A November 5, 2008, two police officers in a small town called St. John's Arizona were

dispatched to a home where collars reported seeing what looked like a Halloween decoration

left out a few days too late. But collars were most concerned about how realistic this

decoration looked. Responding officers would soon realize the single piece of leftover

decor was not a Halloween decoration at all.

Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares, true crime for bedtime. Where Nightmare began

in now.

Nightmare is a tiny little town in Apache County with just over 3,000 residents. It's

a little blip on the map north of the Apache National Forest. The town's motto is the town

of friendly neighbors, and quite literally everyone knows everyone.

On November 5, 2008, Debbie Neckall was celebrating. She'd just been promoted to detective

at the St. John's Police Department the day prior. This was her second year in the department,

which in the line of police work is not very long at all. Given that her new title was

so fresh, Debbie was understandably nervous about the responsibilities that entailed. Before

her promotion, Debbie worked as a school resource officer. So the types of situations

she dealt with involved scuffles between kids. Now, her job would be to respond to real

crime scenes. She knew she had entered the big leagues, and she was about to get a taste

of how gruesome reality can get.

On this particular Wednesday, a little after 5pm, someone called the police department

to report hearing shots fired, and then seeing something strange on someone's front porch.

It looked like a dead body. Now this was only a few days after Halloween, so Debbie and

her partner, Sergeant Lucas Rodriguez, weren't totally convinced this call would even amount

...