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- [00:00]
Frannie Block
Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint, finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today.
- [00:23]
Poppy Damon
If you're an experienced pet owner, you already know that having a pet is 25% belly rubs, 25% yelling drop it. And 50% groaning at the bill from every pet visit. Which is why Lemonade Pet Insurance is tailor made for your pet and can save you up to 90% on vet bills.
- [00:37]
Frannie Block
It can help cover checkups, emergencies, diagnostics.
- [00:40]
Poppy Damon
Basically all the stuff that makes your bank account get nervous. Claims are filed super easily through the Lemonade app and half get settled instantly. Get a'@lemonade.com pet and they'll help cover the vet bill for whatever your pet swallowed after you yelled drop it. I want to tell you about a synagogue. A synagogue in the middle of downtown Detroit. The building was built in the 1930s and it has this kind of Art Deco style. It has these striking, brightly colored stained glass windows and it's shaped like a triangle, almost like the Flatiron Building in New York City. But during fraught times in the 1960s, as race riots up ended downtown, the front windows were bricked up for safety and the colorful stained glass above started to collect dust and grime. The Jewish community had slowly moved away, forcing nearby synagogues to shut down their doors, leaving just this one downtown remaining only a small Star of David on the building's bright red double doors and a brass iron sign above it would tell you it even was a synagogue. But recently, I mean, just in the last decade or so, a group of people wanted to change that. They found money and a growing community of Jews moving back to the city. And slowly, brick by brick, they opened the community back up again. Gathering here today celebrates not only the renovation of this beautiful building, but the hope and pride and the ability to be able to gather here today, publicly and proudly sharing our culture, our history, our and our future with our neighbors in this great city. That's synagogue president Samantha Wohl in August 2023 at the grand reopening. She's standing in a lectern in front of a crowd of people, and she's smiling, wearing a bright blue dress. We are a community and a continuity of learning of praying, of understanding, and of belonging. Come join us. The synagogue Sam helped remodel has windows from floor to ceiling, even in the rabbi's office. From the street, you can see right in Shabbat is held on the roof deck when the weather's nice and artists from all over Michigan display their work in the community spaces. It's a place where local kids now celebrate their bar and bat mitzvahs, and a Jewish day school even held their prom there just last year. Where are we now, Frani? We are outside the downtown synagogue, right in the heart of downtown Detroit. Basically, I went to the synagogue on a cold December day in 2024 with my producer, Poppy Damon. The building now bears Sam's name in bold blue lettering. The Samantha Wall center for Jewish Detroit.
- [03:38]
Frannie Block
And it really does make us think of Sam with her multicolored clothes and life.
- [03:43]
Poppy Damon
Sam Wall had both a big vision for the space in the community and an amazing attention to detail. She wanted to build an elevator to make it accessible for everybody. She wanted rows of books, both old and new, traditional and modern. And the ark, the cabinet where the Torah is held. She helped design it so it looked like spokes on a wheel, just like the streets of the city. She loved the streets of Detroit. She rode her bike here. She would, like, wear basketball shorts and tuck her dress into it and then change. That's Rachel Rudman, the synagogue's executive director, who used to work with Sam almost every day. This was her city. It was her city, one she dedicated her life to. And she knew so many people. Everybody knew Sam. She touched so many people from so many different communities. This was her home. And yet on October 21, 2023, she was found murdered here, just minutes away from the synagogue. She was stabbed eight times. There is shock and sadness tonight over.
- [04:50]
Frannie Block
The violent killing of Samantha Wohl, a.
- [04:52]
Poppy Damon
Prominent figure in the Metro Detroit Jewish.
- [04:55]
Frannie Block
Community who was known for promoting understanding between different faiths.
- [05:00]
Poppy Damon
And in the murder investigation that followed, it became apparent that in a city full of cameras, it's a case that lives and dies in a three hour window of mystery that I've spent a year trying to unravel.
- [05:13]
Frannie Block
We didn't know how it happened, who did it. We didn't know any of that. It doesn't add up. It keeps this lingering doubt. It doesn't put the period on the end of the sentence. We're sitting here with an ellipsis. It's pretty surreal that she is effectively the subject of a murder mystery saga. It's just heart wrenching and all of the details of this are extremely bizarre.
- [05:42]
Poppy Damon
I'm Frannie Block and from the Free Press. This is Murder in Detroit, episode one one of 36 Angels. It's 6:20am on October 21, 2023, and Kevin Mull, a local tech entrepreneur, goes to walk his dog.
- [06:08]
Frannie Block
As I went out into the little park that's between my building and the building across where normally we would walk the dog, I noticed something on the sidewalk at the building directly across from my unit.
- [06:21]
Poppy Damon
He lives in a townhouse that overlooks a park and a parking lot. The houses face each other and they're very distinctive. In fact, they're designed by the famous 20th century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. They have flat roofs and big windows, so you can kind of see right inside of everyone's homes. But on this day, it's rainy, really quite misty, and it's still dark outside. So Kevin can barely see 10ft in front of him. But across the street, he can sort of make out this dark shape that's on the sidewalk.
- [06:56]
Frannie Block
I couldn't tell what it was. So as I made my way across the meadow, I eventually realized that it was a person that was lying on the sidewalk.
- [07:05]
Poppy Damon
A person lying on the sidewalk with their back towards him in what I.
- [07:10]
Frannie Block
Would describe as a fetal position. And I noticed that right away that the person did not have any shoes on.
- [07:17]
Poppy Damon
He called out. There was no response. As he got closer, he leaned down.
- [07:23]
Frannie Block
The skin was blue, the feet were blue. I touched that part of the body to try to get some kind of reaction, and I immediately could tell how cold the body was.
- [07:34]
Poppy Damon
He noticed a bit of exposed skin on the person's back. And worse still, when he touched the body, no reaction. So he raced back home and told his wife, Jessica Robinson, and she calls 911. My husband was walking our dog and he told me there is a person.
- [07:56]
Frannie Block
Potentially a body, laying on the sidewalk.
- [08:00]
Poppy Damon
He attempted to nudge a person and they didn't move. And there's like, present, and the person's just laying there. A body, blood present, and the person is just laying there.
- [08:13]
Frannie Block
Where's the blood?
- [08:14]
Poppy Damon
He's put me at.
- [08:15]
Frannie Block
Kevin, where is the blood.
- [08:19]
Poppy Damon
On the sidewalk? On the side.
- [08:23]
Frannie Block
Wash around the body.
- [08:25]
Poppy Damon
We'll go look again as well. Jessica stepped outside and noticed the victim had on a familiar hair clip and a Macabees basketball jacket. I thought that it was my neighbor, Sam Wall. Soon the police arrived.
- [08:39]
Frannie Block
My name is Lieutenant Matthew Bray. I work for the Detroit Police Department, and I am one of the lieutenants in Charge of the homicide task force.
- [08:47]
Poppy Damon
Lieutenant Matthew Bray, who is now actually Captain Matthew Bray wasn't called to the scene, but he was managing the detectives who took on the case. Tell me about what the blood evidence was telling police.
- [08:59]
Frannie Block
The blood evidence clearly shows that the attack. Violence. Attack occurred inside of the residence. Based on blood evidence. The blood evidence is what shows where the violence occurred at.
- [09:10]
Poppy Damon
Though her body was found outside, the police found the door to Sam's house was already open. Inside, they found pools of blood in the hallway. There was no blood in the kitchen from what they could see, but a bowl of fruit was knocked over on the kitchen table. There was no forced entry and no obvious murder weapon.
- [09:30]
Frannie Block
I always tell people that cases are like jigsaw puzzles. Some of them are 2,000 pieces, and you don't even know what the picture looks like. And you're missing a hundred of the pieces. And some of them are 10 pieces, and they go together very easily.
- [09:45]
Poppy Damon
Here are some other pieces of the puzzle that quickly came together. Sam had been at a wedding that night. She came home around 12:30. Security footage showed her getting out of her car and walking to her house. Her phone records revealed that she sent a few texts and she opened Netflix. Her phone then went inactive at 1:35.
- [10:07]
Frannie Block
So really, the preservation of evidence is the most important part to the beginning of the investigation, because ultimately, that's the evidence that we follow to determine who the potential suspect is in that case.
- [10:18]
Poppy Damon
There are other details about Sam's house that are important to point out. On the front window, next to the door hung a Black Lives Matter poster and the small image of an Israeli flag and a sign stating Detroit stands with Israel. Inside her home, there was an Israeli flag on the wall, which police found completely untouched. And at this point, the police find themselves faced with even more questions.
- [10:43]
Frannie Block
So just like any other case, each case follows the evidence.
- [10:46]
Poppy Damon
Follow the evidence. It's harder than it sounds. In the decades after the racial riots of the 1960s, homicide rates in Detroit have been among the highest in the nation. Although these numbers have fallen in recent years, police in Sam's case focused their efforts on the cameras. There's a ton of them in the area around Sam's house. Many of them are new, put up by homeowners, businesses, and the city itself. Over the course of the investigation, Captain Bray told us they issued over 150 search warrants, more than he'd ever seen in a case like this. Officers also spoke to neighbors in the area. They hope someone would have maybe seen or heard something.
- [11:31]
Frannie Block
I saw Incredible guilt. Just speak about 24 hours. Like I wish I would have gone down there, but I didn't. Like I'm that I'm that callous.
- [11:44]
Poppy Damon
That's James Griffune, another of Sam's neighbors. In this video, he's sitting in a cop car near Sam's house. He had told police that at between 1:20 and 1:30 in the morning, when he woke up to walk his six month old puppy, he thought he heard something. The police officer he's speaking to refers to it as a scream. But later James would say it was maybe just a woman's voice. He didn't do anything about it at the time. And he's telling the cop that obviously he feels terrible.
- [12:14]
Frannie Block
Just at this point it didn't sound to me like I never heard the word help or anything like that. And I was I having been down here for as long as we have, I felt calloused. It's not my problem.
- [12:26]
Poppy Damon
What exactly James heard becomes important later. It's really unclear what it actually was, but that timing is significant. You see, after Sam came home from the wedding, police believe she laid down on her couch and started using her phone. Her phone records show she sent a few texts and then she opened Netflix. Her phone goes inactive at 1:35. And then police also pulled data from Sam's ADT home alarm system, which could detect motion in her living room. And the alarm system showed that she opened her back door at 1235 and 1238. Then the system went idle, meaning no motion was detected at 1:24am and that's not long before Sam stopped using her phone. It's also around the same time that Sam's neighbor told police he might have heard something. The system didn't detect any motion again until 4:20am the motion lasted for no more than two minutes. It's that two minutes where prosecutors will later build their case. And that's all the police had to work with. Meanwhile, they still had to find Sam's family and tell them what happened the day Sam died. Her mother, Margot, was in New York with a friend, and her dad, Doug, was at home by himself.
- [13:54]
Frannie Block
The doorbell rang. There were four policemen at the door. And the first thing is, they said, are you the father of Samantha Waugh? And I knew I didn't. I knew something awful had happened. And it's like you read in the military when an officer comes to your door.
- [14:14]
Poppy Damon
He had a bad reaction. Understandably. As you may know, more observant Jews don't use their phones on Saturdays for shabbat and so Sam's sister, Monica Wall Rosen, her husband Ben, and their three kids were coming back from temple unaware of what had happened. Here's Monica and Ben. We were walking home from synagogue, and.
- [14:37]
Frannie Block
We had actually invited people over.
- [14:39]
Poppy Damon
People were coming to our house for lunch. And a good friend of mine, who is also friends with my parents and uses his phone on Shabbat. I didn't have my phone with me, was driving around the neighborhood looking for me because my dad had texted him, emergency, Please find Monica and have her.
- [14:56]
Frannie Block
Call me right away.
- [14:57]
Poppy Damon
The friend didn't know what had happened, but he dutifully drove around the neighborhood and found them walking towards their house. He said, monica, come here. He had gotten out of his car a couple blocks further, and I was walking slowly, and he said, no, Monica, come here. Run. So I did. And he said, your dad needs you to call him. So I went upstairs and at this point, what were you thinking?
- [15:20]
Frannie Block
We knew somebody had died. No, I did. It was like. It was a very emergency situation.
- [15:25]
Poppy Damon
I thought someone was sick and in the hospital. No one just dies.
- [15:30]
Frannie Block
This is the worst day of my life.
- [15:32]
Poppy Damon
Yeah. And I really just couldn't believe it. I just. They say that denial is your first thing, and it's so true. The day Sam was murdered in Detroit, her close friend Andy Einhorn woke up in New York City to a text from her.
- [15:50]
Frannie Block
It was my birthday, Saturday the 21st, and she had sent a text at 12:01. She was the first person and said, wishing you happiest of days. I love you.
- [16:00]
Poppy Damon
Later that day, Andy was at the opera with his husband. They were seeing a performance of Dead Man Walking, which opens with a brutal stabbing scene. During the scene, somebody Andy knew from back in Michigan kept texting him, saying, call me. At intermission, Andy stepped out of the theater and called his friend. And that's when he learned that Sam had been stabbed.
- [16:27]
Frannie Block
I just remember falling to the ground because I just couldn't fathom that something this monstrous could happen to somebody like this. And so that's what we left the opera and came home.
- [16:42]
Poppy Damon
By the time he arrived back at his apartment, there was a package already waiting for him.
- [16:47]
Frannie Block
The doorman called and said, you have a delivery. And it happened to be flowers that Sam had sent. And it was this. A card signed by her entire family and her friends that I knew. And there was something so utterly heartbreaking and fragile and vulnerable and almost enraging to know that just 12 hours prior to that, she had been living.
- [17:17]
Poppy Damon
See, that's the type of friend that Sam was the one who'd make sure you had flowers on your birthday. I spoke to more than 20 people about Sam, her family, friends, even just acquaintances. And that's all they could talk about, about how she was the epitome of goodness. Here's Sam's friend, Laura. My 40th birthday, I told Sam very casually, I said, I'm going to be going up north. I'm going to be in Suttons Bay. I'm excited to check out a bookstore in Sutton's Bay. I mentioned to her the name of the bookstore, Bay Books. I said, I'll see you when I get back. And on my 40th birthday, I walked into the bookstore and a woman behind the counter kept looking over at me and my mom and eventually asked, are you Laura? I was very startled. I said, yes. She said, happy birthday, and then handed me a gift card and a note that Sam had left for me. Sam consistently showed up like this in our friendship, and I was just beyond grateful to have a friend like her. I remember the day Sam was killed. I heard about her murder through my mom. We're Jewish, and she's actually also the president of a synagogue, like Sam was. My mom told me that when she heard the news, she was too scared to leave the house. So many in the Jewish community who heard about Sam's murder thought the same thing. It must have been fueled by antisemitism. It was just two weeks after October 7, 2023, and that day and its aftermath changed so much for Jews in America, myself included. It wasn't just the day itself when Hamas terrorists stormed Southern Israel, slaughtering 1,200 people, mostly innocent civilians, including children and the elderly, and taking over 200 people hostage. It was the aftermath, too, when hundreds took to the streets of cities like New York. Resist them two. But rather than condemn Hamas, these protesters were celebrating the slaughter of Jews, which they justified as legitimate resistance. Not everyone in Sam's family thought antisemitism led to Sam's murder. But I asked Margo, Sam's mom, what did she think happened to her daughter? In my bone of bones, I really feel it's a hate crime. I remember a week after October 7, I had a conversation with my sisters out of town and saying, I never used to be afraid before of being Jewish, and now I am afraid. And it was like a week before Samantha was killed. It was around this time that a former leader of Hamas called for a global Day of Rage, which many of us Jews interpreted was directed at us. I remember this day so Clearly, I was so scared about what might happen that I actually left New York City. I didn't even want to stay at home in my apartment because there was a synagogue on my block and I thought it could become a target. I wasn't alone in that feeling either. Here's Monica, Sam's sister. My kids go to a Jewish day school. They couldn't even have outdoor recess the week before because everyone in the whole country was concerned about violence and anti Semitic attacks. And then my sister is killed. The president of a synagogue in Detroit. It made no sense. And the way that she was killed with the stabbing. And there's people out there who say you should stab Jews in the neck. And that's what happened to her. Sam's murder made international news, and Jewish leaders across the country began to wonder if they were next. The fear was even more palpable for Jewish leaders in Detroit like Rabbi Yisra' El Pinson, the executive director of Chabad of Greater Downtown Detroit and a friend of Sam's.
- [21:29]
Frannie Block
The way I described it to my friends is there is people in the world that want me dead. If you look at the top five Jewish figures in the city of Detroit at the time, Sam was one of them and I was one of them. So who knows if this was targeted? Maybe they were able to get to her, but I should be on that list, too.
- [22:00]
Poppy Damon
Come to DSW for the shoes, stay for the fun. Because let's be honest, if shoe shopping isn't fun, are you even doing it right? So go ahead, try something new. Try something different, good different. Try something that feels like you, you know, the real you. And then definitely brag about it later. Because at dsw, you've got unlimited freedom to play. Find the shoes that get you at prices that get your budget at DSW stores or@dsw.com let us surprise you. Hey, how are you? Thank you so much.
- [22:36]
Frannie Block
Shoes off. It doesn't matter.
- [22:37]
Poppy Damon
Okay. Nice to meet you. Thank you. We just wanted to give you a little thank you. That's very kind. Poppy and I flew to Detroit one snowy December day last year to meet the Wahl family in person. Sam's entire family works in medicine. Her dad, Doug, was a doctor, and her mom, Margo, was a dentist. They met at Jewish Youth Group when they were 14 and 15 years old.
- [23:01]
Frannie Block
And we got married. And now we're here.
- [23:04]
Poppy Damon
Monica, who's two years younger than Sam, is an obgyn, and her husband, Ben, works in medical research. Together, they have three kids. Sam's niece and nephews whom she adored. They are a really close family. Sam often slept over at Monica and Ben's home on the weekends, sometimes two or three times a month. She would also not want to bother you by saying, hey, can I grab a pair of pajamas? She would rather just sleep.
- [23:31]
Frannie Block
She would never want to bother anybody.
- [23:33]
Poppy Damon
At Monica and Ben's house in Ann Arbor, which is about an hour from Detroit, the family quickly started showing us Sam's things. There was a bookshelf designated for Sam, filled with books about feminist theory, medieval history, Israel, Palestine, and everything in between. And there was her art. Sam was an artistic child, and she continued making art throughout her life, Sculptures and paintings. She didn't aspire to be a professional, but art was another way for her to bring all of her passions together, including her activism. The family showed us this piece she painted of a dove carrying an olive branch in its mouth. I asked Ben, Sam's brother in law, about it. What does stick with love mean or signify?
- [24:19]
Frannie Block
I think with the olive tree symbol there, it's like a combination of the Palestinian flag or the Palestinian colors, like with the Israeli flag. So sticking with love and not resorting.
- [24:33]
Poppy Damon
To hate and violence, her art reflected her personality. It was cheerful, colorful, eclectic. Every piece features her unique symbol, A signature she repeated again and again. It's a spiral, a continuous loop growing from the center. It was painted onto a postcard she'd written her mom when studying abroad in college. It was on her high school graduation cap in pink and blue glitter. And it was on a pillow she painted, which now sits in her parents office at home. You couldn't look at a piece of Sam's art and not know it was hers. In the early days after Sam's murder, after the police cleared out, the family were left with the awful task of going through her home, giving away her clothes and her books. And they discovered the basement was full of her art pieces, Ones they'd never even known about when she was alive. They did all of this as they waited for news from the police. And that question of whether or not this was a hate crime hung thick in the air. But it didn't take long for the cops to rule this motive out.
- [25:41]
Frannie Block
I want to offer my sincere condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Samantha Wohl.
- [25:46]
Poppy Damon
This is James White, then the chief of the Detroit Police Department. He's speaking at a press conference two days after Sam's murder. He's saying that investigators have all but ruled out the possibility of a hate crime.
- [25:59]
Frannie Block
We believe that there are no other Groups or anyone else at risk in regards to this particular incident. We believe that this incident was not motivated by anti Semitism and that this suspect acted alone.
- [26:14]
Poppy Damon
We asked the current police captain, Matthew Bray, about this moment. One thing that a lot of people noted was that the police ruled out very quickly that this crime was a hate crime. Can you tell me how police ruled that out and why they ruled that out?
- [26:30]
Frannie Block
Then? Chief James White's statement to the news. I don't think his statement ruled it out. I think his statement provided strong evidence that we didn't believe that to be the case.
- [26:41]
Poppy Damon
Ray said it didn't have the hallmarks of a hate crime.
- [26:44]
Frannie Block
Ms. Wool had a Jewish flag in her house. The flag was not damaged in any way. It wasn't ripped off the wall. It wasn't burned. It wasn't torn. It wasn't cut. There's not one piece of information that demonstrates that this would be any sort of hate crime. The timing obviously does cause people concern, but there's not anything in the investigation that has led us to that conclusion.
- [27:08]
Poppy Damon
But it's not like police had any explanation for what actually happened to Sam that night. As far as anyone knew, they had no definite suspects, no murder weapon, no clear motive, no answers for Sam's grieving family and friends. Here's Sam's dad, Doug.
- [27:26]
Frannie Block
The question was, what happened? We didn't know what happened. We knew she had been killed. We didn't know how it happened, who did it. We didn't know any of that.
- [27:36]
Poppy Damon
Then I would look at everybody and say, could you have done it? Could you have done it? Could you have done it? I mean, it's a terrible thing, but just didn't know. The Detroit community is gathering for Samantha Wool's funeral, which starts momentarily. Wool was the president of a Detroit synagogue who was found stabbed to death outside of her home yesterday morning. Police still working to determine the motive.
- [28:00]
Frannie Block
And suspects in the killing.
- [28:02]
Poppy Damon
Wool had a strong connection to Detroit's Jewish and political communities. In the Jewish tradition, burial should take place within 24 hours of death, in part so the soul can continue its journey. For a murder victim in a bureaucratic world, though, that isn't so easy. But Sam had the gift of knowing well, almost everyone. This ability to connect meant that she could be buried on time. And it so happens she knew the medical examiner, somebody she went to school with. And he says, I can be the identifier. I know that. I know Samantha.
- [28:39]
Frannie Block
I know.
- [28:40]
Poppy Damon
Sam's family would later be criticized for rushing the autopsy, but they told us that of course, they let officials do what they needed to do. By Sunday, thousands of people attended Sam's funeral or livestreamed it, a testament to the impact she had. Here's Ben and Monica again.
- [28:58]
Frannie Block
The funeral was unbelievable. There were thousands and thousands of people.
- [29:06]
Poppy Damon
There was an overflow room watching on.
- [29:09]
Frannie Block
A tv, they said.
- [29:10]
Poppy Damon
The funeral home has said they've never had that many people for a funeral ever before. The many who loved her are gathering at the Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak park, so we'll take you to the live stream.
- [29:29]
Frannie Block
Exalted compassionate God, grant infinite rest in your sheltering presence among the holy and pure. We have in this room Muslims and Hindus, Catholics, Christians and Jews and all kinds of races. And everyone loved Sam and was affirmed by Sam.
- [29:54]
Poppy Damon
When Sam was alive, she worked on election campaigns, helping progressive politicians make their way to the Michigan State House. She even worked as a staffer for then congresswoman, now Senator Alyssa Slotkin. At Sam's funeral, a number of her colleagues and former bosses spoke, including Dana Nestle, the Michigan State Attorney General. And Sam was honored in the halls of Congress. Here's Alyssa Slotkin when she was a congresswoman. It is important to me, as I know it is to my colleagues who knew her directly, that we honor the way Sam lived. From working in my very first congressional office to serving as the president of her synagogue in Detroit, Sam had profound faith, not just as a Jewish woman, but an abiding faith in humanity and a passion for interfaith relations, something that right now is more than ever important to our country. Sam was a progressive through and through, and she was also a Zionist, someone who believed in Israel's right to exist. This is Monica and Margo. She was very pro Israel, even though oftentimes the circles she would run in were not, which was very difficult for her at times, especially after October 7th. She was extremely disappointed at the reaction of the pogrom that happened October 7th in Israel and this inverse morality of blaming the victim. And some of these were her friends where she did marches and meetings and protests with. And she couldn't understand how they thought this way. And she did. She would call me and say, mom, I just can't believe it. She was very disappointed. And then, of course, her death two weeks later to the day, it's very sad.
- [31:48]
Frannie Block
She would find a common ground. Even with people that were completely against everything that she stands for, she would find a common ground.
- [31:56]
Poppy Damon
This is Monica's husband, Ben.
- [31:58]
Frannie Block
There were people at her funeral who, you know, would probably say that October 7th was, you know, justified. And a good thing, and she would be friends with that person and she would figure out, you know, let's, let's talk and let's figure out what the, you know, what the bottom lines are here that we can agree on.
- [32:16]
Poppy Damon
That unusual space which Sam inhabited helped her do something very few people reach across the aisle and bring truly opposing views together. But did it also make her a target? Was it political and not religious reasons that had led Sam to be killed? Maybe. But Sam was a peacebuilder from the floors of Congress. Here's Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian American representative from Michigan who's become known for her anti Israel rhetoric. Even she considered Sam a really good friend. She was a friend of mine and my friend. Our mutual friend Dan reminded me how she showed up with that beautiful, sweet.
- [32:57]
Frannie Block
Smile and the warmest eyes that greet.
- [32:59]
Poppy Damon
You to my swearing in ceremony and how she embraced him in a hug, saying she was so happy that he showed up and how important it was. That's who she was. She showed up for others always. We spoke to friends of Sam's from her time at the University of Michigan, where she was a history major, an activist, a member of women's groups, and sometimes a bit of a rebel. Her friend Jenny Nathan Simoneau told us about how Sam used to smoke cigarettes, but she did so in a distinctly Sam way. She was very environmentally conscious, so she always had an ashtray in her van, and if she was walking and smoking a cigarette, she would put the butt in the cuff of her jeans. And then when she got to wherever she was going, then she would throw them away. And Sam even promoted Israel on campus with a cheeky stunt involving branded condoms. For her, having a pro Israel presence in a progressive event was very important. And she decided that she would get condoms printed with the Israeli flag on them. And the condom said, israel, it's still safe to come. She graduated and carried on her work in advocacy and campaigning for the Democratic Party. But despite how beloved she was by everyone who knew her, Sam, like all of us, struggled with her own insecurities. For one, she always wanted a family of her own. Something her friends told us weighed on her. And she often questioned whether she was good enough, especially in her career.
- [34:33]
Frannie Block
Samantha was always bothered by the fact she did not have anything beyond a bachelor's degree, that she did not have a master's degree or a PhD or hadn't gone to law school.
- [34:45]
Poppy Damon
And her parents are struck by just how many posthumous awards she's received since she was killed.
- [34:51]
Frannie Block
She's gotten more Accolades and respect than you can possibly imagine. Even if she had 10 degrees. I used to tell her, well, you know, Bill Gates doesn't have an advanced degree.
- [35:02]
Poppy Damon
But she felt very self conscious about that.
- [35:05]
Frannie Block
Unfortunately, it's come to the realization that I was proven right, but she knows that sad kind of way.
- [35:14]
Poppy Damon
But just before her death, it felt like everything was finally coming together for Sam. In June 2023, she turned 40 years old, which she celebrated with a big party with all of her closest family and friends. And that August, the synagogue had reopened after nearly three years and $6 million in renovations that Sam had spearheaded. She started volunteering in college and I remember she worked on Hillary's campaign and Obama's campaign. It was just something deep inside of her that was just who she was. This is what she wanted to do from a young age. This is what she was passionate about. In fact, the day before she was killed, she had just gotten a job, a really good job. The day before her death, Sam had just landed her dream job, a full time offer from a political strategy firm in Michigan to run campaigns across the state. And she was so excited and told us about it. And then this happened. All to say Sam's life was cut short when she was on the cusp of realizing many of her dreams, of seeing all of her hard work finally come to fruition. In the end, though, it wasn't Sam's accomplishments that people told us made her special. Here's her friend Andy again.
- [36:40]
Frannie Block
I think she was an angel that walked among us because I do think there are people who genuinely only know how to do good and.
- [36:49]
Poppy Damon
But those who loved Sam don't see her just as an angel in a metaphorical sense. Here's her brother in law, Ben Rosen.
- [36:57]
Frannie Block
There's like a concept that there are 36 angels at any given time. And I truly believe she was one of those people.
- [37:05]
Poppy Damon
That's what made all of this all the more confusing. Who would want to hurt Samantha Wall?
- [37:11]
Frannie Block
Sam wasn't a cutthroat divorce attorney. Sam didn't have a long list of enemies.
- [37:17]
Poppy Damon
Sam's friend, Paul Spurgeon.
- [37:19]
Frannie Block
I was willing to help the police in any way I could, but there wasn't anything that I could tell them that would help figure this situation out.
- [37:26]
Poppy Damon
You had no idea who would have the motivation to kill Sam Wall?
- [37:29]
Frannie Block
Nope, nothing.
- [37:30]
Poppy Damon
And her friend Andrew Yockend.
- [37:32]
Frannie Block
My mind did not go to some sort of targeted attack. I also think that it's a little bit strange to say, but Sam would have been the one building bridges amongst the opposition when it. When it came to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. And Sam was beloved even by those who could not stand her political views. And so I think having known that, having seen that, I just didn't think that's what it was.
- [38:00]
Poppy Damon
So with no obvious enemies, her family started to look at her trusting nature as a potential clue. One time, when Sam was in college, she traveled to Israel with a friend. This was during the second intifada, a time of major instability in Israel and tension in the region. There were real threats of terrorism, like suicide bombings, but that didn't deter Sam. Without telling her parents, she and her friend visited the West Bank. Her parents only found out after the fact that when Sam published a story of her travels in the University of Michigan school paper, I always knew she didn't have much of a fear factor. She had a lot of trust in humanity. Yeah, I don't think careless is the word. I think she just. I don't know if she had such strong faith. I try to think of how she got this, but she did not have fear of things. And she thought dad was a worrywart.
- [39:05]
Frannie Block
But I think most fathers are.
- [39:06]
Poppy Damon
Yeah, And I think you're more realistic, but she just didn't. And living fearlessly wasn't just about her travel exploits. Though she lived in downtown Detroit, the night she was murdered, Sam actually left her front door open. Police confirmed that by looking at her ADT alarm system. And none of her friends and family seemed particularly surprised by that fact. Sam, come on. Just like this. Like, that was so sad. Like, I'm not surprised that happened. Right. This is her friend Shira Heisler talking about the open door. It's not like she's irresponsible, but she's just, like, living in her own world and, like, really assuming the best of everybody. And so that's, like, the irony that this happened to the most, like, trusting person isn't lost on us. So knowing all that, the obvious next question might be, did someone wander into Sam's house that night? A burglar, perhaps, who saw their chance to steal something and was surprised to find Sam asleep on the couch. Was Sam one of the rare victims killed by a total stranger? It's a theory police had to grapple with, especially once they got back security camera footage. In it, they see a figure with a backpack wearing all black, running not far from Sam's house just after 4:20am when the last motion was detected in her home. This has got to be a suspect or the suspect. Right. Well, as I was about to learn. Nothing in this investigation is quite that simple. I mean, it's a lot of bad luck.
- [40:59]
Frannie Block
It is.
- [41:00]
Poppy Damon
I mean, it is like a movie. There is some reason that they want to sink their claws so deeply into someone who is so blatantly innocent. I guess I can't say for sure who did it, but I can for sure tell you who didn't do it. That's next time on Spiral Murder in Detroit by the Free Press. Episode two is already available, but if you want to binge the whole series right now and with reduced ads, subscribe to the Free Press@the FP.com Otherwise, join us every Tuesday for a new episode. Wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoy this reporting, please leave us a nice review and help spread the word about this show. You'll also find more photos of Sam and bonus material on our website, so go to thefp.com for more.
- [41:56]
Frannie Block
Tulsa is my home now. Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone stars in the Paramount plus original series, Tulsa King. His distillery is a very interesting business. And we got to know the enemy from Taylor Sheridan, co creator of Landman. What are you saying? I'm all right.
- [42:15]
Poppy Damon
If you think you're gonna take me.
- [42:17]
Frannie Block
Out, it's gonna be really difficult. Tulsa King New season now streaming exclusively on Paramount plus now streaming. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery.
- [42:31]
Poppy Damon
We don't know what we're looking for.
- [42:33]
Frannie Block
Their bodies are the scene of the crime. No symptoms and history or clues.
- [42:37]
Poppy Damon
You saved her life.
- [42:39]
Frannie Block
We're doctors and we're detectives. I kind of love it, if I'm being honest. Solve the puzzle. Save the patient, Watson. All episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus.