeah, is that all this time we thought Randy was the bad guy. I don't blame myself, but in a way I should have known that Randy being one of my best friends would have tried to get a hold of me over all that time. He's just like, I just believed he was gone and just ran away. That's stupid of me. His brother said, this is Bosco, Nikki Bosco's brother, said, we don't know

how this could have happened. He said, I wish we did, but I guess there's no real closure on what this psycho did. What was he like? Because they're talking about Nicky. He said, what was he like? He was a hard worker, a very hard worker who was dedicated to whatever he did. He was an honest man, a standup guy. He's a real stand-up guy. Nikki Bosco is a real stand-up guy. Let me tell you something. He's absolutely a mob name. He never ran from the truth. He would tell what he thought. I can't believe I'm not going to see him again. Then, how did the pumpkin community respond to this whole mess? Well, I found on bigpumpkins.com,

which is not a site about big-titted redheads, shockingly enough, I expected that. God damn it. Orange-nippled women. But no, it is actually about growing big pumpkins. Unbelievable. There's a message board when all this goes down in 2013, in the week following the finding of the bodies

and all that. And here are some of the messages. I'll just read them down. Just found out today that one of our fellow growers and friend has passed away. I hope she knows how much she will be missed. RIP Deb. This is before they found Randy.

Oh wow! All these. Sorry to hear this. We'll remember her in my prayers. Sorry to hear my prayers for his family or for her family. Sorry all right P Deb my thoughts and prayers are with the family. Sorry for her family's loss and we'll keep her in our thoughts today RIP Deb and thank you. So so sorry our thoughts and prayers go out to the sons from family Sorry to hear this our IP Deb go out to the Sundstrom family. Sorry to hear this, RIP Deb.

Deb was a really good friend, by the way, this is from ExtremePumpkinStore.com is the fucking poster. Extreme. Extreme Pumpkins! Deb was a really good friend and a good person. For anyone that has seen Lords of the Gourd, Deb became famous for her wall of death.

Huh? They don't know that she has murdered people yet. They think she just killed herself. This is unreal. This is crazy. I hope that she's at peace now. Deb, you will be missed, but not forgotten. You will be missed Deb. Our prayers are with your family and friends. This is Joel and Mary Lou. It says from them. Now that's some sad news. One of the originals, rest easy Deb. RIP Deb Sundstrom, so sad, oh my god, Deb was a very kind hearted woman, got to know her at Coopers Town in Oswego wayoffs, had some good talks with her, I'm still shocked, rest in peace Deb and may God give you all the comfort in heaven. Then it says, why does it always seem that the truly good ones go early while the low

life seem to live forever? Deb quote, mousetrap lady, that's her wall of death, it's mousetraps, was a friend and former OAF sponsor as well. Then at the end of this, about a couple weeks later, someone says, quote, let me just start off by asking if you people know the circumstances surrounding the death of your wonderful, of your all wonderful, loving, clinically psychotic friend, Deborah. Last time I checked, that twisted evil bitch went down as a thief and murderer. Twisted evil bitch.

She murdered my closest friend, an amazing man that had a massive positive impact on the lives of those fortunate enough to meet him. So again, I ask you people, what the fuck is wrong with you? They grow pumpkins, man. Grow pumpkins, you dicks. Deborah Sundstrom fucking burn in hell.

I wish I could bring you back so I could kill you all over again You're a selfish psychotic cunt and I hope the devil the devil is raping your filthy soul in the lowest depths of hell Is there a worse thing you could say to anybody really Is there a worse thing you could say to anybody really? A woman fantastic. You're a selfish psychotic cunt and I hope the devil is raping your filthy soul in the lowest depths of hell. Enter.

Wow. No, he's not done yet. That's not his closer. That's a mic drop. See, this person never did stand up. You have to know when to drop the mic and it's over after that. You're never going to get a bigger one than that. You're going to top soul raping? Come on, man. In the depths of hell. And he says, thanks for nothing. You people live in fantasy lands where the devil is shrouded in pretty colors and confetti,

so you all can keep pretending that you're holier than thou. Sir, I gotta say, that was, I don't know if any of it's true or what, but holy shit, the emotion there is wonderful. I feel what you mean, for sure. I feel ya. So, they pulled old Randy out of the ground here. By the way, Randy Lee is his middle name. So many guys, Lee. They pulled him out of the ground,

or out of the barrel and put him into the ground. They buried him in Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery, like we said. So at least he had that. Now the houses, 294 John Lockwood Road, the burned down house, is now a two bedroom, one bath, 2036 square foot house. That's a big house for two bedroom, one bath. They must have sold off the land because the zestimate on it, it's not on the market, but the zestimate on the whole thing is $395,800,

and I don't think that can be 200 acres of land. So they must have parceled it off. Now the 1884 South River Road, that is the pumpkin house here, two-bedroom, one-bath, 1,463 square feet. So very small little house. That is only on a half acre. bedroom, one bath, 1463 square feet. So very small little house. That is only on a half acre. That is at $152,000, is estimated at this point.

And in case you're in New Jersey, don't mix this up. In New Jersey, there is a Debbie Sundstrom, exact same spelling, on LinkedIn, who's a teacher of baking and pastry at Lower Cape May Regional High School. If she teaches you to make a pumpkin pie, don't freak out. She's fine. She did not kill anyone. Her dog, nothing. She's alive for Christ's sake. She's alive and thriving and making pies and shit. So there you go, everyone. That's Walton, New York. Wow.

And a wild story of, you never thought it would go to pumpkins and all this murder and houses burning and everything else. I don't know what happened. I can't believe this. It's a crazy fucking story. I mean they get crazier. You go out 500 episodes. They got to be running out of shit. No, we're not. We're not even close. We're just figuring out what's weird now. She did it. She did it. She showed us. Fuck yeah. We just we were talking before the show and we were like this show still feels new and it always does. It still feels brand new. It still feels brand new. We're still feeling our way through it,

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