Melissa Herstrum: A Campus Killing Revisited

This week on Women & Crime, we’re sharing a case from our sister podcast, Campus Killings, while we take a short holiday break.

In January 1992, 19-year-old Melissa Herstrum was a nursing student at the University of Toledo with her whole life ahead of her. But when her body was discovered in a campus parking lot, the investigation quickly revealed something deeply unsettling,

In this episode, we revisit Melissa’s story and the shocking betrayal at the center of her murder. We look at campus safety, institutional trust, power, authority, and what happens when the person wearing the badge becomes the threat.

Sources note: Core case details verified against contemporary reporting and later parole coverage, including reports that Melissa Herstrum was a 19-year-old University of Toledo nursing student killed in 1992 by University of Toledo police officer Jeffrey Hodge. 

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