Tag: Kentucky
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Buried Treasure in the Tri-State?
When most people picture buried treasure, they think of pirates on a tropical beach or old West gold prospectors out in California. But buried loot might be a lot closer to home than you think. Before the FDIC came along to insure bank accounts, plenty of folks simply didn't trust banks with their hard-earned cash. It was pretty common to bury savings in a field or hide them somewhere safe. When people passed away without telling anyone where their stash was, those valuables stayed right where they were put. Just look at what happened in July 2023, when over 700 rare Civil War-era gold coins worth millions were unearthed right in a Kentucky cornfield.
In this episode, we dig into several local treasure legends scattered across the Tri-State area.
Over in Farmersburg, Indiana, a recording from 1987 tells the story of a wagon full of gold buried by soldiers near an old dirt trail. They hid the stash before heading off to confront a group of bandits, but since none of the soldiers survived the fight, the location was lost to time.
Moving over to Southern Illinois, the area around Cave-in-Rock has a wild history of river pirates and outlaws. Rumor has it that stagecoach robbers hid around $200,000 in gold and silver coins inside a cave along the Ohio River. Not far down the river in Golconda, local stories talk about hundreds of 1800s silver dollars occasionally washing ashore, possibly coming from an old wrecked riverboat.
Down near Dixon, Kentucky, America's first serial killers, the Harpe brothers, built up a massive fortune by robbing their victims over a nine-year spree. After they were tracked down and killed just outside Henderson, rumors spread that their hidden stash of around $300,000 in gold coins remains buried in a cave above a stream near what is now Harpes Head Road.
Whether these stories are completely true or just heavily embellished over the generations, there is almost always a grain of truth behind local folklore. Just remember, if you decide to grab a metal detector and go hunting for long-lost gold yourself, always get permission from the property owner first. -
The Murder of Blake Crews
In this episode, we step away from the supernatural to cover a heartbreaking local case that hits way too close to home. Back on the night of January 16, 2015, 20-year-old Blake Crews was shot and killed inside a house in Henderson, Kentucky. It has been over a decade, and his murder is still officially unsolved.
If you read the initial headlines about the case, it would be easy to jump to conclusions. The home where Blake was staying was well known locally for having people coming and going at all hours, and the police investigation quickly pulled in local drug charges. But once you actually learn who Blake was, the "drug deal gone wrong" theory falls completely flat.
Blake was a genuinely good kid. He was an avid musician who marched in his high school band, played in local rock groups, and was actually recruited by Kentucky Wesleyan to help revive their college percussion program. He was a state bowling champion, did Science Olympiad, was active in his fraternity, and went on church mission trips where he wrote in his journal about wanting to spend his life helping others. On the day he was killed, he had spent hours trying to print out business cards so he could start giving drum lessons to local kids.
That evening, Blake was house-sitting for an acquaintance. Around 7:00 PM, he posted a simple tweet about watching Groundhog Day on VHS. Sometime between then and midnight, absolute tragedy struck. Someone called the police to report a burglary in progress, and when state troopers arrived, they found Blake lying in the open doorway, shot multiple times in the face. Everyone else was gone.
What makes this case so infuriating for his family and friends is the sheer lack of answers. Eight people who hung around that house were eventually arrested on minor drug offenses or charges for failing to report a death, but not a single person has ever been charged with Blake's murder.
For this episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Blake's mother, Donna, and his sister, Amanda. Hearing Donna talk about the toll this has taken on their family is brutal. She described how a part of her died right alongside her son that night. They opened up about their frustration with local law enforcement, feeling like the case got shuffled around between different agencies and caught up in red tape instead of getting solved.
We also talked about who Blake was as a person outside of the tragedy. Donna and Amanda shared stories about his quirky style, like how he used to hunt for vintage clothes at Goodwill, insisted on wearing these ridiculous leather shoes he called his "chackas," and cut his own hair in ways his friends ended up copying. His high school buddies Brandon and Kyle also came on to talk about how Blake genuinely had zero enemies. To everyone who knew him, it feels like Blake was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the crossfire of someone else's mess.
Toward the end of the episode, I even spoke with the girlfriend of one of the guys who was interrogated early on by police. It sounds like the state police are holding their cards close to their chest, waiting for that one critical tip or for someone to finally break their silence.
Someone out there knows what happened in that house on Fairmont Avenue. The Kentucky State Police are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. If you know anything at all, no matter how small it might seem, please reach out to KSP Post 16 or call their anonymous tip line.