Buried Bones - a historical true crime podcast with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes · Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Axed PT 1

January 14, 2026·1 hr 4 min·2 clips

Every mirror in the house is covered. Every single one.

Cold case investigators Kate Winkler-Dawson (true crime journalist) and Paul Holes (retired case investigator) examine the 1912 Villisca, Iowa murders—eight victims including four children, two sleepover guests, and two parents. The episode focuses on crime scene forensics: covered mirrors, ax wounds to ceilings due to low rooms, face coverings post-mortem, and behavioral evidence suggesting an offender closer to the family than a stranger. Modern forensic lens reinterprets historical investigative conclusions.

As heard by us

A patient house-bound case study built from layout, cover, and forensic inference.

This episode stays inside a sleeping house, tracing how an offender could move from room to room, who was covered, and why the mirrors mattered.

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Why you'd press play

For when a public murder starts turning the scene into a puzzle.

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