She Left Without Her Shoes - Episode 87

The Blood Flowed the Wrong Direction - Episode 102

The Confession That Wasn't His to Give: The Murder of Father Patrick Ryan and the Wrongful Conviction of James Harry Rios A housekeeper opened Room 126 of a Texas motel on December 22, 1981, and found a man beaten beyond recognition, hands bound, lying face-down in a pool of blood. The investigation that followed produced a conviction built entirely on a phone call — no fingerprints, no DNA, no physical evidence placing the accused anywhere near that room. The man who confessed said, repeatedly, that he didn't do it. In this episode, we explore a speeding ticket that placed the convicted man 200 miles from the crime scene during the murder window, a set of fingerprint templates believed destroyed for nearly three decades that ultimately identified the real killers, and a prosecutor so certain his own case was wrong that he wrote an eight-page letter to the Governor of Texas begging for a pardon. How does a system convict a man with an alibi, zero physical evidence, and a confession he immediately recanted — and then take forty years to admit the mistake? Case Details Victim: Father Patrick Ryan, 49, Catholic priest assigned to St. William's Church, Denver City, Texas. Date: December 21, 1981 (murder); October 4, 2023 (official exoneration of wrongfully convicted James Harry Rios). Location: Sand and Sage Motel, Odessa, Texas, USA. Case Status: James Harry Rios was officially exonerated on October 4, 2023, after serving 20 years in prison and nearly 20 additional years on parole. The real perpetrators were identified posthumously via CODIS; no criminal charges can be filed as both individuals are deceased. Episode Key Points - Harry's speeding ticket and timestamped receipts placed him in Roswell, New Mexico — 200 miles away — during the murder window, yet the jury convicted him in 7.5 hours with zero physical evidence. - No fingerprints, hair, saliva, or semen matching Harry were recovered from Room 126 or from Father Ryan's car, despite extensive forensic collection at both scenes. - The prosecutor who argued against Harry's 1984 appeal later spent an entire night reviewing the trial record, concluded Harry was innocent, and filed an unprecedented 8-page pardon request — which the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied 16 to 0. - Fingerprint templates believed destroyed by Odessa PD in 1994 were rediscovered in 2022 after two true crime podcast listeners from Odessa prompted a new evidence search — leading directly to the CODIS identification of the real killers. Father Patrick Ryan, James Harry Rios, Odessa Texas homicide, wrongful conviction 1983, Ector County Texas, true crime, homicide, investigation, forensic science, criminal minds, innocence project, murder, true crime English.

The Confession That Wasn't His to Give - Episode 101

The Officer Who Investigated His Own Crime: The Disappearance of Rachel Good A 20-year-old mother of three vanished on the night of October 18, 2003, and by the next morning, the officer assigned to find her was the same man investigators now name as their only suspect. He stood at the missing persons desk, pen shaking in his hand, and took the report himself. How does a police department hand a case to the man who may have been the last person to see her alive? In this episode, we explore the secret relationship between Rachel Good and Officer Adam Williams that nobody at the Elkton Police Department was supposed to know about, the love letters her grandmother found inside a kitchen drawer days after the disappearance, and the phone records showing Adam called Rachel almost every day — then never again after she vanished. Was Rachel's pregnancy the motive, or did something go wrong that night in the national forest? The forensic science and the phone records tell a story the grand jury heard for over a year and still could not finish. Case Details Victim: Rachel Good, 20, mother of three children and approximately 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Date: October 18–19, 2003. Location: Elkton and Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. Case Status: Unsolved homicide. No criminal charges have ever been filed against Adam Williams, the confirmed primary suspect. A civil wrongful death suit remains active and awaiting a trial date as of recording. Episode Key Points - Officer Adam Williams took Rachel's missing persons report himself, visibly shaking and barely able to hold the pen, before anyone at the department knew he had been in a secret relationship with her. - Adam gave Rachel $1,400 in cash to end a pregnancy investigators believe was his — Rachel did not use the money for that purpose and had threatened to expose the affair to his wife. - Phone records confirmed by Virginia State Police show Adam and Rachel called each other almost daily before her disappearance; Adam never called her number again after she vanished. - A special grand jury met for over a year after the prosecutor declared indictment was "certain" — and adjourned without returning a single charge. Rachel Good, Elkton Virginia missing persons, Harrisonburg Virginia homicide, unsolved disappearance 2003, Virginia cold case, true detective, homicide, criminal minds, forensic science, investigation, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

The Officer Who Investigated His Own Crime - Episode 100

She Texted Goodbye. He Described the Wrong Death.: The Death of Molly Marie Young A 21-year-old woman was found on the floor of her boyfriend's bedroom with a gunshot wound above her left eye. When her boyfriend called 911, he described an overdose — never once mentioning the visible wound to her head. The gun that killed her left no residue on her hands. So how did she pull the trigger? In this episode, we explore the eighteen-minute gap between Molly's final text and the estimated moment of the shooting, a .45 caliber handgun with no identifiable fingerprints on the trigger or magazine, and three unidentified male DNA profiles found under Molly's fingernails that investigators never matched. Was this a young woman in crisis who followed through on a desperate threat, or did someone in that apartment already know what had happened before anyone called for help? The forensic science and the 911 recording pull in two directions that cannot both be true. Case Details Victim: Molly Marie Young, 21, college student and aspiring artist. Date: March 24, 2012. Location: Carbondale, Illinois, USA. Case Status: The case remains officially unsolved and active. Jackson County State's Attorney Joe Cervantes, elected in 2020, has stated he would have prosecuted the primary person of interest and has filed a motion to unrecuse Jackson County from further investigation. Episode Key Points - Molly's gunshot residue was found only on her right sweatshirt sleeve — not on either of her hands — despite the wound being classified as a contact shot. - Richie Minton Jr. called 911 and described Molly as having overdosed and bled through her nose, never mentioning the visible gunshot wound above her left eyebrow. - Three distinct male DNA profiles were recovered from under Molly's fingernails; only Richie's DNA was submitted for comparison, and the other two profiles were never identified. - Richie's cell phone was in his possession at the police station for approximately thirty minutes before investigators took it, and when forensic tools were applied, the device failed to connect — a system his father, a digital forensics expert, had been specifically trained to operate. Molly Young, Carbondale Illinois homicide, Jackson County unsolved 2012, Southern Illinois University death, undetermined ruling Illinois, homicide, forensic science, true detective, criminal minds, investigation, murder, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

She Texted Goodbye. He Described the Wrong Death. - Episode 99

She Was Wrapped, Bound, and Nobody Looked: The Murder of Patricia "Tricia" Melody Newsome A canvas tarp. Copper wire. Two trash bags and a cloth stuffed in her mouth. Someone spent a significant amount of time preparing this body for disposal — and then nearly fifty years passed without a single arrest. The forensic science existed. The tips came in. So why does no one answer for what happened to Tricia Newsome? In this episode, we explore how the physical evidence points to a killer with military or maritime knot knowledge, why a convicted murderer in Maine refused to speak with investigators for decades despite living five minutes from the dump site in August 1975, and how a flooded evidence room destroyed nearly everything police had collected. Was this a calculated disposal by someone who had done this before, or a crime that was simply allowed to go cold? The investigation and the DNA timeline tell two stories about what justice actually means. Case Details Victim: Patricia "Tricia" Melody Newsome, 18, private citizen reported missing by no one. Date: August 1975 (body discovered); identity confirmed April 10, 2023. Location: East Haven, Connecticut, USA. Case Status: Unsolved and actively investigated. No arrests have ever been made. East Haven Police Department continues to pursue tips as of 2023. Episode Key Points - Tricia's body was wrapped in a canvas tarp, secured with copper wire, two plastic bags, twine at wrists and ankles, and a cloth stuffed in her mouth — a level of preparation that required time, materials, and more than one pair of hands. - A convicted murderer named Glenner lived five minutes from the dump site in August 1975 and used an almost identical binding method — plastic bag over the head, mouth stuffed, ankles tied with twine — in a separate murder years later. - All physical evidence collected in 1975 was destroyed when a toilet malfunction flooded the East Haven Police evidence room, leaving investigators with only a pubic bone and swabs stored at a separate medical examiner's lab — both too contaminated for DNA testing. - When investigators exhumed Tricia's grave in June 2022, they opened the casket and found the body of an unknown young boy. Tricia's actual remains were located ten feet away in a second exhumation one month later.

She Was Wrapped, Bound, and Nobody Looked - Episode 98

The Dog Bones Buried Six Feet Deep: The Disappearance of Reed Jepson A fifteen-year-old boy stepped into his backyard to feed his dogs on a Sunday afternoon in 1964 and was never seen again. Forty-five years later, a backhoe in the neighboring yard hit something five feet down — two dogs, surgically dismembered, sealed in plastic bags. The man who owned that property in 1964 was a bone surgeon. When police finally questioned him, he didn't say Reed had run away. He said he hoped they'd find out who killed him. In this episode, we explore why the $60 Reed supposedly took to run away was found untouched in a jar in his closet, how a bone surgeon with an open-secret history of abusing teenage boys lived forty years next door to the family he may have destroyed, and why voice stress tests administered to the primary person of interest produced results investigators called deliberately sabotaged. Was this a crime of opportunity against a boy with two minutes to spare before Sunday lunch, or something far more calculated? The forensic science and a single unguarded sentence point in the same direction. Case Details Victim: Reed Jepson, 15, Eagle Scout and high school student. Date: October 11, 1964. Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Case Status: Unsolved and active. Salt Lake City Police Department reopened the case on May 25, 2010. No charges have ever been filed. The primary person of interest died in 2016. Episode Key Points - The $60 Reed allegedly took to fund a runaway was found intact in a jar inside his closet — every belonging he owned remained at home. - Dog remains discovered in 2009 had been surgically dismembered and buried five to six feet underground in sealed plastic bags — on a property owned in 1964 by an orthopedic surgeon. - When detectives questioned the property's 1964 owner, he volunteered that he hoped police would find out who "killed" Reed — at a time when the public narrative described Reed as a runaway, not a homicide victim. - During a voice stress test, the same man deliberately gave false answers to basic control questions, rendering the results inconclusive — then requested and passed a second test. Reed Jepson, Salt Lake City Utah missing person, cold case homicide 1964, Mill Creek Canyon remains, orthopedic surgeon person of interest, true crime, murder, investigation, forensic science, homicide, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.