← Crime House 24/7
Loading summary
Transcript19 lines
- [00:02]
A
Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love. Hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhat. Every Monday, Dr. Bhat goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look. Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery.
- [00:52]
B
This is Crime House.
- [00:56]
A
All right friends, it's time for your daily true crime rundown. Grab your coffee, settle in and let's talk about the cases everyone's going to be be discussing today. We're starting with the biggest case. One of the most talked about murder cases in American history is back in the news. This time because the woman at the center of it all has died and her children are finally speaking out about the complicated relationship they had with their convicted murderer mother and what it was really like to love her. This is crime house 24 7, your non stop source for the biggest crime cases developing right now. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Vanessa Richardson and we have quite a lineup for you today. Here's what you need to know. On Friday, convicted killer Betty Broderick died from natural causes after serving decades in prison for the double murder of her ex husband and his wife. She was 78 years old. If you've been on social media at all in the past few days, you've probably seen her name. It's been everywhere, flooding True Crime forums and generating thousands of conversations across Tik Tok Since Broderick's death, the story that captivated country back in the 1980s is suddenly front and center all over again. Broderick died at the Chino Valley Medical center in California, where she had reportedly been for several weeks. Betty's son, Daniel Broderick told TMZ that his mother had fallen three weeks ago and broken her ribs. He also said she developed multiple septic infections, including one that had surfaced years ago but came back. She'd been serving a sentence of 32 years to life at the California Institution for Women and she died in custody surrounded amazingly by the children she'd spent the last decades of her life separated from her youngest son. 47 year old Rhett Broderick told the San Diego Union Tribune that three of his siblings were physically at her bedside and the fourth was on FaceTime. He Said, quote, we were all able to come and be with her. Even at the end, after everything that had happened, they were there. To understand why that detail carries so much weight, you have to go back to the beginning. Betty and Daniel Broderick, the third, known as Dan, got married in April 1969. By most accounts, it started as a genuine partnership. Betty worked as a teacher to help put Dan through school. He was ambitious, driven, and pursuing both a medical degree and a law degree. She was holding the household together while he built his career. They had four children together, Kimberly Lee, Dan Jr. And Rhett, and eventually settled into La Hoya, the kind of affluent San Diego enclave where people played tennis at the country club and attended charity galas. By every external measure, they had made it. But the marriage was fracturing beneath the surface. In 1983, when Dan was 39, he hired 21 year old Linda Colquina as his legal assistant. And soon they developed an intimate relationship. Betty said she had suspicions and confronted Dan, but he denied it. The deception continued for years. When Dan finally moved out in 1985, Betty's behavior escalated in ways that would later be used against her. She dropped the children off at his house one by one, depositing them on his doorstep with their belongings. She left profane messages on his answering machine. She once burned his clothes in the front yard. Another time, she drove her car into the front of his house. In July 1986, a court finalized the divorce and Dan received sole custody of the children. Betty was left with no visitation rights. Not only this, but the divorce had also been brutal. Financially, Dan was a high powered medical malpractice attorney who by this point was earning substantial money. And Betty believed she'd never received a fair settlement for the years she'd spent supporting him through school and his early career. Then, in 1989, two things happened that pushed the situation toward catastrophe. First, the divorce was finalized in January. Then, in April, Dan and Linda Colquina got married. In November, Betty received a series of legal letters from Dan's team, threatening her with fines and jail time if she didn't stop leaving messages on his answering machine. In notes included in her 2015 memoir, Telling on Myself, Betty described what she felt after receiving those letters. She wrote that she felt she'd failed her kids and had nothing left to live for. She said she initially planned to die by suicide, but then redirected that feeling to Dan and Linda's home instead. In the early hours of November 5, 1989, Betty used a key she had obtained from one of her daughters. To enter the home of her ex husband and his new wife. She made her way into their bedroom and fired a.38 caliber revolver. Linda colina was killed instantly. Dan was critically wounded and died from his injuries shortly after. Betty later recalled that he said, quote, okay, okay, you got me. End quote. She ripped the telephone cord out of the wall and left the house. That same day, she turned herself into the police. Afterward, Betty called her daughter Lee before going to the authorities. Lee later testified about that phone call, Telling the court that her mother had said she felt empty and dead inside. Betty went through two trials. The first ended in a hung jury in 1990. Jurors were deadlocked, unable to reach a unanimous verd. That outcome spoke to how genuinely divided people were about Betty even then. Was she a cold blooded murderer Or a woman pushed past a breaking point by years of deception and the systematic dismantling of her identity? The case drew national attention precisely because it didn't have a simple answer. The second trial, in 1991, produced a conviction. Betty was found guilty of two counts of second degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive terms of 15 years, years to life, plus two additional years for illegal use of a firearm. She was denied parole twice. Her next scheduled parole hearing had been set for 2032, but she never made it. Her children testified at both trials, and the way they split at the witness stand was an early signal of the division that would define the family for decades. Kim, the oldest, testified for the prosecution in the second trial. She described years of her mother's volatile behavior and how when she spoke with Betty after the murders, Betty wasn't crying. On top of all that, Kim told jurors that at one point, Betty had called her to say she hated her guts and considered her a traitor for remaining close to their father. Kim's testimony painted a picture of a woman carrying longstanding, deep seated rage, not someone who just snapped in a single desperate moment. Lee took a different approach. She testified for the defense in the first trial, Describing a father who could be domineering and frightening at home, and recounted the phone call she received from Betty the morning of the murders. Lee went on to advocate for her mother at parole hearings over the years, arguing in 2010 that Betty deserved to live out her remaining years outside of prison walls. Then there was rhett. He appeared on the oprah winfrey show and recalled that he and his brother had gone to their father multiple times before the murders, Explicitly warning him that Betty was unraveling from not having her kids. He said, quote, he she could do Something extremely irrational if she didn't have us, end quote. He later told Oprah daily that he believed his mother was not a danger to society. His framing on it was blunt. The only two people she had ever been dangerous to were already dead. Dan Jr spoke at the 2010 parole hearing as well, and his message went in the opposite direction. He told the board that while he believed his mother was fundamentally a good person, she had gotten lost, and that releasing someone that lost into society could be a dangerous mistake. In her 2015 memoir, Betty wrote about her children, quote, I absolutely adore my children from the first moment of the day to the last and still do. They were my priority, and I wanted so badly for them to have a happy childhood, end quote. Oh, that line is both genuine and also heartbreaking, depending on which version of Betty you believe. This division between the children who felt for their mother and the children who believed justice had been served ran through the family for decades. It didn't disappear after Betty's death. After she died, Dan Jr told TMZ that his relationship with his mom had been complicated. He called her actions unforgivable, but said he chose to remember her in her good moments. Rhett struck a similar note with the Union Tribune, saying the family would try to remember Betty, quote, as her best self, an amazingly fun and smart mother. End quote. As for how it ended, in April, Betty tripped and broke several ribs while at the California Institution for Women. The injury led to a serious infection that progressed to sepsis. On April 18, she was transferred from the prison to an outside medical facility for a higher level of care. She ended up in the ICU. By the time she died on the morning of May 8, she was on life support and unable to communicate. The San Bernardino County Coroner's office is expected to determine the official cause of death, though the attending physician has stated it appears to be natural causes stemming from those complications. The story of Betty Broderick has generated books, a television drama, documentaries, and endless debate about the line between victimhood and culpability. It probably always will. What's harder to debate watching her children speak this week is how much damage that November morning in 1989 left behind, not just for Dan and Linda, but for the four kids who spent the rest of their lives navigating it. Betty's case is a reminder of how crime ripples outward, how the people closest to it carry it for years, even decades, with no clean resolution. And here's something worth sitting with for a second. The story we're about to tell happens, happened just two Years before, Betty walked into that bedroom in La Jolla. Two women, two very different circumstances, both cases still reverberating all these years later. On May 11, a man named Stephen Bouchard pleaded not guilty to a murder that happened when Ronald Reagan was still in the White House. Alice Hawks was 23 years old in 1987. She lived in Westbrook, Maine, in an apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Steph Bouchard, who was 24 at the time. On Oct. 4, 1987, Bouchard left the apartment to run some errands. When he came back, he said he was locked out. He told police he'd called Hawks earlier from wherever he was, saying he'd locked himself out of his car, and that phone call was the last time anyone heard from her. He said he spent the night with friends because he couldn't get into the apartment. The next day, Bouchard got a spare key from his landlord. Maine State Police Lt. Brian McDonough later described what happened when they entered. He said, quote, they got in the apartment and immediately located Alice deceased in the bathroom of the apartment, end quote. She had severe slash wounds to her throat, one of them, which was called the Big One. What makes this case so haunting, besides that, is how much investigators pieced together about that final Saturday. It had been a completely ordinary autumn day. Alice had done laundry, called her mother to make plans for the following weekend, and at some point ran a spare car key out to Bouchard after he locked himself out. Later that afternoon, she received a phone call from an old college friend who'd just moved to the neighborhood. The friend said Alice seemed distracted the moment she picked up. Her tone was tight and uncharacteristic, and at one point it sounded like someone else was in the room with her. The call ended abruptly. Investigators believe Alice was killed shortly after that. The one of the details that stuck with detectives was her laundry was still unfinished when her body was found. They said she wasn't the type to leave it that way. Police conducted what they described as a comprehensive investigation in the months and years following Alice's death. They had suspicions and they weren't quiet about them. Twelve years ago, around 2014, when a local news station revisited the case and sat down with Lieutenant McDonough, he was unusually direct about where investigators stood. He said, quote, we have a pretty good idea of what happened and probably who's responsible for it, end quote. That gap between knowing and proving is one of the most frustrating realities in cold case investigations. A gut feeling, even a well founded one, isn't an indictment, physical evidence degrades witnesses. Move, die, or stop cooperating. And so, despite everything, investigators believed the case went cold. Alice's family never accepted that. Her sister, Rosemary Driggers, has been the most vocal in keeping Alice's name in the public eye for years. She told WGME this week that their mother hired private investigators and offered rewards, doing everything within her reach to push for answers. Rosemary and her parents lived with that unresolved grief for decades. And then, one after the other, Alice's parents died without ever seeing anyone charged for their daughter's murder. Then in 2025, something shifted. The Maine State Police Cold Case unit launched a full reinvestigation of the Hawks case. What specifically the reinvestigation turned up hasn't been made public, but whatever it was, it was enough. The main Attorney General's office reviewed the findings and made the decision to seek a murder charge. On May 8, 2026, the same day Betty Broderick died. Across the country in California, Maine State Police arrested Stephen Bouchard at his residence in Winslow, Maine. He's now 63 years old, nearly four decades removed from the night Alice Hawks was found dead in that Westbrook bathroom. The Hawks family released a statement after Bouchard's arrest that captures the weight of the moment. They said, quote, after many years of unanswered questions, the arrest of Stephen Bouchard brings renewed hope that justice for Alice will finally be achieved. End quote. A not guilty plea has been entered. Bouchard has not been convicted of anything, and a trial presumably awaits. What the evidence shows and what a jury will ultimately decide remains to be seen. But after 39 years, this case is seemingly no longer cold. Okay, before I let you go. All right. You know we can't end without giving you a little something extra. Trust me, it's worth it. Over on clues. Today, Morgan and Kalin are diving into the last exit. The disappearance of Phoenix Colden. On December 18, 2011, 23 year old Phoenix Colden got into her car in St. Louis, Missouri and drove off the map. Her car was found the same day, abandoned, with the engine still running and her belongings inside. Phoenix was not found. No confirmed sightings, no credible leads, no body. Her mother, Goldia, has spent over a decade searching for answers with almost no support from authorities. Morgan and Kaylin sit with the silence of one of Missouri's most haunting cold cases and ask why a young black woman could vanish into thin air without the world demanding she be found. We grabbed a clip from today's episode. Take a listen and if you like what you hear, don't forget to follow clues.
- [17:36]
C
All right, so this case starts on December 18, 2011 in St. Louis, Missouri. That morning, 23 year old Phoenix Colden goes to church with her mom, 65 year old Goldia Colden. Phoenix has handbell choir rehearsal at 10am and after that is the 11am service at the church. For some reason, Phoenix and Goldia sit separately that day, with Phoenix two pews behind her mom. And after the sermon ends around noon, Goldia goes into the church parlor to socialize with the fellow congregants. It's part of a weekly ritual called fellowship. But Phoenix isn't in the mood that day. She tells her mom she's going to wait outside in her SUV. It's a black 1998 Chevy Blazer with dark tinted windows. And Phoenix uses her truck a lot when she wants to sneak away and get a little bit of privacy. She just moved back home last year after spending about four years in her own apartment near her college campus. So being back under her parents roof isn't necessarily easy for her. Both of her parents are retired, which makes it hard for Phoenix to get any alone time. And plus, even now that Phoenix is an adult, her parents expect her to follow a lot of strict rules. But Goldia doesn't give Phoenix a hard time about waiting outside that day. At around 1pm, Goldia meets her back at the car and the two head to a local grocery store where they pick up some lunch. By 2pm they're back at the family home in Spanish Lake. That's a community of about 20,000 people. It's 10 miles north of St. Louis. Phoenix spends a few minutes playing basketball outside since it's pretty warm out considering it's December. And later that day the family's planning to decorate their Christmas tree together. But at around 2:20pm, Phoenix goes back to her truck for a little bit more privacy and she sits in that driveway for about 40 minutes. Her parents assume that she's outside making a phone call, but a few minutes later, around 3pm, Phoenix's dad, 67 year old Lawrence Colden, sees her truck back out of the driveway. Yes, Phoenix wants her space, but it's not really like her to leave without telling her parents, especially because they have plans together. So Lawrence assumes that she's just running out for a second. Maybe she's going to the corner store, maybe she's going to a friend's house real quick. But hours pass and Phoenix never walks back through that door. And this starts the central case that we're investigating today, which is centered around one question. Where did Phoenix Colton go that day? We're going to rewind just a little bit and talk a little bit more about Phoenix. Usually, you know, we like to talk a little bit more about the victim's early life, but it's a little bit tricky to do in Phoenix's case. Her story is kind of like a mirage, which is what we talked about earlier. It changes shape depending on how you're looking at it. The people closest to Phoenix who tell her story have been known to contradict themselves over time. But here are some things that we know for sure about Phoenix. She was born in California as Phoenix Lucille Reeves on May 23, 1988. Reeves was Goldia's maiden name, and after she and Lawrence met and got married, they legally changed Phoenix's name to Colton. At some point in Phoenix's childhood, when she was about 12 years old, Lawrence's job as a computer systems engineer brought the family to Missouri. They landed in Spanish Lake, which was going through this rapid demographic shift at the time. The area was 83% white in 1990, but by 2010, more than 80% of residents were black, including Phoenix and her family. By the time they arrived around 2000, there was a thriving black middle class of proud homeowners like the Coldens in the area. But there was also this rising rate of poverty and violent crime. The Colden's were determined to protect Phoenix from Spanish Lake's seedier side. So instead of enrolling her in public schools, her parents decided to homeschool her. But Phoenix found other ways to meet people her own age. Like she joined a local fencing club, where she eventually became a junior champion. She also played basketball for fun. And Phoenix loved to play music. She played guitar, she played piano, and she played handbells, which is what she played at church. After arriving in Missouri, the Colden's joined the Westminster Presbyterian Church, which really prided itself on inclusivity. Their website shows photos of a diverse multiracial congregation, a mission statement that prioritizes social justice, and a commitment to embracing the LGBTQIA community. And once Phoenix joined the handbell choir there, she made even more friends. But the pastor noticed that she seemed a little bit sheltered for her age. He said, quote, it was very clear that she wasn't particularly worldly. She had some maturing, I think, in terms of, like, living life, someone who is somewhat naive about some of the ways of the world. Now we know that as Phoenix got older, she did become more independent. In 2000, 6, the year she turned 18 and graduated from homeschool, she got an apartment with a friend which wasn't very far from her home. Her parents were not really about it at first though. But after a lot of convincing from Phoenix, Goldia co signed the lease. And around the same time Phoenix enrolled at the University of Missouri St. Louis. But in 2011, when she was 23 years old, Phoenix moved back in with her parents. Her parents who were financially supporting her, just couldn't justify the cost anymore. And Goldia was happy about this because she liked having Phoenix at home. And despite her being 23, she felt that having a 1am curfew for her daughter was fair. Despite all this, she was very proud of the young woman that Phoenix was becoming. She described her daughter as intelligent, compassionate, athletic, well read, deeply religious. But Phoenix's parents didn't know everything that was going on with their daughter, not even close. On December 18, 2011, 23 year old Phoenix left home at around 3pm her parents were waiting, but eventually they decided they were just going to decorate the tree without her. They wrapped her presents and they placed them underneath. But when Phoenix still hadn't made it back by midnight, her parents really started getting the feeling that something was wrong. And when she hadn't come home by the following morning, December 19th, they went ahead and reported her missing with the St. Louis County Police, which they did
- [23:45]
B
get a lot of pushback for doing.
- [23:47]
C
From the police.
- [23:48]
B
From the police. I mean they're like, you guys, she's 23, she's an adult, she can leave, you know, but both of them are saying, but she lives with us, this is so unlike her. Like, no, we want to report her missing. But they got a lot of pushback on that.
- [24:01]
C
It's hard to report adults as missing people, you know, because they always say like, adults are allowed to leave.
- [24:07]
B
Yeah.
- [24:08]
C
Police eventually kind of concede and they run the plates for the black Chevy Blazer Phoenix drove, but there were no new tickets, no accidents, no towing records that came up in their system. There wasn't really anything they learned from doing that. After that, Goldia said the police told her that there wasn't really a lot they could do. Like they said, Phoenix was an adult. She had the right to leave home without telling them if she wanted to. And since Lawrence had watched her drive off alone, they didn't really suspect that there was any foul play just yet. But as a retired social worker, Goldia understood the importance of starting a missing persons investigation as soon as possible. So until they could get authorities to believe that Phoenix was in danger, the Coldens decided that they were just going to investigate on their own. Goldia and Lauren spent the rest of that first day, Monday the 19th, looking for Phoenix themselves. They called the local hospitals to see if there were just any Jane does that match their daughter's description. They also called Phoenix's friends trying to find anyone who had seen or heard from her after 3pm the day before. And sadly they came up empty handed.
- [25:10]
B
They did learn something new about their daughter Phoenix though. Details that came as a complete shock to them. Which brings us to our first clue. A hidden relationship. It turns out some of Phoenix's friends had been keeping a pretty big secret for her. Back in 2006, when Phoenix first got that apartment, she told her parents that she was moving in with her friend named Brianna. As far as Goldia and Lawrence knew, that's exactly what happened. Whenever they stopped by the apartment to visit, they never noticed anything strange. And in one of the documentaries I watched, Goldia even kind of notes to the reporter she's sitting with. I, you know, I checked the medicine cabinet. I kind of went through stuff when I was there. I never saw anything that would belong to a guy. But after Phoenix disappeared, her friends broke the news that she had actually been living with a boyfriend too. According to Phoenix's friends, Goldie and Lawrence were extremely strict and religious. They actually didn't even want Phoenix dating until she was ready to get married. So with Phoenix not ready to take such a huge step and being so young, she kept her relationship a secret. Even after she had moved back in with her family, she never mentioned a boyfriend. But now with Phoenix possibly in danger, her friends told the Coldens who this boyfriend was. And it was 25 year old Michael Anthony Burris Jr. Whose great uncle was reportedly a well known politician in Illinois. Phoenix had met Michael through her summer job. At the time she was working at a car dealership where Michael's father also worked. It's not entirely clear if he lived full time with Phoenix or just stayed at her apartment so much that he practically lived there. Either way, her parents had no idea that this guy existed. But Goldia learned that the relationship wasn't necessarily a secret for everyone in their lives. It wasn't a secret to Michael's family. She discovered that Phoenix actually spent a fair amount of time with his parents. However, Phoenix's friends weren't sure if Michael and Phoenix were still even together at the time of her disappearance, which only added to the mystery. But before the Colden's could even start Asking questions about Michael, they learned another shocking piece of information, which is our second clue. Phoenix dropping out of college. Phoenix was supposed to be finishing her junior year at the University of Missouri, St. Louis when she disappeared. But when her parents started looking closer at her life, they saw that she hadn't actually signed up for classes for that fall semester. Phoenix never spoke to her family about taking time off. And they weren't the only ones that were in the dark. She never told her friends either. Her childhood friend Tim Baker had just seen Phoenix over his Thanksgiving break the month before she disappeared. She also told Tim that she was attending umsl. She didn't say anything to him about skipping the fall semester. Goldia had always seen Phoenix as such an enthusiastic student who. Who loved to learn. So this idea that she would just stop taking classes and not have a reason or not tell anyone was just so confusing and bizarre. Goldia figured that there must have been, like a real solid reason for it, but she had no idea what that could be.
- [28:27]
C
Ideally, the police would be the ones able to help the Colden solve that riddle. But even after the Colden shared what they had learned, the police still didn't want to investigate. Goldia and Lawrence realized they were going to have to find another way to get more eyes on this case. I think the police just assumed that that was more reason for her to run away.
- [28:46]
B
I know. Which, hey, like, take the report, right? I gave them a little bit of leeway when, you know, it's 12 hours later, whatever. Like, I know some people are like, no, wait until the first 24 and then you can report them missing. No, you can report someone missing at any time. But, hey, you know, she's an adult. I get a little bit of pushback then. But now, now it's way later and you're finding out all this info. At least take a missing person's report. Come on. So they're getting one botched mark here for this.
- [29:14]
C
Yes. Goldia and Lawrence decide they're going to print out missing persons flyers and they're just going to take stacks of them every time they leave the house and try to pass them around. They basically wallpapered the outside of their home with pictures of Phoenix. They covered the doors and the windows. They were everywhere. They also walked around the UMSL campus and handed out Phoenix's photo to people. And we talked about this foundation when we covered relish of red, but they contacted the Black and Missing foundation for help, and the organization blanketed social media with Phoenix's picture. And that finally got some reporters interested in this case. And that's when the St. Louis County Police started to take this case seriously. Because it's already in the press and they're gonna have to do their jobs.
- [29:56]
B
Yeah, now there's someone else holding them accountable.
- [29:58]
C
Exactly. So around December 23rd, that's five days after Phoenix was last seen. Five days now.
- [30:04]
B
Yeah. That crucial 48 hour window already passed.
- [30:07]
C
The St. Louis county major Case Squad was brought in to investigate, but they weren't the ones who found the next clue. It was someone who contacted Goldia. And what they discovered would turn the entire case on its head.
- [30:23]
A
That's Morgan Absher and Kaylin Moore on clues. And that's just a taste. Their full episode on Phoenix Colden is out right now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Just search for clues and make sure you follow so you don't miss any episodes. You've been listening to crime house 247 bringing you breaking crime news. I'm Vanessa Richardson. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more developing stories. Stay safe and thanks for listening.