Are you ever awake in the cruellest hours of the night, when the world is quiet, but your mind isn’t?
That’s where Paranormia begins.
Hosted by journalist and parapsychologist Elizabeth McCafferty, Paranormia is a weekly storytelling podcast where true crime collides with the supernatural, the psychological, and the macabre. Each episode explores real cases where belief in something unseen becomes dangerous, cursed objects drive people to violence, psychic visions predict tragedy, cults where worship turns deadly, and hauntings blur into guilt, obsession, or faith.
Elizabeth blends rigorous research with cinematic storytelling to uncover what happens when reason falters and fear takes hold. Because these aren’t just ghost stories, they’re stories about us: about the human need to explain the inexplicable, to find meaning in the dark.
Paranormia: where paranoia meets the paranormal.
Subscribe, and stay awake with us.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
For more true crime that you'll be obsessed with head to AlwaysTrueCrime.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Are you ever awake in the cruellest hours of the night, when the world is quiet, but your mind isn’t?
That’s where Paranormia begins.
Hosted by journalist and parapsychologist Elizabeth McCafferty, Paranormia is a weekly storytelling podcast where true crime collides with the supernatural, the psychological, and the macabre. Each episode explores real cases where belief in something unseen becomes dangerous, cursed objects drive people to violence, psychic visions predict tragedy, cults where worship turns deadly, and hauntings blur into guilt, obsession, or faith.
Elizabeth blends rigorous research with cinematic storytelling to uncover what happens when reason falters and fear takes hold. Because these aren’t just ghost stories, they’re stories about us: about the human need to explain the inexplicable, to find meaning in the dark.
Paranormia: where paranoia meets the paranormal.
Subscribe, and stay awake with us.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
For more true crime that you'll be obsessed with head to AlwaysTrueCrime.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Michael and Suzan Carson drifted through the American West, moving between communes, shared apartments, and marijuana farms. They changed their names, adopted a patchwork belief system of mysticism and religion, and came to see themselves as warriors in a hidden war. Between 1981 and 1983, three people were killed. A young woman found stabbed and bludgeoned in a San Francisco basement. A co-worker shot and buried in the woods of Humboldt County. And a man who stopped to help two hitchhikers, shot on the side of a California highway. The Carsons insisted their victims were witches. They held a five-hour jailhouse press conference, spoke of visions and holy missions, and framed murder as religious duty. Decades later, they have never renounced those beliefs.
This episode traces how an ordinary couple built a shared delusion powerful enough to justify killing, the damage it inflicted on children and families left behind, and why the story has been remembered as something occult rather than what it was: a case study in belief, control, and the human capacity to turn ideology into violence.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became a city stripped to its bones. Power was gone. Tourists vanished. And for a brief moment, life in the French Quarter felt suspended outside of time. Zack Bowen, a former soldier, and Addie Hall, a poet and bartender, chose to stay. They scavenged food, cooked in the streets, drank beneath darkened skies, and were photographed by national media as symbols of defiance; young lovers riding out the end of the world together.
A year later, Addie was dead. Dismembered in an apartment above a voodoo temple. Zack would take his own life days later, leaving behind a confession and one of the most disturbing crime scenes New Orleans has ever seen.
This episode traces the arc from disaster romance to domestic horror, from Katrina’s strange, intoxicating aftermath to addiction, untreated trauma, and a relationship collapsing under the return of ordinary life. It asks why this story became framed as a “voodoo murder,” what we miss when we reach for supernatural explanations, and how catastrophe can amplify the quiet damage already living inside people.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
***
Support & Resources:
This episode discusses suicide, domestic abuse, addiction, and trauma. If you or someone you love needs support, help is available:
United Kingdom:
Samaritans - Call 116 123 (24/7) or visit samaritans.org
National Domestic Abuse Helpline - Call 0808 2000 247 (24/7) or visit nationaldahelpline.org.uk
United States:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - Call or text 988 (24/7) or visit 988lifeline.org
Veterans Crisis Line - Call 988, then press 1, or text 838255
National Domestic Violence Hotline - Call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit thehotline.org
Australia:
Lifeline Australia - Call 13 11 14 (24/7) or visit lifeline.org.au
1800RESPECT - Call 1800 737 732 or visit 1800respect.org.au
Global:
International Association for Suicide Prevention
Find local helplines at findahelpline.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On Christmas Eve 1945, a fire tore through a family home in the hills of West Virginia. Four children escaped. Five never came out. When the smoke cleared, there were no bodies in the ashes, no bones, and no clear explanation. In the years that followed, the Sodder family rejected the official story. They spoke of cut phone lines, a missing ladder, warnings from strangers, and a photograph mailed decades later that seemed to show one of the lost children alive. For eighty years, the case has hovered between accident and conspiracy, grief and obsession.
This episode explores the disappearance of the Sodder children and the questions that refuse to fade. It asks what happens when tragedy leaves no physical proof, when mourning turns into investigation, and when a Christmas night becomes a mystery that will not let a family, or a nation, move on.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In 1972, a small group of ordinary Canadians set out to test a radical idea: that belief alone might be powerful enough to move the physical world. They invented a man named Philip, his face, his history, even his tragic death, and gathered each week around a table to see if imagination could be made to answer back. What followed was filmed under bright lights and careful observation. Knocks echoed from inside the wood. Furniture tilted and moved. The ghost they had designed seemed to respond, not as a spirit from the past, but as something shaped by the minds in the room.
This episode explores the Philip Experiment and the uneasy space where psychology, ritual, and expectation collide. It asks what happens when belief becomes behaviour, when an experiment slips into performance, and when a ghost that never lived begins to feel disturbingly present.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In early 1994, the murder of Harry and Nicola Fuller brought twelve jurors to a Brighton hotel, locked away from the world with nothing but silence, photographs, and each other. As the pressure mounted, four of them reached for a Ouija board, half a joke, half a plea for clarity, and asked the dead for answers. The verdict that followed would crumble under the weight of its own strangeness. This episode explores how isolation bends the mind, how belief can slip through the cracks of law, and how a single night in a seaside hotel became one of the most unsettling chapters in British justice.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In March 1989, Spring Break in South Texas was alive with crowds and music, until 21-year-old Mark Kilroy vanished somewhere between the bars of Matamoros and the quiet roads beyond the border. What began as a missing-person search soon led investigators to Santa Elena Ranch, a remote compound tied to a group calling themselves a religious society, a place where superstition, ritual, and violence appeared to intersect. As the investigation unfolded, rumours of black magic, sacrifice and folk-religious practices spread rapidly, blurring the line between fact and folklore. This episode explores how fear, belief, and cartel mythmaking shaped one of the strangest cases of its era, and why, in the borderlands, the truth often shifts with the shadows.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In May 2014, the quiet suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, became the setting for one of the strangest and most unsettling crimes in modern history. Two twelve-year-old girls lured their best friend into the woods and stabbed her nineteen times, leaving her for dead. When police found them hours later, walking calmly down a highway, they said they’d done it for Slender Man, a faceless figure born from an internet forum, a digital myth that somehow took root in their minds. Journalist Elizabeth McCafferty explores how an online story turned into shared delusion, how imagination became belief, and how belief became violence. Was it mental illness, manipulation, or something more elusive? Because in a world where fiction spreads faster than fact, Slender Man isn’t just a monster made online. He’s what happens when fear finds Wi-Fi.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Paranormia is an Audio Always production.
Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.
Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.
Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Are you ever awake in the cruellest hours of the night, when the world is quiet but your mind isn’t? That’s where Paranormia begins, a weekly podcast where true crime collides with the supernatural. Journalist and parapsychologist Elizabeth McCafferty uncovers real cases where belief turns deadly and fear becomes evidence. In this opening episode, she traces her fascination with the unexplained and reveals the idea behind the series: stories from the thin space between psychology and the paranormal, where reason falters, fear takes hold, and belief turns dangerous.
Because sometimes the haunting isn’t out there… it’s in here. Paranormia: where paranoia meets the paranormal.
Subscribe, and stay awake with us.
If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at paranormia@alwaystruecrime.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the final episode of Inside McKamey Manor we explore what it’s like to try and leave the McKamey Manor community, why this content is allowed online, and the after effect of a traumatic experience. We try to find someone to defend the manor, and get in touch with Russ McKamey.
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
McKamey Manor trades on its reputation, both good and bad. In this episode we unpack the legal difficulties Russ, and the manor has faced. A journey that takes us through financial woes, failed safety checks, and ends in 2024 with a charge of attempted murder. And we explore the interview which nearly ended the podcast before it began.
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Scare acting is more than performance — it’s about understanding fear and bringing it to life. At McKamey Manor, where actors are volunteers who’ve endured the experience themselves, the line between entertainer and participant fades. We hear from a McKamey Manor actor whose experiences ended in a police investigation and we uncover what it takes to turn fear into reality. What does it really mean to bring terror to life?
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How can we decipher between what’s real and what’s fake inside McKamey Manor? In episode 5 we explore Russ’s world of “smoke and mirrors” — is the torture that appears to happen on video fake? Or the only real thing about a manor tour? Elizabeth speaks to a creator of scary smells of horror experiences, and watches journalists undergo hostile environment training to learn how you turn an illusion into something real.
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What actually happens inside McKamey Manor is simultaneously the best and worst kept secret on the internet. Russ’s videos are shocking but heavily edited, and reports from participants of the manor vary wildly. In Episode 4; Dark Copers? we explore what really happens in the yard of McKamey Manor and ask what drives people to sign up to fear without limit?
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Almost all conversations about McKamey Manor circles back to one thing… the waiver. An extensive document signed by participants of the extreme haunt, supposedly grants the actors permission to do just… anything: electric shocks, drowning, crushed limbs, broken bones, exposure to poisonous animals… even death. But is any of this legal? In Episode 3, we dive into the complexities with the help of a personal liability lawyer and a dominatrix, exploring the fine line between consent and risk.
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Who is the man behind McKamey Manor? Russ McKamey, a military veteran with a deep passion for all things horror, created a haunt some call the most extreme in the world…while others condemn it as nothing short of a torture house. In Episode 2 we trace McKamey Manor’s evolution, exploring how the haunt has transformed over time and find out why it keeps having to find new places to start over.
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
McKamey Manor is often labelled the most extreme haunt in America; it's notorious on social media, has a fierce fanbase, but some of the participants say they were physically and psychologically traumatised by their time in the house. So what's the truth?
In episode one we learn about the fear industry; how folksy haunted houses spurned something altogether more adult…extreme scare attractions. And we’ll also uncover how McKamey Manor earned its title as the most intense, controversial haunt of them all.
Listen to episodes of Inside McKamey Manor wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Elizabeth McCafferty
Producers: Mansi Vithlani, Ailsa Rochester
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Legal Advice: Angie Mell, Reviewed and Cleared
Inside McKamey Manor is an Audio Always production
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.