The In Between Podcast with Mel Barrett

Mel and Rebecca are back together—double-fisting caffeine, single-fisting water, filling the swear jar, and trying (struggling) to keep it together after Rebecca’s near-death plague tour (DC included). We kick off with some housekeeping + sticker chaos—yes, they’re coming, yes, there’s a form, no, we’re not taking complaints—then slide into a quick, nerdy love letter to signposting (because some of you are apparently listening like it’s a scavenger hunt).

Then it’s straight into the true crime/power structure blender:

Michael Proctor’s phone download and Rosemary “Picchi” Scapicchio’s push in the Myles King case—plus the headline-making reality that Proctor’s filings basically boil down to: “Sure, there’s racist/homophobic stuff… but it’s fine because the targets are white and straight.”

The bigger theme: toxic masculinity, institutional loyalty, and why these guys keep getting away with it—from frat-house bodycam audacity to “boys will be boys” policing.

Karen Read updates you can actually use: the taillight footage (and what it does—and doesn’t—show), the recurring problem of missing videos, and why some narratives keep getting pushed even when the visuals don’t match.

New-ish audio and timeline chatter (fight vs. snowplow language), plus the reality check: what’s compelling, what’s debunked, and what still stinks.

We also hit the Karen Read civil-case sideshow: the infamous bcc email mishap, the judge basically begging grown adults to act like professionals, deposition wrangling, discovery stonewalling, and the ongoing comedy of “we lost the phone” in the case where the phone is the whole point.

It’s messy. It’s infuriating. It’s funny in that “if we don’t laugh, we scream” way. And it’s very, very Something’s Off.

If you like us, please tip us:
venmo: @melbarrettwrites

cashapp: cash.app/$SomethingsOffTips

You can now join the YouTube channel! Click the join button to select your favorite level.

Follow @realmelbarrett on all socials / TT: @jackofalltradesdc Listen to the In Between Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! Follow ‪@reblavoie‬ on all socials Listen to Crime Writer's On wherever you get your podcasts!

Links from the episode:
Mel's new show - ‪@newslightwithmelbarrett‬  :   / @newslightwithmelbarrett 
These Are Their Stories Podcast: https://www.lawandorderpodcast.com/
You Can't Make This Up: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/ycmtu
YT Member Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
Frat boys: https://www.the-independent.com/tv/ne...
‪@AttorneyMelanieLittle‬    / @attorneymelanielittle 
Corri Hopkins doc dump: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...
‪@BrotherCounsel‬  BC  v Big Case Mike:   • Karen Read Trial Debate between Brother Co...

In January 2001, Tara Louise Baker, a 23-year-old University of Georgia law student, was found dead in her Athens apartment after a fire that investigators quickly determined was no accident. Tara had been sexually assaulted, beaten, strangled, and stabbed. The fire came after — an apparent attempt to erase what happened inside that apartment.
For more than twenty years, her case lived in silence.
Then, in 2023, new funding for Georgia cold cases reopened old evidence. Modern DNA testing produced a profile that led investigators to Edrick Lamont Faust. In 2024, Faust was arrested. In 2026, after a trial built largely on forensic science, he was convicted on all twelve counts.
But this episode isn’t just about a verdict.
It’s about what DNA can — and can’t — tell us.
It’s about how cold cases move from evidence lockers to courtrooms decades later.
It’s about reasonable doubt, secondary transfer, chain of custody, tunnel vision, and the quiet power of probability when everything else has faded.
We walk through Tara’s life, the crime scene, the stalled investigation, the CODIS hit, the courtroom battles, and the defense’s unanswered questions — including the absence of eyewitnesses, fingerprints, surveillance, phone data, and any documented relationship between Tara and Faust.
We also talk honestly about race, forensic certainty, and what it means for a Black defendant to stand trial for the murder of a young white woman in the South — especially when a case rests almost entirely on DNA.
Faust was found guilty.
But did the jury get it right?
Or are we watching a justice system still learning how to handle science that arrives decades late?
This is a story about grief and proof.
About science and certainty.
About what justice looks like when it finally shows up — and what it leaves behind.
Because cold cases don’t just reopen files.
They reopen wounds.
And they force us to sit in the in between.
If you like Mel's work, please support her by tipping: 
venmo: @melbarrettwrites 
You can now join the Something's Off YouTube channel! Click the join button to select your favorite level. Follow @realmelbarrett on all socials / TT: @jackofalltradesdc Listen to the In Between Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! Follow ‪@reblavoie‬ on all socials Listen to Crime Writer's On wherever you get your podcasts!

WATCH NewsLIGHT on Youtube or listen ad free at The In Between Investigator Club

If you like Mel's work, please tip:
Venmo: @melbarrettwrites (put NewsLIGHT in the description)
CashApp: cash.app/$NewsLight
Join host Mel Barrett with special guests, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and producer, Maggie Freleng (Wrongful Convictions, Bone Valley Graves County, The Disappearance of Maura Murray), Broadway superstar and Podcast host, Ellyn Marsh (I Think Not!, STFU Nick Lachey), and Thomas, the guy who looks like he might vote a certain way, but surprise, he doesn't as they break down the Epstein Files and what's going on with the Save Act, which just passed the House and is on its' way to the Senate. 
What does the Save Act mean for YOUR voting rights?
We'll discuss/debate it all and Mel's guest will share their wildest news stories of the week!

Mel is solo while Rebecca's still recovering, but don't pass up this big debate about Lana Oriani's (Truth and Transparency on YT) video positing that Michael Lank may have shown up to the scene at 34 Fairview with John O'Keefe's phone on his person. Let's discuss!
Also, the Lucy Letby case, and Corri Hopkins' latest document drop. 
If you like us, please tip us: 
venmo: @melbarrettwrites 
cashapp: cash.app/$SomethingsOffTips 
You can now join the YouTube channel! Click the join button to select your favorite level. 
Follow @realmelbarrett on all socials / TT: @jackofalltradesdc Listen to the In Between Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! Follow ‪@reblavoie‬ on all socials Listen to Crime Writer's On wherever you get your podcasts!

In this episode of The In Between, Mel takes a deep, careful look at one of the most disturbing and contested criminal cases in modern British history: the conviction of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby.
Between 2015 and 2016, a spike in infant deaths inside the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital led to a massive police investigation — and ultimately to Letby being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder others. She is now serving multiple whole-life sentences.
But this story doesn’t end with a verdict.
In this episode, Mel walks through the trial evidence, the medical theories presented to the jury, Lucy Letby’s handwritten notes and diaries, and the appeals that followed. We also examine new developments — including a controversial Netflix documentary and a detailed briefing paper from sixteen senior medical and scientific experts who now say Letby may be the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
They argue the case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, flawed statistical reasoning, and disputed medical interpretations — and that alternative explanations rooted in systemic hospital failure were ignored.
So what happens when fragile newborns die inside an under-resourced unit?
What happens when doctors raise alarms and administrators worry about reputation?
What happens when grief meets criminal prosecution — and certainty arrives faster than science?
This is not an episode about defending the indefensible.
It’s about sitting in the gray.
About how medicine collides with the justice system.
About institutional silence, whistleblowers, and what gets lost when we turn human collapse into narrative certainty.
And about Baby A — and the tiny lives caught inside a system that may have already been breaking.
Listener discretion advised: this episode discusses infant death, neonatal medical emergencies, and institutional trauma.
If you like Mel's work please hit up the tip jar!
venmo: @melbarrettwrites
cashapp: cash.app/$SomethingsOffTips
You can now join the Something's Off YouTube channel! Click the join button to select your favorite level.
Follow @realmelbarrett on all socials / TT: @jackofalltradesdc Listen to the In Between Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! Follow ‪@reblavoie‬ on all socials Listen to Crime Writer's On wherever you get your podcasts!