When a detective’s daughter vanished in 1930s Denver, it looked like a kidnapping — but what unfolded behind closed doors was a domestic nightmare involving poison, deception, and a stepmother with a deadly secret.
EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources):
https://weirddarkness.com/MurderWithoutMotiveREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode:
https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9xsndeFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: They found the first body stuffed inside the church library’s closet. Then a second body turned up. It’s the creepy case of Theo Durrant – better known in San Francisco as the Demon of the Belfry. (Demon of the Belfry) *** In 1989 a man anonymously claimed he had worked at Area 51 where alien technology was being reverse-engineered for the Pentagon. It sounded like the crazed thoughts of a madman at the time. But now, thirty years later, it does not seem so absurd. (Bob Lazar, The Pentagon, And UFOs) *** One of our Weirdo family members tells the true story of a young child told not to be sad when her grandfather passes away… before anyone knew he had died. (The Old Woman In The Basement) *** Some very strange things have been taking place in Sedona Arizona – including ghosts, UFOs, and even people supposedly seeing living dinosaurs. (Strangeness at the Bradshaw Ranch) *** Is it possible that the reason Jack The Ripper was never caught, is because he was only visiting London at the time and then returned to his home in Missouri, USA? (Was Jack The Ripper From St. Louis?) ***
It’s a story called “Murder Without Motive”. It’s a chapter from the upcoming audiobook I’m narrating called “Suffer The Children: American Horrors, Homicides, and Hauntings” by Troy Taylor.
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:03:25.609 = Show Open
00:05:39.964 = Murder Without Motive
00:41:07.245 = Was Jack The Ripper From St. Louis? ***
00:54:42.147 = Strangeness At Bradshaw Ranch ***
01:07:18.745 = The Old Woman In The Basement
01:12:45.448 = Bob Lazar, The Pentagon, and UFOs ***
01:17:10.404 = Demon Of The Belfry
01:21:57.234 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break
LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS:
Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here:
https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*
SOURCES and RESOURCES:
“Murder Without Motive” by Troy Taylor from the audiobook “Suffer The Children”:
https://amzn.to/2YNrSdk“Was Jack The Ripper From St. Louis?” by Troy Taylor:
http://bit.ly/2HG5QUh“Demon of the Belfry” by Orrin Grey:
http://bit.ly/2JJbsiO“Bob Lazar, The Pentagon, And UFOs” by George Knapp and Matt Adams:
http://bit.ly/30IC60u“Strangeness at the Bradshaw Ranch” by Brent Swancer:
http://bit.ly/2JI4Dhz“The Old Woman In The Basement” by Ashley Delia, submitted directly to WeirdDarkness.com
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: June, 2022
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https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIALWeird Darkness brings together six accounts of murder and high strangeness: a Denver stepmother who fed her family crushed glass, a St. Louis patent-medicine salesman accused of being Jack the Ripper, an Arizona ranch the government bought and sealed, a second-grader warned of two deaths before anyone made the calls, the man who said he took apart alien craft at Area 51, and a Sunday school superintendent who left bodies inside his own church.It opens on the October 1930 disappearance of ten-year-old Leona O'Loughlin, daughter of Denver police detective Leo O'Loughlin, whose body was found floating in Berkeley Park Lake two days later. Her stomach held ground glass, and so did her father's, both of them served from the bowl of rice her stepmother Pearl O'Loughlin had set on the table between them. Pearl had already tried the same method on her father-in-law's sugar bowl and on her sister's cat and dog, and the story comes from Troy Taylor's "Suffer the Children – American Horrors, Homicides and Hauntings."From there the show turns to Dr. Francis J. Tumblety, an un
