Journalist /podcast host Javier Leiva (Pretend Radio and Criminal Conduct) worked alongside future murderer Vester Lee Flanagan II (aka Bryce Williams) at CBS affiliate WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia. They lost contact, but Javier vividly remembers the morning Vester opened fire on two colleagues (Alison Parker and Adam Ward) on live television, August 26, 2015. This explicit, public tragedy even caught the attention of President Obama. Javier looks back on the hours spent with Vester and wonders what could have prevented the ambush, what signs were missed, and how this tragedy reinforced Javier's awareness that life is fragile.

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A grisly vehicular homicide on a very hilly, rural Ohio road changed the trajectory of our next guest's life forever. Tammy Ward describes the depth and breadth of her loss when her sister Cindy perished along with four of her high school friends after being broadsided by an airborne vehicle. The irony is that that same road, Roller Coaster Road, guaranteed joy decades earlier when the family would climb and descend the same terrain on their Sunday drives. The haunting aftermath motivated Tammy to author a book named after the highway that altered the lives of people inside and outside the crushed vehicle.

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Ned Barnett's life began to unravel in September of 1999 when he lost his son to a vehicular fatality. The family imploded. Seven years later, his wife revealed the depth of her grief by placing a gun to her chest and pulling the trigger. Ned found her shortly afterward. But it was about to get worse. When the sheriff arrived he charged Ned with homicide. Since they had recently relocated to the tiny town to escape the sad memories of their son's death, they had no friends or family in the vicinity.
He faced the longest night of his life alone, wondering if he would also lose his freedom on top of everything else. Follow this inspirational story as Ned explains how an ordinary life became haunting and what he did to find his footing again.

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Lynette Duncan will not, cannot, forget the moment she was ripped out of a sound sleep (and her typical adolescence) by the terrifying sound of gunfire at 4 a.m. downstairs. Two serial killers had followed her father home after closing his business for the night, intent on robbing him. She ran toward the sound, only to witness the murder of her older sister too. Her father lay motionless on their front steps. Her mother was seriously wounded but somehow crawled into the kitchen to dial 911 on the wall phone. Shards of brick from the assault littered the inside and the outside of the house. As her mother slowly recovered in the hospital, this teenager was now the de-facto head of the house. Come along as she recounts that fateful night and feel her determination to keep the surviving murderer behind bars "until he dies or I do."

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There is a room in a home in Pennsylvania where purple dinosaur Barney stuffed animals wait silently for a little girl who will never come. The collection is in memory of the petite toddler who loved Barney, loved life and was loved in return by her mother, aunt, grandparents, and others. But on the evening of March 12, 1994, tiny Lisa Marie McGhee was brutally murdered by her mother's live-in boyfriend, William Everhart who towered over her at 6'6" tall with a temper to match. No amount of time, explanation, tears or sharing of memories will bring peace to the grieving family. Lisa should have been age 26 at the time I spoke with her aunt, cousin and younger sister (whom she never met). Lisa's family reiterates the dreadful events that led to her death and the unspeakable loss that followed. They explain the actions their extended family took to heal and honor their smallest relative whose life was taken before she even started school. Lisa will remain an innocent 2 1/2-year-old, with an infectious smile, sprout of straight blond hair, and love of purple dinosaurs.

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When Professor Bill Jenkins's teenage son was murdered at work in 1997, resources to help homicide survivors after receiving the death notification were sorely missing. In this segment of Bill Jenkins's two-part interview, we hear how he negotiated those first tough weeks and took the scattered notes and printouts to create the backbone of a unique book that eventually won awards "What To Do When The Police Leave." He also provides a compassionate and useful explanation of how trauma impacts homicide survivors biologically and the implications for reconstructing one's life.

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When Speech and Set Design Professor Bill Jenkins' 16-year-old son was murdered his second day of employment in 1997, it forcibly directed our guest on a different path. Since then Bill Jenkins has worked tirelessly on behalf of homicide survivors. In this first segment of a two-part interview, he introduces us to his wonderful son that was senselessly taken from him and the world, then addresses the issue of victims' rights and Marsy's Law. He also speaks about the marginalized victims of murder - those who were related to the murderer.

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First. Where did the idea for the show originate? What makes the host an expert on coping with homicide's aftermath? What sets the show apart from true crime podcasts? What can listeners gain? These and other questions will be answered in this episode. (For more info on my backstory, read excerpts of my manuscript on the Facebook page: "A Life Divided: A psychologist's memoir about the double life, deception, and murder of her husband - and her road to recovery.") Life taught me most from what I did not see.

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