Left Where God Could Find Him: Amish Serial Killer Eli Stutzman Pt 1

True Crime Campfire

True Crime, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Comedian Simon Amstell said, “If you are somebody who is going to at some point be revealed as not like everyone else, then to be in an insular community is a problem.” Here Amstell was discussing how it felt growing up gay and going to a religious school. Insular religious communities shut themselves off from the world in order to keep their views unchanged by the outside. It’s extremely effective. The Amish are one such community. Most of their followers aren’t allowed to use electricity or have indoor plumbing. They view modern conveniences as threatening to their religious beliefs, which are at the center of their lives. Today’s case is about an Amish man who never quite fit in with his brethren. His sexuality, his disposition, and his work ethic all flew in the face of what his community believed. And maybe that’s why he fought so hard to prevent anyone from finding out who he really was, even resorting to murder.NOTE: We had some microphone issues on Katie's end this week--we apologize if the sound isn't as good as usual. Sources: Gregg Olsen, Abandoned Prayers: An Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secretshttps://amishamerica.com/do-amish-believe-taking-a-photo-captures-their-souls/ https://www.ohiosamishcountry.com/articles/photography-and-the-amish https://www.ohiosamishcountry.com/articles/the-traditional-amish-youth-period-of-rumspringa https://language.mki.wisc.edu/essays/pennsylvania-dutch/#:~:text=While%20most%20Amish%20and%20Old,Lutheran%20or%20German%20Reformed%20affiliation.Investigation Discovery's "Murder in Amish Country," episode "Amish Serial Killer"Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire.
0:04.8	We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true
0:09.4	story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime
0:14.2	campfire.
0:20.0	Comedian Simon Amstel said,
0:21.9	If you're somebody who is going to at some point be revealed as not like everyone else,
0:27.3	then to be in an insular community is a problem.
0:30.6	Here, he was discussing how it felt growing up gay and going to a religious school.
0:35.9	Insular religious communities shut themselves off from the world in
0:39.0	order to keep their views unchanged by the outside. It's extremely effective. The Amish are one such
0:46.0	community. Most of their followers aren't allowed to use electricity or have indoor plumbing.
0:51.5	They view modern conveniences as threatening to their religious beliefs,
0:55.0	which are at the center of their lives. Today's case is about an Amish man who never quite fit in
1:00.7	with his brethren. His sexuality, his disposition, and his work ethic all flew in the face of what
1:06.6	his community believed in. And maybe that's why he fought so hard to prevent anyone from finding out who he really was,
1:14.7	even resorting to murder.
1:16.9	This is part one of Left Where God Could Find Him, Amish serial killer Eli Stutzman.
1:22.4	Music So, campers, we're in Chester, Nebraska on Christmas Eve, 1985.
1:38.0	Chester is the kind of small rural town where everybody knows everybody.
1:42.5	Chuck Cleveland was going on a Christmas Eve hunt and drove to
1:45.5	his usual hunting grounds, a cornfield where pheasants could get a free meal. Chuck owned the local
1:51.6	truck stop and another one a few towns over. By small town standards, he was filthy rich. As he drove
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from True Crime Campfire, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of True Crime Campfire and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.