The Farmhouse Conspiracy: The Murder of Ryan Cooper

The Farmhouse Conspiracy: The Murder of Ryan Cooper

From Moms and Mysteries: A True Crime Podcast by Moms and Mysteries Podcast

June 25, 2026 · 46 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the murder of Ryan Cooper and the subsequent investigation revealing a conspiracy involving his wife and her lover.

*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…

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