Pacific Northwest true crime by the campfire.
What Happens in the Woods follows murders, disappearances, and unresolved cases, often rooted in the Pacific Northwest and nearby communities. The show pairs detailed timelines with conversational frustration over delayed witnesses, missing leads, and systems that fail victims.
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What Happens in the Woods is a true crime podcast shaped by Pacific Northwest cases, unresolved questions, and a conversational campfire tone. It is not a distant crime bulletin. The show works through timelines, sightings, suspect theories, family statements, law enforcement decisions, and the stubborn gaps that remain after official answers run out. Recent episodes cover cases involving Ed and Minnie Maurin, Lenoria Jones, Nicholas Francisco, the Cowden family, and the Lewis & Clark Valley murders. The emphasis is often on what people saw, when they spoke up, and why crucial information failed to move faster. Short reactions give the episodes an unfiltered feel. Longer stretches slow down over surveillance footage, bank records, search efforts, missing-person calls, and the difference between rumor and evidence. The show is especially attentive to cases that have faded from public view. It also calls out the lack of attention given to missing Indigenous women and the failures that can happen when agencies do not communicate well. That social conscience sits beside dark humor and everyday banter. Holiday chatter, Patreon notes, listener prompts, and Halloween collaborations soften the edges without turning the subject matter light. The series can branch into famous paranormal claims, as in a Halloween special, but it returns to violence, grief, and unanswered accountability. Its style is plainspoken and sometimes impatient. The conversations make room for confusion, skepticism, and anger when witness behavior or investigative choices seem hard to accept. It is strongest when a case contains conflicting stories, delayed disclosures, or a community that appears to know more than it says. The result is true crime for listeners who want detail, reaction, and local atmosphere in the same feed. The woods are less a setting than a warning sign. Behind each case is the sense that safety can vanish quickly, and that silence often protects the wrong people.
Made for: For true crime listeners who prefer detailed case narration with candid, conversational reactions. It especially suits people drawn to unsolved cases, regional crime history, and victim-focused frustration over unanswered questions.
What sets it apart: The show combines Pacific Northwest case selection with blunt table-talk energy, moving between granular evidence and moral reaction. Its recurring concern with missing Indigenous women and agency communication gaps gives the darker storytelling a sharper civic edge.
We're just your average couple, living normal lives, who happen to be obsessed with everything related to true crime. Shortly after relocating to the great Pacific Northwest, we realized there were stories upon gruesome stories to be told from this region. And we want nothing more than to share them with you. So come join us every first and third Friday of the month as we take a deep look into the dark and twisted. It isn't for the feint of heart, but we promise it will be worth it. And remember...what happens in the woods, stays in the woods.
A possible shadow in the back seat has you asking why nobody came forward.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
An Everett-linked disappearance leads into a clear look at missing and murdered Indigenous women and uneven attention.
What Happens in the Woods closes its season with an unsolved disappearance tied to Everett, then widens the frame to ask who gets urgency, coverage, and coordination when a woman goes missing.
A Christmas-time disappearance hinges on witnesses who saw more than they first understood.
The case of Ed and Minnie Maurin plays as a quiet lesson in how a town can carry crucial details without knowing what they mean. The couple vanished just before Christmas and were found dead four days later, after witnesses had seen Ed driving with Minnie and an unidentified man…
A family's 28 days in a murder-linked house become a Halloween campfire tale of alleged paranormal activity.
This bonus episode builds its chill around a Halloween campfire-style account of a family's 28-day stay in a house tied to a murder. Ryan is joined by Christy and Beth from Crimes and Closets, and the conversation moves through the family's reported experiences: George waking at…
A missing girl's disappearance is traced through a changing account, requested surveillance footage, and questions that still have no clear answer.
Lenoria's disappearance is framed through a day that moves between a Target store, the grocery store next door, and Berlin's changing account as police ask more questions.
A grief story shifts into something more unsettled when an email raises fresh questions about Eric's death.
A grieving mother trying to support her sons opens the door to a death the community has mostly let fade from view. The episode starts with Corey appearing on a Utah news segment about her book, then pivots after an email reaches the station the following day suggesting there…
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard traces con man John Meehan's fraud, abuse, and its Bravo TV adaptation.
["What Happens in the Woods closes season six by announcing a move to global cases and then turns to two unsolved holiday-season crimes from Washington.", "Sherry Anderson, 50, left Stanwood on December 2, 2000 for breakfast, photo pickup, Walmart, and Christmas shopping before she vanished.", "Linda Tran, seven months pregnant, and her children Austin, 1, and Patricia, 9, were attacked in Tacoma on December 18, 1998 after a porch confrontation and a house fire.", "The episode centers on Anderson's locked Toyota 4Runner at Everett Mall, Tran's burned baseball bat and composite sketch, and the fact that neither case has a solved answer."]
What Happens in the Woods covers the December 19, 1985 disappearance and deaths of Ed and Minnie Murrin in Lewis County, Washington, after the couple failed to open the door for a church Christmas dinner potluck.
What Happens in the Woods' Halloween collab with Christy and Beth from Crimes and Closets centers on horror movies based on true crime cases, beginning with The Amityville Horror.
What Happens in the Woods covers the 1995 disappearance of three-year-old Lenoria Jones in Tacoma, Washington, after Berlin Williams called 911 from a Target pay phone at 9:52 a.m.
What Happens in the Woods opens with October birthdays, a Crimes and Closets Halloween collab, and the launch of the show’s Patreon before shifting to Corey and Eric Richens in Camas, Utah.
What Happens in the Woods examines the February 13, 2008 disappearance of Nicholas Francisco from SeaTac, Washington, after he told Christine Carter he would return with sugar for Valentine’s Day cookies.
What Happens in the Woods examines the unsolved 1974 disappearance and murders of Richard and Belinda Cowden, their children David and Melissa, and their dog Droopy in Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains.
What Happens in the Woods examines disappearances and homicides connected to the Lewis Clark Valley near the Washington-Idaho border between 1979 and 1982.
What Happens in the Woods examines the June 5, 2014 mass shooting at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington, where one student was killed and several people were injured.
What Happens in the Woods examines Franz Edmund Crayfield’s Church of the Brides of Christ, which formed near Corvallis, Oregon, in 1903.
A true crime podcast hosted by a couple sharing gruesome stories from the Pacific Northwest, with this episode featuring a crossover with another true crime podcast.
This episode discusses the dangers of online dating, using a case from the Pacific Northwest as an example.
A bonus episode featuring an interview with author Brian Johnston about his book on the 1921 kidnapping of George Weyerhaeuser in the Pacific Northwest.