Paranormia

Elizabeth checks in as Paranormia wraps its first season, with a quick look back at CrimeCon Birmingham and a glimpse into what’s coming next… From the science that might explain ghosts, including a device that can trigger the feeling of a presence in the room, to unsettling encounters linked to a real life plane crash where crew members reported sightings of those who didn’t survive… and a court case so strange it saw “demonic possession” used as a legal defence.Plus, a reminder that if you’ve got a story you think Elizabeth should dig into, she wants to hear from you: paranormia@alwaystruecrime.comParanormia will be back in a couple of weeks.

In February 1945 Charles Walton, a farm labourer in his seventies was found brutally murdered in a field in Warwickshire. The scene was shocking… his throat cut with his own tool and his body pinned to the ground with a pitchfork.As the investigation unfolded, rumours began to spread of witchcraft, ancient rituals, and something darker beneath the surface of rural life. Over time, the case became both an unsolved murder and legend. So what really happened to Charles Walton? And how did one killing turn into one of Britain’s most unsettling folklore mysteries?***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.

In 2005, on the Isle of Sheppey, a young man was found wandering near a beach soaked through and unable to explain who he was or where he came from. As weeks passed with no answers his case captured global attention, and with no identity to anchor the story, speculation began to take over. Known only as “The Piano Man,” he became the centre of a mystery shaped as much by imagination as by fact. This episode explores what really happened, and how a real person became a story the world couldn’t stop telling.***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.

Between 1968 and 1969, a mysterious killer haunted Northern California, murdering at least five people and sending cryptic letters and ciphers to local newspapers. Calling himself the 'Zodiac,' he taunted police and the public, but his true identity has never been revealed. This episode explores the crimes, the chilling letters, and the lasting mystery of the Zodiac Killer.***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.

In March 1997, a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California became the site of one of the most unsettling mass deaths in modern history. 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate group were found arranged in identical clothing, their deaths carefully planned and documented. Led by Marshall Applewhite, the group had spent decades developing a belief system that blended religion, science fiction, and extraterrestrial salvation, teaching that Earth was temporary and that a spacecraft from the “Next Level” would come to take them home. As comet Hale-Bopp comet appeared in the 1990s, their beliefs crystallised into a final act they described not as suicide, but as “graduation.” This episode explores how the group formed and how belief created one of the most haunting cult cases in American history.***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.

In the late 1970s, Sacramento was shaken by a series of brutal killings carried out by Richard Trenton Chase, a man later labelled the “Vampire Killer.” Convinced that his blood was being poisoned and that he needed to survive by taking blood from others, his behaviour escalated from harming animals to attacking people. In just one month, six lives were taken. This episode explores who Richard Chase was, how his beliefs developed, and how a suburban city became the backdrop for one of the most disturbing true crime cases in American history.***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.

The Cottingley Fairies might not seem like the kind of story you’d expect on Paranormia. In 1917, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright produced photographs that appeared to show tiny winged figures, ‘fairies’, dancing beside Cottingley Beck. What could have stayed a family joke quickly spread far beyond the Yorkshire village. The images reached Theosophists who believed they were proof of hidden worlds, and eventually Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who published them in The Strand magazine and argued they might change how people think about reality. This episode explores how a childhood hoax became an international story, and why so many people, in a world still recovering from war and loss, wanted to believe it.***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.

In the early 2000s, a small group of teens and young adults found each other online through Final Fantasy VII fandom, where they felt understood. But survivor accounts describe a household in State College, Pennsylvania, where a leader turned fantasy and roleplay into a system of control. This episode traces how a fandom became a closed world, and why its aftermath became an internet legend. Some names are pseudonyms from reporting in Vice, while others are composite characters based on survivor accounts.***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.