In today's episode, I'm going to tell you two stories. In the first story, it's ultimately about

this person who is so set on making a change in their lives that they take drastic measures

to affect that change, with some very unfortunate consequences. The second story is about this

town in California where there was this perceived threat,

and it was sort of normalized and people were not that worried about it until it totally spiraled out of control.

But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious,

delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place

because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So, if that's

of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Button's house and write on their bathroom

mirror, I'm watching you in Red Lipstick. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called

the tip-off. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called the Tip Off. Early in the morning on February 5, 1990,

57-year-old Levern Pavlinock stood in the kitchen of her Wilsonville, Oregon apartment,

making some coffee.

Mornings were the best part of LeBern's day, because she had the whole apartment to herself.

Now, she lived with her boyfriend, John Sosnovsky, but he worked at a nearby mill and had to be out early in order to catch the bus there. And each time he left, Laverne felt like a huge weight lifted off of her.

Because when John wasn't home, Leverne could go about her day and pretend she was safe.

But that's all it was.

It was pretend.

John, in reality, was an incredibly violent man.

I mean, he was seriously physically abusive, especially when he was drunk, which was basically

all the time.

So Laverne had actually been married, but her husband had died of cancer,

...