Voices of a Killer

In this episode, we bring you a story of one man’s 10-year struggle with methamphetamine. In 2008, Ronald Wright murdered a 70-year-old war veteran while experiencing the psychotic effects of meth. Although Ronald, now sober, is horrified by his past actions, his defense that he was not in his right state of mind fell on deaf ears. As we’re about to hear, all information about drug-induced psychos...

Hear about an ill-fated love story on this week’s episode of Voices of a Killer. To outward appearances, Darrell and Vanessa Isaiah were a match made in heaven, an ex-football quarterback and a beautiful wife, both young and happily in love. That was until their relationship took a dark and grisly turn. How did a passionate love affair go from flowers and late summer nights to heated arguments, sp...

In this episode, we talk to Christopher Sokolic, the man responsible for a bloody homicide that took place in a parked car in 2020. The crime was violent and the body disfigured, but is Christopher really the cool-headed killer the press made him out to be? In this episode, Christopher shares another side of himself that is absent from news coverage, detailing his 15-year-long battle with addictio...

We place our trust in the criminal justice system to carry out the law and bring about justice. But what happens if an agent of the law withholds key evidence and presents edited video footage to the jury to gain a wrongful conviction? Today, we talk to Kent Taylor who makes allegations such as these, claiming that the course of justice was perverted when he was convicted of first-degree murder ba...

In the conclusion to this tragic and horrific crime committed by William Dyer (better known as Billy) we discover exactly what happened on that day and why Billy did it. Billy is confronted with the real impact of his actions as we question him about the impact he had on the Swift family and his encounter with the mother of two of the victims Joyce Swift. More information about this case: Article...

One rainy evening in 1977, Camden County police entered a lake cabin in the Ozarks, where they found what can only be described as a blood bath. Four young children lay slaughtered inside their family home, stabbed, shot, and beaten in various ways, and strewn across the house. But while police initially profiled the culprit as a young adult man, little did they know that the real killer, who live...

In 1980, Randy Armbruster was a 19-year-old with a don’t-care attitude and a failed military career. Then, one August night on a De Soto street, Randy shot his longtime friend out of a fit of anger and, partly, because of a single lyric in a 1950s Johnny Cash song. Nearly 50 years on from that day, Randy revisit's this crime on this episode of Voices of a Killer. More information about this case:...

This week’s episode takes us to a late-night shooting in the year 2000, when two young men lost their lives in the parking lot of a local bar. The killer, who vanished into the Kansas City night, was later identified as 23-year-old Michael Irby. Now, 24 years later, Michael invites us to revisit the day of this crime. Voices of a Killer is sponsored by BetterHelp :  Visit BetterHelp.com/VOK t...

On December 6th, 2008, an elderly Springfield man was found dead in the kitchen of his West Chicago Street home. The subsequent investigation identified 6 individuals who had orchestrated a complex murder-for-hire plot. Among them was 25-year-old William Reed. To this day, William has repeatedly maintained his innocence about the crime and claimed that he was unwittingly drawn into a murder scheme...

On today’s episode, we meet William Benedict, a man whose life has been rocked by both meth and mental illness. This episode takes us back to the 2010s, when a thriving meth scene in Missouri was curtailed by the law. Around the same time as this crackdown, William Benedict found himself implicated in an operation that seriously threatened the safety of his family. Today, William walks us through...

In this episode of Voices of a Killer, we’re looking at a prolonged case that unfolded over nearly a decade. We sit down with Justin Moyers to reflect on an incident for which he has spent the past 18 years of his life in prison. Still today, Justin vehemently maintains his innocence and has tried repeatedly to clear his name. He contends that investigators spun a false narrative that wrongly fram...

Last week our episode ended up with more questions than answers on how the tragic death of Christopher Younes occurred. Gabby Shields, the subject of these two episodes was involved in somewhat of a love triangle it turns out with both Younes and one of her codefendants Albert Romero. Well, at least this was the story told to us by Tim Murray - the other codefendant. On this episode we will delve...

In June 2014, Christopher Younes was murdered in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, a crime that implicated Gabriella Shields with two other accomplices, Albert Romero, and Timothy Murray. The trio was charged after investigations revealed their belief that Younes was informing police about their drug activities, leading them to conclude that he had to be "dealt with." The case unfolded w...

In today’s episode, we revisit the threads of a story that spans decades, diving deep into a sequel to one of our most compelling and tragic tales - the case of James Love. In Episode 15, we heard from James Love himself, a man convicted of a horrific double murder of 2-year old Jeffery Berger and 14-year-old Sheila Curwright in 1974 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Today, we connect past to present, as...

In this week’s episode of Voices of a Killer, we bring you a story of an ill-fated friendship in the heart of Kansas City. Our interviewee, Tayelor Fitzpatrick found herself unwittingly entangled in a 2017 murder that took place in her home and that began with a click on an advert on Craigslist. In recent years, Craigslist has become a hotspot for a thriving sex industry. It has also – as we’ll he...

In this episode, we’re bringing you an exclusive interview with Jerry Asbell from Hannibal, Missouri. For the past two years, Jerry has maintained his silence about his crime but is now breaking that silence to tell the story in his own words and set the record straight. In our conversation, we’ll trace back Jerry’s long history in and out of the criminal justice system. The course of Jerry’s life...

North of St. Louis, Missouri, the Chain of Rocks bridge connects Missouri and Illinois. Although once a bustling interstate route, the bridge was closed and abandoned in 1968. This historic bridge also carries a dark past. In 1991, it was the seat of a crime that shook the city of St. Louis when two women, Julie and Robin Kerry, were murdered. Today we’re talking to one of the four men linked to t...

On this episode of Voices of a Killer, we talk to Kansas-born Marcus Spielman, a man convicted of murdering his long-time friend, Ronnie Engel. At just 25 years old, Marcus, who was born into a stable, middle-class family, now finds himself behind the bars of a prison cell. We’ll hear about the misguided choices Marcus made, the circumstances that led him to raise his gun at Ronnie, and the lesson...

In this week's episode of Voices of a Killer, we journey back to the early 1990s in St. Louis, Missouri, a time and place where the crack epidemic was reshaping communities and lives. Amidst this backdrop, we meet Kwan Johnson, a young man entangled in a complex relationship with Alvin Foster; a relationship marked by intimidation and a struggle for respect in a community grappling with the harsh...

This is the second installment of our conversation with Matthew Hamm. So far, Matthew has recounted the events leading up to the death of his 19-month-old son, Orion. With his partner, Ashley detained, and pressure building on Matthew’s shoulders, Matthew, in a moment of irritability, threw a cup at his son which inadvertently killed him. Devastated, Matthew chose to burn the toddler’s body in a c...

In this two-part episode of Voices of a Killer, we’re talking to Matthew Hamm, a man convicted of second-degree murder in 2017. This conversation isn’t an easy one. It’s a story of childhood trauma and  a battle with addiction, and sadly, it ends in tragedy. As Matthew retells the life choices that led him to his rock bottom, we invite you to put prejudice aside and see him for who he truly i...

How would you react if somebody pulled a gun on you? Would you freeze up or fight to save your life? Nobody truly knows until the day it happens to you. Today we’re talking to a man who had to make this split-second decision. In July 2008, Matthew Jennings of Springfield, Missouri stabbed Jason Isenbletter to death. But Matt is not the monster society might make him out to be; instead, this is a s...

In this episode of Voices of a Killer, we delve deep into the tragic murder of south Kansas City, Missouri local Patricia Bliven, a kind-hearted animal lover, and the subsequent events that ensnared Timothy Straeten, a man from Harrington Texas, in a web of crime and punishment. But there’s another layer to this story, one that involves the media's portrayal of Timothy. As we peel back the layers...

On today’s episode of Voices of a Killer, we’re talking to Ben Terry, a man convicted of first-degree murder. Life without parole is a sentence usually reserved for egregious crimes and guarantees that an offender will spend the rest of their life cut off from society. But, since 2006, Ben has argued that he acted justifiably out of self-defense and has fought to prove his innocence. Today, we’ll...

On this episode of Voices of a Killer we bring you the tragic murders of Janice and Alyssa Owen, told via interviews with killers Eric and Angela Mize. Today's episode will walk you through events mainly from Eric's perspective, a narrative that delves into the darkest corners of the human psyche.  What led Angela, a mother and caretaker, and Eric, her supposedly compliant partner, down a pat...