MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Today's story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 315. On a day in 2001, a veteran homicide detective put on his gloves and stepped into a cluttered bedroom. He’d been working a murder case for months, but he still had no clear evidence pointing to any of his suspects. But a tip from an informant had led him to this bedroom, and he hoped he would find something useful. The detective searched the room, but nothing stood out to him amidst the mess – until he saw a piece of notebook paper sitting on a nightstand. On the paper was someone’s list of goals they wanted to accomplish in life. The detective scanned the list. Most of the goals on the list were pretty standard stuff, but one goal immediately jumped out at the detective. Because one of the things on the list the writer wanted to achieve was to “Kill somebody and get away with it.”

Today, we have three stories about people who each have one big thing in their life that brings them a lot of happiness and purpose. But it also winds up being the thing that ruins their lives.

Today's story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 311. On a morning in 2002, a man in Indianapolis, Indiana woke up in a cold sweat. His hands shook as he tried to block out the images he’d seen in his sleep, but he knew these images would not just go away – they would keep haunting him until he did something about it. He got out of bed and walked to his phone. He dialed 9-1-1 and said he needed to talk to a detective, because he was having dreams that showed him everything that had happened during a horrific murder all the way back in 1989. The dreams this man claimed to have would help reopen an unsolved murder case that had shocked Indianapolis thirteen years earlier. But these dreams would not answer the questions police had been wrestling with for years, and it would take them another decade to finally track down the killer.

Today, we have two stories about some friends that just want to have a fun night out. But at some point during the evening, things take a disastrous turn.

Tonight's story is a classic scary story. It's so unbelievable that I think a lot of people are going to have a hard time believing it, but when this happened in Hong Kong, this story got picked up by many major outlets and was covered extensive – so that suggests there's some real credibility to this story. But ultimately, it's up to you to decide what you actually believe. Be sure to WATCH this episode on my YouTube channel!

On a chilly February night in 2005, a young woman in Chicago was sitting down for dinner when her phone rang. It was her mom, who lived a few blocks away, and she told her daughter to come home... now. The young woman asked what was wrong, but her mom wouldn’t explain. She just said, RUN. And that’s when the young woman realized – the thing her family had been afraid of for so long… might have finally happened.

Today’s podcast will feature 2 stories about unexplainable phenomena. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.

One night in December 2011, a man sat in an internet cafe, anxiously staring at the words he’d just typed into a chat window. He was about to share his darkest secret with someone he’d only ever talked to online. It was the kind of secret that could destroy him, and he knew sending it was a mistake – but the loneliness was unbearable, and he had to tell someone. So after a long pause... he hit send.