Evelyn Hartley

Voices for Justice

Sarah Turney

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.8 • 9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How much of what we watch in true crime entertainment is actually true? And what happens when a story is rewritten for the screen, replacing a family's painful, decades-long mystery with a neat, tidy, and conclusive fictional story? The new season of Netflix's Monster is a global phenomenon. But in its telling of the Ed Gein story, it presents a young woman named Evelyn Hartley as one of his confirmed victims. It's a gripping narrative. There's just one problem. According to the official investigation, it's not true. My mission in this episode is to tell the true, unresolved story of Evelyn Hartley's disappearance, to reclaim the facts from the fiction, and to remember the girl who vanished long before she was ever a character on a screen. 14-year-old Evelyn Grace Hartley was last seen on October 24, 1953, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She has brown hair and blue eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5’6” and weighed approximately 126lbs. She was last seen wearing red jeans, a white blouse, and white bobby socks. Anyone with information is asked to call the La Crosse Police Department at 608-785-5962. Listen to my episode about Katie Palmer on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/katie-palmer/id1469338483?i=1000544500343 Or on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tqCXCiJ53kI1she7GzAfg?si=OXJrE7WlTyiwc-N75WaBEw For more information about the podcast and the cases discussed, visit VoicesforJusticePodcast.com Don't forget to follow me on social media under Voices for Justice Podcast & SarahETurney Join the Patreon family to get instant access to a library of extra content, support the show, and support these cases https://www.patreon.com/VoicesforJustice For more information about the cases discussed, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠VoicesforJusticePodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For even more content or if you just want to support our show, you can join our Patreon at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/voicesforjustice⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on social media: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@VFJPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@VoicesforJusticePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@VoicesforJusticePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@VoicesforJusticePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Voices for Justice is hosted by Sarah Turney Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SarahETurney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SarahETurney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SarahETurney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SarahETurney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SarahTurney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The introduction music used in Voices for Justice is Thread of Clouds by Blue Dot Sessions. Outro music is Melancholic Ending by Soft and Furious. The track used for ad transitions is Pinky by Blue Dot Sessions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
0:11.3	This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
0:15.1	All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
0:18.4	Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety
0:21.8	purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.
0:36.0	Today, I'm discussing the case of Evelyn Hartley, which makes me ask the question,
0:41.9	how much of what we watch in true crime entertainment is actually true.
0:46.8	And what happens when a story is rewritten for the screen, replacing a family's painful,
0:52.2	decades-long mystery with a neat, tidy, and conclusive, fictional story.
0:58.3	The new season of Netflix Monster is a global phenomenon, but in its telling of the Ed Gein's story,
1:05.2	it presents a young woman named Evelyn Hartley as one of his confirmed victims.
1:10.0	It's a gripping narrative. There's just one problem.
1:15.1	According to the official investigation, it's not true. This is the case of Evelyn Hartley.
1:24.4	Evelyn Grace Hartley was born on November 21, 1937 in Charleston, Illinois, to her parents
1:30.8	Richard and Ethel Hartley. She was affectionately known to those close to her as Evie.
1:37.2	She had two older brothers, Richard Jr. and Thomas, and a younger sister named Carolyn,
1:42.4	sometimes called Caroline by the media.
1:45.3	However, unfortunately, tragedy struck the family when they lost Richard Jr. to polio in
1:50.8	1946 at the age of 18. He passed away while serving in the Navy stationed in Rhode Island.
1:58.0	Just a few years later, around 1949, the family made a big decision to move from Charleston,
2:04.4	Illinois, to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where Richard would work and eventually become a respected
2:09.8	biology professor at La Crosse State College. Ethel was a homemaker. Now, back in the 50s,
	...

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