Two screams pierced the silent, unseasonably warm and windy night of October 13, 1997 in Lawrenceville, Illinois. The first, was that of 10 year old Joel Kirkpatrick as he desperately sought help against the person who had entered his room in the black of night and had attacked him with a knife. The second scream was that of his mother’s as she ran to her neighbors house and pounded on their door desperately seeking help. She begged for them to open up. “They’ve got Joel”, she bellowed into the closed door, “They took Joel.”

Once the shock of what had happened settled, and the years went on the question that lingered was whether or not the person that hurt Joel was the least likeliest suspect or the dangerous stranger that had rolled into town with that warm wind.

Trigger warning: violence against a child

Sources:
https://www.greatnorthinnocenceproject.org/news/bloodstain-pattern-analysis-another-subjective-science-convicting-innocent-people/
https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/2004/06/26/court-overturns-rea-convictio/118184118/
https://www.uis.edu/illinoisinnocenceproject/julie-rea
https://nationalpublicdata.com/people/r/julie-rea/tn/martin/pd06p1qslq5zi0nmlilw2zf05nyb8p17/
https://www.illinoistimes.com/news/who-killed-joel-11440266/
https://www.propublica.org/article/bloodstain-pattern-analysis-jury-wrongful-conviction-acquitted-exonerated
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84706396/?terms=Joel%20Kirkpatrick
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84742918/?match=1&terms=Joel%20Kirkpatrick
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84769767/?match=1&terms=Joel%20Kirkpatrick
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84769827/?terms=Joel%20Kirkpatrick
https://www.illinoistimes.com/news/who-killed-joel-11440266/
https://www.facebook.com/ABC2020/videos/julie-rea-recalls-what-happened-night-her-son-was-killed-2020-goodnight-mother/854470515223652/
https://wwws.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/documents/nulawreporterwparticle.pdf
Through the Window: The Terrifying True Story of Cross-Country Killer Tommy Lynn Sells by Diane Fanning

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, guilt does not stay buried. It festers beneath crowns and costumes, slipping through rehearsed smiles and whispered prayers. A kingdom rots from the inside, not because of the murder alone, but because of the secret that follows it, heavy and impossible to silence. “O, my offence is rank,” King Claudius confesses, discovering that even a throne cannot shield a poisoned conscience. In the bedroom of a teenager, centuries later, those same words would land a little too close to home.

In this case we will explore a modern tragedy shaped by Shakespearean shadows: ambition without a crown, desperation without a dagger, and a confession that would echo far beyond the pages of a play. Because sometimes the most dangerous poison isn’t poured into a cup, it’s carried in the heart, waiting for its moment to speak.

Sources
https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/poisoning-daddy/
https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/hamlet/read/3/3/
https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/product/sigald/243671
https://www.newspapers.com/image/644815133/?terms=Marie%20Robards
https://www.newspapers.com/image/823666883/?match=1&terms=Marie%20Robards
https://www.newspapers.com/image/644815129/?match=1&terms=Marie%20Robards
https://www.newspapers.com/image/646308983/?match=1&terms=Marie%20Robards

In today’s case a similar situation to the one we covered in Episode 224 arose in central Florida in the Spring of 2011, but this time with a 21st century twist. The teens exhibited the same type of behavior we saw in 1965 in Tucson but this time social media was present to fan the flames of an all too familiar fire caused by jealous, and hierarchical, high-conformity behavior…and just like last time someone would lose their life. Join me as I tell John the case of Seath Jackson.

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Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1557636/#:~:text=Rather%20than%20a%20sense%20of,Steinberg%20&%20Silverberg%2C%201986).
https://psychcentral.com/lib/click-or-clique-positive-and-negative-teen-social-groups#:~:text=Members%20are%20discouraged%20from%20being,are%20valued%20for%20their%20individuality.&text=Natural%20leaders%20may%20emerge%20but,t%20find%20mutually%20trusting%20relationships.
https://www.marionschools.net/parents__students__and_community/parents/Student_Enrollment/your_zoned_school
https://www.circuit5.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/soto-sentencing-5-30-12.pdf
https://www.ocala.com/story/news/crime/2012/09/05/man-charged-as-accessory-in-seath-murder-case-ruled-incompetent/64312725007/
https://pubapps.fdc.myflorida.com/offenderSearch/detail.aspx?Page=Detail&DCNumber=U46099&TypeSearch=AI
https://www.ocala.com/story/news/crime/2018/03/20/guilty-plea-to-accessory-in-murder-of-seath-jackson/12948232007/
https://www.ocala.com/story/news/crime/2020/06/17/charlie-ely-wins-freedom/42153993/
https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2011/04/21/facebook-posts-show-troubled-relationship-before-murder/64298523007/
https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/state/2016/02/23/amber-wright-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-a-second-time-for-summerfield-murder/31892000007/
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/1866390.html#footnote_ref_2
"Seath Jackson - Sleeping With a Killer (Season 1, Episode 12)". Apple TV. 2021. Retrieved February, 2026.

By the summer of 1965 three teenage girls had gone missing from Tucson, AZ. When the truth would finally come to light the members of the community would be forced to question everything they knew to be true…and also what their children had been up to.

Join me as I tell John the cases of Alleen Rowe and Gretchen and Wendy Fritz.

Patreon.com/truecrimecouple

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Sources:
https://altsclass.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/8/0/38808759/lifemagazinepiedpiper.doc.pdf
https://tucson.com/morguetales/article_db508906-e3de-11df-af58-001cc4c002e0.html
https://tucson.com/morguetales/article_0826e27c-e245-11df-b65f-001cc4c03286.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166810356/james_mcilroy-fritz#view-photo=162428330
https://law.justia.com/cases/arizona/supreme-court/1973/1720-0.html
Newspapers.com Access to the Daily News,Arizona Daily Star, and the Los Angeles Times from 1966-182

The city of Austin found itself in a predicament in late 1988. A horrific crime was committed against a young mother in broad daylight, in a well known establishment on a busy street. The unsolved crime would largely impact the city’s reputation for having the lowest crime rate of all of Texas’s great cities…so it was time to solve the murder of Nancy DePriest, let’s see how they did it.

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Sources:
https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10386
https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/third-court-of-appeals/1991/4881.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/649638052/?match=1&terms=nancy%20depriest
https://www.newspapers.com/image/364054228/?match=1&terms=nancy%20depriest
https://www.newspapers.com/image/363966719/?match=1&terms=nancy%20depriest
https://www.facebook.com/groups/742034912983989/posts/2019627575224710/
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/hector-polanco-andre-causey-false-confessions/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/burden/innocents/danziger.html
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/03/09/facing-her-daughter-s-killer-at-last
https://www.justice.gov/archives/dag/file/877741/dl?inline=#:~:text=Forensic%20hair%20examiners%20generally%20recognize,Forensic%20Examination%20of
https://nij.ojp.gov/nij-hosted-online-training-courses/crime-scene-and-dna-basics-forensic-analysts/history-and-types-forensic-dna-testing/polymerase-chain-reaction-pcr/dq-alpha
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/austin-police-hector-polanco-yogurt-shop-murders/269-160c495f-9212-420c-ad47-edf02bea3d5a
https://law.wisc.edu/fjr/clinicals/ip/
https://innocenceproject.org/about/#:~:text=We've%20helped%20free%20more,and%20advance%20the%20innocence%20movement.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jun-21-me-confess21-story.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/261908704/richard_edward-danziger

On Halloween night of 1992 something happened that divided the small farming town of Kipling, Saskatchewan. A young single mother accused the town’s well respected doctor of sexual assault while under his care. Wanting to save his reputation, the doctor took a blood test to prove his DNA was not a match for the samples found during the performance of a sexual assault exam. It was not a match. Despite this, Candice, the accuser, was adamant about what had happened. Join me as I tell John about the case of the ‘Good Doctor’.

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Sources:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/497356653/?terms=john%20schneeberger
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-endless-nightmare-of-lisa-dillman/article761440/
https://forensictales.com/case-of-dr-john-schneeberger/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/19616-midazolam-injection
https://www.iflscience.com/a-doctor-cheated-dna-tests-by-implanting-somebody-elses-blood-into-his-arm-59380
https://www.newspapers.com/image/496716610/?match=1&terms=john%20schneeberger
Forensic Files Interviews Season8, Episode 8