The Education of a Serial Killer: Charles Davis and Roseann Sturtz
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
A Baltimore woman fails to show up for work. Her family is concerned and reports her missing. Meanwhile, a slew of other women in the same county are found dead, one after the other. A police officer’s son living in Reno, Nevada, is brought in and asked questions about a stolen credit card. Fifty years later, the answers everyone has been waiting for finally come. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere...
info_outline
A Brutal True Crime: Sandra Pagniano is Missing
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
Sandra Pagniano has decided enough is enough. She is divorcing her husband, David. But when Sandra turns up missing, leaving two notes behind, indicating she won’t be returning, Prescott, Arizona, investigators wonder if they are looking at a cliched "the-husband-did-it" episode of “Dateline,” or something far more evil? Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere else. Visit to contact investigative journalist...
info_outline
Serial Killer Richard Cottingham & Dr. Peter Vronsky – Part 2
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
Concluding my interview with Dr. Peter Vronsky, noted expert on the life of the Times Square Ripper/Torso Killer, serial murderer Richard Cottingham, we discuss how many women Cottingham murdered, and if he is responsible for the unsolved Nanuet (New York) Mall murder of Lisa Thomas. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere else. Visit to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the...
info_outline
Serial Killer Richard Cottingham & Dr. Peter Vronsky – Part 1
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
An elevator opens and out walks one of the most notorious serial killers of our time, Richard “Torso Killer” Cottingham. You cross paths with him and get up to your floor, only to realize there’s a fire. In the first of a two-part special, I speak to Dr. Peter Vronsky, who tries to convince me that Cottingham murdered a young girl, Lisa Thomas, I profiled on a previous episode of the show, and claimed there’s not a chance Cottingham killed her. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited...
info_outline
Guns Don’t Kill People, Scumbags Do: The Rock Road Massacre
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
Robert Haggart meets Garnetta Post in 1981—and her life is never the same again. Soon after marrying Haggart, Garnetta realizes the guy is lazy, vulgar, and abusive. And within six months of the marriage, the true nature of just how violent this guy is presents itself—and the outcome is one of Michigan’s most violent and deadly crimes ever. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere else. Visit to contact...
info_outline
SHORT CUTS: Missing: Emma Baum, Ja'Niyah McMichael, & My Rant About True Crime Social Media
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
Two cases out of Gary, Indiana—young women missing from the same general neighborhood a few months apart, one of whom we know for certain was 9 months pregnant. With help, these cases can be solved. Anyone with information on Ja’Niyah’s or Emma's disappearances, please contact the Gary Police Department at (219) 881-1209. Welcome to a bonus feature here on the Crossing the Line feed. I come across all sorts of stories while researching books, TV series, and my iHeartMedia podcast, Paper Ghosts, in addition to the ideas you send me. A lot of them grab hold of me...
info_outline
Murder in Honolulu: Dawn Momohara
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
A high schooler in Honolulu, Dawn Momohara, gets a phone call, leaves her house en route for the shopping mall and never returns. After nearly five decades, the family gets answers. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere else. Visit to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more. Email Phelps at And don't forget to...
info_outline
Threesome Turns Deadly: Fred Tones, Carolyn Lima, & Leslie Ashley
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
A local real estate broker is found dead in 1961 Houston. Two local “women” seem to be the last to have seen him. As a nationwide manhunt begins, law enforcement is not so sure they are searching for two females, but perhaps a woman and a man dressed as a woman. In what is one of the more remarkable true crime cases of the century, you won’t believe how two people go from death row to freedom … all set against the shocking cultural norms we once lived under. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive...
info_outline
Murder in the Family: Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
*Two young girls, best friends Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, go missing two months apart from each other. Law enforcement is stumped. Had the girls planned some sort of elaborate disappearing act and run away? Or is something more sinister going on? *Listener, Synthia, suggested case! Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere else. Visit to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more...
info_outline
The Camper Murder: Emily and Joe Ferlazzo
Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps
Emily and Joe Ferlazzo take off on a trip into the Green Mountains of Vermont to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary. But only one of them, Joe, returns home … with Emily now missing, and the Vermont State Police searching for answers. With eerie similarities to the Gaby Petito case, law enforcement takes note and tailors its investigation in a direction nobody wants to believe could be true. Sign up for your free Patreon account , where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other...
info_outline
It’s the middle of the night. Crystal Lake, Illinois. A house is on fire. A neighbor breaks in and saves a baby from the flames … but as firefighters head in to put out the inferno, they discover the body of a popular teenager inside the bathroom–and a murder inquiry begins.
Welcome to a bonus feature here on the Crossing the Line feed. I come across all sorts of stories while researching books, TV series, and my iHeartMedia podcast, Paper Ghosts, in addition to the ideas you send me. A lot of them grab hold of me emotionally—especially the victims stories and the ordeal their families go through. My empathetic nature is to want to cover them all. Yet a good number of the cases, for myriad reasons, don’t fit into the model for a more complete CTL episode. So I wanted to create a sub platform to showcase some those stories, as well.
That said, thank you for supporting Crossing the Line, which has allowed me to produce this new expansion of the brand … Once or twice per month, maybe more, I’ll present a 15 to 20 minute episode, covering murder and missing person cases, and other interesting crimes I think you’ll want to hear about—but maybe more importantly, cases that give us a deeper understanding of the crimes and scumbags who commit them.
Sign up for your free Patreon account here, where I’ll be streaming “live,” sending out newsletters, dropping an exclusive limited series podcast later in 2025, and posting other content you won’t get anywhere else.
Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to contact investigative journalist and host M. William Phelps, get more information about the show, updates to cases, and more.
And don't forget to subscribe to Phelps's #1 hit podcast PAPER GHOSTS, now in its fourth season, wherever you get your favorite shows.
M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.
Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.
**For mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI website or call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), text "HelpLine" to 62640, or email [email protected]**