Moms and Mysteries: A True Crime Podcast

On the night of September 16, 2009, 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson was arrested at an upscale Malibu restaurant after behaving in ways that concerned both the staff and the responding deputies. She passed a field sobriety test. She was cooperative and calm throughout booking. And just after midnight, the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station opened its doors and let her walk out alone, without her car, into an area she had never been before.Her mother had already called the station to say something was wrong. The restaurant employees had said something was wrong. And still, Mitrice walked out into the dark.

Nearly a year later, her remains were found in a remote stretch of the Santa Monica Mountains known as Dark Canyon. The cause of death was listed as undetermined. And the controversy surrounding how she was treated that night, and how the scene was handled when her remains were finally discovered, has never been fully resolved.

This week we cover the full story of Mitrice Richardson, from her life in Southern California to the night everything went wrong, the year-long search, and the questions her family is still asking today.

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Get your IQ Bars today! To get your 20% off text MOMS to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details.

Get THE most comfortable hoodie of your life by going to www.PakaApparel.com.

See how K12 Powered Schools can help unlock your child’s full potential! Enroll online today at K12.com/moms.

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday!

Follow us on Instagram: @momsandmysteries

Join our Patreon: patreon.com/momsandmysteries

Visit our website: momsandmysteries.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March 2010, a middle-aged ex-convict named Lawrence Ray was released from prison after serving six months for child custody interference. With nowhere else to go, he moved into his daughter Talia's co-ed dormitory at Sarah Lawrence College, a small and prestigious liberal arts school just outside New York City. Talia had spent months telling her roommates that her father was a brilliant man who had been unfairly targeted by a corrupt government. So when he arrived, the students opened the door.

What began as a temporary stay quickly evolved into a decade of psychological terror, financial exploitation, and absolute domination. Larry positioned himself as a trusted mentor and therapist, conducting lengthy late-night sessions where he encouraged the students to reveal their deepest insecurities, family conflicts, and mental health struggles. Piece by piece, he assembled a detailed map of each student's vulnerabilities, which he eventually weaponized against them.

Through a combination of sleep deprivation, physical violence, and relentless interrogation, Larry convinced his followers that they had committed terrible acts, poisoned him, and destroyed his property. He forced them to write detailed false confessions in journals and on video, and then insisted they owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. To pay these fabricated debts, the students drained savings, borrowed from parents, performed grueling unpaid manual labor in North Carolina, and in one case, were coerced into commercial sex work.This is the story of how a master manipulator took over the minds of some of the brightest young people in the country, the New York Magazine investigation that exposed the truth, and the federal trial that finally brought him to justice.

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit Nutrafol.com and enter promo code MOMS.

And right now, IQBAR is offering our special podcast listeners 20% percent off all IQBAR products—including the Ultimate sampler pack—plus FREE shipping. Text MOMS 64000. Message and data rates may
apply. See terms for details.

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday!

Follow us on Instagram: @momsandmysteries

Join our Patreon: patreon.com/momsandmysteries

Visit our website: momsandmysteries.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*We realized after recording that we mispronounced the name of Traer, Iowa throughout this episode. We are sorry to anyone from Traer who had to listen to that!*

On the morning of June 18, 2021, a frantic 911 call led deputies to a quiet farmhouse in Traer, Iowa. Inside, they found 42-year-old Ryan Cooper, a beloved local farmer, slumped in his recliner. He had been shot twice in the face. His wife, Karina Cooper, was found clinging to his body, sobbing and claiming that a mysterious intruder had broken into their home while she and their three children slept upstairs. But as investigators began to peel back the layers of their seemingly ordinary family life, they realized the scene was not what it appeared to be.

Behind the scenes, detectives uncovered a secret affair between Karina and a local 22-year-old man named Huston Danker. Though both insisted their relationship was nothing more than a harmless online fantasy, their digital footprint told a far more sinister story. Investigators recovered messages where Karina referred to her husband as merely a sperm donor, fantasized about a rogue semi-truck accident taking him out, and openly discussed building a new life with Huston. When a half-million-dollar life insurance payout entered the picture, the pieces of a cold-blooded murder conspiracy fell into place.

In 2024, nearly three years after the murder, both Karina and Huston were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Karina chose to take the stand in her own defense, a high-risk move that ultimately sealed her fate. Following a dramatic trial, a jury convicted her in just three hours, resulting in a mandatory life sentence. Just weeks later, as his own trial was set to begin, Huston unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty, bringing a final, shocking conclusion to a devastating case.

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

And right now, IQBAR is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQBAR products—including the Ultimate sampler pack—plus FREE shipping. Text MOMS to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details.

Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to Quince.com/moms for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday!

Follow us on Instagram: @momsandmysteries

Join our Patreon: patreon.com/momsandmysteries

Visit our website: momsandmysteries.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In October 1987, 20-year-old Corinna Mullen was found brutally murdered in the trunk of her own car behind a city garage in Central City, Kentucky. Her injuries were catastrophic. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and left to die. Her boyfriend, Jimmy Springer, was arrested, tried, and ultimately acquitted when the jury found the evidence too thin to convict. The investigation was riddled with problems. Evidence was never tested. Key interviews were never recorded. And a pocket knife with blood and hair on it was found by Corinna's own father after her car was returned to the family.

For nearly two decades, Corinna's parents, Claude and Patricia Mullen, refused to let the case die. They placed ads in newspapers, handed out flyers, met with agencies, and followed every lead they could find. Then in 2005, a woman named Sandy came forward with a story that changed everything. She claimed she had been a 16-year-old witness to Corinna's murder and that the man who orchestrated it was none other than Lieutenant Billy Fields, the very officer who had responded to the crime scene and led the original investigation.

In 2006, Billy Fields, Jeffrey Boyd, Jimmy Cramer, and Angela Smith were all arrested in connection with Corinna's death. The trial finally began in 2009, more than 20 years after the murder. Billy and Jeffrey each received life sentences. Jimmy Cramer received 60 years. Corinna's mother did not live to see the arrests. Her father, Claude, died just before Christmas in 2011, two years after the verdicts. Corinna's daughter, Stephanie, who was just two years old when her mother was killed, said she never believed this day would come.

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Sleep cooler this summer with Boll & Branch during their Annual Summer Event. For a limited time, get 20% off sitewide at BollAndBranch.com/moms with code moms. Exclusions apply.

Start taking supplements your body can actually absorb. Go to AbsorbMore.com and enter MOMS at checkout for up to 35%off your first order.

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday!

Follow us on Instagram: @momsandmysteries

Join our Patreon: patreon.com/momsandmysteries

Visit our website: momsandmysteries.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jordan James Parke spent years chasing the next procedure, spending over £130,000 on surgeries, fillers, and dramatic transformations that made him one of the most recognizable faces in the British cosmetic industry. He called himself the Lip King, building a massive social media following and launching his own aesthetics training academy. But behind the glamorous before-and-after photos lay a deeply unregulated industry and a series of increasingly dangerous choices.

In September 2024, 33-year-old Alice Webb, a mother of five daughters, traveled to Gloucestershire to attend one of Jordan's training sessions. After undergoing a liquid BBL procedure, Alice became critically ill and died later that day from complications, sparking a national manslaughter investigation and renewed calls for tighter regulation of the cosmetic industry.

Then, before investigators could reach a conclusion or file charges, another death shocked the industry. On February 18, 2026, Jordan was found dead at a London hotel at just 34 years old under circumstances that appeared connected to the very same world that made him famous. This week, we look at the rise of the Lip King, the tragic loss of Alice, and the shocking twist that left both cases with more questions than answers.

Thanks to this week's sponsors!

Start taking supplements your body can actually absorb. Go to absorbmore.com and enter MOMS at check out for up to 35% off your first order.

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday!

Follow us on Instagram: @momsandmysteries

Join our Patreon: patreon.com/momsandmysteries

Visit our website: momsandmysteries.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices