In today’s episode, our team looks back on the case that led off our second season. It's called “Girl for Rent” and it illustrates a critical part of policing: if the hair on the back of your neck is bristling, trust your instincts and investigate.

Original episode description:

Sgt. David and his officer-in-training are working the graveyard shift on a cold winter night when they scout out an abandoned lot in their small town that’s a well-known spot for illegal activity. As they approach, they see a car with its lights off and two passengers inside: a man in his 50’s and a young girl seated on the passenger’s side. Though there’s no crime in just sitting in your car, Sgt. David has a gut feeling that something is very wrong. What he discovers is even worse than what he suspected.

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Paul Holes has spent years trying to track down the killer responsible for the brutal deaths of four women. Today, he talks about his obsession with a suspect he was convinced was responsible - and the important lessons of both listening to your instincts and always following the evidence no matter where it leads, even when it leaves you frustrated.

Guest detective: Paul Holes

Paul Holes is a bestselling author, podcaster, television host and retired cold-case investigator with the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices in California’s Contra Costa County. During his 27 years as an investigator, Holes used his behavioral and forensic expertise in such notable cases as the Zodiac murders, Golden State Killer, and Jaycee Dugard kidnapping. In May 2022, Holes published “Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases” - which became an instant New York Times bestseller. Paul teamed with the FBI and Sacramento DA to help identify Joseph DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer, the most prolific serial predator in U.S. history. In 2019, he teamed up with Oxygen to host ”The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes” and in 2022 he launched a new original series with HLN called, ”Real Life Nightmare with Paul Holes.” 

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Police in a small town respond to the report of a severely injured child. She's rushed to the hospital and police begin to investigate what happened. Not long into the inquiry, the story from the caretakers is not adding up. Detective Chris begins the delicate task of uncovering the truth from adults who have no inclination to tell the truth.

Guest: Detective Chris

Detective Chris has been in law enforcement for over 28 years. He has been at his current department for 25 years where he's been a detective for 12 years. He spent 15 years on his agency's TAC team, 8 years as a K9 handler, and is a certified Control Tactics instructor at the state and federal level. Before joining law enforcement, Chris was a Military Police Officer in the Army National Guard. He’s married, with 3 kids. 

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On August 4, 1986, a young girl took a bike ride through Point Defiance Park near Tacoma, Washington. She never returned home. Investigators conducted a desperate search but came up empty handed. The case went dormant for decades and eventually ended up on the desk of cold-case detective Lindsey Wade. Through the application of emerging DNA testing and hard work, Wade and her fellow detectives were finally able to piece together what happened that day and bring closure to the family.

Guest detective: Lindsey Wade

Lindsey served as a Tacoma Police Officer for twenty-one years. During her fourteen years as a detective, she investigated sexual assaults, child abuse, missing persons, and homicides. In 2010, Lindsey discovered that serial killer Ted Bundy’s DNA was not in CODIS. She worked with authorities in Florida to track down a sample of Bundy’s DNA and finally entered it into the national database in 2011. In 2012, Lindsey’s work on collecting DNA from convicted sexual predators in Washington state who’d slipped through the cracks led to an arrest in the 1980 homicide of a teenage girl. Lindsey retired in 2018 as the Tacoma Police Department’s cold case detective and joined the Washington State Attorney General’s Office as a senior investigator assigned for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. She is a former member of the FBI ViCAP National Advisory Board and teaches child abduction response and cold case investigations for the National Criminal Justice Training Center at Fox Valley Technical College. Lindsey has been a speaker at numerous law enforcement conferences around the country, lecturing on cold cases, sex crimes, DNA, and child abduction response. She recently published a true crime memoir titled, “In My DNA:  My Career Investigating Your Worst Nightmares''.

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Small Town Dicks presents The Briefing Room, Season 2. The new season launches Wednesday, August 30. The show now has its own feed - so please subscribe on Apple, Spotify, TuneIn, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or head over to our website, thebriefingroompod.com.

This show examines the real lives of law enforcement and the challenges they face keeping communities safe. An unvarnished look at what's working and what needs changing. If you want to delve into the minds of true crime luminaries like Roo Powell, Lindsey Wade, Paul Holes, and more, then subscribe now. And tell a friend!

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In October 1981 in the small town of Carmel, California, a young mother named Sonia Stone is raped and murdered in her home. The prime suspect is her neighbor, Michael Glazebrook. He is tried for the crimes but the trial ends in a hung jury. In episode two of The Weight, pressed by Sonia’s family and their own sense of duty, the detective who investigated Sonia’s murder and the prosecutor who tried Glazebrook continue to look for any new evidence or lucky break that would trigger new charges. There are moments of hope and years of frustration. Four decades pass and then they get the call that changes everything.

Guests: Judge Bob and Detective Lins

Judge Bob served as Monterey County Deputy District Attorney for major crimes from 1972 to 1986. A graduate of UC Davis and Hastings Law School, and a U.S. Army veteran, Bob was elevated to municipal court judge in 1987 and then elected to the Superior Court for Monterey County in 1997. He served on the court until 2006 and now works as a temporary judge, assigned to cases across northern and central California.

Retired Detective Lins began his 31-year-career in law enforcement when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Military Police Corps in 1967 after he graduated from UC Davis. He served in the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and later commanded the first post stockade annex at the now defunct Fort Ord. Later Lins spent two decades as a deputy sheriff with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, as a patrol deputy and then as a detective working major crimes. His final years in law enforcement were as a District Attorney Investigator for Monterey County, where his assignments included major crimes and child sexual assault. Over his career, he investigated more than 40 deaths, the majority being homicides.

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Today's case spans more than 40 years. In the first of two parts, we take you back to 1981 and the senseless rape and murder of Sonia Stone, a young mother living with her daughter in the tony town of Carmel by the Sea on the California coast. A close friend has found Sonia's body and has called the police. The responding detectives quickly focus their attention on a shifty neighbor whose constantly changing story feeds their suspicions. But this was a time before DNA testing, and the evidence, though solid, is circumstantial. When the prosecutor in the case finally gets some corroboration about the neighbor's whereabouts the morning of Sonia's murder, he brings murder charges against Michael Glazebrook. But an adverse ruling and an unreliable witness derail the trial - and start a decades long search for justice.

Guests: Detective Lins and Judge Bob

Retired Detective Lins began his 31-year-career in law enforcement when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Military Police Corps in 1967 after he graduated from UC Davis. He served in the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and later commanded the first post stockade annex at the now-defunct Fort Ord in California. Later Lins spent two decades as a deputy sheriff with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, as a patrol deputy and then as a detective working major crimes. His final years in law enforcement were as a District Attorney Investigator for Monterey County, where his assignments included major crimes and child sexual assault. Over his career, he investigated more than 40 deaths, the majority being homicides.

Judge Bob served as Monterey County Deputy District Attorney for major crimes from 1972 to 1986. A graduate of UC Davis and Hastings Law School, and a U.S. Army veteran, Bob was elevated to municipal court judge in 1987 and then elected to the Superior Court for Monterey County in 1997. He served on the court until 2006 and now works as a temporary judge, assigned to cases across northern and central California.

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When forensic specialist Paul Holes arrives at the scene of a violent attack, he immediately collects and compares all the evidence to build a case against the attacker. What he finds both shocks and surprises him - and teaches him a lesson that he still teaches budding investigators today.

Guest: Forensic Specialist Paul Holes

Paul Holes is a bestselling author, podcaster, television host and retired cold-case investigator with the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices in California’s Contra Costa County. In his 27 years as an investigator, Holes used his behavioral and forensic expertise in such notable cases as the Zodiac murders, Golden State Killer, and Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping. In May 2022, Holes published “Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases” - which became an instant New York Times bestseller. Paul teamed with the FBI and Sacramento DA to help identify Joseph DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer, the most prolific serial predator in U.S. history. In 2019, he teamed up with Oxygen to host ”The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes” and in 2022 he launched a new original series with HLN called, ”Real Life Nightmare with Paul Holes.” 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.