The Man Who Shot the Wrong Person and Changed the Law - Episode 107

The Man Who Shot the Wrong Person and Changed the Law - Episode 107

The Man Who Shot the Wrong Person and Changed the Law: The Murder of Edward Drummond A stranger stood outside 10 Downing Street for weeks, watching. Soldiers noticed him. Police questioned him. He told them he was waiting for a gentleman. On January 20, 1843, he finally stopped waiting — and fired a pistol into the back of a man he had never met, a man he was absolutely certain was someone else. The jury heard the evidence, deliberated, and found him not guilty. What happened next rewrote the legal definition of criminal responsibility for two countries. In this episode, we explore how Daniel McNaughton spent over a year reporting a conspiracy against his life to Scottish police — and was dismissed — how a single case of mistaken identity between two men of identical height and routine created a legal precedent still cited in American courtrooms today, and why Queen Victoria personally intervened after the verdict to demand a stricter standard. Was this a calculated act of political violence, or the endpoint of a documented psychotic collapse that no institution chose to stop? The forensic record and the testimony of nine medical experts point in opposite directions. Case Details Victim: Edward Drummond, approximately 43, private secretary to British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. Date: January 20, 1843. Location: Whitehall, London, England, United Kingdom. Case Status: Daniel McNaughton was found not guilty by reason of insanity at the Old Bailey in March 1843 and committed to Bethlehem Royal Hospital for 20 years. No criminal conviction was ever entered. The case directly produced the McNaughton Rule, still the dominant legal insanity standard in approximately half of U.S. states. Episode Key Points - McNaughton had reported his persecutors to the Glasgow police commissioner 18 months before the shooting — the same officer later testified at trial, confirming the delusions were documented and dismissed by authorities. - Drummond and Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel were the same height, maintained identical daily routines through Whitehall, and were routinely mistaken for one another by people who knew them. - McNaughton was carrying a second loaded pistol at the moment of arrest and had additional ammunition in his coat pockets and in his rented room on the same street as the shooting. - Queen Victoria personally pressured the House of Lords after the not-guilty verdict, directly triggering the parliamentary creation of the two-part insanity standard now known as the McNaughton Rule. Edward Drummond, Whitehall London homicide, insanity defense 1843, McNaughton Rule legal history, Old Bailey criminal trial, true crime, murder, forensic science, criminal minds, investigation, homicide, true detective, true crime English.

She Called In Late. She Never Made It Out. - Episode 106

She Called In Late. She Never Made It Out.: The Disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit At 4:10 in the morning, a young news anchor answered her phone, groggy, and promised her producer she'd be at the station in twenty minutes. She never arrived. Outside her apartment, investigators found her shoes, her hair dryer, and a bent car key on the ground — but no Jodi. In nearly thirty years, no one has been charged, and the investigation file is still being resealed every single year. In this episode, we explore a disputed timeline that places Jodi in two locations at the same time on her final night, an unidentified hair collected from the crime scene that police mentioned exactly once and never discussed publicly again, and a sealed GPS warrant that investigators have refiled annually since 2017 targeting vehicles connected to one man. Was Jodi the victim of a calculated abductor who had been watching her for weeks, or did someone close to her know exactly when she would walk out that door? The forensic evidence and the witness accounts do not tell the same story. Case Details Victim: Jodi Huisentruit, 27, morning news anchor at KIMT-TV, Mason City, Iowa. Date: June 27, 1995, approximately 4:00 AM. Location: Key Apartments parking lot, Mason City, Iowa, USA. Case Status: Jodi Huisentruit is officially listed as missing and presumed dead. The case remains unsolved with no charges ever filed. As of 2023, a sealed GPS warrant connected to a named person of interest continues to be refiled annually by investigators. Episode Key Points - Jodi's confirmed phone call from her apartment at 8:24 PM directly conflicts with a person of interest's claim that she visited his home that same evening. - An unidentified hair was recovered from the crime scene and publicly acknowledged by police in February 1996 — it has never been mentioned in any official statement since. - Search dogs brought in the day of the disappearance failed to pick up a scent trail, leading investigators to conclude Jodi was placed directly into a vehicle at the scene. - Beer cans found lined up in the parking lot in the days before Jodi vanished were positioned with a direct sightline into her apartment window — and were never seen again after her disappearance. Jodi Huisentruit, Mason City Iowa abduction, KIMT-TV anchor missing 1995, unsolved disappearance Iowa, Key Apartments crime scene, true crime, homicide, investigation, unsolved mysteries, forensic science, criminal minds, murder, true crime English.

The Text She Sent Before She Disappeared - Episode 105

The Text She Sent Before She Disappeared: The Death of Morgan Patton At 10:25 PM on November 8, 2019, a 24-year-old woman texted her fiancé something strange — a tip about cocaine being smuggled onto a Marine Corps base through pizza deliveries. Eleven minutes later, she sent her last message. Six minutes after that, she was dead, found on the ground beneath a speeding truck she had no known reason to be inside. The forensic science, the witness statements, and the medical records all point in different directions — and nobody has been charged with her murder. In this episode, we explore the autopsy's two blood alcohol readings that cannot both be true, a foreign male DNA profile found under Morgan's fingernails that has never been matched to anyone, and a sworn military statement that directly contradicts the physical injuries documented in hospital records. Was Morgan Patton the victim of a tragic accident driven by a drunk Marine, or was something far more deliberate happening inside that truck? The investigation, the homicide, and the evidence tell three different stories. Case Details Victim: Morgan Patton, 24, former waitress and only child, traveling to visit her fiancé at Camp Lejeune. Date: November 8–9, 2019. Location: Maysville, North Carolina, USA. Case Status: Hunter O'Neill Wells has been indicted on felony death by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and DWI charges; a criminal trial is pending. No foul play charges have been filed. The question of how Morgan came to be in the truck remains officially unanswered. Episode Key Points - Morgan's blood BAC measured 0.13 from an aortic sample collected 59 hours after death, while her vitreous fluid — unaffected by decomposition — measured only 0.02, a discrepancy prosecutors addressed by telling the family to "assume somewhere between the two." - Foreign male DNA from two contributors was recovered from Morgan's fingernail scrapings; the quantity was deemed insufficient for identification and no match has ever been announced. - The Event Data Recorder confirmed the truck was traveling at 86 miles per hour with zero braking detected before leaving the road — a detail the family says raises questions about who, if anyone, was trying to stop the vehicle. - Charlie Cornwall gave a sworn military statement claiming he was wearing a seatbelt, then later asked civilian prosecutors whether he had been wearing one, then told a private investigator he remembered nothing about the crash or the months surrounding it. Morgan Patton, Maysville North Carolina homicide, Camp Lejeune 2019, felony death by vehicle North Carolina, Marine Corps criminal case, true crime, murder, forensic science, investigation, criminal minds, homicide, unsolved mysteries, true crime English.

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.