True Believer: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh

On March 26, 2025, the 35th anniversary of Elizabeth's murder, Covenant Seminary held a "Service of Lament" and dedicated a new "Garden of Lament and Hope" on the campus grounds. TJ and Ruth discuss the service (which TJ attended) and how Covenant chose to memorialize Elizabeth. Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get...

The main True Believer project is finished, at least until there are any updates on the Elizabeth Mackintosh murder investigation. But we do want to return with a postscript that addresses a different question: What happened to other people who were students at Covenant Seminary in 1990? Many students and professors went on to respected careers in the ministry. One of them was a man named Ian, who...

The family of David Winecoff recently reached out to “True Believer” with concerns about recent episodes. After reviewing their concerns, we have made several updates to Episodes 13 and 14. Ultimately, however, we stand by our work and our decision to include an examination of David Winecoff’s death in “True Believer.” Click here to read the statement released by the family of David Winecoff.

In this final episode of the series, Ruth and TJ sit down with PCA pastors Doug Serven and Kyle Hackmann to discuss what they all learned from working on this series, and to answer some of the comments and critiques that listeners (and those that haven't listened) have made. We do have some bonus content in the works, so stay tuned for that. And if there are any updates in the unsolved murder...

In the last episode we heard about David Winecoff's connection to Elizabeth Mackintosh, and his apparent belief that Michael, the prime suspect, had nothing to do with her murder. When we left Norm Reed, he and David were planning a climbing trip to the Sangre de Christo mountains of Colorado. Today we’ll hear what happened on that trip, the fallout that followed, and how, just like with Eliz...

A couple quick announcements. First, Ruth and TJ will be in Richmond, Virginia the week of June 9th, for the PCA General Assembly. If you’re going to be there and you’d like to meet up with us, or if you have any information that you’d like to share, if you know someone who’ll be there that you think we should meet, visit  www.truebelieverpodcast.com to get in touch with us. And second, we'll...

In this episode we begin to talk about David Winecoff, the pastor of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, which Elizabeth Mackintosh attended. David was something of a lightning rod in St. Louis Presbyterian circles, and his death in 1993 enshrined him as a sort of a mythic figure, especially for those who attended his church. But despite his elevated status and the high regard that so many ha...

We’ve talked about some of the interesting characters around Covenant Seminary in 1990. But as we enter the final phase of this series, we’ll explore the most interesting, and potentially most important, characters yet. In this episode, Detective Worth will start to lay out his own theory of the case, which differs pretty dramatically from everything the Creve Coeur police had believed before him...

We’ve spent this series mostly focusing on Michael, Elizabeth Mackintosh’s supervisor on the Covenant Seminary house cleaning staff. In the eyes of the police, Michael was the prime suspect in Elizabeth’s death, literally from Day One. But he wasn’t the only person they looked at. In any large group of people, even at a seminary, there are going to be some people with checkered backgrounds. But as...

Sandra was one of the few unmarried, female students at Covenant in 1990. And she had a class *with* Elizabeth, which turned out to be incredibly influential on the rest of her life. She also went to Grace and Peace Church with Egon Middleman, whom we’ve briefly mentioned before in this series. Sandra’s story provides a fascinating look into what it was like to be a female student at Covenant Semi...

Michael and his family left Covenant's campus in May of 1990, but the stigma of Elizabeth Mackintosh's murder followed them the rest of their lives. In this episode we hear from Michael's two oldest children, Karl and Kirsten, as they talk about the effect the murder had on them. Here are some resources if you or someone you know needs help with a domestic violence or child abuse si...

For this week’s bonus content we have the rest of our two interviews with lawyer Ryan Davidson, whom you’ve heard in the last couple episodes. Ryan reached out to us in February because he had some critiques of how he thought we were characterizing Covenant Seminary, in terms of how they have or haven’t responded over the years, and the legal advice they might be following around that issue. We as...

A couple months after the murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh, Michael left Covenant Seminary (under "duress" as he described it) and moved his family to California. But his contentious relationship with Covenant has continued to this day. Using letters sent back and forth between Michael and Covenant, we examine what went wrong and how there's not much anyone could do about it. Visit ww...

Today's bonus content release happened to coincide with the 34th anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh, so we wanted to take a moment to honor and remember her. Read the full text (and a brief history) of "The Sands of Time Are Sinking" here . Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

After Elizabeth's death, police ask a suspect, Michael, to sit for a polygraph exam. Reluctantly, he agrees, hoping that it will help clear his name. Ruth and TJ examine why that didn't happen. Click here to read a transcript of the polygraph clips heard in this episode. Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

In this week's bonus content you'll hear the rest of our interview with Liam Adams, religion reporter for The Tennesseean.  Liam talks about some specific cases of abuse and misconduct the PCA has dealt with, his reporting on the Nashville Presbytery, the PCA’s 2022 Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault report, also known as the DASA report, the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission (which is t...

In this episode we zoom out to examine the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the denomination of Covenant Theological Seminary. What does the reaction to Elizabeth's murder tell us about how Christian institutions handle tragedy? And how should they talk about Elizabeth going forward? Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch...

In today's bonus content you'll hear Ruth and TJ's first interview from June 2023, about Ruth's background and interest in Elizabeth's case, and some of their personal feelings about what they'd uncovered up to that point.

So far we've spent this series examining the details of Elizabeth Mackintosh's murder and the subsequent investigations. We'll come back to more of that later, but in this episode we focus on the way that the murder was handled by Covenant Seminary. Some people at Covenant felt free to talk about Elizabeth. Others felt that Covenant administrators wanted her murder hushed up. But ev...

To appease everyone dissatisfied with our every-other-week release schedule, we're going to start putting out some bonus content on the weeks in between. Today we start with the leftovers from our interview with theologian and former Covenant Seminary professor, Jerram Barrs. He talks about his backstory, his time a L'Abri in Switzerland, some additional thoughts about Elizabeth and the...

We’ve spent this series so far examining what happened to Elizabeth Mackintosh, but in this episode we focus on Elizabeth herself. Who was she? What was she like? What was she doing at Covenant? And what were her plans for the future? Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

The Covenant community reacts to Elizabeth’s death. Police travel around the country to investigate leads. Then they find out important information might have been saved by seminary lawyers and stored in a barn… or might be lost forever. Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Police quickly understand that they have responded to a homicide at Covenant Theological Seminary, not a suicide (as the original 911 call said). As the investigation begins, police become interested in one man, a fellow student of Elizabeth Mackintosh. A choice made that day continues to haunt investigators. Click here to review the transcript of this episode. Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to...

About a dozen people were around Elizabeth on the morning of her death, but no one saw anything incriminating. Ruth and TJ walk through the morning of March 26, 1990, minute by minute, examining who was where and when. We hear from former Covenant students and staff who were on the campus that morning, and also from two retired Creve Coeur Police detectives, George Hodak and Dennis Spoerry, as the...

Elizabeth Mackintosh was killed in the chapel basement at Covenant Theological Seminary. The right tour guide will point out the spot, but Covenant hosts no memorial for her. And it’s not like Elizabeth was a stranger passing through… she was a well-respected student at the time she was killed.  It’s been 33 years since her death, so why are some people still finding out about it for the first tim...