Telling Lives

The tragedies wrought by drunken and drugged driving continue, despite the knowledge and the ability to easily prevent them in today’s society. Still many believe they are only putting themselves at risk when they chance having a drink and then driving a short distance home. But what about when you are choosing to get behind the wheel of a company vehicle—or a 60-ton semi-truck—after having a few...

March 29, 2011, in Gulfport, Mississippi started out as a cool, breezy spring day along the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. People were busy with springtime activities – proms, gardening and planning summertime vacations—and for Gulfport Police Chief Alan Weatherford, his family was looking forward to a wedding. But this day, one drunk driver changed everything.

The Kelly and Cumberland families had a lot in common. Both “old Coast” families whose roots dated back decades in the Orange Grove area of Gulfport. Coincidentally, both had homesteads on the same rural road in the county. Unfortunately, years of the lack of accountability for the choices of one would have deadly consequences on the other.

North Dakota passed legislation to strengthen DUI penalties in 2013. The deadly 2015 DUI crash you are about to learn about would be the precedent-setting case testing the mettle of the law. Three young women—two of them University of North Dakota students on summer break—met up for a night of fun. What they got was a parent’s worst nightmare. We will also explore why North Dakota and other sparse...

More than 35 years have passed since the crash that would go down in history as the worst DUI in American history. Thankfully, safety protocols have been installed since to prevent the type of horrific explosion that was ignited by a drunken driver that May 1988 day. However, all 67 people aboard the Ratcliff First Assembly of God’s Church bus lives were altered for eternity. Listen to Karolyn, Ja...

For a nation that sprang from Puritanical beginnings, America moved quickly to one that glorified the rough and tumble, hard-drinking of the Old West. We moved into the 20 th  century and Americans fascination turned to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood movie stars with a drink in one hand and cigarette in the other…we followed their lead and culture shifted…. Adding automobiles to th...

We all blame the driver in a DUI crash that injures or kills people or damages other’s property. But sometimes the problem isn’t just one person. With a DUI crash, we typically turn the other way if we aren’t directly affected. We read stories and we get angry at the person who was driving drunk.  In this case, it was Shelley Rose who drove drunk and killed innocent people. It’s her fault, right?...

On Thanksgiving Day 2018, Jada Bright, a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi woke up early and headed south from Hattiesburg to spend the holiday with family outside New Orleans.  It was Jada’s first trip home since her father died from cancer earlier that year. She had worked late the night before, waiting tables at Patio 44, and was excited to have a couple days off to spend with lo...

The second season of Telling Lives, I chose to explore the continued societal problem of DUI and impairment in American culture and examine how to affect change. I’ll share stories from around the country—in Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Kentucky and other states—going back to the worst DUI crash in American history that killed 27 in 1988—to a police chief and father who lost his own daught...

Contact the team at tellinglivespod@gmail.com  

Angela’s best friend shares her memories of Angela’s terrifying visit to the Mahned Bridge and the last few weeks before she went missing and the weeks afterward when it seemed so many mistakes were being made.  Also, Debra has encounters with Stephen Lindsey and Larry Posey years after Angela’ disappearance, which couldn’t have been more different.  Finally, where Angela’s case stands today and w...

Nearing the new millennium, a new breed of detective coupled with major advances in technology impacted the Angela Freeman investigation.  For a brief moment it looked like answers might finally be available to explain just what happened that night at the Mahned Bridge. Contact the podcast team at tellinglivespod@gmail.com, or visit the website at tellinglives.blubrry.net.  Join the Telling Lives...

Join us for an in-between episode round table discussion!  We take answer your questions and provide a couple of points of clarity about the content previously released. Contact the team at tellinglivespod@gmail.com or visit the website at tellinglives.blubrry.net.

Since the podcast began, we’ve had several more people who knew Angela Freeman reach out to us with information and memories that we will share with you in this episode—including    a woman who has come forward with information she says she overheard when she was 12 years old about what happened to Angela.    This is the first time she has spoken publicly about what she overheard.

Join us as we answer questions related to the disappearance of Angela Freeman. If you have questions about the podcast, or would like to share your thoughts on Angela, send us a message at tellinglivespod@gmail.com.  We might answer your questions on a future episode! tellinglivespod@gmail.com www.tellinglives.blubrry.net

After seven years, authorities urged Angela Freeman’s family to formally declare her deceased.  A service was held, but the grieving process continued as Debra and Bill Stewart’s marriage crumbled.  In this episode we’ll also look at statistics on missing persons and two other newly cold cases in Mississippi. Contact the podcast team at tellinglivespod@gmail.com.  Visit our websi...

One of the interesting things that seems to happen anytime a person goes missing or is killed in a mysterious way and the case remains unsolved for any length of time is the interest from psychics or people who believe they can help solve the case with help from otherworldly means.  Angela Freeman’s case has been no exception.     In Episode Six we will explore what psychics over the years have br...

Just 20 months after Angela Freeman went missing, two friends from work disappeared after leaving McAlister’s Deli in Hattiesburg. The next afternoon their truck and broken butcher knife were found at the Mahned Bridge.  Four days later, three bodies were found in shallow graves nearby, catapulting this rural community and the Mahned Bridge into national news and putting the mystery of Angela’s di...

After Angela Freeman’s car was discovered at the Mahned Bridge in remote Perry County, Mississippi, days passed before law enforcement started any kind of investigation.  Those first crucial hours were wasted by a rural sheriff’s department that was untrained in proper investigation as well as determined in their belief that Angela was just a wayward runaway.  Once outside agencies got involved, i...

Angela turned 17 in January and broke up with her longtime boyfriend, though she continued to carry a torch for her first love.  She dropped out of school and started working at fast food restaurants in Hattiesburg, where she met and began dating a black man, which at the time in Mississippi, was still frowned upon by many, including her soon-to-be stepfather. She found out in May that she was pre...

Who is Angela Freeman? In this episode we will take you back to the beginning and tell you about the Freeman family that Angela was born into and what Angela was like growing up.  In the last 25 years, news media coverage has never really focused on who this young woman was and what she was like or who she became associated with that may have contributed to her disappearance and who the people wer...

Telling Lives is a reported podcast series looking at old cases in a true way. This season we will investigate the disappearance of a teenager from Mississippi, Angela Freeman, who went missing Sept. 10, 1993.  She has never been found.  Law enforcement initially tagged her as a runaway, which caused evidence to be lost or not collected. Many theories have surfaced over the years, and several biza...