Slaycation: True Crimes, Murders, and Twisted Vacations · Kim Davis, Adam "Tex" Davis, Jerry Kolber; True Crime Podcast

The Shove Boat

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

The autopsy finds hemorrhaging in Karen’s eyes, neck distortion, blunt force injuries, and a puncture wound below her left breast.

1. Slaycation: True Crimes, Murders, and Twisted Vacations covers Scott Ralston, Karen Walsh, and the February 1988 death on the Star Dancer cruise ship. 2. Adam Tex-Davis hosts with Kim and Jerry, and Adam says he knows nothing about the case before hearing it. 3. The episode asks whether Karen Walsh died in an accident, or whether Scott Ralston killed her on their honeymoon cruise. 4. The story begins with Scott Ralston’s earlier trip to Israel, which he later describes in his book Nightmare in Israel. 5. Scott says an Israeli embassy invitation sent him and his parents to open a health clinic, even though he was not yet licensed as a chiropractor. 6. He claims a fake official, a burglary accusation, and jail led him to pretend to be an eight-year-old girl sucking his thumb. 7. The hosts question the Israel account and note that the book sold one copy at first and later 78 copies. 8. In the 1980s, Scott Ralston, now a chiropractor, meets Karen Walsh through physical therapy after his back injury. 9. Karen works as a masseuse at Hunter’s Run in Boynton Beach, and the hosts say she was already in a serious relationship. 10. Scott courts her with expensive trips, and he proposes with a pear-shaped diamond ring that Karen’s mother thinks may be cubic zirconia. 11. The couple marries in Las Vegas on February 4, 1988, and leaves two days later for a seven-day cruise from California to Mexico. 12. The ship is the Star Dancer, a former car ferry called the MS Scandinavia before its conversion in 1984 or 1985. 13. Other passengers notice Scott getting angry with Karen at dinner over silverware and sweets, including petit fours and baked Alaska. 14. At about 3 a.m. on February 13, Scott reports that a gust of wind carried Karen over the 3.5-foot rail. 15. The crew checks the weather, records wind just under 5 miles per hour, and finds that Scott’s first version does not fit the conditions. 16. Scott then changes his story and says he hit a gangway control box while trying to save her, but the box does not show matching damage. 17. The ship’s doctor, Dr. Young, questions Scott in the captain’s cabin and tapes the interview after Scott agrees. 18. The Coast Guard later finds Karen’s body floating by her white sneakers, and the coroner notes hemorrhaging, neck distortion, blunt force injuries, and a puncture wound below her left breast. 19. The episode mixes true-crime narration with teasing banter, and the hosts repeatedly interrupt the timeline to react to the details. 20. Listeners who like maritime true crime, suspicious honeymoon cases, and courtroom arguments would likely stay with it; listeners who want a short, straightforward story about marriage probably would not.

As heard by us

A cruise-ship disappearance turns into a contradiction-filled case that keeps tightening by the minute.

This cruise-ship disappearance unfolds as a contradiction-heavy case, from the first alarmed report to the crew's own account. The shipboard setting does a lot of the work here, with the jogging track, the sea air, and the routine checks all making Scott's explanation look less…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a cruise-deck mystery where the crew's version and the weather records do not agree.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Slaycation: True Crimes, Murders, and Twisted Vacations