Talking Dateline: Cape Fear

Summary

Dateline NBC Podcast Summary: "Talking Dateline: Cape Fear"

Release Date: July 2, 2025

Host: Josh Mankiewicz
Producer: Shane Bishop
Episode Focus: The unresolved case of Allison Jackson Foy and related investigations

---

1. Introduction

In the "Talking Dateline: Cape Fear" episode of Dateline NBC, host Josh Mankiewicz delves into the intriguing and haunting case of Allison Jackson Foy, a young mother who vanished in 2006 from a bar in Wilmington, North Carolina. Joined by longtime producer Shane Bishop, Mankiewicz explores the complexities of the investigation, the challenges of producing episodes on cold cases, and the profound impact on the victim's family.

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2. Overview of the "Cape Fear" Case

Josh Mankiewicz introduces the case:
"When a young mother named Allison Jackson Foy went missing from a bar in Wilmington, North Carolina, back in 2006, her family was really desperate for answers. And for nearly two years, investigators searched for clues until they finally came across her remains" (01:03).

The discovery of Allison's remains alongside those of another missing woman, Angela Rothin, raised alarming concerns about a possible serial killer in the region. Despite identifying a prime suspect, the case remained unresolved, leaving the family and community in distress.

---

3. Production of the Episode and Challenges

Shane Bishop discusses the inception of covering cold cases:
"Back in 2009, one of our old bosses had an idea for us to do mysteries, cold cases. And so he asked you and me and a few others at DATELINE to put together what we eventually became the Unsolved Case Squad" (02:29).

Josh Mankiewicz elaborates on the difficulty of producing such episodes:
"Most of the cases we do have already been adjudicated... The problem with that is viewers are accustomed to seeing an episode with an ending," (02:53). Cold cases, by nature, lack closure, presenting a unique storytelling challenge.

Shane Bishop adds:
"It's very hard to do cold cases if they're still in the works... getting the Wilmington Police Department to talk to us about cases that were being actively investigated was really tough" (03:58).

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4. Investigation Highlights

The investigation into Allison's disappearance involved various angles, including the involvement of Tim Ioannoni, a cab driver with a murky past.

Josh Mankiewicz recounts a pivotal moment:
"Allison's family did something remarkable—they hired a private investigator who received a mysterious email from a woman claiming Tim Ioannoni wasn't involved" (06:59). This led to heightened scrutiny of Ioannoni, despite initial reluctance from law enforcement to implicate him.

Shane Bishop reflects on an interview with the Ioannoni couple:
"The atmosphere was unbelievably tense... he was clearly not thrilled about it" (08:26). The interaction hinted at underlying tensions and possible ulterior motives.

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5. Interview with Susan and Tim Ioannoni

A significant portion of the episode focuses on an intense interview with Susan Ioannoni, Tim's wife, and Tim himself.

Shane Bishop describes the couple during filming:
"They came through the same door. She went one way, he went another... he was not happy with her" (08:37).

Josh Mankiewicz recalls a critical observation:
"When you asked Ioannoni, 'Did you kill Allison Foy?' he said, 'No,' and he nodded his head instead of shaking it" (13:06). This non-verbal cue, noticed by experienced homicide detective Dwayne Stanton, was a key insight.

Despite intense scrutiny, Wilmington PD had cleared Ioannoni of involvement. However, this clearance was more of a procedural stance rather than a definitive legal exoneration.

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6. The 2022 Update and DNA Evidence

Years later, advancements in DNA testing shed new light on the case.

Josh Mankiewicz emphasizes the systemic issues:
"In this country, we need to start prosecuting rape and sexual assault the way we prosecute murder... the backlog of rape kits... is nothing less than a shame" (16:09).

In 2021, funds from the North Carolina state legislature allowed Wilmington PD to test old rape kits. The DNA matched Tim Ioannoni, leading to his arrest in November 2021 on charges of rape and kidnapping. In 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to at least 48 years in prison—a near-life sentence, as he's ineligible for parole until 2074.

However, the connection between Ioannoni and Allison's disappearance remains officially unsolved. While Ioannoni was imprisoned for other crimes, the mystery of Allison's fate persists.

---

7. Impact on Victims' Families

The unresolved nature of Allison's case continues to haunt her family. Allison left behind two daughters, Courtney and Jordan, who have grown into resilient young women.

Shane Bishop comments on their strength:
"They are communicating, they're interested, they're very engaged... it's for them to decide what's good enough. Is justice the fact that Ioannoni is locked up forever, or is it important that their mom's case is investigated and resolved?" (22:00).

Courtney, now 31, runs a gymnastics school, honoring her mother's passion, while Jordan pursues nursing and is writing a book about her life and her mother's story. Their sister, Lisa Valentina, remains active in advocacy, now serving as the New Jersey State Outreach Coordinator for the Q Center for Missing Persons.

In a poignant interview, Lisa Valentina shares:
"Q steps in and says, here's some concrete steps that you can take to get the case back out there... You have to learn how to become their advocate and be their voice" (23:19).

---

8. Conclusion and Reflections

Josh Mankiewicz offers a sobering reflection on the limitations of the criminal justice system:
"The criminal justice system makes a terrible therapist... it will not undo the damage that this murder did just by convicting somebody" (22:44).

Shane Bishop echoes the sentiment of the family's ongoing struggle for closure:
"Alison's family was left hanging" (17:41). The episode underscores the emotional toll of unsolved cases and the relentless pursuit of truth by both families and journalists.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Josh Mankiewicz (01:03):
  "When a young mother named Allison Jackson Foy went missing from a bar in Wilmington, North Carolina, back in 2006, her family was really desperate for answers."

• Shane Bishop (02:29):
  "Back in 2009, one of our old bosses had an idea for us to do mysteries, cold cases."

• Josh Mankiewicz (02:53):
  "Most of the cases we do have already been adjudicated... there's always an ending."

• Shane Bishop (03:58):
  "Getting the Wilmington Police Department to talk to us about cases that were being actively investigated was really tough."

• Josh Mankiewicz (06:59):
  "Allison's family did something remarkable—they hired a private investigator who received a mysterious email from a woman claiming Tim Ioannoni wasn't involved."

• Shane Bishop (08:26):
  "He was clearly not thrilled about it."

• Josh Mankiewicz (13:06):
  "When you asked Ioannoni, 'Did you kill Allison Foy?' he said, 'No,' and he nodded his head instead of shaking it."

• Josh Mankiewicz (16:09):
  "We need to start prosecuting rape and sexual assault the way we prosecute murder... the backlog of rape kits is nothing less than a shame."

• Josh Mankiewicz (22:44):
  "The criminal justice system makes a terrible therapist... it will not undo the damage that this murder did just by convicting somebody."

• Shane Bishop (23:19):
  "You have to learn how to become their advocate and be their voice."

---

Final Thoughts

"Talking Dateline: Cape Fear" poignantly captures the enduring pain of families awaiting justice and the intricate dance between journalism and law enforcement in the realm of cold cases. While progress has been made in related investigations, the central mystery of Allison Jackson Foy's disappearance remains unsolved, serving as a somber reminder of the elusive nature of truth in some of life's most tragic stories.

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For more in-depth coverage and exclusive content, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

Hi, everybody. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and we're talking DATELINE today. As a special treat, I am joined by one of my closest friends on dateline, producer Shane Bishop. Hi.

[Shane Bishop]

Hi, Josh.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And Shane has worked with me on a lot of stories and also on the episode that we're going to be talking about called Cape Fear. If you haven't seen it, you can find it in the DATELINE podcast feed. So go there, listen to it, Cape Fear, and then come back here. So to recap, when a young mother named Allison Jackson Foy went missing from a bar in Wilmington, North Carolina, back in 2006, her family was really desperate for answers. And for nearly two years, investigators searched for clues until they finally came across her remains. And one of the things that was shocking about that was that those remains were next to the remains of another missing woman named Angela Rothin. Investigators did have a person of interest, a prime suspect. The question was whether the case would be solved. So for this talking dateline, we have an extra clip from a recent interview I did with one of the victim's sisters for the new season of our DATELINE Missing in America podcast. Also, we have another extra clip related to a 2022 update in this case where you will hear from Alison's adult daughter. All right, so let's talk dateline. How did we come across this case back then?

[Shane Bishop]

Well, back in 2009, one of our old bosses had an idea for us to do mysteries, cold cases. And so he asked you and me and a few others at DATELINE to put together what we eventually became the Unsolved Case Squad. And so I was looking for cases that weren't solved, which is unusual for us. And this was one that came across my desk.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah. Most of the cases we do have already been adjudicated, or at least they're adjudicated very close to air, like Karen Reed was. It's always been clear to me that law enforcement agencies and families would love it if we did more cold cases, because those are the cases that are not getting publicity, and those are the cases that, you know, they're really hoping that. That a TV show could shake something loose. The problem with that is that viewers of Dateline are accustomed to seeing an episode that's an hour or two hours long, and at the end of it, I or Keith or Dennis or Andrea or Blaine say, bill was convicted. He's doing life. Good night. Right. There's always an ending. Or Bill was acquitted, but there's some answer. And in these cases, cold cases, there isn't any answer. So this was an opportunity and an effort by us to sort of live in the mystery of cold cases. But there are ultimately cases that are not solved.

[Shane Bishop]

You know, from our point of view as producers, it's very hard to do cold cases if they're still in the works. Especially this is 2008 or 9 when we did this. So, you know, to get the Wilmington Police Department to talk to us about cases that were being actively investigated, that's really tough. And that, to me, is the main hurdle for us doing more of these.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Because the Dateline stories that you, the audience, see on television or listen to here on podcasts, you know, once the case is over, that's usually when police and prosecutors are willing to talk because the verdict's in. That's also when you, as a journalist, can get your hands on the evidence, on the video from that interrogation, from that 911 call, where the person doesn't sound exactly right. And it's hard to persuade any law enforcement agency to give us that stuff before the verdict is in, before the case has been adjudicated. In this case, there wasn't even anybody who'd been charged. So what did you say to Wilmington PD to get him to play ball with us?

[Shane Bishop]

I'll be honest, I can't remember. I do think that Allison's family was key in getting us access to things. Somehow they helped us get the cooperation of the police.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I mean, we've talked about this on talking Dateline and elsewhere a bunch of times, which is, you know, engagement by the family with the investigating department can make an enormous difference. And also, like brand new, fresh cases, they're not going to open up their files to us. Like they say, it's Ongoing. That's it. We'll talk about it when we have something. But in this case, I think maybe Wilmington PD thought this can help.

[Shane Bishop]

Absolutely. You know, there'd been a second body found. There were people in Wilmington obviously pretty worried that a serial killer was on the loose. And I think this was an effort by the PD to show them, you know, as much as they could what was being done to stop this and to find the person who did this.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

So let's go over a little bit of the facts of the case. This happened late at night. Allison was in a bar, and she. She needed to go home.

[Shane Bishop]

Right. She left a bar at Last call at 2, 2 in the morning about. With a colleague that she worked with, not her husband. We later learned that her marriage was not the happiest. She just left and disappeared. There were conflicting reports. You know, had a cab driver picked her up, had someone in the bar called a cab for her, had she called a cab. Somehow she ended up in a cab. That much seemed clear. But after that, it was all a mystery.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

So one of the things that Allison's family did was hire a very entertaining guy as a PI and at one point, he got an email from a woman who said that her husband might possibly be involved. Now, we later learned that that woman was Susan Ioannoni, the wife of Tim Ioannoni, who was a cab driver who would become a suspect in this case.

[Shane Bishop]

I mean, that's one of the great twists I've ever heard. In any case, that the guy's sitting there doing a radio show in something called Blue Line Radio in Wilmington, North Carolina, because he'd been a law enforcement officer. And he gets an email from Susan Ioannoni, who basically says, I don't care what everybody's saying about my husband. He didn't kill Allison. And the guy was nowhere on anybody's radar as far as that.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And then suddenly he was. Because of that.

[Shane Bishop]

I mean, you know, we'll wonder forever about Susan's motives in that, but I think you and I thought that was one of the strangest things we'd ever heard.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, because the argument that she's trying to exculpate her husband is just as strong as the idea that she was trying to send him away. And I don't know what was going on in that marriage at the time, but they both sat down for an interview. I must say, that is one of the strangest interviews I've done in more than 30 years at Dateline. And I remember, as they're sitting there, I remember There's a period in every Dateline interview where the people you're interviewing, they're in a chair across from you, the correspondent. And we haven't started yet. And you could feel that room like a pressure cooker, like they were sitting next to each other. And I absolutely remember how unbelievably tense the atmosphere was. He definitely was not thrilled about it.

[Shane Bishop]

And it reminded me of like a schoolteacher who had a kid by the ear because he clearly had no interest in being there. And she dragged him in and sat him down right in front of you.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah. I must say, I was astonished at the end of that. And then they get up and leave and, you know, you think like, okay, I mean, this is now evidence. Look, the cops are gonna see this. This will change the way they look at the case.

[Shane Bishop]

The enduring image I have is of standing outside the building where we did the interview and they were leaving and they came through the same door. And she went one way, he went another way, like he was not happy with her. And if you recall, in that interview, she said to him, I've never told you this, but I'm the one who sent the email to the radio guy. And you said, is she in trouble now? And he's like, nah, I mean, why would she be in trouble?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

No, she. No, she. She implicates me in murder all the time. Yeah.

[Shane Bishop]

It's unbelievable.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Okay, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will talk about a 2022 update involving Tim Ioannoni, including a statement from Alison's now adult D.

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

All right, so tell me how Dateline assembled the Unsolved Case Squad, these three investigators, who, by the way, you and I are still in touch with to this day.

[Shane Bishop]

Yeah, it was really an unusual assignment to be told to go find, you know, three hotshot investigators. I flew around the country a lot. I met with, you know, forensic psychologists. I met with a lot of detectives and with Alan Jackson, who was the prosecutor who put Phil Spector away, and.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Who very recently, was Karen Reed's defense attorney.

[Shane Bishop]

Right. And the second person was a homicide detective in Washington, D.C. dwayne Stanton. And I think he'd investigated more than 600 homicides, and he was just. He was just smart and thorough. And the third person was Yolanda McClary, who was what made the main character that CSI was based on. She was a CSI in Las Vegas for decades.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The Mark Helgenberger character was based on.

[Shane Bishop]

That's right.

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Yeah, that's right.

[Shane Bishop]

So we got them all together and with you, and it kind of all.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Clicked and it worked. Yeah, I mean, they were. They were. It was fascinating. I mean, I loved it. We gave them the evidence that we'd gotten from Wilmington pd, and we sort of let them sit in a room with me, and we all just sort of went back and forth about what made sense, what didn't make sense, what possible theories there were. It was fascinating.

[Shane Bishop]

One thing that was great was that while we didn't have access to any interrogation tapes or any interview tapes with Ioannoni, you had interviewed Tim Ioannoni. And so everybody on the Unsolved Case Squad took a look at that interview.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Are you a murderer?

[Shane Bishop]

No.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Did you kill Allison Foy?

[Shane Bishop]

No.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Did you kill Angela Roth?

[Shane Bishop]

No. And one thing I'll never forget is Dwayne Stanton picking up the fact that when you asked Ioannoni, did you kill Allison Foy? He said, no, I did not.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And he nodded. He nodded his head instead of shaking it.

[Shane Bishop]

No. Exactly. Exactly. That. Just good stuff. That a good veteran homicide cop would catch that I didn't.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, that was I thought that was fascinating. We only interviewed him one time. Did you talk to him another time?

[Shane Bishop]

Well, the next day, I needed some pictures of him. Some B roll, we call it. So Susan and. And Tim, I said, so, that interview's done. Josh is gone, but I need to. I need to get some pictures of you guys. And so we met him at the park the next day. And the private eye that you mentioned earlier was so worried about my safety that he sat in a parking lot nearby with his hand on his gun. He said, because I'll never forget. He just said, that guy looked like he was going to throttle you.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah. I must say, when that interview was over, I thought to myself, like, we've learned some things that police and the district Attorney's office maybe didn't know a few days earlier. And I thought that maybe some action would be taken as a result of some of the stuff that came up in our interview. But that didn't happen.

[Shane Bishop]

Wilmington PD had cleared him. If you recall, the detective that we interviewed had recently called Susan and told her, please tell Tim that he's been cleared. And that was kind of their position, and it stayed that way.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I'm always suspicious of police departments that say that, because there is no legal clearing of anybody. Like, there is no. That is not a legal finding. You know?

[Shane Bishop]

But there's a great moment in your interview with the police chief and the detective when they said, we have cleared Mr. Ioannoni of any involvement in this murder. And you said, in classic Josh style, because. And the guy responded, well, I don't want to get into a whole lot of becauses. And he didn't.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

No, I remember that. Yeah.

[Shane Bishop]

I've tried to use that with my kids sometimes. I don't want to get into a whole lot of because.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Right, but you need to. Yeah. So a lot of years went by, and if one thought that Tim Ioannoni was gonna get charged, one would have been wrong. He was not. Not for Alison's murder.

[Shane Bishop]

Yeah. I mean, Tim Ioannoni got into a lot of trouble. He has a record that goes back to, like, the late 70s, early 80s. So he was a habitual felon. And he did five years between 2013 and 2018, and then he got out in 2021.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Wilmington police were going through some old evidence, and they found old rape evidence from 1996 when a woman told police that a guy had picked her up in a car, raped her, held her against her will. That evidence went untested, like, a lot of sexual assault evidence until 2021, when the state legislature provided in North Carolina some funds for rape kit testing. And when the Wilmington police got that kit back, they found the DNA matched Tim Ioannoni, of all people.

[Shane Bishop]

Yeah. I mean, the evidence that was tested was linked back to Ioannoni.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Okay, so now I'm climbing onto a soapbox, which Talking Dateline has provided me the opportunity to do. In this country, we need to start prosecuting rape and sexual assault the way we prosecute murder. It is inconceivable that a police chief or lead investigator would say, you know, we've had all these murders in my jurisdiction, but we do not have the time or money to get to them. So we're going to take all this evidence and we're going to put it in this warehouse. And then when we get some more evidence or some more money, we will get to that, and we will actually begin investigating these murders. That would not be an acceptable situation for anybody. But that doesn't happen with rape kits. Only now are jurisdictions around the country finally catching up to that giant backlog of rape kits, which is nothing less than a shame. So after that information came back, the DNA from the 1996 rape, Ioannoni was arrested in November of 2021. He was charged with rape and kidnapping. He went to trial in 2022. He was found guilty. A jury sentenced him to serve at least 48 years in prison. He's not a young man. He is not eligible for parole until 2074, when he will be 113 years old. So it amounted to a life sentence. However, it's not the murder that we went to Wilmington to investigate that's still officially unsolved.

[Shane Bishop]

Alison's family was left hanging.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah. And it kind of ended with the person they wanted locked up eventually got locked up. And what actually happened to Allison isn't known.

[Shane Bishop]

Yeah. I've asked Ioannoni through some jail apps, you know, to talk to me, and he's never responded, so.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

So the victim in the 1996 case, she spoke to NBC affiliate W.E. c. T after his sentencing in 2022, along with Allison Jackson Foy's daughter, Courtney. Let's. Let's listen to that.

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

Well, maybe they will get their day in court, but it hasn't happened yet, which is too bad. But you know, for, for, for Michelle Shepard, the first voice you heard in that, you know, this is some, some resolution. The man who she accused of raping her has been put away probably for the rest of his life given the length of the sentence. And you know, the more money that's available for testing of old rape kits, the more findings like this one are going to happen, the more people are going to be charged with things that came out of the past. And of course, the other possibility is the reverse of that, is that there are people who were accused. And DNA can also prove someone's lack of guilt because we've seen that any number of times too, in which somebody accused of a terrible crime ends up getting exonerated by the same DNA that family or law enforcement was hoping would convict them. Okay, after the break, we will be back with an extra clip from a recent interview I did with Allison's sister.

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

So a couple of updates. Susan Ioannoni died in 2024, do we know if she ever changed her tune about supporting Tim, particularly after his conviction?

[Shane Bishop]

We don't.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Allison Jackson Foy left behind two daughters, so we're coming up on 20 years. Courtney was 12 when her mom disappeared. She's now 31. She's got a baby of her own, and she's carrying on her mom's love of gymnastics by running a gymnastics school. And her younger sister, Jordan, she's going to nursing school, and she's writing a book about her own life and her mom's story. And I'm gonna read that. I think you are, too.

[Shane Bishop]

Just really sweet kids. And I've just been continually impressed by Courtney and Jordan. They're communicative, they're interested, they're very engaged. And it's really for them to decide what's good enough. You know, is justice the fact that Ioannoni is locked up forever, or is it important that their mom's case is investigated and resolved?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, and that's a tough question to answer. Yeah. And it's one that we've faced in other DATELINE stories that we've done, in which justice frequently is incomplete. And I've said this a bunch of times before. The criminal justice system makes a terrible therapist, like the idea that it will undo the damage that this murder did just by convicting somebody. If you think that you're. You're making a mistake, it won't.

[Shane Bishop]

Right. Yeah, we've seen it over and over.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

So there's also an update in this story regarding Allison's sister, Lisa Valentina, who we interviewed for this story. And I. And she continues to work on her sister's case along others. I interviewed her again recently because she's got a new job as the New Jersey State Outreach coordinator for a group called the Q Center for Missing Persons. And it turned out that I interviewed her for season four of Missing in America, which is available now wherever you get your podcasts. And she and I caught up earlier this year. It was great to talk with her again. Here's a little bit of that interview.

[Lisa Valentina]

You know, knowing what I've gone through with my sister being a missing person and now still an unsolved homicide almost 19 years later. And I come back and I work with the families of Q. I'm the New Jersey State Outreach coordinator. This is one of the hardest periods of time in your life, and you don't know what to do. And Q steps in and says, here's some concrete steps that you can take to get the case back out there. Here's some ways to deal with law enforcement. And more than that for a family member is you have someone to talk to. And just nine out of ten times it's people who know what you're going through because they've walked in your shoes before. I mean, that's for me, a lot advocacy, teaching you how to be an advocate and a voice for your missing loved one, because that's so key. No one knows your missing person better than you. And you have to learn how to become their advocate and be their voice.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

You know, this points up one of the interesting things that's happened and I've seen it, and you have to again and again on dateline, which is it takes people who were just grieving relatives who were just people who'd had something horrible happen to them, and it turns them into warriors. And that definitely happened with Lisa and I can name right now five or six other people that that's happened with.

[Shane Bishop]

It's such a privilege to get to know people like that who take the worst thing in the world that happens to them and somehow they're resilient enough to turn it into some force for good. You just can't say enough about them.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That is it for talking DATELINE for this week. Shane, thank you so much.

[Shane Bishop]

Thanks for having me.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And remember, if you have any questions for us about stories or about Dateline, you can reach us 24,7 on social media Datelinenbc. Now if you have a question for talking Dateline, you can leave it for us in a voicemail at 212-413-5252. Keith personally answers all those calls. It's on his desk, that phone. So that's your opportunity to be featured in a future episode. And if you, if you do call and Keith answers, tell him he still owes me 20 bucks from the Christmas party. We'll see you Fridays on Dateline on NBC. Thanks for listening.

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