On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 3, 1998, the body of 17-year-old Samantha Carpenter was discovered in the kitchen of a popular sandwich shop in Fairfield, California.

She had been hit on the back of the head, and then stabbed. Her jeans were discovered around her ankles, and her green sandwich shop apron was pulled over her head, concealing her face.

This was, quite obviously, a murder.

Police even discovered the murder weapon on scene.

But you’re about to hear why this case has been the source of endless conspiracy theories and cover-up allegations in this small Bay Area town, because those weapons ... they were never tested for prints. And Samantha’s body ... was never tested for DNA.

Samantha Carpenter, Sam, was a bright, studious, hard-working high schooler with plans to leave this small town behind for good that year.

Why?

Because the people she was supposed to be able to count on most might also be the very people responsible for her murder.

This is Crime Adjacent episode 580: The Fairfield Sandwich Shop Murder, told live in Memphis during our tour.

OK, profilers. Can you solve an unsolvable murder?

Join host and serial killer survivor Chase Patrick live on stage for Crime Adjacent, the world’s biggest true crime podcast. Every week, at shows across the country, Chase reopens the most haunting, enduring mysteries from the grim underbelly of American true crime and challenges you to solve them.

“An atmospheric and immersive podcast where true crime and psychological thrillers intersect.” — Earworthy

From the Zodiac to the Rest Stop Killer, the Michigan Nightstalker to the Cross Country Killer, each episode unfolds like a real investigation — like the whip smart, nerdy love child of Murder, She Wrote and War of the Worlds — and dares you to unravel the mystery and provide justice for those who need it most.

It looks like a true crime podcast. It sounds like a true crime podcast. But what happens when the cosmology of our escapist entertainment looks terrifyingly like our real world? That’s Crime Adjacent. It’s a fully scripted, intimate, locked-room mystery that pulls back the curtain on our social obsession with true crime and what this fascination with humanity’s darkest impulses says about … us.

“Crime Adjacent is redefining the true crime genre.” — Podcasting Today

Crime Adjacent is written and performed by Mike Adamick, a former crime reporter turned contributor for NPR, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s. He uses degrees in sociology and gender studies from UC Berkeley, along with an obsession with criminal profiling, true crime, and Jessica Fletcher, to explore why people commit crimes, why we are enthralled with them, and who, ultimately, pays the price.

So listen closely, profilers. Because with every episode, a new crime is afoot and every detail matters.

It’s not crime. It’s Crime Adjacent.

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Crime Adjacent is produced & edited by Multitude.

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