Today’s podcast will feature 2 borderline unbelievable stories that remain a mystery to this day. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#2 -- "The Quarterback" -- Famous college quarterback goes missing (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf9ahZB9yfY)#1 -- "Waking Nightmare" -- A woman deals with a violent stalker (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD_Ot9aXy7s)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What are the stories featured in today's episode?
Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two borderline unbelievable stories that remain a mystery to this day. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.
The first story you'll hear is called The Quarterback and it's about a famous college quarterback who goes missing. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Waking Nightmare and it's about a woman who deals with a violent stalker.
But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Amazon Music Follow Buttons house and steal the little plastic clip on their vacuum that keeps the cord neatly tucked away after use. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Quarterback.
Chapter 2: Who was Cullen Finnerty and what happened to him?
From 2002 to 2006, Cullen Finnerty was perhaps the most successful college quarterback in history, winning three national championships and being named the division two player of the decade. He was also perhaps the toughest college quarterback in history. Most quarterbacks will spend their careers looking to avoid getting smashed by defenders, Not Cullen.
Cullen was 6'2", 240 pounds, and he would tell his teammates that he wanted to get hit, and he would hit back. And his coaches hated it about him, but his teammates loved this about him. Cullen was also famous for playing through injuries. His junior year in college, he broke his collarbone, and he didn't tell anyone, and he played through an entire playoff series that he won.
After college, Cullen's professional football career was not nearly as successful as his amateur one. He played briefly for two NFL football teams, the Baltimore Ravens and the Denver Broncos. But when he wasn't getting any playing time and he just could see the writing on the wall that this was not going to be a match, he was not going to make it in the NFL.
He left for Europe to play in the European Football League. But when his European football career started to sputter out as well around 2009, he came back to the United States where he joined a very small time indoor arena football league.
And while Cullen's love of football was still there as much as it ever was, he knew at this point playing at this low of a level that his career was effectively over. Around the same time that Cullen was hanging up his football cleats, he would meet Jennifer, who would become his wife. She was an Allstate volleyball player and in many ways was just as competitive and as athletic as Cullen was.
They were kind of like a perfect match for each other. They married in 2010 and Cullen, this big man, big time quarterback, was shaking and crying at the altar because he was so nervous and excited about marrying Jennifer.
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Chapter 3: What led to Cullen Finnerty's mysterious disappearance?
because I think this was a really big turning point for him where he was basically putting football in the past and starting this new life and building a family with Jennifer and he was really excited about it.
The newlywed couple moved into a house together in Michigan where they had two kids and Cullen landed a good job in medical sales and by all accounts Cullen was just hitting his stride post-football. On Memorial Day weekend in 2013, Jennifer's family was planning this three-day fishing trip along the Baldwin River in Michigan, and the Finnerty's decided they would join them.
And so Cullen and his wife and kids, they rented a cabin that was gonna be near the campsite that Jennifer's family was staying at, And for the entire weekend, it was just this great fishing trip where everybody had a great time and the weather was beautiful.
And on May 26th, so the last night of this three-day fishing trip, Cullen, who had recently purchased this pontoon boat that they had used for this fishing trip, he wanted to just go out one more time on his boat, this boat that he was really proud of, and fish for another 30-45 minutes before ending the weekend.
So Colin put on his waders and his jacket, he grabbed his fishing pole, and he had his family drive him to the stairs that led down to the water where his pontoon boat was. Before he walked down the steps, he turned and told his family that he'd be out for about 30 to 45 minutes and that he wanted to be picked up at the next boat ramp down the way and that he would call when he needed a ride.
42 minutes later at 9.27 p.m., Jennifer receives a phone call from her husband, and she's expecting it to be the call where he says, okay, I'm ready to get picked up.
But when she answers the phone, Cullen is frantic, and he's telling her that he's being followed by two men in the tree line, that he's out on the water on his pontoon, but there are two men in the tree line that he can't see, but he can hear them, and they've been following him for some time.
And before Jennifer can even get a word out, Cullen says to her that he's gonna beach the boat and take his clothes off. And then he hangs up. Jennifer immediately tries calling Cullen back repeatedly, but he's not picking up. And so she's left feeling totally confused about what her husband has just told her. What stood out to her was how scared he sounded on the phone.
And fear was not something she typically associated with Cullen. This beast of a man, this tough football player, he didn't get scared. So for him to be that scared sounding and to be describing people basically stalking him, she knew he was in serious trouble.
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Chapter 4: What theories exist about Cullen Finnerty's death?
But as strange as these four locations were, the police now had a really solid starting point. So they dispatched people to each of these points and they began combing along the river where he had last been seen and within an hour they discovered his boat. It was a little ways down from where he had been dropped off. It was missing an oar and it was basically beached on the side of the river.
It wasn't clear if it had been intentionally beached but Cullen wasn't in it and when they searched around the area they couldn't find any sign that Cullen was in the area. They were yelling for him. He wasn't yelling back.
Interestingly, a man who owned property near where the pontoon boat was found reported to police hearing screaming or yelling coming from the area where the boat was found around the same time that Cullen went missing. But despite this piece of information, it didn't actually help them discover where Cullen actually went.
For the next 48 hours, police and hundreds of people searched in the areas where his cell phone had pinged and along the river where his pontoon had been found, but there was no sign of him. Then on the evening of May 28th, approximately 48 hours after Cullen had gone missing, they discovered his body.
It was located less than a half mile away from a paved road, and it was situated in between those four points that the cell phone provider had given. He was laying completely face down with his right arm under his body and his left arm over his head, clutching some grass.
When they rolled him over, he had some blood coming out of his nose, but besides that, there was no significant trauma anywhere on his body. Cullen appeared to be wearing all of his clothes. However, it was noted that the strap on his waders was really badly twisted. Now, if he had never taken his clothes off, that would have been something he would have fixed.
It would have been very uncomfortable when he started this trip to go fishing. That would have been something he would have fixed. Now, he said to his wife on the phone that he was going to be taking his clothes off, which there was no explanation for that, but he clearly said that to his wife and she reported that to police.
And so some have speculated that between that phone call and finding him with the twisted strap on his waders, that that indicates that perhaps his clothes did come off at some point over the past couple of days and were put back on again, either by him or by someone else. His cell phone had also been found in his front pocket, indicating that those cell phone pings had been his actual location.
Initially, Cullen's autopsy was completely inconclusive. There was no trauma to his body. There was no obvious thing that killed him. But later on, it was determined he died of pneumonia caused by inhaling his own vomit. So we don't know how you get to a place where you're inhaling your own vomit, but I would imagine you're in a pretty panicked state of mind if that could happen to you.
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Chapter 5: What is the story of Cindy Hack's stalking experience?
In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads because let's be honest,
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. The next and final story of today's episode is called Waking Nightmare.
In June of 1982, 38-year-old Cindy Hack divorced her husband, Roy. As soon as she moved into another home in Vancouver, Canada, she felt this wave of relief come over her. Their marriage had become abusive and toxic years ago, but her newfound happiness would be short-lived. Only four months after leaving her husband, Cindy's waking nightmare would begin.
It all started with a late night phone call on October 7th, 1982. When she answered, the voice on the other side was raspy and angry sounding. It addressed Cindy by name and quickly told her that they planned on hurting her. And before Cindy could do anything, the caller had hung up. Cindy was horrified and didn't know what to do, so she did nothing.
And then over the next few days, she received more calls from this phantom caller, and each of them began with this person addressing her by name and then threatening violence. And Cindy began to convince herself that this had to be some terrible prank, and so she continued to do nothing about it.
One night, Cindy couldn't help but feel like she was being watched, and she looked into her living room and she noticed one of her windows was still open. At night, she would draw all the curtains in her house. And so she walked over to the window and she pressed her face up against the glass to look outside and she didn't see anybody out there.
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Chapter 6: How did Cindy Hack's harassment escalate?
And so she drew the curtains, turned around and began walking back towards the kitchen when her phone rang. She hesitated, but eventually picked the phone up. And on the other side of the call was the mystery caller, who in a mocking tone told her that curtains weren't going to protect her, that they knew when she was home.
This incident pushed her over the edge and she knew this could not be some bad prank. This was real. And so she contacted the police who made a house visit, but there wasn't any sign of a break-in or any sign of a crime being committed.
And so after walking her property and feeling confident that she was safe, they told her that, you know, you should really consider getting an unlisted telephone number. That way this mystery person can't keep contacting you. And so Cindy thanked them and would go on to get an unlisted telephone number.
But not only would the calls continue, they would become more frequent, and in fact, the harassment in general only began to escalate. Three days later, on October 15th, Cindy and her good friend Agnes were coming back from dinner to Cindy's house.
When they got there, they noticed that one of the front windows had been broken, and so they carefully walked onto the porch and realized the front door was actually unlocked and slightly ajar. They considered immediately leaving the property and just calling police. But they sat there for a minute and didn't hear anything inside the house.
And so they decided they would just poke their head in and investigate. And so when they went inside, all the lights were off and there was no sign of a disturbance. It was totally quiet. But when they went upstairs, they found feathers all over the hall. And they followed those feathers all the way to Cindy's room. And in her room, all of her pillows had been ripped apart.
And a key to her front door was laying conspicuously on her bedside table. The women fled the house and called police, but when they showed up, there really wasn't much they could do, despite knowing about Cindy's threatening phone call she was getting. There was just no clear sign of who broke into her house and cut up her pillows.
And so they told her that the best thing she can do is change her locks, make sure everything in her house stays locked at all times when she's home, and if she notices anything out of the ordinary, to call back.
Over the following few days, Cindy got more threatening phone calls and began waking up to threatening notes laying on her front porch that had been made from newspaper and magazine clippings. This led to the police launching a larger investigation into the matter. An officer named Pat McBride, who had been on the force for eight years, began checking in on Cindy almost daily.
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