Dropping Fridays starting October 2025.

You know that feeling? When a case doesn’t add up, when the story feels off? That’s where Investigative Journalists and podcast hosts, Mel Barrett and Rebecca Lavoie, come in, breaking down the crimes, the trials, and the cover-ups that make you say: Something’s Off.

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In Part Two of A SAVAGE FOREST, we pick up where the mountain left off—with a body, a knife, and a story that keeps changing. The autopsy contradicts Megan’s account of a tragic accident, revealing seven deep, deliberate cuts to Alexander Stevens’ throat. As prosecutors build their case for murder, Megan’s defense paints a different picture: one of manipulation, trauma, and control.

In this episode, we step inside the courtroom, examining the forensic evidence, the dueling expert testimony, and the strange allegations that shaped the trial—including Megan’s claim that Alex had once carved a cross into her back. It’s a story that hovers between love and violence, faith and obsession—and it forces us to ask how far we’ll go to make sense of something senseless.

By the end, we’re left with more questions than answers. Did Megan kill Alex in cold blood—or did a ritual between two broken people spiral out of control? The jury made their decision. But for those who have studied this case, something still doesn’t feel right.

🚨Here's the link to Mel's new show with Rebecca Lavoie, SOMETHING'S OFF: https://www.youtube.com/@SomethingsOffPod -- Please subscribe for updates. Podcast episodes will be released here on Patreon and video episodes will be released on YT!

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On a freezing night in January 2017, 21-year-old Megan Shaffer and 24-year-old Alexander Stevens hiked deep into Savage River State Forest in Western Maryland. They carried candles, a knife, and even Alex’s pet cat—preparing for what Megan would later describe as a “cleansing ritual.” Hours later, Megan was rescued—naked, bruised, hypothermic—while Alex was found dead in a frozen creek, his throat cut and candles burned to stubs around him.

Megan gave police not one, but three conflicting stories. An accident. A suicide. A forced plunge and a ritual gone wrong. And yet the evidence pointed somewhere darker.

In this first episode, I take you into the woods, through the timeline of that night, and into Megan’s shifting accounts. By the end, when the autopsy contradicts everything she said, you’ll understand why this case still haunts Savage Mountain—and why I can’t shake the feeling that something doesn’t add up.

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In February 2021, twenty-three-year-old Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton, Massachusetts apartment. She was eight months pregnant. The official ruling: suicide by asphyxia. For years, that’s where the story stopped.

But when the FBI uncovered more than thirty thousand missing messages between Sandra and Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell, the truth began to surface — a decade of grooming, coercion, and control. In August 2024, Farwell was indicted for Sandra’s murder.

In this episode of The In Between, Mel revisits Sandra’s life and death, and the long silence that followed. We examine how investigators missed — or buried — crucial evidence, and how the same failures echo through the case of Karen Read. From missing messages to bent timelines, from compromised investigators to federal intervention, Sandra’s story reveals not just one tragedy, but a culture of cover-ups that stretches far beyond her.

This is the story of a young woman who deserved better, and of the patterns that keep repeating when the powerful write the ending.

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On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on stage at Utah Valley University. The media asked, “How did we get here?” But the truth is—we already know.

In this special episode of The In Between, host Mel Barrett, breaks the mold of the series to trace the long road that led to Kirk’s assassination: Donald Trump’s decades of violent rhetoric, the rise of Nick Fuentes and the Groypers, Kirk’s own pivot into conspiratorial territory with the Epstein files, and the online ecosystems where memes become manifestos.

We’ll look at the shooter, Tyler Robinson, his bullet casings engraved with anti-fascist slogans and internet jokes, and the instant wave of conspiracy theories—about security guards, hand signals, and martyrdom—that followed. We’ll also confront the political aftermath, where Republican lawmakers blamed Democrats instead of guns, and where stochastic terrorism—the unpredictable violence seeded by years of hateful rhetoric—became undeniable.

This isn’t just the story of one man’s death. It’s the story of how rhetoric turns to blood, how violence is normalized, and how a democracy erodes when cruelty becomes identity.

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This week on The In Between Podcast, host Mel Barrett, revisits the aftermath of the night Ellen Greenberg was found with twenty stab wounds in her Philadelphia apartment—and the instant clash between an autopsy that pointed to homicide and a police narrative that leaned suicide. Through the “locked room” lens, Mel unpacks what the door latch could (and couldn’t) prove, why the body’s injuries don’t match a self-inflicted story, and how a professionally cleaned scene and pre-warrant removal of electronics crippled the forensics.

Along the way, she draws clear parallels to Sandra Birchmore, Karen Read...and ultimately Veronika Rodriguez where tidy explanations outpaced the evidence.

The episode centers the politics of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's highest echelon of power and decision-making.

As friends, family, and community activists ask why Governor Josh Shapiro isn't getting involved in the Veronika Rodriguez case, Ellen Greenberg's case might give us some insight.

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This week on The In Between Podcast, host Mel Barrett, revisits the night Ellen Greenberg was found with twenty stab wounds in her Philadelphia apartment—and the instant clash between an autopsy that pointed to homicide and a police narrative that leaned suicide. Through the “locked room” lens, Mel unpacks what the door latch could (and couldn’t) prove, why the body’s injuries don’t match a self-inflicted story, and how a professionally cleaned scene and pre-warrant removal of electronics crippled the forensics.

Along the way, she draws clear parallels to Sandra Birchmore, Karen Read...and ultimately Veronika Rodriguez where tidy explanations outpaced the evidence.

The episode centers the Greenberg family’s relentless push to correct the record and foreshadows the seismic moment years later when the original pathologist reverses himself. It’s a primer on how certainty can harden too fast—and how families are forced to pry it loose.

As friends, family, and community activists ask why Governor Josh Shapiro isn't getting involved in the Veronika Rodriguez case, Ellen Greenberg's case might give us some insight.

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In the final (for now) installment of From Victim to Accused, host Mel Barrett travels to Lebanon County Pennsylvania for Veronika Rodriguez' sentencing hearing. This is an in-depth discussion of what happened then and what's to come with fellow podcaster, Ellyn Marsh of the I Think Not! Podcast.

The family is raising money for an appeal. If you feel so inclined, donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/veronikas-voice

Back story: Veronika Rodriguez reported her rape to police. She even had evidence to prove it happened. Still police didn't believe her and turned her from victim, to accused, to convicted.

Mel hadn’t planned to make a several episode push about one subject in between seasons, but this story has fallen into her lap and she can’t look away. Veronika has been tried and convicted of making a false report of sexual assault and felony wiretapping in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvaia. She is awaiting sentencing on August 20, 2025.

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In Episode five, host Mel Barrett, goes on a deep dive into the prosecutor in Veronika's case: Pier Hess Graf

Pier Hess Graf didn’t just prosecute the alleged victim in this case, she went hard at Veronika Rodriguez, asking for up to 16 years in prison for reporting her own sexual assault. I wonder where that kind of resentment and unrelenting spite comes from. Did getting accused of sleeping her way into the DA’s office create internalized misogyny in Pier Hess Graf? Why has she never brought a sexual assault case before Veronika’s? Is her ambition to fit into the boy’s club so great that she hates women because of it?

Pier Hess Graf will be remembered as a DA who inspired fierce loyalty and fierce opposition. You can respect her relentlessness in court and still demand she follow ethics. You can back law enforcement and still expect independence. You can acknowledge false accusations exist–though in my opinion, not in Veronika’s case–and you can still refuse to build a system that punishes reporting itself.

Those aren’t contradictions. They’re the bare minimum for a justice system worthy of the word justice.

Please share. Veronika's sentencing happens on August 20, 2025 so sharing this episode helps get the word out about what really happened in her case.

Back story: Veronika Rodriguez reported her rape to police. She even had evidence to prove it happened. Still police didn't believe her and turned her from victim, to accused, to convicted.

Mel hadn’t planned to make a several episode push about one subject in between seasons, but this story has fallen into her lap and she can’t look away. Veronika has been tried and convicted of making a false report of sexual assault and felony wiretapping in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvaia. She is awaiting sentencing on August 20, 2025.

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In this episode of The In Between Podcast, Mel spends an hour discussing the alleged assault of Veronika Rodriguez with the man she accused...Fahad Pervez

Please share. Veronika's sentencing happens on August 20, 2025 so sharing this episode helps get the word out about what really happened in her case.

Back story: Veronika Rodriguez reported her rape to police. She even had evidence to prove it happened. Still police didn't believe her and turned her from victim, to accused, to convicted.

Mel hadn’t planned to make a several episode push about one subject in between seasons, but this story has fallen into her lap and she can’t look away. Veronika has been tried and convicted of making a false report of sexual assault and felony wiretapping in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvaia. She is awaiting sentencing on August 20, 2025.

Join the club for AD FREE, exclusive behind-the-scenes, and bonus content of The In Between Podcast: https://patreon.com/TheInBetweenPodcastwithMelBarrett?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

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