On this episode of They Walk Among America… On any given day, Gainesville is teeming with students, many of whom flock to the sunshine state from states far and wide. The summer holiday was coming to an end in August of 1990, and students from the University of Florida began to prepare for the new school year. It’s a time of much anticipation, a time for fresh starts, new friendships, unfamiliar faces, and different classes. But the air of excitement in the university city isn’t to last. It quickly transforms into fear, as a sadistic serial killer begins to target unsuspecting students in the sanctity of their very own homes…

On this episode of They Walk Among America… Chowchilla was a rural town in Madera County, California. In 1976 the population of the farming community was around 5,000, spread across sprawling acres of land. Most of those living in Chowchilla had been born and raised there, in the Central Valley. The isolated countryside didn’t provide much for kids to do during the summer months, so many enrolled in summer school. Dairyland Elementary had been assigned as the location for classes in the summer of 76 and over 125 children signed up to attend. 26 of those pupils would become victims of one of the most notorious mass kidnappings in US history…

On this episode of They Walk Among America… Betty Jean Gooch was just beginning her shift as the Special Collections Librarian at the Transylvania University Library in Lexington, Kentucky, on the 7th of December, 2004. The Transylvania University Library is known as the scholarly heart of Transylvania’s campus, and at any given day of the week, it’s teeming with people…

On this episode of They Walk Among America… A single block located between 5th and 6th avenue on 47th Street in New York is known as the Diamond District. The bustling epicentre of New York's diamond and jewellery sales industry sprang up on 47th Street in the 1920s and continues to be one of the most popular locations for jewellery shoppers today. The Diamond District expanded during WWII when thousands fled Nazi-occupied Europe and set up shop in New York City. The Diamond Dealers Club, which was founded in the 1930s as a place for dealers and brokers to store their diamonds, has described the arrival of new traders as follows: “Their influx into America, together with the unprecedented economic boom that took place in the country in the post-war period, shifted the balance of the diamond trade from Western Europe to New York. Indeed, immigration has long been a decisive factor in the growth of the U.S. diamond sector, and the DDC, both then and today, traditionally has served as a melting pot for a diverse group of nationalities and cultures”. Many store owners and workers in the Diamond District were Orthodox or Hasidic Jews. A small place that contained such valuable products was always bound to attract undesirables, but in 1977 the disappearance of two diamond cutters proved that pressure was only good for diamonds…

On this episode of They Walk Among America… Mary Lyons was beginning her shift at the Bank of America branch office in Maple Croft Plaza, in Cheshire, Connecticut. It was the 23rd of July, 2007, a Monday, so Mary knew that it was going to be a busy day. By 9:30AM, there was already a line of customers, ready to go about their financial transactions after the weekend. A middle-aged woman approached the counter. Mary noticed immediately that she had a terrified look in her eyes. Her face was ashen. The woman quietly told Mary that her name was Jennifer Petit, and that she and her family were being held hostage at their home by two men. She needed to withdraw $15,000 to bring to the men, one of whom was in her car in the parking lot waiting for her to return. Jennifer told Mary that if police were contacted, her children and husband would be killed...

On this episode of They Walk Among America… Sabre Springs is a planned high-end community in San Diego, California. It’s a typical residential community where many people go to raise their families within close proximity to employment and good schools. Around 9,000 people were living in Sabre Springs in February 2002 when something destroyed the community's perceived serenity. Before then, parents had no issues with letting their children play in the neighborhood, or leaving a window unlocked in the two-storey tract homes. Children went to school and came home to play with friends, cycling their bikes past neighbor's houses, never aware of the danger lurking behind closed doors until it was too late…

On this episode of They Walk Among America… A desire for fame and fortune can sometimes make people do dangerous and even fatal things in an effort for clicks. In 2017, a young couple had ambitions to make it big on the internet. By June of that year, their ambitions to become household names would materialise, but it was at a catastrophically high price…