Crime Analyst

Join Laura and Marion Barter’s warrior of a daughter, Sally Leydon, as they delve deep into the known facts of the case to uncover what happened to Marion Barter. Mother of two, Marion had been a popular primary school teacher at the Southport school on the Gold Coast when, in March 1997, she suddenly quit her job, sold her house and announced she was going to take a trip of a lifetime to the UK a...

Join Laura and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Maggie Freleng in this episode as they delve deep into the Menendez Brothers case. Content warning: Listener discretion is advised. Episode Highlights: Pam Bozanich Speaks Out: Listen to the Deputy District Attorney who prosecuted the Menendez brothers at their first trial share her own words. Her recent startling comments, published in April 2023, ar...

Laura interviews Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and producer Maggie Freleng. Maggie has spent her career focusing on wrongful convictions, the criminal legal system, and social issues. She is host and producer of “Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng”, “Murder in Alliance”, and “Unjust and Unsolved” podcasts focusing on wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.   Laura and Maggie analy...

Laura continues her fascinating interview with living legend Professor Ann Burgess who assessed Erik Menendez and was one of the expert witnesses called by the defense in the first trial in 1993.   Laura and Ann dissect the timeline leading up to the murders as well as the abuse and intentional tactics Jose Menendez used to control his family. Laura shares some new information about Kitty’s behavi...

Laura interviews living legend Professor Ann Burgess who assessed Erik Menendez and was one of the expert witnesses called by the defense in the 1993 trial. Laura asks Ann about her pioneering work, how she became involved in the Menendez case and what she discovered when she interviewed Erik. Laura and Ann also discuss the timeline and in particular the days leading up to the murders as well as t...

Laura continues her fascinating interview with Hazel Thornton who was juror #9 at the first seven-month trial in 1993. Listener discretion is advised. In this episode you will hear more detail about the horrific, insidious, cruel, and torturous abuse Lyle and Erik were subjected to by Jose Menendez.   Laura and Hazel discuss the multiple forms of abuse the boys were subjected to, including coerciv...

Laura starts a new series unravelling the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez and speaks with Hazel Thornton, who was one of the jurors at the first seven-month trial in 1993.   Jose and Kitty were shot dead on August 20, 1989, at their home in Beverly Hills. 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik were later arrested for their parents’ murders. The dominant narrative in the media was that they were...

Laura shares final key events in the timeline including further federal and state financial charges against Murdaugh and the murder trial whereby Murdaugh admitted under oath that he stole from his clients and firm PMPED. However, after Murdaugh was convicted for murdering Maggie and Paul, curiously Murdaugh pled not guilty to the federal financial charges.   Laura also discusses Murdaugh’s statem...

Laura continues to highlight and analyse key events in the macro timeline including Murdaugh’s public statement which he released via his lawyer, Dick Harpootlian, on September 6th stating that that he was stepping down from PMPED and was entering rehab for his opiate addiction. Laura examines the evidence to support Murdaugh’s claim of being a drug addict and that he lied due to his so-called ‘dr...

Laura interviews award winning journalist Mandy Matney who is the creator and host of the Murdaugh Murder podcast, now named True Sunlight, Exposing Crime and Corruption, and co-host of Cup of Justice. Mandy has been investigating and breaking news on the Murdaugh murders for more than four years.   Laura and Mandy discuss the psychology of Alex Murdaugh and his motive for killing Maggie and Paul...

Laura continues to unravel the timeline including Murdaugh’s significant debt and borrowing, his horrific abuse of power and trust of vulnerable clients and so-called drug addiction.   Pamela Pinckney, her son Hakeem Pinckney along with Alania Plyler Spohn and Hannah Plyler turned to Murdaugh at the very worst time in their lives. He used and exploited them, funnelling off money from their legal w...

Laura interviews Kerri Rawson, survivor, advocate, New York Times bestselling author and daughter of serial killer Dennis Rader, who gave himself a horrific moniker due to how he bound, tortured, and killed his victims.   On Friday 14th July, 59-year-old husband and father of two, Rex Heuermann, was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman. Their remains we...

Laura continues to unravel the timeline and shares that, in addition to the boat crash case and PMPED’s COO and CFO Jeanne Seckinger’s confrontation with Murdaugh about the missing $792k missing legal fees on June 7th, there was another very serious investigation into Murdaugh’s behaviour and finances, which began before Maggie and Paul’s murders.   Laura then details Gloria Satterfield’s troublin...

In this episode Laura starts her deep dive into the Murdaugh family's timeline. In the family’s orbit, there are at least five dead bodies in six years, including Stephen Smith, Gloria Satterfield, Mallory Beach, and Maggie and Paul. However, Laura doesn't stop there. She takes a wide-angle lens approach to the case, tracing it back to the beginning of the Murdaugh family's reign of power and infl...

Laura details and shares her thoughts and analysis on the micro timeline, including Murdaugh’s explanation for his sudden burst of activity - of his 283 steps in 4 minutes whilst making many phone calls.   Laura discusses the curious missing calls from Murdaugh’s call log, and how, despite the call records showing his many calls to reach Maggie, his behaviour reveals he consciously avoided going t...

Laura continues to detail the micro timeline and shares her thoughts about Alex Murdaugh’s phone being dark for an hour and then the phone springing back to life, capturing concentrated steps of activity in a four-minute window by Murdaugh, just minutes after Maggie and Paul are killed. But that’s not the only thing the data reveals about Murdaugh’s actions and behaviour that night. Join Laura as...

In this episode Laura gets into the granular detail of the micro timeline of events based on the cell phones, GPS, car data and phone records which tell their own story of the movements of the Murdaugh family on the day and night of the murders. Listen to Laura as she breaks it down and you can read Special Agent Peter Rudofksi’s 88-page report (the link is under the Sources below). You won’t want...

Laura continues to analyse Alex Murdaugh’s third interview/ interrogation with SLED’s Special Agent David Owen and Senior Special Agent Jeff Croft on August 11, 2021 at Walterboro. Murdaugh’s good friend and lawyer Cory Fleming was by his side.   Laura highlights Murdaugh’s reaction when caught in a lie, as well as a key tell when he’s lying. In the final one minute and twenty-six seconds of this...

Laura analyses Alex Murdaugh’s third interview/interrogation with SLED’s Special Agent David Owen and Senior Special Agent Jeff Croft on August 11, 2021. Murdaugh’s good friend and lawyer Cory Fleming was by his side.   Laura details several challenges that SLED agents put to Murdaugh as well as Murdaugh’s answers which revealed significant inconsistencies in his re-telling of what happened on Jun...

Laura analyses Alex Murdaugh’s second interview with SLED’s Special Agent David Owen and Senior Special Agent Jeff Croft on June 10, 2021.   Murdaugh is once more interviewed in a car three days after the murders. On this occasion Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s lawyer, is present. SLED try and pin Murdaugh down on the timeline of events and his movements on June 7th.    Join Laura as she highlights tacti...

On May 24 2023, in a fascinating development in the lawsuit Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito filed against Roberta and Christopher Laundrie, Judge Danielle Brewer ordered Roberta and Christopher Laundrie to share the ‘Burn After Reading’ letter Roberta Laundrie wrote to Brian Laundrie with Gabby Petito’s parents. Laura shares her analysis of the letter and her thoughts about Roberta Laundrie brea...

Laura continues to analyse Alex Murdaugh’s first interview with Special Agent David Owen from SLED and Colleton County Sheriff's Office Detective Laura Rutland on June 7, 2021.   Laura deconstructs Murdaugh’s narrative highlighting indicators of deception, a moment of leakage about the current state of Murdaugh’s relationship with Maggie, and a major hole in Murdaugh’s story. You won’t want to mis...

Laura analyses Alex Murdaugh’s first interview with Special Agent David Owen from SLED and Colleton County Sheriff's Office Detective Laura Rutland on June 7, 2021.   This interview took place in a car, after Murdaugh claimed he found his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, dead up at the kennels at Moselle. Murdaugh's personal attorney Danny Henderson was also present. Laura highlights several puzzling...

Laura shares her analyses about the targeting of Maggie and Paul, the choice of location, the sequence of events and when triangulated, it reveals that this horrific double murder could only have been committed by someone close to them.   Laura dives deeper into the crime scene behaviour including the modus operandi of how Maggie and Paul were killed, the different types of weapons and different t...

In this episode, Laura analyses the 911 call Alex Murdaugh made on June 7, 2021, in which he claimed he had discovered the dead bodies of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul.   Alex Murdaugh called 911 at 10.07pm and claimed he discovered their bodies at Moselle, the family’s 1770-acre estate in the small town of Islandton, South Carolina. Laura forensically deconstructs the call and identifies nu...