What Happened to Talina Zar

Hi, Talina Zar listeners! We're excited to share with you a sneak peek at iHeartPodcasts' latest release, Hands Tied!   Hands Tied: Lizz Melgar Rose went from being interested in true crime to living true crime. Back in 2012, relatives found her mother Sandy Melgar shut in a closet, her hands bound behind her back. Her dad Jim Melgar had been murdered. There was no time to finish the university course Lizz had signed up for, inspired by her teenage fascination with violence and serial killers. She needed to figure out what happened.  If it weren't for her strange interest, she believes she’d have been lost. It enabled her to protect her family and herself, and helped her try to fit the pieces of a seemingly unsolvable puzzle together.  Award-winning journalist and host Maggie Robinson Katz will take you inside the police investigation that followed, inside the courtroom drama as a jury wrestles with who’s responsible for a truly shocking crime, and inside Lizz’s ongoing battle for answers and for justice. Because there is one thing Lizz is convinced of, the wrong person is in prison for her dad’s murder. Hands Tied is a new eight-part true crime podcast from iHeartPodcasts and BBC Studios Audio.   Listen to Hands Tied on the iHeartRadio App or wherever you get your podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melissa heads to Wisconsin to cover the ricin trial. Jess is there too, determined to come face to face with Kore. We hear powerful firsthand accounts from the victims and key investigators from Oklahoma.  In a stunning moment, Kore's ex-husband takes the stand and reveals a shocking confession.  As the jury prepares to deliver its verdict, the stakes couldn’t be higher. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In our season finale, five years have passed since Talina disappeared, but Jess continues to obsess over the details. Meanwhile, Talina’s family searches to define closure as a murder trial remains elusive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Uncovering an incident in Wisconsin from 2014 sends Jess chasing a new set of questions. But as COVID stretches into the fall of 2020, the official investigation slows to a standstill…until a momentous discovery.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New evidence is popping up all over town - all over Oklahoma, in fact. The police seem closer than ever to solving the case when a sudden death throws Jess - and the investigation - for a loop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Talina’s family gets involved in the search from afar. Meanwhile, the non-stop investigation starts to take a toll on Jess. And the police turn up evidence that upends the whole timeline of events.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weeks pass with no sign of Talina. Her friends, as well as the online sleuths and the local sheriff start to uncover strange clues—a burned mattress, a missing persons poster—all casting suspicion on Talina’s roommate, Kore. As the pressure builds, Kore shares her side of the story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jess discovers Talina Zar isn’t the missing Oklahoma woman’s real name, and the meaning of the moniker unlocks a door to a fantasy world ripped from the pages of 1970s pulp fiction — a fictional world where men reign and women serve and a real-life subculture where people try to live according to the principles in the books. Talina may have found her people in this fringe BDSM community, but was there something more sinister hiding among the kink? And did it have something to do with her disappearance?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jess and the sleuths connect with people who knew Talina Zar in real life. As the sleuths begin to formulate a picture of who Talina is, and what might have happened to her, they get the sense that not everyone is telling the truth. At the same time, local police begin their own parallel investigation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jess Trevino, an events planner from Minnesota and true crime aficionado, joins Nicole Carr, a close friend of Talina Zar. Together, they recount the emotional journey of mobilizing an online sleuth community to investigate Talina's mysterious disappearance during the early COVID lockdown. They discuss the challenges of isolation, the deeper connections formed amid crises, and how unexpected allies can emerge in the pursuit of truth. Their quest highlights the powerful impact of community support in the face of uncertainty.