It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we started CRIME CAPSULE. We've produced 33 shows. To date, we've had 7200 downloads. We've had the chance to reconnect with people we interviewed for cases we covered many years ago. We've peeled back the layers of some of the most high-profile cases we both covered and even learned news details in the process. Crime reporting is the kind of thing that never really leaves you no matter how many years you get away from it. It's like riding a bike—the wheels of curiosity that accompany an investigation start turning the second you hear about a new case that's unfolding. It's a puzzle to be solved, one where lives are forever changed, including ours. We're very proud of what we've accomplished in the past year and we really appreciate your support. That being said, we're not sure where the show goes from here. We're not saying goodbye. We have a few more shows to air before the end of the year. We would love to hear from you about the direction you think we should take! You can reach us at yourcrimepod@gmail.com.

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23 years ago Kathleen Peterson was found dead in a pool of blood at the bottom of a stairwell in her Durham mansion. Her husband, novelist and one-time mayoral candidate, Michael Peterson, was the only other person in the home at the time. He vehemently denied having anything to do with his wife's death saying it must have been an accident, that she fell down the stairs and hit her head after a long night of drinking. What followed was a captivating investigation and case that wound its way through the criminal justice system while the whole world watched…hanging on every detail…details like Michael Peterson's involvement with a male escort and the defense's allegation at one point that an owl had killed Kathleen. It would forever divide the Petersons' blended family. After a 3-month trial in 2003, Michael Peterson was found guilty of beating his wife to death—the alleged weapon a fire poker—and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. But it didn't end there. In this episode, we interview a local reporter who followed the case for 17 years. Julia Sims gives us a behind the scenes peek at one of North Carolina's crimes of the century.

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Picture a grocery store at closing time. The lights were still on. Employees were finishing up, getting ready to lock up, thinking about going home. But on June 6th, 1993, inside a Be-Lo grocery store in Windsor, North Carolina, someone else was already there hiding, watching, and waiting. A killer was already inside waiting for the moment the doors locked and the building became a trap. What happened next wasn't rushed. It wasn't chaotic. It was controlled. Six employees were rounded up, bound with gray duct tape, and forced into the back. They were stacked together. And then—execution-style—the shooting began. When it was over, three people were dead. Somehow, a critically injured man made a 911 call. The killer was gone, vanished into the night. He had made off with just $3,000. The suspect left behind a 22-caliber pistol, but nothing else. The most unsettling detail was survivors say the suspect talked and told them he used to be a police officer but had been wronged and fired. Thirty years later there still have not been any arrests. In this episode, we speak to a member of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation about their efforts to catch this brutal killer.

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Moni was missing, but it didn't make any sense. She would never have left her young daughters. Her family hadn't seen her for months. But she had been posting on social media, texting them, and had even called her landlord. Or had she? Monica Moynan actually wasn't behind any of these communications. It was the man who killed her, the father of her children, the man that disposed of her body so expertly that investigators couldn't find Moni. Police and prosecutors built a meticulous case against Brian Sluss—they had evidence, evidence that he had pretended to be her in digital communications, Moni's blood beneath the floor tiles in her home, and sudden, unexplained changes to the furnishings in her home. But they still didn't have one important thing—Moni's body. In this episode, Kathryn Pomeroy and Melanie Shekita walk us through how they built a murder case without a body against Brian Sluss and put him behind bars for life.

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47-year-old Teresa Richardson was found dead in her home on Bluebird Lane in New London, North Carolina exactly 21 years ago this week. She lived alone in the mobile home park. Her neighbor found her with multiple stab wounds on the floor of her home when she failed to show up for a planned social gathering. Immediately, investigators in Montgomery County had boots on the ground interviewing people who knew Teresa and taking DNA samples from anyone who would consent. More than 75 samples were taken. Family, friends, and acquaintances were eliminated through DNA and interviews. The case went cold. Now, the State Bureau of Investigation is relooking at the cold case hoping advancements in DNA technology or a tip could be the key to getting justice for Teresa. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of this cold case with an investigator from the State Bureau of Investigation.

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In this episode, we're going to be talking about a national crisis that's happening right under our noses, in our backyards—human trafficking. What exactly is human trafficking? Well, many people still think of it as women being smuggled in a van across the border and forced into sexual servitude in a modern-day brothel. To be clear, this still happens. But what's more common is a business that's operating in plain sight, massage parlors that seem legitimate, but they're not. In most cases, the only way to disband these businesses and free these women, because most of the victims are women, is to catch the people who are operating them.

It's estimated that there are 13,000 illegal massage businesses operating across the country, in every single state. They generate an estimated 5 billion dollars a year in revenue. So, whose is responsible for stopping these businesses from operating? Police departments don't usually have the manpower or the time to handle these cases because there are so many. In addition, the business owners usually face light penalties and often reopen their illegal establishments quickly even after they've been charged. Plus, the ugly truth is that the employees often face penalties for prostitution even in this day and age when we know they are victims of sex trafficking. And even if employees aren't charged, they're reluctant to testify against the business owners for fear of retribution making these cases very difficult to prosecute.

Our guest for this episode has dedicated much of his attention and energy to shining a light on human trafficking and sharing the information with law enforcement partners so they can properly charge people, prosecute them, and disband these businesses for good. Mike Longmire says these businesses represent organized crime and require community outrage to run them out of town.

29-year-old Mary Davis, a married mother of two, worked at a hardware store in Lexington, North Carolina in the 1980's. On May 7, 1987, Mary stepped out for lunch and never returned. Mary's body was found the next day behind a local grocery store by family members during a search for her. She had been raped and strangled. Immediately, suspicion fell on her husband and her boyfriend that she was having an extramarital affair with. This cloud hung over them for more than three decades until the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation cracked the case by testing DNA that had been expertly preserved by the Lexington Police. A suspect, Russell Grant Woods, was identified, and even though he had died a decade prior, the information gave the heartbroken family information they desperately needed to put their lives back in order. In this episode, we talk to the SBI about how the preservation of evidence and advanced technology are solving more and more cold cases.

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July 11, 1997, started out like any other day for Raleigh Police investigator Patrick Niemann. He was riding with 35-year-old Raleigh Police Detective Paul Hale, who had just been promoted to investigations 5 days earlier. They approached a car at an apartment complex that they believed contained a potential witness in a murder case. 19-year-old Kwame Mays was in the back seat. He fired his 9mm handgun killing Hale. Niemann returned fire, wounding Mays. Mays was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder-one in Hale's death, and one in the homicide of Ralph Walker who had been shot in the head earlier that morning while driving his pickup truck. In May of 1998, the jury convicted Mays in the murder of Walker, but deadlocked in the murder of Hale. Mays was retried and convicted in September 1998 of killing Hale. Mays faced the possibility of the death penalty, but instead, was sentenced to life in prison. Patrick Niemann went on to have a long career in law enforcement, one that included helping other officers who had experienced critical incidents emotionally process what they had been through. He has never sat down for a media interview about the case, until now. In this powerful conversation, Patrick describes the shooting, the trauma that followed, and ultimately, his will to move forward in large part to honor Paul Hale's legacy of service.

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