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Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén

The Church Lady Murder: Imaginary Love Triangle Ends in Tragedy

Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén

Spotify Studios

True Crime, Education, History

4.730.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a lonely church volunteer in small-town Pennsylvania becomes obsessed with her new pastor, her festering jealousy toward a kindhearted fellow parishioner twists into delusion. Sources for this episode include: Love Me or Else: The True Story of a Devoted Pastor, a Fatal Jealousy, and the Murder that Rocked a Small Town by Colin McEvoy and Lynn Olanoff Dateline "Deadly Sanctuary" (2009, NBC)Lehigh Valley Live News Coverage Keep up with Killer Stories! Instagram: @killerstoriespodTikTok: @killerstoriespodX: @killerstorieshq Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Do you ever wish you had a magic mirror that could give you all the answers?

0:12.3

In the tale of Snow White, an evil queen learns from her magic mirror that she's not the fairest one of all.

0:19.1

Her stepdaughter, Snow White is, thus planting the rotten seed

0:24.0

of envy that festers inside the queen for years. But life isn't easy for Snow White. After the queen

0:31.8

runs her out of town, Snow White has no family to turn to. She basically becomes a live-in maid

0:37.1

to seven small coal miners.

0:39.3

She's just living life, trying to make the best of the situation.

0:43.4

But the queen can't see any of that.

0:45.8

She sees only a threat.

0:48.3

And jealousy, unchecked, unchallenge, turns turns her into a poison apple murderer.

0:56.4

All because an enchanted piece of home decor told the queen, someone else is better than you.

1:05.3

They say jealousy is a disease, but maybe it's really a symptom of misguided insecurity, of misunderstanding each other,

1:16.3

and of forgetting that we all struggle, even if we hide it. In today's story, one woman's

1:25.4

jealousy clouds her perception until she can only see red.

1:30.9

I'm Harvey Guillen, the time is less important than the setting, because it takes

2:02.9

place in a town where life moves more slowly, where the people are less interested in fads and trends,

2:11.2

where picture-perfect homes overlook rolling hills and deep forest. It's such an idealic place that Lassie, the Heroic TV dog, was actually invented here.

2:22.0

Yep, she was based on a real-life dog named Toots.

2:26.8

What I'm saying is Springfield Township, Pennsylvania is the epitome of small-town America.

2:42.0

And there, along a two-lane country road, an old church opens its doors to the cold air. Trinity, Evangelical, Lutheran has stood for over 250 years.

2:48.0

It's older than the United States.

2:50.0

And all that time, it served a loyal congregation,

...

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