On a summer afternoon in 1976, a school bus carrying 26 children vanished from a quiet road in Chowchilla, California. No crash. No witnesses. No demands. Just an empty road where a bus full of kids had been minutes before.What followed was the largest mass kidnapping in American history — a brazen plan buried underground, a ransom note typed in secret, and a bus driver who refused to let 26 children disappear without a fight.This is the story of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping.

The Au Pair Affair: The Brendan Banfield Case | Daily Scaries: Wide Awake Ep. 1

Brendan Banfield was an IRS criminal investigator who used his forensic mind to plan the perfect double murder. He catfished a stranger named Joseph Ryan through a fetish website, lured him to his Herndon, Virginia home, shot him dead, and stabbed his wife Christine Banfield — all while carrying on an affair with the family's live-in au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães.

This is the Brendan Banfield case — one of the most calculated double murders in recent American history. From the FetLife trap to the triple-pane windows installed for soundproofing, from the staged crime scene to the trial that took three years to unfold.

Brendan Banfield was sentenced to life in prison without parole on June 5, 2026. Juliana Peres Magalhães was sentenced to 10 years.

This is Daily Scaries: Wide Awake — true crime stories told in immersive detail. I'm Brian Scott.

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This episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

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Three murders. Decades of silence. One breakthrough.

Tonight on Daily Scaries After Dark, we revisit three cold cases that sat unsolved for years — until modern forensic science changed everything.

The Lady of the Dunes — Ruth Marie Terry

She was found on a Cape Cod beach in 1974, hands severed, face beaten beyond recognition. For 48 years, no one knew her name. Then, in 2022, forensic genealogy finally gave her one.

Christine Jessop — Ontario, 1984

A nine-year-old girl vanished on her way home from school. An innocent man spent years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The real killer wasn't confirmed until 2020 — long after he had died.

The Golden State Killer — California, 1974–1986

Fifty assaults. Thirteen murders. Then he simply disappeared into the suburbs. In 2018, a genealogist and a DNA database gave him a name: Joseph James DeAngelo.

Dim the lights. Get comfortable. These stories are now just whispers in the night.

Hosted by Brian Scott

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