Episode Details

On today’s episode of True Crime Time, Woody opens with a message the Lifers have been waiting to hear: justice is coming. While he cannot yet reveal which case or exactly what is happening, Woody says he has received confirmation that a major step forward is coming in one of the cases the Real Life Real Crime community has helped fight for. He asks listeners to continue calling 313-RLRC-TIP, reminding everyone that there is no such thing as too much information when pursuing justice.

Woody also celebrates the release of A Mother’s Fight for Justice, written by Stephanie Belgard, Courtney Coco’s mother. The book tells Courtney’s story and Stephanie’s decade-long fight for answers and accountability from her own perspective. Woody credits Stephanie’s refusal to give up as one of the reasons Real Life Real Crime continues taking on difficult Justice For cases today. Signed copies are available directly, while Kindle, paperback, and hardcover editions are available through Amazon.

For On This Day in Crime, Woody remembers 13-year-old Mary Catherine Olchuck, whose decomposed body was discovered beneath hay on a Maine property in 1970 after she had been missing for nearly two weeks. More than five decades later, no one has been charged with her murder—another reminder that every unsolved case represents a family still waiting for justice.

Woody then gives a personal shout-out to former special prosecutor Hugo Holland, who prosecuted David Anthony Burns for Courtney Coco’s murder. Woody reflects on their early differences during the case, Holland’s courtroom performance, and why he considers him one of the strongest prosecutors he has ever watched work. Holland is now running for district judge in Louisiana’s First Judicial District.

In F’d Up Professionals, a Tennessee pastor who spent years traveling the country through his ministry is convicted of multiple counts of aggravated rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery. His wife was also convicted of facilitating sexual abuse and child neglect. Investigators say the case began with allegations involving a five-year-old child and eventually expanded to additional victims. Woody discusses how positions of trust, religious authority, language barriers, and vulnerable communities can all be exploited by predators.

Next, Woody covers the case of 16-year-old Howl Rafael Hernandez Castro, whose death was initially reported as a suicide. Investigators became suspicious when the witness’s story repeatedly changed. Detectives later found evidence inconsistent with suicide—including the distance of the shot, trajectory, and lack of gunshot residue—and the victim’s 21-year-old roommate was ultimately charged with murder. Woody connects the case directly to Justice for Hailey, where scientific evidence has likewise challenged an original suicide narrative.

In Minneapolis, police are investigating three bodies discovered in three days, all found in or near bodies of water. Authorities have not publicly said the deaths are connected, but Woody discusses why the geographical clustering immediately catches his investigative attention and why victimology and forensic findings will be critical in determining whether the cases share a connection.

The episode also covers a disturbing Florida murder case involving 16-year-old Miranda Corsett, who prosecutors say was held captive, tortured, killed, and dismembered. Defendant Stephen Gress has pleaded guilty and has taken the unusual step of asking that the judge—not a jury—decide whether he receives the death penalty. Woody compares the situation to another defendant he encountered who voluntarily sought execution rather than spend decades appealing his sentence. <