True Crime Black

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase*Patreon subscribers get a bonus episode every weekInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/On January 11, 2013, the body of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found upside-down and rolled up in his school's gym mat. Oddly, Kendrick's death was ruled an accident. His parents, however, suspected a coverup.The shoe that Kendrick was supposedly reaching for was lying on top of a pool of dried blood. However, there was no blood to be found on the shoe itself, suggesting that the shoe was placed AFTER the blood had dried. Traces of blood found nearby were not a match for Kendrick either. Kendricks's body also had its organs removed before being sent to the funeral home. Everyone involved in that gave conflicting stories.Kendrick's family believed that 2 boys killed him because of a previous fight. The boys' father was an FBI agent at the time and the thought was that he used his connections to cover up their crime. The Johnsons filed a $100mil lawsuit that backfired and found them owing $300,000.Although his case was reopened in March of 2021, we still don't know what happened to Kendrick Johnson. Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase*Patreon subscribers get a bonus episode every weekInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/On Monday, September 6, 1982, Valerie and her daughters celebrated their first Labor Day in their new home. Unfortunately, it was not a happy occasion; early that afternoon, Valerie's boyfriend, Ben Daniels, got a phone call telling him that his 9-year-old daughter from a previous relationship had suffered an epileptic seizure while taking a bath and drowned. He had rushed to the hospital where she was taken only to learn that doctors had been unable to save her life.Shortly before 9:30 pm that night, Valerie called her brother and was chatting with him when she heard a knock on her front door. Since Ben still hadn't returned home from the hospital, Valerie told her brother she needed to go so she could see who was at the door. Her brother had no idea that it would be the last time he ever spoke to his sister.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase*Patreon subscribers get a bonus episode every weekInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/On March 29 at 2 pm, the women called Monique from a payphone and told her that they were outside. When she came out and got into the car, the women told her to go back inside and get Andre. They wanted him to come too. Monique did just that. She went back inside, grabbed her newborn son, and got back into the car. This was the last time Monique and Andre were ever seen. At 10 pm that night, Timothy started calling around for Monique. He called her mother and asked if Monique and Andre were there. They were not. After not being able to find her anywhere, the family as a whole began to worry. Timothy called the police to report both of them missing. Sadly, Timothy would start to get answers the next day. On the morning of March 30th, a jogger came across Monique's body in the Bronx. Her body was fully clothed and was laid at the bottom of an embankment. She had been struck in the head and then strangled with a scarf. She had several defensive wounds including bruises and broken fingernails. At the time, the police were unable to even identify the body because there was no ID. There was also no sign of Andre.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase*Patreon subscribers get a bonus episode every weekInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/"The trial wouldn't take place for nearly a year. Oliver was scheduled to testify in court on February 16, 1984. Three days before his court date, Oliver was leaving for work. A neighbor said that he'd seen him heading out at around 8 am. He made his turn onto Orpington Road and was never seen again. One of his co-workers recalled that he was not known to miss work almost ever. So, when he didn't arrive at Ellicot City Middle School that morning, both students and staff began to worry. "Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase*Patreon subscribers get a bonus episode every weekInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/Asha Degree vanished from her Shelby, North Carolina, home just before dawn on Valentine's Day in the year 2000. It was a normal night for her family and Her parents had tucked her into bed without issue. And then, After midnight, a nearby car accident left the family's neighborhood without power. Asha's father went to check on her and found her still sound asleep.The events that followed left local police and the FBI at a loss. Asha shared a room with her older brother, O'Bryant. He told investigators he heard her bed squeak in the middle of the night but thought that it was just Asha shifting positions in the middle of the night.But it was Asha getting up to leave. After packing her backpack with a T-shirt and school library book, Asha stepped outside and walked into the rainy night. This event was supported by witnesses. Two drivers reported seeing her on the side of North Carolina Highway 18 around 4 a.m. One of the drivers even turned around to see if she was okay, but Asha ran off into the woods. Eerily, that was the last witness account of Asha. She has never been seen again.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcaseBONUS EPISODE FOR PATREON SUBSCRIBERS ONLYInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/On the morning of June 23, 2021, 25-year-old Daniel Robinson was seen leaving for work. Daniel worked as a geologist and worked in Buckeye. That same day, he was last seen driving away from the worksite and heading toward Sun Valley Parkway. On July 19th, Robinson's car was found. The blue 2017 Jeep Renegade was discovered in a remote part of the desert just a few miles from his work site.His car was badly damaged.“Today marks one year that my son went missing. To the world, it's one year. To us, the family, it's every day one after the other, a continuous moments passing by where hope is always shadowed by dismay. Somehow, day after day the will to keep searching triumphant over loosing hope,” David Robinson, Daniel's father, wrote in a tweet.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/On April 15th, 2022, Felicia Marie Johnson disappeared. In the initial days, it was reported that Johnson left her home in San Diego, California to celebrate her birthday in Houston, Texas. While she was there, she applied to work at the Cover Girls Night Club. She was done at around 1:30 am. Felicia called an Uber after finishing up and waited for the driver to arrive. When it was running late, she was approached by a man from the club. According to witnesses, the man offered to give her a ride back to where she was staying so that she didn't have to wait for her Uber any longer.As more information came out, however, the story was very different.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/In the cases of Alexis Patterson and Elizabeth Smart, that imbalance is disgustingly apparent in hindsight. Within hours of her disappearance, Elizabeth's case was featured on CNN's “Larry King Live” and Fox News' “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” Comparatively, It took eight days for Alexis' story to attract attention outside Milwaukee, with a lone segment on “America's Most Wanted.” The next national story on her case aired weeks later.By the time 2 weeks had passed since Elizabeth Smart disappeared, USA TODAY had published three stories about her disappearance. Alexis Patterson had zero stories published that focused on her case.The response from law enforcement would follow the same pattern. The day after Elizabeth disappeared, police called in the FBI and offered a $250,000 reward. But in Milwaukee, the FBI didn't join Alexis' case until three days after she vanished. It then took  Nineteen days after she was last seen for the sheriff's office to put up a  $10,000 reward.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/When Unsolved Mysteries rebooted on Netflix in the summer of 2020, the country saw a renewed interest in several different cold cases. As mentioned before, the death of Alonzo Brooks was basically reopened because of the attention that the show brought. Another story that has gotten renewed attention centers around the disappearance of Christopher Dansby and Shane Walker. Both kids were abducted from a Manhattan playground in 1989. Both kids have not been seen since.“It's like a nightmare, and everyday you wake up, and you're still in the nightmare. Some days, I just don't want to go on,” Allison Dansby, who was 26 when her son disappeared, said in 2014. She elaborated on her tragic experiences in the Unsolved Mysteries episode.With these kids now having been missing for over 30 years, hope is starting to dwindle. However, without any bodies found, there is still a chance for the families to be reunited. For those that haven't seen the episode or heard of the case, Here's what we know about the circumstances of the children's disappearances.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/On July 21, Shanteari Weems drove to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C. to meet her husband. But their rendezvous wasn't for a romantic date night. The Maryland woman brought two firearms with her, allegedly planning to shoot her husband of five years, James Weems Jr., after several children at her daycare accused him of molestation.According to The Baltimore Sun, at around 7:30 PM, a fire alarm prompted hotel employees to investigate the eighth floor hotel room. When they saw blood splattered across the wall, they called the police.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/This story centers are 18 year old Andre Jones of Jackson, Mississippi. The young high school graduate was looking forward to starting college in the Fall of 1992. Andre's mother — Esther — was the president of the Jackson branch of the NAACP. His stepfather (Charles) was a Nation of Islam minister. Andre also had a girlfriend named Tanisha Love. On the night of August 22nd, 1992, Andre and Tanisha were driving together. At around 1 am, they had to stop at a routine sobriety checkpoint in Brandon, Mississippi. At 1:30 am, Andre's parents received a call from Tanisha.She told them that Andre had been arrested.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/The group continued to party at a different bar until late in the night (or technically early in the morning). At around 1:00 am, Jayson and Steve decided to leave the bar while Michael stayed. As the brothers were walking back to their car, Jayson accidentally bumped into a police officer. The streets were extremely crowded and hard to navigate. Jayson was put in handcuffs immediately and had to give the police $40 and his gold watch in order to go free. Jayson wouldn't part with his watch, but the police told them that they would take the $40. Steve went to the car to go and get the money.When he returned, Jayson and the police were gone.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/The Freeway Phantom was a moniker given to a serial killer who operated from April 1971 to October 1972. The Freeway Phantom was Washington D.C.'s first serial killer who murdered six young girls during his spree. What was a key commonality all of those girls had? They were black.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/One day, Jamila Larson received a phone call from a D.C. Police commander. Since Larson ran the Homeless Children's Playtime Project, she assumed the call was related to her job. Around the time of the phone call, a 14-year-old girl has run away from the homeless shelter. This led to questions surrounding the degree of care the shelter has for its runaways. Larson was wrong, though.The commander asked if she knew that an 8-year-old was missing from her shelter.The Homeless Children's Playtime Project is an organization that works to create play areas for homeless children. Relisha Rudd — the aforementioned 8-year-old — was one of those children. Upon being told that she was missing, Larson was asked to send the police all of the information she had on Relisha. Emails confirm that Larson had provided the police with everything they'd asked for.“She holds such a special place in our hearts,” Larson said. “I think we owe it to her to not give up and to keep her picture and her story out there.”Support the show

https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrime.black/ This case centers around 28-year-old Niqui McCown. Niqui was a prison guard who recently got engaged to her fiancé Bobby Webster. Niqui's life looking up and there were a lot of things to be excited about. However, one day she went to her mom's house incredibly upset. On July 22nd, 2001, she told her mother about an incident while she was at a laundromat. She told her mother that two men were repeatedly harassing her while she was doing her laundry. She expressed to her mom that she was too afraid to return for her laundry out of fear of seeing the men again. Niqui eventually left her mother's house and was never seen again.  This all occurred just three weeks before her wedding day.  Struggling to find any signs of what could have happened to Niqui, the police decided to retrace her steps the day that she vanished. Niqui attended church that morning before heading to the laundromat. Bobby was out with his best man looking for tuxedos. The couple had made plans to get together that afternoon. The people in Niqui's life seemed to be very happy for her. She had a 9-year-old daughter from a previous relationship that was happy for her big day. Even her ex-boyfriend was excited for her. Being the youngest of 10 children, Niqui was surrounded with so much love.  Read more at truecrimeblack.comSupport the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcaseOn May 1, 1991, a 911 dispatcher in Miami, Florida, received a call from a man who claimed that he had witnessed a horrifying murder in Belle Glade, eighty miles north of Miami. He also said that he had gotten the license plate number of the killer's car. The dispatcher had trouble understanding the caller because he was speaking quickly in Spanish. She connected him to detective Burt Blanco. In a rushed, nervous voice, the caller began to describe a grisly scene that he had witnessed several days earlier. He said he was hunting illegally in a sugar cane field when he heard a vehicle in the distance. He said that as he ran to hide, a blue Ford Bronco pulled up nearby. A man and a woman got out. She called him "Ricardito".-----Frontera Prison, located forty-five miles south of Los Angeles, California, is one of the largest women's penitentiaries in the United States. Its maximum-security wing houses some of California's most dangerous female offenders. Yet it is the alleged criminal activities of some guards and administrators that have shoved Frontera into the public spotlight. During the early 1990s, former prison employees made sensational allegations of widespread drug trafficking at the prison. They tied these charges of corruption to a pair of seemingly isolated incidents – the disappearance and subsequent murder of a Frontera guard, Jesslyn Rich, in 1984, and the controversial death of a twenty-five-year-old inmate named Terry Lucas three years later.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase After being stonewalled by police for six years, she received a shocking envelope on April 9, 1992, Keith's birthday. The manila envelope contained apparently official photographs from the crime scene, which showed him wearing clothes that weren't his, including white sneakers. The only clothing returned to the family were his jacket and brown boots, which were not seen in the photographs. Investigators confirmed that the pictures were official crime scene photographs. Leaves seen in the photos on the back of his shirt suggested that he had been laid on the ground and then hoisted up into the hanging position.  His body was soon exhumed for an autopsy. The surprising results showed that there were several deadly amounts of chemicals in it. It appeared that he had, in fact, been murdered, although some medical examiners claimed that the chemicals were from the embalming process. One examiner noted, however, that the original medical examiner did not mention using these substances in his report. Also, other substances not related to embalming fluid were found.-----Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase “The last recorded lynching in the United States was in 1981,” said Jill Collen Jefferson, a lawyer and founder of Julian, a civil rights organization named after the late civil rights leader Julian Bond. “But the thing is, lynchings never stopped in the United States. Lynchings in Mississippi never stopped. The evil bastards just stopped taking photographs and passing them around like baseball cards.”  This video is based on the hard work of Jefferson and her team (https://twitter.com/jillcollen)Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Marcia Williams, the mother of Terrance Williams, sued Calkins in a 2018 wrongful death action on behalf of her son's estate and four children. But the Collier County suit came to an abrupt close in 2021 after Crump's team missed a deadline to file for trial. Marcia Williams appealed to a Florida appellate court.    Williams was the second man to vanish after an encounter with Calkins. Felipe Santos, a Mexican immigrant and Immokalee resident, disappeared at age 23 in October 2003 after his brothers saw him get into Calkins' patrol car.-------"It's been said in the Black community many times, but there's always a new story popping up in our newsfeeds that proves it needs to be repeated: No amount of being an upstanding citizen will shield Black people from racism."-------Thirty years ago, the 15-year-old Black girl from South Central walked into Empire Liquor Market and Deli, grabbed a $1.79 bottle of orange juice and put it in her backpack. A Korean-born merchant, Soon Ja Du, accused her of stealing it. Latasha had $2 in her hand. Du grabbed Latasha's sweater. Then Latasha punched Du in the face and headed for the door. Du picked up a handgun and fired a shot into the back of Latasha's head. Police later confirmed that there was “no attempt at shoplifting.” A jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter, but instead of serving a maximum of 16 years in prison, Judge Joyce A. Karlin gave Du probation. For killing a 15-year-old girl who was walking away from her.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase The heartbeat of the city of New Orleans is its raucous French Quarter, where great music, street celebrations, and Cajun cooking sometimes overshadow a more unsavory side of the city. On August 4, 1991, in Algiers, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, a lone recycler gleaned what he could along Nevada Street, a narrow, deserted city road that was often used illegally as a dump site. He had no idea he was about to launch one of the city's most complex murder investigations. When he picked up a piece of garbage, he discovered the body of a young woman.  The body was identified as seventeen-year-old Danielle Britton, who lived nearby in Gretna with her mother. She had been strangled and possibly raped approximately twelve hours earlier. At first glance, her murder seemed to be an isolated incident. But the reality was far more sinister. She may have been the victim of a serial killer who preys on women he believes are prostitutes. By some chilling estimate, more than a hundred serial killers roam the streets of America at any given moment. Police are usually left to gather clues only from the silent testimony of gruesome crime scenes. But the New Orleans case would be different.  ----------  Nineteen-year-old David Josiah Lawson was studying Criminology at HSU (Humboldt State University, located in Northern California in the small town of Arcata). Lawson was the president of the Brothers United, an on-campus group that formed as a result of the unsolved murder of a Black HSU student, Cory Clark in 2001 (there is, unfortunately, a lack of information on his case). The group's goal was to provide support for Black men in the predominately white institution — and predominantly white area — in which they felt there was more support needed. On April 15th, 2017 Josiah and members of the Brothers United were attending an off-campus party when they were approached by a group of white locals and accused of stealing one of their phones. One of the locals demanded that they empty their pockets. An altercation began that left Josiah Lawson pepper-sprayed and stabbed multiple times.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a very well-loved and respected historical figure. He is widely seen as the leader of America's Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. Unfortunately, his work surrounding that movement put a target on his back. On April 3rd, 1968, King arrived in Memphis and checked in at the Lorraine Hotel. He was there to show his support for the city's sanitation workers who were on strike. Across the street from his hotel were a bunch of shoddy, run-down buildings. One of those buildings was actually a living space run by a woman named Bessie Brewer. On the night of April 4th, one of the building's tenants went to use the communal bathroom and found it locked. We would later learn that the man inside the bathroom at the time was career criminal James Earl Ray.  Ray went into the bathroom with a high-powered rifle and took aim at Dr. King as he stepped out of his hotel room.  Ray immediately went to make his escape after pulling the trigger. As he was leaving the area, he dumped the rifle and his bag at the Canipe Amusement Company's door. Witnesses reported seeing a white car fleeing the scene at the time. Just two months later, Ray was apprehended. He was in the process of boarding a flight to Brussels from London when the authorities took him in. On March 10th, 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The judge in his sentencing trial handed him a 99-year consequence. However, Ray had a confession just three days after his conviction:  He was set up.  -----  On that night, the two of them were being tailgated by a pickup truck which they didn't find to be much of a concern. Continuing on their patrol route, they came across a fire on the side of the road. The pair quickly discerned that it was just a trash fire, and nothing malicious, so they made a U-turn and headed back south. On their drive, they passed the same pickup truck from earlier, which began to follow them again. In a terrifying move, the pickup truck pulled up alongside Moore and Rogers and the occupants opened fire on the new sheriff's deputies.  A passerby came onto the scene to help the men but, unfortunately, it was too late for one of the men. O'Neal Moore was dead. Fortunately, Rogers survived, though he was very badly injured. He was rendered blind in the left eye but luckily was still able to give a description of the pickup truck and the shooters. The police embarked on an immediate search for the killers and their truck which saw them breaking ground less than an hour later. The driver of a truck very similar to the one the shooters were riding in was picked up only twenty miles away in Tollertown, Mississippi. Ernest Ray McElveen was arrested and bonded out on $25,000 bail. However, the charges against him were dropped due to a lack of evidence.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase This story takes place in Greensboro, North Carolina. On June 9, 1993, a woman was returning to her motel room at around midnight. As she was entering the door, two men appeared behind her and forced their way into the room. Both men were armed and used the threat of deadly weapons to force everyone in the room onto the floor. Each of the five people in the room was robbed of all of their cash and jewelry. Just minutes later, the horrifying ordeal was over and the men were gone. The occupants of the room went to the police when the coast was clear. One of the guests got a good look at the robbers and was able to identify them. This led to the police arresting two men — one of them named Frederick Young. The case would go to trial soon after and Young found himself being convicted of the motel robbery.  However, Frederick Young was adamant that he wasn't the one to commit those robberies. He asserts that his conviction is a case of mistaken identity and that his twin brother — Cedric Young — was actually the one who should be behind bars.  -----  Although he was safely away from his attacker, Holden decided not to drive straight home. Instead, he drove in the opposite direction so that he could give himself some time to decompress. It was during this downtime that one of the biggest coincidences in history would take place. As Holden found his way back to his trailer, he saw the same man who had attacked him walking around his property. To avoid — once again — winding up in a confrontation with this unhinged individual, Holden drove to a nearby payphone and alerted the police. An officer soon arrived on the scene and walked with Holden to his trailer while keeping an eye out for the strange man. A look through his trailer showed that the man was not there (nothing was out of place or missing). Holden was still concerned, however, about his mother who lived in the house behind his trailer. Things already looked bad when they found that the back window was broken. As the two made their way to the upstairs bedroom, they found Dorothy Donovan dead from several stab wounds to the arms, chest, and face.Support the show

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/blackcoldcase When Unsolved Mysteries returned to our tv screens in July of 2020, one of their first cases was a doozy. The Netflix reboot of the show featured the case of a mid-twenties partygoer who may have been the victim of a series of hate crimes that ultimately lead to his death. If it wasn't for the reboot, however, his case would still be closed.  Twenty-three-year-old Alonzo Brooks grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He was the youngest of 5 children, growing up with one older brother and three sisters. The 5 kids were raised by single mother Maria Ramirez. Maria had a special bond with Alonzo according to everyone who knew them. When Alonzo's older brother Billy turned eighteen and moved out, Alonzo and his mother move to the suburbs of Gardner. In what is perhaps a premonition, Billy felt that he needed to toughen his younger brother up — much to their mother's chagrin. She felt that he was trying to make Alonzo grow up to fast, but Billy felt that he needed to protect him from getting taken advantage of by his new peers.  That premonition would bear out in a series of mystifying events.Support the show