SHE THOUGHT THEY WERE HER FRIENDS: The Murder Of Mary Collins In Charlotte

26 October - 59 mins
Podcast Series Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Mary Collins was a 20-year-old Charlotte woman with a genetic disorder her family says left her with roughly the mental capacity of a 15-year-old, and on March 28th, 2020, as North Carolina went into lockdown, she went to an apartment in NoDa to hang out with people she thought were her friends. Police found her body hidden inside a mattress in that apartment a week later, and on October 12th, 2026, a Mecklenburg County jury convicted Lavi Pham and James Salerno of first-degree murder and sent both men to prison for life without parole.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mary-collins-murder-charlotte

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https:/...

59 mins

Series Episodes

LAST VISIT: Lost In The Newfoundland Fog At The Eternity Cove Hotel | #RetroRadio Playing

LAST VISIT: Lost In The Newfoundland Fog At The Eternity Cove Hotel | #RetroRadio

Lost in the Newfoundland fog on the way to see their daughter and baby grandson, a couple from Brampton, Ontario, picks up a hitchhiker who sends them to the Eternity Cove Hotel and Lounge, where the man behind the desk already knows their names. CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Everybody Does It” (February 07, 1979) ***WD 00:46:36.858 = Nightfall, “Last Visit” (October 24, 1980) ***WD 01:14:14.307 = Nightmare, “The Leech” (April 07, 1954) = SONG, “The Leech” by Static Wax (based on the story from Nightmare) 01:40:32.231 = Obsession, “Shadow of Huntley House” (February 26, 1951) 02:04:55.681 = Origin of Superstition, “Crossing Your Fingers” (1935) ***WD 02:19:39.383 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Give Envelope To John St. John” (May 21, 1949) 02:50:37.999 = Peril, “The Wonderful Deception” (1953) ***WD 03:17:06.552 = Mystery Playhouse, “Leg Man” (October 19, 1945) ***WD 03:43:37.489 = Price of Fear, “Fish” (September, 1973) 04:13:37.333 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Vanishing Magician” (November 06, 1943) ***WD 04:44:24.135 = Quiet Please, “Tanglefoot” (June 04, 1949) ***WD 05:13:43.832 = Show Close (ADU) = Air Date Unknown (LQ) = Low Quality ***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing. More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

5 hours 15 mins

26 October Finished

WEREWOLVES IN THE CLEARING: We Set Up Camp In The Middle Of Nowhere | #MidnightInTheMacabre Playing

WEREWOLVES IN THE CLEARING: We Set Up Camp In The Middle Of Nowhere | #MidnightInTheMacabre

Dex and Trey talk a friend into a few days of camping at a spot Dex's cousin swears by, four miles uphill from the car, and the girl he's been crushing on for almost a year is coming too. On the second day they find a paw print wider than Trey's spread hand, and that night a howl comes out of the dark so loud they have to cover their ears. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/werewolf-camping-story SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Werewolves Are A**holes” by Reddtior u/JoshuaWaggoner90: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y6bn65be WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: October 26, 2026 More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

33 mins

26 October Finished

HALLOWEEN: 2,000 Years of Heinous History | #WDRadio Playing

HALLOWEEN: 2,000 Years of Heinous History | #WDRadio

The night is coming. Porch lights and decorations won't change what moves through the darkness on October 31st. Every plastic skeleton dangling from a suburban tree, every polyester witch costume hanging in a store window, every carved pumpkin glowing on a doorstep – they're echoes of something that began long before any of us were born, something older and more terrifying than most people realize. SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT’S SHOW: https://weirddarkness.com/HalloweensHeinousHistory More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

1 hour 28 mins

26 October Finished

#WeirdDarkNEWS | A Dead Mother's Visit, A 911 "Help", Skinwalker DNA, And More Playing

#WeirdDarkNEWS | A Dead Mother's Visit, A 911 "Help", Skinwalker DNA, And More

Fifteen stories, starting with the therapist who told a Boston jury about Sandra Birchmore's dead mother at the foot of the bed, holding Sandra's unborn baby, and running through a silent black triangle dropping into a canyon, a "black magic" 911 call in Charlotte, a collapsing tomb lid in Brazil, and Skinwalker Ranch hair sent off for DNA testing. SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: http://weirddarkness.com/sandra-birchmore-trial No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

56 mins

26 October Finished

#BotchedExecutions | Kenneth Smith And The Men Sent Back To Their Cells Playing

#BotchedExecutions | Kenneth Smith And The Men Sent Back To Their Cells

Ohio, Alabama and Idaho searched five men for veins in seven years, starting in 2017, and then sent them back to their cells alive. Alabama came back for two of them, Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith, with a mask and a nitrogen line, and the morning after Smith died, its attorney general called the first nitrogen execution in history "textbook". In between, John Grant convulsed and vomited on Oklahoma's gurney, and Joe Nathan James spent three hours behind Alabama's curtain. From the book “BOTCHED EXECUTIONS: Four Centuries Of Failed Hangings, Electrocutions, Gassings, Injections And Firing Squads” by Darren Marlar at https://weirddarkness.com/botchedexecutions WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: October 24, 2026 More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

36 mins

25 October Finished

Recommended

No Account

Subscriptions to podcast series are only available to users with an account. Sign in or register to subscribe and access your subscriptions.

Register Sign in

Woops!

Error text.