Dig

By Louisville Public MediaSociety & Culture Documentary News True Crime

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February 24 New from KUOW: Adults in the Room
We're still following the Stoner case, and we'll bring you an update when we have one. In the meantime, check out this new investigative podcast from KUOW:
Seattle, 1999. At Garfield High School, Mr. Hudson is a legend. With a thundering voice and imposing stature, Mr. Hudson — or “Tom” as select students call him — teaches biology and leads an elite outdoors program. But when teen reporters at the school paper start exploring a rumor that he sexually abused students, all hell breaks loose. Adults close ranks, and schoolmates turn on the young journalists. And then one day, a voice on the school intercom announces that Mr. Hudson is dead.
Isolde Raftery is one of the students who first hears about and reports allegations against Mr. Hudson. Three decades later, she is an investigative journalist in Seattle. In Adults in the Room, Raftery re-reports the story to understand what really happened in 1999. Was a whole school community groomed by a charismatic predator? Or was she part of a whisper campaign that cost the life of a great teacher?
3 min
November 11, 2025 The Girls, Part 4: ‘This is my story to tell’
Alleged victims of the Stoners find each other online and band together to demand justice. But they find themselves running up against police and prosecutors who want them to stay quiet. Hearing stories like this one can bring up painful feelings and memories, especially if you're a trauma survivor yourself. If you need to talk, you can reach the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE, or visit RAINN.org and click get help now for free, 24/7 support. If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988.Learn more about preventing sexual misconduct and abuse by K-12 school employees (PDF)If you have information about this case, or you think there’s something we should know that we haven’t reported here, please contact Jess Clark at [email protected] or 502-814-6541.Our work is community funded. To help us keep digging, visit kydig.org and click donate.
56 min
November 11, 2025 The Girls, Part 3: ‘If it was your daughter’
17-year-old Aryalle Stoner runs away from home and tells the police that her father, Ronnie Stoner, has been sexually abusing her for years. The cursory investigation that follows is representative of a larger issue with child sex abuse investigations in Louisville.

Hearing stories like this one can bring up painful feelings and memories, especially if you're a trauma survivor yourself. If you need to talk, you can reach the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE, or visit RAINN.org and click get help now for free, 24/7 support. If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988.

Learn more about preventing sexual misconduct and abuse by K-12 school employees (PDF)

If you have information about this case, or you think there’s something we should know that we haven’t reported here, please contact Jess Clark at [email protected] or 502-814-6541.

Our work is community funded. To help us keep digging, visit kydig.org and click donate.
48 min
November 11, 2025 The Girls, Part 2: ‘This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?’
Over the years, two girls and one young woman report Ronnie Stoner for sexual misconduct and rape in a public middle school and high school. But Child Protective Services declines to investigate, and the school district, Jefferson County Public Schools, continues to promote him.

Hearing stories like this one can bring up painful feelings and memories, especially if you're a trauma survivor yourself. If you need to talk, you can reach the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE, or visit RAINN.org and click get help now for free, 24/7 support. If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988.

Learn more about preventing sexual misconduct and abuse by K-12 school employees (PDF)

If you have information about this case, or you think there’s something we should know that we haven’t reported here, please contact Jess Clark at [email protected] or 502-814-6541.

Our work is community funded. To help us keep digging, visit kydig.org and click donate.
43 min
November 11, 2025 The Girls, Part 1: 'I need to tell you something'
In 2023, 17-year-old Abbie Jones and her family accuse her high school football coach, Donnie Stoner, of child sex abuse. Another Louisville woman, Alexis Crook, says she was abused by Donnie too, and his twin brother Ronnie, when they were coaches at her private Christian school almost 20 years earlier.

Hearing stories like this one can bring up painful feelings and memories, especially if you're a trauma survivor yourself. If you need to talk, you can reach the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE, or visit RAINN.org and click get help now for free, 24/7 support. If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988.

Learn more about preventing sexual misconduct and abuse by K-12 school employees (PDF)

If you have information about this case, or you think there’s something we should know that we haven’t reported here, please contact Jess Clark at [email protected] or 502-814-6541.

Our work is community funded. To help us keep digging, visit kydig.org and click donate.
36 min
November 03, 2025 Introducing Dig Season 3: The Girls
They were trusted educators and respected coaches. But in the summer of 2025, twin brothers Ronnie and Donnie Stoner were indicted on more than 50 charges related to child sex abuse allegations. A group of young women say the abuse stretched back nearly two decades. So what took so long? This is the story of those women who say they survived the abuse, took matters into their own hands and are still fighting for the girls they used to be.
3 min
August 06, 2024 Bonus: Back to school with no bus
Hey Dig listeners. It’s been a while, we know. But we’ve been working on some new stories and will be adding them here when they’re ready.
Up first, our reporter Jess Clark has been following the Jefferson County Public Schools system for a while — and when the school district’s board of education voted earlier this year to cut bus service for dozens of magnet schools, Jess started talking to families.
She wanted to know how this huge decision would affect them — would they have to change schools — would they miss out on opportunities?
13 min
September 14, 2023 Bonus: Dirty Business
In July 2022, floods killed 45 people and caused more than a billion dollars of damage in eastern Kentucky. Then, the people who were supposed to help clean up actually made things worse for a lot of survivors. There’s big money in disaster recovery. In “Dirty Business,” we investigate the expensive, messy work of cleaning up after 2022’s catastrophic flooding.
56 min
October 18, 2021 The Model City, Part 6: 'Who's Gonna Be Next?'
So much has changed since Louisville first proclaimed itself a model city for policing reform: the police chief was fired. The city was upended by protests and grief over Breonna Taylor, and David McAtee. But some things are the same: The anger. The frustration. The disconnect between the police and the community.

In our season finale, city leadership makes a very familiar set of promises. Could 21st Century Policing work this time? Is it too late?
27 min
October 18, 2021 The Model City, Part 5: Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor
“Early this morning, we had a critical incident involving one of our officers who was shot and another person at the scene who was killed.”

When LMPD Chief Steve Conrad first described what happened in Breonna Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020, he did not mention her by name. But the city would soon learn it — then the country, and then the world. What came next demonstrated how far LMPD had fallen from its ideals.

Crowd control tactics in 21st Century Policing call for de-escalation — but in the wake of a particularly violent first night of protests in Louisville, LMPD officers settled into a routine of riot gear, tear gas and arresting protesters en masse.
34 min

About Dig

From the publisher's feed

Each season on "Dig," from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, we expose the systems that allow injustice to fester, and shine a light on the people fighting for solutions.