The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast

Send us Fan Mail The most dangerous part of a murder trial isn’t always the crime scene, it’s the moment a courtroom decides which story feels true. We’re near the end of the Von Stein family case, and everything narrows to closing arguments, jury instructions, and the crushing pause before the verdict forms come back. Bart Upchurch’s side argues the state’s 117 exhibits don’t physically connect h...

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Send us Fan Mail A death penalty case can pivot on one phone call, and that’s exactly where we start: Chris Pritchard decides to plead guilty and testify, and the fragile hope around Bart Upchurch’s defense instantly narrows. We walk through the private panic behind the scenes as Bart’s lawyers and parents confront the stakes in plain terms: a guilty plea might save his life, but it also means adm...

Send us Fan Mail The case changes the moment the handcuffs go on, and it never stops changing after that. We pick up with Bart’s arrest and a quiet, rushed arraignment designed to keep the public from noticing, then watch that secrecy unravel as Chris is arrested at home and the town starts buzzing with leaks, reporters, and fear. With first-degree murder charges on the table and the death penalty...

Send us Fan Mail He walks away from house arrest and convinces himself it’s a great adventure, a cat and mouse chase where he is smarter than the police. Bart Upchurch drifts through Raleigh and the NC State campus on borrowed keys and borrowed time, reading under trees, checking out Moby-Dick, and writing diary entries that swing from political anger to an almost unbearable loneliness. It’s the k...

Send us Fan Mail One abandoned army knapsack on a back porch becomes the thin thread detectives tug until an entire murder-for-inheritance plan starts to unravel. We follow John Taylor and Chief Crone as they walk the bag through Raleigh, comparing half-memories and denials, trying to figure out who owned it and why it showed up at the Von Stein house. The smallest details start to feel loud: a ca...

Send us Fan Mail The investigation feels like it’s finally ready to pop, until it doesn’t. We head into a new strategy session convinced Chris Von Stein will fold under pressure and give up the name investigators are waiting for, only to learn he’s lawyered up and refusing to speak. Bonnie Von Stein agrees to meet, but her calm certainty hardens the conflict, and a quiet detail surfaces that chang...

Send us Fan Mail A cold case sharpens when a simple sketch turns into a lever. We open the Von Stein murder file with fresh eyes, bringing the SBI back into the room and laying out a clear plan: protect the few secrets that still hold power, then set a ruse to test what the suspects don’t know they’re revealing. The hinge point is a map—handwriting that echoes a guarded clue—and the patience to le...

Send us Fan Mail A frantic tap at a window, a campus buzzing with rumors, and a family shattered by a brutal attack set the stage for a true-crime journey that refuses easy answers. We walk through the raw hours after Leith Von Stein’s murder and Bonnie’s hospitalization, hearing how friends rallied around Chris as shock collided with uneasy memories—offhand jokes about inheritance, a party that s...

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Send us Fan Mail A ringing phone, a flushed face, and a choice to confess—what starts as a “lark” shatters the quiet of a tight-knit county and exposes deeper cracks inside the Upchurch home. We follow Bart from a school break-in and a lake house burglary to a courtroom bargain that trades prison time for probation, restitution, and a promise to change. But promises are easy. What follows is harde...

Send us Fan Mail A boy who reads at three and crushes tests at five should be unstoppable, right? Neil Henderson’s story bends that assumption until it snaps. We follow a brilliant kid raised amid family rupture who rockets past classmates, dazzles teachers, and learns a dangerous lesson: results without effort feel the same as results with it. That belief shadows every choice he makes as freedom...

Send us Fan Mail A father’s quiet exit, a boy who won’t be seen crying, and a farm that demands everything—this chapter traces how fracture and hard work shape a family’s center of gravity. We walk through drafty rooms warmed by wood Jim split himself, goat milk poured for a child who needed it, and the kind of rural routine that makes a marriage feel strong until it doesn’t. When a wool venture s...

Send us Fan Mail Old houses hold more than portraits and creaking floorboards. In Caswell County, they carry a family’s rise, their best intentions, and the kind of secrets that echo longer than footsteps. We follow the Upchurch and Moore line from civic ambition and pew-deep piety to a hard turn into illness, widowhood, and a second act as a preservationist matriarch. Carolyn’s restored landmarks...

Send us Fan Mail A small town’s patience thins as the Van Stein investigation grinds through rumors, leadership shake-ups, and a rare glimpse into what money really changes—and what it doesn’t. We follow the detectives through fall’s slow burn: Donna’s steady account of Angela’s sleep and stoic nature, accounts of Chris’s jittery days and drug use, and a campus subculture of games, steam tunnels,...

Send us Fan Mail Rumors don’t just color a homicide investigation—they can steer it. We return to Washington, North Carolina, where whispers of a roadside fire, a condensation-ringed bedside glass, and a fat life insurance policy turned into a map of motives and suspects. As the town’s fear eased, the volume of talk rose, and leaks from inside the department gave everyday gossip the weight of evid...

Send us Fan Mail A quiet suburb woke to sirens and never slept the same. The murder of Leith Von Stein didn’t just shake a neighborhood; it cracked the illusion that safety lives behind manicured hedges and porch lights. We follow the ripple effects—from a neighbor’s raw letter of shared grief to a town that left lamps burning, phoned in every strange car, and asked whether a killer was still walk...

Send us Fan Mail A burned map with the target house circled. A blackened hunting knife in a roadside ash ring. And a timeline that narrows to minutes before a panicked evidence dump. We take you from Bonnie Von Stein’s bandaged hospital bed to a midnight search on a rural road, where a farmer’s tip turns a hazy home invasion into a meticulously planned attack. We walk through the Sunday night dinn...

Send us Fan Mail A quiet street in Smallwood is jolted awake by a midnight attack that leaves Leith Von Stein dead and Bonnie barely alive, and within hours the investigation collides with jurisdictional friction, fragile timelines, and the oldest question in homicide: who benefits. We walk through the first full day with Sheriff Nelson Shepard and SBI agent Louis Young as they navigate a thin cri...

Send us Fan Mail A predawn emergency call launches police into the heart of a wealthy Washington, North Carolina neighborhood where they discover an unimaginable scene. Leith Von Stein, a prominent local executive, lies murdered in his bed – his body bearing the marks of a savage attack with multiple head wounds and stab wounds to his chest and back. His wife Bonnie, critically injured but alive,...

Send us Fan Mail A whispered plea for help in the dead of night unravels a chilling tale of betrayal, resentment, and deadly consequences in Washington, North Carolina.  July 25, 1988 began as any other sultry summer night in this sleepy riverside town, where crime rarely disrupts the gentle pace of life. But at 4:24 AM, dispatcher Michelle Sparrow received a desperate call from Bonnie Von Stein,...

Send us Fan Mail The chilling final chapter of Jeffrey Gordon's murder trial unfolds through the eyes of an unlikely hero—a former flight attendant turned law student who helps bring justice to her slain colleague. In a courtroom run by women, a monster's mask finally slips. When Cori Reyes, an intern with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, volunteered to assist with the Nancy Lu...

Send us Fan Mail A meticulously organized garage with labeled drawers for every type of nail and screw. A quiet family man who never raised his voice. A loyal employee of the family sprinkler business. This was the Jeffrey Gordon that everyone thought they knew – until police discovered what he'd been hiding between his mattress and box spring. When DNA technology finally connected Gordon to...

Send us Fan Mail Deep beneath the veneer of an ordinary family man lurked one of Michigan's most disturbing predators. Jeffrey Gordon—quiet, meticulous, and seemingly gentle—maintained a double life that shocked even veteran investigators when it was finally exposed in 2001. The search of Gordon's modest Flint home revealed an astonishing collection of approximately 1,200 women's un...