Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum

The Lindsay Clancy trial ended in a mistrial in September 2026 after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the case involving the deaths of her three young children. The case has sparked strong opinions and heated debate, and with another trial potentially ahead, attention is turning to what prosecutors might do differently the second time around. In this episode of Zon...

High-profile cases don’t stay behind the scenes anymore. Lawyers are hired before investigations are complete, advocates and private experts release their own findings, witnesses speak on podcasts, and online accusations spread long before anyone is charged with a crime. In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum welcomes back criminal defense attorney Joshua Schiffer to...

Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother who had been struggling with serious mental health symptoms after the birth of her third child, admitted to strangling her three young children with exercise bands while her husband was out picking up dinner and medication. She then jumped from a second-story window, survived, and was left paralyzed. Her first trial ended in a mistrial, le...

On September 11, 2001, with U.S. airspace closed after the terrorist attacks, dozens of transatlantic flights were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. Thousands of passengers and crew from around the world landed in the small town, nearly doubling its population within minutes. Their story later inspired the Broadway musical Come From Away. In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum...

Jabez Spann was 14 years old when he disappeared from Sarasota, Florida, over Labor Day weekend in 2017. It would be two years before his remains were recovered and his death was ruled a homicide. In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum welcomes back Jabez’s mother, Tawana Spann, and her husband, Joe Spann, to mark nine years since Jabez went missing and renew their call f...

By 1901, Laura Bullion had traded the ranches of her childhood for life with the Wild Bunch, the outlaw gang associated with Butch Cassisy and the Sundance Kid, and took part in the Great Northern train robbery that would eventually send her to prison. After years spent waiting for Ben Kilpatrick, she reinvented herself as a seamstress in Memphis, leaving the people around her...

During the Prohibition era and the rise of organized crime in the early 20th century, Meyer Lansky emerged as one of the figures who helped shape the modern American mob. Through his partnerships with Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, he became closely tied to the development of legalized gambling in Las Vegas and casino operations in Cuba,...

Karmelo Anthony was convicted of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during an altercation at a high school track meet and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Anthony’s defense team sought a new trial, and hearings this week revealed that prosecutors and the defense had agreed to keep certain evidence from the original jury. In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joi...

While executing an unrelated search warrant, law enforcement discovered 16 children in an isolated Ohio home, ranging in age from 18-month-old twins to an 18-year-old. Parents Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders face neglect allegations, while Gary Jr. has also been charged with misdemeanor counts of public indecency. All 16 children were taken to the hospital for evaluation a...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by human trafficking survivor and advocate Tina Dixon, who ran away as a young teenager before being trafficked through the Dixie Mafia’s network of brothels and organized prostitution across the South. Together, they discuss the grooming, manipulation, violence, and addiction traffickers use to control their victims and ho...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum takes a closer look at the ransom note released in the Nancy Guthrie case. Based on her decades of crime scene investigation experience, Sheryl examines the message line by line, pointing out the inconsistencies in its wording, timeline, demands, and structure while explaining why she has never believed the case was motivated by money...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by board-certified forensic pathologist Dr. Priya Banerjee for a conversation about the ongoing investigation into the death of Nolan Wells. Using publicly known facts of the case, Dr. Priya explains how forensic pathologists approach a suspected drowning and why an autopsy is only one part of a death investigation. Together, the...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by retired Secret Service agent and polygraph examiner Brad Beeler to discuss what 25 years of talking with suspects, witnesses, victims, and some of the worst offenders taught him about getting people to open up and tell the truth. Brad covers why trust has to come before truth, the damage one accusatory word can do to a co...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by investigative journalist Angeline Hartmann, along with Kevin Verville Sr. and Angelica Ramsey. Together, they revisit the unsolved 1980 kidnapping of newborn Kevin Verville Jr., taken at 17 days old from off-base military housing near Camp Pendleton by a woman posing as a social worker. For more than 45 years, the Vervill...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by retired Las Vegas Police Sergeant Jenn Benjamins for a look inside undercover police work. Jenn explains what separates basic surveillance from true deep cover, where officers must build believable identities, speak the language of the street, and think fast enough to avoid being “made.” She discusses prostitution&...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by retired Police Chief Frank Frederickson and Michelle Linn for a case that began with a violent 1988 Cape Cod assault and, years later, became something neither of them could have imagined. Frederickson, then a newly assigned detective, recalls a summer of escalating attacks across Hyannis and Barnstable, Massachusetts, an...

In this follow-up episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by retired NYPD detectives Tom Smith and Dan Murphy of Gold Shields to take an investigative look at the unresolved case of Stevie Bates. After revisiting Stevie’s 2012 disappearance and the 2020 discovery of her remains in Glendale, Queens, Sheryl, Tom, and Dan discuss the key questions that remain. They exa...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by Caroline McCollum and Huck McCollum to talk about the case involving three horses who were stabbed during a barrel racing event at South Point Casino in Las Vegas. Caroline, a longtime horse rider and criminology student, shares her perspective on what it means to compete with and care for these animals, and how the open,...

In this episode of Zone 7 , Sheryl McCollum is joined by former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent Ed Newcomer and retired Idaho Fish and Game conservation officer Tony Latham for a look at the danger, isolation, and critical work of wildlife law enforcement. They discuss the murders of Idaho game warden Bill Pogue and Conley Elms by Claude Dallas, the cold case of Ar...

In 2012, 19-year-old Stevie Bates vanished after calling her mother from a Greyhound bus during a layover in Pittsburgh; she made it back to New York but never made it home. Eight years later, her skeletal remains were discovered wrapped in a blanket at an abandoned house in Queens, the same property where her boyfriend had reportedly been squatting. In this episode of Zone 7 ,...

Bestselling true crime author and investigative journalist Aphrodite Jones returns to Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum to discuss her book Dog O’ War and the fatal 2001 dog mauling of Diane Whipple in San Francisco. Drawing on her extensive reporting on the case, Aphrodite details the connections to the Aryan Brotherhood, the Presa Canario dogs Bane and Hera, and the attorneys...

In this week’s episode of Zone 7, Sergeant Eric McCants joins Sheryl McCollum to talk about leadership, community policing, and the mindset required to serve well in high-pressure environments. He discusses the importance of communication, building community trust, getting out of the patrol car, and knowing the people you serve before a crisis ever happens. Eric also addr...

In this week’s episode of Zone 7, Sheryl McCollum is joined by former judge, legal analyst, and former Court TV anchor Ashley Willcott to discuss her decades-long career advocating for children in the legal system, her transition from the bench to television, and her new microformat focusing on fast, fact-based case analysis. Sheryl and Ashley also reflect on cases they have&n...

In this week’s episode of Zone 7, more than three months after Nancy Guthrie vanished, Sheryl McCollum returns to the case with one central question: what does the evidence actually prove? From the masked suspect’s behavior on camera to the blood patterns at the front door and the complete absence of credible ransom activity, she argues that the scene shows signs of stag...

In this week’s episode of Zone 7, Sheryl McCollum talks to Court TV correspondent Matt Johnson about what it takes to cover high-profile criminal cases and trials, from the Lori Vallow Daybell case and Rex Heuermann to Karen Read and the Delphi murders. Matt explains how deadlines, jury reactions, and the pressure of live television shape the way he turns hours of courtro...