Footsteps in the Dark Podcast

Thomas Jackson calls back...and talks to John for the first time since 2010. We finally obtain the discovery evidence from Dakota County...and find multiple smoking guns. After more than 17 years, John finds his way out.

A missing transcript is found, and his private investigator keeps finding things in strange places. John Woodward tells me about where this all started, and I'll discover new information showing it began long before John thought. A new name leads to a revelation...and two brothers are unmasked.

John Woodward's private investigator goes looking for documents that show up in weird places. We reexamine a failed drug test that landed John back in prison in 2009, leading to his meeting Jackson. A web of connections appear, and the PI finds Michelle McPhillips...and what she said shakes John's reality and gives a glimmer of hope.

John Woodward's private investigator tries to get John freed after being convinced Jackson was trying to scam John, and immediately realizes something isn't right. He turns his focus onto John's first case from 2006, and runs into the same headaches as John's first investigator. As the PI pulls the strings, the ball of yarn begins to come undone.

Jackson made a deal with the devil, and now he had to make good on it. Tasked with getting John Woodward to talk, Jackson goes to work. John would tell his attorney everything...but it was too late, and years later, multiple analyses of the recordings would show something wasn't right.

Through a chance email, I find myself talking directly with Thomas Jackson. After striking a deal for his story, things get weird...then, Jackson cracks and starts talking about John and what happened, and Jackson tosses a couple curveballs.

In 2010, John Woodward finds himself in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Thomas Jackson. John has his wife send attorney Jan Tarvestad $2500...but for what? Was it for legal fees? Was it for a truck? Or, was it a down payment for murder?

In early 2010, John Woodward was fighting to overturn a ruling that could get him released, and he meets another inmate, Thomas Jackson. A lifelong criminal, Jackson offers his help. John, being desperate and depressed, accepts. It is a decision John Woodward would regret.

In 2006 and 2010, John Woodward was charged with multiple crimes he claims he is innocent of. Once a self-made millionaire, John has very little beyond a family that never gave up on him or his claims of innocence. In 2018, he'd hire a private investigator to look into his claims. This is the investigation and story of John Woodward.

John Woodward claims he was wrongfully convicted...twice. After a 6-year private investigation, it might be true. What John didn't know, however, is it might not be twice...it might've been three times.    This is the story...of John Woodward.

After eliminating the impossible, only the possible remains. The private investigator discloses a location and the team visits where the private investigator believes Tammy was injured. Reconsidering the evidence results in a shocking conclusion. A detail in a letter seems to confirm where Tammy died...but only one person knows for sure. 

The remaining theories are examined and an old lead gets a second look. The private investigator opens up about their investigation and takes us through their process. By following Tammy’s footsteps, they narrow down the timeline leading to her death...and come across a location that intrigues them.  

Years go by and the case goes cold. The State of Nebraska had done their part and the case got cold. Despite continued involvement with local South Dakota law enforcement and the FBI, no new leads have developed. Rumors and speculation lead to new theories regarding her death. Friends and family take their case to social media and raise money for a private investigation. Old evidence gets challeng...

It’s Attorney Mike Stevens’ first case of this kind and he struggles to mount a compelling defense. Eric takes the stand as both sides pepper him with questions. The defense case quickly goes downhill under the experienced cross-examination of the state’s prosecutors and holes are punched into Eric’s alibi. Closing arguments get cross as Attorney Stevens breaks from courtroom etiquette and Judge R...

Attorneys for the State of Nebraska present their manslaughter case against Eric Stukel. Though expert testimony paints a violent death and evidence points to Eric as the perpetrator, Eric’s defense manages to sow seeds of doubt during cross-examination. Judge Redmond forbids shocking evidence from being presented to the jury. The charge carries a bizarre requirement and the state stumbles to meet...

Episode IV: The Investigation Begins  Though authorities look at multiple suspects, including Aunt Vicki’s boyfriend, authorities soon focus in on the last person known to have seen Tammy- her boyfriend, Eric Stukel. His comments and behavior result in suspicion, his car is seized, and he fails a polygraph...but soon goes silent. Investigators find evidence indicating something is amiss with his s...

Nearly six days have passed without sight or sound of Tammy, when a golfer decides to look for golf balls in a ravine adjacent to a golf course. He discovers the body of a young woman lying face down at the bottom of an embankment next to a highway. Panicked, he tries to find help. Soon, authorities would determine it was Tammy. As word spreads throughout Yankton and friends and family begin to gr...

It’s early spring of 1992 and Tammy is struggling with her first year of college at the University of Nebraska. She ends up leaving and moving back to Yankton, South Dakota- away from one boyfriend and back close to her ex-boyfriend, Eric Stukel. Tammy would walk a tightrope between boys as her romantic and social life begins to spiral. By late summer, she would find herself single and eyeing some...

Tammy Haas was known for her charm, radiance and natural beauty by all who knew her. She was the light in a dark room. At age 16, her family suffered their first major tragedy with the loss of her father. As midwesterners do, they dealt with the tragedy by keeping their heads down and forging ahead. After her father's death, she would start dating Eric Stukel. After beginning college an the Univer...

Introduction to the Footsteps in the Dark podcast featuring the case of Tammy Haas of Yankton,  South Dakota in  1992.