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Hello and welcome back to Cult Leader. I'm your Cult Leader, Spencer Henry, and I'm back with another doozy for you this week. We've got twist. We've got turns. Okay. I have to tell you, I feel bad because in May and June, I started teasing merch would be back, but then things went haywire with the launch of obituary closing the Patreon just so much happening behind the scenes in addition to

all of the other stuff that I'm constantly working on for May episodes and little leaders. I just had to put it on the back burner, but now I feel like everything is where it needs to be. So I'm going to try and get a pre-order for the end of the month. So between now and August 1st, thank you. First of all for even wanting merch, but thank you for being patient while I figure it out. I just need to make sure it's always about making sure I have a dedicated two or three days to work on merch nonstop because it's always so crazy.

Because I go so long in between doing merch and not doing it. Moving on, if you'd like to see photos from each week's episode and stay in the know, follow along online at Cult Leader Podcast on Instagram. And also I did not forget on Friday's little leader, I mentioned a book giveaway. So I'll post about that this week.

I know I'm so excited for this week's obituary episode. If you have not listened to obituary yet, first of all, you are missing out. Secondly, you'll definitely want to hear this week's episode. I was laughing so hard while we were editing the other night. Should we get into it? I was actually talking to Madison about today's episode. And it's not a super well known case. And we were talking about that because to me, I love finding these cases, these stories specifically ones that aren't so blown up and repetitive.

Because behind every homicide, obviously there's this story that is just waiting to be told. And this week's is one that really sticks with me. So without further ado, let's get into it.

Warning, there is discussion of molestation at some point or another in today's episode. Just put it out there. We don't go into details or anything like that. It's purely allegations actually.

You'll see our story takes place today in Logan, Ohio. Now the city of Logan lies 35 miles southeast of Columbus. And originally it was a coal mining town. But by the 80s where our story takes place, that was long gone.

The mines had been shut down, the economy had collapsed, and what remained was a downtown and surrounding pretty rural suburbia. It was quiet there. There was not a lot going on. If you lived there, it's likely you knew just about everyone in town and vice versa.

It wasn't a place that you needed to lock your doors at night. There wasn't a whole lot of trouble aside from town drunks and petty theft, which is why the disappearance of teen lovebirds, Todd Schultz and a net cooper, sent Logan in to chaos.

We'll talk about them first briefly. Todd Schultz, good kid, 19 years old. He was just a year out of high school. It had recently taken up a job at a local printing company in Logan.

He was also associated with the local volunteer firefighters. He was the second of four children born into a pretty well-known family. The Schultz had lived in Logan for some time now, and were pretty respected in their community.

The same, however, cannot be said, for a net's family, his girlfriend, a much different background. Her family had a trailer on the outskirts of Logan. A net was just 18 at the time she went missing, leaving her mom younger sister in her stepdad at just a total loss for words.

A net was a good kid. Smart, she attended Hawkins College, studying computer programming, and had plans to move out with Todd into an apartment of their own, and eventually pursue her education, possibly at Ohio University, after she was done at Hawkins.

A net and Todd had already been living together at Todd's parents' house, which, while it seems unconventional, apparently Todd had pretty much demanded that a net move in after learning about some sketchy past behavior of her stepdad Dale.

Her family had moved to Logan several years earlier when her mom Sarah met her stepdad Dale. They'd both been married when they met, but left their ex-spouses in Zenya Ohio. Zenya, it's ex-e-ni-a. Someone will tell me.

And made them move to a 53-acre farm 10 miles from downtown Logan.

Sarah and Dale were happy to move there with her two daughters, a net and Michelle. They loved the freedom that came with their new home. They had all the room in the world to do as they pleased, including, quote,

embracing a clothing optional lifestyle on this secluded property.

Now Todd's parents knew all about this unconventional life, this unconventional upbringing, and that's family participated in, which is why they were more than willing to allow her to come live with them and focus on her studies.

Together, the teens rarely got into trouble. They weren't big partiers. In fact, they were quite the opposite, especially a net who rarely took breaks from her vigorous studies.

And this is why, on October 5th of 1982, Todd's mom Sandra Schultz knew something was wrong when she went into her son's room and it appeared neither he nor a net had returned from the night before.

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