Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised.

This episode contains discussions of child abduction, murder, and assault that some listeners

may find disturbing.

Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13.

Life was hard for Asda Iker.

In the years leading up to 1931, she'd become a widow and single mother, raising three

children alone in the early days of the Depression.

To make ends meet, she was forced to rent out a room at her home.

But that summer, everything was about to change.

She rushed about her house, straightening a curtain here, sweeping up dust there.

Everything had to be perfect for when her fiancé, the man of her dreams, arrived.

Asda hadn't expected Cornelius piercing.

The lonely heart's edge she answered seemed too good to be true.

He was a successful civil engineer, and he wanted to care for her and her children.

He wasn't much to look at, sure, but she knew from his letters how powerfully he loved

her.

Today was the start of a new beginning.

But there was so much to do.

She told her tenant that he'd have to leave, an awkward but necessary conversation.

Then, she found someone to take care of her children while she and Cornelius enjoyed

a honeymoon.

Still, it felt like she was forgetting something, or maybe she was just anxious.

...