0:00

Binge all eight episodes of Suspect

0:02

ad-free on Wondery Plus. Find

0:04

Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or

0:07

on Apple Podcasts. Wondery.

0:10

Wondery. Wondery.

0:14

Campsite Media. Wondery.

0:18

Can you introduce yourself? I'm

0:21

so rusty. It's okay. Um,

0:24

yes. Okay. So, are we starting? Yeah,

0:27

we're, we're, we've already started. We've already started.

0:29

Okay.

0:31

Hi guys.

0:33

My name is Kobe Blewett. I

0:35

am Leon Benson's starter. I am 26 years young.

0:40

Long before Lara and Charlie and

0:42

the rest of their team began working on Leon's

0:44

case, one of his loudest champions

0:47

was Kobe Blewett.

0:49

Me and Eric and Sierra, two of the other

0:51

producers on the show, met recently

0:53

with Kobe at a co-working space on

0:55

the east side of Indianapolis.

0:57

Yeah, so Leon is really

0:59

not my biological father. My

1:01

mom and my biological father,

1:03

they weren't on good terms

1:06

at all. And she was going to go ahead

1:09

and decide to get an abortion because

1:12

she and him weren't agreeing on some things

1:14

and she didn't want to do it by herself.

1:17

And so at the time she was meeting Leon

1:20

and he actually stopped her from getting

1:22

that and said that I will be her father. I don't

1:25

want her to, you know,

1:26

this baby is something special. Like he knew that

1:29

before I even came through my mama's womb. When

1:32

Leon was sent away for Kasey Shane's murder,

1:34

Kobe was a small child. But

1:37

as soon as Kobe could write, she began corresponding

1:39

with Leon, who had sent her

1:41

these long letters, often embellished with drawings

1:44

and poetry. Later, Kobe

1:46

took to driving to the prison to see Leon in

1:48

person. And there in conversations

1:51

and in long nights spent reading through the

1:53

court transcripts, Kobe began to reckon,

1:55

really for the first time, with the unsettling

1:58

details of her father's case.

1:59

case. Honestly,

2:02

this shit is not something that's new. It's

2:05

not new. I have other family members who are

2:07

in prison for wrongly conviction.

2:09

So when I talk, it may seem like I'm numb and I have

2:11

to be more philosophical. You better be more spiritual

2:14

because this shit will drag you down if

2:16

you stay in the reality of it. So no, it's

2:18

not fair. No

2:20

it's not just and no, should

2:22

they not be doing it, but they're doing it. And

2:25

what you have to do to stay sane is

2:27

you have to

2:30

learn how to tangle

2:32

with it in a way where you're

2:34

able to still keep your sanity. And that's

2:36

what Pops did. He kept the sanity for us.

2:38

As Kobe got older,

2:40

she decided she would fight through the numbness.

2:44

Yeah, the deck was stacked against Leon

2:46

and maybe her efforts would be as fruitless as Sisyphus

2:49

pushing a stone up a hill.

2:51

But how could she not try?

2:54

She called a local reporter, helped launch

2:56

a website,

2:57

hosted advocacy events, went on

2:59

any criminal justice podcast or

3:01

Facebook live stream that would have her, no matter

3:03

how small. And gradually,

3:06

people had listened. People

3:08

like Shannon Coleman, but also people like

3:10

Laura Basilan and Kelly Bowder. As

3:13

we sat there in that co-working space

3:15

in Indianapolis, Kobe could feel

3:17

it. She was not going to have to wait

3:20

for much longer.

3:21

We are definitely on the brink of something.

3:24

This is definitely the time for

3:26

Pops to actually see daylight

3:29

outside of his cell. Great

3:32

things are happening. Great things are coming.

3:35

And

3:36

we just preparing, you know. I asked her if she

3:38

had plans for when Leon was released.

3:41

She did, she said. She could picture him walking

3:43

out of the prison doors, her waiting

3:45

there, him wrapping her into his arms.

3:49

Above all, she wanted him to inhabit the

3:51

same space that she did. Like

3:53

see him in person and actually get into

3:56

experience him like where I could just call

3:58

him randomly. you

4:00

know, or I can text him or

4:02

we can like kick it and like spend the night

4:04

and like stay up all night and talk and talk

4:07

about just all the deep shit and like all

4:09

the other things. So I don't even know

4:11

y'all to be honest. It's like

4:13

a dream, but I know he's coming home and I

4:16

don't have any expectations. I just want him home

4:18

and everything else will flow. Well,

4:24

that's not an option.

4:27

From Campside Media and Wondery,

4:30

I'm Matthew Share. And this is

4:32

season three of Suspect, five

4:35

shots in the dark. This is the

4:37

eighth and final episode,

4:40

Rebirth.

4:45

Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with

4:47

skilled professionals to get all your home projects done

4:50

well, whether it's routine maintenance and

4:53

emergency repair or a dream project.

4:55

Angie lets you browse homeowner reviews, compare

4:58

quotes from multiple local pros, and

5:01

even book a service instantly. So the

5:03

next time you have a home project, just Angie

5:05

that and start getting the most out of your home.

5:08

Download the free Angie mobile app today

5:10

or visit Angie.com. That's

5:12

A-N-G-I.com.

5:16

This is my voice. It can

5:18

tell you a lot about me, and

5:20

I'm not changing it for anyone.

5:23

In NPR's Black Stories,

5:25

Black Truths, you'll find a collection

5:27

of NPR episodes centered

5:29

on the Black experience. Search

5:32

NPR Black Stories, Black Truths, wherever

5:35

you get podcasts. Léon

5:40

Benson spent 24 years behind bars

5:43

for the murder of Casey Shane. Math

5:47

has

5:47

never been my strong suit, but that's nearly 9,000 days

5:49

and more than 200,000 hours. We've

5:53

finished $ misinformation, I

6:00

talked a lot in this podcast about how

6:02

easy, relatively, it is to sentence

6:04

a human being to that kind of time.

6:07

It's a short distance from arrest to conviction

6:09

to decades of incarceration, and

6:12

purposefully so. Conversely,

6:14

it's much harder to get someone exonerated.

6:17

Until it isn't, at which point everything

6:20

moves quickly and wildly and chaotically.

6:24

In early March, me and Eric Benson got

6:26

a text from Lara. Can we talk?

6:29

It pains me to say this, could

6:31

not, but Eric could, that's

6:33

his voice you're hearing here. Yeah, so

6:37

tell me what happened today. Okay, so what

6:39

happened was, oh my God.

6:41

Okay, so what happened was, it's

6:44

been a horrible week for a million reasons.

6:47

I woke up this morning, I

6:50

went running, I came home, I

6:52

checked my text messages, I

6:54

had a text from Shannon, and it

6:56

had an attachment, and my first thought was that

6:59

something terrible had happened in Leon's

7:01

family, but it didn't. It

7:04

was a screenshot of

7:06

the judge's order granting the

7:08

first part of our pleading, which was to wipe

7:11

out the post-conviction finding

7:13

against Leon. And she said, did

7:15

you see the good news? And I

7:18

called Charlie immediately, and Charlie picked up, and

7:20

I said, you have to go online right

7:22

now,

7:23

and look for the pleading, go online, and

7:25

she said, why, why is it bad? I said, no, it's good, it's good,

7:28

but I think maybe I went blind. I think

7:30

I'm not reading it, right? Hold

7:32

on. Talk it through, so

7:34

that our listeners... It

7:38

says, order granting petition for post-conviction relief,

7:41

and Laura, this

7:43

is what happened to you this morning. I was like,

7:46

my brain didn't work. I had to read every

7:48

word, and then four times, and

7:51

then I was like, I still don't believe it, so I had to go back, and

7:53

look at everything that was filed today, and make sure

7:55

I wasn't looking at the same thing twice. No, it's

7:57

that she's granting the petition.

8:00

The documents Charlie and Lara were

8:02

looking at were the ones they'd only dared to

8:04

talk about with crossed fingers and knocks on

8:06

wood.

8:07

Judge Flowers was effectively erasing

8:10

Leon's conviction. She was agreeing

8:12

with the argument Charlie and Lara had made in

8:15

their petition, agreeing that Leon

8:17

Benson should never have been found guilty

8:19

of murder. The

8:20

next step would be for Kelly Bowder, on

8:23

behalf of the prosecutor's office, to stipulate

8:25

that Leon wouldn't be tried again.

8:28

Something that Kelly did while Eric was on the

8:30

phone with Lara and Charlie. Again,

8:32

the speed after so much dragging,

8:34

it was dizzying, almost destabilizing.

8:38

Charlie and Lara sounded giddy, but

8:40

they looked shocked. Wait, can I read the

8:42

motion to dismiss? It's good. Yes, please.

8:46

Verified motion to dismiss with prejudice

8:49

comes now the state of Indiana by and through

8:51

its deputy prosecuting attorney Kelly Bowder

8:53

and hereby moves this court pursuant to Indiana

8:55

code 3534113 to

8:58

dismiss this cause with prejudice.

9:01

In support of its motion, the state of Indiana would

9:04

show, one, the state and defense

9:06

have conducted a year-long investigation. The

9:08

parties uncovered numerous Brady violations

9:10

regarding an alternative suspect, as

9:13

well as new information that the alternative suspect

9:15

may have committed the murder of Casey Schoen. Two,

9:19

upon completion of the investigation by the state

9:21

and the defense, filed an

9:23

amended post-conviction petition, which was granted

9:25

by the court. Three, the

9:27

state no longer has confidence

9:29

in the integrity of the case against Mr.

9:32

Benson

9:33

and will not seek a retrial against

9:35

him.

9:36

It is the duty of the prosecutor

9:38

to ensure that justice is done. Therefore,

9:40

a dismissal is warranted and appropriate.

9:43

Wherefore, the state of Indiana respectfully

9:46

requests that this case be dismissed with prejudice.

9:48

Laura and Charlie grinned at each other,

9:51

one zoom square to another. Every

9:53

day we've been waking up and hoping that this would happen, and

9:55

every day we've been losing hope that

9:57

it would ever happen, and then it happens.

10:00

And then there's all these insane

10:03

logistical questions that we have to get through. I

10:05

have like an immediate function headache.

10:08

I can't believe it happened

10:10

all at once like that. It was just the dam

10:12

broke and all the water came rushing out. And

10:14

yet Leon himself would have to wait for the good

10:17

news. He had no phone

10:19

or Zoom time scheduled and the release paperwork

10:21

had yet to be processed by the prison. Laura

10:24

and Charlie had no way of getting in touch with them. So

10:27

Leon turned in on Wednesday night in a

10:29

state of ignorance. Slept a normal

10:31

night sleep in his cell. Woke up Thursday

10:33

morning, got coffee, returned

10:36

to his bunk. So I'm sitting in the

10:38

cell, me and another guy,

10:40

he going through some viral magazines

10:43

about fans only, Instagram

10:45

models. And I was reading a book

10:48

and we just was kicking it. You know, he just came

10:50

in messing with me and they called my

10:52

name. And you know, he knew about my situation.

10:55

And I kind of told him a lot of things that

10:58

I had going on with my case. I said, man,

11:00

maybe this is the day. Maybe

11:03

this the day, you know, I kicked my shower

11:05

shoes off through on my shoes. By the

11:07

time he got to the prison counselor's office,

11:09

he was barely able to contain himself.

11:12

He was going home that morning.

11:15

They just came with

11:17

the release papers. Like, hey, you got

11:19

immediate release. We need you to sign the papers.

11:22

They was real stoic. And it

11:24

was just real like a

11:26

aloof. And I was like, oh,

11:28

like I'm like, and it dawned on

11:30

me in that moment.

11:33

I said, I'm exonerated. They didn't

11:35

know how to act. And at that moment,

11:39

I started to, I was present,

11:41

right? I

11:43

was present. It wasn't, oh,

11:45

you know, you know, sometimes you feel like the

11:48

Davis's P.O. skits. I felt

11:50

like doing it. Oh, asshole

11:53

get flipping the bar. Just

11:56

tear stuff up. I'm out of here. Oh,

11:59

you know.

11:59

But at the end of the day, what I

12:02

wanted to do is, as

12:05

always, man, you know, I wanted

12:07

to be on the right side of history, right?

12:11

With the counselors watching, Leon was sent

12:13

back to his cell to say goodbye to his

12:16

cellmate. I said, man, I'm exonerated.

12:19

And he said, he said, man, so

12:21

when you coming back? I said,

12:24

when I'm coming back? He said,

12:26

yeah, you know, but how long,

12:27

how long it's gonna take for you to come back? I

12:29

thought it was so funny, right? Because

12:32

I know, and I figured that when

12:34

he seen me through all those years,

12:37

just like all the staff, because

12:39

it was a level of like

12:43

almost disappointment

12:45

with a lot of staff, they like, really?

12:48

Like, did you really do it though? You,

12:51

wow, did they have you here like that? And they

12:53

felt uncomfortable, probably

12:55

because they're in the business of

12:58

securing people who our

13:01

society outcast. I

13:04

don't want this point to get lost. There's

13:06

so much truth wrapped up in what Leon is saying

13:09

here. It's worth dissecting.

13:11

You've probably heard the expression hammer in search

13:13

of a nail. You build the thing to do something.

13:16

That's what it's gonna do. Build a

13:18

prison to hold human beings, staff

13:20

it with other human beings whose job is to

13:22

ensure no one gets out before the state says

13:24

it's okay and well, momentum

13:27

takes over.

13:28

There are exceptions, I know, but for the most

13:30

part, the only way a prison staffer

13:33

could not go mad is by telling her

13:35

or himself that everyone there

13:37

deserves to be there.

13:40

In the bathroom near the prison exit, Leon

13:43

pulled on the outfit his sister Valerie had

13:45

sent over for him. White pants,

13:48

flowing white shirt, white kufi

13:50

for his head, symbols of renewal.

13:53

It's a spirit thing, so you see me today,

13:56

I feel purified, I am

13:58

a reflection of what's inside of it.

13:59

A few hours later, under

14:02

a cold but bright spring sun, Leon

14:05

Benson walked out the front doors of

14:07

the prison. The wind was blowing briskly

14:09

across the courtyard, sending his shirt flapping

14:12

behind him like a cape. His

14:14

friends

14:14

and family stood at the edge of the parking lot, waiting

14:17

for him, their arms outstretched. While

14:19

Leon danced and shimmied towards them, his

14:22

arms held up

14:23

in a proud V. Free

14:25

Leon! Free Leon!

14:28

The truth never dies! The

14:30

truth never dies!

14:32

In the scrum, Leon found Charlie

14:34

and Lara, and one by one, he embraced

14:37

each of them, saving the longer hug

14:39

for Lara. Planted a big kiss

14:41

on his cheek. Wow!

14:46

There! You think?

14:49

No time to...

15:01

Chances are, if you've heard the name

15:03

Spider Savage before, it's because

15:05

of the way he died. A handsome Olympic

15:07

skier. Spider was keen. Everyone

15:10

looked

15:10

up to Spider. Everyone wanted

15:12

to be Spider. A sexy French starlet.

15:15

A killing that shook a ritzy resort town.

15:17

The night Savage was killed remains

15:19

a mystery. But this story isn't

15:21

only about his death. On the new podcast

15:24

Sports Explains the World, we take

15:26

a fresh look at Spider's fascinating

15:28

role in the history of Alpine skiing

15:31

and uncover a long-forgotten

15:33

family secret that has remained overlooked

15:36

until now. From award-winning journalists

15:39

around the globe, Sports Explains

15:41

the World is a new podcast that unveils

15:43

some of the wildest and most

15:45

surprising sports stories you've never

15:47

heard. Listen to Sports Explains

15:50

the World on the Wondery app or wherever

15:52

you get your podcasts. You can listen to Sports

15:54

Explains the World early and ad-free

15:57

on Wondery+.

16:04

I

16:06

haven't been out since last night because there's no

16:08

other car.

16:15

Leon was released from prison on Thursday, March

16:18

9th. A few days later, he

16:20

and his sister Val drove back to Val's

16:22

house in Detroit to plan the next

16:24

phase of his life.

16:26

Me and Eric Benson, one of the producers on the

16:28

show, met him there. He

16:31

had snowed the night before, a light frosting

16:33

that covered the roof of Val's house and the sidewalks

16:36

and the driveway.

16:45

Leon met us around the back of the house

16:47

and by met, I mean the guy burst out of the

16:49

door, still dressed all in white, and

16:52

wrapped us in his arms. What's up,

16:54

man? I'm Madeline. How you doing, bro?

16:56

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you

16:58

too, man. It's a pleasure. Come

17:00

on, man. You

17:03

know, hey, just to see you guys, right? So good to

17:06

see you. What are you doing out here on a t-shirt? Oh, man, I had to

17:08

come greet you, man. Come

17:10

on,

17:10

man. Sinking

17:13

into a chair in Val's living room, Leon looked

17:15

happy. I mean, even on Zoom

17:17

from prison, he looked happy, but now he also

17:19

looked comfortable. Detroit suited

17:21

him. It was home. It's

17:22

more spiritual. It's more

17:24

spiritual than anything. It's

17:27

more spiritual than anything because it

17:29

feels like

17:30

I'm really, I got away. And

17:33

it's like a reset that I

17:35

need, man. And I just need to see

17:37

what's going on with the city,

17:39

with family members, just to bring me

17:42

back to a reality, you know? There's

17:45

no playbook for getting out of prison after 25 years.

17:47

No, it's not.

17:49

Leon knew how much work

17:51

lay ahead of him, work on relationships with his friends, and family,

17:55

and the work he needed to do on himself. What

17:58

I'm saying is...

17:59

I'm not an innocent person.

18:02

I'm not. I didn't hurt people.

18:05

I got regrets in life. It's

18:07

still some people in the world that I

18:10

owe apology to for things I did 25

18:12

years ago. You know what

18:14

I mean? I helped wreck the

18:16

community. I did that by

18:18

selling crack cocaine to my

18:20

own people, right? And

18:23

I'm not an innocent person. I'm innocent

18:26

of that crime. But you, I want

18:29

people to empathize with this, this

18:32

type of thought that equivates with you

18:35

for 25 years. You're

18:37

not an innocent person. You're innocent

18:40

of that crime. How can you

18:42

be better?

18:43

How can you be a better human being, right?

18:46

You can't be perfect. I didn't realize it

18:48

in the moment, but Leon was paraphrasing from

18:50

a track that he'd recorded in prison.

18:54

["I'm Innocent"]

19:12

In our time together, Leon talked about a lot

19:14

of things, the music, most of all,

19:16

the verses he'd been writing, the

19:19

verses he still had yet to write. A

19:21

producer named Fury Young, the founder

19:24

of Die Jim Crow Records, liked

19:26

Leon's music enough to put out an album of his

19:28

prison recordings.

19:30

It's out now. Go find it. It's

19:32

good. ["I'm Innocent"]

19:36

["I'm Innocent"]

19:49

I know I got this certain

19:51

power. It's true. I

19:54

know. So I know

19:56

if I'm heard, for one,

19:59

the most high. God got me being heard for a

20:01

reason. Two, they

20:03

gonna feel it anyway, right? So

20:06

that's why I'm mad. So now I'm like,

20:08

okay, let me just make sure I

20:10

make the right moves with where

20:13

I extend my voice to. What

20:15

do you want people to, if they're listening

20:17

to this podcast and it would be, you know, it's eight

20:20

episodes, right? And they'll follow your entire case.

20:23

When they get to the end,

20:24

if they remember one thing, what would you want them

20:26

to remember about what you went through?

20:29

Truth never dies. Truth

20:32

never dies. The tragedy

20:35

of life is in people

20:37

dying. It's what

20:40

dies inside people

20:42

as they live. I

20:45

can't take back how I grew up. I

20:48

can't take back that I did 25 years. But

20:51

you got to address the truth.

20:54

We need to address the truth. The truth

20:57

must be addressed, acknowledged,

21:00

understood and accepted, right?

21:05

For a moment, the room went very quiet,

21:07

very still. Leon began

21:09

telling me and Eric about the way some rocks

21:12

can be burned down into precious metals.

21:15

That was him, he said. The fire

21:17

had cleaned him. It had made him stronger.

21:21

As he talked, his eyes welled up. So

21:24

maybe the first time I'd seen him cry,

21:26

and most of the other calls we'd had over the previous months,

21:29

it had been other people doing the crying.

21:31

So it is a rebirth and I

21:33

was born again because I

21:35

shed the skin, right? The

21:38

Leon Benson, the world knew 25

21:40

years ago.

21:42

Dead,

21:46

bro. He

21:50

dead, bro. For real. That

21:54

person is gone. We

21:56

can't get him back.

21:59

When you're exonerated for a crime you've spent 24

22:02

years in prison for, you walk

22:04

free the same way everyone else does.

22:07

Empty handed.

22:09

It might have been someone else's fault you ended up behind

22:11

bars, but guess what? It's

22:13

your responsibility to pull yourself together,

22:16

to get the things you need to live a life.

22:19

Before Eric and I came to Detroit,

22:22

Leon had made appointments to get a state ID so

22:24

he could travel. He'd done a bit of clothes shopping,

22:27

but he needed a phone and some shoes

22:29

and so he took them out to get them, the phone first,

22:32

at a crowded Xfinity store not far

22:34

from Val's house. Until

22:37

the manager saw our mic and pulled

22:39

us to the side. We can't record in this

22:41

store because we got other people and they would

22:43

have to sign a consent in order

22:45

to be like, you know, because they're giving our personal

22:47

information throughout the store, things like that. So,

22:51

yeah, I appreciate it. Next

22:53

up was Footlocker, which I feel this is

22:55

a great testament to the enduring design

22:57

of a certain type of sneaker, still

22:59

had the Adidas's and Nike's that Leon

23:02

remembered from his youth. The brown top

23:04

10s. Is there one? Yeah,

23:06

you see them, they're brown and I want a

23:08

pair of those max,

23:10

the all black max, yup, and

23:12

a pair of the all black max. Would

23:17

you get me a 10 and

23:19

a 10 and a half and both of them and see how

23:21

they fit?

23:22

At the register, Leon watched the

23:24

young cashier drop one pair of shoes

23:26

into a bag and strike up a conversation with

23:28

another customer.

23:30

As the two women talked, a big smile

23:33

swept over Leon's face. It

23:35

was his, I'm about to drop some philosophy

23:37

on you smile, but then I would have recognized

23:40

it anywhere. This is the way

23:42

it is, like, one thing when I said,

23:44

man, you know, the light goes on,

23:47

man. Like, it's going to be

23:49

a time. Remember that analogy I gave you? The

23:51

Sissy Fist and pushing the stone,

23:54

right? I just got stuff I'm going to create,

23:57

but at some point I'm going to run out of energy.

23:59

I just hope that the work I leave here

24:02

is so compelling that

24:04

somebody would be curating my shit, you

24:06

know what I mean? Excuse me? The

24:09

cashier was waving in our direction. The

24:11

news, I felt, was not gonna

24:14

be good.

24:14

So I don't have the intermixed 90s. I

24:17

can bring you out another color for you to

24:19

try one. Another color? More

24:23

after the break.

24:38

So that's Leon. I've indicated

24:41

after nearly a quarter century and full

24:43

for the moment with resolve to make up for

24:46

the time he's lost.

24:48

You can hear a similar resolve in the voices

24:50

of witnesses like D'Acaria Fulton and

24:52

Shirley Gaskin, who have found their own

24:54

paths to the truth, however long it took.

24:57

I'd argue you can even hear it in the voice

25:00

of Detective Alan Jones. It's

25:02

accurate what Leon says, I guess. Truth

25:04

doesn't die. It can get ignored. It

25:07

can get bent into strange forms. It can be buried

25:09

so deep the holder barely knows it's there, but

25:12

it doesn't go away. And when it's found again,

25:15

it can, and I really believe this,

25:17

make the world better for a little while.

25:20

Easy for me to say, of course.

25:22

Less easy for others. In

25:25

April, days after Leon was released

25:28

from prison, I called Colleen Bunch,

25:30

Casey's sister. She was not

25:32

in a good place. She was hurt,

25:35

resentful. Above all, she was confused.

25:38

For years, she and her family had believed

25:40

that the man responsible for Casey's death

25:42

was in prison. Now they're being told,

25:44

actually, no, we got this one wrong.

25:46

But above all, Colleen

25:49

wanted to keep Casey's memory alive.

25:51

And she thought that talking to us might be a path

25:54

towards making that happen. So

25:56

a few weeks later, Eric and I met Colleen

25:58

at a hotel in Indianapolis.

26:01

She was much calmer than she'd been on her phone call.

26:04

Her predominant emotion now seemed to be fatigue.

26:07

She was bone tired. Grief

26:09

will do that to you. And

26:11

she wore it plainly. She

26:13

found a seat on a couch alongside her husband,

26:15

Mike, their hands occasionally touching.

26:18

What would you like to happen now if

26:21

you could have a wish granted about this

26:23

case? Well, I

26:26

want whoever is responsible

26:30

held accountable. If

26:33

that was Leon, then we'll

26:36

never have it in paper that he was

26:38

responsible. Really,

26:41

at this point, I want everybody held responsible.

26:44

I think the police department needs to

26:46

be held responsible. I think the prosecutor's

26:50

office

26:50

needs to be held responsible. Because why

26:53

didn't they ask for more evidence? Why

26:55

did they rush those two trials so

26:57

fast?

26:59

Why did we have one two months later? Like,

27:03

you still didn't produce anything, and you

27:05

couldn't even get close to convicting

27:07

them the first time. Who had

27:09

something to gain in all of this?

27:11

I

27:14

think the only people who had, if

27:16

you're thinking about gains and losses, and this

27:18

is my theory of what happened now, having spent

27:20

so much time with this case, is that

27:23

in the 90s, there were a lot of

27:25

homicides, and there was a real push

27:27

to have them solved and cleared

27:30

fast. And I think

27:32

that that's what

27:34

happened. I think they got a case,

27:37

and they had one eyewitness who

27:39

was never retracted it and seems to be a

27:42

pretty reliable human being. And

27:45

even though there was all this other evidence, it was complicated.

27:48

That evidence would have taken a lot of time to chase

27:50

down and run down. That

27:53

was true for Jones, and I think on a

27:55

different level, it's true for the prosecution.

27:57

Once you've tried the trial once,

27:59

to retry is slightly

28:03

less expensive because you know what you're gonna

28:05

say. So

28:07

I think it was just,

28:09

insofar as there was a gain, it was we

28:11

wanna get this done. But

28:13

how many other people did that happen to that

28:15

year now?

28:17

I mean, there's already people posting on

28:20

the stories that first came out. I

28:22

got a relative doing 150 years. What was

28:24

that detective's name? I wanna know, I want my case,

28:27

I want their case looked back into. And then those families

28:30

are gonna be left just like ours.

28:32

I'm aware, by the way, how all of this

28:34

could sound.

28:35

When Colleen talks about accountability and this

28:37

intense need to have someone held responsible,

28:40

you might think to yourself, well, the race

28:43

for accountability is sort of what landed

28:45

Leon in prison, isn't it?

28:47

But sitting in the room with Colleen, I did not

28:50

interpret her words that way. I

28:52

interpreted them as a very human need

28:54

to understand what the fuck did happen in

28:57

downtown Indianapolis in 1998,

28:59

to replace what had once given her closure

29:02

with something else, something that would help

29:04

fix the pain. I think you had told Matt

29:07

when he called you up that you felt like

29:09

no one cared about Casey in

29:11

this. And can you talk a little

29:14

more about that, like how that's

29:16

been hard? I really felt

29:18

bad for that day when he called, but my

29:21

husband would have been at a doctor's appointment for

29:23

a couple hours. So I was sitting there reading

29:25

all that stuff and then

29:27

so ironic that you just called right

29:29

then. But I am living,

29:31

I'm living it. So many people lied,

29:35

so many from the get go. And

29:38

I do feel like Casey has just been forgotten

29:40

in this.

29:41

How do you want to remember him? What are

29:43

your nice memories of him?

29:46

I like to remember the silly ass little kid

29:48

he was, especially

29:51

if we all went swimming. He

29:54

was scared to death of water, even

29:57

pool water. We would just scare

29:59

him.

29:59

Clinging to the side and we tried to drag

30:02

him out. He would scream bloody murder

30:04

and mom would yell at us all. But

30:07

my ex-father-in-law had a lake lot

30:10

and Kyla and Casey used to come down

30:13

there a lot. And we would take the pontoon out

30:15

at night and jump out in the lake

30:17

and just mess with them with our

30:20

feet. Pretend like we were fish kicking

30:22

at him, you know? Maybe scared

30:24

to death. Just, and

30:27

nothing about him changed. He was just always

30:29

that

30:29

silly little kid.

30:34

He sounds like an amazing person. He was. He

30:37

really was. Colleen's

30:39

biggest frustration with the way things had gone down

30:41

with Leon's release was, well, I'm

30:44

gonna try paraphrasing here and I hope when

30:46

you hear this, Colleen, you won't mind that I did. But

30:49

basically, so much of the focus

30:51

around Leon's release had been on Leon. His

30:53

first walk out of the prison, the crowd

30:55

waiting for him, the newspaper photos of

30:57

his post-release celebration. Colleen's

31:00

not a cruel person. She didn't wanna deny

31:02

Leon a bit of happiness. But it was

31:05

hard to watch someone celebrating when

31:07

you were in the process of having a very

31:09

old and very painful wound

31:11

reopened.

31:13

Colleen recalled logging onto Facebook one morning

31:15

and reading through the comments of a post highlighting

31:18

Leon's exoneration for her brother's murder.

31:22

And even Leon commented to me on

31:25

one of the posts it's time for healing.

31:28

Okay, maybe for you, you can

31:31

try to start healing but there's

31:33

no way to heal, re-heal from

31:36

no one being charged with

31:38

Casey's death. Do you think you'll ever

31:41

wanna meet Leon Benson? I

31:44

don't know about that. Not right now, for sure. At

31:48

some point, I hope you meet him maybe

31:50

many years in the future, but. Maybe

31:55

if someone else gets held responsible, I can come to terms with

31:57

it. I know my brother's. would

32:00

never want to. Yeah. Yeah,

32:02

she'll be the only one. Yeah.

32:05

Colleen has tried to be proactive about Casey's

32:07

case. She's worked the phones, called

32:10

in favors from friends and friends with connections

32:12

to law enforcement. She even spoke

32:14

with the Indianapolis Homicide Squad after

32:17

she filed a citizen's complaint online

32:20

about Detective Alan Jones.

32:21

And they said, well, that's

32:24

been too long ago. And I said, well, this just recently

32:26

came to light. It's even in court papers that

32:28

he admits that he lied and withheld

32:31

all kinds of evidence.

32:33

And they said, well, we'll have to look

32:35

into it and get back to you, of course. I've

32:38

never heard anything about that.

32:39

Colleen paused and studied her hands. Why

32:42

are you not following through with

32:44

every bit of this? I

32:47

do feel like it was only

32:49

about getting Leon out. And

32:53

I do understand because

32:55

of the detective, he should be out.

32:58

But I just think they should have gone further.

33:03

Because there is still someone guilty.

33:06

Colleen does have some reason to be hopeful

33:09

in that regard. Kelly Bowder told

33:11

us she'd handed the files on the Shane murder

33:13

to the head of the Indianapolis Police Homicide

33:15

Squad. It's a long

33:18

shot, but not an impossible one.

33:20

After all, there are plenty of witnesses who

33:22

are sure Casey's real killer is

33:25

currently living in Florida.

33:27

Of course, whether detectives will follow up with

33:30

Joseph Webster is a bit of a black box.

33:33

The cold case unit did not respond to

33:35

our request to discuss the investigation.

33:37

Meantime, as Leon

33:40

attempts to reconstruct his life, Colleen

33:42

will attempt to do the same with hers,

33:45

which is hard. Colleen

33:48

told me it was like she'd gotten in a time machine

33:50

and gone the wrong way, back to

33:52

the deep trauma of 1998,

33:54

back to that morning when she first learned

33:57

her brother was dead. This

33:59

has just been like... like back

34:01

in August all over again. It's

34:04

us thinking of everything that happened and

34:07

what about this, what about that, what about...

34:13

It's crazy. It's amazing that an

34:16

incident like this can have these

34:18

ripples for

34:21

years. For years.

34:24

And sometimes the ripple just gets bigger. Supposed

34:28

to go smaller.

34:31

Does it feel like it's getting bigger now? Yeah.

34:34

It's big right now.

34:56

From Campside Media and Wondery,

35:03

this was episode eight of eight of Suspect, five

35:07

shots in the dark.

35:09

Suspect was reported, written and executive produced

35:11

by me, Matthew Share,

35:13

Eric Benson, Charlie Nelson Kiever

35:17

and Laura Bassett. And this is the first time

35:19

that I've ever seen that happen

35:21

to me. Matthew Share, Eric

35:24

Benson, Charlie Nelson Kiever and

35:26

Laura Bassett. Our producer

35:28

is Sierra Franco. Sound

35:30

design and mix by Garrett Tiedemann.

35:33

Fact checking by Matthew Giles. Original

35:37

music by Doug Slawin, Nada

35:39

Hadari and Garrett Tiedemann. Our

35:41

studio engineer is Jimmy Guthrie of Arcade 160

35:44

Studios in Atlanta. At

35:47

Campside Media, the executive producers

35:49

are me, Matthew Share, Vanessa

35:51

Gregorio, Josh Dean and

35:53

Adam Hough.

35:55

Our operations team is Doug Slawin,

35:57

Ashley Warren,

35:58

Sabina Mara, Asiminoff,

36:00

Destin Dingle, and David Eichler.

36:03

Our producer for Wonder is Brian Taylor

36:05

White, and our senior producer is Lizzie Bassett.

36:08

Managing producer is Candace Marikas-Ren,

36:11

and our executive producers are Erin O'Flaherty

36:14

and Marshall Louis for Wonder.

36:16

We are also so grateful for the field

36:19

producers who helped us record

36:20

across the country, Jeff Emptman,

36:23

Adam Pressley, and Christina Stella.

36:26

And special thanks to Wendy West of Silver

36:28

Fox Media and P30 in

36:30

Indianapolis for their studio space.