A Gloved Hand Inside the Ice: The Murder of Shannon Adams

A Gloved Hand Inside the Ice: The Murder of Shannon Adams The discovery of a gloved left hand protruding from a three-foot square block of commercial ice turned a routine November morning into a six-week courtroom drama; the ice block bore the Pryor Lake Ice Cooperative harvest seal and two-letter grade code, and photographs of perpendicular tong marks in the mud would become crucial evidence. Who arranged a carefully posed, strangled body inside a sealed ice cavity, and why did the imprint of the tongs point back toward stacked, partially thawed blocks? In this episode, we tell what happened from the morning Pocket the retriever stopped at the Pryor Lake dock through the county coroner's findings and the photographic work that redirected the investigation; what do the tong impressions, the stamped ice block, and delivery records reveal about the movement of that block? Person: Shannon Adams Date: November 4, 1893 Location: Pryor Lake dock, Portsmith County Cause of death: Manual strangulation (per Dr. Martin Crews) Witness/Photographer: Jean Hall, deputy county registrar - The ice block was roughly three feet square and eighteen inches thick and stamped with the Pryor Lake Ice Cooperative harvest seal and a batch number with a two-letter grade code. - Pocket, a young retriever, stopped at the pilings beneath a dock on Pryor Lake on the morning of November 4, 1893, leading Gordon Wallace to find the ice block. - The left hand inside the ice was gloved in dark wool, palm facing inward, fingers slightly curved; the body’s limbs had been deliberately arranged. - Dr. Martin Crews, the county coroner aged sixty, recorded the cause of death as manual strangulation with bruising consistent with large hands. - Jean Hall photographed perpendicular tong marks in the cooperative yard mud and measured the spacing between the two prong impressions, noting the rear wall of the pen had been accessible during a recent thaw. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].