On November 21, 1997, Gene Artis and his sister Yvonne Giles were shot and killed at their apartment in Suffolk, VA. Six-year-old Travone Artis was the only witness who saw his mother and uncle get murdered, and he unequivocally told authorities that a relative of his was the shooter. Despite this, 18 year old Lerico Kearney became a suspect when police found out he and Gene gambled together.There was no physical evidence linking Lerico to this crime, but with the help of multiple jailhouse snit...
Feb 23, 2023•47 min•Ep. 336
On April 7, 1991, Joe Travis was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head in an apartment complex in Cleveland, OH. Witnesses indicated the murder resulted from a drug transaction that had gone awry. Two weeks later, Ronald Lacey was arrested on drug charges and told police that he witnessed the Travis murder and described what he believed to be the shooter’s car: a late 70s Monte Carlo. Cleveland Police recalled stopping a car that fit this description, as they suspected the driver wa...
Feb 20, 2023•31 min•Ep. 335
This is an updated episode that originally aired on September 21, 2021. On May 18th, 1998, Charlie Winbush told her fiancé, Julius Graves, that a man named Li Run Chen, who worked at a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood had touched her inappropriately. Graves replied that he would scare him. Later that day, Julius Graves, his fiancée's cousin, and another younger friend had a few drinks with Graves and his friend Anthony Sims as they listened to music by Sims’ car. That same evening, Graves ...
Feb 16, 2023•46 min•Ep. 334
Ashley and Albert Debelbot met in the Army, got married and had their first child together, McKenzy, on May 29, 2008. Days later, Ashley noticed a bump on her newborn’s forehead and rushed her to the emergency room. Tragically, McKenzy passed away within hours. Ashley and Albert were immediately under investigation, and the medical examiner determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the baby’s skull. Ashley and her husband both received life sentences. Maggie speaks to Ashley J...
Feb 13, 2023•41 min•Ep. 333
On August 20, 1988, 22-year-old twin sisters C.W. and B.W. were kidnapped by a gunman as they got into their car in Dayton, OH. The gunman pointed a handgun at them and ordered them to drive to a wooded area where he sexually assaulted them. The man then blindfolded both women, robbed them, and fled. Soon after C.W. and B.W. reported their attack, another woman came forward and said she was attacked in a very similar manner earlier that month. The man had told all the victims that he was a store...
Feb 09, 2023•44 min•Ep. 332
One evening in March, 2003, a fire broke out in Deborah Nicholls' Colorado Springs, CO home, killing her three children. Her husband suffered significant burns, but escaped. After a 2-year investigation, it was determined that the fire was not accidental, and that Deborah and her husband started it for the insurance money. The trial was a battle of the experts – one presenting the junk science of arson evidence, one asserting that the science was outdated. The former triumphed, and Deborah was s...
Feb 06, 2023•36 min•Ep. 331
In October 1997, Skip Clark was killed in York, PA. Police officers decided that the death was gang related, and that two gangs were out for each other after having a dispute. Tysheem Crocker was dragged into the conversation. The State argued that he and others plotted to retaliate against their rival gang, and that Skip was caught in the middle. Despite four witnesses testifying that they knew who the killer was and that it was not Tysheem, and despite the fact that his whereabouts were accoun...
Feb 02, 2023•45 min•Ep. 330
On October 16, 2005, Dennis and Norma Woodruff were found murdered in their Royse City, TX home. Their son Brandon, a freshman in college, had been visiting that weekend and police became suspicious of him and his lifestyle. Brandon is bisexual and was struggling in school, so police developed a narrative that Brandon had to kill his parents in order to maintain the double life he wanted. These details, however, were not secrets to Brandon’s parents at all. And despite evidence that supported hi...
Jan 30, 2023•37 min•Ep. 329
On October 29, 1996, two gunmen broke into Michael Kershner’s apartment in Elkhart, IN and robbed Kershner, his mother and four friends. After fighting back, Kershner was shot in the abdomen. Months later, Keith Cooper was arrested on a purse snatching charge. Lead Detective, Steve Rezutko, determined that Cooper might be one of the perpetrators in Kerschner’s case based on his resemblance to a computerized sketch of the gunmen. After placing Cooper’s photo in a lineup, witnesses identified him,...
Jan 26, 2023•56 min•Ep. 328
On July 19, 2008, a police officer found the body of Julie Burchett in her parked car in an abandoned pallet mill in Monticello, KY. Hope and her boyfriend lived nearby and gathered with other observers at the scene. A police informant eventually concocted an elaborate story that Hope threw a party at her mother’s house where she stabbed Julie to death. Despite Hope’s alibi, another suspect, and evidence that there was no party at all, Hope was arrested, tried and convicted. Maggie speaks to Hop...
Jan 23, 2023•36 min•Ep. 327
In 2011, 17 year old Octavius Williams was at a Halloween party hosted by his father and his father’s girlfriend in Cleveland, OH. Toward the end of the party a fight broke out in the backyard of the apartment building and Cole was shot. Cole survived, but suffered lower-body paralysis. Several witnesses said that Octavius’ brother Ricky was the shooter. But Cole identified Octavius as the person who shot him. Despite Cole’s account being the only one naming Octavius, Octavius was convicted of a...
Jan 19, 2023•33 min•Ep. 326
On October 23, 2005, Planes Adolphe was found in front of his Louisville, KY apartment, robbed and murdered. Police were led to a man named Steve, but Steve told police that Adolphe’s 16 year old girlfriend, Johnetta, was involved. Police eventually arrested Johnetta’s two friends – one of which endured a lengthy interrogation which ended in her implicating Johnetta. Even though the friend quickly recanted, and despite the lack of physical evidence against her, Johnetta was arrested. Johnetta ul...
Jan 16, 2023•35 min•Ep. 325
This is an updated episode that originally aired on February 20, 2017. On July 7th, 1980, three masked robbers robbed the Bank of Ireland at Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon. They attempted to flee, but crashed into a police car. A shootout ensued and 2 policemen were killed. Two men were arrested the same day. A third, Peter Pingle was arrested 12 days later. During questioning by detectives, Mr. Pringle allegedly admitted to involvement in the crimes. He was convicted and sentenced to death mainl...
Jan 12, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 324
On May 30, 1997, Tasha Shelby found her boyfriend's two and half-year-old toddler having a seizure on his bedroom floor. Bryan was pronounced dead at the hospital the following day, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide. Tasha, a naturally small woman, was on bed rest at the time, after giving birth and undergoing multiple surgeries, and Bryan was more than half Tasha’s size, standing 3 feet tall and weighing 33 pounds. Tasha’s physical inability to have shaken Bryan to death did not stop...
Jan 09, 2023•36 min•Ep. 323
In June of 1979, a 17 year old girl was found brutally murdered near Fort Peck, Montana. 17 year old Barry Beach was a classmate of hers and learned of her death on the news. He was interrogated by police three times, and all three times was told he was cleared and no longer a suspect. Several years later, while living with his father in Louisiana, Barry’s step-mother had him arrested for supposedly helping her 14 year old daughter run away. Police found out Barry had been questioned for the Mon...
Jan 05, 2023•36 min•Ep. 322
In June of 1979, a 17 year old girl was found brutally murdered near Fort Peck, Montana. 17 year old Barry Beach was a classmate of hers and learned of her death on the news. He was interrogated by police three times, and all three times was told he was cleared and no longer a suspect. Several years later, while living with his father in Louisiana, Barry’s step-mother had him arrested for supposedly helping her 14 year old daughter run away. Police found out Barry had been questioned for the Mon...
Jan 05, 2023•44 min•Ep. 321
This is an updated episode that originally aired on September 25, 2017. On the afternoon of April 15th, 1994, two men were sitting in a powder-blue Cadillac in the Quindaro neighborhood of Kansas City, KS. A man dressed in black ran up to the passenger side, raised a shotgun and fired four rounds in what looked like a drug-related hit, killing the two passengers Doniel Quinn and Donald Ewing. Lamonte McIntyre, who was 17 at the time, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murde...
Dec 29, 2022•55 min•Ep. 320
One month apart in 1996, two crimes occurred in Portsmouth, VA. Terrence Hobbs was arrested and convicted for both of them, but he committed neither. In the first, two individuals were shot and killed, and in the second, a bank robbery occurred that hurt no one. Terrence’s ex-girlfriend was a victim of the double murder, and prosecutors fell back on the convenient assumption that the ex-boyfriend was jealous and must have been responsible. Once a few convicted felons were offered and ultimately ...
Dec 22, 2022•57 min•Ep. 319
On September 2, 1986, a Springfield, MA drug deal turned into an armed robbery, which turned into the death of an innocent bystander named Victoria Seymour. Six men, all of whom were later determined to have been involved in the robbery, identified Mark Schand as the one responsible for Seymour’s death. Despite the lack of physical evidence, and the fact that he was 30 miles away the entire evening that the crime took place, Schand was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison without pa...
Dec 19, 2022•47 min•Ep. 318
On July 1, 1977, the Welcome Inn bar in New Orleans, LA was robbed by two armed men and a bar patron, Cecil Lloyd, was killed. Weeks after the crime, 19 year old Elvis Brooks became a suspect when he was identified in a photo array by three strangers who had been inside the bar at the time of the robbery. But during the crime, the robbers touched two beer cans inside the bar and left them on the counter after they fled. Investigators from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) collected finger...
Dec 15, 2022•44 min•Ep. 317
Just past 1am on November 26, 1995, 50 year old Harry Kaufman was working the token booth at a subway station in Brooklyn, NY, when multiple men set the booth on fire, causing explosions, an eruption of flames, and ultimately, Kaufman’s death. Hefty rewards were offered for information, and police received many tips from multiple informants. Ultimately, they honed in on James Irons, Thomas Malik and Vincent Ellerbe. The three were ultimately convicted based on confessions they made to the Detect...
Dec 12, 2022•43 min•Ep. 316
On October 10, 1982, a 22-year-old woman was abducted at gunpoint outside a tavern in Louisville, KY and taken to a nearby park where she was beaten, raped and robbed. The victim described her assailant as about 5’ 11” tall, weighing more than 200 pounds and with blue eyes and curly dark brown hair. Michael VonAllmen, despite having brown eyes, was picked out of a photo lineup and charged with the crime. With no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the crime, and 3 alibi witnesses, VonAllm...
Dec 08, 2022•43 min•Ep. 315
In the summer of 1987, Joyce Watkins received a call from her sister asking for help caring for their 4 year old great niece who lived in Georgia. Joyce agreed to come pick up the little girl and bring her to her home in Nashville, TN. Joyce noticed almost immediately that the girl was acting strangely and suffering from abnormal vaginal bleeding. Joyce took her to the hospital and learned that the little girl suffered from a vaginal injury and bleeding on the brain. She received emergency care ...
Dec 05, 2022•35 min•Ep. 314
On June 1, 1996, Kevin Jackson and Antwaun Cubie accompanied Jeremy Bruder to buy a set of rims for his Jeep. When they arrived, Kevin and Jeremy went to make the purchase while Antwaun waited in the car while on the phone with his girlfriend. Several gunshots rang out and Jeremy was shot multiple times. He died the next day. Kevin and Antwaun were both taken in for questioning at which point Kevin, in exchange for leniency from the state, alleged that Antwaun killed Jeremy. After a series quest...
Dec 01, 2022•56 min•Ep. 313
On September 17, 2007, two men broke into a home in Detroit, MI and fatally shot four people. 14 year old Davontae Sanford, who lived nearby, went outside in his pajamas to see the commotion. Police approached Davontae and brought him back to the station where he was interrogated for two days without a parent or guardian present. The questioning ended when Davontae falsely confessed. Despite someone else taking responsibility for the crimes, Davontae was sentenced to 37 to 90 years in prison. As...
Nov 28, 2022•50 min•Ep. 312
Brothers, Dennis and Lee Horton, were having a pleasant Memorial Day in 1993 until they decided to visit their father in North Philadelphia and ran into a childhood friend, Robert Leaf. Unbeknownst to the Hortons, Robert Leaf had committed an armed robbery turned homicide earlier that day. Shortly after Robert joined the brothers in their car, police pulled them over. All three were arrested and tried for second degree murder. Robert Leaf's attorney used confusion among the witnesses about the i...
Nov 24, 2022•38 min•Ep. 311
In 1993, Herman Williams, a decorated member of the US Navy, was stationed in Waukegan, IL where he lived with his ex-wife, Penny, and their two children. On September 26, Penny’s deceased body was found in a shallow pond and Herman immediately became the sole suspect. Based on faulty forensic science as well as prosecutorial and questionable police conduct, Herman was sentenced to life in prison without parole. As Co-Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker School...
Nov 21, 2022•45 min•Ep. 310
On April 29, 2007, six undocumented immigrants from El Salvador were living in a trailer in Slidell, LA when they were robbed at gunpoint. The robbery went awry and Jose Carlos Matinez-Carpio was shot and killed. Two men were arrested for the killing and one of the men, Edric Cooper, implicated Jace Washington in an effort to earn leniency from the state. Jace had no prior criminal record, and no physical or forensic evidence pointed to him. Nevertheless, Jace Washington was convicted and senten...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 309
On January 7, 2002, Heidi Fero was taking care of 15 month old Brynn and her 4.5 year old brother, Kaed, along with her own two similarly aged children. That evening, Heidi called the children’s father, reporting that Kaed physically hurt Brynn by pushing her head against the wall. Within hours, Brynn was unresponsive and Heidi called 911. Brynn survived, but she will forever require a caregiver from the injuries she endured. Heidi was ultimately prosecuted and convicted for first degree assault...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 308
Early on the morning of August 11, 1979, an intruder broke into a Manchester, GA home to find a 74-year-old woman asleep on her couch. The man beat and sexually assaulted the woman and then demanded all her money. She gave the attacker cash from her purse and then he left through the back door. The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but no rape kit was collected due to the extent of her injuries. At the victim’s house, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) crime scene investigat...
Nov 10, 2022•39 min•Ep. 307
