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A
Hi besties. We are so excited to remind you that next week we will be back talking about Ask for Andrea. Currently on our Patreon, we have an interview with Mary Kubica about her book. It's not her. She shares an alternate ending with us in the interview and she shares the twist she wrote that surprised her the most. For today, we want you to listen to just a few minutes of the episode that dropped on Reconsidered Unsolved. And if you want to hear more more, just head over there and listen to the rest of episode two on Rachel Hansen. At 2:07am Police received a 911 call from Rachel. The 911 dispatcher answered and Rachel said, hi, I've been shocked. Someone broke in and shot me. She also confirmed the intruder was gone and that she was alone. Within three seconds of the call, units were dispatched to her complex. The first unit arrived within five minutes of the call. Officer Kobciak was the first to report that he was with Rachel. He applied a chest seal while working on the entry and exit wound and began compressions. When she was in and out of consciousness, EMS arrived and attempted life saving measures. They moved to immediately transport her to Chandler Regional Hospital where she fought valiantly for three hours but succumbed to her injuries at 5.12am this case remains unsolved.
B
So let's get into Ashley, who we are, why we're covering this case, and what everyone can expect from this series. When we first started thinking about covering crime cases, we did so because of a path that led us there with our other podcast. So we host a podcast called Books with your Besties that is based off of reading and talking about psychological thriller books. And we did this because we have a book club business. This was something that membership was looking for a way to talk about or listen about the books when they couldn't be on our zooms. And so we started hosting this, this podcast and at some point we decided let's cover a crime case for our Patreon members. And we, we did, we did some investigating and we spent a lot of time and we came up with the case of Kyron Horman, which is an unsolved missing boy case out of Portland, Oregon area. And we hosted an entire podcast episode for Patreon and realized ethically we did not feel comfortable keeping an unsolved case behind a paywall. So we decided we're not going to do that. Let's just put this out publicly on books with your besties as a one off. You know, we've done the work here. We had really done as much investigating as we thought we could, sort of in a basic way for that episode. So let's put that out. We did. So we had a really great reception with it from both our own community, it expanded to be on that community and the newspaper, the Oregonians online podcast, picked it up as an interest piece and interviewed us about our investigation of the case as it was the 15 year anniversary.
A
I think a piece of that that sticks with me is when Oregonian interviewed us and said, you know, you're not journalists, you don't have to stick to the same standards that we do. But you did. And I think going into this Rachel Hansen case, it's the same way and the same lens that we are using to report what we find here.
B
Yeah, I agree. We just, we want to bring integrity to this and the, the purpose here is to bring awareness and, and a pursuit of justice. Right. To consider these cases as, as in depth as possible.
A
I also think it's important to say, and I don't know if we'll leave this in, and we can leave that in when I say it, that we had a lot of behind the scenes conversations after Kyron, after we did our episodes on Delphi, after we started looking at Rachel about what is our, what's our purpose? Because we're not here to just provide true crime for entertainment or just information. And I think we both felt, I don't know if the word calling is too strong, but we both felt like, I mean, let's be honest, Em, we have cried, we have had sleepless nights, we have had days at a time where our anxiety is an all time high. But for some reason, you and I together make a really good team. And we feel like this is something we are needing to insert ourselves in because it feels like we can help.
B
Yeah. And here's the thing is we're being asked by our community for this platform and we don't want to be gratuitous with it, we don't want to be exploitative with it. Like, that's the thing I don't like about true crime. But the reality is, then here we go. You're going to get a taste of the psychologist already. Because I am a, I am a psychology professor, I have a PhD in psychology with my emphasis area is psychology and law. And I'll tell you a little more about that. But we really had these kind of considerations around. Is this purposeful, is this meaningful? And why do people listen to true crime episodes?
Hosts: Emily and Ashley
Episode: Updates and a Teaser
Date: March 13, 2026
In this special update episode, Emily and Ashley reconnect with listeners to offer updates on upcoming content, highlight their recent interview with bestselling author Mary Kubica, and give a gripping preview of their collaboration with the true crime series “Reconsidered Unsolved.” They also reflect on their journey into covering true crime cases, their commitment to ethical storytelling, and how their backgrounds influence their work. Throughout the episode, they share personal stories and the responsibilities they grapple with when exploring real-life mysteries.
Ashley ([03:39]):
“I don’t know if the word calling is too strong, but we both felt like… let’s be honest, Em, we have cried, we have had sleepless nights, we have had days at a time where our anxiety is an all time high. But for some reason, you and I together make a really good team. And we feel like this is something we are needing to insert ourselves in because it feels like we can help.”
Emily ([03:11]):
"You’re not journalists, you don’t have to stick to the same standards that we do—but you did." (paraphrasing The Oregonian interviewer)
Emily ([04:25]):
"We don’t want to be gratuitous with it, we don’t want to be exploitative with it. That’s the thing I don’t like about true crime. But the reality is, then here we go. You’re going to get a taste of the psychologist already. Because I am a psychology professor, I have a PhD in psychology with my emphasis area is psychology and law.”
In this episode, Emily and Ashley offer book-loving listeners and true crime enthusiasts a window into their process—balancing gripping storytelling with a powerful sense of ethical responsibility. They tease future discussions, reflect candidly on the emotions involved in covering real-life cases, and recommit to a thoughtful, integrity-driven approach shaped by their deep personal connection and professional expertise. This update primes the audience for both empathy and critical engagement in the episodes to come.