Kentucky Case Files

Some stories live on through investigation — others through art. In the season one finale of Kentucky Case Files, Marcus Roland and Emily Steele sit down with Louisville author Ellen Birkett Morris, whose short story "Lost Girls" was inspired by Ann Gotlib’s disappearance. Growing up near the mall where Ann was last seen, Morris transformed a city’s grief into a powerful meditation on loss, fear and resilience. Through interview and dramatic reading in The Ann Gotlib Case, Pt. 3: Lost Girls, Kentucky Case Files explores how creative expression can give voice to tragedy — and how Ann’s story, though never fully resolved, continues to echo through time. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

What did it mean to search for a missing child in 1983 — and how has that changed today? In The Ann Gotlib Case, Pt. 2: How We Find Missing Kids, Then and Now, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele examine the evolution of missing child investigations, from analog flyers and phone trees to digital databases, Amber Alerts, and social media. They uncover how Ann’s case helped spur reforms, leading to the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and inspiring local programs like ECHO in Louisville. With expert insight, the hosts compare the fear-driven “missing children panic” of the 1980s to the data-driven systems that protect families now — and ask whether true closure ever really comes. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

June 1, 1983 — a summer day in Louisville turns into every parent’s nightmare. Twelve-year-old Ann Gotlib rides her red bicycle to the mall and never comes home. What follows is one of Kentucky’s most haunting mysteries: a desperate search, countless leads, and decades of unanswered questions. In this first of a three-part season 1 finale, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele retrace the day Ann disappeared, explore the cultural and political backdrop of the early 1980s, and revisit the investigation that transfixed a city and helped forever change how America responds when a child goes missing. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

When Eric C. Conn fell, thousands of his clients fell with him. The U.S. Social Security Administration cut off benefits for nearly 4,000 disabled Appalachians, demanding they re-prove their cases years later — or pay back money they no longer had. Families lost homes, lives were upended, and some clients died waiting for help. Attorney Ned Pillersdorf and hundreds of volunteer lawyers waged a years-long battle to restore justice. In the final episode of The Eric C. Conn Case, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele tell the story of the people left behind in the Conn scandal: the victims who were punished for their lawyer’s crimes. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

By 2017, Eric C. Conn’s empire was collapsing. Facing a prison sentence for bribery and fraud, he cut off his ankle monitor and vanished — kicking off one of the most audacious escapes in Kentucky history. From cryptically emailing a reporter, to taunting the FBI, to hiding out in a Honduran beach town, Conn lived as a fugitive until a Pizza Hut dinner finally brought him down. In the third episode of The Eric C. Conn Case, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele tell the story of Conn on the run — his ego, his theatrics, and the manhunt that ended with a bowl of soup. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

How did Eric C. Conn win nearly every case he touched? The answer: crooked judges, compliant doctors, and a bureaucracy that valued speed over scrutiny. With Judge David Daugherty pocketing bribes and doctors signing off on sham medical files, Conn’s fraud machine churned out approvals by the thousands. But then came whistleblowers Jennifer Griffith and Sarah Carver. In the second episode of The Eric C. Conn Case, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele unravel the web of corruption that made Conn untouchable for years — and the two women who risked everything to stop him. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

He called himself “Mr. Social Security,” a small-town lawyer who turned double-wide trailers into a legal empire in Eastern Kentucky. Eric C. Conn built his fortune on outlandish marketing, luxury cars and roadside monuments to himself. But behind the spectacle was something darker: the largest Social Security fraud in U.S. history. In the first episode of The Eric C. Conn Case, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele trace Conn’s rise from humble beginnings to Appalachian celebrity, and how his flashy persona masked a system of lies, bribes, and corruption. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

The murder of Amanda Ross sent shockwaves through Kentucky and beyond. In The Steve Nunn Case, Pt. 3: Amanda Ross, Her Law and the Limits of Justice, the final installment of our three-part series, we look beyond the crime itself and examine the lasting impact of Ross’s death — and the fight for change that followed. Ross's mother turned grief into advocacy, pushing for stronger protections for victims of domestic violence. The result was Amanda’s Law, a measure designed to use GPS monitoring to help keep survivors safe. But the law that ultimately enacted was far weaker than intended — and heartbreakingly, would not have protected Ross herself. Hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele explore the politics, compromises and obstacles that shaped the law, as well as the programs and resources created in Ross's name. Trigger warning: This episode discusses domestic violence and intimate partner homicide. Listener discretion is advised. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

By noon Sept. 11, 2009, police had tracked former legislator Steve Nunn — accused of killing his ex-fiancée, Amanda Ross — to a rural Kentucky cemetery. What followed was a tense armed confrontation, a mounting pile of damning circumstantial evidence, and a legal case shaped by the very laws Nunn helped pass. In The Steve Nunn Case, Pt. 2: From the Statehouse to the Jailhouse, hosts Emily Steele and Marcus Roland trace Nunn’s arrest, the twists and turns of his prosecution, his surprising plea deal, and the multimillion-dollar civil judgment that would follow. The story of Steve Nunn’s fall from power is one of pursuit, justice, and consequences that echo long after sentencing. Trigger warning: This episode discusses domestic violence and intimate partner homicide. Listener discretion is advised. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this gripping first episode of a three-part chapter, Kentucky Case Files unpacks The Steve Nunn Case. In Part 1, The Governor’s Son, His Obsession and Her Fear, we meet Amanda Ross — a bright, beloved young woman gunned down outside her Lexington home in September 2009. Her killer? Steve Nunn, a former state legislator and the son of a powerful Kentucky governor. Hosts Emily Steele and Marcus Roland trace Nunn’s fall from political royalty to convicted murderer, revealing a harrowing story of power, control and ignored warning signs. From a fast-moving relationship to escalating violence, the episode exposes the dangerous facade of a man who once helped pass a law meant to protect domestic abuse victims like Ross — the same law that would ultimately seal his fate. Featuring expert analysis, firsthand accounts and archival media, this episode sets the stage for a haunting tale of love turned lethal and the system that couldn't stop it in time. Trigger warning: This episode discusses domestic violence and intimate partner homicide. Listener discretion is advised. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In The Clay Shrout Case's final episode, Pt. 4: That Was How, This Is Why, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele explore the deeper psychological and emotional factors behind one of Kentucky’s most shocking family murders. Through discussion, parole hearing audio, and expert analysis from psychologist Dr. Peter Langman, this episode examines Clay Shrout’s conflicting motives — from claims of parental control to a late-stage allegations of abuse — and his disturbing lack of remorse. The hosts unpack Shrout’s psychopathic traits, the possible roots of his rage, and whether any insight has emerged from his decades in prison. Concluding with practical advice for parents, schools and teens, this episode is both a chilling profile and a call to recognize red flags before tragedy strikes. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

IIn The Clay Shrout Case, Pt. 3: Inside the Mind of a Psychopath, Kentucky Case Files hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele speak with Dr. Peter Langman, a psychologist and leading expert on school shooters, to delve into the psychological profile of Clay Shrout. Langman examines possible motivations behind Shrout’s 1994 familicide, discusses the traits of psychopathy, and questions the credibility of Shrout’s late-stage claims. With insights into psychopathic behavior, fame-seeking violence, and the role of nature versus nurture, this episode explores whether true rehabilitation is possible — or if some minds remain irreparably dark. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the premiere episode of Kentucky Case Files, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Beaulieu Steele examine The Clay Shrout Case, the shocking 1994 story of a high-achieving high school senior from Florence, Kentucky, who murdered his parents and two younger sisters before heading to school armed with a gun. With firsthand insights and local context, Pt. 1 explores Clay’s descent into darkness, marked by depression, obsession with violence, and disturbing behavioral changes—all culminating in one of the most haunting crimes in Kentucky history. CAUTION: This episodes contains descriptions of violence that listeners will find disturbing. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files or wherever you get your podcasts.

In The Clay Shrout Case, Pt. 2: Guilty but Mentally Ill, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele follow the aftermath of Shrout’s horrific 1994 familicide, tracing his legal journey from juvenile hearings to a plea of “guilty but mentally ill.” The episode explores the courtroom decisions that spared him the death penalty, his turbulent years in Kentucky’s prison system marked by violence, escape attempts, and solitary confinement, and his eventual transfer to a lower-security facility. As Shrout faces his first parole hearing 25 years later, listeners are left to grapple with the consequences of a crime that devastated a community and the question of whether true rehabilitation is possible. Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

Coming soon to wherever you get your podcasts, Kentucky Case Files, where we dive into the true crime stories that showcase why the Bluegrass State was once called "the dark and bloody ground."