S4|E20: Breaking Into Prison | Part 1

Summary

Gone South: S4|E20 - Breaking Into Prison | Part 1

Episode Release Date: February 26, 2025
Host: Jed Lipinski
Podcast Series: Gone South by Audacy Podcasts

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Introduction to the Case

In the twentieth episode of the fourth season, titled "Breaking Into Prison | Part 1," host Jed Lipinski delves into a gripping true crime story centered around the newly constructed Downtown Detention Center (DDC) in Nashville. The episode meticulously unpacks the series of events leading up to an audacious security breach, highlighting the complexities of modern prison security and the enigmatic figure behind the attempted intrusion.

The Opening of the Downtown Detention Center

December 2019:
The DDC, a $200 million state-of-the-art facility, was poised to replace the dilapidated old jail plagued by overcrowding and poor conditions. The new center featured advanced plumbing, surveillance technology, and a specialized mental health unit with 64 beds. The urgency to operationalize the DDC was palpable, as over 200 high-risk inmates were temporarily housed elsewhere, costing taxpayers approximately $26,000 daily (00:00).

Lieutenant Thomas Conrad, overseeing the jail's opening, emphasized the critical nature of the preparations:

“We were preparing to get the building occupied right after the holidays, so we were just preparing everything.”
[00:03:52]

Corey Witkus, the episode’s narrator, elaborated on the extensive security measures in place, including surveillance testing and emergency drills (04:00).

Discovery of the Missing Keys

A few days post-Christmas, Conrad discovered an anomaly in the key control room:

“I noticed that one of the key rings was not horseshoe shaped. ... We were two keys short.”
[04:30:07]

Conrad suspected a possible misplacement or breakage but initially dismissed the idea of theft (05:09). However, upon reviewing surveillance footage, he identified a construction worker replacing the standard key ring with a non-standard one, resulting in two missing keys (05:55).

Introduction of Sheriff Darren Hall

During the discovery, Sheriff Darren Hall, who had invested significant effort into the jail's construction, was on vacation in Pensacola. Upon being notified, he found the situation alarming yet struggled to reconcile the missing keys with the fact that the facility was not yet operational (07:34).

The Mysterious Construction Worker

Conrad's investigation revealed that the construction worker, later identified as Alex Friedman, had been visiting the DDC regularly for months. Distinguished by his yellow hard hat, fluorescent vest, purple gloves, and constant white painter's mask, Friedman's behavior raised suspicions:

“The whole idea of them being stolen did not go through my mind.”
[05:39]
“He couldn't see it. It was perfectly replaced.”
[22:02]

Despite heightened alerts and specific instructions to trap any return attempts by Friedman at the loading dock, he evaded capture until January 4th, when Corey Witkus encountered him personally in the jail's front lobby (09:25).

The Attempted Intrusion

Against protocol, Witkus engaged Friedman directly instead of redirecting him. This decision allowed for a controlled attempt to secure Friedman within the facility:

“I knew instantly.”
[09:42]

Leading Friedman through the jail unnoticed, Witkus eventually locked him in the sally port, a secured entryway. However, Friedman began to exhibit threatening behavior, holding bolt cutters and attempting to dispose of incriminating evidence—a business card and torn paper (15:37).

Sheriff Hall's reaction upon learning Friedman's true identity:

“I knew everything changed at the...”
[27:31]

It was revealed that Friedman was not just any construction worker but a prominent prison reform advocate with deep connections, including ties to Bernie Sanders' campaign and familial links to Ben Bernanke, former Federal Reserve Chairman (17:28).

Uncovering Hidden Elements Within the Jail

Investigations into Friedman's activities within the DDC uncovered several "hot spots," areas where Friedman spent excessive time, such as the infirmary’s holding cell and the visitation booth. Notably, in the visitation booth, Friedman manipulated the infrastructure:

“It was perfectly matched... but I just... moved it an inch or so.”
[22:29]

Further exploration revealed that Friedman had concealed tools and potentially more dangerous items behind walls, indicating a predetermined plan to exploit the jail's infrastructure.

Climactic Revelation: The Hidden Gun

While Sheriff Hall was fulfilling his duties in Washington, D.C., he received alarming information about a gun found hidden within the visitation booth's wall. This discovery not only intensified the investigation but also raised critical questions about Friedman's true intentions within the DDC.

“If you saw him at any point, you were to send that video clip... who you were looking for.”
[20:18]

Key Characters

• Lieutenant Thomas Conrad: Tasked with overseeing the DDC's security preparations, Conrad was the first to identify the missing keys and initiate the investigation into Friedman's activities.

• Sheriff Darren Hall: A seasoned sheriff deeply involved in the DDC's construction, Hall's discovery of Friedman's true identity added a personal and professional stake to the unfolding mystery.

• Corey Witkus: Serving as the security supervisor, Witkus's decision to engage Friedman directly played a pivotal role in attempting to contain the situation.

• Alex Friedman: A respected prison reform advocate whose unexpected transformation into a clandestine intruder forms the crux of the episode's suspense.

Insights and Conclusions

This episode of Gone South masterfully intertwines themes of trust, security, and the unforeseen vulnerabilities within newly established institutions. The revelation that a prominent figure like Friedman could orchestrate such a breach challenges preconceived notions about safety and integrity in correctional facilities.

Through meticulous storytelling and compelling firsthand accounts, Jed Lipinski not only narrates a riveting crime story but also prompts listeners to reflect on the intricate dynamics between reform advocates and law enforcement, and the thin line that sometimes separates valor from deception.

As the episode concludes, listeners are left anticipating the subsequent developments, particularly concerning Friedman's ultimate objectives and the broader implications for the DDC's operations.

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Notable Quotes:

• Lieutenant Thomas Conrad:
  “We were preparing to get the building occupied right after the holidays, so we were just preparing everything.”
  [00:03:52]

• Sheriff Darren Hall:
  “I get back to the office. Contacted the police department, contacted the FBI, local and the DA and just said, hey, look, guys, I'd like for you guys to take on this.”
  [24:55]

• Corey Witkus:
  “That could be something. I don't want to screw up the chain of custody for all this stuff.”
  [22:47]

---

Stay Tuned:

The episode concludes with Cliffhanger moments, setting the stage for "Part 2," where the full scope of Friedman's plans and the potential consequences for the DDC will be unveiled.

---

Connect with Gone South:

For more detailed discussions, story tips, or feedback, listeners are encouraged to reach out via email at gonesouthpodcastmail.com and follow the podcast on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram @GONE_SOUTHPodcast. Bonus content is available through their newsletter on Substack.

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Gone South is an Audacy original podcast, created, written, and narrated by Jed Lipinski. The production team includes executive producers Jenna Weiss Berman, Matty Sprung Kaiser, Tom Lipinski, Lloyd Lockridge, and Jed himself, with story editors Tom Lipinski, Maddy Sprunkheiser, and Joel Lovell.

Transcript

[Jake Brennan]

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[Corey Witkus]

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[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

We were preparing to get the building occupied right after the holidays, so we were just preparing everything.

[Corey Witkus]

A big part of that preparation was security. Things like testing surveillance equipment, running emergency response drills, and making sure every key to the jail was accounted for.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

Myself and another coworker had placed all the equipment and keys in a secure room that we would issue keys and equipment to employees daily.

[Corey Witkus]

A few days after Christmas, Conrad came in to do some work in the key control room.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

So I was in key control, I was looking over the keys, make sure everything was present, everything was put away properly. And I noticed that one of the key rings was not horseshoe shaped.

[Corey Witkus]

Every other key was a stainless steel horseshoe shaped ring, but this key ring was circular shaped.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

Same size, same look, just the wrong shape. And at that point, I started counting the keys. We were two keys short. I counted the keys probably four, five, six times. It's not something that you want to find, right?

[Corey Witkus]

But just to make sure, Conrad radioed his partner and asked him to count them.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

I said, hey man, can you count these keys? Kind of second guessing myself, of course. We were two keys short, and the key ring was not the key ring that the sheriff's office uses.

[Corey Witkus]

Finding missing keys a few days before a jail opens was not good. And yet Conrad wasn't that concerned. He figured they'd been broken or maybe somebody had misplaced them.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

The whole idea of them being stolen did not go through my mind.

[Corey Witkus]

Conrad reported the missing keys to his supervisors. He told them he was going to watch the surveillance footage of the key control room to figure out what happened. It took about 20 minutes before he saw it.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

And we observed a construction worker come in, pick up the keys, take the keys out of the facility, and return sometime later with that wrong keyring.

[Corey Witkus]

In other words, the construction worker took A set of keys, A key ring with multiple keys on it. He then returned with a different key ring, and two keys in that set were missing. Conrad immediately alerted the sheriff and his administration about the missing keys. He didn't know why a random construction worker had taken two keys from a brand new jail before they could open it. They were going to have to figure that out. But as they would soon realize, this was not just a random construction worker. And those keys were taken for a reason. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is gone South. At the time that two keys went missing from Nashville's new downtown detention center, Darren hall, the longtime sheriff of Donaldson county, was on his annual trip to Pensacola with his college buddies. Hall had poured the past five years of his life into the jail's construction. He'd originally wanted to put the jail in the suburbs, out by the airport, but residents fought it. Years of tense debates and stakeholder meetings followed. Now, finally, everything was done. All the staff had been hired. All the food had been ordered. After years of hard work, Paul was enjoying a few days at the beach with his friends.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

I get this phone call that says, hey, we're missing two keys or something. And so that call was almost offensive. It sounded irrelevant in a way, because I'm on vacation. Not that that's that important, but I thought, what? And in our line of work, missing keys, if there are inmates in there is like missing the money in the bank. That's a big deal. And we would lock down everything and we'd spend a lot of energy and it was surely worth a phone call if that were the case. But I couldn't get my head around why are you calling me for two missing keys in a building in which there are no risk, if you want to say it that way.

[Corey Witkus]

Hall instructed his staff to study the new facility's cameras and see if the guy had been in the building before. Then he reluctantly cut his trip short and headed back to Nashville. Lieutenant Conrad, who'd first discovered the missing keys, spent the next several days in his office reviewing hundreds of hours of surveillance footage.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

So we watched a lot of video. The video started sometime in August. We tried to track this construction worker, so we attempted to track him through the facility, find out what was going on.

[Corey Witkus]

To his surprise, Conrad discovered the construction worker had been in and out of the building for months. He always dressed the same yellow hard hat, fluorescent vest, purple gloves. He also wore a white painter's mask, which he never seemed to remove. Conrad's supervisors told him and the jail staff to be on high Alert in case the guy came back. If he did, they were told to keep him outside, then trap him by the loading dock. This would avoid a dangerous confrontation. Inside.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

The jail sat there New Year's Eve into New Year's Day, thinking that he would come back on the holiday. And he didn't.

[Corey Witkus]

On the morning of January 4th, Corey Witkus was standing in the building's front lobby. Witkus supervised the jail's security team. He'd been shown photographs of the masked intruder. Around 3pm Witkus suddenly spotted him walking through the front door.

So there was two armed officers that were working for me at the time. They were with me. They had no knowledge about what was going on. And whenever he was walking up, I said, oh, there he is, or that's the guy, you know. And they didn't know who I was talking about. But I knew instantly.

Before Wittkus could say anything else, the construction worker, still in his painter's mask, walked right up to him and started talking.

We talked, and it was just like normal. There was no hesitation. He wasn't deterred by anything. He was just eager to get inside and go to work, is what he said.

Wittkus instructions had been clear. If the suspect showed up, do not let him inside, redirect him outside to the loading dock in the back. But something told Witkus that was a bad idea.

I thought immediately that if I sent him back out into the world, he would disappear or he would catch on, or just sometimes criminals have an intuition that something's wrong. And the only thing that I didn't want him to do was get away.

Instead of sending him outside. Witkus improvised.

And I told him, I said, okay, there's other people in the building working, so you'll see other people. And I just asked him to follow me, and I would take him to where he needed to go.

Witkus then led him through the jail, down an elevator and through the garage.

The whole time, I was trying to be as normal as possible not to give any cues that something was going on. We didn't really talk. We didn't have a conversation.

Finally, Wittkus stopped in front of something called the sally port, a secured entryway that could be locked down with the press of a button.

So I pushed a button, and they recognized it was me. They unlocked it, and I opened it. He walked in and I shut it, and we locked down the facility.

[N/A]

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[Margo Gray]

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[Jake Brennan]

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[Margo Gray]

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[Corey Witkus]

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[Margo Gray]

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[Corey Witkus]

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[Corey Witkus]

Security Supervisor Corey Witkus had just trapped the mysterious construction worker in the sally port, a secured enclosure inside the jail. For a few moments, the man just stood there taking in what had just happened. Then he started yelling.

I think when he realized something was up because he wasn't moving anymore. And he started yelling for somebody to open the door, for him to let him out, to unlock the doors. He just wanted out.

Witkus wasn't going to let him out. He immediately started making calls to administrators, investigators, chiefs. He let them all know that construction worker who stole those keys, he's trapped in the sally port. Lieutenant Conrad was one of the first to respond.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

So my office was on the second floor and the sally port is on the first floor. I ran down there, I was like, wow, this is finally coming to the end.

[Corey Witkus]

Conrad told the guy who controlled the sally port to keep it shut. He stared at the construction worker through the window and noticed he was holding a pair of bolt cutters. Then he did something strange.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

He slid a business card underneath the sally port door. At one point while we were waiting for everybody that said, I've got a bad rotator cuff and you can't handcuff me from behind. That was real odd to me. I mean, who carries that kind of thing, right?

[Corey Witkus]

Conrad watched as the guy took more pieces of paper out of his pocket and appeared to chew them behind his mask. Conrad assumed he was trying to get rid of evidence. Pretty soon, the entire chain of command had arrived, including the Chief of corrections, a guy named Tony Wilkes. He and Conrad opened the door and stepped in. Conrad asked the construction worker to take his mask off, but the guy just stood there.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

Finally, I kind of just reached up and kind of moved it down off his face. And Tony Wilkes, the Chief of corrections, immediately instantly said his name. And then it said it again. Is that Alex Friedman? And the guy said, yeah, he just kind of shook his head. Tony was visibly, audibly shocked that it was Alex Friedman. And I'm in the dark. I do know he's the guy that took the keys, but I don't know who this cat is.

[Corey Witkus]

After learning that the mysterious construction worker was a man named Alex Friedman, one of the first people notified was Sheriff Darren Hall. He was at home when he got the call.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

And the exact words were, it is Alex freaking Friedman. That was exactly what was said.

[Corey Witkus]

The news stunned Sheriff Hall. Friedman was a well known prison reform advocate who'd worked closely with the sheriff's office during the jail's construction. He'd been a thorn in the sheriff's side at times, but the sheriff respected him and had no reason to suspect him of anything criminal.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

I mean, this sounds really silly, but as a kid, I loved Scooby Doo growing up. And I pull the mask off at the end and that it's some guy that had been in the show earlier, you know, and you come back, I still, I mean, I get chills because that changes everything. I mean, that is not a construction worker. That is not the Alex Friedman who we had interacted with many, many times and shared information that he may have been interested in. This is a man deliberately doing something. And I remember saying, game on.

[Corey Witkus]

The Alex Friedman, Sheriff hall thought he knew, was the managing editor of Prison Legal News and wrote regularly about corruption, abuse and poor conditions inside prisons and jails. He'd advised Bernie Sanders presidential campaign on criminal justice reform. Also, his uncle was Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Here's Friedman talking about prison reform on CGTN America in 2014.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

I believe it's in effect and not a cause of mass incarceration. The private prison industry began in the 1980s really to fulfill a market niche.

[Jake Brennan]

That was created due to the ramping.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

Up or the escalation of our prison population.

[Corey Witkus]

While Nashville's new jail was being built, Freedman had made his voice heard. He'd submitted a list of 20 recommendations, like banning ICE detainees, capping prices in the jail commissary, and extending attorney visitation hours. Once, he'd emailed the sheriff's chief of staff to ask if the jail would have a law library allowing prisoners to check out books and do legal research. No, was the response. Friedman was a well connected, mild mannered and highly intelligent man, which made his decision to dress up as a construction and steal two keys to the DDC all the more puzzling.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

And at that point, I had no idea where we were going. I just knew that he was up to no good because he was clearly disguising himself. And now that we knew he was the one who took the keys, that's all we knew.

[Corey Witkus]

After getting trapped in the jail's basement, Friedman was arrested for attempted burglary, possession of burglary tools, and evidence tampering. But he quickly bonded out. He refused to say why he'd stolen the keys, why he dressed up as a construction worker, and what he'd been doing in the jail for the past five months. But the sheriff knew they couldn't open the building until they got the answer.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

We know that we have some 600 cameras in that building that were obviously for future use, but we wanted to know what we could find out on those cameras that might help us because we don't know what he's up to. So there were, I don't know, hundreds of staff sitting behind screens like this watching videotape. And obviously, we knew who we were looking for. But if you saw him at any point, you were to send that video clip or that acknowledgement to our IT division, who tracked everything that he did on those types of days.

[Corey Witkus]

Studying the surveillance footage, the staff eventually identified certain places in the jail that friedman spent unusual amounts of time. They called them hot spots. According to Lt. Conrad, one hotspot he spent time in was a holding cell inside the jail's infirmary.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

Anybody in jail needs to see a nurse or a doctor, and that happens often. Okay? They're going to go to what we call medical.

[Corey Witkus]

It was obvious that friedman knew medical was under surveillance, and he did his best to hide his activities.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

He got a ladder, placed the ladder in that holding cell. Once again, we're doing construction. It's not uncommon to have ladders around. And then he taped a manila folder over the camera. He knew that the cameras were active, and he knew that sooner or later, these cameras would be observed. So he disguised himself, covered the camera, and it was a indicator that he was doing something nefarious in that holding cell.

[Corey Witkus]

Another hotspot Friedman frequented was the jail's visitation area, A place where inmates and visitors could talk through a glass partition. Sheriff hall remembers watching Friedman doing stuff in there.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

He spent a tremendous amount of time in this one visitation booth. And down around, say, your left knee would be if you were facing it. And he would spend hours, not all at one time, but he spent hours drilling and sweeping and cleaning. And again, there's construction workers walking all by him. He looks just like everybody else.

[Corey Witkus]

During his lunch break one day, the sheriff walked over to the jail to inspect the visitation booth for himself.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

So I go up there, Some other folks are with me, and we walked up. So I just sat down like I would be in the booth and kind of looked underneath to where it looked like he would have been working. And I promise you, Jed, if I walked you in there right now, knowing what I'm telling you, you couldn't see it. I couldn't see it. It was perfectly replaced.

[Corey Witkus]

Cameras had captured Friedman tinkering with a section of cinder block wall beneath the counter of the visitation booth. Hall crawled under the counter to get a better look.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

It was perfectly matched. But I start pushing with my left hand, and eventually when I push, I don't know, maybe 8 inch by 8 inch, size of the cinder block wall. Wall just falls in. And when I say that, it didn't collapse to the floor, but I just. I moved it an inch or so.

[Corey Witkus]

With just a push, Sheriff hall realized that something was probably behind that wall, but he wasn't about to reach in and find out.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

I was afraid I was ruining the investigation instead of helping it. Because I thought, man, this could be something that. I don't want to screw up the chain of custody for all this stuff. I don't want to be the one who was nosing around to ruin the crime scene, if you will. So I kind of said, yikes. I knew it was big. I didn't want to get into it. Yeah, sure thing.

[Kylie Lowe]

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[Sheriff Darren Hall]

Yeah, sold it to Carvana.

[Kylie Lowe]

Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy.

[Corey Witkus]

The guy who wanted to pay me.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

In foreign currency, no interest over 36 months. Yeah, no. Carvana gave me an offer in minutes, picked it up and paid me on the spot. It was so convenient.

[Kylie Lowe]

Just like that?

[Corey Witkus]

Yeah.

[Kylie Lowe]

No hassle?

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

None.

[Kylie Lowe]

That is super convenient.

[Margo Gray]

Sell your car to Carvana and swap.

[N/A]

Hassle for convenience.

[Corey Witkus]

Pickup fees may apply.

[Margo Gray]

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[Corey Witkus]

In his inspection of the jail's visitation booth, Sheriff hall determined that Alex Freedman had replaced a portion of the cinder block wa the wall was soft enough for him to move it with a push of his hand, which suggested that Friedman had put something behind it. He just didn't know what.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

I get back to the office. Contacted the police department, contacted the FBI, local and the DA and just said, hey, look, guys, I'd like for you guys to take on this. We don't know what it is, but there's going to be something coming out of the wall. It could be nothing, but it's something that he worked on.

[Corey Witkus]

A few days later, Lieutenant Conrad joined a few members of the Nashville PD to take a closer look at the visitation booth. Together, they studied the cinderblock wall.

[Lt. Thomas Conrad]

And the paint that we used in the DDC was in an epoxy. A long lasting, high quality epoxy. As we Got back there to that visitation booth. The area that he was working on was too smooth. As soon as the CIS investigator from Metro PD kind of touched it and tapped on it, it was very hollow. It sounded very odd. The more she tapped on it, it started coming apart. And it ended up to be just kind of like a plaster of paris material that the contractors had painted over. The investigator kind of pulled all of that plaster of paris out very well camouflaged.

[Corey Witkus]

At the same time that Conrad and the cops were probing the wall of the visitation booth, Sheriff hall was in Washington, D.C. in addition to his duties in Nashville, hall was serving a term as the president of the National Sheriff's Association. One of his responsibilities was to introduce President Trump's new Attorney General, William Barr, at the association's winter conference.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

So I'm sitting in the front row of a room of probably 150 to 200 people. These are the board of directors from the National Sheriff's association for from all over the country, the Secret Service, some other executives from D.C. and so forth. And so all that's going on. I did not know, minute by minute, what was going on back home. It wasn't like I was awaiting anything. I was literally just moving through my day. So my job was to read his bio and stand up and introduce the Attorney General of the United States. So I'm all wired to do that. We're ready to go.

[Corey Witkus]

Sitting beside him in the ballroom was Hall's longtime chief of staff. She'd been helping him rehearse his introduction. But as hall prepared to go on stage, she got a text from a member of the jail staff. It was a photo of a gun. Hall's chief of staff gasped. Apparently, the cops had found the gun behind the wall of the visitation booth. Just before hall took the podium, she handed him her phone.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

So I was expecting it to be something aligned with, hey, don't forget to say bang, bang, bang. So she literally hands me her phone and doesn't say anything. I do not remember reading what was on there. I just saw it. I knew exactly where it came from. I knew exactly what that was. And I knew everything changed at the.

[Corey Witkus]

Sight of the gun. The sheriff's mind went blank. He completely forgot the text of his speech.

[Sheriff Darren Hall]

From that moment, it felt like instantly I was kind of thrust onto the stage. Now the Attorney General's not in the room yet. Everybody's staring at me, and I'm behind the podium, and I just blurted out in front of everybody, I said, have y'all ever heard of something like this? A gun being placed inside a new jail facility. What do you do about it? And all I know is I just saw the picture and everybody's just looking at me like, what are you talking about? And literally, I had nothing more on my mind. I had no idea what in the hell we were going to do.

[Corey Witkus]

On its own, a gun hidden in the wall wasn't the end of the world. Remove the gun, problem solved. But the visitation booth was one of more than a dozen spaces where they'd seen Friedman working. The sheriff wondered, what else had he hidden in the jail. More importantly, what was Friedman planning to do? That's next time on Gone South. If you have information, story tips, or feedback you'd like to share with the Gone south team, please email [e-mail] that's gonesouthpodcastmail.com and for bonus content, you can follow us on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram @GONE SOUTHPodcast. You can also sign up for our newsletter on substack. Gone south with Jed Lipinski Gone south is an Odyssey original podcast. It's created, written and narrated by by me, Jed Lipinski. Our executive producers are Jenna Weiss Berman, Matty Sprung Kaiser, Tom Lipinski, Lloyd Lockridge, and me. Our story editors are Tom Lipinski, Maddy Sprunkheiser and Joel Lovell. Gone south is edited by Chris Basel and Perry Crowell. It's mixed and mastered by Chris Basel. Production support from Ian Mont and Sean Cherry. Special thanks to J.D. crowley, Leah Rees, Dennis, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, and Hilary Schuff.

[Kylie Lowe]

Hi, I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast unlike any other. Why? Because every case I cover comes from the heart of my home, New England. From the rocky Maine coast to the historic streets of Boston to the quiet corners of Vermont and beyond, I investigate stories filled with untold twists, enduring questions, and voices that deserve to be heard. So if you're ready to explore the darker side of New England, join me every week for Dark Down East. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.