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Creepalachia, Beckley, WV (2026)

01/15/2026

An INCREDIBLE Andrew Wolfe Update 1/15/2026

01/15/2026

This one didn’t start with a break in or a smashed window. It started with a message on a dating app.

According to investigators, an out of state woman used a fake name to strike up what looked like a genuine romantic connection with a local man. She talked about a future. She talked about commitment. And eventually, she showed up in Lewisburg in person, claiming she wanted a long term relationship. Once inside his home, deputies say, the story took a turn. Jewelry. Watches. Collectible coins. Thousands of dollars worth of personal items quietly disappeared.

After she left town, the contact didn’t stop. Authorities say she continued reaching out, this time asking for even more money. About $4,000. The reason given was a family death and sudden financial hardship. But by then, deputies were already digging. During the investigation, they reportedly found large latex gloves in her possession, gloves they believe were used to avoid leaving fingerprints while going through the house. Some of the stolen items were later recovered from her belongings.

What has investigators most concerned is that Lewisburg may not be the only stop. The suspect lives out of state and is believed to have used multiple aliases, including names like Ruby and Seal Masters. Law enforcement now believes this could be part of a larger, multi state scam targeting victims through online dating platforms.

It’s a reminder that sometimes the most dangerous strangers don’t come in the night. Sometimes they knock. Sometimes they smile. And sometimes, they already know exactly what they’re there to take.

01/15/2026

Every missing person case is different. So many variables. Some complicated. Some obvious. But ALL have folks left behind who care and continue to try and find the truth.

Enter these three folks. Different backgrounds unified with the mission of figuring out what happened. This is another tough but important episode. Deb (Voices for the Silenced), Danielle, and Valerie come to the studio to tell me about two individuals who went missing in these hills recently.

Linda Emerson Whisenant and Charles “Eric” Stewart.

I’m so inspired by Valerie’s journey to find her brother Eric that we have decided to match her reward of $5,000 with an additional $5,000 to bring Eric home.

Do you know what happened? Can you give us Eric’s location? I’m typing for YOU to read. Because if you know and choose to hide that fact, I hope your soul is forever tormented until the end of time. Or we can pay you. Your choice.

Releases tomorrow, 1/16.

01/15/2026

West Virginia’s Mafia history is real, and it’s deeper than most people realize.

In the early 1900s, especially during Prohibition, north central West Virginia became home to a homegrown Italian crime network known as the Famiglia Vagabonda.

Based mainly around Clarksburg and Fairmont, this group operated between roughly 1908 and the early 1920s. It wasn’t a rumor or a loose gang, it was an organized syndicate tied to Italian immigrant communities, involved in extortion, kidnapping, gambling, bootlegging, prostitution, and later drug trafficking. Leadership figures like Frank Piscioneri and Joe “Big Joe” Cenetti ran competing factions, and their internal rivalries turned violent, including high profile murders that drew national attention.

At the same time, West Virginia wasn’t isolated. The Pittsburgh Crime Family extended its influence south into the Northern Panhandle, especially in areas tied economically to Pittsburgh. Their operations focused more on racketeering, labor influence, loansharking, and organized vice, blending into the industrial and union heavy regions along the Ohio River.

What made these groups effective was their community footprint. They recruited locally, operated quietly, and often relied on fear and loyalty inside tight knit immigrant neighborhoods. For a time, West Virginia wasn’t just a pass through for organized crime, it was active territory. And while most of it faded by the 1930s, the paper trail, court cases, and bodies left behind confirm one thing: the Mafia absolutely had a foothold in the Mountain State.

01/15/2026

The Defend the Guard Act

West Virginia lawmakers have introduced a bill that would sharply limit when the state’s National Guard members can be sent into active combat, a move coming as the state continues to grieve a recent Guard tragedy.

Senate Bill 22, known as the Defend the Guard Act, would require an official declaration of war by Congress or a specific act of Congress calling up the state militia before any West Virginia National Guard member could be released into active duty combat. The bill defines combat broadly, including participation in armed conflict, hazardous service in a foreign country, or duties involving instruments of war. Under the proposal, the governor would be required to ensure the state complies with those limits.

Supporters of the bill point to the U.S. Constitution, arguing that the power to declare war belongs solely to Congress. They note that while the United States has not formally declared war in decades, Guard members have repeatedly been deployed into dangerous situations through executive decisions. The bill argues states have a responsibility to push back when constitutional boundaries are blurred.

The proposal comes in the shadow of a deadly ambush in Washington, D.C., where two West Virginia National Guard members were shot while on duty as part of a public safety deployment. One young service member was killed, and another was critically wounded but has since shown signs of recovery. The incident has left a deep mark on communities across the state and intensified conversations about risk, duty, and responsibility.

Senate Bill 22 has been sent to legislative committees for review and is expected to spark debate over federal authority, state power, and the role of the National Guard. Similar bills have appeared in other states with mixed outcomes. In West Virginia, the discussion is unfolding alongside remembrance, reflection, and renewed questions about when the state’s Guard members should be placed in harm’s way.

01/15/2026

It started with a tip so disturbing that investigators weren’t sure it could be real. Within days, police say it led to one of the most unsettling cemetery crime cases Pennsylvania has seen in years.

Authorities allege that 34 year old Jonathan Gerlach of Ephrata was arrested after detectives searched his home on Washington Avenue and made a horrific discovery. According to search warrants, more than 100 human skulls were found inside, along with long bones, mummified hands and feet, and two decomposing human torsos. Investigators believe the remains had been stolen from cemeteries across the state and stored inside the house.

Police had already been investigating multiple cemetery and mausoleum burglaries when a tip came in late December claiming someone had seen a partially decomposed body hanging in Gerlach’s basement. Detectives began tracking his movements, phone records, and social media, which allegedly showed involvement in online groups dedicated to selling human bones and other so called oddities. Investigators say Gerlach was later caught near a Philadelphia area cemetery and admitted that he sold some of the remains online.

The investigation expanded to a storage unit connected to Gerlach after cadaver dogs alerted to the presence of human remains. Inside, detectives say they recovered eight additional human corpses, assorted body parts, ashes, and jewelry believed to have been taken from graves. Gerlach now faces more than 500 charges and is being held on $1,000,000 bail as authorities work to identify the remains and notify affected families.

01/15/2026

The first week that the Patreon has officially been fired up, and we've got some folks on the Credit screen for the podcasts! Grateful is not the word. So much more than that. If you want to help get the show sustainable, support us at https://www.patreon.com/Creepalachia.

I'm telling Patreon exclusive stories every week, "The Mothman Prophets" will be releasing here, and if you're a Cryptid Tier Supporter, you'll get all that PLUS your credits in every episode moving forward that you're a member. We have so many plans, and nothing would be possible without you folks watching us ramble.

01/15/2026

Gary, West Virginia Bridge Project:

First, a short overview for those who don’t know. A bridge washed away during a flood in McDowell County last February. There is a neighborhood that depended on a bridge to get them to the main road, and it went down the river.

This put families walking on railroad tracks for months to get out of the neighborhood. This was extremely dangerous, but the ONLY solution they had.

FEMA assistance unfortunately wasn’t available because of paperwork. Many of these old bridges, roads, etc. in counties like McDowell have horrendous records. That’s not slighting the people. The people are amazing. But our record keeping was not good.

Basically what happened is US Steel needed a bridge there to operate back in the day. So they built it and nobody ever owned a deed because it was never created. So it’s a legal mess and that causes folks to pass the buck. Let’s be honest. US Steel bounced and here we are.

“So, the state owns it. Get FEMA” is what you may be saying. Well, I tend to agree with you because according to all the maps I’ve seen so far, the bridge is connected to the state road. Several decades ago, there was actually legislation where the state took ownership of all county and municipality roads and the argument could be made that this is when it was obtained. There has been talk that Gary “opted out” of this. I haven’t seen anything official about that, but there you go.

But it really doesn’t matter. The state doesn’t claim authority over it, I’ve talked to a few of them, and it would take too long and cost too much to legally prove it and even still, we may would lose. I commissioned legal help to really dive into the deed search. It’s just not a good solution to argue with the state with this matter.

I asked if the state would take ownership if we got it built to DOH spec. I actually had a meeting with Thrasher Engineering to do the work, a state approved vendor. This would have been pretty expensive and I would have tried to raise the money, but they said no. So there you go. They basically don’t want to be responsible for it or maintain it.

Now, there are folks who have helped get a quick fix in place. The county and a coal operation actually cut an access road for the families to travel. It takes about 6 minutes longer, but still, is a good temporary solution. It was very kind of them to do this.

The big issue is it will be impossible to maintain for the long run. And we would be letting a corporation, again, control the maintenance and would be up Tug River without a paddle, again, if they ever shut down. So that’s not the permanent fix for these families.

“Well, they just need to move.” Maybe you just need to move. Next.

That puts us to today. We have what you would call “good news”. There have been many folks working on the fix for this. The fix is this “We’ll get the bridge built and raise the money ourselves.”

The West Virginia Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (WVVOAD) partners are working together on this effort along with the Mennonites Disaster Service. I’ve been coordinating with Pastor Jim McCune from the United Methodist Church, one of those folks that we’re so lucky to have in these hills, on getting a fix for this.

The Mennonites Disaster Service have a design and a cost together to build a one lane bridge that is very well constructed and will hold vehicles up to a certain weight limit. It will not hold a heavy garbage truck, but it can handle vehicles/ambulances/etc.. and will last for decades. $200,000 is the price tag.

Here is the checklist that we’ve needed to accomplish before this can happen:

- Permission from Owners of Parcels to Build ✅ (acquired permission and working on the details)
- Ownership and legal work for the new bridge ✅ (Have contacted Mayor Little and he’s going to present to the town council of Gary to take ownership once completed. Vote is February 11th)
- Neighborhood Paperwork (The families will sign an MOU to allow the team to build.)
- Fundraising (Some organizations have pledged in the upwards of $30,000 and we haven’t even started yet, but that’s where you’ll come in.)
- The Build.

That is where we are at in this moment and I wanted to be as transparent with you as possible. Thank you also to the United Methodist Church, Delegate David Green, Larry Barber, and Robert Cure for getting us to this point. Also, to the coal operator for that road, that was so kind of you. I haven’t been involved with that so I’m not sure of exact names there. If you know who, tag them!

This long-winded explanation being said, here’s my point. I know this is one problem out of many. But we can do this together, one problem at a time. Y’all in to help us fund this bad boy if it works out? ✌️❤️

01/15/2026

She carried a camera, volatile flash powder, and sheer determination into total darkness, and changed American photography forever.

On October 27, 1891, Frances Benjamin Johnston arrived at Mammoth Cave just two years into her career as a photojournalist. At a time when professional photography was rare even for men, Johnston was already breaking barriers as one of the nation’s first female press photographers. Born in Grafton, West Virginia, she was raised in a household that supported women working beyond traditional roles when her mother was a political correspondent in Washington, D.C., and Johnston herself studied art in Paris before turning to journalism and photography.

Gifted one of George Eastman’s early Kodak roll-film cameras in 1887, Johnston trained under Smithsonian photographer Thomas Smillie. She later credited her success to “not knowing what could not be done.” That mindset was put to the test at Mammoth Cave, where she spent nearly three weeks making exhausting trips underground with her mother, guide Will Garvin, heavy equipment, and flash powder. Using just twelve ounces of powder and newspaper as a makeshift crucible, she battled complete darkness to capture images no one had ever seen.

Her article, “Mammoth Cave by Flashlight,” featured 25 photographs and became a major success. Johnston went on to document factories, schools, and institutions across the country, including Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes where George Washington Carver called her “the pluckiest woman I ever saw.” She opened her own portrait studio and photographed icons such as Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and five U.S. presidents.

Later in life, Johnston shifted her focus to architectural and preservation photography, influencing historic zoning laws throughout the South. She died in New Orleans in 1952 at age 88. Today, more than 20,000 of her photographs are preserved at the Library of Congress—lasting proof of a woman who refused to accept limits and reshaped American photography in the process.

01/15/2026

They Lowered the Charge!

01/15/2026

They Tried to Make Us Forget

01/14/2026

The Disappearance of Mark Anthony Cook

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