The Jeannette DePalma Case: When Satanic Panic Destroyed a Murder Investigation

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In September 1972, a dog came home carrying a human arm.

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What police found next launched 50 years of ghost stories, conspiracy theories, and absolutely

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zero answers.

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But in 2024, everything changed.

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This is the real story of what happened to Jeanette De Palma.

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So here's what actually went down in Springfield, New Jersey in 1972.

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And I promise you it's wilder than any horror movie because this is real and it involves

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some of the worst police work you've ever heard.

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August 7th, 1972, Jeanette De Palma was 16 years old about to turn 17 in a few days.

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She told her mom she was taking the train to visit a friend, totally normal teenage plan.

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She walked out of the door of her family's home in Springfield, New Jersey, and that was it.

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Nobody saw her alive again.

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Now, Jeanette was complicated in a way that most teenagers are complicated.

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She loved rock music, went to parties, hung out with friends.

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But she'd also gotten really involved in this thing called the Jesus Movement, which

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was basically the Christian version of hippie counterculture.

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She'd been through some stuff with drugs and was actively counseling other kids about staying

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clean.

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She's also known for hitchhiking, which was super common back then, but obviously dangerous.

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Her family was traditional Italian Catholic, big family, moved to Springfield in 1966.

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By all accounts, she was a sweet kid, quiet, funny, and kind.

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You know, a real person, not a character in someone's moral panic fantasy.

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Six weeks went by.

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Six entire weeks.

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And on September 19, 1972, a neighborhood dog comes trotting home with a severely decomposed

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human arm in its mouth.

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Could you even imagine if your dog strolled up carrying a person's arm?

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The police followed the trail to this elevated cliff area in the Springfield quarry.

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The locals called it the Devil's Teeth, because of course they did.

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Everything creepy gets a creepy name, and there they found Jeanette's remains.

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And here's where the case goes from tragic to absolutely infuriating.

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The body was badly decomposed, which already makes forensic work really difficult.

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But the way the scene was described, that's where things get messy.

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The most reliable accounts say that her remains were inside this perimeter of fallen branches

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and logs arranged in a coffin shape, with some small makeshift wooden crosses nearby.

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If that's true, it could mean someone tried to give her a crude burial.

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Maybe the killer felt guilty.

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Maybe someone stumbled on her and tried to do something respectful.

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We don't actually know, but that's not the story that's spread.

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No, within days rumors were flying that she'd been found on a pentagram surrounded by mutilated

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animals.

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Full occult ritual scene.

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And even though law enforcement denied this, the story was already out there, growing legs

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and running through this affluent suburban community like wildfire.

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After Pastor James Tate, from the DiPomah family's assembly of God Church, this man stood up publicly

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and declared that "Devil's Disciples killed Jeanette."

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Possibly because she tried to preach to them.

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A religious authority figure saying this in 1972, suburban New Jersey, that's basically

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throwing gasoline on a fire.

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The newspapers went absolutely feral.

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Headlines like witchcraft seen possible in teenage girls' death.

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And was girl black magic victim.

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People started appearing everywhere.

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People started talking about a satanic cult called "The Witches," supposedly operating

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in the nearby reservation.

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And here's the thing that makes me genuinely angry.

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This narrative actively derailed the investigation.

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Resources that should have been used to track down a human predator, someone who killed a

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teenage girl, were instead chasing rumors about devil worshipers in the woods.

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The early on police work in this case was a disaster.

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They focused hard on this man named Red Kira.

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A 46-year-old caddy who lived in a makeshift camp near where the body was found.

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Red had left the area sometime in August, which looked suspicious.

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They issued a bulletin in January 1973 asking to question him.

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They found him, interviewed him, and the Union County Prosecutor's Office cleared him

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completely.

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Meanwhile, Jeanette's parents were giving investigators what former officers described

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as "short and vague answers."

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They were talking around the station that the family wanted to keep this quiet.

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Whether that was shame about her hitchhiking, mistrust of police, or just wanting privacy

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during an unimaginable time, it created friction that slowed everything down.

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Medical Examiner Dr. Bernard and Redberg had a tough job because of how decomposed the

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remains were.

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The official cause of death?

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Unknown.

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He couldn't rule out strangulation and said that it was a possibility.

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There were no bullet wounds, no stab wounds, no broken bones, no evidence of drugs or

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overdose either, which shut down theories that friends had hidden her body after an accidental

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death.

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The lack of external trauma points toward strangulation, which is exactly the kind of method

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serial killers prefer because it doesn't leave much evidence.

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But here's something weird.

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They found a high amount of lead in her remains.

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Nobody could explain it then, and nobody can explain it now.

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It's just this bizarre forensic detail hanging out there with no context.

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Fast forward to the late 1990s.

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Weird New Jersey magazine starts investigating this case and discovers that the original Springfield

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police files are missing.

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Gone.

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The Springfield PD claimed they were destroyed by flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

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The Union County Prosecutors Office, though, confirmed they had copies.

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So was this an attempted cover-up?

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Probably not.

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Technically, it was catastrophically bad record-keeping and local government incompetence.

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But here's what really seals the failure.

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A retired officer revealed in a documentary that "Genets Perse, a crucial piece of evidence

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that could have contained notes, personal effects, or trace evidence, was never officially

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entered into evidence."

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They just didn't follow basic procedure on one of the most important items in the case.

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September 2024, after decades of work, Weird New Jersey finally obtained and reviewed the

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original crime scene photographs from the Union County Prosecutors Office.

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The photos that police claimed were missing.

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Their conclusion was definitive.

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There was zero occult activity involved in her death.

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No stick crosses in the photos, no stone circles, no animal remains, nothing.

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50 years of a narrative built on absolute fiction.

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The urban legend literally took over the investigation and probably let the murderer get away with

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it.

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With all the occult nonsense finally debunked, investigators can focus on what this case

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actually is.

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A likely serial killer victim.

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Richard Coddingham, known as the Torso Killer, is one of New Jersey's most notorious serial

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killers.

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He was actively killing in New Jersey and New York in 1972.

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The exact time Jeanette disappeared.

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His method?

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Strangulation.

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In court, he confessed to killing five women in Nassau County, New York, between 1968 and

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1973.

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Two of those victims, Mary Beth Hines and LeVern Moie, were strangled and dumped in 1972, the

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same year as Jeanette.

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Spring 2021.

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Richard Coddingham, sitting in prison, reaches out to journalist Jesse P. Pollock, who wrote

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a book about Jeanette's case, and Coddingham says something crucial.

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He alludes to abducting Jeanette while she was hitchhiking.

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This detail matters so much because Jeanette's hitchhiking habit wasn't front-page news.

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Not everyone knew about that.

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The public narrative was consumed by fake satanic cult stories.

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The fact that Coddingham knew this specific personal detail about how she liked to travel

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adds serious weight to his claim.

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If he's telling the truth, it confirms Jeanette was a random victim of opportunity, not

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someone targeted for a ritual.

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Like forwarded all this information to the Union County Prosecutors Office in 2021.

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As of now, no official updates have been released about whether they're pursuing this

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lead.

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Jeanette De Palma's murder represents everything that can go wrong when fear and sensationalism

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replace actual investigative work.

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For five decades, this case was defined by stories that turned out to be completely

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false.

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A teenage girl, who was likely killed by a serial predator, became the center of a moral

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panic that helped the killer escape justice.

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The 2024 confirmation that there was no occult staging at the scene is the most important

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development in this case's history.

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It's not a story about satanic cults.

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It's a story about a young woman who was probably murdered by Richard Coddingham or

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someone like him, and then failed by nearly every system that was supposed to help her.

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Justice for Jeanette depends on them finally doing what they should have done in 1972.

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Doing this, like what it is, a murder, not a legend, not a ghost story, a crime committed

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by a human being who should be held accountable.

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Jeanette De Palma deserves better than to be remembered at the center of a satanic panic.

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She deserves to be remembered as herself, a 16-year-old girl who loved music, who was

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trying to help her friends, who walked out her door one August morning and never came

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home.

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Thanks for listening to Ten Minute Murder, binge-a-bull true crime stories.

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My name is Joe, and I'm your host.

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Whether you like it or not.

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If you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe where every listening right now

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goes to 10minutemerder.com.

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You can check out everything the podcast does, get links to all the places you need to have

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links, there's a blog there, and a way to get in touch with me if you so desire.

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And here is one of those emails, subject, accidental true crime education.

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Hi Joe, I started listening to your show for entertainment.

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Now I catch myself explaining the difference between various forensic methods to my friends,

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like I'm qualified to testify in court.

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Has anyone ever told you that you've basically turned them into an amateur detective?

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Elliott in Reno.

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Elliott, thank you for the email, and no one's ever said that to me before, but I feel that

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same way.

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Before I started doing this podcast, I feel like maybe because I was really into true crime,

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I had more knowledge about forensic science and the things that go on in a crime scene.

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No more not even to the level of like your average police officer.

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So less than that, but like more than the average person, I had about that amount of knowledge.

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And I've read so much in the time that I've started this podcast, so many court cases, research,

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investigative techniques, you name it, I've probably read it or seen it.

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And again, I'm no forensic expert, but the knowledge that I've gained reading all of that

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and seeing all of that helps me to do the research for this podcast.

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I feel like, and I hope you agree that from the beginning of it, if you've listened, if

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you're an OG listener, you've listened to the beginning, to now my descriptions of forensic

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evidence and the ins and outs of that have gotten much better.

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Because as I understand it more, I can explain it better.

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And I suppose, Elliot, if I'm explaining it better, that helps you to understand it better

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and turns you into an amateur detective.

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So that's a compliment without you realizing it is.

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Thank you for the email.

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And again, if you want to send me an email, you can go to my website, 10minuteMurder.com.

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That's going to do it.

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That is your episode for today.

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Keep on binging, and that's what you're doing.

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If you're in the middle of a 10 minute murder, 10 minute mystery binge, don't let me stop

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you.

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Keep right on going.

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But if this is where you get off, I've enjoyed it.

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I hope you have too.

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See you next time.

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[Music]