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Tuning into true Delta County crime

Mid Pen grad to release podcast

By R. R. Branstrom 3 min read

ESCANABA -- If anyone’s ever wondered how the tongue-in-cheek term “Gladstone divorce” was spawned in the area to refer to spousal murder, a new true crime podcast launching tomorrow may provide answers.

“What the Town Forgot” is the name of the audio broadcast produced by Joyce Engdahl, a Delta County native who has been working on digging up grisly local history and recording her findings since 2022. The first episode, about the fatal shooting of a Gladstone police officer in 1968, will go live on Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube on Friday, reaching other outlets afterwards.

Engdahl, who grew up in Wells before moving to Perkins and graduating from Mid Peninsula School, said that she’s always had somewhat of an interest in true crime.

“I remember when I was growing up, hearing different stories. Like, one of the things was, ‘Oh, somebody’s going to get a Gladstone divorce.’ And I didn’t really understand what that meant, so I looked into it and found the actual case, and it was just very interesting,” Engdahl said.

She also recalls her mother warning her not to hitchhike, and then finding out about a local case in which events did not turn out well for a couple of hitchhikers.

“There’s just always been, you know, things that existed around here, but that have kind of gotten lost in time,” Engdahl remarked.

For those who may not have heard the expression, “getting a Gladstone divorce” was used to mean murdering one’s husband and getting away with it. The rumor in the ’70s and ’80s was that exactly such a thing happened more than once in the second-largest Delta County city.

As a young adult, Engdahl moved back to Escanaba, where she has lived for about 25 years. To satisfy her own curiosity, she went digging through archives of decades-old documents to find out details about the cases only alluded to years later. Her primary source was the Daily Press, but the Delta County Historical Society was also immensely helpful, Engdahl said. She consulted court documents as well.

There’s a handful of cases Engdahl has now collected enough information on to make multiple podcast episodes. After the first episode is released Friday morning, she plans to release additional installments every Sunday.

Engdahl records and produces the podcast herself.

“I actually started out using just my phone and have been learning the recording and production side as I’ve gone along. All of the research, writing, recording and production is done by me,” she noted.

Though she’s obtained the fodder for a handful of shows, her ears are open for more.

“One thing I would really love readers to know is that I’m always looking for cases to research,” Engdahl told the Press this week. “If there’s a murder, disappearance or unusual case from somewhere in the U.P. that you’ve always wondered about -- or something that happened years ago that people just don’t seem to talk about anymore -- I would love to hear about it.”

Case suggestions can be sent by email to whatthetownforgot@gmail.com. Engdahl also created a Facebook page entitled “What The Town Forgot.”

People will find the first episode of the podcast by searching “What the Town Forgot” on YouTube, Spotify or TikTok anytime tomorrow or later. Episode two is scheduled for release Oct. 4.

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R. R. Branstrom can be reached at rbranstrom@dailypress.net.

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