The True Story of the Van Oosten Bunker Kidnapping

The True Story of the Van Oosten Bunker Kidnapping

From REDRUM true crime by redrumpodcast

August 24, 2026 · 39 min

About this episode

This episode explores the chilling true story of Chad Schipper's kidnapping of the Van Oosten couple and the events that followed.

For years, Chad Schipper was a trusted, familiar face in his small Illinois church — a man Larry and Connie Van Oosten had known since he was a boy in their Sunday school class. But behind closed doors, Schipper was drowning in secret debt and had been quietly stealing from the people who trusted him most. When the Van Oostens turned down his request for money, something in him shifted — and he began a meticulous, 18-month plan that would end with the elderly couple bound, blindfolded, and locked inside a hidden room he'd built specifically to hold them. In this episode, we trace how a respected member of the community constructed a real-life bunker beneath a rental property, the terrifying night he broke into the Van Oostens' farmhouse, and the desperate 48 hours that followed — including one split-second decision that changed everything. We also go inside the bizarre chapter that came after his arrest, when a mysterious woman named "Elouisa Mae" began writing to the family from out of nowhere, claiming she understood exactly what they'd been through. Was she telling the truth? And how far would Chad Schipper go to avoid facing what he'd done? Instagram…

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