The Burden – Death & Deceit in Alliance: Q&A with Maggie Freleng

Hosted by Steve Fishman
Aired: January 16, 2026

Overview

This special Q&A bonus episode of Death & Deceit in Alliance brings host Steve Fishman into an intimate, candid conversation with investigative journalist and host Maggie Freleng and private investigator Danny Wexler. Diving beneath the surface of the celebrated true crime series, Fishman explores Maggie’s emotional journey, the team’s professional doubts, their verdict on the infamous Alliance murder case, and what it means to pursue the messy truth—even when that truth doesn’t fit a familiar or satisfying narrative.

This episode highlights the emotional costs of true crime work, the challenge of changing course when the facts demand it, and the responsibility journalists have to their audience and the real people entangled in these stories.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mental Health and the Toll of Investigative Work

• Maggie's Openness about Medication and Mental Health
  • Maggie openly discusses her use of medications for anxiety and depression—Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Xanax—as a response to overwhelming professional pressure.
  • “I had a full-on anxiety panic attack that put me in the hospital... For me, it was a cocktail of medication.” (Maggie, 02:49)
  • She stresses the importance of destigmatizing mental health struggles, especially for women in the field:
    • “I’m a Pulitzer-winning journalist, and I take a cocktail of medication. It’s okay.” (Maggie, 03:22)

2. Hesitations and Integrity: Why Publish the Series?

• Maggie hesitated to revisit the case and republish the podcast due to criticism (accusations of deceiving audiences and exploiting victims' families for money).
• She shares a personal anecdote about another journalist who omitted exculpatory evidence and how this compelled her to transparent storytelling—even when the facts thwarted her original beliefs.
  • “Instead of doing that in Death and Deceit in Alliance... when the evidence [showed] that the correct people are in prison, we didn’t try and hide that. Integrity is so important.” (Maggie, 07:35)
• Danny expresses frustration at people believing they pursued the case for fame or profit.

3. Real-Time Investigation and Evolving Conclusions

• The investigation began with Maggie believing David Thorne might be innocent, but changed course as new evidence came to light.
• The series was released in real time, so listeners experienced the investigators’ evolution of understanding in parallel.
• The team’s conclusion: Joe Wilkes killed Yvonne Layne, and David Thorne almost certainly ordered it.
  • “I think Joe killed her. I think David Thorne paid Joe Wilkes to kill her.” (Danny, 26:32)

4. Professional and Emotional Investment

• Maggie and Danny describe the intensity of their work together—long hours, total immersion in the case, and moments of emotional breakdown as facts upended their expectations.
• Notable moment: Maggie’s emotional collapse in the car after an interview, realizing she could no longer believe in Thorne’s innocence.
  • “That was hard for me to accept... I had invested so much... At that moment, it really was like, okay, he... lied... he didn’t help himself... I can’t help him.” (Maggie, 19:35; 20:57)

5. Responsibility to the Victim’s Family and Wider Community

• Maggie acknowledges criticism for reopening old wounds for Yvonne Layne’s family but asserts her duty was to pursue the truth.
  • “Do I feel bad for dragging all this up? I absolutely do... But that is not my fault that the system tried a man on horrible evidence very poorly. That is not on me... that is my job.” (Maggie, 34:21)

6. Editing & Focus: The “Creator's Cut”

• The re-edited version condensed the story, omitted unproductive rabbit holes, and doubled down on only the most credible witness testimony and factual threads.
• Key revelation: The transcript and audio from Angie, an ex-girlfriend, suddenly reframed their understanding of Thorne’s character.
  • “One of those audio tapes was a new one. Angie—never heard of this woman before... and said ‘holy fuck, this has been sitting here this whole time.’” (Maggie, 38:13)

7. Learning, Regret, and Doing Things Differently

• In hindsight, Maggie would approach police corruption and family advocacy leads with more caution and less presumption.
  • “I would go into it just more open-minded... Yes, they can be horribly corrupt and… have wrongfully convicted people, but they still could have been right in this.” (Maggie, 32:52)

8. Personal Aftermath and Moving Forward

• Maggie describes months of darkness and self-doubt after her initial convictions proved incorrect, revealing the personal toll such work carries.
  • “For three months, I was just processing... I wasn’t looking for the next thing. I was just process[ing] what happened and how do I move forward after this.” (Maggie, 46:52)
• Danny continues to remind her (and the audience) that honesty, not mistake-free reporting, defines journalistic integrity.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Emotional Cost:
  • “This is emotional work. We're dealing with people's lives.” (Danny, 23:57)
• On Journalistic Integrity:
  • “I think it is so crucial to be honest and open to keep the integrity of being a journalist.” (Maggie, 09:57)
• On Changing Course Publicly:
  • “If the facts are showing you different, you have to accept that and you’ll live through it. I did, you know, so just be honest.” (Maggie, 24:25)
• On the Pain of Re-examining the Case for Families:
  • “The family of the victim has to relive this every time someone puts in a habeas corpus, an appeal... That’s why it is also so important to get it right the first time.” (Maggie, 34:21)
• On Re-editing and Focusing the Story:
  • “For this cut, we just wanted to focus on what is important to this story... tracking down all the people originally in this case who never changed their story.” (Maggie, 28:46)
• On Personal Motivation:
  • “When someone shows up desperate, when someone comes to me...in prison is desperate, I think my weakness is going to be desperate people…If I have that platform, I’m gonna use it for good and to help people.” (Maggie, 48:34)

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------| | 02:29 | Maggie discusses the mental health toll | | 04:51 | Hesitation to publish the investigation anew | | 06:09 | Real time vs. pre-planned podcast production | | 07:35 | On the responsibility to honesty in true crime | | 11:06 | Why Maggie invests emotionally in stories | | 19:35 | Maggie breaks down after realizing the truth | | 26:32 | Who killed Yvonne Layne? (Team’s final position) | | 34:21 | Responsibility to the family and audience | | 38:13 | The Angie transcript discovery at the bar | | 46:52 | Maggie on her months of self-doubt afterward | | 48:34 | Personal drive to help the voiceless |

Episode Tone & Takeaway

The episode is unflinchingly honest: serious, raw, sometimes self-critical, and always grounded in a determination to let the facts—not hopes, narratives, or audience expectations—shape the story. Laughter and camaraderie lighten the heaviness, but Maggie’s journey stands as a challenge to both listeners and fellow journalists: integrity means being ready to follow the truth, even into disappointment or public reversal. The great burden, the episode suggests, isn’t in being wrong—it’s in refusing to face or correct it.