Crime Writers On...

Clayton Echard was trying to bounce back from his disastrous appearance on “The Bachelor" when he hooked up with a potential real estate investor. Though he claimed they only had oral sex, Laura Owens said she was pregnant with his twins. What came next from her was an unrelenting mix of romantic overtures and legal threats. Clayton became suspicious of Laura’s evasive actions to prove her pregnancy was real. When the reality TV scandal hit the news, Internet sleuths began to pick apart her story. And information emerged that the former Bachelor was not the first man Laura had accused.

From Glass Podcasts and iHeart Podcasts comes “Love Trapped.” Host Stephani Young goes deep into all the twists and turns in the sensational case involving a reality TV celebrity, an unreliable accuser, and the online community obsessed with the story. The series explores whether Laura’s unwavering insistence in her dubious claims are a long con or the product of a disturbed mind.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "LOVE TRAPPED" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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Marcellus may be just an octopus, but he’s very observant of what’s happening around him in the aquarium. Tova the cleaning lady is considering selling her home. And when she sprains her ankle, cash-strapped Cameron takes a temp job helping clean. Marcellus can sense the deep sadness in each of them. Tova has questions about her son’s mysterious death at sea and Cameron has come to town to confront the rich father he never knew. But from inside his tank, Marcellus has the answers both are searching for.

“Remarkably Bright Creatures” stars Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and Alfred Molina. The Netflix film keeps some of the mystery and all of the emotion from the best-selling novel about an octopus who can see things in the people around him that they can’t see for themselves. What unfolds is a gentle story about loss, second chances, and the strange ways we find our way home.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: pud pulling.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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In the 1960s, United Mine Workers advocate Jock Yablonski bucked his own union for giving into coal companies on critical issues — including cases of black lung disease and mine safety. And when evidence revealed union president Tony Boyle had been making secret deals with the companies to enrich himself at the expense of workers, Yablonski mounted a campaign to unseat the labor boss. But a challenge to Boyle’s iron grip on the UMW was a dangerous proposition. After Jablonski was mysteriously gunned down in his bed, a group of young upstarts discover the only way to get justice and achieve reform is to bring down the untouchable union boss.

In the latest season of the podcast “Shadow Kingdom” from Crooked Media and Campside Media, “Coal Survivor” recounts the deadly struggle for power within the United Coal Miners union. Host Nicolo Majnoni unpacks the plan to silence a reform candidate and the struggle to reorganize organized labor to improve conditions for union members — and not for the comforts of their leaders. 

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "COAL SURVIVOR" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 10 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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In 2020, pathologist Caroline Muirhead swiped right on a gamekeeper from the Scottish Highlands. Her whirlwind romance with Sandy McKellar led to a quick proposal. But before the wedding, her fiancé confided that years earlier, he and his twin brother killed a man and hid his body. Muirhead was torn between her love for McKellar and her duty to turn him in. Her work with police to gather evidence only drew her further into their drug-and-booze fueled relationship. Muirhead found herself spiraling, as she raced to learn more about the crime before McKellar could catch on to her. 

In the Netflix series “Should I Marry a Murderer?” Muirhead tells her story of romance, homicide, and self-destruction.  The show serves as both a tense procedural inside her efforts to uncover the details about the crimes of her fiancé, as well as a confessional for the lovestruck doctor about her mistakes along the way.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "SHOULD I MARRY A MURDERER?" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: reel too real.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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In 2016, women of color in Newark, NJ began to disappear. The police response lacked urgency because some were sex workers and others were considered runaways. So friends of Mawa Doumbia set their own trap, using the missing 15-year-old’s social media to draw out her killer. Investigators eventually drew connections between a Jane Doe in a burned building, a murdered college student, and a prostitute who fled from an attacker who duct taped and handcuffed her. The evidence would point them to a young, mild mannered supermarket security guard who they accused of being a serial killer.

The podcast “Someone’s Hunting Us” from nj.com and The Star-Ledger recounts the search for Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, who was accused of murdering four girls and women, and nearly killing a fifth. Hosts Rebecca Everett and Daysi Calavia-Robertson also explore the law enforcement inequities when the victims are Black or do sex work — as well as talk to the victims’ loved ones about how they advanced the investigation when authorities would not.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "SOMEONE'S HUNTING US" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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