Diksha Sundriyal
Accusing someone of a heinous murder is not child’s play. Unless you are absolutely sure, unless you have turned over every stone, unless you have your facts right, don’t go about arresting people. You’d think that the police would already know this. You’d think that the people in law enforcement would understand the seriousness of their work, the repercussions of a wrongful conviction. Turns out, they can be complacent too. Only their incompetence doesn’t affect their life as much as it destroys someone else’s.
‘Accused’ is a true-crime podcast that covers such stories. It is created by Amber Hunt and Amanda Rossmann for the Cincinnati Enquirer. When Hunt first stumbled upon the case of Elizabeth Andes, she thought about covering it as a story for an article. But as she moved forward with it, she realised that there were tons of people who had never been approached by the police, a lot of suspects who had never been questioned. Soon, the story exploded beyond the size of an article and ‘Accused’ was made.
Who is the Host of Accused Podcast?
The host of ‘Accused’ is Amber Hunt. A Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, Hunt is an award-winning journalist and a bestselling author of various novels on true crime. Her first venture in covering crime came in the form of the Detroit Free Press, where she was employed for eight years. Her first book covers the 1990 case of the murder of Barbara George. In the second book, she covered the death of Yeardley Love. She has also covered the cases of the 2011 murder of the Hadleys who were killed by their 17-year-old son and the Kennedy wives. She was also on the team of 60 journalists who had covered ‘Seven Days of Heroin’, a Pulitzer Prize winner. She joined the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2013 as an investigative journalist and came upon the case of Elizabeth Andes. In 2018, Hunt hosted another podcast called ‘Aftermath’ which focuses on the experiences of gunshot survivors.
What’s Accused Podcast About?
‘Accused’ focuses on the cases that have remained unsolved to this date simply because an innocent person was convicted for the crime while the killer walked free. In her investigation, the host shines a light on the various aspects that the police didn’t explore, several leads that they didn’t bother to chase, suspects who were never questioned. The question is this: how can you find a person guilty of a horrible crime without even turning the case inside out from every angle.
The first season follows the murder of 23-year-old Elizabeth Andes who was found dead in her apartment on December 28, 1978. It was her boyfriend, Bob Young, who came to see her and walked in on her dead body. He immediately called the cops and told them everything. But it all turned around on him as soon as the cops arrived on the scene. He was taken into custody and was questioned for a long time. He was asked all sorts of questions about his relationship with Elizabeth and by the end of the day, they had his confession. However, he later recanted and said that he had been intimidated into doing so. He continued to hold on to his innocence, while the police used that one confession as proof that the case had been solved. Young was later acquitted by the jury. But, even then, the investigation was never reopened, the cops never tried to see the case from another angle, to find out if there was something they had missed, to find out who the real killer was.
The second season focuses on the story of a 54-year-old prison guard, Retha Welch. She would volunteer as a prison minister and help recently released convicts in dealing with their problems and starting a new life. One day, when she didn’t show up at work, her co-worker went to her house to check up on her. That was on April 13, 1987. Welch’s dead body was found in her bathtub. The preliminary investigation led the police to William Virgil, a 35-year-old recently released convict. He had been counselled by Welch and even admitted to having had a sexual relationship with her after he was let go of from the prison. The cops wasted no time in determining that he was responsible for the murder. No other leads were pursued, especially after a jailhouse informant testified that Virgil has confessed to him about the murder. Years later, it was the effort of the Kentucky Innocence Project that led to the testing of a DNA evidence which proved that Virgil had been wrongfully accused. Who really killed Welch? Did the police hide something?
Accused Season 3 Release Date: When is it Coming Out?
‘Accused’ season 2 premiered on October 12, 2017. The first season had already met with a huge success which brought the listeners back for the second season. It surpassed the goodwill and the performance of the first, and the response from the listeners was overwhelming. It was also received well critically and the investigation and narration of the ‘Accused’ team were appreciated. In the summer of 2018, Hunt and Rossmann confirmed that they have started working on the third season. They haven’t yet shared the subject of the case that they are working on, but we are sure that it’ll be just another lesser-known case with a horrifying crime and a questionable conviction. No date has been confirmed for the release of the third season, but if we follow the pattern for the releases of the first and second, it is safe to assume that the ‘Accused’ season 3 will release sometime in October 2019. As we receive more information about the third season of ‘Accused’ we will update this section.
Where Can I Listen to Accused Podcast?
You can listen to all the episodes of previous seasons of ‘Accused’ on the official page of the podcast right here. Since both of these cases are still open, if there is any information or insight about the case that you’d like to share you can contact the podcast team. Also, if you have an idea or want the ‘Accused’ team to cover a case you think is worthy of their attention, you can inform them about it. In the meanwhile, if you haven’t yet caught up with the second, here is the trailer to get you back on that wagon.
Read More in Podcast Previews: Up and Vanished | Someone Knows Something
