← Criminal
Criminal
Dexter Wade
00:37:49
Bettersten Wade searched for her missing 37-year-old son for nearly six months. Then she found out that the police knew where he was the whole time.
Loading summary
Transcript82 lines
- [00:01]
Phoebe Judge
Support for criminal comes from BetterHelp. A new year means new resolutions and commitments, but it also offers a chance to rethink what you want to create. The right therapist can help you chart your next chapter. If you're looking to get started, BetterHelp Online therapy can be a great way to begin. BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. Write your story with BetterHelp. You can visit betterhelp.com criminal today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P.com criminal if you enjoy learning more about the world around you, I want to tell you about Radiolab, a podcast from WNYC hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser. Radiolab's goal with each episode is to make you think, how did I live this long and not know that? Whether it's about chemistry, politics, new technologies, or ancient beliefs, Radiolab's rigorous curiosity gets you the answers so you can see the world in new ways. Radiolab adventures on the edge of what you think you know. Listen wherever you get your podcasts Hi, it's Phoebe. Thanks to all of you who recently became Criminal plus members. Your support means so much to us and it helps us keep making criminal More than 10 years after we started this show, we recorded our first episode in a closet and put out one episode a month. Now we bring you a new story every week and sometimes we do still record in a closet. It's very lucky to be able to make this show. We're very proud of the work we do and the conversations we get to have with all kinds of people. I can't wait for you to hear the episodes that are coming out in the next couple of months. If you want to help support our show, it would mean a lot and it means you get access to all of our shows without any ads and bonus episodes. Hosted by me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spore, we talk about episodes that are coming up, check in with guests from past episodes and answer your questions. The one we get the most is about where our story ideas come from. It costs $6 a month to join Criminal plus, or you can get a discount on a year long membership. If you sign up now, you'll get an invitation to our next virtual Live event coming up on January 30th. You can find out more at ThisIsCriminal.com plus that's ThisIsCriminal.com thanks for listening for all these years and thank you for helping us make sure we're around for the next 10. I think 2025 is gonna be our best year yet. The episode you're about to hear is one of the reasons making this show is still so fun. Here's the show.
- [02:47]
Betterstein Wade
I had three kids. Latonya. She was very smart. She was always smart. She was one of my smartest kids. This is Betterstein Wade and Amir. Amma was just such a pretty little girl. She just was pretty and she was just outgoing. And Dexter, he was the same way. Dexter loved to talk to everybody. Dexter just had himself a ball. He's always loved talking to older people. He was just a person that loved older people. Then he loved it, like playing games, you know, they was off into all them games and computer. Dexter was real smart on the computer. His teacher used to say, I let him run my class in the computer. Cause he just so good at. He just know everything to do. So he loved the computers.
- [03:36]
Phoebe Judge
Betterstein Wade raised her children in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, where her mother and brother George also lived. And what was life for you? Like, tell me a little bit about what was going on in your life.
- [03:51]
Betterstein Wade
Well, what was going on in my life, I was sort of trying to, you know, have me a career and trying to have money so we could help with my mom and help my mom do things. And we always tried to help the family as much as we can. So we just stuck together and just tried to make money and tried to make our family be better, try to make the next generation be better. That was our thing always. Every generation need to been better than the first generation, the next generation, every generation we had, we tried to make them better.
- [04:23]
Phoebe Judge
For a while, Betterstein worked as an aluminum welder. Then she says she got a job doing security. She worked night shifts, which meant she didn't get to see her kids as often. She remembers that as her son Dexter got older, he and his friends could be hard to track down.
- [04:41]
Betterstein Wade
As he got older, you know, up in his teen, 15, 16, you know, he got, you know, with a bunch of little boys and they start doing things off from home. Then he starts staying out from home and, you know, you be the parents, be trying to find him. But half of the time I couldn't find him because I didn't, you know, actually know where he would be because he had friends that I didn't know. And so. And it was hard. But he always called. He always called and said, mom, I'm so and so. And so he always let me knew where you were. He never did go off and just not let me know where he were.
- [05:16]
Phoebe Judge
After high school, Dexter stayed in Jackson. He and his girlfriend had two daughters, Jonelle and Jocelyn. And then when he was in his mid-20s, Dexter went to prison.
- [05:29]
Betterstein Wade
He got mixed up with a group of. Little group of young men and they say he robbed someone. He went on and he served the time, you know, spending six. He spent his six years in jail and he got out and you know, he was trying to live his. Trying to live as best as he could.
- [05:50]
Phoebe Judge
Dexter had married his girlfriend while he was in prison. A few years after he got out, they got divorced and Dexter moved home with Betterstein. He still saw his daughters often.
- [06:01]
Betterstein Wade
Dexter was good as a father. Dexter kids, when they come there, he just love to just lay in their bed and talk to him and stuff. And you know, he was always good to his kids. Anything he had, I didn't care if he didn't get his hold to nothing but $10, he gonna give each one of them $5 a piece.
- [06:20]
Phoebe Judge
He was released from prison in 2017 at age 31. Betterstein says he wasn't really the same.
- [06:29]
Betterstein Wade
Yeah, it affect prison affected Dexter bad. And he. I started taking him to mental health. We was trying to get help for him and. And they finally got him connected with the mental health and got him going to mental health. And he struggled for a while. He struggled with that for a while. And so he has started going, taking his medicine the last two years. He had got to the point to where he was not leaving at home. He was just staying at home, being around the house, taking care of the house. And he just wasn't going anywhere. He was just at home.
- [07:08]
Phoebe Judge
One day, Betterstein noticed a window in their house had a crack in the glass. She asked Dexter if he could fix it and she went to work. When she got home, she saw that Dexter had removed the entire window, leaving a big hole in the side of the house. She says that upset her and she and Dexter fought about it.
- [07:28]
Betterstein Wade
And I said, boy, you better get out there and put my window back in. I said, you don't. Tore my whole window out. So he said, ah, I'm not putting nothing back in. Cause you got an attitude. I said, no, you need to put my window back in. So then a friend, guy he is, was there and they came on out the house and went on down the street. And so I said, well, you know, he'll be back in a few. You know, I went to the store and got him a pack of cigarettes and I came on back to the house. And I went and got the window to go back in the window. And me, my friend, put the window back in. And I didn't think nothing of it. I didn't. You know, I figured. I said, well, he'll be back. You know, he'll blow off a little steam. He'll be back. And so, you know, that night went by. He didn't call. I said, oh, it's unusual for Dexter not to call me and tell me where he at.
- [08:17]
Phoebe Judge
A couple of days went by, and.
- [08:19]
Betterstein Wade
Then my sister called. My sister said, it ain't like destiny to go nowhere. Nobody done heard from him, say. Cause normally he'll call me and say, auntie, look at your. Let me tell you what your old crazy sister did. Everybody was saying it was unusual for Dexter. So, you know, I waited. I said, well, I'm gonna wait. I waited that Sunday didn't show up. That money didn't show up.
- [08:39]
Phoebe Judge
Nine days went by. Bederstein says at first she didn't want to call the police. Four years earlier, her brother George was beaten by a police officer and later died.
- [08:53]
Betterstein Wade
That was my birthday on January 13th in 2019. George. I was waiting on George to come, you know, over there. Cause he normally come over there for my birthday. And me and him sit down and have a few drinks or something like that. But I was waiting on him to get over there. And so next thing I heard, they said the police had him hemmed up. So the neighbors. From what the neighbors said. The neighbors said George was. Had went to the store and he had come back from the store. Said he came back to his house and he was parked in front of the house around about 6:00.
- [09:30]
Phoebe Judge
The police had been talking to people in George's neighborhood because earlier that day a pastor had been killed at a church nearby. Three officers approached George sitting in his car in his driveway. One of the officers was a man named Anthony Fox.
- [09:47]
Betterstein Wade
Anthony Fox said he saw George make a drug transaction.
- [09:53]
Phoebe Judge
Anthony Fox said he told George to get out of the car and that he saw George reach for something between the seat and center console. He said he told George to, quote, stop reaching. George said he was trying to unbuckle his seatbelt. Witnesses said they heard George tell Anthony Fox he was struggling to get out of the car because he was recovering from a stroke.
- [10:16]
Betterstein Wade
He was 62 and saying Anthony hit him in the head with a flashlight a couple times on his head. San Diego. George was trying to unbuckle the seats, and George had took the left hand and was trying to unbuckle the seat and saying Anthony Fox was steady giving. Get out, get out, get out the car, get out the car. You know, giving him a demand and said, he said, hold up. I'm just trying to get out the car. I'm trying to unbuckle my seatbelt, saying, Anthony Foxx just kept on, you know what I'm saying? Finally, I guess when George unbuckled his seatbelt, finally, he just grabbed George and was trying to pull him out the car and said they slammed him. Said they slammed him down on the ground and they was kicking him all in his side, in his head.
- [11:00]
Phoebe Judge
An ambulance was called to the scene. Paramedics bandaged his head. He was given a citation for failing to obey and resisting arrest and was released that night. Georgia's girlfriend found him unconscious and called an ambulance.
- [11:19]
Betterstein Wade
And when I got there, when I got there, they said they was rushing him into surgery to try to let some of the pressure off his brain.
- [11:27]
Phoebe Judge
He died two days later. On January 15, 2019. The county coroner ruled George's death a homicide, saying he died from blunt force trauma to the head. The officers involved in his death were initially placed on paid leave, but the Jackson police conducted an internal investigation and cleared all three of wrongdoing. The mayor of Jackson announced that the district attorney would conduct a separate investigation into George's death. A grand jury was convened and all three police officers were indicted and charged with second degree murder. In the end, only one of the officers, Anthony Fox, was convicted. He was sentenced to five years in prison. But then in the summer of 2023, the Mississippi State attorney general started working to overturn the conviction. Betterstein says the whole thing was all terrible for the family. And then in the midst of it all, her son Dexter went missing. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. We'll be right back. Support for Criminal comes from bombas. I've been wearing bomba socks for years, and I love them. I give them as gifts. I buy them as gifts for myself. They're very well made and not loose. I don't like a loose sock. Bombas are made with merino wool, which holds up great and keeps you warm all winter. No itchy tags or toe seams. They're meant to be comfortable all day. Tribombis risk free. They have 100% happiness guarantee with free returns and exchanges. They also make slippers and underwear and T shirts. And for every item you purchase, they donate an item to community organizations like shelters, transitional housing centers, and schools in need. They've donated over 150 million items so far. Head over to bombas.com criminal and use code criminal for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M b-s.com criminal code criminal at checkout. Support for Criminal comes from ritual. I'm not a New Year's Resolution person, but I do care about routine and about little things we can do to stay healthy. One thing you can easily add to your routine is a daily multivitamin. I've been taking Rituals Essential for Women for about a year and a half. I take two tablets a day every day. You can take ritual on an empty stomach. And they don't smell bad. They smell like mint. It contains nine key nutrients, like omega 3 for your brain, vitamin D, which can be harder to get now that the days are shorter. Plus magnesium and boron for your bones. Rituals Essential for Women is USP verified. That just means that every ingredient listed on the bottle matches exactly what's inside. Rituals Essential for Women 18 is a multivitamin you can actually trust. Get 25% off your first month for a limited time at ritual.com criminal. Start Ritual or add Essential for Women 18+ to your subscription today. That's ritual.com criminal for 25% off. Betterstein Wade's family had an active lawsuit against the city of Jackson and the three police officers involved in her brother George's death. When her son Dexter went missing, Betterstein's mother didn't want her to call the police.
- [15:24]
Betterstein Wade
But I think I was thinking of, like I told my mom, my mom said, you gonna call the police? And they done kill George. I said, well, mom, they don't kill everybody. That was my attitude. I said, well, they ain't gonna kill everybody. I said. I said, I don't know nothing else to do but to call the police. So I called for a missing person report. I called him. I put in a missing person report. I gave them all the information to him.
- [15:51]
Phoebe Judge
Betterstein sent the Jackson police a photo of Dexter, and they told her they'd put out a civil alert. Weeks went by with no news.
- [16:01]
Betterstein Wade
I be trying to think of where could you be, boy? I said, what? I put it on Facebook. Everywhere. Please call me. You don't have to come home if you don't want to come home. Just call me and let me know. You all right? I mean, it was just. It was devastating to me.
- [16:20]
Phoebe Judge
In one Facebook post, Betterstein wrote. Your kids miss you, and your family misses you. We love you. We always love you. By Father's Day, Dexter was still missing. It had been just over three months that day Betterstein posted. I'm trying to find you. Please come home.
- [16:41]
Betterstein Wade
I was constantly calling police. I was constantly calling them. Every time I found out something that maybe led to him, I would call them and tell them about it. Call them to check him out. I told them the dude that left the house with Dexter. I told them his name to try to get in touch with him to see did he know what happened to Dexter. They didn't even do that. I got to the point to where my mama told him. My mama said, girl, them folks ain't gonna do nothing for you because they done killed George and they ain' and you down here trying to get them convicted and stuff so them folks ain't thinking about you. I said, well, Mama, that's they duty. I said, that's they duty. And I just kept telling her that. I said, that's they duty to, you know, see what happened to my son. My mama had a dream. My mama came to me one day. She said, betty, she said, the police done killed Dexter. I said, mama, just because they killed your son don't mean they gonna kill my son. And I left it at that. I was dry. I drove around. I went up in banded houses. I was all up in abandoned house. I got my friend of mine, me and him went all in all abandoned houses around there in my ear, searched all around there in the weeds. Cause I figured I said, well, they can't take him that for ain't nobody, if somebody killed him, somebody wasn't gonna take him dead for.
- [18:06]
Phoebe Judge
So at this point, you figured that he was dead?
- [18:10]
Betterstein Wade
Yeah. I started in my mind. I started saying, well. And my sister in law said, well, Betty, you just was to face it. Dexter's not gonna be alive when you find him. And you know, I start trying to get myself prepared for that.
- [18:27]
Phoebe Judge
Near the end of the summer, Betterstein got a phone call from the investigator assigned to Dexter's missing person case. But the only news he had was that he was retiring. He'd be passing the case on to someone new.
- [18:41]
Betterstein Wade
So this lady called me on August 14th. She called me, she said, I am taking over Dexter K. And I will help you find your son. Ms. Wade, I said, thank you. I said, maybe somebody. I said, since you a woman, you know how I feel for my son.
- [19:02]
Phoebe Judge
She called back 10 days later, August.
- [19:05]
Betterstein Wade
24, she called me. She said, Ms. Wade, we found your son. I said, where is Dexter? She said, I sent somebody out there to talk to you.
- [19:19]
Phoebe Judge
172 days had passed since Dexter went missing. An officer came to meet her.
- [19:26]
Betterstein Wade
He came out there. He said, I'm sorry for your loss. I broke down and started crying. My mama was sitting on the porch. She said, tell me what happened to my grandson. He said, a police cruiser hit him on the freeway. He was trying to cross the freeway and a police cruiser hit him. I said, a police cruiser hit him. I said, y'all couldn't find out who he were. Y'all couldn't take his handprint. Y'all didn't do anything.
- [19:59]
Phoebe Judge
The officer told Betterstein, if she wanted to know more, she should contact the coroner. She called the coroner, asking why no one had told her any of this sooner.
- [20:09]
Betterstein Wade
I was going off on the coroner. I said, you mean to tell me you had my son down there all that time and y'all couldn't just run him through the system when he been at this address 23 years and y'all couldn't find him? He said, hold up, Ms. Wade. Hold up. Ms. Wade. Kept saying, hold up, Ms. Wade. He said, I did not have to search for Dexter. He said, I knew who Dexter was the night that he was killed.
- [20:35]
Phoebe Judge
The investigator from the coroner's office said that he had found a pill bottle in Dexter's pocket. So he had Dexter's name right away. He said he'd also gotten Betterstein's name and information.
- [20:48]
Betterstein Wade
He said, I got your name, your address, your phone number, and I gave it to jpd. And I said, you gave it to jpd? He said, yes, ma'am. He said, I got a record where I called JPD about nine times to ask, have they found Dexter? When I called on March 14, them people knew who my child, who my child were, and where my child was. He was down there in the morgue.
- [21:25]
Phoebe Judge
We'll be right back.
- [21:41]
John Shupey
Two influencers, both alike in dignity. And some other stuff on the Internet where we lay our scenes.
- [21:50]
Influencer 1
Let's talk about all of my favorite basics from Amazon that you need in your winter wardrobe. Some people think this is weird, but I get all my clothes on Amazon. This is what I would buy if I didn't already own them. I just got in a bunch of super cute packages from Amazon, so let's open them up.
- [22:03]
John Shupey
Their aesthetic is beige, it's serene, it's a little basic on purpose. And now one is suing the other for stealing her vibes.
- [22:12]
Influencer 1
There's a lot of things going on in the actual suit, but what it boils down to really is one of the women, Sydney Gifford, says that the other woman, Alyssa Shiel, just won't stop copying her.
- [22:28]
John Shupey
Coming up on Today.
- [22:32]
Phoebe Judge
Today, explained Betterstein, Wade asked where her son Dexter's body was, but no one could tell her.
- [22:44]
Betterstein Wade
They say, well, he buried in a cemetery down there by Raymond. I went to every cemetery down there by Raymond. I said, no, he can't be in none of.
- [22:52]
Phoebe Judge
Betterstein decided to get in touch with a reporter named John Shupee, who works for NBC News. John had interviewed Betterstein for an article about the death of her brother George.
- [23:04]
Influencer 2
And after we were done with that story, I said, just keep in touch. Let me know if there's anything else you ever want to talk about. And a month later is when she called me to tell me what had happened to Dexterity.
- [23:17]
Phoebe Judge
John started looking into it and requested public records like crash and incident reports.
- [23:24]
Influencer 2
On the night that Dexter left home, within about an hour, he was crossing a nearby highway by on foot, and he was hit by a car and killed. That car was a Jackson Police Department vehicle being driven by an off duty Jackson Police department officer. And that officer, after striking Dexter, pulled over and reported it. And so there was immediately a response from the Jackson Police Department's accident investigations unit. And because he had died instantly, there was also an immediate response from the Hinds county coroner's office. And that's where they began to collect basic information about the accident and Dexter.
- [24:17]
Phoebe Judge
John says the death was ruled accidental and that the off duty police officer was not suspected to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. And once the coroner got Dexter's body, I mean, would it have been his job or Hinds county to notify his family?
- [24:38]
Influencer 2
These types of procedures differ from place to place. But my understanding about at that point in time, when it came to the coroner's office in Hinds county and the police department in Jackson, is that they kind of shared that responsibility. Although after we started reporting on this, each side started pointing the finger at the other. First of all, it's the number one, one of the main priorities of a coroner's office to identify positively and definitively identify someone who has died. And so that was the first thing that the investigator did. And that's the main part of his job, which was to identify Dexter Wade. He did that because he had. Dexter had a bottle of prescription pills in his pocket, and the coroner's investigator was able to get a preliminary identification and then through fingerprints, a definite identification of Dexter that happened within a couple of days.
- [25:34]
Phoebe Judge
Okay, so there is no argument here that. Wait a second, you know, we didn't contact Dexter's mother because we didn't know who this person Was they knew that this was a man named Dexter Wade.
- [25:46]
Influencer 2
That's correct. The coroner's office investigator began steps to try to track down a next Akin for Dexter and for him that meant because of those prescription pills, contacting the hospital where he had gotten those pills and finding a next to kin listed for him in the hospital and finding a name, Betterstein Wade, his mother and a phone number. The coroner's office investigator said in his notes that he tried calling Betterstein Wade's phone number and didn't get anybody. Betterstein says that she does not recall any such call.
- [26:28]
Phoebe Judge
John says that the coroner's office investigator then passed along Betterstein's name and contact information to the Jackson police. What are the laws about notifying family after deceased family members?
- [26:44]
Influencer 2
It's very vague and I think that you'll find this in most places laws when they do address this, talk about making a quote, reasonable effort to find.
- [26:56]
Phoebe Judge
Next of kin, which is what Mississippi's law says. But it doesn't specify what reasonable means and it doesn't list any required steps.
- [27:08]
Influencer 2
At the time that Dexter died and his body was in the county morgue within several days, while his body was still there, the police department's missing persons unit had a missing persons report for Dexter Wade whose body had been identified at the morgue. The accident investigations unit of the police department were conducting an investigation of the crash in which they knew that the victim was Dexter Wade and the coroner's office knew that it had the body of Dexter Wade.
- [27:44]
Phoebe Judge
So what did they decide to do with Dexter?
- [27:48]
Influencer 2
When a coroner's office, any type of morgue anywhere in America has a body, that institution cannot hold onto the body indefinitely. And every jurisdiction has different procedures about how to handle that situation. In Hinds County, Mississippi, their procedure was if a certain amount of time has passed in which the person has not been claimed by next Akin, the coroner's office can apply to the county to have that person buried in a pauper's field. The pauper's field in Hinds county is in a series of plots of open land not particularly well maintained behind a wing of the county jail. And over the years, decades, hundreds of unclaimed people have been placed in that potter's field. And in these pauper's burials, an inmate from the county jail digs the grave and the body's placed in there with a number.
- [29:02]
Betterstein Wade
Dexter body was hiding the Hines County Raymond Detention center down there in Raymond, Mississippi, behind that jailhouse down there in a field. His number was 672.
- [29:17]
Phoebe Judge
When she went to see where Dexter was buried, Betterstein brought her sister and reporter John Shupey.
- [29:23]
Influencer 2
And so we show up there together in one car. And a sheriff's deputy and two inmates show up in a pickup. And they tell us to follow them. Betterstein's behind the wheel. So we drive down. We follow them down this, like, bouncy dirt road behind the jail. And the whole time that we're driving, Betterstein and her sister are talking about how strange it is. Like, where are we going? This feels surreal. It was way out in the middle of nowhere, with no real sign of any respect for the dead. And it's very nondescript, the potter's field. It's a patch of grass surrounded by trees. And there's some crude signs affixed to metal posts in rows. And the deputy sheriff pointed her to Dexter's grave.
- [30:25]
Betterstein Wade
They took me on down. We drove down a long, long, long thing. Way back in the back, Dexter way back in the back and had a number, a little stick stuck down there with 672 on it.
- [30:40]
Influencer 2
And I remember Betterstein approaching that and kind of saying, is that it?
- [30:49]
Betterstein Wade
I just broke down. I said, baby, I looked for you. I tried to find you. This is not what I wanted for you. I just cried. I just broke down in my knees. I was just screaming and hollering, crying right there in front of me, telling him how I missed him and how I was looking for him and how. I am so sorry. I would just say. I couldn't do nothing but say, baby, I am so sorry. I am so sorry that this happened to you. And I am so sorry that they buried you like this. I just broke down.
- [31:25]
Influencer 2
After Betterstein visited the grave, she then began work on having him exhumed so that he could get a proper burial and funeral. In order to do that, she had to get permission from the county to show up and have, you know, have a funeral director on hand and have county crews exhume the body. So she arranged for all that. She had a lawyer representing her who helped get the red tape tied up and was told to show up one morning for the exhumation. And I went with her to that as well. So I rode with her. And along the way, we started to get word that the body had already been exhumed. And sure enough, when we got there, the funeral director was there. And Dexter's body had already, apparently, been put in the back of a county coroner's truck. So for Betterstein, that was just another insult and injury to this process.
- [32:30]
Phoebe Judge
She had to pay to Reclaim his body.
- [32:33]
Influencer 2
Yeah. Speaking of final insults, she had to pay $250 to reclaim the rights Dexter's body and give him the proper funeral.
- [32:45]
Phoebe Judge
Hundreds of people attended Dexter's funeral. The Reverend Al Sharpton gave the eulogy.
- [32:52]
Betterstein Wade
It was a relief for me to know that he was getting a proper grave, a proper burial. Al Shafton put him away nice. Al Sharpton went to the most to put him away nice. They put him away real nice. He had a real nice funeral. And it was a relief that at least he wasn't down there with buzzers flying over his head. It was a relief to know that I can go to a graveyard and actually see him in a graveyard.
- [33:34]
Phoebe Judge
Did you speak at his funeral?
- [33:36]
Betterstein Wade
Yes, I did. And I thanked everybody for what they did. And I told Dexter, you home? You finally got home. Now you can get a little peace.
- [34:00]
Phoebe Judge
John Shuppy reported Betterstein's story for NBC News. He says he started to wonder if this had happened to other families in Jackson.
- [34:09]
Influencer 2
This can't be a one off. There's gotta be because of the systemic aspect of the failures here. This can't just be the first and only time this has happened. We collected records of the paupers burials in Hinds county. And we began to examine missing persons reports and we started to connect dots.
- [34:30]
Phoebe Judge
He and his colleagues found two more people who'd been buried without their family's knowledge. Then John heard from more and more families who wondered if the same thing had happened to their relatives. The city of Jackson has now adopted an official policy for how to notify next of kin, something most cities already have. In January of 2024, Anthony Fox, the police officer convicted for the death of Betterstein's brother George Robinson, was released from prison. The state attorney general from Mississippi had been working toward overturning his conviction since before Dexter went missing. The Mississippi Supreme Court found that the evidence was insufficient to support the guilty verdict. We reached out to the Jackson Police Department and haven't heard back. Anthony Fox, who's now with a neighboring police department, told us he'd been maliciously prosecuted. Quote, the appeals court saw the evidence of the case and ultimately acquitted me.
- [35:40]
Betterstein Wade
I haven't got an apology for George or Dexter as of today. My mama haven't got an apology. I haven't gotten an apology. They just done treated this family like we not nothing overturned George's conviction. Ain't saying nothing about Dexter. Ain't saying nothing.
- [36:16]
Phoebe Judge
Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Roberson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison, and Megan Kinane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them@thisiscriminal.com and you can sign up for our newsletter@thisiscriminal.com Newsletter. We hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program Criminal. Plus, you can listen to Criminal, this is Love, and Phoebe reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spohr telling stories from the last 10 years of working together. To learn more, go to thisiscriminal.com plus we're on Facebook and Twitter criminalshow and Instagram criminalpodcast. We're also on YouTube at YouTube.com criminalpodcast Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great shows@podcast.voxmedia.com I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.