48 Hours - Post Mortem | Inside 48 Hours

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Join 48 Hours correspondents and producers as they share their behind-the-scenes insights into what it’s like working on the show. Peek behind the curtain with Erin Moriarty, Natalie Morales, Jamie Yuccas, and some of your favorite 48 Hours producers as they share their experiences investigating the compelling crime and justice cases from this season.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Green, and welcome to a special episode of Postmortem. For the past few months, we've shared moments and stories that didn't make it into our broadcast and answered some of the biggest unanswered questions in some of the most shocking and jaw-dropping cases of the season.

For this week's Postmortem, I decided to sit down with some of our correspondents and producers we've featured this season and ask them questions about what it's really like behind the scenes at 48 Hours. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty. The reason why I love true crime is there's really something at stake. Maybe it's finding justice for somebody. Maybe it's somebody's life of freedom on the line. Doing true crime gave me an opportunity to do wrongful convictions or questionable conviction cases. And again, there's so much at stake and it's so rewarding to watch somebody walk out of prison. So that's what drew me to true crime. And that's why I've stayed in it as

long as I have. Hi, I'm Natalie Morales. Choosing the stories, really, it comes down to, you know, the producing team usually reaches out to me and they ask, is this something you'd be interested in? They send me the research and I've never said no. So I guess I'm somebody who's always ready and willing to go along, especially when you have stories that are also touching in their own way. I love doing a deep dive and getting to report them. Hi, I'm Lauren Clark. I'm a field producer with 48 Hours. You know, we're always looking for stories that have an interesting twist, kind of a he said, she said sometimes, or they go to trial and then you can really dive into what was argued at trial. For me, and I know for a lot of our teams, also looking at stories that have kind of an

attachment or can tie to a bigger issue while still tying it to real people, real experiences, you know, real things that they have gone through and that you can relate to. It really changes, I think, how people can perceive them and react to them. Hi, I'm Chris Young-Ritson, a producer at 48 Hours. I do a lot of stories about survivors. That's kind of my jam.

They're important stories that should be told. When I think about good 48 hours and they're all good, there's always a hero. They're not superheroes, but they rise above these terrible circumstances. They inspire you, right? They inspire me, that's for sure. Hi, my name is Marie Haquit. I'm a producer at 48 Hours.

So, Marie, how do you go about booking interviews? It's got to be challenging because these are sort of, you're talking about the worst time in most people's lives, right? I think for me personally, I just want to connect with them on a personal level. How are you working through this? Can I help you work through this or work through your emotions? Because, you know, when you have a homicide, how many people can you talk to about that? How many people can you have confide in and tell how you feel? Very difficult to find someone that's willing to listen to you and be your

friend for that at that point in your life where everybody's running. So I think for me, booking is a way to connect to someone in their pain and help them work through that. Hi, I'm Jamie Ucas. I'm a correspondent with 48 Hours. What's your favorite step in the process of making a 48 Hours episode? My favorite part of the process is I love questioning everything and being skeptical and looking at every different angle and being curious and having just one more question for either the investigator or the suspect or the, you know, the defense attorney or the prosecutor. I love digging in and really being able to look at it from every single angle. in and really being able to look at it from every single angle. And the producers who work on the show are so fantastic that if I didn't think of something, they thought of something. And while most people can't ever fathom being in a situation like 48 Hours, I think it's made me just a more curious person in trying to understand many different points of view or how someone could

get to the point of potentially committing a crime, the motivations behind it. And I just, I enjoy the peeling back of the onion and being able to question everything. My name is Lauren White and I am a field producer for 48 Hours. I really love when I join a team, join a case and there's a trial coming because then I can sit in the trial and then after people testify, I go up to them then I can sit in the trial. And then after people testify, I go up to them, I book them to speak with us, and then we get even more information from them. It would seem in the middle of a trial, though, it would be so challenging to approach some of the family members, some of the key individuals in a case.

I'm very aware of that. And I try and just keep it very short. I have my business card in my hand immediately so I can just say, hi, my name is Lauren White. I'm a 48 hours. And then I give them my business card, you know, please be in contact with me. Please call me. So, you know, I try and keep it short and sweet and respectful. My name is Judy Ryback and I'm a producer on 48 hours and I've been a producer for 13 years. My very first case, I was tasked with talking the killer into doing an interview. And so I did. The first time I met with my first killer, he was shackled and they had him in handcuffs. And so there's no danger. There's a guard in the room with you. Nothing's really going to happen. It's not scary to me. The way their minds work is just so fascinating. But to be honest with you, the second time I met with him,

I said, would you mind not shackling him? Like, I'm not afraid and I want him to feel comfortable with me. I don't want there to be this sort of, you know, I want it to be a level playing ground when we had a conversation. What's everyone's favorite case, either one that you've worked on or you just watched? There's an hour called Fatal Crossing. It's a Katie Major story. It's awful. It was a woman who she was pregnant and she had a young child. She had a Katie Major story. It's awful. It was a woman who, she was pregnant and she had a young child. She had a little two-year-old and both of them were found dead by some railroad

tracks. And immediately everyone said, oh, she killed herself. She killed her baby, murder, suicide. And her mother always said, my child would never do this. She would never do this. And it wasn't until 48 Hours came onto the scene and we started asking questions that they reopened the case and no longer believe that this woman killed herself or killed her child. But it's also one that I don't think we'll really ever have the answers for. Marie? Well, the case I like is for, I like it for different reasons, though not as notable as that, but I'd like the Hargan case. It's another, is it a murder suicide? Well and the suspect in that case her defense was that you know she didn't kill her mom that her youngest

sister killed the mom and then killed herself by pulling the trigger with her toe. While she was on the toilet. While she was on the toilet. With a shotgun. It's just it's always every murder to me is always a mystery as to what is behind it. Like, what were you thinking? What was the aftermath? I just want to know more about that person and why they made those kinds of decisions, right? Because a split second decision that changes your life forever and all the people around you, right? That one decision. Judy, I have several favorites. I think the one that's closest to my heart is guilty until proven Proven Innocent. That was a wrongful conviction that I worked on, and we were instrumental. I mean, a lawyer worked for 15 years

to get this guy out of prison, but we helped. We were the tipping point. Crosley Green's case is probably the most important case I've ever worked on, and there's rarely a day I don't wake up and think about him because when I first started on Crosley Green's case, he was on death row. I had no idea whether he was innocent or guilty. And then the more we started working on it and realized that this wasn't just a case of an innocent man. This was likely a racial hoax. There probably was no black man at all involved in this case, but there was someone who said, oh, a black guy did it. And Crosley has spent, you know, most of his life in prison because of that. And so it's also been a difficult case because there've been so many ups and downs.

You know, Crosley Green had been given the death penalty. And so when that was switched to life, that was exciting. And then to have his conviction overturned and then to be able to watch him walk out was maybe one of the best days of my life. And then in the alternative, one of the worst was then when the state of Florida appealed and an appellate court went along and sent him back to prison. That probably was one of the worst days, certainly in my career. So yes, the most important story I've worked on, and there have been so many important, questionable convictions, but nothing stays in my heart as much as the Crosley Green case. We'll be back next Tuesday with another new episode of Postmortem. Be sure to watch 48 Hours

Saturdays, 10, 9 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. And if you are liking the show, please rate and review 48 Hours on Apple Podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen ad-free on the Amazon Music & Wondery app or with a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 hours and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life

behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld,

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Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now.