This podcast details true crime cases. It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

It is not intended for children.

Listener discretion is advised. Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

We're beginning a new series this month title Stranger Than Fiction.

A few months ago I gave you another series, Swan Songs, about true crime cases that inspired songs.

This time I'll share cases of crimes that caught the attention of Hollywood and ended up inspiring feature films.

First up, a beautiful young mother who discovers her husband is cheating on her files for divorce. Soon afterward, she goes

missing. Discovering what happened to Hela Crafts would take a small army of

detectives, forensic scientists, serologists, forensic anthropologists, a police diving team,

and other investigators to unravel this bizarre crime that would inspire an Academy Award-winning

film.

This is Chapter 1 of Stranger Than Fiction,a Crafts had had enough.

She'd been married to her husband Richard for 12 years, and they'd had three children together two sons and

a daughter now ages 10 7 and 5. She'd long suspected that her husband had been

unfaithful but as he was an airline pilot and often gone for long periods of time,

she could never quite prove it.

But now she had proof, and decided it was time to file for divorce.

She never expected her life to turn out this way when she'd met

Richard Crafts in 1969. If Hello was being honest, she really never planned to marry Richard.

He was almost 10 years her senior and her friends and family. She really never planned to marry Richard.

He was almost 10 years her senior, and her friends and family weren't quite sure what

her attraction to him was.

...