Tell Me The Crime

John tells Feb the story of Diane Whipple, an elite athlete and college lacrosse coach killed just outside her San Francisco apartment by her neighbors' dogs. What initially looked like a horrific animal attack soon exposed months of ignored warnings, a bizarre connection to an imprisoned gang member, and a question rarely asked in a courtroom: when does refusing to recognize a danger become murder?

In February 1986, 29-year-old nursing director Sherri Rasmussen was found beaten and shot inside the Los Angeles home she shared with her husband, John. The LAPD decided that she had interrupted a burglary.

But Sherri’s parents believed the crime was personal. Before her death, she had been confronted by a woman with a complicated history with John, someone who had slept with him while he was engaged to Sherri. She was also an LAPD officer.

For more than twenty years, the case remained unsolved. Then a cold-case investigation finally reconsidered the possibility police had dismissed.

Just after Christmas 2011, Russ Faria came home from a game night with friends and found his wife, Betsy, dead inside their Missouri home.

Police quickly decided that Russ had killed her, even though four people placed him elsewhere and receipts, phone records, and surveillance footage supported his alibi.

Russ was convicted anyway. Years later, another death made the failures in Betsy’s investigation much harder to dismiss.