Warning, this episode contains graphic descriptions of the sexual abuse of children.

Listener discretion is advised.

When Charlene Lennon and Lisa Hoodless walked to school on a cold January morning, they saw

turquoise car pass multiple times, but shrugged it off. When the car pulled up ahead of them, a man got out and opened the trunk.

Thinking he lived there and was just retrieving something from the trunk, they continued on their

way, not knowing that when they came into contact with him, it would be the beginning of three

days with a child predator.

This is Monsters. Charlene Linen hadn't had the easiest life by the time she was 10 years old.

Born prematurely in 1988 to a mother who drank and shot heroin while she was

pregnant, Charlene stayed in the hospital for two months before being released. Her mother, Sandra,

had four other children who had a different father, but they were in their 20s by the time

Charlene was born. She grew up in a filthy home where her mother had a revolving door of men over to shoot drugs

and have sex, not seeming to care that there was a child around.

Sandra also didn't seem interested in making sure her daughter was fed properly, and

eventually Charlene got so thin, social services stepped in and put her in foster care.

Between the ages of four and six, she moved around foster homes and was sent back to live

with her mother for a brief period. Then her aunt and uncle agreed to foster her and her

situation improved quite a bit. She was well taken care of and did all right in school

despite being diagnosed with dyslexia.

That aunt was the sister of Charlene's father, Keith Lennon, who she had never known.

Sandra told her that her father was a drug addict and was probably in jail, but that wasn't entirely true.

Sure, Keith had been a drug addict and he had been in some trouble with the law,

...