The Expert Witness from Uncover

A body is pulled from the ocean, and a race against time to capture one of the world's most wanted criminals begins. This is the story of a con man who couldn't stop lying. A tale of murder, stolen identities, fine art, a diaper stuffed with gold bars, and a crime solved by a Rolex watch. From rural Canada to coastal England, he lied and deceived at every turn. Award-winning podcaster Sam Mullins...

As a teen, Anne-Marie Robinson dreamed of becoming a professional musician. The talented French horn player soon became the music teacher’s favourite. But it wasn’t the kind of attention she wanted. On a band trip, he bought the kids alcohol and she ended up in his hotel bed. Decades later, she ran into him. It was like seeing a ghost.

Robinson stored her painful, high-school memories deep in her mind. But it all came flooding back in midlife after she saw the music teacher. She decided to confront him. That meeting led Robinson on a journey to discover what really happened and report it to police.

More than a year after Robinson went to police, William Douglas Walker was charged with a sex crime. She alleged he groomed and controlled her when she was 16. After four and half years in court, a judge said there wasn’t enough proof she hadn’t consented to sex. The case was dismissed.

Robinson couldn’t help but think if she knew there were other victims, the outcome of the case would have been different. The investigation finds another survivor, Robinson reaches out and gets a response right away: “Hello Powerful Woman.” She finally meets the woman who got the teacher banned.

The desk in Jeanie McKay’s teenage bedroom had 56 notches: one for every time she had sexual intercourse with her music teacher. It would become evidence years later, when Walker was found guilty of professional misconduct and banned from teaching. During his statement, he referred to his former student as a “blip.”

Jackie Short kept detailed diaries as a teen. She knew the teacher was making sexual advances to multiple students. At the same time, he was courting another teacher who would become his wife. On a band trip to Germany, Short told an administrator what was going on at their high school.

Five alleged victims gather for the inaugural meeting of “the club no one wanted to join.” They say they were sexually harassed, exploited, assaulted or raped by Walker. One says her friend’s father punched the music teacher in the face. They want to find the man who threw the punch.

Robinson meets Sam, the man behind the punch. He said in 1975, when he found out his 16-year-old daughter had sexual encounters with her high-school music teacher, he went to the principal. When Walker moved schools, he told Robinson about the punch — it made her feel sorry for him. But now she knows what really happened.

A third alleged victim goes to the police about the music teacher, again resulting in no charge or conviction. In season one of this podcast, 10 men came forward to tell police they were sexually abused as teens by one teacher. He was led away in handcuffs and taken to prison. These women don’t understand the double standard for girls.

The former teacher offers a letter of apology that leaves the survivors angry and unsatisfied. But Robinson makes a trip back to her old high school, reclaims her power and reveals what the investigation has given her. She, along with Peter Hamer from the first season of this podcast, form an advocacy group to help protect kids.

Anne-Marie Robinson says that as a teen, she was raped by her music teacher. He says it was consensual sex. She reached out to journalist and podcast host Julie Ireton to share her story and together they have uncovered a trail of teen victims.

In 2015, a 20-something American named John learns he might be a father. A prenatal paternity test confirms it, and he quickly pivots from college student to family man. But eight months into the baby’s life, a second test reveals John is not the father, shattering his new reality. “How could I be that unlucky?” A legal note: Over the course of this podcast, a number of allegations are made agains...

Four years later, a Canadian college student named Corale needs to identify the father of her unborn baby. The 19-year-old turns to Viaguard Accu-Metrics for a prenatal paternity test. Like John, her world is rocked by tests that name the wrong dad. Unlike John, she starts asking questions and connecting dots. “Are there other people? Am I the only one?”  A legal note: Over the course of this...

On the surface, Accu-Metrics was making headlines and growing strong. But two former employees paint a troubling picture of what was going on inside, from staff who don’t seem properly trained to a stream of customers complaining about test results. Plus, the questions they were instructed to ask just didn’t seem right…  A legal note: Over the course of this podcast, a number of allegations a...

After years of expansion into different DNA services, controversies around the company begin to surface — publicly. There’s a lawsuit against the company, journalists (including our co-host Jorge Barrera) start sniffing around; and a poodle is falsely identified as an Indigenous person. Meanwhile, prenatal paternity testing quietly disappears from the services on the Viaguard Accu-Metrics website....

What’s really going on inside Accu-Metrics? Co-host Rachel Houlihan goes undercover, posing as a mother who needs a paternity test. Once inside, she meets face to face with the company’s owner, Harvey Tenenbaum. She also connects with an ex-employee who reveals what he witnessed in the lab.   A legal note: Over the course of this podcast, a number of allegations are made against Viaguard...

In September 2024, a senior employee at Viaguard Accu-Metrics is sentenced for running an unrelated $6 million hair-testing scam. Will this development prompt the police to investigate his former employer as well? Will it finally push Tenenbaum to comment on the record? And what options remain for John, Corale and the other customers living with the long term impact of their bad results?  A l...

Who is this baby’s father? It’s a question a DNA lab promised to answer with “99.9% accuracy” — but instead, routinely identified the wrong dads. Investigative journalists Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan track down the families whose lives were torn apart by these bad results and the story behind the Canadian company that stands by its testing and continues to operate today.

Part 1: Five colleagues are shot dead. Everyone is traumatized. On that day, June 28, 2018, what can the remaining staff of the Capital Gazette do that might make a difference? Publish "a damn paper."

Part 2: How do you try to return to normal after a mass shooting? The Capital Gazette moves into a tiny, temporary office, and staff members confront the challenges of producing a daily paper while dealing with fear and guilt.

Part 3: The Capital Gazette takes on a new beat: itself. As the shooter's case works its way towards trial, the staff tries to balance coverage obligations with personal feelings.

Part 4: The Capital Gazette is swept up in the troubles of the newspaper industry. Its corporate owners are making painful cuts, and a hedge fund with an ominous reputation seeks control. Staff members, who survived the 2018 shooting and kept the Capital going, wonder if the paper can last.

Part 5: In our final episode, there's one important part of the newspaper's story we couldn't bring you until now: what it's like to have their attacker stand trial. And the unexpected ways that trial can affect you. Plus a big update about the newspaper itself.

In the upcoming season, Uncover listeners will get to know the surviving staff of The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, MD, where a gunman murdered five people in June 2018. Produced by NPR's Embedded.