Murder In The Black

In this episode of Murder in the Black, Steph follows the urgent, multi-state search to bring Carlesha home. A witness who called police twice. Detectives who promised her mother they would find her. An ATM transaction, a dealership decal, and a GPS tracker that helped investigators close the distance.

At the center of every development was Carlesha: resisting, paying attention, and making decisions to survive nearly three days in captivity.

As we prepare for our new series, If It Happened Now, this case raises a question: With more cameras and digital evidence available today, how much still depends on someone recognizing a clue—and acting before it’s too late?

Content note: Discussion of kidnapping, violence, and captivity.

CHAPTERS
00:00 A camera captures the abduction
01:24 A promise to Carlesha’s mother
03:19 The attack and the witness who stayed
05:20 Carlesha fights back
07:13 Following the evidence
10:27 The search reaches Maryland
12:20 Identifying Delvin Barnes
13:38 A dealership connection changes the search
15:32 Her family waits for answers
17:56 A tracker reveals a location
18:26 Closing in—and bringing Carlesha home
21:20 The people behind every breakthrough
23:13 When evidence becomes public spectacle
25:12 The guilty plea and sentence
27:37 If it happened now
30:59 Missing Black women, urgency, and unequal attention
31:56 Centering Carlesha’s survival

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For the finale of Murder in the Black: Unsolved Mysteries, Steph examines two cases in which recovering a person’s body did not answer the most important question: What happened to them?

Ricky McCormick was found dead near a Missouri field in June 1999. Inside his pockets were two pages covered in handwritten letters, numbers and symbols. More than a decade later, the FBI publicly released the pages after its own cryptanalysts were unable to decipher them. But members of Ricky’s family questioned whether he could have written the notes at all.

Were the pages connected to Ricky’s death, a private form of shorthand—or simply an unexplained distraction from the investigation?

Sixteen years later, Henry McCabe disappeared after spending an evening with friends in Minnesota. During his final known hours, Henry’s wife received a disturbing voicemail filled with unusual sounds and fragmented speech. His body was eventually recovered from Rush Lake, but the discovery did not explain how he got there or what happened after he was dropped off that night.

The coded pages and unsettling recording have become the most recognizable details in these cases. But neither provides a complete story.

In this episode, Steph separates what is documented from what has been repeated online and returns to the question still facing both families: How did Ricky McCormick and Henry McCabe get from their final known locations to the places where they were found?

Timestamps

00:01 — Ricky McCormick’s mysterious handwritten pages
01:01 — Introducing the Unsolved Mysteries finale
02:29 — Why Ricky’s cause of death remained undetermined
03:27 — Reconstructing Ricky’s final movements
05:48 — Ricky’s family questions whether he wrote the pages
06:16 — Addressing Ricky’s criminal history
07:11 — The Florida trip and concerns that Ricky was afraid
08:38 — Hospital visits, Ricky’s final call and his last reported sighting
09:37 — Aunt Gloria remembers the last time she saw Ricky
11:52 — Decomposition and the limitations of the autopsy
13:16 — The FBI’s description of the mysterious pages
15:32 — Repeated characters, possible patterns and the absence of a translation
17:40 — The FBI asks the public for help
19:58 — Ricky’s relatives challenge the coded-writing narrative
22:08 — Investigative leads that never produced conclusive evidence
23:55 — How the notes became the center of Ricky’s story
26:41 — Introducing Henry McCabe
27:40 — Henry’s life, family and career
29:06 — The night out and the disputed gas-station drop-off
31:33 — The disturbing voicemail
33:36 — Search efforts and changes to the public timeline
35:31 — Henry’s body is recovered from Rush Lake
36:30 — Probable drowning without a complete explanation
38:50 — Questions about the drop-off, Henry’s keys and his wallet
41:43 — Remembering Henry beyond the recording
43:10 — Parallels to other unexplained deaths
45:03 — Closing the Unsolved Mysteries series

If you have information

If you have information concerning Ricky McCormick’s death, contact Crime Stoppers at 866-371-8477.

When discussing Ricky’s handwritten pages, focus on genuine handwriting samples or recognizable habits rather than unsupported online theories. A proposed translation is not evidence unless it can be independently verified.

Do you believe Ricky’s notes were connected to his death? What do you hear when you listen to Henry’s final recording? And which case from this three-part series stayed with you the most?

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In the second installment of Murder in the Black: Unsolved Mysteries, Steph examines the disappearances of Najah Ferrell in Indiana and Kierra Coles in Chicago.

Najah disappeared on March 15, 2019, the day she was expected to begin a new job at Panera Bread. She never arrived at work and failed to pick up her children—both out of character. Her belongings were later recovered near Interstate 465 and Lafayette Road, and her 2018 Nissan Altima was found abandoned in Indianapolis. Weeks later, human remains were discovered more than 100 miles away near Crown Point. DNA confirmed they belonged to Najah.

Investigators have never publicly explained how Najah traveled from Avon to Indianapolis, how her car and belongings came to be abandoned in separate locations, or how part of her remains ended up near Crown Point.

Kierra Coles was 26, approximately three months pregnant and working for the United States Postal Service when she vanished from Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood in October 2018. Expanded surveillance later showed Kierra with a man identified as a person of interest and withdrawing money from a Walgreens ATM at approximately 10:43 p.m. Her vehicle later returned to her neighborhood without her. The man was seen entering Kierra’s building and leaving with unknown items, but the timeline still does not reveal what happened after Kierra disappeared from view.

The cases are not publicly connected, but they share a frustrating pattern: cameras and physical evidence captured pieces of each woman’s final known movements without revealing what happened in the spaces between them.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Najah’s life as a mother of five, including three foster children
• The belongings recovered near I-465 and Lafayette Road
• Her abandoned Nissan Altima and the remains found near Crown Point
• The missing link between Najah’s home, vehicle, belongings and remains
• Kierra’s pregnancy and career with the Postal Service
• Surveillance showing Kierra with a man identified as a person of interest
• The 10:43 p.m. Walgreens ATM footage
• Kierra’s vehicle returning without her
• The purse, cellphone and packed lunch reportedly found in her vehicle
• The increased reward of up to $250,000 in Kierra’s case
• Why surveillance can document movement without providing an answer

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Najah’s disappearance
02:29 — Why these cases are paired
03:25 — Najah’s family and new job
07:01 — Belongings found near I-465
07:30 — Najah’s abandoned Altima
11:48 — Remains found near Crown Point
13:42 — The unexplained route through Indiana
17:33 — Questions surrounding Najah’s final hours
19:42 — Kierra’s life, pregnancy and postal career
21:07 — The surveillance timeline
21:35 — Walgreens ATM footage
23:14 — Kierra’s vehicle returns without her
26:55 — Kierra’s belongings are found
30:45 — Expanded surveillance released
32:41 — Reward increased to $250,000
35:48 — Why the cases are paired
37:14 — The limits of surveillance
40:08 — Final case recaps
42:33 — Closing and tip information

IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION

For information about Najah Ferrell’s movements, vehicle or belongings recovered near I-465 and Lafayette Road, contact Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana or the Hendricks County Communications Center.

For information concerning Kierra Coles, contact the United States Postal Inspection Service and reference case number 2693502.

Please share Najah and Kierra’s names, especially with anyone who lived in Indiana or Chicago when they disappeared. A detail that seemed insignificant at the time could help close one of the gaps in these timelines.

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A little girl disappears from her bedroom. A mother is killed while her children sleep. Decades later, their families are still fighting for answers.

Steph opens the Unsolved Mysteries series with two cases: the unsolved murder of 4-year-old Dannarriah Finley in Orange, Texas, and the arrest nearly 27 years after Bridget Lockhart’s 1999 killing in Atlanta.

Through the searches, physical evidence, unanswered questions, and a daughter’s determination to revisit her mother’s case, this episode explores what keeps an investigation alive—and what it takes to move it forward.

Dannarriah’s case remains unsolved. In Bridget’s case, Janarra Sherrer has been charged but has not been convicted. An arrest begins a legal process; it does not establish guilt.

In this episode

• Dannarriah’s disappearance and the community search to find her.

• The discovery on Pleasure Island and the clues investigators recovered.

• Circumstantial evidence, DNA testing, and the challenges of aging evidence.

• Bridget’s killing and her daughter Elandra’s efforts to get answers.

• The renewed investigation, arrest, and questions about evidence handling.

• Why both families’ searches for justice continue.

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Keith Warren was 19 when he was found hanging in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1986. Authorities ruled his death a suicide without performing an autopsy. His mother, Mary Couey, spent decades questioning that conclusion—and the investigation behind it.

Steph examines the scene photographs, the clothing questions, the anonymous envelope delivered on Keith’s birthday, and the reported warning involving Mark Finley. She also follows Sherri Warren’s fight for answers. Keith’s cause and manner of death were reclassified as undetermined in 2024, and police reopened the investigation in 2025. Neither development establishes that he was killed.

At the end of the episode, True Crime in Current News features an update on Nolan Wells. Steph reflects on why his case brought Keith’s story back to mind while keeping the facts of each case distinct.

Content warning: Discussion of a hanging death, possible suicide, racial violence, and crime-scene photographs.

In The Episode:

• Why Keith’s family challenged the original ruling

• The missing autopsy and limits of later forensic testing

• Questions about the rope, tree, body position, and clothing

• Mary Couey’s advocacy and the photographs left at her home

• What is—and is not—known about Mark Finley

• The 2024 reclassification and 2025 reopening

• A True Crime in Current News update on Nolan Wells

Timestamps:

00:00 — The photographs delivered on Keith’s birthday
02:34 — Facts, family accounts, and unanswered questions
03:04 — Why the history of lynching matters
06:58 — Keith’s life and his family’s doubts
08:19 — Keith goes missing and is found
10:55 — The approximately 21-minute scene response
12:21 — No autopsy and the limits of later testing
13:57 — Body position and the rope
16:30 — The clothing questions
17:25 — Mary’s search for answers
19:52 — The anonymous envelope
21:29 — The reported warning and Mark Finley
23:48 — The official ruling and the family’s concerns
25:38 — Race, trust, and the power to classify a death
28:55 — Uprooted and Sherri’s advocacy
30:07 — Reclassified as undetermined
30:49 — The investigation reopens
33:24 — What remains unknown
36:03 — Mary’s persistence and accountability
At the end — True Crime in Current News: Nolan Wells update

What should justice look like when an original investigation may have made the truth harder to find?

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Email: [email protected]

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Between 1979 and 1981, Black children, teenagers and young adults disappeared across Atlanta. As fear spread, grieving families organized searches, challenged city leaders and demanded that the cases be treated as a coordinated emergency.

In this special episode, Steph examines the victims, the community’s fight for answers and the controversial case against Wayne Williams.

Williams was convicted of murdering two adult men, Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel Cater. He was never tried for the children’s murders, yet authorities attributed more than twenty additional deaths to him and closed those cases.

We examine the Jackson Parkway bridge encounter, fiber and dog-hair evidence, disputed witnesses, Williams’s changing explanations, racial and political pressure, possible Klan involvement, and the differences among the victims that continue to raise questions.

Was Wayne Williams responsible for every murder attributed to him, only some of them, or was one conviction used to provide Atlanta with an ending it desperately needed?

Content warning: This episode discusses the murders of children and young adults, racial violence and disputed allegations.

Remember the victims as individuals—not simply as evidence for or against Wayne Williams.

On the morning after Thanksgiving in 2014, firefighters responded to a blaze inside a Fort Worth apartment. There, they discovered 31-year-old Ashlea Harris bound and murdered.

Ashlea was a hardworking store manager who had recently helped police identify two former employees suspected of robbing the American Eagle store where she worked. Months later, those same former employees—Carter Cervantez and Clarence “David” Mallory—were accused of entering Ashlea’s home and carrying out a brutal act of revenge.

But what were they looking for inside her apartment—and why did they believe Ashlea had it?

In this episode of Murder in the Black, Steph examines the events leading to Ashlea’s murder, the evidence connecting Cervantez and Mallory to the crime, and the investigation that uncovered what they came back for.

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On December 6, 1975, Wesley Diggs returned to his home in Teaneck, New Jersey, and discovered his wife, Jean, and their four children—Audrey, Allison, Wesley Jr., and five-year-old Roger—shot to death.

There was no obvious forced entry. Nothing appeared to have been stolen. Neighbors reportedly heard nothing, despite more than twenty shots being fired.

In this episode, Steph examines the crime scene, Wesley’s business connections, the Harlem leads, three potential suspects, an informant’s account, and the controversial theory that Jean may have killed the children. We also consider whether race affected the investigation and why, after fifty years, no one has been held responsible.

Someone entered—or was allowed into—the Diggs home that night. The question is: who, and why?

Content warning: This episode discusses the murder of children, family homicide, gun violence, and descriptions of a crime scene.

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On December 3, 2003, federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna left his Baltimore office shortly before midnight—but he never made it home. Hours later, his car was discovered beside a rural Pennsylvania creek, with Jonathan lying facedown beneath it. He had suffered 36 stab wounds and cuts before ultimately drowning.

The local coroner ruled Jonathan’s death a homicide. However, federal investigators reportedly considered a dramatically different possibility: that Jonathan inflicted the wounds himself while attempting to stage an attack or disappearance.

In this episode, Steph traces Jonathan’s unexplained interstate drive, the blood found throughout his vehicle, the professional pressures surrounding him, and the competing theories that have divided investigators for more than two decades. The recently unsealed autopsy confirms important details about his injuries—but does it bring us any closer to understanding what really happened?

Also, before you go, check your feed for Steph’s special video interview with MD discussing the outcome of the Karmelo Anthony evidentiary hearing.

Case discussed: Jonathan Luna
Content warning: This episode discusses suicide, drowning, and sharp-force injuries.

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Steph sits down with MD to break down the Karmelo Anthony evidentiary hearing and what Judge Chitty was actually being asked to decide.

This was not a new determination of guilt or innocence. Anthony’s appellate team was requesting a new trial based on alleged errors and constitutional violations connected to the original proceedings.

Steph and MD discuss the alleged “gentleman’s agreement,” whether the defense relied on it when making critical trial decisions, and why the defense needed to prove that this reliance affected the outcome. They also examine the due-process arguments, Anthony’s right to present a complete defense, and the Waller test involving the right to a public trial.

MD explains why appellate relief is difficult to obtain and why the public-trial claim may be the defense’s strongest argument. The episode closes with Steph and MD discussing why the trial can still raise serious fairness concerns—particularly regarding venue, jury selection, and public access.

Timestamps

00:31 – Steph introduces MD
02:22 – What Judge Chitty had to decide
04:17 – The alleged gentleman’s agreement
08:10 – Proving breach and prejudice
09:10 – How the agreement may have shaped trial strategy
17:54 – The constitutional arguments
18:49 – Due process and fundamental fairness
21:26 – The Waller test and public-trial issue
28:28 – Why damaging information may be inadmissible
33:14 – How appellate courts evaluate errors
35:11 – The defense’s strongest appellate argument
37:05 – Why MD believes the trial was unfair
39:00 – Closing thoughts and listener feedback