Episode Details

Three active cases. Three different kinds of evidence failures. And the same underlying question: when investigators lose evidence, fail to collect it, or mishandle it, what are the real consequences — for the cases and for the system?

In the Aaron Spencer case, a dashcam SD card was handled inconsistently with every other piece of evidence at the scene, in violation of department policy, and lost. A judge found the conduct gave "the appearance of a coverup" and dismissed the murder charge. Spencer was running for sheriff against the incumbent whose department handled the evidence.

In the Mackenzie Shirilla case, investigators proved a double murder without a confession or testimony — using a data recorder that captured the accelerator floored at close to a hundred miles per hour with zero braking, surveillance footage showing a controlled trajectory, prior threats, a rehearsal drive, and coded jail calls that allegedly revealed a plan to fabricate a medical defense.

In the Anna Kepner case, DNA evidence points to Timothy Hudson with 120 sextillion-to-one certainty, and injuries consistent with sustained force ruptured both of Anna's eardrums. But the FBI's lead agent couldn't confirm whether DNA was collected from Anna's neck — the area connected to the cause of death. The judge allowed Hudson to remain free on bond.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer and retired FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke join Tony Brueski for an extended analytical conversation about how the Bureau evaluates each of these failures, what the evidence tells them that it doesn't tell the general public, and where each case stands heading toward resolution.

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