Forensic Transmissions

Forensic Transmissions

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Forensic Transmissions episodes

  • Episode 84: Stacey Castor Trial Testimony
    This episode contains audio from the 2009 trial of Stacey Castor, 41, for the murder of her husband David, 48, in Onondaga County, New York State. In the face of cross examination by prosecutor Bill Fitzpatrick, Mrs. Castor remains calm and collected on the stand, and her testimony is meticulous in its detail–both of which may have counted against her in the minds of the jury.
    Mrs. Castor claims that David, her second husband, had been despondent over health and business worries, and after a long and heated argument, he locked himself in the marital bedroom, drank whiskey for hours, then killed himself by drinking automotive antifreeze, which has no smell and a sweet taste, allowing it to be mixed undetected into beverages like coffee or iced tea.
    Mrs. Castor’s first husband, Michael Wallace, died in 2000, also under suspicious circumstances. Police investigators, who smelt a rat, spent two years collecting evidence against her. In 2007, when the widow realized the net was closing in, she panicked, and wrote a “suicide note” on her computer in which her daughter Ashley “confesses” to poisoning both her father and stepfather. Mrs. Castor then invited Ashley, 20, to “get drunk” with her, and over the course of the evening, attempted to poison her daughter with crushed pills mixed with vodka, orange juice, and Sprite.
    The jury found Stacey Castor guilty of the second-degree murder of David, and guilty of the attempted second-degree murder of Ashley. In June 2016, Castor was found dead of a heart attack in her prison cell.
    Listen to the episode here.
    1 hr 46 min
  • Episode 83: Chris Watts FBI Interview

    In the early morning of August 13, 2018, Christopher Lee Watts, 33, murdered his pregnant wife Shanann Watts, 34, and their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in their home in Frederick, Colorado. Christopher and Shannann Watts had been married for six years and lived in a five-bedroom home in Frederick, Colorado, purchased in 2013.  […]

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  • Episode 83: Chris Watts FBI Interview
    In the early morning of August 13, 2018, Christopher Lee Watts, 33, murdered his pregnant wife Shanann Watts, 34, and their daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in their home in Frederick, Colorado. Christopher and Shannann Watts had been married for six years and lived in a five-bedroom home in Frederick, Colorado, purchased in 2013.  […]
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  • Episode 82: Dr. Conrad Murray Trial Testimony

    This episode contains the testimony of Nicole Alvarez at the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, in September 2011. Prosecutors allege that, during Michael Jackson’s final hours of life, Murray was preoccupied by phone conversations with his four girlfriends. In addition to Alvarez, Sade Anding, Michelle Bella and Bridgette Morgan also testified […]

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  • Episode 82: Dr. Conrad Murray Trial Testimony
    This episode contains the testimony of Nicole Alvarez at the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, in September 2011. Prosecutors allege that, during Michael Jackson’s final hours of life, Murray was preoccupied by phone conversations with his four girlfriends. In addition to Alvarez, Sade Anding, Michelle Bella and Bridgette Morgan also testified […]
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  • Episode 81: Denise Williams Love Triangle Part 2

    This episode contains testimony from days 2 and 3 of the Denise Williams trial at the Leon County Courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. This tight-knit group of Florida couples–all former high school buddies–were entangled together in a complex web of sex and secrets.

    First up is Nick Williams, Mike’s brother, who talks about the emotional toll the case has taken on the family. He’s followed by his mother, Cheryl Williams, who’s wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, her gray hair in pigtails. She talks about the eighteen-year search for her missing son, and her quest to keep his case in the news.
    Realtor Angela Stafford describes how she went back with Brian Winchester to his house one night, although both were married with children. She says that while she and Brian were having sex, Denise Williams walked into the room, then turned and fled. Brian, pulling on his pants, abandoned Angela and ran after her. Later, he told Angela that the women who interrupted them was his wife, Kathy, but Ms. Stafford testifies that she got a clear look at Denise, and didn’t believe him.
    Finally, Brian Winchester’s ex-wife Kathy Thomas takes the stand. She says that she always suspected her husband and Denise Williams were having an affair. She says Brian was a selfish husband who often made her feel excluded. Early in 2018, Ms. Thomas became an informant for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and recorded several calls with Denise Williams. During one of those calls, played for the jury, Kathy refers to her current husband, Rocky. “He’s good and honest,” she tells Denise. “He’s not like us.”

    Listen to the episode here.

     

     

     

    2 hr 19 min
  • Episode 81: Denise Williams Love Triangle Part 2
    This episode contains testimony from days 2 and 3 of the Denise Williams trial at the Leon County Courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. This tight-knit group of Florida couples–all former high school buddies–were entangled together in a complex web of sex and secrets.
    First up is Nick Williams, Mike’s brother, who talks about the emotional toll the case has taken on the family. He’s followed by his mother, Cheryl Williams, who’s wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, her gray hair in pigtails. She talks about the eighteen-year search for her missing son, and her quest to keep his case in the news.
    Realtor Angela Stafford describes how she went back with Brian Winchester to his house one night, although both were married with children. She says that while she and Brian were having sex, Denise Williams walked into the room, then turned and fled. Brian, pulling on his pants, abandoned Angela and ran after her. Later, he told Angela that the women who interrupted them was his wife, Kathy, but Ms. Stafford testifies that she got a clear look at Denise, and didn’t believe him.
    Finally, Brian Winchester’s ex-wife Kathy Thomas takes the stand. She says that she always suspected her husband and Denise Williams were having an affair. She says Brian was a selfish husband who often made her feel excluded. Early in 2018, Ms. Thomas became an informant for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and recorded several calls with Denise Williams. During one of those calls, played for the jury, Kathy refers to her current husband, Rocky. “He’s good and honest,” she tells Denise. “He’s not like us.”
    Listen to the episode here.
     
     
     
    2 hr 19 min
  • Episode 80: Denise Williams Love Triangle Trial Testimony

    On December 16, 2000, hard-working property appraiser Michael Williams, 31, left his home in Tallahassee, Florida, to go duck hunting. He never returned. Investigators concluded he’d drowned in Lake Seminole, and his body had been eaten by alligators. His widow, accountant Denise Williams, who had avoided media attention during the search for her husband, eventually […]

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  • Episode 78: Todd Courser Audiotape
    In this audio recording, secretly taped by his aide Ben Graham on May 19 2015, Republican senator Todd Courser is a desperate man, rapidly drowning but still fighting for air. Courser admits he’s been having an extramarital affair with Republican senator Cindy Gamrat (at the time, both politicians were married with children). The affair has […]
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  • Episode 79: Sandra Melgar Police Interview

    On December 23, 2012, family members arrived at the home of Sandra and Jaime Melgar’s home, in Houston, Texas, to celebrate the couple’s 32nd wedding anniversary. They expected to find the couple preparing for dinner; instead, they found Jaime, 52, in a bedroom closet, dead from 31 stab wounds, and Sandra, 57, tied up in the bathroom. The police were summoned, and Sandra was interviewed at the Harris County Sheriff’s department at 9.45pm the same evening.

    Earlier that evening, Sandra, a Jehovah’s Witness who owned a medical billing and coding business, tells police officers that she and Jaime, a computer programmer, had taken a long soak together in the Jacuzzi, drinking wine and eating strawberries. Jaime had got out of the tub, left the room, and hadn’t come back. When she went to look for him, Sandra ways, she believes she was hit over the head, as she had a seizure and passed out. She believes that she and Jaime were victims of a home invasion.

    But as the police point out, nothing was taken from the house, and the couple’s dogs did not deter the attacker. During Sandra Melgar’s trial, the prosecutor argued that her motive was financial: Jamie had a $250,000 life insurance policy, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to divorce unless the spouse has committed adultery. The prosecutor made the case that Sandra stabbed her husband to death with a kitchen knife and then tied herself up.

    Yet it would be very difficult to murder someone then tie yourself up so tightly that two separate people are unable to release you. In the interview, Sandra Melgar seems exhausted, but doesn’t seem to be prevaricating. She maintains eye contact with the detectives, and although she appears shaken, but not melodramatic. There are long pauses; sometimes she even sits in silence for a while.

    Sandra Melgar was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

    Listen to the episode here.

    2 hr 18 min

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