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Hold My Sweet Tea

Pearl & Holly

97 episodes

2 days ago

Send us a text A knock at the door, a name that isn’t yours, and a past that refuses to stay buried. We follow a true-crime story that starts with a packed move in 1983 Louisville and ends—at least for now—with a 2025 tip in Florida, a DNA match, and a father-daughter embrace four decades in the making. Along the way, we sift through flyers and missing-person databases, a dismissed case that wouldn’t stay closed, and the quiet persistence of relatives and detectives who kept asking questions....

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Send us a text A knock at the door, a name that isn’t yours, and a past that refuses to stay buried. We follow a true-crime story that starts with a packed move in 1983 Louisville and ends—at least for now—with a 2025 tip in Florida, a DNA match, and a father-daughter embrace four decades in the making. Along the way, we sift through flyers and missing-person databases, a dismissed case that wouldn’t stay closed, and the quiet persistence of relatives and detectives who kept asking questions....

Show more...

Episodes (20/97)

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 97-Michelle Marie Newton Missing Person for 43 Years, FOUND!

Send us a text A knock at the door, a name that isn’t yours, and a past that refuses to stay buried. We follow a true-crime story that starts with a packed move in 1983 Louisville and ends—at least for now—with a 2025 tip in Florida, a DNA match, and a father-daughter embrace four decades in the making. Along the way, we sift through flyers and missing-person databases, a dismissed case that wouldn’t stay closed, and the quiet persistence of relatives and detectives who kept asking questions....

5 days ago

24 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 96-The Town the Government Drowned: The Dark Truth About Lake Lanier

Send us a text A glittering reservoir with 700 miles of shoreline, a summer magnet for millions, and a drowned town beneath the surface—Lake Lanier refuses to be simple. We wade past the “cursed” label to explore the hard truths shaping its reputation: a long record of drownings and collisions, the submerged history of Oscarville, and the way policy choices still echo through today’s recreation culture. We start with the present, unpacking recent incidents that made headlines and the pattern...

1 week ago

31 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 95-The Murder of Tonya McKinley-Solved by DNA and Genealogy

Send us a text A sunny Gulf Coast day can hide the darkest secrets. We kick off with light banter about warm holidays and beach-town charm, then turn to a haunting case from New Year’s Day, 1985: 23-year-old mother Tonya McKinley leaves a Pensacola bar and is found hours later, assaulted and strangled. Investigators collected semen and blood at the scene, interviewed witnesses, and chased every lead, but the limits of 1980s DNA and disconnected databases let the trail go cold. For decades, To...

1 week ago

30 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 94-The Strange Disappearance Of The Jamison Family

Send us a text A white pickup sits deep in the Oklahoma woods. Inside: a weak but living dog, IDs and a cell phone, and more than thirty-two thousand dollars in cash no one touched. The Jameson family—Bobby, Sherry Lynn, and their six-year-old daughter Madison—has vanished into the trees, and the scene feels both too obvious and not nearly enough. We follow the trail from that haunting discovery to an even colder truth: years later, only scattered remains and silence. We talk through the det...

2 weeks ago

24 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 93-The Senseless Murder of Michele O'Dowd

Send us a text Holiday lights, a familiar tree, and gifts meant for family set the scene for one of the most haunting true crime images we’ve covered: a beloved aunt found under the presents she wrapped with love. We open with a spirited holiday riff, then pivot to a meaningful shift in the law as several states reclassify pets from property to family, recognizing emotional bonds and wellbeing. From there, we unpack a 2011 case out of Jacksonville where generosity turned into vulnerability, a...

2 weeks ago

25 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 92-Silent Night on Freedom Avenue: The Christmas Murders of Harry & Harriette Moore

Send us a text A quiet Christmas evening. A silver anniversary. Then a shudder under the floorboards and a blast that echoed across the country. We revisit the lives and legacy of Harry and Harriet Moore, two Florida educators and civil rights organizers whose home was bombed just after midnight on December 25, 1951, turning a season of peace into a searing indictment of racial terror and systemic neglect. We share who the Moores were—teachers, community anchors, and NAACP leaders who believ...

3 weeks ago

23 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 91-Santa Gunman Bruce Pardo

Send us a text Holiday lights can hide dark plans. We walk through the Covina massacre with clear eyes, tracing how Bruce Pardo went from “civil” in court filings and friendly at the bakery to building a fuel-spraying device and hiding guns in a custom Santa suit. Job loss, a painful divorce, and the performance of normalcy collide with an obsession to punish, turning a family party into a crime scene and a neighborhood into a lesson on how grievance spirals when it meets access and intent. ...

3 weeks ago

30 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep: 90-Yule: Fear, Fire, And The Fight To Keep The Sun

Send us a text What if your holiday lights are more than decor, and closer to a spell whispered against the dark? We dive into the oldest layers of Yule, where winter was terrifying, food was scarce, and people lit massive fires not for charm but for survival. From the longest night to the first thin promise of sunrise, we trace how ancient fear became ritual, and how those rituals glow inside the traditions we keep now. We unpack the Wild Hunt, the storm-borne procession led by Odin that on...

4 weeks ago

22 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 89-When Loss Meets Legacy And Turns Into Light

Send us a text A courtroom twist knocked the wind out of us: after bond was denied in the Shondra May case, the accused died in custody two days later. No trial, no cross-examination, and a community left with raw questions and a grief that doesn’t fit into headlines. We sit with the frustration, the waiting, and the way unfinished justice weighs on families who deserve answers. Then we change rooms, not hearts. We share the story of Ray, a father who spent 49 Decembers as a professional San...

1 month ago

27 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 88-Gryla, The Yule Lads, And The Hungry Christmas Cat

Send us a text The winter sun barely lifts in Iceland, and that thin light is perfect for a story with real teeth. We head north to meet Gryla, the towering giantess who hunts misbehaving children, her thirteen chaotic Yule Lads who sneak into kitchens and barns one night at a time, and the legendary Yule Cat that devours anyone who didn’t earn new clothes by year’s end. It’s a festive world built on volcanic rock, long shadows, and the blunt lesson that survival in winter is a team sport. W...

1 month ago

21 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep 87-Family Christmas Massacre: Ronald Gene Simmons

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1 month ago

28 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 86-Krampus: A Dark Alpine Winter Legend

Send us a text Cold air sharpens the senses, and the bells you hear in the dark aren’t always for carols. We head into the Alpine mountains to meet Krampus, the horned shadow who stalks the edge of winter, and trace how a feared spirit became a living tradition that still rattles streets, nerves, and moral compasses. From pagan solstice rituals to roaring parades where cowbells, chains, and carved masks shake the snow, we follow the journey that paired Saint Nicholas—the patron of children—wi...

1 month ago

25 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 85-Thanksgiving Ribs and The Shocking Story of Omaima Nelson

Send us a text What starts with mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole takes a sharp turn into one of Orange County’s most disturbing true crime cases. We open the holiday table, then unpack the whirlwind marriage of Omaima Nelson and William Nelson, the shocking events of Thanksgiving weekend 1991, and the courtroom narratives that battled for the jury’s attention. Between claims of long-term abuse and a blackout, and a prosecution case built on forensic detail and concealment, we examin...

1 month ago

35 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 84-A Calculated Thanksgiving: The Joel Michael Guy Jr. Case

Send us a text Our latest deep dive unpacks one of the most chilling Thanksgiving crimes on record: the calculated murders of Joel and Lisa Guy by their son, Joel Guy Jr. We trace the path from a simple welfare check to a home transformed into a chemical crime scene, where overheated air, acid-filled bins, and a pot simmering on the stove told investigators everything they needed to know. We take you inside the psychology and logistics of the case: a 28-year-old supported into adulthood, no ...

1 month ago

41 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep.83-Louisiana To Mississippi: The Tragic Deaths of Callie and Erin Brunett

Send us a text A quiet Tuesday in Louisiana. A father’s unanswered calls. By Thursday morning, a young mother is found stabbed more than fifty times and her two daughters are missing. From that moment, every detail becomes a lifeline: the black Chrysler 200, the Amber Alert, and a suspect who doesn’t just flee to Jackson, Mississippi—he loops back and forth across state lines, then points police toward the unthinkable. We unpack the case of Daniel Callahan and the victims who matter most: Ca...

1 month ago

34 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 82-Susan Wright Case: 193 Stabs, A Backyard Grave, And A Courtroom Spectacle

Send us a text The story starts like a neighborhood postcard and ends with a number you can’t forget: 193. We head to Houston to unpack the Blue-Eyed Butcher case, where a young mother, a charismatic husband, and a tidy suburban home collide with bindings, a shallow grave, and a trial that turned into legal theater. What looked perfect from the curb was tearing apart inside—friends described charm and volatility, anxiety and control, late-night fights and a marriage sliding into fear. We wal...

1 month ago

31 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep 81-Revisiting The Suspicious Death Of Dan Bettencourt Jr.

Send us a text A beloved former bartender walks back into a Bourbon Street institution during Southern Decadence and never comes home. We follow the final hours of Dan Bettencourt Jr.—from a late-night laundry run to Oz Nightclub, to a crowded room, a reported disturbance, and the moment friends say a headlock left him lifeless on the floor. The police narrative and eyewitness claims don’t line up, the surveillance angles go dark at the worst possible moment, and the long-promised toxicology ...

2 months ago

27 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 80-Kathy Blair: How A Neighbor’s Thermal Camera Helped Catch Her Killer!

Send us a text A quiet Austin street. A beloved choir director asleep in her one-story home. And a neighbor testing a thermal camera that happened to catch a figure slipping into the night. From that eerie image, a web of clues began to surface: cell phone pings at 1 a.m., a dark vehicle identified by headlight silhouette, shoe impressions across a ransacked floor, and a drop of blood in the wrong car. We walk you through how a fragile set of details, layered with patience and forensics, grew...

2 months ago

31 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 79-The Disappearance of Jennifer Kesse

Send us a text A warm, funny cold-weather check-in pivots into a gripping true-crime journey that spans courtrooms, forensics labs, and one family’s two-decade fight for answers. We start with October case turns, where evidentiary battles in the Morgan Bauer case show how motive, media, and fairness collide. Then a sharp DNA update in the Chandra May investigation illustrates how modern testing can turn doubt into direction—and why process still matters as much as proof. From there, we go de...

2 months ago

49 minutes

Hold My Sweet Tea

Ep. 78-The Nanny, the Husband, and the Cold Case: The Murder of Doris Worrell

Send us a text A quiet weekday morning at a family fun center shouldn’t end in gunfire. Yet in 2006, 39-year-old mother and co-owner Doris Worrell was found shot inside John’s Sports Park in Douglas, Georgia—no forced entry, no theft, no witnesses. The scene looked staged, the timeline felt too neat, and the community was left with grief and rumors but few answers. Nearly two decades later, everything changes. We revisit the strained marriage, the live-in nanny working in Tube Town, and the “...

2 months ago

27 minutes