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

This is NOT ‘The Way’

·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

Two boys found a smell near Fountain Lake that led police to the Howards’ maroon Oldsmobile in a ravine.

1. Slaycation: True Crimes, Murders, and Twisted Vacations centers this episode on Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the Howard couple’s disappearance. 2. Adam Tex Davis, Kim, and Jerry Culver frame the story, with Kim leading the research and Adam asking questions as a proxy listener. 3. The episode asks whether Lila and Raymond Howard’s final trip was a confused detour, a stubborn choice, or something in between. 4. Hot Springs is described as a city built on nearly a million gallons of 143-degree spring water each day. 5. The hosts note Hot Springs National Park, established in 1832, and Bathhouse Row as the town’s historic core. 6. They also place Hot Springs in the 1920s to 1940s as “Vegas before Vegas,” with Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Oney Madden in the mix. 7. Lila and Raymond were both widowed before finding each other in their 70s in Salado, Texas. 8. Raymond Howard was born on August 11, 1908, married Ethel Lewis in 1929, and had four children, including twins who died in infancy. 9. Lila Joan French was born on August 31, 1913, married Jesse David Copeland, and had two children, Winnie Joanne and Hal Ray. 10. Their wedding on March 8, 1986 is presented as a late-life match built on family, music, and social shenanigans. 11. The couple kept a yearly tradition of attending a fiddling festival in Temple, Texas. 12. Raymond’s 1995 car accident caused a head injury that led to brain surgery, headaches, and memory problems. 13. Lila’s mental state declined enough that her family took her car keys after she confused 10:30 p.m. for a coffee run. 14. The family tried to drive them to the festival more than once, but Lila insisted they could manage the 15-mile trip themselves. 15. On June 28, 1997, the Howards left in a maroon 1987 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and never returned when expected. 16. Deputies Harold Cole and Ed Hutchinson stopped the car in Arkansas for missing headlights and then for high beams. 17. The story of their disappearance later drew Tony Scalise of Fastball to write “The Way.” 18. The hosts say the song came from a newspaper story and initially sounded like a romantic road trip rather than a tragedy. 19. The discussion is casual, chatty, and reflective, with jokes, interruptions, and a long detour into aging and driving. 20. Listeners who like true-crime stories tied to family dynamics and memory loss will likely stay with it. 21. Listeners wanting a tightly plotted mystery with no digressions may skip it.

As heard by us

A road-trip disappearance told with wit, friction, and a steadily deepening dread.

This episode frames a simple road trip as a missing-person case with real bite: Leela and Raymond Howard, an elderly Texas couple headed to a fiddling festival in a maroon Oldsmobile, are tracked through small but unsettling details, from a stop in Paris, Arkansas for driving…

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Want a vacation mystery that starts with jokes and ends in dread?

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