Overview of Rewind with Karen & Georgia — 109: Project Artichoke
This episode of Rewind with Karen & Georgia revisits a 2018 My Favorite Murder episode (“Project Artichoke”) and adds new context, corrections, and reflections. The hosts open with personal banter about family dynamics, live shows, fan gifts, and past corrections before diving into two major true-crime stories: the still-debated death of Cindy James and the later-solved McStay family murders. The episode also includes a strong, impassioned “good things” segment centered on student activism and gun reform.
Opening Banter and Rewind Notes
Family, live shows, and “fiercely private” dogs
- Karen and Georgia trade stories about their parents and families attending live shows, including Karen’s dad being enthusiastic and Georgia’s mom being famously terse in emails.
- They talk about how strange and funny it is to hear their old podcast intros and how much their early live-show energy has evolved.
- They revisit a viral moment involving Georgia’s dog, George, who was described as “fiercely private” after a video of her drinking Georgia’s water blew up online.
Corrections and fan gifts
- They revisit a major corrections moment where Georgia had been eight years off on a murder date and jokingly “apologizes” again.
- They celebrate listener-made gifts, especially quilled jewelry made from pages of My Sweet Audrina and other handmade items sent by fans.
- They emphasize how special live-show gifts feel because of the direct, in-person connection with listeners.
Case 1: The Death of Cindy James
Who Cindy James was
- Cindy James was a Vancouver-area nurse and healthcare administrator who seemed to have a stable life until her separation from her husband, psychiatrist Roy Makepeace.
- After their breakup, she began receiving threatening calls and experiencing escalating harassment and attacks.
The harassment and attacks
- Cindy reported:
- anonymous threatening phone calls,
- smashed windows and break-ins,
- notes with threats,
- a pillow stabbed repeatedly,
- attacks involving a nylon stocking around her neck,
- and a house fire.
- Because many of these incidents happened when police weren’t present, investigators began doubting her story and suspected she might be staging the events herself.
The final death and unresolved questions
- Cindy was found dead in 1989 in an abandoned yard, drugged and strangled, with her hands and feet bound.
- The autopsy showed morphine and other drugs in her system.
- A long and expensive inquest could not determine whether her death was suicide, murder, or something in between.
- The official finding remained undetermined.
Theories discussed
- The hosts explore competing theories:
- Cindy may have been experiencing a serious mental health crisis and harming herself without full awareness.
- Or she may have had a real stalker who terrorized her for years and was never properly investigated.
- A darker theory raised in the episode connects the case to psychiatrist Dr. James Tyhurst, who was later exposed for abusive behavior and had ties to CIA mind-control experiments, including Project Artichoke and the early roots of MKUltra.
- The case remains one of the most unsettling unresolved mysteries in the episode.
Case 2: The McStay Family Murders
The family’s disappearance
- Joey and Summer McStay, a successful Southern California couple, lived with their two young sons and ran a business designing custom water features.
- In February 2010, Joey’s family and business began acting strangely out of character:
- calls weren’t returned,
- emails piled up,
- the family’s house appeared quiet and undisturbed,
- their dogs were left in the yard,
- and their car was eventually found near the Mexican border.
Early false leads
- Investigators initially believed the family might have voluntarily crossed into Mexico.
- Surveillance footage showed a family of four walking toward the border, reinforcing that theory.
- Suspicion also fell on:
- Summer’s abusive ex-boyfriend,
- and Joey’s business/webmaster partner, Charles “Chase” Merritt, who had financial problems.
The real breakthrough
- Years later, human remains were found in the Mojave Desert.
- Dental records identified the bodies as Joey, Summer, and their two sons.
- The family had been murdered and buried in separate graves.
Who was charged and why
- Evidence pointed to Chase Merritt:
- he had a long criminal history,
- a gambling addiction,
- he owed Joey tens of thousands of dollars,
- and his phone placed him near the burial site the night the family disappeared.
- Prosecutors argued he killed the family for money and then went gambling with stolen funds.
- He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death, though he continues to maintain his innocence.
Updates and Follow-Up
Cindy James
- No major resolution has been reached.
- The episode notes a 2021 podcast, Death by an Unknown Event, and a book, Who Killed Cindy James? by Ian Mulgrew, for listeners who want deeper coverage.
McStay family
- Karen explains that the case moved forward after the original episode:
- Chase Merritt’s attorney challenged evidence in 2018,
- the trial began in 2019,
- he was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2020,
- and because of California’s death penalty moratorium, he remains incarcerated with no parole eligibility.
- He continues to claim innocence and alleges misconduct and error in the case.
Good Things of the Week
Student activism and gun reform
- Karen delivers a passionate praise of the students speaking out after school shootings, especially the Florida student survivors organizing for gun reform.
- Her key message:
- these students are not “overemotional” or “crisis actors,”
- they are the people most directly affected,
- and they are showing the courage that adults and politicians have lacked.
- She argues for:
- common-sense gun regulations,
- rejecting the idea that more guns make schools safer,
- and listening to young people rather than dismissing them.
Key Takeaways
- Cindy James’ case remains one of the most ambiguous and disturbing true-crime stories the show has covered: her trauma could have been self-inflicted, externally inflicted, or both.
- The McStay family case is a reminder of how misleading early assumptions can be—what looked like a voluntary disappearance turned into a brutal quadruple homicide.
- Project Artichoke/MKUltra adds a sinister historical layer to the Cindy James discussion, highlighting how mental health, manipulation, and state experimentation can blur together in unsettling ways.
- The episode’s emotional center is not just the crimes themselves, but the hosts’ ongoing reflections on memory, belief, skepticism, and who gets taken seriously when they ask for help.