Debuting October 4, 2022, American Nightmare Series: Unknown Subject focuses on a man who terrorized women across the D.C. area for nine years. It started with breaking into homes and raping his victims, then ended with the killing of a brilliant scientist near the gates of Georgetown University in 1998.

Before the FBI would name him the infamous Potomac River Rapist, detectives simply called him their “unknown subject”. A man whose DNA linked him to all of these crime scenes  but whose name and face remained a mystery to police. For nearly three decades, detectives had no idea who he was until a bike cop named Smugs began connecting the dots and finally cracked the case.

S3 EP9 – Final Chapter
31 years after the Potomac River Rapist attacked his first victim, the detectives who solved the case are telling their story exclusively to WTOP American Nightmare Series Host Paul Wagner.
S3 EP8 – Breaking News
Host Paul Wagner brings listeners a huge update about Giles Warrick that changes the course of...everything.
S3 EP 7 – Consciousness of Guilt
When Giles Warrick is questioned by police in the hours after his arrest, the 60-year-old tells them he doesn't know how his DNA turned up at 10 different crime scenes in DC and Maryland. But, what will police find when they search his South Carolina home?
S3 EP6 – Unmasked
In November 2019, detectives from Montgomery County, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., make their way to Conway, South Carolina, where investigators are certain they will find their "unknown subject." They head to a ranch house on a rural country road where a 60-year-old man is living with his girlfriend. But, what will they find when they knock on the door?
S3 EP 5 – Going Down the Rabbit Hole
By 2018, investigators had tired of waiting for another DNA cold hit and decided to hand the case to a cop named 'Smugs.' A young Montgomery County police officer who had already used genealogy to solve several high profile rape and murder cases. Crimes that had stumped detectives for years. Could 'Smugs' be the one to finally give a name to the Unknown Subject?
S3 EP4 – A Cold Hit
As the nineties turned into Y2K Detectives Dean Combee and Joe Mudano were still trying to solve their cases. Years of investigating had gotten them nowhere until the FBI called with stunning news. DNA from all of the attacks had been linked to one man. A fact that floored the veteran investigators who never saw it coming.
Presenting Gone South Season 2: The Dixie Mafia
Welcome to Season Two of Gone South, the Edward R. Murrow-Award winning documentary podcast from C13Originals. Starting in the early sixties, a rag-tag confederation of traveling criminals known as The Dixie Mafia terrorized every state from Georgia to Oklahoma. Its hundreds of members, unofficially headquartered in Biloxi, Mississippi, specialized in scams, heists and murder. Their ringleader — the estranged son of a prominent Oklahoma politician — was a skilled and charismatic outlaw named Kirksey Nix. When Nix was sentenced to life in prison at Angola for a murder he committed in New Orleans, The Dixie Mafia was thought to be extinct. But fifteen years later, a sitting criminal court judge named Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret, a mayoral candidate for the city of Biloxi, were assassinated. As the case ran cold, authorities were forced to confront a disturbing reality: the reign of Kirksey Nix and The Dixie Mafia was far from over. Gone South is a creation and production of Peabody-nominated C13Originals, a Cadence13 studio, in association with Jed and Tom Lipinski.
S3 EP 3 – The Case That Wouldn’t Break
In the early to mid nineties, Montgomery County Police Detective Joe Mudano knew he had a ruthless rapist preying on women but he had no idea who he was. DNA linked a number of cases, but a clear description remained elusive. More maddening for Mudano was the fact the Unknown Subject seemed to have inside information. But how?
S3 – E2 – Kelly’s Story
Seven years before Christine Mirzayan was murdered in Georgetown, a man cut the phone lines to a house miles outside the city and raped a teenage baby sitter. The first in a string of similar attacks spread out over several years. Kelly survived that awful night and in this episode tells her harrowing story. A crime that was nothing like the murder in Georgetown.
S3 EP1 – A Murder In Georgetown
In the summer of 1998, a brilliant scientist walking home from a party is grabbed off the street and killed. Her body is found the next day in a wooded area just steps from the Georgetown University campus. It was a gruesome scene. DC Police had no witnesses and no suspects, but they did have a valuable clue: a key piece of evidence the killer left behind.
Trailer: Season 3- Unknown Subject
For 9 years, he terrorized women across the DC region. Breaking into homes and raping his victims before killing a brilliant scientist near the gates of Georgetown University in 1998. And then, it all stopped. Was he dead? Locked up? Before the FBI would name him the infamous Potomac River Rapist, detectives simply called him their “unknown subject” for years. A man whose DNA linked him to multiple crime scenes, but whose name and face remained a mystery to police. For decades, detectives had no idea who he was until a bike cop named Smugs began connecting the dots.

WTOP and PodcastOne Announce Return of “American Nightmare Series” Podcast

Paul-Wagner-Headshot[2]

Washington, D.C. (September 27, 2022) –

– WTOP News and PodcastOne  announced today the return of their critically acclaimed and award-winning podcast, American Nightmare Series. Debuting October 4, 2022, American Nightmare Series: Unknown Subject focuses on a man who terrorized women across the D.C. area for nine years. It started with breaking into homes and raping his victims, then ended with the killing of a brilliant scientist near the gates of Georgetown University in 1998.

Before the FBI would name him the infamous Potomac River Rapist, detectives simply called him their “unknown subject”. A man whose DNA linked him to all of these crime scenes  but whose name and face remained a mystery to police. For nearly three decades, detectives had no idea who he was until a bike cop named Smugs began connecting the dots and finally cracked the case. Veteran D.C. crime reporter Paul Wagner is back to host season 3 of WTOP’s American Nightmare Series podcast.  

For the past 22 years, Wagner has covered some of the most well-known and heinous crimes the D.C. region has ever seen. As a reporter for FOX5 News (WTTG-TV) from 1999-2020 and now as a reporter for NBC4 (WRC-TV), Wagner covered everything from the murder of Chandra Levy to the Mansion Murders to the DC Police-involved shooting of motorcyclist Terrence Sterling. Prior to his career at FOX5, Wagner worked as a reporter for WTOP from 1989 to 1999.

Now, Wagner returns with a new true crime podcast in Season 3 of WTOP’s American Nightmare series. In this series, Wagner examines the 1998 murder in Georgetown of Christine Mirzayan. A brilliant young scientist who was viciously attacked while walking home from a party. A crime eventually linked by DNA to a number of other crimes committed just miles away. In this 7 part series Wagner goes in-depth with the investigators and takes you inside the search for a man the FBI dubbed the Potomac River rapist.

“Paul has done it again. He is such a great storyteller. Listeners will be captivated from the first minute of episode 1,” said Julia Ziegler, WTOP’s Director of News & Programming.

The podcast will launch as the third season of WTOP’s American Nightmare Series. Season 1 of the series debuted in June 2019. 22 Hours: An American Nightmare, hosted by WTOP award-winning journalists Megan Cloherty and Jack Moore, covered the horrific murder of a D.C. couple, their 10-year-old son and housekeeper inside their burning D.C. mansion. The podcast was honored with a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, reached #2 on the Apple Podcast charts and was ranked the #2 podcast of the year by The Associated Press.