Shear Crime Podcast

On this week’s episode, Ame and Kenzie cover the capture of BTK from the Netflix documentary Catching Killers. Dennis Radar, also known as BTK (bind torture kill) threatened the peace and security of every man, woman and child in the mid 70’s when he tortured and killed an entire family in their suburban home, in the middle of the day. A title holding member of his church, married with two children, he went on to murder 6 more people in the Kansas City and Wichita area with no capture or conviction. But when the horror and carnage ended, many felt they could breathe again. Then in the early 2000’s, cryptic letters and packages began showing up, all signed: BTK. The elusive man who had evaded police for nearly 30 years was coming out from his hiding place. Police were worried he would go back to his need for killing. Luckily, this time technology had passed up his clever antics. Cameras, security, DNA, and police work had advanced enough where Dennis wouldn’t be able to get away so easily again. This is the story of how a seemingly normal man living in a nice neighborhood was arrested and put away all because he got cocky and couldn’t let his desires to be known rest with his victims. 

On this week’s episode, Kenzie and Ame cover another installment in the series The Killer Speaks with the interview of Gene Meredith. A women’s body is found behind a dumpster, and a strange man lurked around the crime scene and sped off before the authorities could respond to the 911 call. Luckily, the witnesses who made the call were able to give a vehicle description which was quite unique to a van with mismatched colored doors. Within 24 hours, police were on the lookout for Gene Meredith, and quickly caught up with him at his girlfriend’s house - just moments before he had planned to kill her. But during interrogations, it became pretty obvious that something was bothering Gene, almost pushing him to do and say things he claimed he normally wouldn’t. Was this man haunted by voices only he could hear, or was he laying the ground work for a great defense? 

On this week’s Minnesode, Kenzie shares the story of the murder of Katherine Ann Olson in Savage, MN. On Oct 25, 2007, she answered an ad on Craig’s List for a nanny job and went to meet the family looking for care for their kids. She was never seen alive again, as she was shot in the back shortly after entering the home. Her body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in the trunk of her car five blocks away. You may have heard of the Craig’s List Killer… this is that story. 

On this week’s episode, Kenzie and Ame cover the capture of Aileen Wuornos in the Netflix series Catching Killers. Known by many as the first female serial killer in America, Aileen was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of 6 men in central Florida. After multiple bodies are found dumped on the side of highways, police are frantic to figure out who is responsible. Eventually they catch a break when an eye witness is able to describe two women leaving the scene. Police begin tracing their steps which lead them to motels and pawn shops. Once they get the names of the femme fatales they are able to track them to Daytona Beach. Using an undercover cop armed with a wad of cash in a tough biker bar, they succeed in getting the attention of Aileen and soon after, apprehend her before she can strike again. 

On this week’s episode, Kenzie and Ame cover another installment of the A&E series The Killer Speaks. On a cold, snowy December day in 2002, Earl Forrest wakes up, downs a bottle of whiskey and sets off to his best friend’s house. Harriet “Toddy” Smith and Forrest had been close for over 30 years beginning their friendship in California in the 80’s. Earl had lived a hard and fast life as a high level drug dealer and after serving time in jail, he wanted a fresh start in a new place.  Toddy had recently moved out to Missouri to take care of her family farm after the death of her father and talked Earl into following her. Everything was great, Earl was sober, working full time, and got to live by his best friend again. But before long, a deal between he and Toddy goes sour and Earl’s temper flares, resulting in a double homicide and a shoot out with police that would also end with the death of a beloved deputy. What could make someone murder their best friend of three decades? The answer is somewhat surprising but no less tragic. 

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On this week’s episode, Ame and Kenzie bring you another chapter from the Netflix series Catching Killers. In the late 1980’s investigators in Seattle were finding themselves knee deep in the discarded bodies of young women and girls with little to no evidence pointing them in the direction of who was responsible. Each of these women were known sex workers that walked a busy stretch of highway known as The Strip. The other commonality was that each one had been strangled and dumped, mostly near the Green River.  Police were having less than a successful time finding the solid evidence they needed, and what was collected was still a decade away from the technology needed for accurate testing. But almost twenty years later, those samples would prove to be worth saving. Would investigators finally be able to close in on the man who’d kept their community gripped in fear for so many years? 

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On this week's episode, Kenzie and Ame cover the two-part installment on The Happy Face Killer in the Netflix series Catching Killers. On a cold January day in 1990, the body of an unidentified female is found along a mountain road in Oregon with a rope around her neck and the fly missing from her jeans. A composite sketch is released and shortly after they were able to determine that the young women was missing 23-year-old Taunja Bennett. Police are immediately pointed in the direction of a man named John Sosnovske when his girlfriend Laverne calls in a tip stating he'd confessed the killing to a friend at the bar, and she had found evidence linked to the murder in their home. After several interviews, however, Laverne's story turns more and more sinister and eventually lands both of them in prison. But a few years later, the local newspaper gets a letter from a man claiming he was actually the one responsible for the death of Taunja Bennett, as well as 7 other women. Police now have to track down the leads contained in the letter to determine if this was truly the man they'd been looking for, and if a couple of innocent people were doing time for a crime they didn't commit.

On this week’s episode, Ame and Kenzie cover another episode from the A&E series The Killer Speaks. Dena Riley thought she had finally hit the jackpot when convicted sex offender Richard Davis entered her life. He was charming, intelligent, stable...everything that Dena was not. Most of all, he was attentive to her and offered a kind of support she hadn’t seen before. But this love affair was anything but healthy. Knowing her appetite for meth and openness to involving others into their sex life, Richard would lure women who shared the same liking into three way sex that would soon take a dark turn once the camera was rolling. Not only was he excited by the control and power that came with being a sadist, but his violent fantasies were to become even more realistic. By the end of their 8 month long relationship, Richard and Dena would find themselves on the run from police and guilty of raping, torturing, and murdering two Missouri women in 2006. 

On this week’s episode, Kenzie and Ame discuss the case of the one punch assault by Brandon Joyner from the A&E series Accused: Guilty or Innocent. Brandon was your typical 20 year old college student, working a part time job, attending classes, hanging out with friends and living at home with his mom and dad. One evening, he and his friends were together in his front yard when they hear neighbor David Turner, in a drunken rage, throwing his disabled son-in-law down the front steps of his porch. Being a Good Samaritan, Brandon walks across the street to assist the man they call New York into his vehicle and away from Turner’s anger. But filled with the liquid courage, 65 year old Turner’s aggression focuses on the next big challenge in his way: Brandon. Without much consideration, and scared for his own well being, Brandon throws a punch that knocks David Turner to the ground and results in a traumatic brain injury that changes the course of his life forever. Now, Brandon is looking at being prosecuted by the state and faces up to 20 years behind bars if he can’t prove this was done in self-defense.