Who Murdered Anita Carlson?

Charlotte Lysdale was 68 years old when she disappeared from Pine River, Minnesota.She loved needlework, knitting, family dinners, geraniums, and reading the paper.More than 40 years later, her disappearance remains unsolved.In this episode of A Heavy Weight, we look at Charlotte’s life, the case that followed, the trial of Jerome Bye, and the unanswered question that still remains.Where is Charlotte Lysdale?

On a freezing February night in 2001, Rachel Anthony vanished while closing a small-town liquor store in Pine River, Minnesota, leaving behind her car, purse, and coat. Six weeks later, her body was found, but more than two decades later, the question remains: who killed Rachel Anthony?

In this special episode of A Heavy Weight, we look at the federal conviction of former Kokomo police officer Sinmi Asomuyide, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a fourteen year old girl while on duty. This case raises urgent questions about power, vulnerable youth, police accountability, and what happens when the person expected to protect a child becomes the source of harm.

Renata Fernandez-Ramon was thirty years old. She was a mother to two young children. In October 2011, Renata was last heard from. The next day, her husband, Jose Francisco Munoz-Teran, picked up their children from school and said they were moving to Mexico.Weeks later, Renata’s body was found in a shallow grave in rural Big Stone County.This case is solvable. Investigators know who they are looking for. He just needs to be found.

On December 30, 1987, 20-year-old Marie Kline answered the door at her home near Elkhart, Indiana.She never came back inside.For years, her father Wayne held onto the sound of that doorbell, the sound of his daughter leaving the room, and the questions that followed.This episode of A Heavy Weight follows Marie’s case, the investigation that stalled, the family that kept pushing, and the DNA evidence that finally gave them some answers.Listen now wherever you get podcasts.

In September 2024, Indiana University student Gregory Gabler was arrested after a reported assault inside an on-campus dorm. He was originally charged with serious felony offenses, but in 2026, the case ended with a plea to felony criminal confinement resulting in bodily injury, six years of probation, a no-contact order, and no prison time.In this episode, we break down the timeline, the plea deal, the survivor-centered questions this case raises, and why campus sexual assault cases often leave the public asking whether the legal outcome matched the harm.

Two young women. Two Minnesota roads. Two cold cases still waiting for answers.In part one, we look at the unsolved homicide of Juanita “Wendy” Wear, a seventeen year old who was last seen at a party in Farmington in December 1976. She was reported missing on December 25, and nearly two months later, her body was found by juveniles in a construction area in Apple Valley. The public record is painfully thin, but the silence around Wendy’s case is part of the story. In part two, we turn to JoAnn Bontjes, a twenty one year old beauty salon operator from Sherburn who disappeared after spending an evening with friends in Trimont in October 1975. Her car was found abandoned along Highway 4. The next day, her body was found in a rural ditch. Nearly fifty years later, new DNA testing has brought renewed attention to her case. These cases are not known to be connected. But together, they ask us to sit with what remains after a young woman disappears: the roads, the rumors, the evidence, the unanswered questions, and the people still waiting for the truth.

In June 1987, twenty-two year old Anita Carlson was working the late shift at Pete’s Place West, a gas station and convenience store just outside Bemidji, Minnesota. Anita had recently graduated from Bemidji State University with honors and was building toward a future in broadcasting. But sometime after customers last saw her around 11 p.m., Anita disappeared.The next morning, her car was still behind the store. Her purse was inside. The store was in disarray. Days later, Anita was found in a wooded area off State Highway 89. Her murder remains unsolved.

Two young men disappeared from South St. Paul on May 2, 1993. Eleven days later, Chad Birkeland’s body was recovered from the Mississippi River near Hastings. Todd Hanson was never found, and the case remains unresolved.

A woman works an overnight shift she wasn’t supposed to take.Sometime between 3:10 and 4:30 in the morning, Toni Monette is stabbed to death inside a 7-Eleven in Mounds View, Minnesota. She’s found in the store’s back room. Nothing is taken. No clear motive is ever established.More than 40 years later, the case remains unsolved.