The events that took place in Chester County, Pennsylvania in August 1978 were unthinkable. Family killing family. A father calling for the murder of his own son. For years The Johnston Gang got away with everything—theft, burglary, violence—until the brazen attacks of August 1978 crossed a line, and the family crime empire began to crumble. Host and writer Amanda Lamb shares her own memories of the murders and the trials that followed. Her father was the lead prosecutor who helped bring the killers to justice. A fictional account of The Johnston Gang’s downfall was portrayed in the 1986 movie ..read more

Indigenous woman are ten times more likely to be murdered than the rest of the population in some parts of the US. More than 4 in 5 indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime. These are simple facts, facts that Brittany Hunt and Chelsea Locklear who are members of the Lumbee Tribe are trying to understand. They started “The Red Justice Project” podcast to shed light on these cases. In this episode, they share their insights on why they believe indigenous women are more often murdered and the cases are rarely solved. We also dive into the case of an indigenous woman whose skeletal r ..read more

Carla Davis isn’t your typical American living the good life in Dubai. While we sleep, she teases the knots out of stubborn cold cases as a self-taught forensic genealogist. But she doesn’t just give her time and talent, she opens her wallet. Carla has become one of our country’s leading cold case philanthropists, a group of people who are changing the outcomes of many of these cases by helping pay for DNA testing. In this episode Carla shares why she’s committed to forensic DNA analysis and takes us on a journey from solving her own family mystery to solving one of the most stubborn, high-pro ..read more

17-year-old Brittanee Drexel went against her mother’s orders and traveled from New York to Myrtle Beach for spring break 2009. She disappeared on a crowded street and was never seen again. Thirteen years later, there is a break in the case when a tipster leads investigators to a killer. In a hand-dug grave outside of town they make a gruesome discovery. In this episode, the long search for Brittanee and justice on her behalf. Complete transcript available at https://www.whatremainspodcast.com ..read more

You know the phrase, you are what you eat? Well, it’s true. Isotopes from the water we drink and the water in the food we eat can tell scientists where we live, and where we have traveled and lived in the past. Isotope analysis is quickly becoming a forensic tool that when paired with DNA testing can help solve some of the oldest cold cases. We introduce you to an expert in the field who breaks it down for us and explains how it’s been used to help solve one of the most heinous crimes in Ireland. Full transcript available at https://www.whatremainspodcast.com.  ..read more

What do you do with a cold case that happened a lifetime ago when things like DNA testing and forensic genealogy didn’t exist? If you’re a professor at Adelaide University in Southern Australia, you do everything you can to solve it. In December 1948, a man was found dead on Somerton Beach in a suburb of Adelaide. Tucked inside the watch pocket in his pants was a slip of paper with Persian words printed on it which meant “finished.” Over the years, dozens of people tried to identify the man with no success, but Professor Derek Abbott, who enlisted California forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpa ..read more

In 1975, Priscilla Blevins vanished from her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her parents reported their adult daughter’s disappearance to the police, but investigators didn’t seem very interested. Priscilla’s file was only two pages long. Ten years after her disappearance, human remains were found nearby, but no one connected them to Priscilla. Over the years, it seemed her disappearance had been all but forgotten. Another cold case, destined to remain unsolved.  In this episode, we explore how DNA profiling changed the game for missing and unidentified person cases. It’s the perfect s ..read more

What is justice? For some people, it’s finding the missing remains of the person they love. For others, it’s convicting the person responsible for taking a life. Sometimes, it’s both. In this episode, we take you into the belly of the criminal justice system and show you how it tries to find resolution for families in some of the most difficult cases. We tell the story of Monica Moynan, a young mother missing and presumed dead – and why the local district attorney believes she can prosecute the ex-husband for murder without a key piece of evidence – Monica’s body. Without human remains, is the ..read more

Unlike most of this podcast, this is not a story about skeletal remains. In this case, no human remains have been found. Cole Thomas is officially a missing person, but his father knows in his heart his son is dead.  Imagine if your child disappeared without a trace. Given that there are so many ways of communicating and tracking people these days it’s hard to picture, but it happens. Children and adults seem to simply vanish every single day in America. In this episode we introduce you to a family whose adult son vanished in North Carolina in 2016. You’ll hear the heartbreaking story of ..read more

When you think of an artist, drawing dead people is probably not the first thing that comes to mind, but that’s exactly what a forensic artist does. In this episode, we meet two forensic artists who piece together clues allowing them to take a human skull and turn it into a portrait of how a person looked when he or she was alive. Going from skeletal remains to a drawing or 3-D likeness of a person is part science, part art and part magic. In this episode, find out how they interpret the clues to turn a skull into a human likeness that helps solve cold cases and unsolved murders ..read more