River City Mystery - Investigating mysteries in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky

On Halloween night in 1925, an Evansville couple returned home to a nightmare. They found a stranger hanging from a plum tree in their front yard. The victim was a 35-year-old factory worker and World War I veteran who had vanished 400 miles away just days earlier. The investigation resulted in more questions than answers. Why did this person travel 400 miles to Evansville, Indiana? Whose clothes was he wearing? Was it a staged accident by panicked partygoers, or a hit by a suspicious gang spotted nearby? Join the River City Mystery Discord server to meet others from the tri-state area who are into true crime and the paranormal. https://www.rivercitymystery.com/discord

The Disappearance of Debra Ann Wilhite On October 14, 1974, 19-year-old Debra Ann "Debbie" (Pfettscher) Wilhite finished her shift as a waitress at the Windmill Restaurant on Highway 41 in Evansville, Indiana. She was supposed to pick up her husband after work, but she never made it. Debbie and her green 1966 Ford Galaxie disappeared without a trace, leaving behind her husband and two young daughters. This is one of the Tri-State's oldest unsolved missing person cases. In this episode, Matt discusses the case with Debbie's daughter, Misty Lynn Walker, who was just 18 months old when her mother vanished. More than 50 years later, Misty continues her tireless search for answers. We discuss Debbie's final known movements, the mysterious hitchhiker seen talking with her before she disappeared, the controversial "Duck Pond" theory, decades of investigative frustrations, and Misty's ongoing efforts to locate her mother's missing car. We also talk about her website, SearchingForDebra.com, where she's preserving her mother's story and collecting anonymous tips that could finally bring this case closer to being solved. If you know anything, no matter how small it may seem, please come forward. After more than five decades, one piece of information could make all the difference. Links & Resources Mentioned RiverCityMystery.com/23 Website - https://searchingfordebra.com/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SearchingforDebra Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/debra.ann.wilhite.missing.1974 Crossroads Media LLC article on Deborah Ann Wilhite - https://www.crossroads-media-llc.com/lost-in-the-crossroads/2762158_debra-ann-wilhite-october-14-1974-evansville-inDebra Ann Wilhite - Lost in the Crossroads Chaos Divers - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@ChaosDivers https://www.14news.com/2025/09/29/dive-team-searching-woman-who-went-missing-1974/ Editor's Note: During the interview, it is mentioned that Chaos Divers had helped solve five missing-person cases. Chaos Divers has now assisted in solving 22 missing-person cases. We appreciate their continued work helping families find answers. Indiana State Police Cold Case Unit - https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/evansville-district-investigations/debra-ann-wilhite-10141974/?SQ_VARIATION_449103=0 If you have information regarding the disappearance of Deborah Ann Wilhite, contact the Indiana State Police at (812) 867-2079, or submit an anonymous tip through SearchingForDebra.com. Join the River City Mystery Discord server to meet others from the tri-state area who are into true crime and the paranormal. https://www.rivercitymystery.com/discord

The Timber Lake Murder: Who Killed Arthur Denton? In this episode, we look into the August 1991 murder of Arthur Denton, a case out of Posey County, Indiana, that has sat cold for decades. Arthur was a respected figure in the local legal community. He was a 78-year-old retired attorney, former state legislator, and three-time deputy prosecutor for Vanderburgh County. For fifty years, he lived a remarkably predictable life, but everything shifted rapidly after his first wife passed away. Within three months, Arthur remarried Wilma "Doodle" Scales, a woman nearly forty years his junior whom he met while she worked as a housekeeper. He sold his longtime home, moved her to a gated property on Timber Lake, and eventually revised his will to leave her his entire estate. Just seven months later, he was dead. The details surrounding that night depend almost entirely on Wilma's account. She told police that while she was in the basement around midnight, a masked intruder bound her to a chair with duct tape while others went upstairs. She claimed she sat in the dark for nearly two hours before freeing one arm to dial 911. When officers arrived, they found Arthur beaten and stabbed to death on the main floor. Wilma reported that $12,000 in cash was missing, though Arthur's closest friends insisted he was a Depression-era saver who never kept large sums of money sitting around the house. As investigators dug in, several strange details began to stack up. Four guard dogs on the property never barked that night. A suspected forged check for $15,000 turned up in Wilma's glove box, though a judge later ruled she could not be forced to provide handwriting samples. To make matters stranger, Wilma's brother died of an overdose less than a month after the murder, and two reported break-ins occurred at the house shortly after Arthur's death. A grand jury was eventually convened, but no one was ever indicted. Wilma eventually inherited the estate, remarried, and passed away in 2014, taking whatever details she had to her grave. Because Arthur had no children to push for answers, the case quietly faded into the background. Listen in as we break down the timeline, unpack the red flags, and try to bring some long-overdue attention to a man who spent his career fighting for justice. If you have thoughts or remember hearing anything about this case back in the day, head over to the Discord server and join the conversation. Join the River City Mystery Discord server to meet others from the tri-state area who are into true crime and the paranormal.https://www.rivercitymystery.com/discord

The Burrows Cave Mystery In this episode, we dive deep into one of the most polarizing archaeological claims in the tri-state area: the Burrows Cave mystery. Back in April 1982, a highly decorated Korean War veteran named Russell Burrows was hiking through a quiet valley in southern Illinois near Olney when the ground gave way beneath him. What he fell into, according to his lifelong account, was far more than just a pit. Burrows claimed he had stumbled into a massive, man-made underground system filled with thousands of carved stone tablets, ancient weapons, and gold artifacts that pointed to pre-Columbian visitors from the Mediterranean and Middle East. Mainstream archaeologists have largely dismissed the find as a hoax, largely because the exact location of the cave has never been publicly revealed or independently verified. Critics point to the bizarre hodgepodge of ancient scripts on the tablets, ranging from Egyptian-style hieroglyphs to ancient Greek symbols, as proof of a crude forgery. Believers counter that a mixed group of ancient refugees or traders would naturally leave behind a blend of cultural styles and varying skill levels in their carvings. We also take a close look at the background of Russell Burrows himself. He served as a full colonel, earned two Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts, and studied archaeology in college. For over forty years, he never once backed down from his story, even though he made very little money from the claim. Later in the episode, you will hear audio clips from a interview conducted by researcher Brian Nettles, where an elderly Burrows speaks candidly about what he found, addresses accusations of fake artifacts, and reflects on the decades-long controversy. Before jumping into the cave mystery, there is also an important update on the 2023 disappearance of Zachary Carey following the discovery of his remains near Lynnville, Indiana. Links referenced in the episode: GoFundMe for Zachary Carey - https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-gina-with-zacharys-burial-costs?attribution_id=sl:20099a5c-2e12-4f18-9038-9efe044288df&lang=en_US&ts=1763859567&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_content=amp17_td&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=facebook Brian Nettles' interview with Russell Burrows - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMj8VfDXG5w&t=232s Brian Nettle's Book of Mormon Heartland website - https://bookofmormonheartland.com/ Photos of Burrows Cave stones - https://bookofmormonheartland.com/burrows-cave-stones/ The Mystery Cave of Many Faces - https://burrowscave.io/books/the-mystery-cave-of-many-faces/ Join the River City Mystery Discord server to meet others from the tri-state area who are into true crime and the paranormal.https://www.rivercitymystery.com/discord

Wildman Joe Every now and then you run across a piece of local history that feels too wild to be real. In this episode, I look into the wild, unbelievable collision of two totally different lives right here in Evansville back in the late 1800s. First, there's Jeremiah "Doc" Kohler, a former St. Louis saloon keeper with a criminal record who turned to the circus world. He became famous for running a trained flea circus where his performers pulled tiny gold chariots and juggled (he even got dragged into court over a star flea named Prince Henry). Then there's Joe Rettig. Joe was born into slavery in North Carolina, gained his freedom after the Civil War, and worked steamboats on the Ohio River until a brutal boiler explosion left him permanently scarred. Back in Evansville, he was just barely scraping by as a ragman collecting scrap in the alleys to survive. When Doc Kohler arrived in town after his flea circus collapsed, he spotted Joe and saw an opportunity. He offered to turn Joe’s real-life physical scars into a sideshow act, rebranding him as "Wildman Joe," a savage captured in the Philippines. While sideshow acts like that carry a heavy and questionable history, joining the circus completely changed the course of Joe’s life. He went from sifting through garbage in Evansville to traveling the country, earning a steady income, and eventually performing in front of 30,000 people in Canada. Check out the full episode to hear how this strange partnership unfolded and how Joe managed to adapt and survive against all odds. If anyone out there happens to have any old records on what eventually became of Joe Rettig after his circus days, drop a comment. Show notes: https://www.rivercitymystery.com/20 Join the River City Mystery Discord server to meet others from the tri-state area who are into true crime and the paranormal.https://www.rivercitymystery.com/discord