The Bakersfield Three · Casefile Presents

Episode 18: The Chiropractor

May 20, 2025·30 min·2 clips

The chiropractor suspected in James Kolstad's murder speaks for the first time in a recorded interview.

The chiropractor is back at the center of the story. The host starts with the old theory that James was attacked after leaving a cul-de-sac near the chiropractor's home, maybe because stolen-check money and an alleged unpaid debt had brought him there. But the story keeps catching on loose edges. Ryan had long seemed important to the answer because he was near the events and had been pushed about why he had not told police more. The chiropractor rejects the neat motive. He says he and James did not have the kind of money dispute that would explain James coming to collect that night. The host does not treat that as the end of it. She sets his denial next to the check-cashing allegations, the house timeline, and the awkward gaps in Ryan's and the chiropractor's accounts. Sarah G makes the scene harder to read. The accounts put her at the chiropractor's house with Ryan, Steven, and the chiropractor before she was suddenly told to leave. That detail lingers. The host asks whether Sarah's exit mattered, not because it proves anything on its own, but because the timing sits so close to James's murder. The chiropractor gives his version. He says Sarah arrived with another man, says that man made him uneasy, and frames the argument around noise, tension, and behavior near his home. It does not tidy things up. The interview tape keeps the mess in view, with blunt memories and clashing versions of a gathering that still has not settled into something reliable. Then time starts taking people out of the story. By the end, the chiropractor's death and Steven's death make the investigation feel more urgent. The case is losing voices. The host closes by noting that Sergeant Chad Garrett still works James's and Bailey's cases in his spare time, and that useful information could still matter.

As heard by us

A careful, uneasy look at the people around James Kolstad's final night.

Episode 18 keeps James Kolstad's killing anchored to the chiropractor's house and the people around it, and it never pretends the timeline is simple.

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Why you'd press play

You want the chiropractor pulled to the center of a murder case and left there, with the case still circling back to him.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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