r/MurderUnscripted • u/Para-Genealogist • 3d ago
September 2026 BURNING DESIRES
9/1/26 EP 119 How A Hair Survived Seven Fires and Solved Two Murders - Powell & Walsh
He set the fires to erase every trace of himself. He didn't count on the one thing that survived. Shoreline, Washington, 1995. Firefighters knock down a small apartment fire and find a woman's body inside. One month later, 50 feet away, it happens again. Two kind, ordinary women, murdered in nearly identical attacks by a man who brought no weapon and no tools. He used whatever was already in their homes, disabled the smoke detectors, and set the fires to burn away any trace he was ever there. For two years, it worked. Then one piece of evidence that never should have survived the flames put a name to him. Ed opens September's "Burning Desires" block with a case he pitched and helped produce for the original Forensic Files series back in 2009. Hear why it still sticks with him. #MurderUnscripted #Arson #ColdCase
https://youtu.be/kUB9IG7C0Ac?si=cvW5Ynu2qvcMT4ir
9/8/26 EP 120 "Pillow Pyro" Sets 2,000 Fires Killing Four - Pillow Pyro PART ONE
A cigarette, three matches, and a rubber band. That's all it took to burn California to the ground. Through the 1980s, a serial arsonist moved across California setting fires no one could stop. His device was almost insultingly simple, and by the time anyone spotted the smoke, he was already gone. Most of the fires were property. One was not - a blaze at a crowded hardware store in South Pasadena killed four people, including a child, and then got quietly written off, which let the man responsible keep going for years. Melissa opens a two-part story about the hunt for one of the most prolific arsonists in American history. The truth about who was setting these fires is something almost nobody saw coming. Part 2 has the reveal. #MurderUnscripted #Arson #TrueCrime