What's next after Violation? Introducing a new murder mystery, "Beyond All Repair"

but I'm dropping in here one more time to leave you in good hands. WBUR, the station

that we at the Marshall Project partnered with to bring you Violation, has a new series

coming out that I think you're going to like, and that will hopefully fill the violation-sized

hole in your heart. In some ways, it will literally fill the violation-sized hole because

you will be able to listen to it right here, in this feed. You don't have to go anywhere

or subscribe to anything else. This new show is a sibling he-said-she-said murder mystery

called Beyond All Repair. The reporter behind this series, Amri Severson, we go way back,

and I've been hearing about this story for about as long as she's been working on it.

So I wanted her to come here and share more about it with you. Hey Amri. Hey Beth. Thanks

for having me in your feed. You know, Amri, Violation would never have happened without

you. You were our biggest cheerleader, and I am forever in your debt for that. I am honored

was a dream come true to watch come together because part of the reason why we're chatting

now is that the story that became Violation and the story that has now become Beyond All

Repair, which will be the next thing in this feed, we were like talking to each other about

these stories before we knew that they would end up becoming podcast series. Yeah, I mean,

I had the criminal justice background, and we would kind of just shoot the shit about

what we thought would be good podcasts, what we thought would be good stories, how we thought

like the Marshall Project and BUR could work well together, and it's just really cool to

heck is this woman? I will just say for your sake, hello, I'm Anne-Marie Sebertson. I make

podcasts at WBUR, and I typically co-host a show called Endless Thread, and the story

that is Beyond All Repair actually sprung out of an episode of Endless Thread. I'm not

and I talked to a guy named Shane, and we were talking to Shane about his experience

with homelessness when he was a teenager, shortly before he graduated from high school.

one of the notches along that timeline had to do with something that happened involving

two of his siblings, and in particular, his sister, who when he was 13 years old, she

was accused of murder and was charged with murder.

me. And like, the kid that I don't like is like, so is it true that your sister killed

someone?

Endless Thread episode, because it was, again, just one part of his story. But he reached

back out to me a few years later in 2021 and said, Hey, you remember my sister? She wants

to tell her story and, you know, be believed and try to change her life.

zero expectations that anyone else can do it for me.

to talk to you about it immediately. Do you remember that phone call?

in my garden. And I had you in my ear and we were talking while I was weeding. And I

remember thinking, holy shit, this story, it just has so many layers. It's just every

time you think it's done, you find out there's more to it.

working on that. And it did just feel like one of these moments where I just felt really

lucky to have someone that I could talk to that that we could talk together about our

stories and kind of nerd out together.

So I described Beyond All Repair as a sibling, he said, she said murder mystery.

But tell me about the central figure.

Her name's Sophia.

And in 2002, when she was 23 years old, she was newly married.

She was six months pregnant at the time.

And her mother-in-law is is brutally murdered.

She's bludgeoned to death with fireplace tongs.

And Sophia, just a couple of days later, is arrested for the murder.

And she finds out that it is one of her brothers, not Shane, the youngest that we did the

episode of Endless Thread about, but another brother named Sean, who has accused her of

the murder.

It turned out to be my sister.

arrested. She is tried.

She gives birth to a son in jail and she hasn't seen him since.

So here we are, 22 years later.

She's now in her mid 40s.

She is currently in hiding and she's been talking to me for about three years and

telling me her side of the story.

Her goal is to get justice for her late mother-in-law.

And really, she wants to meet her son.

She wants to meet this son that she hasn't seen since the day that he was born.

of me and hearing the truth about what I'm sure he's read and heard about his entire

life.

think? Did she do it?

find out. What I can say is I know where I land.

On what happened.

And Shane, who I mentioned in the beginning from that episode of Endless Thread, he has

become a part of this, too, and will make an appearance throughout the series because

Shane is a lawyer now.

He went from being unhoused to now being a lawyer.

And now he has gone through the case file, not with me, but kind of adjacent to me.

And I've gotten to hear and the listener will get to hear his thoughts on the case as

both Sophia's brother and Shawn's brother, the person who accused Sophia and as a

also be held accountable if she committed murder.

actually happened.

I just loved Violation so much, and I was so happy to see you put that out into the

world and lucky us to get to learn more of Jacob's story and to have you as our guide

along the way.

So congratulations.

I'm so excited to hear it.

I'm so excited for our listeners to hear it.

And I just want to tell our listeners to stay subscribed to Violation to hear Beyond All

Repair in just a few weeks.

Amory, can you believe it's just a few weeks?

You ready?

Well, to that point, we got the trailer first.

That's February 22nd.

So that'll be the first thing that people get to hear.

And then we'll drop episodes one and two together on March 7th.