True Believer: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh

On March 26, 2025, the 35th anniversary of Elizabeth's murder, Covenant Seminary held a "Service of Lament" and dedicated a new "Garden of Lament and Hope" on the campus grounds. TJ and Ruth discuss the service (which TJ attended) and how Covenant chose to memorialize Elizabeth.

The main True Believer project is finished, at least until there are any updates on the Elizabeth Mackintosh murder investigation. But we do want to return with a postscript that addresses a different question: What happened to other people who were students at Covenant Seminary in 1990?Many students and professors went on to respected careers in the ministry. One of them was a man named Ian, who in 2023 was deemed unfit to lead his church after a sexual misconduct allegation was made public by The Tennessean newspaper, as reported by friend of the podcast Liam Adams. Ian has denied allegations against him.But there's a lot more to the story. The case against him helped us understand how a denomination with so many good, kind people can apparently fumble complaints against their peers.Many cases are, essentially, secret. And there's a cascading effect to that secrecy: If complaints are never heard, and witnesses are never asked, and questions are never answered, abuse remains covered up.Until someone decides to go public.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

The family of David Winecoff recently reached out to “True Believer” with concerns about recent episodes. After reviewing their concerns, we have made several updates to Episodes 13 and 14. Ultimately, however, we stand by our work and our decision to include an examination of David Winecoff's death in “True Believer.”A formal statement from the Winecoff family is forthcoming, which we will link to here upon release.

In this final episode of the series, Ruth and TJ sit down with PCA pastors Doug Serven and Kyle Hackmann to discuss what they all learned from working on this series, and to answer some of the comments and critiques that listeners (and those that haven't listened) have made.We do have some bonus content in the works, so stay tuned for that. And if there are any updates in the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh, we'll publish additional content when appropriate.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

In the last episode we heard about David Winecoff's connection to Elizabeth Mackintosh, and his apparent belief that Michael, the prime suspect, had nothing to do with her murder.When we left Norm Reed, he and David were planning a climbing trip to the Sangre de Christo mountains of Colorado. Today we'll hear what happened on that trip, the fallout that followed, and how, just like with Elizabeth's murder, administrators at Covenant Seminary wanted everything to go away as quickly as possible.David Winecoff's death raises questions not only about what he may have known about, but also how the Covenant community at large dealt with the tragedy of Elizabeth's unsolved murder.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

A couple quick announcements.First, Ruth and TJ will be in Richmond, Virginia the week of June 9th, for the PCA General Assembly. If you're going to be there and you'd like to meet up with us, or if you have any information that you'd like to share, if you know someone who'll be there that you think we should meet, visit  www.truebelieverpodcast.com to get in touch with us.And second, we'll be publishing our next episode this coming Tuesday, June 4th. So you won't have to wait another week.

In this episode we begin to talk about David Winecoff, the pastor of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, which Elizabeth Mackintosh attended.David was something of a lightning rod in St. Louis Presbyterian circles, and his death in 1993 enshrined him as a sort of a mythic figure, especially for those who attended his church.But despite his elevated status and the high regard that so many have continued to have for him, many questions remain about his knowledge of and possible connection to Elizabeth's murder.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

We've talked about some of the interesting characters around Covenant Seminary in 1990. But as we enter the final phase of this series, we'll explore the most interesting, and potentially most important, characters yet.In this episode, Detective Worth will start to lay out his own theory of the case, which differs pretty dramatically from everything the Creve Coeur police had believed before him and, as far as we know, what they still believe today.In December 1989 a married man approached Elizabeth about having an affair. Although she never revealed the man's identity, several people knew the story. Their accounts of who it might've been raise further questions about an alternative motive for Elizabeth's murder.As the saying goes… the plot thickens.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

We've spent this series mostly focusing on Michael, Elizabeth Mackintosh's supervisor on the Covenant Seminary house cleaning staff. In the eyes of the police, Michael was the prime suspect in Elizabeth's death, literally from Day One. But he wasn't the only person they looked at.In any large group of people, even at a seminary, there are going to be some people with checkered backgrounds. But as the police started looking into possible suspects, and Covenant began its own internal investigation, some startling things came to light. Not only about people's pasts, but things that were happening on campus around the time of the murder. We also hear from another retired Creve Coeur detective who begins to talk about his own theories of the case.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Sandra was one of the few unmarried, female students at Covenant in 1990. And she had a class *with* Elizabeth, which turned out to be incredibly influential on the rest of her life. She also went to Grace and Peace Church with Egon Middleman, whom we've briefly mentioned before in this series. Sandra's story provides a fascinating look into what it was like to be a female student at Covenant Seminary in 1990, and the effect that Elizabeth's murder had on the people that were there.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Michael and his family left Covenant's campus in May of 1990, but the stigma of Elizabeth Mackintosh's murder followed them the rest of their lives. In this episode we hear from Michael's two oldest children, Karl and Kirsten, as they talk about the effect the murder had on them.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

For this week's bonus content we have the rest of our two interviews with lawyer Ryan Davidson, whom you've heard in the last couple episodes. Ryan reached out to us in February because he had some critiques of how he thought we were characterizing Covenant Seminary, in terms of how they have or haven't responded over the years, and the legal advice they might be following around that issue. We asked Ryan if he'd be interested in doing an interview about that and other topics, and he agreed. Ryan's voice turned out to be incredibly valuable for providing some legal context around the fallout from Elizabeth's murder, and he really added a lot to those last couple episodes.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

A couple months after the murder, Michael left Covenant Seminary (under "duress" as he described it) and moved his family to California. But his contentious relationship with Covenant has continued to this day. Using letters sent back and forth between Michael and Covenant, we examine what went wrong and how there's not much anyone could do about it.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Today's bonus content release happened to coincide with the 34th anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh, so we wanted to take a moment to honor and remember her.Read the full text (and a brief history) of "The Sands of Time Are Sinking" here.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

After Elizabeth's death, police ask a suspect, Michael, to sit for a polygraph exam. Reluctantly, he agrees, hoping that it will help clear his name. Ruth and TJ examine why that didn't happen.Click here to read a transcript of the polygraph clips heard in this episode.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Just a quick update today. Late last week we learned that Covenant Seminary Admissions Recruiter Sean Davis was found dead of an apparent suicide. Apologies for the delay but we've decided to postpone Episode Eight until next Tuesday. A lot of our audience is connected to Covenant Seminary in one way or another, and we didn't want to be distraction during what is sure to be a difficult week already. So, we'll see you next Tuesday.

In this week's bonus content you'll hear the rest of our interview with Liam Adams, religion reporter for The Tennesseean. Liam talks about some specific cases of abuse and misconduct the PCA has dealt with, his reporting on the Nashville Presbytery, the PCA's 2022 Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault report, also known as the DASA report, the PCA's Standing Judicial Commission (which is the PCA's internal court), his approach on which stories are worth covering, how the PCA compares to other Evangelical denominations in the larger cultural conversations about abuse, and other topics. 

In this episode we zoom out to examine the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the denomination of Covenant Theological Seminary. What does the reaction to Elizabeth's murder tell us about how Christian institutions handle tragedy? And how should they talk about Elizabeth going forward?Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.More info from this episode...• Read the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault (DASA) Report here.• Luke Davis: Check out his Cameron Ballack detective series, one of which is loosely based on the murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh.• Julie Roys: The Roys Report does reporting on the American Evangelical church• Liam Adams: Religion reporter for the The Tennessean• Katherine Spearing: founder of Tears of Eden, a nonprofit supporting survivors of spiritual abuse. She also hosts the Uncertain Podcast, which did an episode in July of 2023 about Elizabeth.

In today's bonus content you'll hear Ruth and TJ's first interview from June 2023, about Ruth's background and interest in Elizabeth's case, and some of their personal feelings about what they'd uncovered up to that point.

So far we've spent this series examining the details of Elizabeth Mackintosh's murder and the subsequent investigations. We'll come back to more of that later, but in this episode we focus on the way that the murder was handled by Covenant Seminary. Some people at Covenant felt free to talk about Elizabeth. Others felt that Covenant administrators wanted her murder hushed up. But everyone seems to agree that more should be done to remember and honor her.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

To appease everyone dissatisfied with our every-other-week release schedule, we're going to start putting out some bonus content on the weeks in between. Today we start with the leftovers from our interview with theologian and former Covenant Seminary professor, Jerram Barrs. He talks about his backstory, his time a L'Abri in Switzerland, some additional thoughts about Elizabeth and the environment of Covenant Seminary around 1990, and the history of Grace and Peace Fellowship (the church he helped found around 1970).Enjoy it while it lasts. There's only so much usable content available to release as bonus material, so no promises you'll get one of these every in-between week going forward. But we'll do our best.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

We've spent this series so far examining what happened to Elizabeth Mackintosh, but in this episode we focus on Elizabeth herself. Who was she? What was she like? What was she doing at Covenant? And what were her plans for the future?Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

The Covenant community reacts to Elizabeth's death. Police travel around the country to investigate leads. Then they find out important information might have been saved by seminary lawyers and stored in a barn… or might be lost forever.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Police quickly understand that they have responded to a homicide at Covenant Theological Seminary, not a suicide (as the original 911 call said). As the investigation begins, police become interested in one man, a fellow student of Elizabeth Mackintosh. A choice made that day continues to haunt investigators.Click here to review the transcript of this episode.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

About a dozen people were around Elizabeth on the morning of her death, but no one saw anything incriminating. Ruth and TJ walk through the morning of March 26, 1990, minute by minute, examining who was where and when. We hear from former Covenant students and staff who were on the campus that morning, and also from two retired Creve Coeur Police detectives, George Hodak and Dennis Spoerry, as they describe the first day of the murder investigation.Visit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Elizabeth Mackintosh was killed in the chapel basement at Covenant Theological Seminary. The right tour guide will point out the spot, but Covenant hosts no memorial for her. And it's not like Elizabeth was a stranger passing through… she was a well-respected student at the time she was killed. It's been 33 years since her death, so why are some people still finding out about it for the first time?  Because for all practical purposes any traces of her, and the fact that a murder even took place, have been wiped from Covenant's institutional memory. In this first episode of our series we take a high-level look at Elizabeth's murder, the characters in the story, and what a small but growing number of PCA pastors and members think should be done about it. Think of this as the 30,000 foot overview. Then in the episodes to come we'll zoom in on several key aspects of the case.What really happened in the murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh? God only knows the answer.Show Notes- Covenant Seminary's December 5th statementVisit www.truebelieverpodcast.com to see additional materials related to each episode or to get in touch with us.

Coming December 19th...Early on the morning of March 26, 1990, Elizabeth Mackintosh was murdered on the campus of Covenant Theological Seminary in Creve Coeur, Missouri. To date it's the only unsolved murder in the city's history. True Believer examines the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth's murder and speaks to the people affected by it as they, and the men suspected in her death, search for answers.Visit truebelieverpodcast.com to learn more.Send us an an email to contact@truebelieverpodcast.com