Cold cases, dealt one card at a time.
Missing people and unsolved killings, from a 1999 Simi Valley disappearance to a 2016 Rochester quadruple homicide, each arrive as a playing card with a suit and a state. Detectives describe their dead ends in their own words, and the closings give phone numbers and anonymous tip routes for anyone who knows something.
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The Deck gives every case a card. The card is announced first, by name, suit and state. Lindsay Wells is the King of Diamonds from California. Marjorie Christy Luna is the Four of Spades from Florida. The four people killed in one Rochester home are the 9, 10, Jack and Queen of Hearts from New York, and Mason Worthington is a wild card from Virginia. Then Ashley Flowers introduces herself and the show. The card format rests on a practical idea, stated plainly at the end of the Lindsay Wells episode: a deck of cards, in jails or on a podcast, can spur interest in a case and bring it back to life. That makes each episode of this AudioChuck production an appeal as much as a story. The cases differ sharply in age and shape. Lindsay Wells, 22, was reported missing in Simi Valley in 1999, and the investigation has since involved a psychic medium, an undercover wire operation and searches with cadaver dogs. The episode is careful to call it a missing persons case, not a homicide. Christy Luna disappeared from a neighborhood called Green Acres one May evening in 1984, and more than 40 years later her childhood friends are piecing their memories back together. In the Jason Vesper case, overnight camera footage follows his blue pickup to a stop sign half a block from home at 12:56 a.m., just as another vehicle pulls in front of it. Investigators speak in their own words, and they leave the uncertainty in. One, on the 2018 Virginia shooting, explains why a man whose account shifted across several interviews raised questions, then allows that shock can leave gaps too. A detective on the Wells case admits the worry that if Lindsay's fiancé had been involved, he would have become a filter for what police learned. The Rochester killings, discovered after a fire tore through the house, remained unsolved nearly ten years on. Not every card stays cold, though. A new development closed the 1973 murder of Janet Couture, an episode framed by the old law enforcement line that a cold case is never really cold. The closings are the most practical part of the show. They name the department, give the number and offer anonymous routes such as Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County, and the Vesper episode even lists the possible makes and years of a vehicle. On the Virginia case, an investigator says he would love to call Mason's mother and tell her someone is in jail. Episodes sign off with an AudioChuck credit, theme music by Ryan Lewis, a pointer to the show's advocacy work and the line 'I think Chuck would approve.'
Made for: Suits a listener who wants cold cases told with the investigators still working them, and who would rather an episode end with a number to call than with a neat verdict.
What sets it apart: Each victim becomes a playing card, named by suit and state, and episodes close with the specific department, tip line or anonymous route for anyone with information, so every story also works as a public appeal.
For years, some law enforcement agencies have replaced the faces of traditional playing card decks with images of missing and murdered people and distributed those cards in prisons hoping inmates would come forward with information needed to crack these cold cases wide open. Now, audiochuck is dealing you in. Each week, we will be working with investigators and family members to bring you the details of some of the coldest cases from around the country in hopes that someone listening can finally bring these victims the justice they deserve.
The Deck deals you a name; you stay for the seconds a camera cannot explain.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A steady missing-person review grounded in the hard facts and unresolved questions around Lindsay Wells's disappearance.
Lindsay Wells disappeared from Simi Valley in 1999 while nine months pregnant, shortly before her due date and a day after missing a prenatal appointment.
A Florida girl's disappearance reveals the darkness beneath a storybook neighborhood, as old leads continue to matter.
Marjorie "Christy" Luna's disappearance gives The Deck a case where the familiar shape of a barefoot, walkable Florida neighborhood slowly gives way to something more guarded.
A restrained murder-case episode follows a blue pickup, a shadowing vehicle, and five unresolved minutes on surveillance footage.
Jason Vesper's last drive through Scottsbluff is framed as a spare, tense account of a murder case that starts with a family argument and narrows into a surveillance puzzle.
A decades-old murder case turns on the gap between an alibi and the people asked to confirm it.
The Deck returns to the 1973 murder of 21-year-old Janet Couture, whose final night began with a warning to her sleeping boyfriend that someone might be in the house.
A careful Virginia shooting case study centers on the person investigators still cannot reach.
A 2018 Virginia shooting still turns on one unresolved absence. Investigators confirmed unusually specific details from the night, from how many people were in the room to where they were sitting, but the person believed to know more has remained out of reach for seven years.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
A former cop's DNA, a dropped case, unreliable memories.
Lindsay Wells disappeared in Simi Valley in March 1999 while nine months pregnant, and John Tate reported her missing after she missed a March 30 prenatal appointment.
The Deck revisits the May 27, 1984 disappearance of 8-year-old Marjorie "Christy" Luna in Greenacres, Florida, after she walked to Belk's for cat food and never came back.
The Deck follows the January 2, 2008 killing of 40-year-old Jason Vesper in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, after he left home for a short drive to calm down after a family argument.
The Deck follows the 1973 murder of Janet Couture in East Hartford, Connecticut, and the case's long route to an arrest more than 50 years later.
Ashley Flowers opens The Deck on the 2018 killing of William Mason Worthington, who went by Mason, at 1095 Wilkins Drive in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The Deck follows the 2004 disappearance of Jeffrey Dale Nichols, last expected to meet his ex-wife, Shelby, in Utah.
Ashley Flowers opens The Deck with Kenneth Floyd, a 32-year-old found stabbed in apartment 303 in mid-March 1995, with a blood trail running from his bathroom down three flights of stairs.
The Deck examines the 1986 drowning of 24-year-old Lois West in an abandoned Williamsburg house.
This episode of The Deck investigates the unsolved 2016 quadruple homicide of four people in a Rochester house fire.
This episode discusses the case of Sharon Glover, known as the 6 of Spades victim in Louisiana, exploring the details of her murder and the ongoing investigation.
This episode of The Deck investigates the unsolved murder of George Jares, a Wisconsin restaurant owner who was shot in his parking lot, leading detectives to suspect a hired hitman.
This episode revisits the case of Owachige Osceola, an indigenous woman whose death remains undetermined despite evidence of murder, and discusses a vetoed bill for funding missing indigenous persons cases.
This episode of The Deck investigates the 2005 disappearance of Sandra Burris from a small Louisiana town, a cold case that may be reopened with new reporting.