On the morning of September 7th, 1988, a seventeen-year-old boy called 911 from a house on the Long Island Sound and said his parents had been attacked. Within hours, before Martin began to process what had happened to his parents, he was sitting in a police interrogation room, being told, over and over, that he was the one who did it.

This is the story of Seymour and Arlene Tankleff. And it's the story of their son, Martin Tankleff, who lost both of them to a single act of violence in his own home. Then, in a set of horrifying circumstances, he lost the next eighteen years of his own life to a system that decided, almost immediately, that grief and guilt looked the same on a teenager's face. Instead of being known as Martin, he was known as inmate number 90T3844 for nearly two decades.

For a full list of source materials, please visit: www.preytellpodcast.com/episodes/wrongful-conviction-of-martin-tankleff

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This episode covers one of the more haunting missing persons cases in recent California history. It’s a case that took years to be classified as a homicide, and it raises hard questions about what happens when investigators commit to the wrong theory early, and don't let go of it.

The McStay Family disappeared on February 4th, 2010. Their bodies were eventually found in the Mojave Desert in 2013. The public ran rampant with speculation and wild theories. But the reason for the family’s murder was much closer to home.

For a full list of source materials, please visit: www.preytellpodcast.com/episodes/mcstay-family-murders

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For more information on the podcast or to suggest a case, visit: www.preytellpodcast.com

On October 5th, 2004, at just after 11 o’clock at night, a cleaning crew finished up and headed out into the parking lot of the medical office building they were cleaning in Tucson, Arizona. They noticed a car that had been sitting in the parking lot for hours with the engine off and the lights off.

Inside was David Brian Stidham. Everyone who loved him called him Brian. He was 37-years-old, and less than an hour earlier he was standing in front of a room full of medical students at the University of Arizona teaching them about pediatric eye care.

Today's episode is dark, but this isn't really a story about a murder, a hitman, a stabbing, or even really about the man who ordered the murder. This is a story about what happens when the people whose entire job it is to protect the public fail to do exactly that. Think doctors bound by an oath, and prosecutors bound by the law.

For a full list of source materials, please visit: www.preytellpodcast.com/episodes/murder-of-brian-stidham

Connect with Prey Tell Podcast on social media and stay up-to-date on the latest case updates.

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For more information on the podcast or to suggest a case, visit: www.preytellpodcast.com