EP 142: Why Camping Is Canceled — Refrigerator Bodies & Tall Greys

This week, we're breaking from our usual deep dives for one of our favorite recurring bits: a big pile of user-submitted horror stories about why, exactly, camping is canceled. Genevieve just got back from a week backpacking in Wyoming and lived to tell about it, so naturally the timing felt right to remind everyone why sleeping outside is a terrible idea.We dig through some of Reddit's darkest camping and hiking threads for tales of vanishing children, humanoid figures crawling around tents during thunderstorms, ghost Marines pointing lost soldiers back to safety, and a Wicker Man sighting that's almost too on the nose. We also get into the story that broke both of us: a man who, decades apart, may have found the exact same refrigerator with a body inside it, twice. It's unsettling, it's funny, and by the end you'll understand exactly why we stay home."That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled 📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled 📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.Want ad-free episodes 1-day early? Subscribe to Patreon and listen to the main feed episodes (plus weekly bonus episodes) every Thursday. Join for just $5.99/month!

This week, we bring our blind read of "The White Darkness" to a close, and it's the ending we were both dreading to find. We follow Henry Worsley as he retraces the exact steps of his hero, Ernest Shackleton, sled harness and all, first as part of a three-man team chasing the pole Shackleton never reached, and later, alone, attempting something no one had ever survived: an unsupported solo crossing of Antarctica.What follows is one man's final chapter, and it left both of us completely wrecked. In this episode, Gen talks about what Worsley left behind, the wife and children who are still, in their own words, waiting for him to walk back through the door, and why a story about loss ended up being one of the most powerful survival stories we've ever covered.“That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled 📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled 📧 Contact: [email protected] now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!SourcesGrann, D. The White Darkness. Doubleday, 2018.Grann, D. "The White Darkness." The New Yorker, 2018.

When we last left you, police had two men in handcuffs, Christina Parcel's fiancé and her ex, and neither one turned out to be her killer. This week, that person finally speaks, and it's someone none of us saw coming: 31-year-old Zachary Hughes, a Juilliard-trained concert pianist who had never so much as met Christina Parcel before the day he killed her.We spend most of this episode inside Zach's own words, pulled straight from two and a half hours of trial testimony, tracing how a chance meeting outside a Greenville coffee shop turned into a friendship with Christina's ex, John Mello, and how that friendship slowly convinced Zach that a little girl was in danger. What follows is Zach's account of everything he says he tried before October 13th, 2021, and exactly what happened once he decided he'd run out of options.Fair warning, campers: this one does not wrap up clean. There are more bombshells still coming, and we're saving them for part three."That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled 📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled 📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!SourcesABC News 20/20, interviews related to the murder of Christina Parcel.Greenville County, SC family court records, custody proceedings (2016–2021).Trial testimony of Zachary Hughes, Greenville County murder trial (February 2025).

A doorbell camera caught him walking up to the house with a bouquet of roses. Twelve minutes later, another camera caught him riding away in a mask and gloves. Inside, 43-year-old Christina Parcell had been stabbed 35 times, her body found surrounded by scattered rose petals. This week, we're pulling apart one of the most tangled cases we've ever covered.Christina left behind a sister who never doubted her, a fiancé who found her body and immediately asked for gloves before touching anything, and an ex-partner whose obsession with her stretched across a continent. We dig into the custody battle, the harassment campaign, and the pile of red flags nobody in her life could agree on. Part two, and the reveal of who actually did this, drops next week."That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled 📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled 📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!SourcesABC News, 20/20, interviews related to the murder of Christina Parcell.Greenville County, SC family court records, custody proceedings (2016).

We're back for Part II of our blind read of David Grann's The White Darkness, and we already have several new fears we didn't have going into this one. Turns out surviving elite military training is somehow not even the most intense thing that happens in this episode.We are already emotionally invested and a little worried about what happens next. Join us next time for part 3 of this blind read."That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!SourcesGrann, D. "The White Darkness." The New Yorker, 2018. (The New Yorker)

This week's blind read started with a black and white photo: a man grinning around a fat cigar, ice crusted thick in his beard, missing front tooth and all. That's Henry Worsley, and by the time this photo was taken he was deep into a solo, unsupported crossing of Antarctica ... over a thousand miles of ice, no dog team, no support crew, nobody coming to check on him if something went wrong.We went in knowing nothing except the title and the author (per usual for us) and came out somewhere we didn't expect: deep in the story of Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer Worsley had idolized since he was a kid marking bird nests on his boarding school grounds. Turns out you can't understand what pushed one man onto the most dangerous ice on Earth without understanding who he was trying to become."That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!SourcesGrann, D. "The White Darkness." The New Yorker, 2018. (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-darkness)

We're picking up where we left off... Tami Oldham Ashcraft, alone on a gutted yacht in the middle of the Pacific. She’s grieving the fiancé the ocean took from her with nothing but raw grit, a broken sextant, and a voice in her head that will not shut up. Over the next 41 days, she rigs a mast out of pillows and a broken pole, argues with something she still can't fully explain, and has to decide, more than once, whether she even wants to make it home.This is the ending of one of the most incredible survival stories we've ever covered. Go listen to Part I first if you haven't (that's EP 131), then come back for the finale.That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn.Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled📧 Contact: [email protected] now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!

This time we skipped the murders for something almost as unsettling: real sleepaway counselors telling on their own campers. Today we dive deep into the weeds of Reddit for the weirdest, wildest, most deranged sleepaway camp memories.From unsolicited upskirts😱 to a kid who tried to take a counselor's face off with a desk chair, this episode has it all. Some stories had us laughing until we couldn't breathe. Others had us seriously worried about how these kids turned out… and whether their parents ever found out what really happened at camp. Either way, we regret nothing about sharing them with you guys. That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn.Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled📧 Contact: [email protected] now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!Sourceshttps://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/j7pha6/comment/g86812x/https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1d77mi/comment/c9nklmk/https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/15rew3/comment/c7p43mk/https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1tadper/comment/ol8lhcj/https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1smg1zl/what_is_the_worst_summer_camp_experience_youve/https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1hoq7u/comment/cawcvc8/

⚠️ This one covers drug trafficking and substance abuse, plus the toll a life on the run took on two kids who never asked for any of it. Nothing violent, but still heavy in its own way.We're back for the second half of You Can Run, and honestly the first half didn't even scratch the surface. Fake passports, a boarding school in England, a nightclub called Ammmnesia (yes, with three M's for style), and a prison escape involving a man drinking his own blood... this family's fugitive years get weirder by the page.But underneath all of it is the story we actually care about: two sisters who got handed new names and new countries every few months while their parents played spy. We're rooting for Erin and Meredith the whole way. Their dad and uncle, though? We have some things to say."That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled 📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled 📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!Source: Meier, B. (2026, May 25). You can run. The Atavist Magazine. https://magazine.atavist.com/2026/mccann-cocaine-fugitives

**WHAT HOOKED US: “When their parents ripped two young sisters from their privileged lives, gave them fake names, and took them on the lam, they thought it was because their father was in trouble with the IRS. It would be years before they learned the truth about his life of crime.”-The Atavist Magazine; No. 176These two little girls had no idea their entire lives were about to turn into a game of hide and seek under fake names. We're only halfway through, and we already need a minute.⚠️ Heads up, this one includes emotional abuse and some family violence. Nothing graphic, but take care of yourselves out there, campers.Source: Meier, B. (2026, May 25). You can run. The Atavist Magazine. https://magazine.atavist.com/2026/mccann-cocaine-fugitives"That's Genevieve. And that's Kaitlyn."Sisters-in-law, best friends, former CNAs, and the sharp-witted duo behind Camping Is Canceled. Known for their mix of research-driven storytelling and unfiltered commentary, Gen and Kait tackle true crime cases (and paranormal rabbit holes) with empathy, curiosity, and a healthy dose of dark humor.📲 Instagram: @campingiscanceled📲 TikTok: @campingiscanceled📧 Contact: [email protected]🎧 Listen now — everywhere you get your podcasts.New episodes drop every Friday. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!