36: THE BATHTUB MURDER PART 2

August 9, 2023·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

As Slater heads for the door, Jake stops him and says he'll tell the truth if they leave Fran's name out of it, then confesses to killing her.

The story picks up right after Fran is found in the bathtub. Jake is still the husband whose alibis check out, and the police are still standing in a bloody, messy crime scene that does not look like the place where Fran was killed. The town gets ugly. Rumors start moving fast, and Chief Sherrits and Sheriff Spillman hear victim-blaming chatter about Fran that is ugly enough to make the whole case feel even dirtier. The investigators keep following reports. A suspicious vagrant in Greenville looks promising for a moment, but that thread goes nowhere once they start asking questions. Then they hear about Warren. That tip sends them a long way from Troy to question a man in custody who had supposedly been bragging that he knew who committed the bathtub murder. He does not know anything useful, and the questioning makes that plain. The trip turns into a long drive out and a long drive back with no breakthrough. Slater keeps talking on the road, filling the time by talking Jake’s ear off about himself and about detective work. On Thursday, Slater has settled hard on his theory. He tells the chief and sheriff that Jake killed Fran and that the driving around was really a ruse to make Jake comfortable and get him talking. The chief pushes back. He wants proof, not certainty, and Slater has to admit there is no new evidence waiting in the wings. That is the real shape of the chapter. The case keeps circling the same facts, and the repetition starts to feel like pressure rather than progress. Everyone is talking as if the answer is close. The record, though, still looks like a murder case waiting for evidence to catch up with suspicion.

As heard by us

A grim procedural chapter where rumor outpaces proof and the investigation keeps running into the same wall.

The episode stays with Fran and Jake Nesbitt in Troy, Ohio, but the focus shifts from the bathtub murder itself to the rumor cloud building around it.

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Why you'd press play

When you want a murder case where rumor, detours, and suspicion do the heavy lifting.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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