The Unlovely Truth

Season 3, Episode 26: How We Can Get Justice and Safety for Our Seniors

Would you believe me if I told you that violence against the elderly is tremendously under reported? That might be because, according to the AARP, many victims know or are related to their abusers. That makes me angry, frustrated, and I want to cry - all at the same time. But I’m glad you joined me so we can learn how to keep the seniors in our own lives safe from the garbage people who would abuse and take advantage of them.
Our book this week is Stealing Joy: A True Story of Alzheimer’s, Elder Abuse, and Fraud by Dr. Glynnis Walker Anderson. Our guest is Shannon Dion. She helped found the non-profit organization Secure Our Seniors’ Safety after a serial killer murdered her mother along with at least eighteen other victims, most of whom were senior citizens. We’ll chat with her after we investigate our book which details the death of Rosalind Walker.
Today I want to focus on the story from John chapter 12 where Mary anoints Jesus at Bethany. Remember how she poured expensive oil on his feet and then wiped them with her hair? May seem a little odd to us, and it certainly upset Judas. He asked why the expensive oil hadn’t been sold and the money given to the poor. That sounds reasonable, until you read verse 6, which says “He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.” Wow, can we get a lot from that one verse!
We all have loved ones that are going to need care someday. I know it’s hard to think about and plan for, but today’s case shows us exactly how important it is that we do! It is well worth the investment to have a trustworthy professional set up wills, powers of attorney, advanced directives, long term care plans, and anything else that your elderly loved ones need to be taken care of and to have their assets go to the people they want them to go to. And it’s critical to do it sooner rather than later because you never know when a medical issue could render them unable to set things up themselves.
If you liked this episode, be sure to check out some earlier ones. I’ve had so many amazing guests who gave me fantastic information you won’t want to miss. You can also help someone else begin their journey as a different kind of PI - a person of impact, when you share the episode, and when you subscribe, give me a five-star rating and a nice review.
Get your own copy of “Stealing Joy”
Visit Secure Our Senior's Safety website
Tips on how to talk about money and scams with your parents
People Magazine article about accused serial killer of seniors
Inside Edition video
Fox 4 KDFW story about legislation aimed at senior safety
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Season 3, Episode 25: Murder-Suicide: Red Flags and What We Can Do to Spot Them

Can you remember going off on your own for the first time? Whether you were getting your first apartment, joining the military, or going off to college, it was probably exciting but also a bit scary. Today we are going to talk about how we can look out for signs that someone is struggling with a big change in their life - maybe even a change they are so poorly equipped to handle that they explode in violence.
Our book this week is The Events of October and our guest is pastor, writer, speaker, and resident counselor David Brannock. He’s going to talk about specific steps we can take to look out for each other when we experience big changes after we dive into today’s case.
I’ve got a couple of different passages I want us to think about today. The first is Proverbs 22:24-25, from The Amplified Bible: “Do not even associate with a man given to angry outbursts; Or go [along] with a hot-tempered man, Or you will learn his [undisciplined] ways And get yourself trapped [in a situation from which it is hard to escape].”
I also want to share Titus 3:10-11 with you from the New Living Translation: “If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them. For people like that have turned away from the truth, and their own sins condemn them.” This passage is dealing with people trying to cause divisions in the church, but I think the principle of the lesson certainly applies to relationships as well.
I want to challenge everyone - even myself - to find someone who needs to be encouraged to distance themselves from an unhealthy relationship. They may not see the red flags that you can, or even if they do they may just need that nudge that will move them to action. Even if they get mad at you like Maggie did with her friend who wouldn’t room with her if she stayed with Neenef, we need to plant those seeds that just might blossom in time to prevent another tragedy like Maggie’s. There are links below to other episodes about violence in relationships, as well as links to other helpful resources. I hope you’ll share them with anyone who needs to see that they are not alone and that there is hope.
Listen to Season 2, Episode 37: Why Do Abuse Victims Stay: "Every Breath You Take" by Ann Rule
Listen to Season 1, Episode 2: A Twisted Faith
Buy the book here
Connect with David Brannock here
Send me YOUR feedback on the podcast here

Season 3, Episode 24: Internet Safety for Kids: What You Need to Know

I’m a planner and a list maker, but I’ve got to say I never thought that parents needed to have a plan to deal with their kids' every online interaction. Then I read this book. Every parent needs the online power tools taught in these pages. Even if you think you’ve got your kids’ internet access all under control, I’ll bet this episode delivers some eye-opening information that is completely new to you.
Our book this week is The Online World and our guest is the book’s author, Rania Mankarious.
It’s a must-have book for parents. Even if you don’t have kids or your kiddos are all grown up like mine, I want you to practice our one critical action step to make ALL of us safer online. You have to listen to find out what it is!
This week’s Scripture to meditate on is Proverbs 27:12 - “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” This is a pretty short verse, but I think we can boil it down even further and still capture it’s meaning. “Take precautions or suffer the consequences”.
Buy The Online World here
Visit Rania’s website
Join my membership community!

Season 3, Episode 23: Children for Sale

According to savedinamerica.org, nearly 30% of missing children are being trafficked. That’s thousands of children who are basically for sale. But don’t stop listening because this is such a disturbing statistic. Stay tuned for ways that each of us can make a difference. Don’t think it doesn’t happen where you live. Child Trafficking has been reported in all 50 states, so we need you!
Today we are going to focus on missing kids and what we can do to help keep them safe from trafficking. First, let’s take a quick look at some of the numbers so we can put some context around the issue.
I have children, and I can’t even imagine them experiencing the pain and the trauma that I read abut preparing for this episode. Even if you don’t have kids of your own, I’ll bet that there are nieces or nephews, neighborhood kids, or kids from church who you would do anything to protect if you knew something like this was happening to them. Sadly, not every kid has someone looking out for them.
Thank you for hanging with me through a difficult topic like child trafficking. If this is an area where you feel God nudging you a little, you can learn more about it by checking out the links below. You can find ways to take small steps to become a different kind of PI - a Person of Impact.
To learn more about child trafficking, listen to this episode
To report suspected trafficking situations, call the Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888
Get a free Family Safety Guide here from the Phoenix Dream Center
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website
Visit the Courage Worldwide website
Check out the Truckers Against Trafficking website
Learn myths, facts, and statistics about child trafficking here
Read the USA Today article
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Season 3, Episode 22: Where is Your God Now, Part 2: The Aftermath

Larry and Connie Van Oosten of Erie, Illinois, were kidnapped and terrorized by a man who was after their hard-earned retirement savings. They had an unshakable faith in God that helped them survive the ordeal, but would it be enough to help them stay strong once they realized the kidnapper was someone they knew?
This week we are wrapping up the story from the book “Rescued for a Reason” by Larry and Connie themselves as told to A.L. Rogers. Lori Prather, our Unlovely Truth Chaplain, is going to join us again to see where lessons from the book can be applied in our own lives. When terrible things happen, it's easy to ask ourselves, “Why does God allow suffering?” I’ve wondered that many times in my life, and I wondered it again reading this book. I think that maybe it isn’t the right questions to ask. Maybe a better question is “Why do we?”
Let’s look at Proverbs 3:27 from the Message translation: Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God’s hand for that person. I doubt that anyone listening knew Chad, knew what he was planning, but - is there something we know about, and we just don’t want to get involved? I get that, I do, but victims don’t want to be involved either - but they weren’t given a choice. They need God’s hand to intervene, and God may be wanting to do it through YOU or through ME.
Remember how God used Moses, Esther, Noah, Nehemiah, Paul, and of course, Jesus? They each played a role in delivering others from suffering. God is inviting each of us to join Him in that work today.
Haven’t listened to Part 1 yet? You can do that here
Buy the book here
Connect with Lori Prather on Facebook
Visit my website and join my email list
Read more about the Van Oostens

Season 3, Episode 21: Where is Your God Now, Part 1: The Kidnapping

Larry and Connie Van Oosten were looking forward to a quiet retirement in the small, peaceful town of Erie, Illinois. They’d worked hard and planned well. Little did they know that someone else had spent over a year and a half working hard on a plan to kidnap the Van Oostens, steal their retirement savings, and then, who knows?
This week and next we’re going to dive into the book “Rescued for a Reason” by Larry and Connie themselves as told to A.L. Rogers. Lori Prather, our Unlovely Truth Chaplain, is going to join us to talk about ways to keep our faith strong when we are facing tough times.
I’ve never been kidnapped, but I’ve been through some hard times, and I know you have too. Maybe, like the kidnapper, you’ve asked where God was in the midst of something terrible. As today’s passage reminds us, He is always found in times of trouble. The problem is that sometimes we fix our eyes on the problem and not on God. If you are walking through a difficult time right now, I hope you will memorize this verse and meditate on it often:
Psalm 46:1-3 CSB
God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.
Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple
into the depths of the seas, though its water roars and foams
and the mountains quake with its turmoil.
Buy the book here
Connect with Lori Prather on Facebook
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Season 3, Episode 20: I Will Find You: Behind the Scenes with Detective Lieutenant Joe Kenda

Have you ever wondered what the most dangerous creature on earth is? According to Joe Kenda, it’s us! On the flip side, who can work together on a mission to help our communities be places where we feel safe and people who have been affected by crime know they will get the support they need? It’s us.
Our book this week is “I Will Find You” by one of my favorite true crime TV personalities, Detective Joe Kenda, so you’re going to get some great information AND inspiration from this episode. I know how much you all love behind the scenes stories, and that’s exactly what this is. This is where he tells the stories that didn’t make it on his super popular TV show.
And we will talk about John 10:3-4: “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.”
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of us haven’t spent much time around sheep. I know I haven’t. But I do have a dog. And my dog certainly knows my voice and will (mostly) do what I tell him. He knows my voice and he trusts me, so he isn’t afraid to follow my commands.
I wish I always had that level of trust when I hear God talking to me, don’t you? I guess that’s our version of obedience school! Which my dog has been to twice. Just saying - it never hurts to refresh our training.
Let’s all go back to obedience school! Let’s take this next week to read more of John chapter 10 and really meditate on verses 3 and 4. We can ask God to show us areas that He wants to lead us in and then - this next step is crucial - we need to FOLLOW HIM. And if you feel like sharing, you can email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com, or message me on social media. I’d love to hear from you!
If you aren’t too squeamish, you can buy the book here
Sign up for my email list OR join my membership site here
Read about facts on drugs and crime in America here
Find Joe Kenda on ID Channel

Season 3, Episode 19: I Read This Book So You Don’t Have To: How Social Media has Changed the Face of Crime

Can being on Facebook, or any other social media platform, make you vulnerable to being victimized? My highly specific answer to that is - it depends. You made a great choice joining me today because I’m going to show you just how you might be giving away more than you should, and what to do about it. We’ll also talk about how to use your influence on social media to make a positive impact on the world.
Our book this week is True Crime Online by J.A. Hitchcock, and our guest is Dr. Jen Bennett. Jen is the Host of the She Impacts Culture Podcast, an author, and a speaker. She’s also the Strategic Communications Professor at Indiana Wesleyan University where she equips college students to discover their voice, develop their expertise, and lead with influence to impact culture for Christ. She has a fascinating book, “Be Worth Following,” about how to use social media for good.
Spring is here and I’ve been out planting stuff! If any of you like to garden, you know you always have extras of something and it’s such a joy to be able to share those with people. Well if you’ve done what it says in James 1:5 and asked God for wisdom, you’ll have so much that you’ll have plenty of that to share too. And that’s how we take on the bad guys. And gals. Sadly there are a lot of predatory women out there too. But if we ask for the wisdom to know who is out to harm us or others, we can be proactive in keeping ourselves and others from harm. We need lots of wisdom after a crime has been committed as well. Maybe you’ll be asked to serve on a jury. Pray for wisdom! Maybe you have information about someone involved in a crime, but you don’t think it’s important. Pray for wisdom! Maybe someone who has been victimized has reached out to you for help. Pray for wisdom! That’s a prayer you can never pray too often.
Link to buy "Be Worth Following"
Visit Jen's website for all of her social media connections and more!
Visit my website and join my email list
Listen to my episode on the first internet serial killer

Season 3, Episode 18: Grandma’s House

Aren’t Grandmas the best? I loved to go visit with mine at her house, and I’ve got so many good memories of time spent there. Which is why I can’t fathom who would’ve wanted to hurt the two grandmas we're going to talk about today, Grace Kennedy or Madeline Johnson. Let’s investigate their stories and see if someone who knows something will come forward. And believe me - there’s ALWAYS someone who knows something, so we’ll talk about what I think is a creative way to get cold cases in front of people and brainstorm how we can get more creative to get more cold cases solved.
If you love your grandma, or if you ARE a grandma, this episode is really going to hit home with you and make you so ready to go round up some bad guys. The more I learned about these two amazing women the more I wanted to do something to help solve their cases, and other cases where victim’s families haven’t yet found justice. And we’ll talk about a way you can get involved in doing that. Let me give you a little hint - when I deal out this idea, you’ll want to follow suit.
Together, we can get more people to come forward when they have information about a crime. And the Bible says that when we’ve witnessed something and we DON’T come forward, it’s actually a sin! “If you sin by not stepping up and offering yourself as a witness to something you’ve heard or seen in cases of wrongdoing, you’ll be held responsible.” Lev 5:1 MSG. I hope you’ll share this episode with people you know in Ohio and Washington state and maybe someone will come forward to help solve Grace and Madeline’s cases.
News article about Grace Kennedy
If you have any information about Grace Kennedy, please call the Bryan police department at (419) 636-4233, or the Williams County Crime Stoppers at (419) 485-9302.
News article about cold case playing cards
Madeline's playing card
If you have any information about Madeline Johnson, please call the tip line at (800) 222-8477, or the sherif’s tip line at (425) 388-3845.
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Check out my new resources for your journey to become a different kind of P.I.

Season 3, Episode 17: Surviving a Murdered Childhood

What happens when your childhood suddenly becomes a true crime headline? How do you go on after the trauma of losing nearly your whole family to violence? Let’s investigate how one woman did just that. I truly hope that we all learn things to help others and ourselves, and not just rubber-neck at someone else’s tragedy. As Jessica herself said, “This wasn't just a national news headline, a cold case, or a true crime show. It was my family. And my life.”
Our case this week is from the book “I Am Jessica” by Jamie Collins, and our guest is Michelle Nietert, the Clinical Director of Community Counseling Associates, host of Raising Mentally Healthy Kids Podcast, and author of “Make Up Your Mind: Unlock Your Thoughts, Transform Your Life.” Michelle is a trained counselor and previous school crisis counselor. She presents to student and parent groups using deep yet applicable Biblical presentations.
Recovering from trauma is complex, and the process looks different for everyone. But if you or a loved one is walking through the healing process right now, I want to give you some encouragement from a Psalm of praise, specifically Psalm 147 verse 3: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Sometimes it’s hard, and it takes time - but God wants you to no longer be held down by experiences that have hurt you, and maybe even continue to hurt you.
Everyone listening today has what it takes to be a different kind of PI - a person of impact. You can make a difference in how crime affects your community, one small action at a time.
You can buy "I Am Jessica" here
Find Michelle’s book here
And her website here
Another episode where a predator wipes out a family
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