Listener Tales 108: 90's Tales!
Episode of Morbid · March 26, 2026 · 1 h 3 min
Morbid hosts Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart dress as Scream characters and read four listener-submitted 1990s tales about Paul Bernardo, the Jersey Devil, premonitions and hauntings.
Summary
In a 90s-themed installment of Morbid's recurring Listener Tales series, hosts Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart recorded in costume as Casey Becker and Gale Weathers from Scream, with a producer filming for YouTube. Before the tales, they promoted a live show at Radio City Music Hall on June 27 and a pre-order bookmark giveaway for Urquhart's forthcoming novel The Butcher Legacy, and spent time describing their costumes, including hand-made prop intestines assembled from heatless curlers, wire and fake blood.
The first tale came from a woman who worked for a "Traveling Playgrounds" summer program in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1992. She described a dark blue van blocking a park entrance and a man—later identified as Paul Bernardo—questioning her petite co-worker Allison about their schedules, until her boyfriend Ray arrived with McDonald's Happy Meals and the man fled. The writer said the pair's description of the van and driver later factored into the case, and that Kristen French was being held alive only blocks away at the time.
The second tale, from a listener named Morgan in South Jersey, recounted her parents faking a Jersey Devil attack on a dark road at Jake's Landing by putting the car in neutral and having her father scream that something was dragging him under the vehicle. A third tale from a listener named Dennis described a premonitory dream about a head-on collision at a specific intersection that he believed altered the night's events and brought together the friends he calls Jack and Diane, plus hearing invisible children running the halls of the Peter Shields Inn in Cape May, New Jersey, which staff later told him was rumored to be haunted by Peter Shields's son Earl. The final tale, from a listener named Alicia, described a "little man on the crib" with red eyes and horns reported by both her brother and herself, an escalating encounter at age seven or eight, and a pastor's house blessing that identified the crawlspace beneath her bedroom as the darkest presence.
Mid-episode, Urquhart startled at a plot twist and fell out of her chair, an incident the hosts repeatedly referenced and urged listeners to watch on YouTube. The episode closed with both hosts expressing intense nostalgia for the 1990s, its fashion, flip phones, limited texting minutes and collectible Happy Meal toys.
Chapters
- 0:00
Costumes, Radio City and book promo
The hosts introduce themselves in character as Casey Becker and Gale Weathers, plug their June 27 Radio City Music Hall show and the pre-order bookmark giveaway for The Butcher Legacy.
- 2:55
Admiring the 90s costumes
Ash and Alaina discuss their thrifted gold trench coat, wigs and the group-made prop intestines before introducing the 90s-themed tales.
- 6:38
Tale one: the Happy Meal that thwarted Paul Bernardo
A listener recounts working a traveling summer playground program in St. Catharines in 1992 when Paul Bernardo approached her co-worker in a park, and a boyfriend's McDonald's delivery drove him off.
- 9:01
Snack tangent: Dairy Queen, Smarties and Cheezies
The hosts digress into Canadian versus American candy, Dairy Queen blizzards and buttered toast, and plan a lunch order.
- 17:56
Reflecting on proximity to a killer
Ash and Alaina discuss how chilling it is that Kristen French was alive blocks away while children played in the park.
- 18:41
Tale two: dad yeeted by the Jersey Devil
Morgan from South Jersey describes her parents staging a Jersey Devil attack on a dark road at Jake's Landing, terrifying her and her six-year-old brother.
- 28:49
Tale three: Dennis's premonition dream
A listener describes dreaming of a head-on collision at a specific intersection, driving out to warn his friends, and the accident later occurring in front of his friend Diane.
- 35:08
The fall
Alaina startles at the name Diane in the story and falls out of her chair, prompting extended laughter and a plan to clip it for Instagram.
- 39:30
Casper and friends at the Peter Shields Inn
Dennis recounts hearing invisible children in the halls of a Cape May inn and learning from staff of rumors that the son of Peter Shields haunts the building.
- 47:00
Tale four: the little man on the crib
Alicia describes a horned, red-eyed entity reported by her brother and herself in their century-old home, a pastor's blessing of the crawlspace, and later tenants seeing similar things.
- 1:00:35
90s nostalgia wrap-up
The hosts close by celebrating wood paneling, car phones, collectible Happy Meal toys, flip phones and limited texting minutes.
Key points
What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart said tickets for the Radio City Music Hall show should only be bought through Ticketmaster because that is the only outlet where the hosts approved prices and bots did not resell them at inflated prices.
“Please go buy your tickets at Ticketmaster.com because that is the only place that you can buy them where we approved the prices and bots didn't buy them up and start selling them elsewhere”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley explained that listeners who submit a pre-order receipt for The Butcher Legacy can enter to win a custom bookmark.
“When you pre-order my new book, The Butcher Legacy, you can submit your receipt and you can get a really cool custom spooky bookmark”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart noted that Scream was released the year she was born, calling it her 'birth movie'.
“came out the year of my birth. Holy shit. That's my birth movie”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley read a listener's account of Paul Bernardo pulling a dark blue van across the only park entrance and questioning her co-worker about their schedule before a boyfriend's arrival scared him off.
“It slowly crept closer to the only entrance and exit to the park until it had completely blocked us in like a scene from a B-list horror flick”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley said collecting Happy Meal and similar toys was a defining part of 1990s childhood, and that her own family treated McDonald's as a rare special occasion.
“back then we were all obsessed with collecting anything and everything we could get our hands on collecting was a huge part of the 90s”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley reacted that the most disturbing element of the tale was interacting with a killer who was actively hunting a victim while Kristen French was still alive nearby.
“But to actually interact with them and have, like, a weird moment with them and have it be like, that could have been us next”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart said the tale illustrated something the hosts often note when covering cases—that ordinary life continues next door to atrocities.
“because we always say like when we're telling these cases and like something awful happens it's like imagine like somebody was just next door like cleaning their house”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart read a listener's description of the Jersey Devil as a bat-winged, deer-headed creature said to haunt the Pine Barrens.
“the Jersey Devil is a bat-winged, deer-headed, cloven-hoved menace that terrorizes the Pine Barrens”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley read a listener's statement that he is an atheist who does not dismiss unexplained phenomena but believes the scientific explanation has not yet been discovered.
“I'm an atheist who believes that even though I cannot explain such phenomena, I don't dismiss or look down at those that do or that it isn't real”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart explained she intended to shout into the camera at the story's twist but instead fell out of her chair, and asked that the footage be kept in.
“I was gonna yell into the camera like, what? But then I just fell. Leave it all in. Leave all of that chaos in”
Linked moment · 37:17Skip to 37:17 using a listen link in the info box.
Ash KelleyKelley read the listener's account that his dreamed collision happened at the same intersection to the car directly in front of his friend Diane.
“The car in front of Diane was hit nearly head on at the intersection”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley read the innkeepers' account that the Peter Shields Inn is rumored to be haunted by Peter Shields's 15-year-old son, who died when a rifle he was using as a crutch discharged.
“haunted by the 15-year-old son of Peter Shields, who had died from an accidental hunting accident”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley said she believed both the listener's ghost-children experience and that his premonition saved his friend's life.
“I believe that you heard ghost children”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart said she believes people receive messages for a reason, even if the source is unknown.
“I think we get messages for a reason”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart read a listener's note that she can handle true crime and gore but cannot tolerate paranormal content.
“Let me first say that I absolutely love true crime, gore, etc. I cannot handle the paranormal, though”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart said she has never seen any of the Paranormal Activity films and that watching one would be her next horror choice.
“I've actually never seen any of them. Every time I tell you that, that's the face you make”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart read a listener's account that both she and her older brother separately described a small entity with red eyes and horns in their childhood home.
“I told her that he was my height had red eyes and horns”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart read the listener's account of a pastor blessing the house and reporting the strongest dark presence in the crawlspace directly beneath her bedroom.
“He made his way down the basement crawlspace and said this was where he felt the biggest, darkest presence”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley said she has been experiencing intense, painful nostalgia for the 1990s.
“lately I've been having such like brutal nostalgia for the 90s”
- Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart said she feels nostalgia for the 1990s despite not having experienced much of the decade, and that 90s fashion is returning.
“I mean, the fashion's coming back”
- Ash Kelley
Kelley argued that people are recognizing they do not want to be connected to their phones constantly.
“I think people are realizing they don't want to be connected to their phones 24-7”
People
In the conversation
- Ash KelleyCo-host of the true crime podcast Morbid
- Alaina UrquhartCo-host of Morbid, autopsy technician and author of the Butcher novels
Discussed
- Paul BernardoCanadian serial killer and rapist convicted in the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French
- Karla HomolkaBernardo's then-wife and accomplice in the Ontario murders
- Leslie Mahaffy14-year-old Ontario girl murdered by Bernardo and Homolka in 1991
- Kristen French15-year-old Ontario girl abducted and murdered in 1992
- Lizzie Borden19th-century American woman acquitted of axe murders, portrayed by a listener's grandmother in a local haunted house
- James MarstersAmerican actor known for playing Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, photographed with a listener at Comic Con
- Peter ShieldsNamesake of the Cape May inn whose teenage son Earl reportedly died in a shooting accident
Topics
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From the publisher
Weirdos! We NEEDED a nostalgic moment, and decided to share it with you! This month, DebDeb has cultivated a batch of 90's tales that are brought to you By you FOR you and ALL ABOUT YOU! Check out YouTube to see what happened mid episode that made us all lose our damn minds! If you’ve got a listener tale please send it to Deb by emailing us at Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with “Listener Tales” somewhere in the subject line, and if you share pictures, please let us know if we can share them with fellow weirdos! :)
Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on September 27, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.