Forensic Transmissions

On December 16, 2000, hard-working property appraiser Michael Williams, 31, left his home in Tallahassee, Florida, to go duck hunting. He never returned. Investigators concluded he’d drowned in Lake Seminole, and his body had been eaten by alligators. His widow, accountant Denise Williams, who had avoided media attention during the search for her husband, eventually […]

On December 23, 2012, family members arrived at the home of Sandra and Jaime Melgar’s home, in Houston, Texas, to celebrate the couple’s 32nd wedding anniversary. They expected to find the couple preparing for dinner; instead, they found Jaime, 52, in a bedroom closet, dead from 31 stab wounds, and Sandra, 57, tied up in the bathroom. The police were summoned, and Sandra was interviewed at the Harris County Sheriff’s department at 9.45pm the same evening. Earlier that evening, Sandra, a Jehovah’s Witness who owned a medical billing and coding business, tells police officers that she and Jaime, a computer programmer, had taken a long soak together in the Jacuzzi, drinking wine and eating strawberries. Jaime had got out of the tub, left the room, and hadn’t come back. When she went to look for him, Sandra ways, she believes she was hit over the head, as she had a seizure and passed out. She believes that she and Jaime were victims of a home invasion. But as the police point out, nothing was taken from the house, and the couple’s dogs did not deter the attacker. During Sandra Melgar’s trial, the prosecutor argued that her motive was financial: Jamie had a $250,000 life insurance policy, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to divorce unless the spouse has committed adultery. The prosecutor made the case that Sandra stabbed her husband to death with a kitchen knife and then tied herself up. Yet it would be very difficult to murder someone then tie yourself up so tightly that two separate people are unable to release you. In the interview, Sandra Melgar seems exhausted, but doesn’t seem to be prevaricating. She maintains eye contact with the detectives, and although she appears shaken, but not melodramatic. There are long pauses; sometimes she even sits in silence for a while. Sandra Melgar was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Listen to the episode here.

In this audio recording, secretly taped by his aide Ben Graham on May 19 2015, Republican senator Todd Courser is a desperate man, rapidly drowning but still fighting for air. Courser admits he’s been having an extramarital affair with Republican senator Cindy Gamrat (at the time, both politicians were married with children). The affair has been discovered by an anonymous blackmailer (later revealed to be Gamrat’s husband), and Courser outlines to his dumbfounded aide a harebrained scheme to detract attention from the scandal. He plans to send out a “false flag e-mail” from a fake address alleging that he is a drug user, child molester, “bi-sexual porn addicted sex deviant”, and “gun-toting, Bible-thumping, cock-sucking freak” who has been caught having “male on male paid sex behind a Lansing nightclub”. Courser agrees that the e-mail is “over-the-top”, but tells his doubtful aide that it will “inoculate the herd” because the “real” scandal will be hidden in the ramblings of the anonymous message. Courser is clearly at the end of his tether, but his refusal to resign makes it difficult to sympathize with him: the man’s egotism is obviously about to take him down. And it did. Both Michigan lawmakers resigned after it was revealed they had been cheating on their spouses and then using taxpayer-funded offices and staff to cover it up. Listen to the episode here. Police Report on Extortion Texts House of Michigan Representatives Report on the Courser Gamrat Affair

On the evening of April 14, 2014, Richard Kirk, 48, purchased and consumed an unknown amount of “Karma Kandy Orange Ginger” (marijuana-infused candy), began to hallucinate, became delusional, then turned violent. His wife Kristine called 911 and pleaded for help, telling the operator that her husband was ranting about the end of the world and […]

This episode presents the testimony of Gypsy Blanchard in the trial of her former boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, for the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. In June 2016, Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her own part in the crime, and was given a 10-year sentence. As Gypsy explains, she met Godejohn […]

On Dec 11 1991, William Kennedy Smith was acquitted of rape after a trial in Palm Beach, Florida. Smith was represented by defense attorney Roy Black, who pulled no punches in his questioning of the accuser, Patricia Bowman, and her friend Ann Mercer. The incident began on the evening of March 29, 1991, when Smith, 30 years old, went to the Au Bar in Palm Beach, Florida, with his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, and his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy. Smith met Patricia Bowman, a 29, and her friend Anne Mercer at the bar. The five then went to a nearby house owned by the Kennedy family. When Smith and Bowman went outside for a walk along the beach, Bowman alleged that Smith raped her; Smith testified that they had consensual sex. In the first excerpt, prosecutor Moira Lasch asks Patricia Bowman to describe the alleged rape. Bowman is then cross-examined by Roy Black. The second excerpt is from Black’s  cross-examination of Anne Mercer. In the third clip, Black questions Senator Ted Kennedy. The final clip is Moira Lasch cross-examining William Kennedy Smith. Listen to the episode here.

  Pastor Timothy Omotoso is currently on trial in the High Court in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (though proceedings are on hold until December). Omotoso is a charismatic Nigerian televangelist with a taste for garish jackets who, until his recent arrest, led the popular Jesus Dominion International congregation. Omotoso, 60, along his two co-defendants, Lusanda Sulani‚ 36‚ and Zukiswa Sitho‚ 28‚ is facing a string of charges including rape, racketeering and sexual assault. Testifying here against Omotoso is Cheryl Zondi, 22, who describes how Omotoso began sexually abusing her when she was 14, and a member of his “Grace Galaxy” singing group. Zondi spent a grueling 3 days on the stand facing intensive cross-examination from Omotoso’s defense lawyer, Peter Daubermann. She is asked the kinds of intimate and probing questions that would be considered inappropriate if asked in a U.S. courtroom. For example, Daubermann repeatedly asks Zondi whether Omotoso pushed his penis against her vaginal lips, or whether it actually penetrated her vagina- and, if so, by how many centimeters? Under the circumstances, Miss Zondi is remarkably brave, composed, and articulate. Listen to the episode here.

On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz was riding a New York City Subway when he was confronted by four teenagers who asked him for money. Rather than being robbed and “beaten to a pulp,” Goetz pulled out a gun he was carrying and shot the boys. All four were seriously wounded. After the shooting, Goetz jumped out of the train on to the tracks, ran south through a subway tunnel, and went home to gather some belongings. He then rented a car and drove north to Bennington, Vermont, where he burned his blue jacket and dismantled the revolver, scattering the pieces in the woods north of town. He drove around New England for several days, registering at motels under various names and paying in cash. Nine days later, Goetz returned to New York and turned himself in to the police. During a two-hour interview  Goetz was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses. At the trial which followed, Goetz’s confession was used by the prosecution in the case against him. In his confession, Goetz comes across as confused, angry, defensive, and distraught. He justifies his actions by describing an incident in which he was mugged in the past; he was injured, and the assailant went unpunished. His diatribe against the legal system and the City of New York City is eloquent and passionate, and won him many supporters in court. Goetz calls the justice system a “joke, a sham, and a disgrace.” He says he has no desire to be seen as a hero or a vigilante, but at the same time, he’s unapologetic about his actions, telling police that, “my intention was to murder them, to hurt them, to make them suffer as much as possible… If I had more bullets, I would have shot ’em all again and again. My problem was I ran out of bullets.” Goetz’s defense team described the electronics engineer as a nebbishy weakling who turned on the bullies, refusing to have sand kicked in his face. The strategy worked. The jury found Goetz not guilty of all charges except for one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm, for which he served eight months of a one-year sentence. Listen to the episode here.

On the evening of August 2, 2017, waitress Savannah Gold, 21, failed to show up for her shift at the Bonefish Grill in Jacksonville, Florida. Her unlocked car with a flat tire was found in the restaurant parking lot, her purse untouched inside. Her family received text messages from her phone, saying she had met someone and was running away with him. But the texts sounded uncharacteristic of Savannah, and police began to look closely at chef Lee Rodarte, 28, who had unexplained cuts on his body. When questioned, Rodarte admitted that he had a sexual relationship with Savannah, though he broke it off because she was using drugs heavily, and because his girlfriend discovered the affair. When police pulled the security surveillance video from the parking lot of the shopping center in which the Bonefish Grill is located, they saw an apparent struggle between Rodarte and Gold inside his car the night she disappeared. On the video, Rodarte’s car was seen shaking, and the rear door opening and closing. After a few minutes, Rodarte walked over to Savannah’s car, took an object out of it and put it in his. He then returned to her car and punctured the front left tire of her vehicle. He returned to his vehicle and after a few minutes, he drove away, with Savannah still in the car. After the police finished interrogating Rodarte, who denied any knowledge of Savannah’s whereabouts, they left the room. Once alone, Rodarte was caught on tape sobbing and saying “I’m sorry, Savannah.” Later, he confessed to the murder, and told investigators that he had thrown the waitress’s body in a nearby lake. Despite his confession, Lee Rodarte has pleaded not guilty. His trial will begin in February 2019. Listen to the episode here.

This podcast features audio of a phone call made by Ted Bundy to a prison psychologist. The psychologist describes Bundy as hard to get to know and concluded that he had the capacity to commit serious crimes. Despite their negative evaluation, Bundy seems casual and friendly but evasive and impersonal in the call. The podcast also discusses Bundy's escape attempts, reflections on jail conditions and the desire to escape, challenges faced while on the run, and reflections on committing a crime and navigating the legal system.