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Sword and Scale
Sword and Scale
An unflinching look at the darkest corners of the criminal-justice system. (Listener discretion advised.)
Episode 360
13-year-old Madeline Soto vanishes on what should have been an ordinary school morning in Kissimmee, Florida. She’s dropped off just a block away, and nothing about it feels unusual. She walks off, heading toward school… and disappears. By the afternoon, panic sets in. Calls to 9
Episode 358
When 25-year-old biomedical engineer Jonathan Amerault disappeared, it felt like another one of his hiking trips had gone horribly wrong. But the scene in the woods, and the female co-worker found beside his brutalized body, told a much more sinister story of love and blind rage.
Episode 357
On a cold April afternoon in Milwaukee, two men walking along the Lake Michigan shoreline make a gruesome discovery: a human leg tangled in the weeds below a bluff. Within days, more body parts start surfacing across the city, and even across state lines. The remains belong to 19
Episode 356
In 2008, University of Wisconsin–Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her apartment in the middle of the day, and then the trail went cold. An unlikely informant leads the police to search for two mystery men, a theory that would steer the investigation for years.
Episode 355
When Virgil and Shirley Best were found dead in their home, investigators expected a familiar explanation. What followed instead was an investigation defined by uncertainty and a motive that challenged the idea that violence always comes from clear intent.Get instant access to al
Episode 354
In 2022, when 57-year-old Harold Allen was found dead in his Indiana home, the case was ruled natural. Nearly a year later, a brazen burglary and a string of buried messages bring detectives back to the same address and to Marsha Allen, the woman who said she loved him. What star
Episode 352
Beloved father and prominent attorney, Gary Farris, should have been safe on his own land. But in July 2018, he vanished from his family’s rural dream property, and a smoldering burn pile would unravel everything they thought they knew about their home, their marriage, and each o
Episode 350
In 2016, 22-year-old Cati Blauvelt was found stabbed to death in the basement of an abandoned house. The search for her killer would uncover a story of control, deception, and betrayal — and reveal how one man turned trust into a weapon.Get instant access to all episodes, includi
Episode 348
When 43-year-old Diane Holik was found dead inside her Austin home, homicide investigators were left with more questions than answers. Diane had no enemies. There was no apparent reason for anyone to want her dead. But as detectives dug deeper, they uncovered a web of obsession,
Episode 347
In March 2015, ninety-four-year-old Marie Belcastro was found brutally murdered in her home on Cherry Street in Niles, Ohio. Adored by her family and neighbors, she was known for her humor, generosity, and the simple kindness she extended to those around her. But the violence tha
Episode 346
Seventeen-year-old Collin Griffith called 911 in a panic, begging for help. Minutes later, deputies arrived to find his mother bleeding in the kitchen and Collin calm, almost detached. His story of self-defense unraveled quickly, leading investigators back to Oklahoma and exposin
Episode 344
On a cold March evening in 2023, police in Englewood, Colorado responded to a 911 call from 81-year-old Reginald Maclaren. Inside his upscale apartment, they uncovered a scene so brutal, it would briefly dominate headlines before vanishing just as quickly. The victims were Regina