December 2001. The tiny town of Early, Iowa. Police respond to a 911 call from an eleven year old boy who said his mom, Tracey Richter Pitman Roberts, had just been attacked by two intruders while her husband was out of town on business. They had choked her unconscious, and when she came to she managed to get to her gun safe and take one of them down while the other fled out the back door. At first glance, it looked like an amazing "hero mom" story, and Tracey became a local hero. But when police started looking into the identity of the dead intruder, this clear-cut narrative started to seem a lot fuzzier. The dead man was 19 year old Dustin Wehde, a local special-needs kid (and family friend of Tracey and her husband) who didn't seem to have a violent bone in his body. And when police got a look inside a pink notebook they found in Dustin's car, the story got even weirder.

Join us for part 1 of this twisting tale about one of the most intelligent and devious killers you'll ever encounter.

Sources:

Book: Beautifully Cruel by M. William Phelps
Investigation Discovery's "Pandora's Box," Season 1, "A Murder, She Wrote"
https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/tracey-richter-wrote-to-wis-sex-offender-in-attempt-to/article_90c1d272-5258-5b01-9e77-d7ad9b85ff19.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hero-claim-rejected-iowa-mom-guilty-of-murder/

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