The Jesse Butler Case

In October 1995, Wilma Cheek was found shot to death in her car at Willow Grove Cemetery in Fountain City, Indiana. It was late morning. Daylight. A place that should have felt quiet, familiar, safe. Thirty years later, her case remains unsolved.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/pendleton-district-investigations/wilma-cheek-10301995/

A new case in Bloomington, Indiana. An arrest tied to alleged child sexual abuse material. In part 1, we slow down the headline and walk through what’s been publicly reported so far, how these cases often start, what digital evidence can and can’t prove at this stage, and what research says about who gets caught with csam and how often this behavior happens in secrecy. This episode avoids graphic details and centers accuracy, prevention, and the reality that harm can be amplified long after abuse occurs.

We're sharing our coverage of the waverly two case again as Terence and Ferrone work towards their deserved full exoneration after their release.In 1998, Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne of Waverly, Virginia, were sentenced to life for a murder they were acquitted of, exposing systemic flaws like withheld evidence and a judge’s power to override a jury’s verdict. In this episode, we examine the controversial mechanism of acquitted conduct sentencing and the tireless advocacy work aimed at righting this profound injustice.

In Bloomington, two rape charges against a former Indiana University student ended without a trial. The charges were dismissed, a plea to battery remained, and the sentence was one year of probation. This episode follows the gap between what the public thinks the system does and what the rules of proof allow it to do.

This episode tells the story of Lisa M. Wallace, a 25 year old woman from Cadiz, Kentucky, found behind a truck stop near Interstate 70 in eastern Indiana on May 19, 1992.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/pendleton-district-investigations/lisa-m-wallace-05191992/

A Stillwater teen pleaded no contest to 11 rape related charges and walked out of court with a fully suspended 78 year sentence under Oklahoma’s youthful offender law. This episode follows the case of Jesse Butler, the outrage it sparked, and what it reveals about race, power, and who the system believes deserves another chance.

Theresa “Terry” Rideout was 36 when she vanished over Labor Day weekend in 1994. She finished a shift at Burger King in Evansville, made the night deposit, and never came back to her home in Chandler, Indiana. A week later, her fiancé, Jack Barnett, died by suicide in a Mount Vernon motel room, leaving behind a note that never mentioned Terry. With her paycheck still unclaimed, and her belongings left behind, investigators suspect foul play – but three decades later, her body has never been found and her case remains unsolved.

A Heavy Weight is re-releasing our coverage of Wilma June Nissen, a young mother of three whose homicide remains unsolved nearly five decades later. On October 4, 1978, Wilma’s body was found along Highway 182 in Lyon County, Iowa, near Rock Rapids, by a utility worker laying cable. With little usable evidence at the scene, investigators could not identify her at the time, and she was listed as a Jane Doe for years. In 2006, a forensic technician matched the unidentified victim’s fingerprints to an earlier arrest record from Los Angeles, finally restoring her name. Since then, Wilma’s daughter, Krissi Haas, has continued to push for answers and accountability, while investigators have pursued leads and tested limited physical evidence, including DNA that was reportedly too mixed to be useful at the time. Authorities have also publicly asked for help identifying people connected to the case, including individuals known by the aliases “Sugar” and “Peaches.” If you have credible information about Wilma June Nissen’s homicide, you can contact the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office at (712) 472 8300 or submit a tip through Lyon County’s online tip form. Tip submissions are not monitored 24 7, so emergencies should go to 911. For anonymous reporting and possible reward eligibility, Project Cold Case notes you can contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 222 TIPS.

In November nineteen sixty nine, twelve year old Nora Kathylene “Kathy” Jones left her house in South Nashville with her roller skates over her shoulder, headed for the roller dome on Thompson Lane. She never made it home.Two days later, searchers found her in a vacant lot. More than fifty years later, her murder is still unsolved.https://nashvillecoldcase.gov/1969-124859-nora-kathylene-jones/

Halloween night, 1981. Sixteen year old Debra Mae “Debbie” Fulton leaves her house in Hammond, Indiana, with a little cash and a simple plan: walk to the Roller Dome, skate with friends, come home.She never makes it.The next day, a boy playing under the Calumet Avenue bridge spots a body in the Grand Calumet River. Debbie has been killed by a blow to the head. Within weeks, her case is being used as an example in debates about runaway youth and juvenile law. Headlines call her a chronic runaway. Officials argue over whether she should have been locked in a secure facility “for her own protection.”Forty years later, her killer has still not been identified.In this episode of A Heavy Weight, we trace Debbie’s final walk, revisits the investigation into her death, and looks at how the label “runaway” can obscure the reality of kids in crisis. Along the way, we dig into what research now tells us about runaway youth, their risk of violence, and what it means to build safety without defaulting to incarceration.If you lived in Hammond in 1981, skated at the Roller Dome, or crossed the Calumet bridge that Halloween night and remember something, please consider reaching out to the Indiana State Police or Hammond Police Department. Someone in that community still holds a piece of what happened to Debbie.https://www.in.gov/isp/crime-reporting/cold-case-investigations/cold-cases-by-county/lowell-district-investigations/debra-fulton-10311981/