On September 14, 2000, a concerned neighbor called 911 after hearing sounds of a violent fight in the apartment next door. Unable to gain entry after no one buzzed them into the building, responding officers eventually left, a decision they would later regret. What followed was the disappearance of a 34 year old flight attendant, a gruesome discovery, and a case that unraveled one shocking secret after another.

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Sources
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2003/11/19/murder-coverup-outlined-to-jury/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2003/12/24/65-year-term-for-womans-murder/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/170520970/?match=8&terms=traci%20todd
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/taking-stock-community-policing-chicago
https://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Resources/fed3a0e5-a70e-42b9-b4fc-8cc35f602e01/1091520_R23.pdf
Newspapers.com Archived articles from the Chicago Tribune

Join John and I as we discuss the final part in our series on the murders of Joann and Alex Katrinak.

Trigger Warning: This episode includes violence and the death of children under the age of one.

Sources:
Newspapers.com Access to archived newspaper editions from the Durham Sun, Morning Call, and East Penn Press
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1201?utm
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/mcall/name/andrew-katrinak-obituary?id=18087919
https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2017/1919-eda-2016.html
https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/socialhistory-crime-punishment/chpt/lindbergh-law#_
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/lindbergh-law
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6931475/joann_marie-katrinak
https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/tag/alex-katrinak/
https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2017/1919-eda-2016.html
Mal, Tammy. Convenient Suspect. Chicago Review Press, 2017.

In today's episode we continue to discuss the case of Joann and Alex Katrinak. Part III will be made available this Sunday and our final Patreon episode for June will be released the following Tuesday.

Trigger warning: This case involves violence against a child under one.

Sources:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1201?utm
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/mcall/name/andrew-katrinak-obituary?id=18087919
https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2017/1919-eda-2016.html
https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/socialhistory-crime-punishment/chpt/lindbergh-law#_
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/lindbergh-law
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6931475/joann_marie-katrinak
https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/tag/alex-katrinak/
https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2017/1919-eda-2016.html
Mal, Tammy. Convenient Suspect. Chicago Review Press, 2017.

In the quiet borough of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, the days leading up to Christmas in 1994 should have been filled with the familiar comforts of the season. Instead, an unsettling silence settled over a neighborhood when a young mother and her infant son seemingly vanished without a trace. Their home held troubling clues, their car would soon be found abandoned nearby, and a community accustomed to knowing its neighbors suddenly found itself gripped by fear and uncertainty.

As investigators searched for answers, rumors spread through the ornamented streets and suspicion seemed to fall in every direction. What happened inside that small Pennsylvania town would become one of the region's most haunting mysteries: a case marked by compulsion, secrets, and a trail of evidence that only seemed to raise more questions. Tonight, we follow the twists and turns of an investigation that would captivate the Lehigh Valley for years, and uncover a story far darker than anyone could have imagined.

Trigger warning: This case involves violence against a child under one.

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Sources:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1201?utm
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/mcall/name/andrew-katrinak-obituary?id=18087919
https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2017/1919-eda-2016.html
https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/socialhistory-crime-punishment/chpt/lindbergh-law#_
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/lindbergh-law
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6931475/joann_marie-katrinak
https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/tag/alex-katrinak/
https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2017/1919-eda-2016.html
Mal, Tammy. Convenient Suspect. Chicago Review Press, 2017.

The stillness of the hot June morning in Barberton, OH was broken by the creaking of floorboards beneath the small feet of a six year old girl. She was unsure of what had happened or what she had suffered, she just knew she was scared. As she searched the home she was in, the brutality of the previous night revealed itself to her. Just hours earlier she had been laughing with her beloved grandmother and now she lay dead at her feet. Someone had slipped in their home in the middle of the night and destroyed a family’s world.

And yet, the most haunting part of this story wouldn’t be the bloodshed itself, it would be the years that followed. Because the little girl who staggered through the neighborhood at sunrise, traumatized and barely alive, carried with her the only account of what happened inside that house. Her words would shape the investigation, divide a family, and eventually help lead to justice because the killer had always been right there…

Sources:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/296313955/?match=1&terms=Clarence%20elkins
https://www.newspapers.com/image/297064102/?match=1&terms=Clarence%20elkins
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32300943/judith_ann-johnson
https://www.cleveland19.com/story/6729058/prisoner-indicted-in-1998-murder-case/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wifes-detective-work-frees-hubby/
https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2005-12-26/segment/01
https://web.archive.org/web/20140715131515/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17562131/ns/dateline_nbc-killer_instinct/t/killer-instinct/#.U63PM_boct4
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ohnd-5_06-cv-03004/pdf/USCOURTS-ohnd-5_06-cv-03004-2.pdf
https://lawlit.net/adcrimlaw4/images/elkins_timeline-1.pdf
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1075753446/?match=1&terms=earl%20mann
https://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/Innocence/elkins.html
https://content.next.westlaw.com/Document/Ice513343a49311df952a80d2993fba83/View/FullText.html?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)
https://innocenceproject.org/cases/clarence-elkins/
https://law.justia.com/cases/ohio/ninth-district-court-of-appeals/2003/2003-ohio-4522.html
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914b1beadd7b0493475b518
https://web.archive.org/web/20140403061401/http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/ff313_clarence_elkins/4.html
https://abcnews.com/US/hicks-baby-adoptee-sold-georgia-doctor-50-years/story?id=32743492

If I were to tell someone from Wood County Texas to close their eyes and try to imagine what the tiny town of Hawkins, which sits at the intersections of Highway 80 and Farm Road 14 in the south east corner of the county, looked like in 1986 they would not have to use their imagination. Moving with a slow east Texas rhythm the town has not changed with time, but rather has found itself suspected within it.

The town sits as an Americana time capsule, arrested to the last time that they knew the innocence, hope, and freedom they once prided themselves on for within hearts of the residence sits a wound that has never healed. Time is only measured in two ways in Hawkins, TX before what happened to them in 1986 and after…or as they refer to it…before and after, “The kids”.

For this case I am bringing you into a town named Hawkins, in 1986, and to be honest the vibes of the town seem strikingly similar to another Hawkins you are all well acquitted with, time period and all…and there is one more similarity…high school students going missing. But in our case the disappearances are real and the effects of what happened to the children of Hawkins in 1986 have reverberated through the quiet roads ever since. So let’s step back in time…

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Avery After Dark Podcast

Sources:

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/166/757/630178/

https://texasstandard.org/stories/upshur-county-courthouse-gilmer-tx-jerry-mcfadden-jail-cell/

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/166/166.F3d.757.98-50485.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Walter_McFadden

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6653351/gena_lee-turner#view-photo=141666582

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6653379/suzanne_denise-harrison

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6653334/bryan_drew-boone/flower

https://www.newspapers.com/image/639801109/?match=1&terms=jerry%20mcfadden

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1314219208/?match=1&terms=jerry%20mcfadden

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1205660661/?match=1&terms=suzanne%20harrison

https://barnwellmountainra.com/

https://www.txexecutions.org/reports/191-Jerry-McFadden.htm

https://www.newspapers.com/image/649944728/?match=1&terms=gerald%20mcfadden

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1158959852/?match=1&terms=Anna%20Marie%20Hlavka

After a late night church service Dawnia Dacosta began the familiar half and hour ride home. She had done the drive so many times she could have done it with her eyes closed. But as she cruised down I95 she felt her car sputter then slow. She had run out of gas.

As she eased onto the shoulder, she may have thought of her mother and the lessons drilled in long before moments like this ever came. Be prepared. Stay alert. Know what to do. So Dawnia followed those rules. Windows up. Doors locked. Hazards flashing. From where she stood, she could see the glow of a Texaco sign just off the exit ramp, not far at all. As she clutched an empty gas can, she stepped into the night, convinced it would be a quick walk… she’d make it.

Sources:
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/1720973.html
https://flcourts-media.flcourts.gov/content/download/347254/file/02-1590_AmdInit.pdf
https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/flsupct/dockets/sc02-1590/02-1590amdinit.pdf
https://www.iexitapp.com/exits/Florida/I-95/North/686
https://www.newspapers.com/image/229834760/?terms=dawnia%20dacosta&match=1
https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/lucious-boyd-cold-case-jane-doe-eileen-truppner-dawnia-dacosta-murder-rape-resolved-indictment-convicted-murderer-rapist-death-row-broward-county-sheriff-detectives-florida-december-5-2023
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1998/12/13/hundreds-celebrate-life-of-slain-nursing-student/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/638261922/?match=1&terms=Roderick%20Bullard
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/05/us/florida-murder-rape-cold-case-dna/index.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20090830185850/http://www.fadp.org/news/Sun-Sentinel-20040115.htm
https://cbs12.com/news/local/lucious-boyd-cold-case-jane-doe-eileen-truppner-dawnia-dacosta-murder-rape-resolved-indictment-convicted-murderer-rapist-death-row-broward-county-sheriff-detectives-florida-december-5-2023
https://www.newspapers.com/image/238640528/?match=1&terms=melissa%20floyd
https://pubapps.fdc.myflorida.com/OffenderSearch/detail.aspx?Page=Detail&DCNumber=699893&TypeSearch=AI
newspapers.com/article/the-palm-beach-post-gina-marie-moore/9867526/

The stillness of a warm September morning in the South was broken by something that didn’t belong: a bright red Jeep, abandoned and half-submerged in the murky edge of a quiet creek. Not far from it, drifting in the same dark water, was a young mother of two. What should have been a peaceful start to the day instead became the beginning of a mystery as clouded as the water itself.

For the detectives called to the scene, nothing about this case came easily. The deeper they looked, the more the details seemed to twist. Unanswered questions, unsettling circumstances, and relationships that were far more complicated than they first appeared. But as the truth slowly surfaced, it revealed something far more disturbing than anyone had been prepared to face.

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Sources:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/244437525/?match=1&terms=18%20years%20later%3A%20What%20to%20know%20about%20Lee%20Ann%20Mangrum%27s%20killing
https://www.newspapers.com/image/276089133/?match=1&terms=%20Lee%20Ann%20Mangrum
https://www.tncourts.gov/press/2013/03/27/supreme-court-affirms-convictions-upon-finding-no-prosecutorial-misconduct
https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/court-of-criminal-appeals/2011/m2009-01810-cca-r3-cd.html
Snapped Season 24, Episode 25