Former Chicago Homicide Detective Michele Wood returns with an unfiltered look at the cases that haunt her, the ones that cracked open years later, and the ones she’s hoping will close. She talks witness intimidation, cold‑case breakthroughs, and what justice really looks like in neighborhoods living with daily violence.

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Michele Wood is a 25-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, a longtime homicide and cold-case detective, an FBI-certified hostage negotiator, and the author of the book Model Detective. Michele traces the roots of her career back to her childhood in gang-plagued Logan Square, including the violent attack she survived at age 11 that sharpened her instincts and set her on the path toward policing. For Michele, being a homicide detective is ultimately a calling - a commitment to speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves.

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Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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Jayson's Substack newsletter, The Center Holds, can be found at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Jennifer Eskew picks up her story at the moment her career begins to accelerate. In Part 2, she walks us through the realities of undercover work in Virginia — the operations that shaped her, the risks she learned to manage, and the emotional and ethical weight of living a double life. She talks about the cases that defined her early years, the moments that tested her resolve, and the institutional barriers she had to navigate as one of the only women doing this work at the time. We also explore how those experiences prepared her for the federal cases and national crises she would later confront, and how she learned to carry the cost of the job without letting it consume her.

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Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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Visit The True Crime Times Substack at:

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Jayson's Substack newsletter, The Center Holds, can be found at:

The Center Holds | Jayson Blair | Substack

The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jennifer Eskew grew up in a small farming community in rural Virginia where violent crime was rare — until a 1968 shooting injured her mother, sister, and neighbors and set her on a lifelong path toward law enforcement. In this episode, Jennifer talks about that moment, the community that shaped her, the early barriers she faced as a woman pursuing police work, and how she eventually became a Virginia State Trooper and the state’s first full‑time female undercover officer. We also discuss her role in the Colonial Parkway murders investigation and the early undercover work that defined her career.

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Dr. Paige Wilcoxson joins us to discuss what people often get wrong about forensic psychology, what it takes and costs, and what the work helps us understand about ourselves, criminal behavior, and the world around us. Paige worked as a clinical and forensic psychologist in hospitals and prisons and as a graduate intern in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, where she contributed to a project on serial homicides while working on her dissertation on threat assessment of ideologically motivated targeted shooters. Paige has also worked as a professor in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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Join our Facebook Group at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aaron Habel, the host of the Generation Why podcast, joins me for our second and final conversation on his new podcast series, Framed, which explores the murder of Scott Macklem and the conviction of Fred Freeman, who changed his name to Temujin Kensu.

To listen to Season 3 of Framed:

True Crime Podcast Framed- Official Site – Framed: An Investigative Story

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aaron Habel, the host of the Generation Why podcast, joins me to discuss the murder of Scott Macklem and the conviction of Fred Freeman, who changed his name to Temujin Kensu. The case has been approached from many angles over the years — who killed Macklem or whether Kensu was wrongfully convicted. Aaron, in a new season of his Framed podcast, is widening the lens to ask another question.

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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In Part 2 of my conversation with former federal prosecutor Tad DiBiase, we dig into how investigators distinguish a missing‑persons case from a homicide, why the absence of evidence can be the most powerful clue, and how prosecutors build no‑body murder cases.

We talk through successful prosecutions — including Lloyd Lee Welch in the Lyon sisters case and Sante and Kenneth Kimes in the murder of Irene Silverman — as well as failures like the dismissed case against Michael Turney in the disappearance of his daughter, Alyssa. We also explore what it may take to finally resolve long‑standing no‑body cases, from the Lewis‑Clark Valley disappearances to the cases of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner and Jermain Charlo.

Listen to part 1 with Tad here.

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Tad DiBiase, a former federal homicide prosecutor, joins me to discuss his path to specializing in no-body homicide cases, how investigators recognize when a missing person may actually have been murdered, and the core challenges of proving these cases. We explore historical and modern no-body homicides, along with ongoing cases that remain unresolved.

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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Join our Facebook Group at:

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Visit The True Crime Times Substack at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sadie Johnson spent three decades as a writer and editor in newspapers, magazines, and marketing. Storytelling comes naturally to her, and it’s the narrative of her family - and how it shaped who she became and refused to become - that she’s turning toward now and joined me to discuss.

Contact me at [email protected]

Check out the Silver Linings Handbook website at:

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Check out our Patreon to support the show at:

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Join our Facebook Group at:

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Visit the Silver Linings Handbook store to support the podcast at:

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Visit The True Crime Times Substack at:

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The Silver Linings Handbook podcast is a part of the ART19 network. ART19 is a subsidiary of Wondery and Amazon Music.

See the Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and the California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.