It's hard to imagine losing a loved one, a wife, a husband, a child.

For many, it's their biggest fear.

Amarissa Jones, host of The Vanished.

A podcast that tells the stories of often overlooked and unsolved missing persons cases,

in an effort to uncover the truth.

Follow The Vanished on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

This story contains adult content and language,

along with references to sexual assault.

Listener discretion is advised.

At that moment, they had no idea what was going to come out of that cellar.

They were hoping it would be Ruth, who was fine,

who was in captivity.

And there were stories of that that she was being held against her will.

I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, an on-fiction author and journalism professor in Austin, Texas.

I'm also the host of the Historical True Crime podcast,

Tenfold War Wicked, on Exactly Right.

I've traveled around the world interviewing people for the show.

I've interviewed some people in person and some from my home studio over Zoom.

And they are all excellent writers.

They've had so many great true crime stories.

And now we want to tell you those stories with details that have never been published.

Tenfold War Wicked presents Wicked Words is about the choices that writers make,

...