The other day, we got a message from someone with close ties to the sheriff’s office in Hood County, Texas, where the body of Christopher Whiteley was found in December 2020. Of course, Christopher’s death and the notion that he was attacked by a mountain lion were the subjects of Season 4: Kill Site.

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We’ve made it to the finale of Riding Shotgun, and this one is a little different from the rest of the season.

Instead of focusing on the case, this episode is about who Charles Flores is today — nearly three decades after he was sentenced to death. Michelle spent months talking to his friends, and what they describe is not w…

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Episode 5 is here, and this one covers the nearly three decades of appeals that followed Charles Flores’s conviction — and how close he came to not being here anymore.

His lawyers have filed a lot of appeals to a lot of different courts, and so far, they haven’t really been successful, seeing as Charles is still on death row, but…

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We’re back with another early, ad-free episode for you!

Last time, we left off with Charles Flores finally being apprehended by law enforcement after quite a wild ride. This episode focuses on his trial and, ultimately, his conviction.

Michelle spoke to one of the jurors from the trial, juror number 7, and he gave a lot of insigh…

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When we left off, Charles Flores had just learned the police were looking for him in connection with Betty Black’s murder.

And, for better or worse, Charles decided to run.

What follows is a wild ride: There's a burning car, a chase, a stint in Mexico, and a hospital escape attempt. But more importantly, Charles’ decision to flee will conti…

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The case against him is primarily base…

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I’m so unbelievably excited to share the first episode of The Unforgotten: Riding Shotgun with you, early and ad-free!

This season is reported, written and co-hosted by Michelle Pitcher, an investigative reporter covering criminal justice over at The Texas Observer.

On a seemingly normal morning in 1998, Jill Barganier looked…

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We didn’t really explore this during the season, but Wes actually talked about hogs with Mike Bodenchuck, one of the wildlife experts who worked on Christopher’s case.

In this bonus episod…

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Welcome to our final episode of Season 4: Kill Site.

All season long, we’ve been circling one question: What really happened to Christopher Whiteley on that December morning in 2020 ? By now, almost everybody is convinced it wasn’t a mountain lion that killed him. We also heard from experts who said it couldn’t have been a dog bite.

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The biggest news around here is the cold front blowing in this weekend. My wife and I grabbed our stockpile of groceries yesterday, but I still need to haul in way too many plants. Or maybe I sit back and let the strong survive.

As for the big news in Free Range land, we got a huge boost from Apple Podcasts over the weekend. Their pr…

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This episode of The Unforgotten is a little different. The word I use in the middle of the episode is “bonkers.”

So far throughout this season, we’ve been telling you everything we already know, and don’t know, about the death of Christopher Whiteley: the initial theory that he was maimed by a mountain lion, the disagreement by wildlife exper…

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It’s January 11. Are we still wishing each other a happy new year? If so, happy happy!

This week’s installment of The Unforgotten: Kill Site is titled “The Shank.” I’ll go into details about the episode — and tell you about a question I’ve been grappling with — after a few updates.

New stuff incoming!

With Season 4 wrapping up soon, the Free Ran…

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I’m excited for you to hear the next episode of The Unforgotten: Kill Site.

“Falsehoods and Chaos” is an investigation into the scandals rockin…

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In this episode, we meet Jonah Evans, a wildlife tracker and biologist who works for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. At the time of Christopher Whiteley’s killing in late 2020, Jonah was the state mammalogist (a scientist who studies mammals). He now leads the Nongame & …

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We’re back with Episode 2 of The Unforgotten, Season 4: Kill Site.

In the first episode, we told you all about Christopher Whiteley and his chaotic—and mysterious—final morning.

This time around, we lay out how the Hood County Sheriff’s Office reached its conclusion that Christopher was mauled to death by a mountain lion. If the sheriff’s invest…

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It’s Wes. I hope the holiday season is off to a merry start for you. My wife, Laura, and I spent Thanksgiving week in the Piney Woods, where I’m from.

The two most “East Texas” things I did was to carve a Greenberg smoked turkey for our family dinner and to help my college-age nephew skin a squirrel, something I hadn’t done in fifteen years.

B…

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There’s been an important update connected to Season 1: The Labor Day Ghost.

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that the 1987 murder of Rickey Herriage has been solved through DNA analysis. Rickey’s body was found beneath a bridge in Henderson County nearly forty years ago, and the case remained unsolved for decades.

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I’m Aislyn Gaddis, a producer at Free Range. I grew up in Henderson, Texas, and just graduated from The University of Texas this spring with a degree in Journalism. I worked on true crime podcasts in college, so getting to help with The Unforgotten has been a dream. I’m excited to share some updates about where we are no…

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