Strangeland: NEW SHOW: The Deck Investigates

Hi everyone, Ashley Flowers here from Crime Junkie and Apple Podcast's top new show,

The Deck.

We actually came across a case while working on The Deck that we immediately knew we had

to investigate ourselves.

And what we uncovered will have you on the edge of your seat.

This is a case that has never been covered in-depth anywhere before, but you'll wonder

why because we were able to go so deep and uncover so many twists and turns, so many

in fact, that I couldn't fit it into just one or two episodes.

So I am bringing you our year-long investigation into what happened to Darlene Hulse in a new

way as a new show, The Deck Investigates.

You can binge all 15 episodes of this series right now wherever you listen to podcasts.

Here's the trailer so you can get a taste of The Deck Investigates and Darlene's story.

Vargas, Indiana is small, more corn stocks than people in 1984.

It's one of those places where neighbor means something different.

Everyone's your neighbor, but each house is a corn or soybean field away.

The home of the Hulse family was just like that, tucked away off a major road through

town with fields to the front and back.

Ron Hulse built the home himself for his wife, Darlene, and their three daughters.

He picked the spot because his parents and his siblings also had plots of land and homes

nearby.

It was an idyllic Midwest life.

Ron's dad would sometimes pedal his bike the quarter of a mile over from his house to

theirs in the mornings after Ron left for work to say hi to his grandkids.

In fact, he did just that on August 17, 1984.

Besides him, there weren't many other pop-in visitors, but that morning, after he left,

there was another knock at the door.

The two older girls, who were six and eight, only heard bits of what was happening from

where they were in the bathtub.

But what they heard was strange, growling and grunting, low and guttural.

When they left the tub, what they found was a man, knelt over their mother trying to

tape her eyes and mouth shut.

I remember her saying, don't hurt my babies, and she was screaming to blood-curdling screams

while she was fighting.

So there were grunts, and it was just like surreal, it was completely surreal.

I just remember him coming towards me and me thinking, he's going to get me now, he's

going to get me.

And I think that's when she said to run, run, run.

When the girls ran out the front door, they had no idea that would be the last time they'd

see their mother.

28-year-old Darlene Hulse was abducted from her home just yesterday, but the search for

her ended here in this patch of woods just six miles from her home.

The mother of three was found dead, and while investigators haven't released a cause of

death, they're calling this a homicide, and a manhunt is underway.

It's been 38 years since that manhunt began, and there have been no arrests.

In those 38 years, 8-year-old Marie, 6-year-old Melissa, and 1-year-old Kristen had to grow

up not knowing who took their mother or why.

I remember sitting on the steps in the garage and asking some things, and I'll never forget

one time Melissa said the one thing that she regrets was not getting me, not grabbing

me when they were running out, and I think that's piqued my interest, like what do you

mean?

Or was I what was going on, so then I started asking more, and I just realized to myself,

when I get older, I want to do some digging.

Digging up the truth can be hard in a case that is as cold as an Indiana winter, but

the more we've dug, we've come to believe that truth might be right below the surface,

if you know where to look.

And the answers to decades-old questions could be a whole lot closer to home than anyone

ever wanted to believe.

And so I looked him in the eyes, and here were just the red, he looked like a monster.

He doesn't look like the person that's walking out there right now.

This case has the potential to be solved within weeks, if the people in charge make it a priority.

But until then, we're knocking on every door and leaving no stone unturned.

From Audio Check, the team behind Apple Podcast's top new show, The Deck, we're bringing you

an investigation that is too big for just one episode of The Deck.

I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck Investigates.

In Season 1, we're diving deep into the murder of Darlene Hulse, the Four of Hearts from Indiana.

You can binge all 15 episodes on March 9 wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find all 15 episodes of The Deck Investigates right now wherever you get your podcasts.

And don't forget to hit the follow button.

This is an ongoing investigation, and you won't want to miss a single update.

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Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.