This week, we're heading back to the early 1900s to meet Bell Gunnis, a seemingly respectable Indiana widow with a dark side and a very well-fed hog pen.

Bell used Lonely Hearts ads to lure wealthy, unattached men to her farm, promising love and companionship, but delivering something far more sinister.

When bodies began turning up and her farmhouse mysteriously burned to the ground, the biggest question became, did Bell die in that fire or did she vanish to kill again? It's a story of romance scams, insurance fraud, and one of the most infamous unsolved mysteries in American true crime.

Hey guys and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a true crime podcast featuring myself Mandy and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I am doing wonderful.

My kids started school this week.

Yeah. Like, I mean, the sun is actually legitimately shining, but it also feels like it's shining on my heart because I'm home by myself for the first time in several months. And there's just something about being home alone.

Honestly, just no one to, no one to talk to you.

I know that sounds bad, but I'm like, don't ask me a question.

Like, I can just walk from room to room and, you know, live my life and nobody's asking for what's for dinner or anything else.

So, yeah, no, that's very nice.

That's the dream.

I hope, too, to reach that next week. I'm excited for

mine to go back and get fall coming in. Please. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, you know, we have still a little

ways to go for that down here, but in theory, in theory falls on the way. Yes, which I don't mind the theory of fall

to tell you the truth. I will still wear my sweaters in September and just be sweating.

I just took my sweatshirt off. I'll keep doing it. Okay, Melissa, so we're getting into the

story for this week. This one is really something. So let's start off by picturing this. It's 1905. You're a Norwegian

bachelor in your 40s. I know that might be hard for you to imagine yourself as. I love just

try. That's the picture I'm having to make. Like I'm like, yeah, no, I got it. I'm there.

Yeah, just try. So you are this 40-something Norwegian bachelor living on a small farm in Minnesota. You've worked your whole life. You've got a really modest nest egg saved up. And maybe you're ready for love. Maybe marriage, that companionship thing that everyone really, really wants. So you open your local Norwegian language paper because I didn't realize

that there was a Norwegian language, but there is. And you see a personal ad that reads,

Comley Widow, who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La Port County, Indiana,

...