Sanctuary

Sword and Scale

Incongruity

History, Society & Culture, True Crime, Documentary

4.0 • 63.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On a quiet January morning in rural Pennsylvania, Rhonda Smith went to work at her church and never came home. What started as a shocking act of violence inside a place of worship slowly unraveled into something far more personal. As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered whispered jealousies, blurred boundaries, and a devotion that may have crossed a dangerous line.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So I'm pretty terrible at marketing myself. That's for sure, even though it's my job.
0:07.7	A lot of people that have been listening to this show for many years don't even realize we have
0:12.3	a sister program called Nightmares. It's a different kind of a show. It's still about true crime
0:19.0	and they're still about true stories, but it's a shorter show and it doesn't have any 911 calls or blaring clips.
0:28.3	It's great for playing when you're going to bed if you like to hear my voice right before going to sleep.
0:36.7	Telling you a true crime tale.
0:40.1	Anyway, we're going to play you a whole episode right here on this feed to see if you like it.
0:44.5	And if you do, I ask that you search for sword and scale nightmares or just nightmares and subscribe to it.
0:52.4	If you already do, then apologies for the extra episode in your feed.
1:10.2	Rhonda Smith sits in the office at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, leaning her head on her hand with her elbow on the desk.
1:21.3	The computer screen casts a soft blue light in the quiet room, shining in her eyes as she scrolls through yet another
1:28.6	dating profile.
1:30.7	She exhales a little louder than she means to.
1:34.5	She thinks about her last relationship.
1:37.8	He lived about an hour away.
1:40.0	At first, the drive didn't seem too bad, but over time it felt longer.
1:45.5	Their conversations faded.
1:48.5	In the end, they both agreed the distance wouldn't work.
1:52.0	The breakup was mutual and clean, but still disappointing.
1:57.4	She clicks to the next profile.
2:00.0	There was a time when rejection like that would have overwhelmed her.
2:03.6	Even small setbacks felt like proof that something was wrong with her.
	...

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