19 GIU 2024 · Homicide survivors are usually forced to make irreversible funeral and burial arrangements in haste without much sleep, information, or money set aside for this expense.   This episode will address important "inside" information on funerals, burials, and cremation from a death care professional, Heather Leigh - General Manager of Greenhaven Memorial Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina.  But she brings even more expertise from her background as an academic where she taught a course on death and dying for the Child and Family Studies program at Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina.  This helps us plan ahead. Information is power.

5 GIU 2024 · Most crime victims know they have the right to give a victim impact statement (VIS) before sentencing and at parole board hearings. But most people do not realize that judges seldom use our input.  That's because we don't stick to our task: giving a rationale for our sentence recommendation. It's a relatively recent privilege to have our say in court.  It took federal legislation to make it a reality (the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982).  Not everyone is on board.  The ACLU has consistently opposed this right.  They believe it undermines due process. This episode provides a quick overview of the dos and don't behind giving a victim impact statement.

22 MAG 2024 · The extended family of Barbara With endured two independent homicides just a few years apart.  Both killers were known to their targets.  Both victims were single parents of young children. Both of their attackers were convicted. In this discussion, we discuss the impact of these murders on our guest Barbara With and her family.  But, we  also learn more about her background as an intuitive, creative performer and writer.

8 MAG 2024 · Jeanne Dotts Brykalski lost her parents to murder in a quiet neighborhood in East Tennessee when they interrupted a burglary in progress by three assailants in their own home.  Jeanne is a veteran of the homicide survivor experience.  She's been through the death notification, funerals, trial and faced the parole board before.  She's served as a victim advocate for others.  Jeanne has insights only an experienced "insider" could have. This is the second time we've heard from Jeanne.  We first met her November 10, 2021, when she detailed the deaths of her parents, Les and Carol, and the comfort her parents' dog provided to her immediately following the tragic news. In this episode, we will glean what it's like to go before a parole board.  And just as important, Jeanne invites you to get involved by signing the petition to keep David Scarbrough behind bars.  (You need not be a resident of Tennessee or be personally involved with the situation.)  The petition will need to be signed before December 1, 2024. Please go to:                   https://www.change.org/JusticefortheDotts-122024,                  or click on the link in the corresponding Facebook Page for this podcast and episode.

23 APR 2024 · Lynette Duncan was just a happy teenager living life in southern California when the unimaginable came to her family's door at 4:00 a.m.  Two serial murderers took the lives of her father and sister and seriously wounded her mother.  She became the de-facto head of the household.  She is still fighting parole for the one convict who remains.

10 APR 2024 · ..Reporter, author and executive producer Aphrodite Jones speaks about her career reporting true crime - the good, the bad and the ugly.

27 MAR 2024 · Megan Conner has known her older cousin, Lori Vallow Daybell, all her life.  They grew up within their tightly-knit, extended family in the context of the Mormon faith.  Megan eloquently explains the roots of the triple murders which her cousin was found guilty of.  This included the murder of Meegan's niece and nephew, Tylee Ryan, and Joshua "JJ" Jaxon Vallow at the hands of her cousin ("filicide").  The third conviction was for the homicide of Lori's last husband's wife, Tammy.  Lori was sentenced to three consecutive life terms. (Lori faces two additional counts of conspiracy to commit murder related to the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and conspiring to kill her niece’s ex-husband Brandon Boudreaux.) Lori's children went missing in 2019 which set off a national manhunt for their whereabouts.  Lori was nick-named "Doomsday Mom" in the popular press due to her religious beliefs solidified in the Netflix documentary series "Sins of Our Mother." Today Megan speaks out in the hope that people will look upon the tragedy in her family as a cautionary tale.  She urges others to speak the truth, heed warning signs and get outside help earlier rather than later.

13 MAR 2024 · The wind was never at the back of Delicia Niami.  She started life in a tough area of East L.A. by a devoted single mom when she (and her brother) were kidnapped by her estranged father and whisked off to Baghdad. She was only four.  With little understanding of the culture and why she was taken, she endured rejection and poverty. Just as abruptly, Delicia was returned a year later.  Without a command of English, she wondered if she would be accepted. She was. Life went on.  But tragedy struck again at age 30 when her mother was murdered in a home invasion by a stranger.  It took years for Delicia to find her footing and she bravely shares her journey with us.

28 FEB 2024 · Murders of adults usually leave behind sons and daughters who must somehow move on with their lives. They are the forgotten victims of homicide - even by their relatives. It is rare for a child to get the mental health help they need and deserve following the loss of one or both parents to murder. Even worse, they are sometimes used by prosecutors at witnesses. This episode looks at a cross-section of eight people who lost one or both parents to homicide and the impact it had on them.

14 FEB 2024 · Sharon McConnell-Dickerson, equipped only with her phone, was able to set in motion a series of events that led to the capture and conviction of a serial murderer in Panama. Who knows how many lives she saved?