A Trial by Podcast

In March 1989, four friends from a small Texas town drove through the fog to South Padre Island for what they joked might be their last spring break together. On their second night, they walked across the bridge into Matamoros , Mexico, where the beer cost a dollar, the music shook the sidewalks, and fifteen thousand college kids drifted down one neon-lit street like a slow river. Near two in the morning, a few hundred feet from the border, one of them stepped away for less than two minutes. When he came back, twenty-one-year-old Mark Kilroy was gone.

For almost a month, no one could say where he went. Then a young smuggler drove straight through a police checkpoint, certain a spell had made him invisible, and led officers down a dirt road to a ranch in the brush.

Behind the corral stood a shed with tar-paper walls and no windows. Inside, candles had melted into puddles on the floor, beside cigar stubs and empty bottles of cane liquor. Outside the door sat iron cauldrons, one of them bristling with stakes. The Mexican officers took one look and refused to go any further until a healer came to cast out whatever had been living there.

Then they started digging. The ground around that ranch held fifteen bodies. Most belonged to people no one with any power had ever been looking for.

This is the story of the ritualistic murder of Mark Kilroy.

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Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On the evening of November 5, 2006, an NBC camera crew sat parked outside a house in Terrell, Texas, waiting for a SWAT team to bring out 56-year-old assistant DA Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. He never came out. Moments after officers entered, Conradt shot himself in a hallway and the cameras kept rolling. It was the most honest moment To Catch a Predator ever produced: the instant its premise stopped being television and became something that no one on set knew how to handle.

For three years, To Catch a Predator was one of the most-watched, most-memed, and most ethically contested shows on American television. From 2004 to 2007, the show’s staff worked alongside police and a volunteer group call Perverted Justice to lure adult men to sting houses by impersonating children in online chats and agreeing to sexual acts. But of course, waiting for them inside that house, was not a child, but none other than Chris Hansen himself.

The show pulled in over seven million viewers a week: a 13% lift over Dateline's usual audience. It exposed something real. But the format built to expose it wouldn’t survive its own methods for long.

So why don’t you have a seat right over there while I tell you the story of how a hit TV show designed to catch predators ended up on trial itself.

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Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On May 25, 1996, nineteen-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman Kristin Smart vanished after walking back from an off-campus party with fellow student Paul Flores: the last person ever confirmed to have seen her alive. Despite cadaver dogs alerting to Flores's emptied dorm room within weeks of her disappearance, campus police had already fumbled the early investigation badly, failing to preserve evidence, seal the room, or take the case seriously until it was too late. For the next two decades, Flores remained the prime suspect but walked free, as a series of searches of his parents' properties in Arroyo Grande turned up suspicious but ultimately inconclusive physical evidence, and a string of other women came forward to allege he had drugged and sexually assaulted them using the same methods. It took a true crime podcast (Chris Lambert's "Your Own Backyard," launched in 2019) to reignite public interest, generate new leads, and set in motion the renewed investigation that finally led to Flores's arrest in April 2021, nearly 25 years after Kristin disappeared. To this day, Kristin’s body has never been found. This is the story of the 25 year investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart.

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📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On May 25, 1996, nineteen-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman Kristin Smart vanished after walking back from an off-campus party with fellow student Paul Flores: the last person ever confirmed to have seen her alive. Despite cadaver dogs alerting to Flores's emptied dorm room within weeks of her disappearance, campus police had already fumbled the early investigation badly, failing to preserve evidence, seal the room, or take the case seriously until it was too late. For the next two decades, Flores remained the prime suspect but walked free, as a series of searches of his parents' properties in Arroyo Grande turned up suspicious but ultimately inconclusive physical evidence, and a string of other women came forward to allege he had drugged and sexually assaulted them using the same methods. It took a true crime podcast (Chris Lambert's "Your Own Backyard," launched in 2019) to reignite public interest, generate new leads, and set in motion the renewed investigation that finally led to Flores's arrest in April 2021, nearly 25 years after Kristin disappeared. To this day, Kristin’s body has never been found. This is the story of the 25 year investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart.

🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐

https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

Find us everywhere:

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast

🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558845693491

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast

📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On May 25, 1996, nineteen-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman Kristin Smart vanished after walking back from an off-campus party with fellow student Paul Flores: the last person ever confirmed to have seen her alive. Despite cadaver dogs alerting to Flores's emptied dorm room within weeks of her disappearance, campus police had already fumbled the early investigation badly, failing to preserve evidence, seal the room, or take the case seriously until it was too late. For the next two decades, Flores remained the prime suspect but walked free, as a series of searches of his parents' properties in Arroyo Grande turned up suspicious but ultimately inconclusive physical evidence, and a string of other women came forward to allege he had drugged and sexually assaulted them using the same methods. It took a true crime podcast (Chris Lambert's "Your Own Backyard," launched in 2019) to reignite public interest, generate new leads, and set in motion the renewed investigation that finally led to Flores's arrest in April 2021, nearly 25 years after Kristin disappeared. To this day, Kristin’s body has never been found. This is the story of the 25 year investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart.

🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐

https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

Find us everywhere:

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast

🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558845693491

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast

📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On May 25, 1996, nineteen-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman Kristin Smart vanished after walking back from an off-campus party with fellow student Paul Flores: the last person ever confirmed to have seen her alive. Despite cadaver dogs alerting to Flores's emptied dorm room within weeks of her disappearance, campus police had already fumbled the early investigation badly, failing to preserve evidence, seal the room, or take the case seriously until it was too late. For the next two decades, Flores remained the prime suspect but walked free, as a series of searches of his parents' properties in Arroyo Grande turned up suspicious but ultimately inconclusive physical evidence, and a string of other women came forward to allege he had drugged and sexually assaulted them using the same methods. It took a true crime podcast (Chris Lambert's "Your Own Backyard," launched in 2019) to reignite public interest, generate new leads, and set in motion the renewed investigation that finally led to Flores's arrest in April 2021, nearly 25 years after Kristin disappeared. To this day, Kristin’s body has never been found. This is the story of the 25 year investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart.

🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐

https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

Find us everywhere:

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast

🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558845693491

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast

📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On February 2nd, 2008, twenty-four-year-old real estate agent Lindsay Buziak was murdered inside a vacant home she was showing to a couple posing as prospective buyers. Days earlier, a woman with an unplaceable accent had called her out of the blue, claiming she and her husband urgently needed a million-dollar home and could close within days. Lindsay was uneasy enough to ask her boyfriend, Jason Zailo, to wait nearby during the showing.

Witnesses saw Lindsay take the couple inside the home, but she would not leave it alive. That evening, while Jason waited in his car down the street and while Lindsay’s blackberry butt dialed an old acquaintance, Lindsay was brutally murdered inside the home. Nothing was stolen, there was no sexual assault, and there was almost no forensic evidence left behind. Police believe whoever did this had done it before.

To this day, no arrests have ever been made. This is the unsolved murder of Lindsay Buziak.

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐

https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

Find us everywhere:

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast

🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com

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📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On February 2nd, 2008, twenty-four-year-old real estate agent Lindsay Buziak  was murdered inside a vacant home she was showing to a couple posing as prospective buyers. Days earlier, a woman with an unplaceable accent had called her out of the blue, claiming she and her husband urgently needed a million-dollar home and could close within days. Lindsay was uneasy enough to ask her boyfriend, Jason Zailo, to wait nearby during the showing.

Witnesses saw Lindsay take the couple inside the home, but she would not leave it alive. That evening, while Jason waited in his car down the street and while Lindsay’s blackberry butt dialed an old acquaintance, Lindsay was brutally murdered inside the home. Nothing was stolen, there was no sexual assault, and there was almost no forensic evidence left behind. Police believe whoever did this had done it before.

To this day, no arrests have ever been made. This is the unsolved murder of Lindsay Buziak.

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐

https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

Find us everywhere:

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast

🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558845693491

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast

📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On the morning of February 23, 1861, a train pulled quietly into Washington, D.C., hours ahead of schedule and without the fanfare that should have accompanied the arrival of a president-elect. Abraham Lincoln, dressed not in his customary black suit but in a soft felt hat and an overcoat draped like a shawl across his shoulders, stepped off the car and into the capital unannounced. There was no brass band, no cheering crowd, no ceremony befitting the man about to take the oath of office. There was, instead, a tired detective named Allan Pinkerton, a bodyguard named Ward Hill Lamon, and a woman who had spent the entire night awake in a train berth, watching over a man the world did not yet know was sitting beside her.

That woman was Kate Warne. She was thirty-one years old, a widow, an actress by temperament if not by trade, and, improbably for a country that would not grant women the right to vote for another sixty years, the first female detective in the history of the United States. Warne did not carry a badge that history remembers, and she left behind no diary, no memoir, no photograph with her own handwriting on the back to tell us who she really was. What she left behind, instead, was a single, extraordinary night in which her composure, her intelligence, and her willingness to do a job no one thought a woman could do may have altered the entire course of American history. Had Abraham Lincoln been assassinated in Baltimore in February of 1861, before he ever took the oath of office, there would have been no Emancipation Proclamation, no Gettysburg Address, no Thirteenth Amendment signed under his hand. The Union that fought and won the Civil War as we know it might never have existed in that form at all.

This is the story of how Kate Warne helped history play out the way that it did, and of the largely undocumented life that led her to a moment when the safety of a nation rested, in no small part, on the nerve of one woman traveling under a false name.

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🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

Find us everywhere:

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🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com

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📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast

📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

 In 2007, in the quiet town of Thetford, Vermont, a nurse and a mother of two named Carmen Tarlton was doing what she'd always done, showing up for her daughters, her patients, and her community. She was the kind of person people described as resilience before they ever knew how much resilience she would need. That same year, a man she had once loved, broke into her home and attacked her with industrial lye, leaving her blind, disfigured, and fighting for her life. This is the story of how Carmen and her attacker's relationship curdled into violence, how he took it there, the night that changed everything, and the years that followed, including the pioneering face transplant that gave Carmen not just a new face, but a second chance at a life that she refused to let anyone take away from her This is one of the most brutal stories of domestic violence I've dived into But it's also one of the most incredible stories of resilience I've ever heard.

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Find us everywhere:

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📧 Contact: [email protected]

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief

License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.