When 36-year-old Sonya Massey—a Black mother of two—called 911 for help during a mental health crisis, she needed compassion. Instead, she was shot in the face by a white sheriff’s deputy in her own kitchen. In this episode of The In Between, host Mel Barrett walks listeners through the events of July 6, 2024, the bodycam footage that shook a community, the trial that followed, and the broader failures in policing, race, and mental health response.

We’ll hear from Sonya’s family, legal experts, and activists demanding change. This isn’t just one isolated tragedy—it’s part of a devastating pattern. And as we trace Sonya’s legacy through courtroom justice, community grief, and legislative reform, we ask: What does accountability really look like when someone dies after asking for help?

⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of police violence, mental health crisis, and the fatal shooting of a Black woman. Listener discretion is advised.

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Something's Off with Mel Barrett + Rebecca Lavoie episode 3.5

Mel + Rebecca break down the preservation of Michael Proctor's messages and go on a deep dive into Samanthan Benigno's analysis of the 911 call Jen McCabe made at the scene of John O'Keefe's death. If you weren't already convinced the McCabes and Alberts had something to do with you, you might be after watching Sam's video. We'll link below.

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Something's Off with Mel Barrett + Rebecca Lavoie episode Three 

Mel + Rebecca get into allll the chaos surrounding Turtleboy and the other boys, updates on all things Karen Read adjacent, including Microdots, and we take a deep dive on the Kelsey Fitzsimmons case.  

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On September 15, 2025, 21-year-old Trey Reed—a first-generation college student at Delta State University—was found hanging from a tree on campus. Within hours, his death was ruled a suicide. No investigation. No real answers.

But Trey’s family knew something was wrong. And the deeper you look, the more disturbing the picture becomes: missing surveillance footage, a mysterious belt with no buckle, a second autopsy showing blunt force trauma, and a chilling history of racially motivated violence in the very place Trey died.

In this episode, Mel Barrett examines the facts, the cover-ups, and the rising pattern civil rights leaders are calling “lynching by suicide.” This isn’t just about one case. It’s about the systems that keep failing Black families, and the voices demanding justice.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of suicide, racial violence, and harm to Black bodies.

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Something's Off with Mel Barrett + Rebecca Lavoie episode Two

Mel + Rebecca get into allll the chaos surrounding Michael Proctor, the Fed document dump/hearings, who lied: Dever or Cox? and an old rumor that resurfaced this week about a person being hit by a plow on Fairview Road.

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Mel returns to three deeply unsettling cases that continue to raise serious questions:

Ellen Greenberg: A new city-commissioned review reaffirms suicide, despite 20+ stab wounds. Her family says the fight for justice is far from over.

Michael Proctor: The former state trooper withdraws his appeal after disturbing personal texts dating back to 2013 surface—some now allowed in a separate murder trial.

Sam Nordquist: As DNA evidence is collected and pre-trial hearings wrap up, seven suspects await trial in a case involving kidnapping, torture, and murder.

Mel breaks down the latest legal developments, new evidence, and the public response. These are stories we’ve covered before—but there’s more to say.

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In our first episode, Mel Barrett and Rebecca Lavoie dig into the discord in the Turtleboy/FKR communities and take a deeper dive into the upcoming Brian Walshe trial, which crosses over into Karen Read territory when Yuri Bukhenik and Michael Proctor show up again.

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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 May of 2001, 49-year-old Leslie Preer was found brutally murdered inside her Chevy Chase home. For years, suspicion shadowed her husband, Sandy, who failed a polygraph and couldn’t explain his movements the night before her death. But one piece of evidence—male DNA under Leslie’s fingernails—told a different story.

Two decades later, a new generation of detectives reopened the case, armed with technology that didn’t exist back then. Using forensic genetic genealogy, they traced the unknown DNA to a name that stunned everyone: Eugene Gligor, a D.C. man who had once dated Leslie’s daughter, Lauren.

This episode unravels how Gligor lived freely for 23 years—attending recovery meetings, making friends, and even speaking kindly to Lauren years after the murder—while concealing the truth. We’ll follow the investigation from that first chilling crime scene through the groundbreaking DNA match, Gligor’s arrest and guilty plea, and the courtroom reckoning that finally brought justice for Leslie and cleared her husband’s name.

It’s a story about secrets that linger, the families left in their wake, and the detectives who refuse to let time silence the truth.

Because for every case like this one—where a killer is finally unmasked—there are thousands more still waiting in the dark. Thousands of families still waiting for the knock on the door that says, “We got him.”

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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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