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The Silencing of Sandra Rozzo Jan 26, 2021

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On July 5, 2003, 37-year-old Florida bartender Sandra Rozzo was shot in her own garage before she could even get out of her car. Sandra, known by her friends as Sandee, was a hard worker, a good friend, and a devoted mother to her young daughter. The idea that someone would want her dead was difficult to comprehend.

There was one man with a motive: 36-year-old Tracey Humphrey. Humphrey was an ex-boyfriend charged with felony battery and the sexual assault of Sandee. He was due to go on trial in August of 2003. Sandra planned to testify against him. But Tracey had an ironclad alibi. If he didn’t kill Sandee himself, could he have been the mastermind behind her murder?

Join us at the quiet end for The Silencing of Sandra Rozzo, a murder case with an unlikely pair of co-conspirators. It’s also a case that begs the fascinating question of whether one person can convince an otherwise nonviolent person to kill.

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Read “Kill for Me” by M. William Phelps

Groomed for Murder: Elaine O’Hara Jan 19, 2021

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Elaine O’Hara of South Dublin, Ireland, spent her life looking for love. Because of her extensive history of mental health issues, Elaine spent many of her years in the St. Edmundsbury Hospital, receiving psychiatric treatment for depressive disorder, self-harming behaviors, and three suicide attempts. As a result, she missed the usual social milestones of dances, dating, and boyfriends. In her thirties, she began to meet men online and became involved in masochistic behavior.

Elaine was exceedingly vulnerable to online predators. One of these predators was Graham Dwyer, a married architect with a secret desire not only to bind and hurt women, but to kill them. In August of 2012, Elaine disappeared. Police assumed she had committed suicide by jumping off nearby cliffs. But disturbing texts found on recovered cell phones later revealed that Elaine had been involved with a dangerous man.

Join us at the quiet end for Groomed for Murder. Elaine O’Hara wanted to find a man to love her and have a family of her own, but instead she was tragically lured to her own murder by a cruel, sick man who was living a secret double life.

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Read “Almost the Perfect Murder” by Paul Williams

Seized & Scorched: Kim Antonakos Jan 12, 2021

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After a night out clubbing with a friend in New York City, the beautiful and kind 20-year-old Kim Antonakos disappeared. Kim was on her way home in the early morning hours when she was abducted. Her father, wealthy businessman Tommy Antonakos, immediately began a widespread and organized search for his daughter. What he didn’t know was that Kim’s abductors were supposed friends of Kim. Right under Tommy’s nose, these cold-blooded men pretended to care about her and to participate in his search for Kim.

Join us at the quiet end for Seized and Scorched. Everything about Kim’s abduction showed unbridled cruelty and extraordinary incompetence. When plans to hold Kim hostage for money didn’t go according to plan, Kim’s abductors panicked and took Kim’s life. But not only was her young life stolen from her and those who loved her, Kim died an agonizing and slow death, leaving her unrecognizable. Before the investigation was completed, another murder would occur, revealing that the callousness of at least one of her killers ran deeper than even imagined.

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The Piketon Massacre Dec 30, 2020

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In the early morning of April 22, 2016, relatives of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio, began to discover family members brutally killed in their own homes. In all, eight members of the Rhoden family were murdered, including one minor, 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden, Jr.

The victims had been shot to death. Three young children, including a newborn infant, were left alive. Investigators determined early on that the killings were planned and carried out by at least two perpetrators who knew the family well, but it took over two years to make arrests.

This crime investigation is the most extensive in the history of the state of Ohio. Evidence of cock-fighting and marijuana growth operations were found at some of the crime scenes, but the motive may have been something as simple as a child-custody dispute.

Join us at the quiet end for The Piketon Massacre. Due to the methodical nature of these killings and the lack of forensic evidence at the scenes, these murders have been described as a premeditated and sophisticated operation. Four people have been arrested and the death penalty is on the table.

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The Cards He Was Dealt: The Murder of Barry Crane Dec 29, 2020

Show notes

This episode was suggested to us by Jeane, a long-time listener. In fact, Jeane was so enthusiastic about this case that she volunteered to write the script, and we took her up on that. Jeane was a federal prosecutor in the San Francisco Bay area for 27 years, focusing primarily on white-collar crimes, before she retired in 2018. She looks forward to the U.S. Department of Justice becoming a nonpartisan institution once again and cherishes the career attorneys who stuck it out.

So, thank you for all your research and hard work, Jeane. This is a fascinating case you brought to our attention and we’re excited to share it with our listeners at the quiet end.

That said, please join us at the quiet end for The Cards He Was Dealt, the story of the life and death of Barry Crane.

Sources:

Historicdetroit.org

Ancestry.com

The Bulletin January/February 1953

St Louis Post-Dispatch

New York Film Academy

Reno Gazette-Journal

Alberni Valley Times

Fliphtml5.com

Wbchampbulletin.org

NYTimes.com

Akron Beacon Journal

Judy.bridgeblogging.com

Morganton.com

California v. Greenwood

ABCnews.go.com

Fox2detroit.com

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Diehard: An Untrue Crime Christmas Movie Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

Something different today! We’re talking about untrue crimes which occurred in a high rise LA office building in 1988. At the center of these events was a detective from New York named John McClane. He and his wife Holly were separated at the time over issues including her blossoming career with the Nakatomi Corporation in Los Angeles, but John visited her for the holidays and soon found himself at the center of a complex and violent robbery plot. The events that follow are quite shocking and show failures by the LAPD to rescue hostages or arrest the perpetrators. In fact, if not for a beat cop named Al, John McClane would have been completely on his own.

Join us at the quiet end for Diehard, the story of two good cops who prevailed over evil on Christmas Eve 1988.

Happy Holidays to all!

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The Teacup Poisoner: Graham Young Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

Most of us have some compulsions or obsessions. But what if your compulsion was to poison people? Then you would be well on your way to becoming a killer. As a child, Graham Young began experimenting with poisons. By the age of 14, he was using his family as subjects. His father, step-mother, and sister suffered from episodes of excruciating stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then, while Graham was still a teenager, his stepmother died from one of his poisoning experiments.

Graham would ultimately confess to the murder of his stepmother and the attempted murder of other family members. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for several years until he was determined to be rehabilitated. What his doctors didn’t know was that Graham had spent much of his time in the hospital reading medical texts to improve his knowledge of various poisons. He had honed his skills to include extracting poisons from plants on the hospital grounds. His step-mother’s murder was just the beginning of his career as a deviant killer.

Join us at the quiet end for The Teacup Poisoner. Graham Young’s crimes were reprehensible, causing prolonged and miserable deaths for his victims. But Graham was nothing if not detail-oriented. A diary would be discovered in his home, noting dosages and the effects of each poison.

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Bedroom Betrayal: The Case of Leann Fletcher Dec 08, 2020

Show notes

In 1999, Leann and Michael Fletcher were just beginning to grow their family as Michael was busy building his career as an attorney. That August, the couple left their daughter, Hannah, with Leann’s parents. Michael took Leann to the shooting range to teach her how to shoot a gun. Afterwards, taking advantage of the free baby-sitting, they returned home and had afternoon sex. What happened next would destroy both of their families.

In the aftermath of an unexpected and shocking death, problems in the Fletcher marriage were exposed. Leann had recently learned that she was pregnant, reuniting with Michael after a lengthy separation. She had high hopes for the future. Michael had been a doting husband for the past several months, but his loving gestures raised some eyebrows, especially those of Leann’s mother.

Join us at the quiet end for Bedroom Betrayal. Was Michael Fletcher a loving father looking forward to the birth of a second child, or was he an unfaithful, lying, cold-blooded man with a long-planned scheme to get away with murder?

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The Murder of Angie Dodge Dec 01, 2020

Show notes

18-year old Angie Dodge had just moved into her first apartment in 1996 when her life was suddenly and violently snuffed out. In 1998, a young man named Christopher Tapp was convicted of Angie’s murder. The prosecution’s case relied on Christopher’s confession. The defense argued that the confession was coerced and that the state was ignoring DNA evidence from an unknown suspect. Angie’s heartbroken mother, Carol Dodge, was left to wonder about the suspect still at large.

After years of seeking the truth, Carol Dodge watched Christopher’s confession tapes. Appalled by the interrogations, she reached out to an expert in false confessions, who in turn contacted the Innocence Project. But it would take several more years and the work of experts in DNA genealogy to find Angie’s real killer and exonerate Christopher Tapp.

The use of genealogical familial searching and its success in this and other cases has exciting implications for future criminal investigations. The public has shown approval for the technique overall; however, there are privacy concerns over the use of private genetic data to implicate a person or his/her relatives in a crime.

Join us at the quiet end for The Murder of Angie Dodge. By putting together a DNA profile and identifying relatives in the suspect’s family tree, genealogist CeCe Moore and a DNA consulting firm called Parabon were able to find Angie’s killer. Carol Dodge has been crucial in the exoneration of her daughter’s convicted killer, casting a bright light on the failings of our criminal justice system. If not for her determination, Christopher Tapp would still be an innocent man in prison as Angie’s real killer walked free.

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The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

Jennifer Farber Dulos was a woman to be envied. Educated and attractive, she came from a wealthy New York City family, lived in beautiful Connecticut mansions, married a handsome, educated man, and had five healthy children.

After 13 years of marriage to her Greek-American husband, Fotis Dulos, he became aggressive and unfaithful. He told Jennifer that he had fallen out of love with her, but he didn’t want to move out of the family home. Instead, he wanted to move his new lover and her daughter in with them. Not surprisingly, Jennifer was not on board with this plan. She moved out under the cover of the night, taking the children with her.

Join us at the quiet end as we discuss the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos. When Jennifer vanished, she and Fotis were still deeply entrenched in a lengthy and intense divorce battle. As Jennifer tried to move forward and focus on her children, Fotis was realizing that he could lose custody of his children and go bankrupt. Although he denied having any involvement in his estranged wife’s disappearance, a trail of evidence revealed dark and sinister secrets.

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