What Happened to Joseph Smedley? Episode Nine: Coverage

For Joseph’s family, this is year ten. Ten years of rereading the same note. Ten years of asking for his case files. Ten years of watching other IU students’ cases become national stories while his slips out of view.Coverage sits inside that imbalance. We talk about media bias and what it means to keep showing up for a family long after everyone else has moved on.Thank you for listening, sharing, and saying his name with us. Episode 9 is out now.

In this episode we return to the death of Indiana University student Joseph Smedley, whose body was found in Griffy Lake with a backpack weighed down with rocks. Drawing on a twenty year study of suicide by drowning and the insight of forensic pathologist Dr Darin Wolfe and forensic aquatic death investigator Andrea Zaferes, we ask how likely it really is that Joseph died by suicide in the way his case was closed. We unpack the challenges of determining cause and manner of death in bodies recovered from water, revisit the original autopsy and the attempted second autopsy, and explore the confusing trail of cell phone pings that suggest Joseph was not alone in his final hours. Along the way, we raise larger questions about how death determinations are made, what it means when a case is labeled suicide instead of undetermined, and why some missing students receive wall to wall coverage while others are met with silence.Content note This episode includes discussion of suicide, death, and possible foul play.

Joseph Smedley’s death was ruled a suicide by drowning, with alcohol and cannabinoids listed as contributing factors. In this episode, we slow down and examine that conclusion through the lens of Joseph’s autopsy and toxicology reports.Forensic pathologist Dr. Darrin Wolfe and drowning expert Andrea Zaferes walk us through what those reports can and can’t tell us in a decomposed body recovered from water. We talk about the rare nature of suicide by drowning, the backpack filled with rocks, conflicting details about how Joseph was found, and the critical questions his family still doesn’t have answers to, about his phone, the handwritten note, and missing scene photos.This is not about solving Joseph’s case in one episode. It’s about understanding why so many people, including experts, see his death as extremely unusual.Content note: This episode includes discussion of a death that was ruled a suicide. If you’re thinking about suicide, worried about someone, or need support, please reach out. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 or chat via 988lifeline.org for 24/7 free, confidential help. If you’re outside the U.S., please contact your local crisis line or emergency services.

Joseph Smedley vanished from Indiana University on September 27, 2015. Five days later, he was found in shallow water at Griffy Lake with a backpack full of rocks strapped to his chest. Police pointed to suicide. His family, and many friends, do not agree.In this episode, we revisit the early investigation handoff from IUPD to BPD, the decision to route updates through Joseph’s father, the autopsy overview, and the contested narrative around a possible confidential-informant angle. We also introduce experts who will help unpack what the evidence can, and can’t, tell us.

Episode 5 rebuilds Joseph Smedley’s final hours: 11:30 p.m. last seen, 4:15  a.m. text to his sister, a note found later, and a phone path toward Old State Hwy 37.

A recovered group chat, a shifting timeline, and a discovery at Griffy Lake reframe Joseph Smedley’s final week.In Episode 4, we examine digital evidence recovered from Joseph’s laptop: a fraternity group chat from the days he was missing. The conversation’s tone and priorities raise hard questions about what people knew—and when. We then trace the search to Griffy Lake, where Joseph was found with a backpack holding over 60 pounds of rocks strapped to his body.

In this episode, we step deeper into the growing confusion surrounding Joseph’s disappearance, the conflicting stories, the strange notes, and the data that didn’t add up.Detectives traced Joseph’s last cell-phone pings to two vastly different locations: one in the center of Bloomington’s busy nightlife district at 7th and Walnut, and another miles away on Old State Road 37, near the woods surrounding Griffy Lake. The distance between them was too far to walk in the time frame the phone suggested, leaving Vivianne convinced that her brother wasn’t alone that night.As rumors spread through campus, new details emerged, including mentions of a cryptic note found weeks before Joseph disappeared and another discovered in place of a bottle of scotch he’d been saving for his wedding. Meanwhile, messages uncovered from Joseph’s Sigma Pi fraternity group chat hinted at a scramble to control the narrative, rather than to find him.This episode traces Vivianne’s search for clarity through the haze of half-truths, unanswered texts, and institutional indifference. As she pieces together what little evidence she has, the story takes a darker turn, one that will lead her to the woods outside Bloomington and a discovery that changes everything.

The morning after Joseph Smedley vanished, his sister received a text message from his phone: “Viv, I’m sorry. I have to leave the country…” Hours later, police discovered a handwritten note in his room, signed Smedley and dated a day after he disappeared.In this episode, we follow the first week of the investigation: the confusion, the missteps, and the rumors that began inside Joseph’s fraternity. What did his brothers mean when they said he was hiding things? And what did Vivianne find on Joseph’s laptop that made her question everything they told her?Ten years later, these details still raise more questions than answers, about Joseph’s last hours, and about how far institutions will go to protect themselves.

On the tenth anniversary of Joseph Smedley’s disappearance, we return to Bloomington, Indiana, to re-examine the night it all began. Under the eerie glow of a rare Blood Moon, Joseph left his off-campus house and vanished. Five days later, his body was discovered in Griffy Lake, weighed down by rocks.In this first episode, we hear a never-before-released 911 call, revisit Joseph’s last known hours, and introduce the questions that have haunted his family for a decade: Did Joseph walk to Griffy Lake that night? Could he have carried the weight that pulled him under? And if not — then who brought him there?With new evidence and reflections ten years later, this series asks not just what happened to Joseph, but what it means when stories like his are left unsolved.

On June 12, 1994, twenty-year-old Delmar Wilson was found shot in his car on Radcliff Road in Washington County, Indiana. The engine was still running. The headlights still on. His foot still pressed on the brake.Police believe Delmar knew his killer. But in the three decades since, the case has passed from detective to detective, with no arrests and no answers.