Triggered - The True Crime Podcast

It was a Saturday night in November 1973. Five teenagers from Sioux Falls sat around a campfire in the Gitchie Manitou State Preserve — laughing, singing, passing the evening the way teenagers do. Then came the sound of leaves crunching in the dark.What unfolded in that Iowa nature preserve would leave four young people dead, one thirteen-year-old girl fighting for her life, and an entire community shattered. The killers were three brothers who had stumbled into the park looking to poach deer and decided, on a horrifying impulse, to take something else entirely.Do you want ad-free? Subscribe here: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

Jamie Kirk Hahn was twenty-nine years old, a political strategist who knew everybody and fought for everything. Her husband Nation had been her partner in every sense of the word. And they were both surrounded by people who loved them, including Nation's oldest friend, Jon, who'd been there since they were kids growing up in Lenoir.This is a story about grief. About a woman whose life was taken far too soon. And about the people who tried to hold each other up in the aftermath.It's also a story about something darker. Something that was hiding in plain sight.Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

For over a decade, Jared Fogle was one of the most recognizable faces in America: the everyman who shed 245 pounds on a diet of sandwiches and turned his story into a cultural phenomenon. But behind the goodwill tours, the foundation for at-risk youth, and the carefully managed public image, something deeply disturbing was hiding in plain sight.In this episode, we examine how a man with access to children, institutional goodwill, and a powerful corporate partner was able to operate unchecked for years and what the people around him knew, or chose not to see. From the college dorm where the story quietly began, to the FBI raid that finally ended it, this is the anatomy of a predator who weaponized fame.The sandwich was never the story.Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

On January 11, 2013, students walking into the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, made a discovery no one should ever have to make. Seventeen-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a three-sport athlete with dreams of going pro, was found upside down inside a standing, rolled-up gym mat. His shoes were behind his knees.Authorities were quick with their answer: a tragic accident. Kendrick had crawled in to retrieve a shoe and couldn't get out. Case closed.His family had a different word for it: murder.What followed was more than a decade of competing autopsies, federal investigations, surveillance footage alleged to have been altered, missing internal organs, lawsuits, and a community split. Every official inquiry closed with the same conclusion. Every closure left new questions behind.The case has never fully made sense and Kendrick Johnson's parents are still fighting to change the death certificate to this day.This week, we go to Valdosta.Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

A dream vacation to Mexico… turned into a nightmare that still doesn’t make sense.In March 2023, 23-year-old Kiara Agnew was found brutally beaten to death inside a luxury resort in Playa del Carmen. Just hours earlier, she had been celebrating her birthday with her boyfriend, Ryan Friesen. But what investigators found next would shock even seasoned authorities: Friesen discovered asleep beside her body, covered in blood, with visible injuries to his hands and feet. He was charged. Then acquitted. And now, after a dramatic legal reversal, declared guilty of her murder… while still maintaining his innocence. In this episode, we unravel a case that feels more like a psychological puzzle than a clear-cut crime. Conflicting forensic evidence. Questions about what really happened in those final hours. And a justice system thousands of miles from home that may have gotten it wrong. Because the most haunting question remains: if he didn’t do it… then who did?Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

***EARLY RELEASE - HAPPY EASTER***In November 1970, a hiker in the Isdalen valley outside Bergen, Norway, made a grim discovery: the burnt body of an unidentified woman, surrounded by an almost deliberately erased trail. Her labels had been cut from her clothes. Her passport photos showed her in disguise. She had checked into hotels under at least eight different aliases. Norwegian authorities ruled her death a suicide, but almost nothing else about her story is simple.Who was the Isdal Woman? A spy? A smuggler? A victim? More than fifty years later, she remains one of Europe's most haunting unsolved mysteries. In this episode, we trace her final journey through Norway, examine the forensic breakthroughs that have brought us closer to the truth, and ask why a case this strange has gone unsolved for so long.Some people disappear. Others are made to disappear. The Isdal Woman might be both.Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

The McStay family seemed to vanish into thin air. In February 2010, Joseph, Summer, and their two young sons disappeared from their California home without a trace, no signs of struggle, no goodbye, just an eerie silence. For years, investigators chased a theory that the family had voluntarily fled to Mexico, fueled by grainy border footage that appeared to show them crossing on foot. But behind that narrative was a far more disturbing truth. When the remains of the McStay family were discovered in the desert years later, buried in shallow graves, the case took a chilling turn...one that would expose betrayal, greed, and a killer hiding in plain sight.Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka became known as two of the most disturbing and controversial offenders in Canadian history, an outwardly normal couple whose crimes shattered communities across Ontario. Behind closed doors, their relationship was rooted in manipulation, violence, and escalating depravity that led to the assault and murder of multiple young girls, including Karla’s own sister. Their crimes, committed between 1987 and 1992, exposed not only the depths of human cruelty, but also critical failures in the justice system that allowed their violence to continue longer than it should have. What followed their arrest only deepened the outrage. A controversial plea deal saw Karla Homolka serve just 12 years in exchange for her testimony against Bernardo, who would ultimately receive life imprisonment, despite later evidence revealing her far greater involvement in the crimes. The case ignited national debate, raising uncomfortable questions about justice, accountability, and how evil can hide in plain sight. Decades later, the story of the so-called “Ken and Barbie Killers” remains one of Canada’s most haunting and polarizing cases. Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast

Throughout the 1990s, children across Colombia began disappearing, cases often dismissed or ignored. But when bodies started to surface, investigators uncovered a horrifying pattern that led to Luis Garavito, later known as “La Bestia.”In this episode, we break down how one of the most prolific serial killers in history was able to evade capture for years, the vulnerable victims he targeted, and the chilling investigation that finally brought him down.Listener discretion is advised.Follow us: linktr.ee/triggeredthepodcast