Unfinished Justice: Inside the NYPD Cold Case Squad · Asterlight

An NYPD Sergeant Becomes a Suspect in a Cold Case Killing

·43 min·2 clips

NYPD cold case detectives Bobby Santiago, Wendell Stratford, and Denise reopen the 2001 murder of Juliet Alexander, whose ex-partner and father of her children, NYPD Sergeant Martin Peters, was the prime suspect from the start. The only eyewitness — Nigel Callender, left quadriplegic by Martin's bullet — was silenced by threats against his family. Internal Affairs suspended Martin but ran into a dead end when he stopped cooperating. After 9/11 shelved the case, Juliet's mother Sylvia Garcia forced a cold case squad review in 2004. The team uncovered Juliet's haunting computer diary in which she predicted Martin would kill her, then exposed Martin's immigration fraud sham marriage to apply pressure. Nigel finally broke after being jailed without his motorized wheelchair and revealed Martin had set him up as a fall guy. Martin was arrested near Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem with a briefcase containing the detectives' personal information, and convicted in 2008, sentenced to 43 years to life.

As heard by us

A cold case turns on records, interviews, and a diary that shifts the investigation.

The episode centers on a cold, methodical case: the NYPD cold case team reopens Juliette Alexander's killing, spends months talking with people linked to Juliette, Martin, and Nigel, and then sharpens its focus when Juliette's computer diary surfaces.

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Why you'd press play

You want a cold case that gets heavier as the paper trail grows.

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