Patia Eaton
Appearances
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
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The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
There's obviously this range of emotions that you're then experiencing directly following the attack. What do logistically the hours and the days following the attack look like?
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
What was their reason when they said, we can't do anything? Why? Well, because it's alleged.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
Well, also, this is our advice to women on how to stay safe. Don't leave your house. Yeah, exactly.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
Have you learned anything else about him throughout this process? Like what does he do for work?
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. ,,,,,, ,,,,,,
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
A Morning Run
Welcome to The Knife. I'm Patia Eaton. I'm Hannah Smith. And this week, we speak with a woman named Daroon Henry. She is a personal trainer, influencer, and mother of two who lives in Toronto, Canada.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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You know, they might not have the manpower or the resources to put as much into an unsolved case as they would like. It's also really exciting to see the developments in technology and how that's been able to bring resolution to cold cases. And, you know, that's something that I think has been interesting to watch play out. So interesting. Yeah, finally getting that resolution.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Genetic genealogy. I mean, I guess from the standpoint of a producer, the unsolved, unresolved cases are... You know, I think everyone wants to play a part in helping solve something. But ultimately, those stories can be harder to tell because how do you end a story that doesn't have resolution? Yeah, but we can go back to Serial season one. Yeah.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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This is off the record. And you're like, okay, how am I going to tell this story and also keep this person's trust? So that's something we're always looking to do. Recently, I called someone about a story, and it was a situation where the same thing. She answered my call. She was excited to hear from me, excited to tell me about what she had been through.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah. OK, so last listener question for today is actually one I love talking about, which is how do you get people to agree to speak with you?
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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It does. And a lot of times when you first call someone, their question is, how did you get this number? Totally. And then you have to tell them, well, I was just, you know, lurking around the internet and I actually found a bunch of stuff in addition to that. But yeah, I did just call your cell phone and I try to sometimes send a text like, hey, this is who I am. I'm going to give you a call.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Would love to speak with you. Oh, you do? Sometimes. I never do that. If I feel like they might be unsettled by an unknown number and someone asking about it, sometimes I'll do that. Not always, but it depends. If I know that someone has given a statement to like a local newspaper already about what happened to them, you know, it gives us a sense of, okay, they might be open to hearing from me.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Or it's someone whose name has maybe never been published and you don't know how they're going to respond to being contacted. I think it also plays into it how much time has passed since whatever the incident was. If it's been a year or 10 years, I think if it's something that is more recent, they might be more expecting your call. If it's not, they might be put off by it at first. Yeah.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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You know, talking about ethical storytelling and sort of what we look for when we're sourcing new stories is this why. Why are we going to tell this story? And I think it's really important on that first phone call that you're able to answer that question. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, understandably, why would someone talk to us and retell us this traumatic story just because? And...
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I think it's also just a good measure, a guidepost for yourself as you're looking into stories. If you can't answer that question, maybe don't make that phone call.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And oftentimes, you know, in these stories, everyone's not on the same page about how things happened. And, you know, was someone's sentence fair? Were they guilty at all? Did you play a role in it that you're not disclosing in your interview? These are things people are concerned with when they're going to be recorded. And I get that.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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I asked her if she would schedule a recorded interview. She agreed. And just before the call ended, she said, you know, actually, I had a question. And I said, what is it? And she said, what is a podcast? What a great question. A great question. It did stump me for a moment.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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I usually say something along the lines of, like, if I'm calling you, I'm going to say, hi, is this Hannah? My name is Patia Eaton. I'm a producer based in Los Angeles, and I'm calling to ask you about whatever. Just so that, you know, they immediately know who I'm calling for because you don't always have the right number. And I've said my name, and then I just sort of wait.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And then probably they say, what is your name? Exactly. Yeah, I get that all the time, which I get it. Padia? Padia. Yeah, that is my quick spiel. And then, you know, a surprising amount of people do take that call, whether they agree to interview or not. Occasionally you get hung up on and that's just part of the job. And when people do that, we don't call them back. We just leave them alone.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But yeah. Yeah, it also varies a lot. Are you calling a victim? Are you calling law enforcement? Are you calling the perpetrator of the crime? Because those are people that we have a duty to call whether or not we think the interview is relevant to the story. You know, a lot of times when we're calling the person who has been convicted of a crime, we know they're not going to call us up and say,
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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sort of dive into their own psyche we know they're gonna say it didn't happen like that you had something wrong that's generally the case but you have a duty to make those phone calls anyway if you're going to talk about a crime that's been committed so it also depends who you're calling and generally those people are less interested in speaking with you
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah, so this is all happening back in 2020 during the pandemic. I'm deciding I'm really interested in working on a podcast. And so I have no podcasting experience at that point. And after not getting the associate producer role on The Opportunist that first time around. Tragic. Yeah, tragic. I decided I should try to make one. And I had a lot of time at that point.
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So at that point, I have to take a step back and say, OK, this person may not totally understand what they're signing up for. And I need to make sure that they know that before they do the interview.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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My job was not taking up very much of it. And I started looking into a missing persons case in Sparta, Tennessee. And I started doing that in August of 2020. So I didn't exactly know where to start. I thought maybe I would look on Reddit and see if there was anything locals were saying about the case.
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And I really didn't find anything except for one person on the Sparta, Tennessee Reddit had maybe commented on a true crime Reddit post about it saying, yeah, I'm from there. This happened. We don't know where they are. It wasn't like They didn't have any sort of like explosive information. But I reached out to that person and he didn't want me to use his name. So I'm not going to use it now.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But he grew up in that town and was the same age as the kids who went missing. And those kids who went missing were Aaron Foster, female age 18, and Jeremy Bechtel, male age 17. And they went missing on April 3rd of 2000.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah. So all that had been written about the case at that point was that Aaron Foster and Jeremy Bechtel had gone missing. And what was generally known about the case was that they had been last seen at a party and they had left that party in Aaron's car together. And that would be around 10 p.m. that night. So initially, this is all I knew about the case.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And the party had taken place at a person named Bubba Cole's house. Bubba's actual name is Brian Cole. He's actually since passed away, passed away in 2014. So I was never able to speak with Bubba. But Bubba's house was a location that was known to local law enforcement as a place where people, you know, there was partying, there was alcohol and some drug use.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And that's pretty much what was out there is that they had left this party and never been seen again. And so the speculation in the beginning was really at this party. Well, what happened at the party? That's kind of where I started. I tried to figure out who was there. And I started actually by calling Jeremy's parents.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Now, I learned that over the course of looking for his parents, his mother, Rhonda, had passed away. She passed away from a battle with cancer in 2018. So I reached out to Jeremy's father, Ronnie Bechdel. And Ronnie took my call and I just said, hey, you know, this is my name and I'm working on a story about this. Sometimes I didn't even say podcast.
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I would say like, I'm not sure what I want this to be. I think I want it to be a podcast, but I'm just interested in learning more about this case and seeing if there's anything we can find out. It's been a lot of years at this point. They had been missing 20 years. So, Ronnie, you know, he's the nicest person and he was like, yeah, what do you want to know?
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And he told me that he was like, well, I actually spoke with Jeremy while he was at the party. I spoke to him an hour before he left the party. And he said, can you pick me up from school tomorrow? And I said, sure. So I learned Jeremy was getting his GED, which, you know, I'm not a professional investigator, but it tells me he had some sort of plan for the future.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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You know, he was planning to attend classes that next day, coordinating a ride home with his dad. And Ronnie said when he went the next day, Jeremy didn't show up. And he said that was unusual. So, OK, we know that's out of character for Jeremy. And I started with that and I was like, OK, so they had plans the next day. They probably didn't just run off somewhere.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But as I continued making calls, that theory kept presenting itself that Aaron and Jeremy had run off. The idea was that they were in Florida, in Pensacola, Florida. It was a place that maybe one of them had a family member and they were always really, you know, intrigued by the idea of going there.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah, we talked about it. He said no. He said it would be very unlike Jeremy to be gone this long. I mean, at this point, 20 years, right? He didn't say, I think that Jeremy's passed away, but he, you know, optimism had faded over the years, two decades. Yeah. And he was just so kind and willing to share with me who, you know, I'd never met him.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And it really kind of motivated me to continue on with this project. And so I continued calling people. I was like, can you tell me the names of any of his friends? And he could. And so I started off that list. And I called a woman named Rosa, who at the time was actually living in Southern California.
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And so I live in Los Angeles and I drove out to see her and we had lunch and Rosa had told me, yes, they had gone to this party and were never seen again. And she was not at the party, but she was supposed to be there. And so she had all of this survivor's guilt. Rosa is just like, she's a person you want as your friend. And I mean, she's bubbly, she's kind, she's warm, she's smart, she's funny.
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And she was so close with Aaron Foster. And carrying this with her all of these years. And, you know, I had listened to a lot of true crime podcasts. I'd read a lot of true crime stories. But speaking to Rosa really showed me how long someone carries this. You know, it doesn't go away. You don't stop wondering.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And she also was just so welcoming that I was like, OK, I'm going to continue making these phone calls.
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She said Aaron was so much fun, just the nicest person. She said that she wasn't sure if Aaron and Jeremy were dating at the time. They were very close friends, but exactly what their relationship was was sort of unknown at the time. And so Rosa told me that they had all talked about running away to Florida. That was something they talked about all the time. Including Rosa. Including Rosa.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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So the three of them. Wow. Yeah. And so I'm like, OK, that is something to think about. So these kids have actually talked about this a lot, this idea of running away. She said, you know, I really did think that they were in Florida for a long time, but I also couldn't imagine Aaron leaving without me. That didn't seem like something Aaron would do, but we had been talking about it.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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We had talked about it really recently before they disappeared. So I just sort of assumed that that's what happened.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah, I think it was it was youth. And, you know, you're naive at that age, I think, about a lot of things. But Sparta is a beautiful place and it's a small town. And almost all of the people I met there were so warm and welcoming. It's not as if like who could live in Sparta. It's more just that, you know, if you're a high school kid or high school aged person,
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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You've been born and raised in this small town with the same people. You have this curiosity about other places. And I think that this rumor that they had run off to Florida was pretty widely accepted by their peers in the beginning because you're almost rooting for them. you're like, oh, they went, they left, they did something different. That's so awesome. They're on an adventure.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Something that stuck out to me about this is that when Aaron and Jeremy went missing, so they're last seen April 3rd, there's not this sort of April 4th, April 5th call to action in the community. There's not this moment of Aaron and Jeremy are missing, we need to find them. It was a much slower,
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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slower process than that they were sort of accepted to maybe have run away but then the parents concern was pretty evident and then they're sort of calling friends and trying to see what's happening but there was not this like immediate sense of okay we need to have people working on this case and And so that was a really hard thing for me to understand looking back.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But after having worked on the case, you realize, you know, this is a small town. They don't have a ton of resources to be working with. And it was at a time before people having cell phones. You know, in Sparta, they talked about some of the kids had pagers. Wow. In 2000. In 2000. And the police department, the sheriff's office at that point, I believe, had one computer. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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So it wasn't like they were not working on it. I think it was just a very different time in sort of the expectation of what happens when a kid doesn't come home from a party. There's also, if these are kids who maybe have done that once before, Erin had run away before for I don't even know how long it lasted. I think she drove to Nashville or something. I don't quite remember. But
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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You kind of accept it in the beginning. And so Rosa remembers getting a call from Aaron's mother saying, have you seen her? And she doesn't remember when that was. She thinks it was within maybe a week of Aaron and Jeremy going missing. And she said when she got that call was the first time she thought maybe something is wrong.
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And I think that really points sort of to where things start to go south in this investigation. And it's not one person's fault. I think it was many factors. But Rosa says no, she hasn't seen Aaron. She hasn't seen her since I think it was the day before the party because Rosa didn't go to the party.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But, you know, we know that that they were there because Ronnie Bechtel, Jeremy's dad, spoke with him. At the party. He was at the party.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Right, and really put you guys in the room with us during conversations we're having about these stories anyway. I mean, when we can't find the right person to interview for whatever reason about a story, it usually doesn't stop us from sitting on Zoom for an extra half hour being like, but guess what I learned? And that is why I'm so excited to be doing these episodes. Me too.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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He knew he was with Aaron. Okay. And so I ended up speaking with an investigator by the name of Chris Isom, who had moved on from the sheriff's office, but told me what he could tell me about the case. And I eventually learned another few names of people who were at the party. And one of those names was Becky. Becky did not agree to a recorded conversation, but she did agree to speak with me.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And she said, yeah, they were there. And you're going to hear a lot about Bubba Cole's house and how it was this place where people were drinking and using drugs. But actually, we were just hanging out. Maybe there was some alcohol. Shouldn't have been doing that and driving for sure. But this was not this sort of like dark, maybe shady scene that I had been hearing about.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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It was just a place people were hanging out and, you know, being teenagers. And so she said, yeah, they did. They left around 10 and we didn't see him again. And so I'm like, okay, so I know they left at 10, but I know they were there at 9. And I said, where were they going? And she didn't really know. She thought maybe they were going to pick up Aaron's brother in town somewhere.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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So Aaron had a little brother, has a little brother. And I had called Aaron's family members over the course of this process, and they were unwilling to speak with me. And that's okay. I totally get it. It goes back to that moment of... yeah, this is like what could be more painful than not knowing where your daughter is. And you don't know me and I have no prior work to show for myself.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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So I, of course, accepted that. But something that I found really tricky to sort of work through during this project was that Rhonda Bechtel was her married name. Rhonda led better once she and Ronnie divorced, so Jeremy's mother. She was frequently pressing law enforcement for answers, frequently reaching out to Aaron's family to sort of join forces.
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And her perception, based off of what her friends and family told me, was that she was a very good person. was that Aaron's family was not operating the same way. They really didn't want to talk to her about it. And I don't know why that is to this day because they didn't speak with me. And again, I just, that's what I was told from those who were really close to Rhonda.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But Rhonda never believed Jeremy ran away. Rhonda always believed something happened.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah, I wouldn't call it suspicion. I think it was more of just a, you know, it's an intimidating thing to ask someone about something that's so painful when they don't want to talk about it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah, and that missing persons case and the research I did on that actually helped me get a job working with you, Hannah. So why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself?
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Thank you. Thank you. ,,,,,,, Yeah, it was an incredible learning experience for me. And ultimately, I think it made me a better producer. We're going to wrap up today's episode by telling you what we're listening to or reading right now. It could be a book, a podcast or a show, just something that has captured our attention. Great.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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It's interesting, though, that it's like this desire to sort of cause someone pain if you can't feel for them.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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And also, like you said, so mind-bending because she has this emotional pull to help other sociopaths.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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No, that's great. I'm going to check that out. Patia, what have you been listening to or reading? I've been watching. Or watching. I've been watching. What have you been watching? I have been re-watching, actually, a show called Accused, Guilty or Innocent. That is an A&E show that I watched on a streaming platform.
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It's a really incredible show because of the unique perspective, which is that they're taking you through a criminal trial from the perspective of the defendant. And that defendant, you know, is saying that they are innocent in some way, shape or form. Maybe it's that it was a vehicular accident that caused death, but they're fighting for their freedom is what they're doing.
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And it really sheds light on something you don't really see in a lot of headlines. You know, for example, if someone dies in a car accident, there's death. understandably not a lot of sympathy in that article to the driver who is thought to have caused the accident.
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But you really see these people for so much more like, you know, what are they going to have to leave behind if they go to jail for what happened? And do they really deserve that? And are they really a danger to society? And you're really asking all these questions as you're watching it, like, wow, everyone wants justice when something terrible happens. But what is also the cost of that?
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And what does justice bring to the victim's family? And what additional destruction does someone going to jail cause? You know, someone could be facing their family being displaced because they no longer have that income or family. Someone could be watching their son who thought they were doing the right thing now spending his adult life in jail.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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It's a hard show to watch in moments, but it is a really well done, I think, docuseries. So it's people who have been accused of a crime. What kind of crimes are they? Heavy crimes. You know, murder is one that you'll see in a few episodes. There's a mother on the first season who is accused of purposefully causing harm to her son, having Munchausen's by proxy. Oh, wow.
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And when you're hearing her defense, you know, they're saying things like, well, there's a doctor at this Texas hospital who is a specialist in Munchausen's. And so what does that mean for the amount of people who are being diagnosed with it there? And how does why is it geographically a higher percentage? you know, in this area? Well, because they're specialists.
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And you really start thinking about that. One thing I wish we had with the show is follow-up episodes. You know, I was particularly interested in her episode because I want to know, like, after her trial happens, what is the result for her child? Does he become healthier? You know, I haven't seen any follow-up to it, but it's an interesting show. And I think a perspective you don't often get
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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I think that's so interesting. Yeah, it's like it happens slow, but it happens fast because you're watching the clock on your own freedom. But it can sometimes be years. Your life is sort of in the balance. And yeah, go watch it. I will. What a great recommendation.
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If you have a story for us, we would love to hear it. Our email is thenife at exactlyrightmedia.com. Or you can follow us on Instagram at The Knife Podcast or Blue Sky at The Knife Podcast.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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So when I moved to Los Angeles, I wanted to work in scripted television and I pursued that for a really long time. And I ended up working at a production company, loved the people I worked with and the shows I was working on. But a lot of stars have to align for a TV show to get made. And I was becoming sort of disenchanted by that.
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And the pandemic came along and I was one day away from flying to North Carolina for a pilot shoot. Everything got shut down. And I was just so disappointed. I was out on my deck listening to a podcast. And I'm like, you know, I wonder if I could do this. But I don't have any podcasting experience. I don't have any nonfiction storytelling experience. I've only ever worked in scripted.
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We're calling this episode format of our show Off Record because we have our interview episodes where we speak with people who have lived through a crime. And many, many times we come across stories where something really interesting has happened, something we want to explore further, but nobody wants to talk with us about it. And we still want to talk about it.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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So I was like, OK, how can I do this? I'm trapped in my apartment. And I found a missing persons case in Tennessee. And I started researching it. And as I was in the process of doing that, I applied to work with you on Opportunist. Did not get the job. Applied again. Well, it wasn't my fault that you didn't get the job. I just want to say. It was someone else's.
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But yeah, I was, okay, I'm going to just take this extra time to continue teaching myself how to do this kind of work. And that was the best thing that could have happened because I really fell in love with speaking with people that I would have otherwise never met and hearing their stories.
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And, you know, it's amazing you think of it as this work you're doing, but it's actually incredible how many of them you end up keeping in touch with. And I also, as a true crime listener, started thinking, OK, these are the kinds of podcasts I like listening to, but why? One thing that I think you and I really connected on is that there is a wide spectrum in true crime storytelling.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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But why it's so meaningful to us is because at the end of the day, Some of these stories are really fascinating, but why do we tell them? Well, I think that people want to know that what they went through mattered. And it does matter. And we can all learn from it. And so I was just really enamored with that and by the ability to just make something from home. And that was really cool to me.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah. And, you know... We were able to make the show that we were working on remotely, and it was just about working really hard and trying really hard and getting better every day. And now we're here, and I just couldn't be more excited. Yeah, me too.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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It gave me time to look into the case and also really solidified that this was something I wanted to be doing. It wasn't just like a Hail Mary attempt to get a job when no one knew the future of television. Yeah. And now we're here. And I'm just so excited to be working together and at Exactly Right Media. What a dream. What a dream. Truly.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Since this is the first time we're doing this, we asked the producers and staff if they had any questions for us that would help you get to know us and learn about what we do. And I think we got some good ones. They did have questions.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
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Yeah, I actually saw Darun's story playing out in the media in real time shortly after she released the viral video. And the story just really stuck with me. And as soon as we had a platform where I felt like, We could bring her on to tell her story. I suggested that we reach out. I had just had a moment, taken Instagram off my phone and actually asked you to reach out.
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So we find out everything we can, and we're here to bring you those stories.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
And that's how we were connected to Daroon. Yeah. Always a good idea, you know, to take a break from social media.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
Our next question is, what types of stories or motivations are you drawn to most? A crime of passion, random opportunistic crime, grade-motivated crimes, or other?
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
Yeah, I think in researching, investigating the cults we looked into on Opportunist were fascinating. I think the pattern in cults that intrigues me is this idea that you become someone you don't know. It's this like... When someone commits a crime and you know that person, maybe now they're a stranger to you.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
But when you become the stranger to yourself, it's like, well, can I even trust my own brain? Yes. And that is a really wild thing for people to sort of unpack and pull themselves out of. And it's also this slow burn kind of story where, you know, it doesn't start with like, hey, come join my cult. Yeah. It never starts like that. Never. That would not be good for that cult.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
And so that is, I think, something that really resonates with me is you never think it's going to be you. And then it is. And you don't even know it for a long time. I'm also really interested in missing persons cases. I think what draws me into those is maybe a sense of possibility, but also like a hope that... Always you hope for the best, I think, in any case like that.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
But this sort of how can we come together to maybe bring some answers or clarity here? I think whenever we can do good, we want to do that. And so those cases I do find really end up intriguing me. I think that when you work in true crime, you know, you find yourself reading all of these really heavy headlines and it doesn't always make sense to tell a crime story.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
You know, it doesn't always make sense. It's not just because someone will talk to us and tell it.
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
The Knife: Off Record – 102
Anytime a victim or their family wants the case solved and it's not, it's frustrating. It's hard to talk to them. And the reality is that in a lot of cases, as time goes on, resources are allocated to something that is more maybe current or solvable. You know, I find it frustrating on their behalf whenever that happens. I know law enforcement also finds it frustrating.