Obscura: A True Crime Podcast

In the rural reaches of Florida's Panhandle, where longleaf pines line quiet roads and neighbors know each other by the sound of their engines, a sexual battery case in the unincorporated community of Fountain exposed how far the state's legal system will go to punish crimes against children. This episode examines the case and the legal architecture behind it.
VICTIM PROFILE: The victim was a minor between the ages of twelve and seventeen living in Bay County, Florida. Her identity is protected under state law. What the record shows is that her willingness to come forward and testify at trial formed the foundation of the prosecution's case. Without her testimony, the legal system would have had nothing to act upon. Her courage carried a weight that no verdict can fully acknowledge.
THE CRIME: In 2020, allegations surfaced that Brandon Paul Janssen had committed sexual battery against the victim in Fountain, a small unincorporated community in Bay County. The Bay County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation in coordination with the Gulf Coast Children's Advocacy Center, which provided forensic interview support for the minor. During questioning, Janssen confessed to the acts. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of sexual battery on a minor under Florida Statute 794.011(4)(b), each carrying the potential for life imprisonment.
THE INVESTIGATION: The Bay County Sheriff's Office led the case with the Gulf Coast Children's Advocacy Center handling victim support and forensic interviews. Janssen's confession became a focal point at trial, with his defense challenging its admissibility on grounds of voluntariness and Miranda compliance. Prosecutor Jeff Moore presented six witnesses before Bay County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Register. The defense also raised hearsay objections to certain testimony. After roughly one hour of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts.
CURRENT STATUS: On November 13, 2023, Janssen received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was designated a sexual predator under Florida law, ensuring lifetime registration and supervision. He appealed to the First District Court of Appeal, which affirmed the convictions and sentences on August 27, 2025, under docket number 1D2023-3176. As of early 2026, Janssen remains incarcerated at Century Correctional Institution.
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The investigation into Heather Strong's disappearance ends in the most devastating way possible. What began as a missing person case becomes a murder trial that sends ripples through Florida's legal system for years to come.
Heather Strong was 26 years old when her life was brutally cut short. A mother of two young children, McKinzie and Zachary, she had spent years navigating a turbulent relationship with her ex-partner Joshua Fulgham while trying to build a better life for her family. Her cousin Misty, who grew up with Heather in Mississippi, described her as the sister she never had.
On February 15, 2009, in a storage trailer in rural Boardman, Florida, Heather walked into a trap. Lured by promises of hidden money, she instead found herself bound to a chair with duct tape, a plastic bag sealed over her head. According to court testimony, she remained conscious for approximately five agonizing minutes as she suffocated. Joshua Fulgham and his pregnant girlfriend Emilia Carr worked in tandem to restrain her, silence her pleas for help, and end her life.
The investigation that followed was methodical and relentless. Deputy Billings from the Marion County Sheriff's Office pieced together witness accounts, jailhouse recordings, and forensic evidence. When detectives enlisted Fulgham's sister to wear a wire, Carr's admissions unraveled completely. On March 19, 2009, Fulgham led investigators to a shallow grave on property owned by Carr's mother, where Heather's decomposing remains confirmed what her family had feared.
Both perpetrators faced justice. Emilia Carr was initially sentenced to death in 2011 by a 7-5 jury vote. Following the 2016 Hurst v. Florida Supreme Court decision declaring non-unanimous death penalty recommendations unconstitutional, she was resentenced to life without parole in June 2017. Joshua Fulgham received life without parole in April 2012. Heather's two children were eventually adopted into new families.
This episode contains audio from court proceedings and investigative interviews. Listener discretion is advised.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
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On a February evening in 2009, a young mother vanished from rural Marion County, Florida, lured to a storage trailer by promises that masked a deadly betrayal. What investigators would uncover weeks later would reveal a calculated murder born from a toxic love triangle and a bitter custody battle.
VICTIM PROFILE:
Heather Strong was 26 years old, a hardworking mother of two young children, McKinzie and Zachary. She worked the morning shift at the Iron Skillet restaurant in Reddick, Florida, supporting her family through the service industry. Those who knew her described a woman caught in a turbulent on-again, off-again relationship with Joshua Fulgham, a pattern that had defined much of her adult life. Despite the instability, Heather remained devoted to her children and had recently begun building a new life away from Fulgham's control.
THE CRIME:
On February 15, 2009, Heather was lured to a storage trailer in Boardman by her estranged husband Joshua Fulgham and his pregnant girlfriend Emilia Carr under the pretense of retrieving money. Once inside, she was bound to a chair with duct tape while Fulgham confronted her about custody papers for their children. The attack escalated when a plastic bag was placed over her head and sealed with tape around her neck. Medical examiners determined she suffocated over approximately five agonizing minutes while fully conscious. Her body was buried in a shallow grave on the property, where it remained undiscovered for over a month.
THE INVESTIGATION:
When Heather's cousin Misty Strong reported her missing on February 24, 2009, Marion County Sheriff's Office deputies began canvassing her known associates. The trail led quickly to Joshua Fulgham and the volatile history between the couple, including his January 2009 arrest for pointing a shotgun at Heather. Through persistent interviews, Emilia Carr's story unraveled, eventually leading investigators to the burial site on March 19, 2009, where Heather's decomposed remains were unearthed.
CURRENT STATUS:
Both perpetrators were convicted. Emilia Carr was initially sentenced to death in 2011, but following the U.S. Supreme Court's Hurst v. Florida ruling, she was resentenced to life without parole in 2017. Joshua Fulgham received life without parole in 2012. Both remain incarcerated in the Florida correctional system. Heather's two children were adopted into new families following the murder.
AUDIO NOTE:
This episode features detailed accounts of the crime reconstructed from court testimonies, confessions, and forensic evidence. Listener discretion is advised.
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On March 15, 2024, a Piedmont, Oklahoma police officer responded to a routine runaway report that would uncover one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in recent Oklahoma history.
The officer found a 14-year-old girl hiding under a blanket, weighing approximately 60 pounds—the size of a first grader. Her skin hung from her bones, and her eyes carried a fear that went far beyond a typical runaway. She had fled from her foster mother, 43-year-old Tina Marie Ramirez, and she was terrified to go back.
What the officer discovered inside the Ramirez home shocked even veteran investigators. Every cabinet was padlocked. The refrigerator was locked. The pantry was locked. Surveillance cameras covered every room in the house. The children couldn't access food without permission—and permission was rarely granted.
The officer found a taser that Tina had used as "discipline" on the malnourished children. He also discovered a handwritten letter from one of the children, addressed to God, its desperate words scrawled by a child who had lost hope that any human would help.
This was the girl's seventh runaway attempt. For reasons that remain unclear, this time someone finally listened.
Five foster children were immediately removed from the home and evaluated at OU Children's Hospital, where medical professionals described it as one of the worst malnutrition cases they had ever seen. The children were placed with their biological grandmother, Shelly Yates, who described them as "fragile and very thin" upon arrival.
On March 28, 2024, Tina Marie Ramirez was charged in Canadian County District Court with four counts of child abuse by injury, two counts of child neglect, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Her husband, 26-year-old Anthony Ibeziako, was charged with two counts of child neglect and child abuse for failing to intervene. Both remain free while court proceedings continue.
As of early 2026, the children are reportedly recovering with their grandmother—gaining weight, attending school, and slowly rebuilding their lives away from the locks, cameras, and fear.
This episode features body camera footage, police interrogation recordings, and 911 dispatch audio. Listener discretion is advised.
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Part 2 of 2: In our conclusion to the Baby Lollipops case, we examine the final months of three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa's life, the investigation that followed his discovery, and the decades-long pursuit of justice that saw his mother convicted three separate times.
VICTIM PROFILE:
Lazaro Figueroa never had a chance at a normal childhood. Born in September 1987, just weeks after his father, drug dealer Fidel Figueroa, was murdered in Miami, Lazaro became the target of his mother's resentment as her lavish lifestyle collapsed. At three years old, he weighed only eighteen pounds, half what a healthy child his age should weigh. His left arm had been broken so many times that muscle tissue calcified into bone, freezing the limb at a permanent ninety-degree angle. Despite the relentless abuse, witnesses recalled him running across streets alone, a tiny figure navigating a hostile world without protection.
THE CRIME:
On the morning of November 2, 1990, Florida Power and Light employees discovered Lazaro's body hidden beneath bushes outside a Miami Beach mansion. His emaciated frame bore forty-three documented injuries: cigarette burns, defensive wounds on his small hands, a fractured skull, and two front teeth knocked out months apart. Brown packing tape secured a soiled diaper to his wasted body. Medical examiner Dr. Bruce Hyma determined Lazaro had endured eighteen months of systematic torture, including being bound, gagged, locked in closets, and left in bathtubs with scalding or freezing water. The cause of death was blunt force trauma from a baseball bat, compounded by starvation and extensive bodily trauma. Most devastating: Lazaro may have survived up to three days after being abandoned, lying alone and helpless before death finally came.
THE INVESTIGATION:
Police initially could not identify the child and dubbed him Baby Lollipops after the cartoon candy pattern on his T-shirt. The nickname stuck as investigators canvassed Miami Beach with flyers. On November 6, Martha Fleitas recognized the photograph on television and identified Lazaro. The investigation led to his mother, Ana Maria Cardona, and her partner Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza, who had fled to St. Cloud, Florida, stopping at Disney World after disposing of the body. Neighbor Mercedes Estrada reported hearing screams on Halloween night followed by a heavy thump against her wall, then silence. Her report to social services went unanswered.
CURRENT STATUS:
Ana Maria Cardona's path through the courts spanned nearly three decades. She was sentenced to death in 1992, but the conviction was overturned in 2002 due to a Brady violation. Convicted and sentenced to death again in 2011, that conviction was overturned in 2016 for prosecutorial misconduct. In 2017, prosecutors waived the death penalty, and Cardona was found guilty a third time, receiving life without parole. Judge Miguel de la O told her that wild beasts show more empathy for their offspring. Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza served fourteen years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Cardona's eldest son, Juan Puente, died in prison in 2018 at age thirty-seven. The only publicly available photograph of Lazaro Figueroa shows him in death.
RESOURCES:
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