EP 149: The Exorcism of Ronald Hunkeler — The True Story Behind The Exorcist (Part III)

Ronnie Hunkeler was 14 years old, and by the time Part III begins, the people trying to help him are running on no sleep and very little hope. A baptism goes sideways, a car ride turns terrifying, and the hospitals Father Bowdern pleads with decide a boy like Ronnie is somebody else's problem. We have thoughts about that last part.Through it all, a handful of priests, monks, and family members kept showing up for Ronnie with real gentleness, and we want to give them their credit. This is the finale of the series, and yes, we finally get an ending. Settle in, campers."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 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want more stories, no ads, and exclusive bonus episodes every Thursday? Join our Patreon to support the show!SourcesBOOK:The Devil Came to St Louis: The True Story of the 1949 Exorcism by Troy Taylor ARTICLES: https://nypost.com/2021/12/20/is-the-exorcist-a-true-story-what-happened-to-ronald-hunkeler/ https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/demoniac-who-is-roland-doe-the-boy-who-inspired-the-exorcist/#:~:text=Finally%2C%20with%20the%20help%20of,Edwin%20Hunkeler%20and%20Odell%20Coppage. ARTICLE SERIES: The Haunted Boy of Cottage City: The Cold Hard Facts Behind the Boy That Inspired “The Exorcist” by Mark Opsasnick http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage1.html http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage2.html http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage3.html http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage4.html http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage5.html

Part I ended with a 14-year-old boy, a house full of flying objects, and doctors who had nothing. In Part II, the Catholic Church finally shows up, and we did not expect to like the priests this much. We got a skeptic with a notebook, a very tired war veteran, and an archbishop who had to decide whether to say yes to the thing everyone thinks they know from the movies.We're here for Ronnie, who was a kid in real trouble no matter what was behind it. We also have questions for the adults in the room, plus a few for the people who say they saw it with their own eyes. Fair warning: leave a light on. At least one of us is sleeping with a night light tonight."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!

Spooky season waits for no one, and the internet's creepiest paranormal stories certainly have us terrified. We're reading vintage Reddit threads from 10 years ago, back before AI could muddy the water, and the comments are somehow as unsettling as the posts.Expect haunted apartments, bedtime visitors nobody invited, dreams that landed a little too close to real life, and one overnight shift at a remote port facility where we would have refused to leave the room until daylight. You decide what you believe, and we'll be over here with every light in the house on..."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!

In August 1949, The Washington Post ran a headline about a Maryland boy freed from the devil's grip. That story became a book that sold 13 million copies, then one of the scariest movies ever made. Before the 360-degree head turn, there was a real 14-year-old named Ronald Hunkeler, a house in Cottage City, and a family willing to try just about anyone who would pick up the phone.We start at the very beginning: scratching under the floorboards, a household whose beliefs about ghosts and demons didn't quite line up, and a reverend, a psychiatrist, and a parapsychologist who each landed on a different theory. Plenty of what's been passed around about this case holds up. Some of it was invented after the people involved could no longer correct it, and we have thoughts. Part II lands next week, curse of the Exorcist set included, so leave a light on."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!

It's spooky season, and we're starting with the board itself. The Ouija has a Baltimore origin story involving a fertilizer salesman, a coffin maker, a patent office that needed some convincing, and a family grudge that lasted 96 years. There's a university study that says the thing works, but just not the way you'd hope.Reddit has the scariest Ouija stories people were willing to type out: a bank account number nobody should have known, a name that meant nothing until Mom's face changed, and one very specific green van. Consider this your PSA: we don't recommend trying it at home, but we absolutely have thoughts."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!Sources:Baltimore Magazine: The Dark and Fascinating History of the Ouija Boardr/Ghosts: People who have used a Ouija board, what's the scariest response?Wikipedia: Ouija

We're wrapping up the Rose Petal Murder, and we're doing it with more questions than we started with. Part III picks up at Zachary Hughes's February 2023 murder trial. The jury wasn't allowed to hear some pretty major things. Then the same state that fought to keep those things out changed its tune the second it was convenient.We walk through the civil lawsuits, a long-overdue arrest, and two courtroom statements that made us react in very different ways. Through all of it, we keep coming back to Christina Parcell and to the kids at the center of this story, who the system failed at nearly every turn. Fair warning, campers: we had opinions. So many opinions."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!SourcesWSPA, "Family Speaks Out Before Sentencing of Zachary Hughes," Feb. 21, 2025.Fox Carolina, "2 Civil Lawsuits Settled Alleging Child Pornography by Murder Victim's Fiancé," by Brookley Cromer, March 18, 2026.People, "His Fiancée Was Brutally Murdered. Investigators Then Found Evidence He Was Sexually Exploiting Children," by Chris Spargo.FITSNews, "Appeals Court Sends 'Rose Petal Murder' Case Back to Trial Court," by Jenn Wood, July 21, 2026.Fox Carolina, "Killing on Canebrake: Killer's Defense Seeks New Trial After State's Reversal on Victim's Alleged Role in Child Pornography Case," by Catie Bussmann and Grace Runkel, July 21, 2026.Greenville County Public Index (Record 1)Greenville County Public Index (Record 2)YouTube, “Rose Petal Murderer Gets Roasted By Family Members”, Law&Crime Trials, Feb 21, 2025.

This week, we are diving deep into the primal instincts and eerie "gut feelings" that tell us to pack up and get out of the woods. We scoured the backpacking subreddit to bring you a spine-chilling collection of stories where trusting that inner voice meant the difference between a close call and absolute disaster. We also explore real-life mysteries, like the tragic 1995 disappearance of a hiker in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, and delve into the fascinating Shoshone legend of the Nimerigar "little people." Plus, we share incredible tales of hikers who listened to their intuition and ended up saving the lives of injured strangers. You have plenty of reasons to never ignore your instincts. Or better yet, just stay inside."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!Sourcesr/backpacking, "A strong gut feeling to leave a wilderness camp..." https://www.reddit.com/r/backpacking/comments/1wb4r7x/a_strong_gut_feeling_to_leave_a_wilderness_camp/Belgrade News, "Beartooth mystery." https://www.belgrade-news.com/news/beartooth-mystery/article_de02ea76-cd0b-46fe-b782-94fdacc40695.htmlLA Times, "Forest service workers taken hostage held at gunpoint in NorCal, feds say." https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-07-17/forest-service-workers-taken-hostage-held-at-gunpoint-in-norcal-feds-say

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).