Investigation: Homicide

Episode #64 — Redeeming the Warrior: Faith for Those Who’ve Seen Too Much

First responders already know what it means to be strangers in a strange land — set apart by what they’ve seen, rewired by what they’ve carried. For those who also hold a faith life, there’s a second kind of strangeness layered on top of the first. In this episode, hosts Therese Apel and Amanda Johansson sit down with Clint Hatch, author of Keeping the Peace Within, to talk about what happens when those two worlds collide — and whether faith is actually robust enough to meet a warrior in the dark, or whether it’s been too sanitized to reach the people who need it most.   The conversation goes deep into what Clint and the hosts call the “sterile American faith problem” — the way so much of modern Christianity has learned to speak softly about obedience and ritual while going completely silent about violence, tragedy, and the kind of damage that doesn’t resolve in a one-hour sermon. For first responders sitting in pews carrying weight no one around them can see, that silence isn’t just frustrating. It’s isolating in a way that compounds everything they’re already carrying from the job.   But Scripture, it turns out, has never been silent about any of this. From David’s unfiltered trauma journals in the Psalms, to Elijah collapsing under a juniper tree and asking God to let him die, to Job demanding answers no one around him could give — the Bible is full of warriors God met in their brokenness without first asking them to clean up. The message isn’t “put down the old self and become someone softer.” It’s that the warrior identity was never the problem to be solved. It’s the thing God means to sanctify and use.   Whether you wear a badge, work a fire line, or run calls in the middle of the night — or whether you love someone who does — this episode is for you. The damage you carry isn’t proof you’re too far gone. It may be exactly the raw material God works with.   Produced by Daniel Anderson at Audio Alchemy Productions.

Episode #63 — Trying to find beauty in the ashes.

They run toward the worst moments of our lives and then they go home and carry it alone. On the next Investigation: Homicide, Therese Apel and Sara Perkins sit down with Kristy Daniels, who knows that weight personally.   After losing her husband to suicide, Kristy didn't just grieve, she built something that would start to address the devastating and fatal metal health crises that first responders deal with. 1828 is her answer to a crisis that too many first responders face in silence. It’s a nonprofit dedicated to making sure the men and women of Madison County who wear the badge have the resources, the support, and the community to not just survive the job, but thrive.    This is her story, and it's one you need to hear.     Produced by Daniel Anderson at Audio Alchemy Productions.

Episode #62 — The Rookie He Never Knew

She was about eleven, washing dishes with fresh gashes up her arms and praying to die, when three officers answered a call for help. Two got pulled into an argument at the door. The third — a tall veteran officer whose name she never learned — knelt down and took her hands. That moment is the reason Jackson Police Department Capt. Barbara Folsom-McNeal wears a badge today.   Now, more than forty years later, she’s the veteran cop who answers the calls, and she wants to find him. To say thank you — or to tell his family what he did mattered.   If you served with Jackson PD back then, or know someone who did, we want to hear from you. Help us close the loop.   Produced by Daniel Anderson at Audio Alchemy Productions.

Episode #60 ~ Her Honor: Justice Court Judge talks hometown court

Every courtroom tells a story, but rarely do we hear it straight from the bench.   This week, Nicole Kral and Therese Apel sit down with Justice Court Judge Marsha Weems Stacey for a candid conversation about what it really looks like to dispense justice at the community level. Judge Stacey pulls back the curtain on cases that have moved through her courtroom: the ones that stay with you, the ones that challenge you, and the ones that reveal something true about the people we live alongside every day. It’s a conversation about law, yes, but more than that, it’s about the relationship between a judge and the community she serves, and how each one quietly shapes the other in ways most of us never see.   This episode is produced by Daniel Anderson at Audio Alchemy Productions.

Episode #59 ~ The Last Shift: The 1996 Jackson Firehouse Massacre

On April 24, 1996, an ordinary shift at Jackson Fire Department headquarters turned into one of the deadliest days in the department's history. Firefighter Kenneth Tornes walked the halls of the station he knew well, moving from office to office with deadly intent — targeting the men who wore the same uniform he did, the supervisors who had dedicated their lives to protecting others. When it was over, four members of the command staff were dead: Captain Merideth Moree, District Chief Dwight Craft, Captain Stan Adams, and District Chief Rick Robbins.   For retired Jackson Police Department Crime Scene Investigator Charlie Smith, this wasn't just another case. These were men he knew — colleagues he had worked alongside for years, responding to the same scenes, in the same city, all of them bound by the same mission to serve and protect. Processing a crime scene is already one of the most demanding things a first responder can be asked to do. Doing it where your friends fell is something else entirely. On this episode of Investigation: Homicide, hosts Therese Apel and Amanda Johansson sit down with Charlie Smith to revisit a case that shook Jackson's first responder community to its core. Nearly three decades later, the weight of that day hasn't faded — and neither has Charlie's commitment to making sure the men who died that morning are not forgotten.   This episode is produced by Daniel Anderson at Audio Alchemy Productions.