Sirens | A Southern True Crime Podcast

In this episode, I sit down with brothers Brian and Cameron Santana, co-authors of A Murder on Campus: The Professor, The Cop, and North Carolina’s Most Notorious Cold Case. We talk about the brutal, unsolved 1973 murder of Virginia Marie Olson, a 19-year-old college student whose body was discovered near the campus of UNC-Asheville.

Over 50 years, the case would haunt three generations of investigators and the entire Asheville community, marked by dead ends, disturbing parallels, and whispers of notorious suspects. Brian, a veteran cop, and Cameron, a college professor, teamed up to tell this story with a rare blend of insider insight and narrative depth.

In this episode, I sit down with filmmaker and composer Dan Brown Jr., the creator of the true crime documentary Girl Forgotten: What Happened to Brianna Wells? and founder of Crime Sonics.

On December 29, 2014, 17-year-old Brianna Wells was found murdered and abandoned in a South Phoenix alley. Nearly a decade later, her case remains unsolved and largely forgotten—until now.

Dan shares the emotional and investigative journey behind Girl Forgotten, a film four years in the making that follows grassroots advocate Gina as she digs into Brianna’s story, uncovers disturbing truths, and exposes failures within the system. From police missteps to media silence, this documentary challenges how we treat missing and murdered girls—especially when their stories are inconvenient.

We talk about the filmmaking process, the importance of storytelling through music, the emotional toll true crime creation can take, and how original music—including the haunting theme “Raise Cain”—brings Brianna’s voice back to the forefront.

Remastered and featuring updated content, Raven reconnects with Holly Archer to discuss the heartbreaking cold case of Britney Tiger Gomez from Ada, Oklahoma. Originally recorded in 2020, the episode now includes new developments that came to light in 2023, leading to an arrest, though not the kind anyone had hoped for.

The MMIW crisis refers to the staggering and disproportionate number of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit individuals who go missing or are murdered across the United States and Canada, often with little to no media coverage or resolution. Systemic failures, jurisdictional gaps, and historical trauma have left families searching for answers and justice. In Oklahoma—home to many tribal nations—the crisis is especially urgent, and cases like Britney Tiger’s shine a light on just how much work still needs to be done.

🎙In this episode (out now), Raven sits down in the studio with retired Tulsa Homicide Sergeant Mike Huff, one of the most respected voices in cold case investigations, with guest co-hosts Tiff and Jess from Curious Cousins OK Podcast.

With almost 40 years in law enforcement—and three decades in the Homicide Unit—Huff shares his insights on one of Oklahoma’s most notorious murder cases—the infamous Roger Wheeler / Whitey Bulger investigation—from his new book Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History, which he wrote with Roger's son, David Wheeler, and historian Laurence J. Yadon.