What Happened to Joseph Smedley? Episode One: Blood Moon

A Heavy Weight is re-releasing our coverage of Wilma June Nissen, a young mother of three whose homicide remains unsolved nearly five decades later. On October 4, 1978, Wilma’s body was found along Hi...

20 Jan 25min

In November nineteen sixty nine, twelve year old Nora Kathylene “Kathy” Jones left her house in South Nashville with her roller skates over her shoulder, headed for the roller dome on Thompson Lane. S...

12 Jan 34min

Halloween night, 1981. Sixteen year old Debra Mae “Debbie” Fulton leaves her house in Hammond, Indiana, with a little cash and a simple plan: walk to the Roller Dome, skate with friends, come home.She...

5 Jan 33min

In 1974, a young woman was found shot and hidden beneath a mattress off a rural road in South Bend. It took six months before anyone knew her name: Victoria Lynne McDonough. No arrests were ever made....

30 Dec 202528min

Episode 10 brings together the most unsettling pieces of Joseph Smedley’s case — the late-night messages, the odd cell phone pings, the missing belongings — and confronts the gaps that remain. This ep...

16 Dec 202524min

For Joseph’s family, this is year ten. Ten years of rereading the same note. Ten years of asking for his case files. Ten years of watching other IU students’ cases become national stories while his sl...

8 Dec 202529min

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 suic...

1 Dec 202534min

Joseph Smedley’s death was ruled a suicide by drowning, with alcohol and cannabinoids listed as contributing factors. In this episode, we slow down and examine that conclusion through the lens of Jose...

18 Nov 202543min