Hey friends!
I have something a little different to share! Wes recently listened to the first episode of a new podcast from his friends Sean Kipe and Jason Hoch, and he was so moved by it that he asked me to share it with all of you. So you’ll find the first episode of Baby: The Melissa Highsmith Story right in your Unforgotten and Devil Town feeds.
Listen to the first episode of BABY: The Melissa Highsmith Story wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
If Sean and Jason’s names sound familiar, there’s a good reason. Sean has made several podcasts, including In the Red Clay and In the Land of Lies, and Jason produced Wes’s first two shows, Standoff and Devil Town.
The story is remarkable. In 1971, a baby girl named Melissa Highsmith was taken from Fort Worth, Texas, by a woman who answered a newspaper ad for a babysitter and then vanished with her. Melissa's family never stopped searching for Melissa, and 51 years later, they found her. It made headlines around the world. But for all those years, Melissa had no idea any of it was happening. As the show asks, how do you know you're lost if you don't even know you're missing? The full story of what really happened to her hasn't been told, until now.
You can listen to the first episode in our feed on Wednesday. And if it grabs you the way it grabbed Wes, subscribe to the rest of the series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon. It’s an indie show, so subscribing, rating, and leaving a review really does help Sean and Jason get this moving story in front of more people.
See Michelle Pitcher from Season 5: Riding Shotgun talk about Charles Flores’ Case
In other news, there’s an event tomorrow night that some of you may want to know about. If you listened to season five of The Unforgotten, “Riding Shotgun,” you’ll remember Charles Don Flores, who has spent more than 25 years on death row for a crime he has always said he didn’t commit. His conviction relied on hypnotically influenced eyewitness testimony, which is now banned under Texas law.
On Thursday, October 1, the Social Work Program at St. Edward’s University and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty are hosting Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction: The Case of Charles Don Flores. The panel includes Charles’s attorney Gretchen Sween, St. Ed’s alumna and friend of Charles, Ali Nichols, and Texas Observer journalist Michelle Pitcher, who dug into the case for “Riding Shotgun.”
It’s free and open to the public, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Carter Auditorium in the John Brooks Williams Natural Sciences Center on the St. Edward’s campus, with dinner at 6 and the panel from 6:30 to 8 p.m. You can RSVP here.
The Live Show Recording Is Out Tomorrow!
We are thrilled to finally share the recording of Claire St. Amant’s Texas Justice Tour stop in Kerens, Texas, with Season 1 co-host Carol Dawson. There were two surprise special guests, and Carol revealed some new information about a possible motive for Shelley’s murder. Keep an eye on your inboxes tomorrow!
As always, thank you so much for listening! Talk soon!
— Aislyn