The Trunk Nobody Thought to Open - Episode 95

She Won Six Hundred Dollars. Then Someone Shot Her. - Episode 104

She Won Six Hundred Dollars. Then Someone Shot Her.: The Murder of Furbia Faye Tinsley A 51-year-old Army veteran won big at bingo on a Friday night, deposited her winnings at the bank, and was found shot twice in the head inside her own car before sunrise. The engine was still running. Her seatbelt was still on. Her purse was gone, but nothing inside the car had been touched. Homicide investigators have named no one in over a decade — but one man who was in that car walked away without calling 911. In this episode, we explore a phone call Faye made before 5 a.m. that brought her to a street she had no reason to visit, a convenience store surveillance clip showing a man without shoes who told a clerk something so significant that detectives still refuse to repeat it, and a gun linked to multiple Charlottesville shootings that has never been found. Was Faye driven to that block by someone she trusted, or did she go there to confront the truth about her own relationship? The forensic science and the witness accounts point in two directions that cannot both be right. Case Details Victim: Furbia Faye Tinsley, 51, U.S. Army veteran living on disability benefits. Date: July 14, 2012. Location: 800 block of Prospect Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Case Status: The murder of Furbia Faye Tinsley remains officially unsolved. No charges have ever been filed. As of 2023, the case is technically active but has seen no public movement in years. Episode Key Points - Two spent handgun casings were found inside Faye's locked car with all windows rolled up, yet no one could definitively establish where the shooter was sitting. - A man who was present in the car when Faye was shot fled on foot, appeared on surveillance without shoes minutes later, and left Charlottesville that same morning without calling police. - The gun used to kill Faye was ballistically linked to multiple other Charlottesville shootings, suggesting it was passed between individuals before and after the murder. - Detectives tried repeatedly to bring charges but prosecutors declined, citing a mystery third-party shooter described by the surviving witness — a man no one has ever identified. Furbia Faye Tinsley, Charlottesville Virginia homicide, Prospect Avenue murder 2012, unsolved cold case Virginia, bingo night shooting, true crime, murder, investigation, forensic science, homicide, criminal minds, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

She Said His Name. The Phone Disappeared. - Episode 103

She Said His Name. The Phone Disappeared.: The Murder of Deanna Cook She called 911 while he was in the room. For nearly seventeen minutes, the operator listened to a woman beg for her life — and heard a man say "I'll kill you" three times. When police finally knocked on her door, they left without going inside. Three days later, her mother found her face down in a bathtub full of water. The phone Deanna used to make that call was never recovered from the scene. In this episode, we explore a 911 call that captured an active homicide in real time but triggered no immediate response, the fifty-minute gap between dispatch and the moment officers knocked and walked away, and DNA evidence from a sexual assault kit that took two separate laboratory tests to produce a usable profile. Was this a system that failed one woman, or a system that was never built to protect her at all? The forensic science and the recorded audio tell a story the city of Dallas spent years trying to avoid. Case Details Victim: Deanna Cook, 32, mother of two, Dallas resident. Date: August 17, 2012. Location: Dallas, Texas, USA. Case Status: Delvecchio was convicted of murder on May 18, 2015, and sentenced to 85 years in prison. A civil lawsuit filed by Deanna's mother against the City of Dallas and others was still in active appeals as of March 2019 with no public resolution confirmed after that date. Episode Key Points - The 911 call ran for eleven to seventeen minutes and captured the sound of a struggle and what investigators described as water splashing, yet the call taker did not log an active assault in her records. - Two responding officers stopped at a 7-Eleven and completed paperwork from a prior call before arriving at Deanna's address — fifty minutes after they were dispatched. - Deanna's sexual assault kit contained DNA from two unidentified males who have never been traced, a gap the defense used to argue the investigation was never completed. - Without the 911 recording, the medical examiner stated the death would have been classified as mysterious rather than homicide — there was no visible bruising consistent with a beating. Deanna Cook, Dallas Texas homicide 2012, domestic violence murder Dallas, 911 call evidence, criminal minds, true detective, homicide, forensic science, investigation, murder, systemic failure, true crime English.

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.