Serial Killer Archives - Pushing Up Lillies

The Survivor Who Stopped a Serial Killer

In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m examining the disturbing case of Shawn Michael Grate, a serial killer whose crimes spanned a decade across northern Ohio and left multiple families forever changed. What makes this case especially unsettling is not only the length of time the murders continued, but how many opportunities there may have been to stop the violence sooner. As investigators pieced together the evidence, a clearer picture emerged of a predator who targeted vulnerable women, leaving behind unanswered questions and unimaginable heartbreak. As a forensic death investigator, I walk through the timeline of the investigation, the evidence that ultimately connected the cases, and the forensic and investigative techniques that helped bring long-awaited answers to the victims’ families. We’ll also discuss how missing persons investigations, crime scene evidence, and victim identification play critical roles in solving complex serial homicide cases. But as with every case I cover, I want to keep the focus where it belongs. On the victims. Each woman had a life, a story, and people who loved her. Behind every headline was someone whose future was stolen far too soon. Their lives deserve to be remembered with dignity, not simply as part of a criminal’s history. This episode explores the realities of serial homicide investigations while honoring the individuals whose stories might otherwise be overshadowed by the person responsible. This episode contains discussion of homicide, sexual violence, and serial murder. Listener discretion is advised. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 00:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I’m your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine-tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner. 00:24 Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Pushing Up Lilies. I am working on my home YouTube podcast studio. My office is very, there’s a lot of echoes in there. 00:47 And so, I’m going to have to do something, I think, with the walls. As you all know, I’ve been recording for years in the floor of my closet, surrounded by my clothes hanging, which serve a great buffer from outside noise. 01:01 But I’m ready to get on video. I’m ready to do this YouTube thing. I’ve also started a YouTube channel for my MedSpa called Beyond the Needle, and I’m working on the studio there at the same time. Of course, all while going to grad school, recording the podcast, taking care of my family, and working full-time at the med spa and actually attending clinicals for $0 an hour. 01:33 So, we all know at some point in our lives what that looks like. And it’s so fun, y’all. But I’ve got to get the YouTube up and going. I know that YouTube’s kind of where it’s at, trying to work a little bit on my TikTok. 01:48 I have somebody that’s going to help me with some videos. And right now, I have someone working on an intro and outro for my YouTube channels for both the MedSpa and the podcast. So, we’re going to start really pushing out the subscription boxes, the cereal boxes. 02:04 Those are great. They have the cutest things in them. I know that y’all are going to love them. And I’ve got a lot of new items with my logo on them that I took to CrimeCon. And yeah, I really need to get up to the Merk here in Krum and get all that stuff set up in that booth so that y’all can purchase some of the new stuff. 02:24 I know I’ve had a lot of y’all asking about them. First, I want to talk a little bit about my friend Stephanie. Stephanie owns a company called Soaping Up Life, and her soaps are amazing. Let me tell you, I bought some in little boxes, super cute gifts for my girlfriends for Christmas, and they loved them. 02:49 There was a bath bomb, a soap, I think a lip balm. It was just the cutest little set ever. So, if you need some self-care in your life, you’re going to find a lot of handcrafted soaps, foaming hand soaps, bath bombs, and more. 03:07 And these are made in very small batches by Stephanie at her house with skin-loving ingredients and unique fragrances that you will absolutely love. And for the ultimate treat, you need to join her subscription box, Soaping Up Life, and get a curated collection of handmade bath and body products delivered right to your door every month. 03:32 So, visit soapinguplife.com and treat yourself today. You will not be sorry. Stephanie’s soaps smell amazing. This week, we’re going to talk a little about missed opportunities. This is a case that continues today to haunt investigators across Ohio. 03:55 But first, I do want to thank y’all for spending your day with me. I know I met so many people at CrimeCon who listen every day. And some while they’re driving to work, some might be walking their dog, cleaning their house, or just sitting in their favorite chair with a cup of coffee. 04:12 But I truly appreciate you being here. Now, again, this is a story of missed opportunities and vulnerable victims. A story about a woman who actually made one phone call that saved her life and exposed a serial killer. 04:30 This is about Shawn Grate. And I want to say that this episode actually contains discussion of sexual assault, not vivid, but there were some women tortured. There were homicides involved and violence against women. 04:47 So, listener discretion is advised. I don’t go into gory details, but I want to get started a little bit on this story. Now, September 13th, 2016, we’re in Ashland, Ohio, and there was a woman trapped inside a house. 05:08 She’d been beaten. She’d been sexually assaulted. She had been bound to a bed and

Pedro Rodrigues Filho: The Man Who Killed Killers

Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, and in this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m taking you into one of the most complex and controversial cases I’ve ever explored, the story of Pedro Rodrigues Filho, also known as the Brazilian “Dexter”. This is not your typical serial killer case. Pedro didn’t just target innocent victims, he claimed to hunt criminals. Murderers. People he believed deserved to die. Over the course of his life, he confessed to dozens of killings, many of them carried out inside prison walls. And somehow, instead of fading into obscurity, he later reemerged as a public figure, sharing his story openly, even building a following online. But here’s the question that sits at the center of this case… Was he a vigilante delivering his own version of justice?Or simply a serial killer rewriting his narrative? In this episode, I walk through his early life, the violence that shaped him, and the psychology behind someone who blurs the line between revenge and murder. As a forensic death investigator, I also look at what cases like this reveal about motive, trauma, and the dangerous territory between justice and personal vengeance. Because when someone decides who deserves to live or die…we have to ask, where does that end? This episode contains discussions of violence, homicide, and moral ambiguity. * Listener discretion is advised. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 00:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I’m your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine-tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner. 00:24 Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Pushing Up Lilies. My name is Julie. Again, I’m your host and I have my voice back, I think almost completely. I may be still a little bit squeaky, but hopefully you can tolerate me this time. 00:46 Super excited leaving Friday to go to Beyond the Crime, which is a true crime convention. And it happens April 11th and 12th in Albuquerque. And it’s going to feature advocacy for families of the missing and also feature several podcasts. 01:07 While I’m there, I will be part of the podcast Mingle, which is the first night we’re there. We’re going to get to visit a lot of the guests and the guests will get to meet all the podcasters that are there. 01:19 And we’ll be selling our merch at the merch tables. And then on Sunday, I will be doing a live podcast on the podcasting stage. So super exciting. We’re really gung-ho on going. We decided to fly. So I’m going to have luggage full of merchandise and I just hope I can get it all in there. 01:39 It’ll be fun. We’re really excited to go. This is our first event. And so traveling out of state is a really big deal for us. And so I’m looking forward to this and hoping for many more. I’ll be attending CrimeCon at the end of May. 01:53 And that’s an even bigger event. But I’m excited about this. There will be attention brought to some missing persons cases and some of the keynote speakers. Super interesting. There’s over 30 guest speakers, including the mothers of Gabby Petito and also the death row defense attorney for John Wayne Gacy. 02:18 It’s going to be interesting. It is ticketed. I’m excited. So I’d like to see who’s going. And if you are going, I would love for you to stop by and visit. I want to talk to you this week about the man who killed killers. 02:34 And I don’t know if y’all have heard this story before, but a lot of killers become infamous because of the number of people that they kill. But a lot of them become notorious because of how cruel or unpredictable their crimes are. 02:49 Ever so often, a criminal will emerge whose story unsettles people in a different way. And that’s not because the violence is random, but because it seems, at least on the surface, intentional and targeted. 03:05 Now, Pedro Rodriguez Filho was one of those men. Over the course of his life, he would kill at least 70 people. Some stories state that there were at least 100, but possibly more than 100. And many of his victims were criminals themselves, drug dealers, rapists, murderers. 03:27 And because of that, some people saw him not as a monster, but as a vigilante. Others believed he was simply a killer who tried to justify his actions with some sort of twisted moral code. But either way, his story would eventually earn him a nickname that echoed around the world as the real-life Dexter. 03:50 And many of you know about Dexter. Dexter aired from 2006 to 2013. It was set in Miami, and it was centered on Dexter Morgan. And he was a forensic technician who specialized in bloodstain pattern analysis for a fictional police department. 04:08 He led a secret parallel life as a vigilante serial killer, and he hunted down murderers who really weren’t adequately punished by the justice system. So this is the real life Dexter. Now, what makes this story so disturbing is not really just the number of people that he killed, but the way violence kind of shaped every stage of his life. 04:35 From the moment he was born, brutality surrounded him. It was present in his home, in his relationships, in his decisions, and then ultimately in his identity. To understand how Pedro became one of the most feared criminals in Brazil, we have to really begin at the beginning. 04:55 Before his first crime and before his first arrest and even before his first breath.

Roadside Horror Revisited: Joe “The Cannibal” Metheny

In this bone-chilling episode, we delve into the horrifying tale of Serial Killer, Joe Metheny. Brace yourself as we uncover the dark and disturbing story of a seemingly ordinary food vendor who harbored a deadly secret. Join us as we navigate the twisted mind of Joe Metheny, exploring the shocking details of his crimes, his methods of luring unsuspecting victims, the unimaginable horrors he committed, and the customers that unknowingly consumed human flesh from his roadside food truck.