Episode Details

On today’s episode of True Crime Time For, Woody welcomes September and looks ahead to Labor Day weekend while hoping the holiday does not bring the violent crime and mass shootings that so often dominate the news. He reminds listeners that those stories will be covered as they develop before getting into the day’s true crime.

Khalil Wheeler-Weaver and the Murder of Robin West

For On This Day in Crime, Woody looks back to September 1, 2016, and the murder of 19-year-old Robin West, the first known victim of New Jersey serial killer Khalil Wheeler-Weaver.

West was seen getting into Wheeler-Weaver’s vehicle on the night of August 31. Prosecutors said Wheeler-Weaver strangled her, left her body inside an abandoned home in Orange, New Jersey, and set the building on fire. Her remains were so badly burned that identification took approximately two weeks.

Wheeler-Weaver went on to murder Joanne Brown and Sarah Butler and was convicted of kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder in his attack on Tiffany Taylor, who survived. A jury convicted him in 2019, and in 2021 he was sentenced to 160 years in prison, with 145 years required before parole eligibility.

Woody plays audio from Wheeler-Weaver’s sentencing, where victims’ families pleaded with the judge to show the killer no mercy. Despite his convictions, Wheeler-Weaver continued to maintain his innocence.

Woody focuses on what that denial means to the families—and to Taylor, who survived his attack and testified against him.

Nearly 25 Years Later: Where Is Justice for 9/11?

As the anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, Woody turns to something he says remains personally difficult for him to discuss: 9/11.

The focus is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the extraordinary length of the military-commission proceedings at Guantánamo Bay.

Woody discusses why the case has dragged on for decades, the complications created by the military-commission system, disputes surrounding statements made during interrogations, previous attempts to reach plea agreements, and the enormous emotional toll the process continues to have on victims’ families.

His central question is simple: How can a case involving one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history remain unresolved nearly a quarter-century later?

Family Matters: Meeting His Biological Father Ends in Death

In Family Matters, Woody travels across the pond for the unusual case of Martin Greensmith, who is on trial for manslaughter after an encounter with Stephen Shevels, the man Greensmith had only recently learned was his biological father.

According to the account presented at trial, Greensmith was at a pub with family when his mother identified Shevels as his father. Greensmith said Shevels had never been part of his life and that he had no desire to establish a relationship with him.

The two later encountered one another in the pub’s beer garden. Greensmith testified that he felt intimidated when Shevels approached him and claimed he pushed him only to create distance. Shevels fell, struck his head, and later died from the injury.

Greensmith denies manslaughter and told jurors that he never intended to fight or kill his biological father. The trial was ongoing at the time covered in the episode.

Who Wanted Chicago Mail Carrier Octavia Redmond Dead?

Then Woody covers the disturbing murder of Octavia Redmond, a 48-year-old U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, wife, and mother who was gunned down while working her route on Chicago’s South Side in July 2024.

Redmond was shot multipl