Shoreline, Washington, 1995. Firefighters knock down a small apartment fire and find a woman's body inside. One month later, 50 feet away, it happens again.

Two ordinary, kind women were murdered in nearly identical attacks by a man who brought nothing with him. He used the victims' own belongings, disabled their smoke detectors, and set the fires to erase himself completely. For two years, it worked.

Ed opens September’s “Burning Desires” (a month of arson cases) with the story of how one piece of evidence that survived the flames finally brought Renee Powell and Barbara Walsh's killer to justice.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership

murderunscriptedpod@gmail.com | @murderunscripted

Her degree says nuclear physics but her work changed the way cold cases are solved. ⬇️

To close out our Killer Connections block, Ed and Melissa sit down with the woman whose name has come up all month long: Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick. Before forensic genetic genealogy was a headline, before it was even a field, Colleen saw a different way to use DNA.

She founded Identifinders International, helped turn distant relatives into the key that unlocks decades-old cold cases, and became a legend in true crime genre along the way.

In this insightful conversation, Colleen discusses the road from physics to the front lines of cold case work, the cases that never left her, and where this science goes next.

Ep. 118 | Killer Connections Finale | Murder Unscripted | August 2026

Hosted by Ed Hydock & Melissa Spivey | A Darkcast Network Production

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership

murderunscriptedpod@gmail.com | @murderunscripted

Billings, Montana, November 1973. Cliff and Linda Bernhardt set their dinner table for three and welcomed a guest they trusted. By the next morning, the young couple were dead, and the killer had staged the scene in a way so strange it would puzzle investigators for the next 45 years.

Cliff had survived the jungles of Vietnam. He didn't survive dinner at his own table.

Melissa covers Week 3 of Killer Connections: a bizarre 1973 cold case, decades of dead ends, and the genetic genealogy breakthrough that finally gave the Bernhardt family a name.

Ep. 117 | Killer Connections | Murder Unscripted | August 2026

Hosted by Ed Hydock & Melissa Spivey | A Darkcast Network Production

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership

murderunscriptedpod@gmail.com | @murderunscripted