Forensic Transmissions

FSU law professor Dan Markel was shot and killed in his car outside his home in Tallahassee on July 19, 2014. Markel had been involved in a bitter dispute with his ex-wife Wendi Adelson, also a law professor at FSU, about the custody of their two sons. Suspicion fell on Wendi’s brother Charlie Adelson, a playboy  dentist who had a lot of friends on the shady side of the law. Three of these friends–Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Katie Magbanua, Katie’s ex-boyfriend Sigfredo Garcia, and henchman Luis Rivera–were tried for involvement in the murder. Rivera turned State’s Evidence and confessed to the trio’s role in the crime. Garcia was found guilty of first-degree murder, but Magbanua’s case was declared a mistrial.

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Brooks Poston was a member of the Manson family who testified for the prosecution during the Tate/Labianca murder trial. This recording was made on 3 October 1969, after Manson’s arrest for the Tate/LaBianca murders, when Poston was interviewed by the Inyo County police. As Poston explains, he was a devout follower who believed in Manson’s magic powers. When he was first introduced to Manson, at Dennis Wilson’s Sunset Boulevard home, Charlie walked up to Poston and kissed his feet. Poston, who’d just taken some LSD, was deeply affected by the meeting. For a while, he believed Manson was Jesus Chris, and took his teachings literally.

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On Saturday, January 6, 2007, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, went out on a date for dinner a restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee. On the way home, when they pulled off the road to kiss, they were hijacked, bound and blindfolded by three males, and driven to a rundown rental house.

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When Brooke Skylar Richardson, 18, discovered she was pregnant, she was afraid to tell either her parents, who would have been shocked and disappointed, or her boyfriend Brandon Saylor,

Richardson is charged with aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse for the incident that occurred in May 2017.

Brandon Saylor, Richardson’s boyfriend in the winter and spring of 2017. The 21-year-old said he did not know Richardson was pregnant when they went to prom in May 2017. He only learned about it about on television when the remains were recovered.

In the hours after the birth, well before he or anyone knew there was a birth, she texted Saylor: “Ill tell you all about it later but last night was like the worst ever and I didn’t go to sleep till 5:30 but I feel soooooo much better this morning I’m happy.”

The prosecution also showed a series of text messages between Richardson and her mother just before and after the baby was born, talking about getting birth control and weight loss. The jury was again shown a photo of Richardson working out that the gym on the night after giving birth in which she was tracking her weight loss.

Skylar was found not guilty of aggravated murder and involuntary manslaughter, but will spend three years on probation for “gross abuse of a corpse.” This episode contains excerpts from the trial: Brandon Saylor on direct, and Detective Christopher Wong (cellphone expert) on direct, reading texts between Skylar and her mom, Kim Richardson.

Listen to the episode here.

Pensacola private investigator and former police officer Taylor Wright, 33, was last seen on September 7, 2017. Taylor had been going through a difficult divorce and had taken money that the court had ordered her to pay to her ex-husband, Jeff, who’d been given custody of their young son, Drake. When she went missing, gun-loving Taylor had been living with a woman, P.E. teacher Cassandra Waller, but this couple, too, were at odds.

Investigators learned that Ashley, who was married, had many lovers, including Brandon Beatty, owner of Stix billiard hall, and Audrey Warner, who tended bar there. Her phone and bank records showed that on August 16, 2017, a cashier’s check for $34,000 had been deposited into her account and had since been spent. Taylor’s body was discovered on October 19 buried under concrete and potting soil on a property neighboring Ashley’s aunt’s horse farm in north Escambia County. The jury found Ashley McArthur guilty of first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm. 

This  episode contains excerpts from Jeff Wright on direct, Cassandra Waller on direct and cross, Audrey Warner on direct and cross, and Zachary McArthur on direct.

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In December 2012, Jerrod Murray, 18, a freshman at East Central University, Oklahoma, asked fellow student Generro Sanchez, also 18, for ride to Wal-Mart in exchange for $20. Once inside the vehicle, Murray pulled out a gun and forced Sanchez to drive five miles north of Asher, Murray’s hometown. While driving, Sanchez began begging Murray […]

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