Show Notes
In September 2021, 64-year-old retired nurse Melody disappeared while walking in Michigan, leading investigators to a crime scene where tire tracks and vehicle debris indicated she had been struck while standing well off the road in the grass. Police identified Jacob Martin as the killer after tracking Melody’s SIM card to his phone and discovering DNA evidence and a disturbing search history that proved he had intentionally hit her to commit sexual assault. In July 2023, after a jury rejected his shifting lies in the face of overwhelming physical evidence, Martin was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
More from Matter of Fact: A play on "matter" (physics) and "facts" (news).
Roger Fortson, a 23-year-old U.S. Air Force senior airman, was shot and killed in the doorway of his Florida apartment in May 2024, seconds after opening the door to an Okaloosa County deputy while holding his own gun pointed at the floor. The sheriff's office fired the deputy, Eddie Duran, and he was charged with manslaughter. On October 1, 2026, a jury found him not guilty.
Kristin Smart was a 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman when she vanished after a party in May 1996. For 25 years, no one was charged. Then a podcast brought new witnesses forward, and in 2022 a jury convicted Paul Flores, the student last seen with her, of first-degree murder. His father, Ruben Flores, was acquitted.
Christa Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. On September 30, 2026, an appeals court stopped the execution an hour before it was due, the Supreme Court restarted it, and then two doses of the execution drug failed. She was taken to hospital, and Tennessee has paused all executions for the rest of the year.
Matter of Fact is taking a break. Our true crime episodes, the ones you listened to most, now have their own show: The Headline Case: True Crime Behind the News. Every episode takes one case in the news right now and tells it from beginning to end, with new episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The first episode covers the Lindsay Clancy mistrial.
In 1903, Pittsburgh heiress Alice Thaw married the debt-ridden Earl of Yarmouth after he refused to walk down the aisle until her family handed over one million dollars. The union proved to be a facade, as the couple lived separately and the Earl left the marriage completely unconsummated. In 1908, Alice obtained a formal legal annulment, reclaiming her wealth and maiden name to later build a quiet, independent life.