What Happened to Joseph Smedley? Episode Eight: Less than 1%
A Heavy Weight1 Des 2025

What Happened to Joseph Smedley? Episode Eight: Less than 1%

In this episode we return to the death of Indiana University student Joseph Smedley, whose body was found in Griffy Lake with a backpack weighed down with rocks. Drawing on a twenty year study of suicide by drowning and the insight of forensic pathologist Dr Darin Wolfe and forensic aquatic death investigator Andrea Zaferes, we ask how likely it really is that Joseph died by suicide in the way his case was closed.

We unpack the challenges of determining cause and manner of death in bodies recovered from water, revisit the original autopsy and the attempted second autopsy, and explore the confusing trail of cell phone pings that suggest Joseph was not alone in his final hours. Along the way, we raise larger questions about how death determinations are made, what it means when a case is labeled suicide instead of undetermined, and why some missing students receive wall to wall coverage while others are met with silence.

Content note This episode includes discussion of suicide, death, and possible foul play.


Episoder(70)

What happened to Todd Hanson and Chad Birkeland?

What happened to Todd Hanson and Chad Birkeland?

Two young men disappeared from South St. Paul on May 2, 1993. Eleven days later, Chad Birkeland’s body was recovered from the Mississippi River near Hastings. Todd Hanson was never found, and the case...

21 Apr 21min

Who Murdered Toni Monette?

Who Murdered Toni Monette?

A woman works an overnight shift she wasn’t supposed to take.Sometime between 3:10 and 4:30 in the morning, Toni Monette is stabbed to death inside a 7-Eleven in Mounds View, Minnesota. She’s found in...

14 Apr 18min

Who Murdered Eden Young?

Who Murdered Eden Young?

A woman gets into a van at 3 a.m. and disappears.Days later, Eden Young is found beaten to death in a quiet yard miles away from where she was last seen. Her clothing is discovered along a highway. In...

7 Apr 20min

Who Murdered Teresa Osbourne?

Who Murdered Teresa Osbourne?

An 18-year-old leaves work to run an errand and never returns.In August 1973, Teresa Osborne disappeared after picking up pastries from a bakery in Seymour, Indiana. Ten days later, her body was found...

31 Mar 22min

The Hailey Buzbee Case

The Hailey Buzbee Case

Seventeen-year-old Hailey Buzbee left her home in 2026 after months of online communication with a man she thought she knew. What followed exposed the realities of grooming and the gaps in a system st...

23 Mar 13min

What Happened to Lola Fry?

What Happened to Lola Fry?

In 1993, Lola Fry went to a party in Indianapolis and never came home.The people who were with her told police a story — but it’s one that has never fully made sense.Lola disappeared along with her ca...

17 Mar 24min

Who Murdered Wilma Cheek?

Who Murdered Wilma Cheek?

In October 1995, Wilma Cheek was found shot to death in her car at Willow Grove Cemetery in Fountain City, Indiana. It was late morning. Daylight. A place that should have felt quiet, familiar, safe. ...

10 Mar 29min

Part 1: Chris Perantoni

Part 1: Chris Perantoni

A new case in Bloomington, Indiana. An arrest tied to alleged child sexual abuse material. In part 1, we slow down the headline and walk through what’s been publicly reported so far, how these cases o...

28 Feb 16min

Populært innen True crime

krimpodden-vg
insiders
avhort
podme-krim
krimarkivet-2
rss-avhort-aktuelt
rss-pa-innsiden-av-psychohoder
verdens-verste
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
rss-svarttrost
rss-domt-2
truecrimepodden-2
kriminalkrniken
rss-domt-3
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
forsvinningsfredag-podkast
blalys
truecrimepodden-dokumentar
rss-overste-etasje
hold-pusten