American Homicide - S1: E32 – The Search for Bethany Correira, Part 2

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Two brothers clash over a college student’s disappearance in Anchorage. When both siblings blame one another, the police have to unravel a dark tale of betrayal and murder.   Reach out to the American Homicide team by emailing us: [e-mail]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart podcast. Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, listeners. I'm Melissa Jeltsin, host of What Happened to Talina Czar. It's the story of a woman who disappears in the early days of COVID lockdowns and the group of online sleuths who try to find her. I didn't want to be talked out of this plan. After I post this, I am turning off my phone for exactly this reason. I kept just kind of asking everybody, anyone else think this is strange?

You'll notice that about me. I don't lurk. I'm out there. I'm an action kind of girl. You can now get access to episodes of What Happened to Talina's R, 100% ad free, with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription. I'm a subscriber and you should be too. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tramurky, hosts of Cr criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the Highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrer's, known as the Wicked Lady, who terrorized England in the mid-1600s.

Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A crime makes headlines. People talk about it for a few days, then it disappears. But for the people left behind,

their story is just beginning. But at night, we hear the garage opening and my son hears it, we freak out. Honestly, I didn't tell my son this, but I felt that was it. From the Exactly Right Network, this is The Knife. Real stories of crimes ripple effects told by those who lived them. New episodes every Thursday. Listen to The Knife on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two brothers are blaming one another

for the murder of a college student. I can't imagine what an agonizing decision that would be to have to squeal on your brother like that. But your brother's done a terrible thing. Your brother's done a horrible thing. Anchorage police have to figure out which brother was telling the truth. Someday when I'm eulogized, all I want somebody to say is I stood up and did the right thing. I always tried to do the right thing.

And in the end, one brother would do the unthinkable. It's a hard decision, but I think it was the right decision to make. And it resulted in this tragedy. Today we're in Anchorage, Alaska for the conclusion of the search for Bethany Carrera. I'm Sloane Glass, and this is American Homicide. Just a note that this episode contains some graphic content. Please take care while listening. Alaska is a place where people disappear and where people find bodies in the springtime.

We have really high rates of violence against women and women become victims of violent crime a lot. Journalist Julia O'Malley covered the case of 21-year-old Bethany Carrera. Bethany was a college student coming to Anchorage looking for a place to stay. It must have felt pretty exciting, snagging a job, getting furniture, setting up. Bethany's move to Anchorage was supposed to be exciting, but instead she disappeared. So it wasn't somebody who had like lost touch with their family and gone up to Alaska

and just kind of quit talking to anybody. It was somebody who like needed to pick her brother up from the airport and who had a plan with her mom the next morning and was supposed to call her boyfriend. You know, she was somebody who was watched after and very connected to other people. So when she just dropped out of her life, it just seemed very apparent that something had happened to her.

Inside Bethany's apartment were her keys, cell phone, and purse. It was as if she had gone out to take out the trash and just not ever come back. Detectives were looking at Bethany's property manager, Mike Lawson, and his brother Bob as suspects. The Lawsons are just these really shady characters. If you remember from the last episode, Mike Lawson served time in prison for sexually assaulting his girlfriend back in the 1980s.

After his release, Mike moved to Alaska and started a roofing business with his brother, Bob. The cops were looking for something to bring them in on so that they could have some leverage to see if they could get one of them to talk. Mike slipped up. On a loan application for his business, Mike Lawson failed to disclose that he

was a convicted felon, which gave the police a warrant to arrest both Lawson brothers for fraud. Once in custody, detectives hoped that one brother would flip on the other. But no one expected both brothers to flip on each other. First it was Bob who flipped on Mike. Bob told detectives that on the Saturday morning Bethany went missing, Mike phoned him in a panic. Here's what he told investigators. He said, I'm in trouble.

I need you to help me. Mike Lawson was in the apartment next door to Bethany's and told his brother Bob to bring him some heavy-duty garbage bags and duct tape. Bob said he was reluctant but did what my gassed and when he arrived he said he saw Bethany's naked body on the floor. I just remember thinking he's f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing f***ing right now and I didn't. What did your brother say to that? Nothing. He didn't say anything? He said, well, at some point during this thing, he said, it's not your fault. He said, I did it.

And he said, I'm sorry I got you into this. Bob saw a bowling ball-sized hole in the wall from Mike's struggle with Bethany. If you remember, that's where the police found human hair. And Lant has confirmed it belonged to Bethany. Bob said he patched the drywall, helped Mike roll Bethany's body in plastic garbage bags, and put her in the back of Mike's SUV. Then that he and his brother took her north to, you know, a gravel pit along the highway and left her body.

Later that night, Bob said he and Mike returned to the empty apartment and set it on fire. Then the two went out to the bars that evening to establish an alibi. And that brings us to Mike. Mike was Bethany's landlord who, for months, denied having anything to do with Bethany's disappearance. But then Mike said his brother Bob killed Bethany. He even offered to wear a wire to prove it. So now you have two brothers blaming one another.

Detectives didn't know who or what to believe. So they came up with a plan. In April 2004, nearly a year after Bethany's disappearance, the police bugged a jail phone line so they could hear the two brothers' conversation. Here's some of what they heard. This whole thing ain't going away, Mike. That's Bob telling Mike

how this whole thing was eating him up. You know, I've been drinking every night. I go to the bar, I two shots of Crown to every beer. I just need to talk to you. I don't know how we can talk about this, but. I don't wanna talk. I'd most like to talk to you, stark-ass naked in a room where I know

you're not wearing a wire and nothing's wrong. I know it's hard to hear, but Mike told his brother Bob, he's not talking unless he was sure Bob wasn't wearing a wire. Here's more from Bob. I haven't been able to talk to you. We never talked about it. Yes, we did. Yeah, we did. Your mom was a f***ing word. Mike told Bob that they did talk about what happened and that mom was the word. And then Mike went off. Don't you get it? You f***ing b***h.

You're their star witness. You're their pupil. You suck me. Don't you f't you get it? You're the cat buried in the kitty litter. You showed everything. You may have missed it, but Mike yelled at Bob for telling the cops what the cat buried in the kitty litter.

Well, that's not a direct confession. It's the closest thing to Mike saying they threw Bethany's body in the gravel pit. And then Mike revealed something that would completely change the way investigators pursued the case. But there was something that happened before that that you don't know about that I'm not taking a look into before you ever showed up. Again, and I know it's tough to hear this audio, but Mike said something happened before she, meaning Bethany, ever showed up. Just give me a name, Mike.

Who was there? Me. And who else? Coca-Cola. Mike was there with Coca-Cola. Well, the cops translated that to cocaine. And that's important because that morning, Bethany was supposed to meet Mike at a vacant apartment in her building. And she may have unknowingly walked into a drug deal.

No running. No what? No running. No running? Get away. No. Mike claimed Bethany wasn't wearing clothes so she wouldn't run away. And before their call ended, Mike wanted to make sure Bob wasn't cooperating with the cops.

No I'm not. I swear on mom's grave. I swear on mom's grave. And then Bob had one final thing to say to his brother. I want to be able to tell you I love you, Pike. I really love you too, Bob. The secret recording confirmed everything the police had suspected about Mike Lawson,

that he was responsible for killing Bethany Carrera, not his brother, Bob. They allowed us to wire them, and they were very incriminating conversations. That is essentially what sealed the case. Ron McGee worked for the Anchorage PD. They were still searching for Bethany's body. In early 2004, Bob led investigators to a gravel pit where he and his brother Mike buried Bethany months earlier.

And this is Alaska, and there was three feet of snow on the ground, and we couldn't recover the body until some of the snow melted. So we had to wait for the snow to melt. Mother Nature delivered a warm spring in 2004. That meant an early thaw, which allowed the Anchorage police to resume their search for Bethany's body. On May 3rd, 2004, exactly one year to the day she disappeared, a search crew returned to the same gravel pit. Officers very quickly found a blue and black fleece jacket.

It was a woman-sized small. Then, they found a bra that looked like it had been pierced by a bullet. It was near a puka shell necklace. The same necklace Bethany's boyfriend gave her just before she went missing. And then they found what was left of Bethany. When we found the body, the body was partially clad. She was naked from the waist down. So immediately we suspected that there was some sexual aspect to the crime.

We had always suspected that. But this just confirmed in our mind that there was some sexual aspect to the crime. Finding Bethany's badly decomposed body was a bittersweet moment for investigators. I think everybody had sort of got to know her a little bit and fall in love with her. She's such a wonderful young lady. And I think that the sort of got to know her a little bit and fall in love with her. She's such a wonderful young lady. And I think that the sense was of relief that we can bring this beautiful young lady home to her parents. I was heartbreaking.

It was a very heartbreaking thing. And I pray, I don't know them, but I pray that they find some peace with this. The Anchorage police charged Mike Lawson with first and second degree murder, sexual assault, arson, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence. And of course, the brother's confession was a big part of this. It was Bob who would be a key witness in the trial against his brother Mike. But a tragedy would change everything. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the podcast, Betrayal.

Police Lieutenant Joel Kern used his badge to fool everyone. Most of all, his wife, Caroline. He texted, I've ruined our lives. You're going to want to divorce me. Caroline's husband was living another life behind the scenes. He betrayed his oath to his family and to his community. She said you left bruises, pulled her hair, that type of thing. No.

How far would Joel go to cover up what he'd done? You're unable to keep track of all your lies, and quite frankly, No. How far would Joel go to cover up what he'd done? You're unable to keep track of all your lies, and quite frankly, I question how many other women may bring forward allegations in the future. This season of Betrayal investigates one officer's decades of deception. Lies that left those closest to him questioning everything they thought they knew. Listen to Betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here.

Diddy's former protege, television personality, platinum-selling artist, Danity King alum Aubrey O'Day joins us to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Aubrey O'Day is sitting next to us here. You are, as we sit here, right up the street from where the trial is taking place. Some people saw that you were going to be in New York, and they immediately started jumping to conclusions.

So can you clear that up? First of all, are you here to testify in the Diddy Trial? Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise based on her firsthand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be opposite of the glitz and glamour. It wasn't all bad, but I don't know that any of the good was real. I went through things there.

Listen to Amy and TJ Presents, Aubrey O'Day covering the Diddy Trial on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. I just knew him as a kid. Long silent voices from his past came forward. And he was just staring at me. And they had secrets of their own to share. Um, Gilbert King, I'm the son of

Jeremy Lynn Scott. I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it. Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known. If the cops and everything would have done their job

properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed. I never expected to find myself in this place. Now, I need to tell you how I got here. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Bone Valley, season two. Jeremy. Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear

the entire new season ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. There's a story behind every murder, but is there an ending? That's the question being asked by Murder True Crime Stories, the Crime House original podcast powered by PAVE Studios. I'm Carter Roy. Join me every Tuesday as I tell the story of a famous solved or unsolved murder. Each episode dives into the darkest corners of true crime, unraveling chilling narratives, examining compelling clues, and most importantly, seeking the truth. What sets murder true crime stories apart is the focus on humanizing the victims, and the effect their deaths had on their families, friends, and community.

We'll always leave with the knowledge of why their stories need to be heard. New episodes release every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Murder Colon True Crime Stories. This search for Bethany Carrera ended exactly one year after she went missing. Her body was found in a gravel pit just outside of her hometown of Talkeet in Alaska, and nearly two hours from her apartment in Anchorage. Not only did they find the actual bullet that she was shot with, the round, but they found her necklace as well as her remains.

Walt Monaghan was the Anchorage chief of police. Such a beautiful young lady was victimized as she was. She didn't deserve it. You know, losing a child, and actually I lost one. It's a wound that will never heal. Mike Lawson, Bethany's building manager, was charged with her murder. She said that she had to go meet the manager and that was the last anybody heard of her. He was a convicted sex offender, which kind of doubled down on why he should be a suspect.

So it was just a matter of doing due diligence and eventually make a case against him. Prosecutors had a star witness in the case against Mike Lawson, his brother, Bob Lawson, who led investigators to Bethany's body. The suspect's brother eventually kind of broke down and revealed what he had done to help his brother dispose of the body. The prosecution moved quickly with this. They wired Bob, recorded incriminating conversations, and had what they needed to convict Mike Lawson of Bethany Carrera's murder. It all weighed heavily on Bob. He saw Bethany's

dead body and knew what the future looked like for his brother. He committed suicide and that kind of took him out of the picture literally. In March of 2006, Bob Lawson's roommate found Bob dead in the garage of the picture, literally. In March of 2006, Bob Lawson's roommate found Bob dead in the garage of the house they shared. Basically, it boiled down to, he was feeling guilty. He was feeling torn between doing what was right and loyalty to his family. Sitting among a collection of beer and liquor bottles

was a note Bob left behind. To my family, I'm so sorry. I miss my brother so much. Life has become unbearable. I can't endure the pain any longer. I helped do one of the most terrible things imaginable, and I can't live with that. Please take the money in my wallet and my final wages and give it to Mike. So what was that terrible thing Bob did? Was it helping to move Bethany's body or turning on his brother? I don't know. I think that he knew what had happened was wrong. And I think that that was weighing heavy on him.

But again, it's hard to judge family. Bob's lawyer told reporters that Bob struggled with doing what was right versus his loyalty to his brother. "'I think that his personal guilt of what he was feeling and what he had done was his choice to avoid being disloyal and possibly going to jail himself.'" Not only was this sad news for Bob's friends and loved ones, but of course, it was also damaging to the state's case against Mike Lawson.

It would have been better if the brother had not committed suicide. I think at the press conference I mentioned that this case will haunt me for a while. Still does. All eyes were on the courtroom as Mike Lawson's trial began. People were worried because Bob Lawson had killed himself. They were worried that the prosecutor didn't have enough to go on.

Journalist Julia O'Malley covered the trial. This case is really high profile. The public has been paying a lot of attention to it. There is a way in which the whole state is a small town, in which one person's child is everybody's child. That might have been one of the reasons why the public followed that case so closely. The case got even more challenging for prosecutors when the judge ruled to exclude testimony about Mike Lawson's sexual assault conviction from the 1980s.

The jury is just there to look at what the prosecution can tell them and what the defense can tell them about the facts of the particular case and how that applies to the charges and then consider the evidence and whether it fits. So they're not trying to convict him on a previous crime. Mike Lawson faced eight felony charges, including first and second degree murder. During opening statements, Mike's defense attorney gave a surprising admission. The defense admitted that he had killed her. They said it was an accident.

Mike Lawson, who repeatedly told the police he had nothing to do with killing Bethany, now said he did do it, but it was an accident. They were going for a lesser charge than murder. Mike's lawyer confidently told the jury that it was manslaughter, which carries a lighter sentence, but the prosecutor wasn't having any of it. The prosecution's story was that she had entered the apartment and she may or may not have witnessed some illicit activity because there was some evidence that he was involved in sort of cocaine trade. That's where the taped phone call between the two brothers came into play.

Bob Lawson's in jail. He's calling his brother. And he's trying to get him to say if there was anybody with him at the time of the killing. Just give me a name, Mike. Who was there? Me. And who else? Coca-Cola. Michael is like all cagey and he just says, you know, it was me and Coca-Cola. So the prosecution took that to mean that he had been cutting cocaine at the time. They never found evidence of drugs in the apartment, but it was like a theory that was put forward by the prosecution. Since Bob Lawson took his own life before the trial, that recorded phone call was key for the prosecution.

It also meant that Mike's colleague, Frank O'Beznay, would now be the prosecution star witness. For me, I was ready. I was willing to do whatever it took. And when I was testifying, Mike was so frustrated with everything I was answering. And I could see the frustrations in his eyes and the way he was. He couldn't stand me. He hated me so much. He didn't want to even see my face. Franco told the jury about Mike's white SUV, how it was always filthy, and how Mike suspiciously had it detailed right after his first visit by detectives. And how a week before Bethany's murder, Mike's fourth wife left him. That night, Franco remembered Mike being livid.

He told me that he went out to some bar and had met some woman. And he was basically telling me that when he was with this gal that he just met, that he was beating her while he was having sex with her. To me, that's right. So you don't meet somebody for the first time and do that and call it sex. That's not what it is. A week later, Bethany Carrera comes up missing. That drew attention to me to really think that he had something to do with her disappearance.

Franco remembers being at Mike's house right around the time Bethany was first reported missing. So, I've been there numerous times and I've always had free reign just to walk around and do whatever I wanted to do. I never had any problems about where I can go and can't go. For some reason, he wouldn't let anybody, including me, go upstairs. Nobody was allowed to go upstairs. So I thought that was odd. And that was always why I thought he had something to do with it in the first place.

Franco said he eventually relayed his fears about Mike to the police, and that soon afterwards, the police had him wired up. So throughout their investigation into Mike, the police were always listening. Literally every encounter that I had with Mike was recorded. For nearly six months, Franco's toolbox and tool belt contain recording devices. And at some point, he thinks Mike caught on. This is, you know, 2003 and they handed me this like basically like a Walkman little cassette recorder and at the end of the cassette it makes this loud beep and it was it was so loud. It was beep, and I'm sitting there.

I turn out the radio, I roll down the window, and I'm hitting my chest. He heard it, but he didn't know what it was. And that's when Mike turned on him. So my boss calls me and said, hey, Mike says you're stealing money from the company because I gotta let you go. So I got fired. And I looked at my boss and said, you're making money from the company. He goes, I gotta let you go. So I got fired. And I looked at my boss and said, you're making a huge mistake.

I can't tell you anything about what's going on. Maybe someday I will. My own boss turned against me. So Mike had a way to manipulate people into believing that he was the innocent of whatever was going on. Whatever was going on. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the podcast Betrayal. Police Lieutenant Joel Kern used his badge to fool everyone, most of all, his wife Caroline.

He texted, I've ruined our lives. You're going to want to divorce me. Caroline's husband was living another life behind the scenes. He betrayed his oath to his family and to his community. She said you left bruises, pulled her hair, that type of thing. No. How far would Joel go to cover up what he'd done?

You're unable to keep track of all your lies and quite frankly, I question how many other women may bring forward allegations in the future. This season of Betrayal investigates one officer's decades of deception. Lies that left those closest to him questioning everything they thought they knew. Listen to Betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here. Diddy's former protege, television personality, platinum selling artist, Denity King alum Aubrey O'Day

joins us to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Aubrey O'Day is sitting next to us here. You are, as we sit here, right up the street from where the trial is taking place. Some people saw that you were going to be in New York, and they immediately started jumping to conclusions. So can you clear that up? First of all, are you here to testify in the Diddy Trial?

Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise based on her firsthand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be opposite of the glitz and glamor. It wasn't all bad, but I don't know that any of the good was real. I went through things there. Listen to Amy and TJ Presents, Aubrey O'Day,

covering the Diddy Trial on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in bone Valley season one. I just knew he was a kid long silent voices from his past came forward and he was just staring at me and they had secrets of their own to share. Um, Gilbert King.

I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott. I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it. Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known. If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed. I never expected to find myself in this place.

Now, I need to tell you how I got here. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Bone Valley Season 2. Jeremy. Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava

for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. There's a story behind every murder, but is there an ending? That's the question being asked by Murder True Crime Stories, the Crime House original podcast powered by PAVE Studios. I'm Carter Roy. Join me every Tuesday as I tell the story of a famous solved or unsolved murder. Each episode dives into the darkest corners of true crime, unraveling chilling narratives, examining compelling clues, and most importantly, seeking the truth. What sets murder true crime stories apart is the

focus on humanizing the victims, and the effect their deaths had on their families, friends, and community. We'll always leave with the knowledge of why their stories need to be heard. New episodes release every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Murder Colon True Crime Stories. colon true crime stories. Imagine that you're Bethany Carrera's parents, who had to wait a year to lay their daughter to rest. Their family would forever be broken, but their fight for justice had just begun. Bethany's parents sat in court every day. They're paying close attention. They're just really witnessing it, and it's super hard. Journalist Julie O'Malley was also in the courtroom.

You gotta imagine losing someone like that and then having to go through the trial and having to hear all the things that happened. Like, no one needs to go through that. Throughout the trial, there was something else present in the courtroom. There was this backpack sitting with her dad, and in it were her ashes.

Bethany's favorite backpack, the gray North Face, was sewn on patches from New Zealand, Nepal, and Australia, was purged on a chair next to Bethany's dad. Her dad said he thought it was appropriate for Bethany to have a presence in the courtroom. I think it was important for them though to have closure in a certain way. For two long weeks, the Carrera family heard graphic testimony, learning in real time what happened to their daughter. At times, it was just too much for Bethany's mother, who would exit the courtroom in tears. Bless her parents.

I really can't even process what that must have been like for them. It was a tense setting as prosecutors struggled to make their case without their key witness, Bob Lawson. Their one saving grace was that they could play the 32-minute taped phone call between Bob and Mike. Don't you get it? You're their star witness. You're their pupil. You suck me.

Don't you get***ing hear this? You hurt the cat, buried the kitty litter, you showed everything. You showed them what the cat buried in the kitty litter. It was pretty damning just that recording, which they were able to play. Mike Lawson's defense was that he accidentally shot Bethany. That's where the prosecutor honed in. She said that there was one thing in that conversation that Mike Lawson told his brother.

That one thing weakened Mike's defense that he accidentally shot Bethany. I'm just trying to figure out why there's no clothes. No running. No what? No running. No running? Get away. No what? No running. No running? Get away.

No. Mike said he accidentally shot Bethany, but he removed her clothes so that she wouldn't run away? In her closing arguments, it was something the prosecutor wanted the jury to think about. So all this time you have her sitting there without her clothes on, alive with a bullet in her chest. The prosecutor argued that this was no accident, and it definitely wasn't manslaughter. And here's where Alaska State law comes into play.

If Mike was involved in some sort of drug activity, that meant a felony was happening when Bethany was killed. When a death occurs during another felony, Alaska law says it cannot be called an accident. It's automatically second-degree murder. On May 3rd of 2003, Michael Lawson, the manager of those apartments, murdered Bethany Thrill. Mike Lawson never took the stand in his own defense,

and his lawyer did not call any witnesses. Instead, Mike's lawyer told the jury that Mike might have been getting high at the time Bethany unexpectedly walked in, and that she startled him, and that's why he shot her. And the reason Bob walked in and found Bethany with her clothes off? Well, his lawyer said Mike wanted to check her injuries.

I mean, it was clear that he killed her and he admitted it early in the trial. But why? Like, what caused it? That never got totally answered for me. Chances are if a journalist sitting in the courtroom is thinking that, so too is one of the jurors. And when the case went to the jury, deliberations dragged on for days, four days to be exact.

And then the judge announced the jury had reached a verdict. Bethany's parents nervously sat next to their daughter's backpack, the one that contained Bethany's ashes. Whether Mike Lawson knew it or not, he had to face Bethany one more time. On the most serious charge of first degree murder, the jury found Mike Lawson not guilty.

On the arson charge, the jury found Mike Lawson not guilty. On the kidnapping and sexual assault charges, the jury found Mike Lawson not guilty. With Bethany's family clutching that backpack even tighter, they listened as the jury announced their verdict of the final charge. We, the jury, find the defendant, Michael Lawson, guilty of murder in the second degree. The jury didn't buy Mike Lawson's claim that Bethany's murder was an accident and convicted him of second degree murder as well as tampering with evidence.

Because that would have meant the difference between like a 20- year sentence for manslaughter or like 99 years. Mr. Lawson, I sentence you to 99 years. The judge was really forceful in the sentencing and it was his opinion that Michael Lawson was a predator, a ticking time bomb, like that he was just waiting to harm somebody else.

Coincidentally, Mike's 99-year sentence was the same sentence he would have received if the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. So their verdict was announced. And all along, I was just smiling, knowing that I helped put this man away, and it mattered. Franco Beznaiz was Mike's former colleague. They used to play chess together. After the verdict, Franco couldn't help but think about one match with Mike. Early on, I remember in one of the games,

I actually lost my queen, which is for sure a loss. And they kept telling me, hey, we got you, we got you. I said, no, we're gonna continue to play. And I ended up winning that game, which even frustrated me even more. The game of chess is like, you must know what the other opponent's doing, as well as how to strategy yourself.

It actually played forward into the courtroom. At the end, when they were giving him his sentencing, I stood up in the courtroom. As he was walking right by in front of me, I said, checkmate Mike. All along, he didn't know what I was doing. He didn't know my moves. So I thought to myself, what a perfect time

to be able to tell him checkmate after he'd just received nine, nine years. Mike Lawson remains incarcerated at an Alaska State Prison. He'll be eligible for parole in 2073. For me, it felt so good to be able to put this man away. For me, it felt so good to be able to put this man away. And so there was peace for me, unlike peace for the parents. I mean, they lost a child.

There's really no peace to that. And I met the father for the first time right outside the courtroom. And he actually looked at me and we were talking and he said that, he goes, Franko, he said, I can't keep going on. The pain that I'm feeling is so bad because I have to forgive him.

I said, you're gonna forgive Mike Lawson? He said, yeah. He says, that way I'll have to live with this pain. That was the first time I witnessed a man actually forgive somebody that took something from him. I can't even imagine losing any of my children. They gave me hope. I'm so glad that I witnessed that because that helped me in my life to move forward.

And that I hold on to any regrets or anything, things that I do, I have to keep moving forward. The only way I can is forgiveness the way he showed me. I'm Sloane Glass. Thank you for listening to this season of American Homicide. Make sure you're subscribed to our feed to be notified of any updates on future bonus episodes and brand new content. If you enjoyed American Homicide, leave a review. It helps others find the podcast. You can contact the American Homicide team by emailing us at americanhomicidepod at gmail.com. That's American Homicide Pod at gmail.com.

American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloane Glass, and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also written and produced by Todd Gantz, with additional writing by Ben Federman and Andrea Gunning.

Our associate producer is Kristen Malkuri. Our I Heart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing, mixing and mastering by Nico Oruka. American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noiser Music Library provided by MyMusic. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way

towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a man of my word. Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season Two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, listeners. I'm Melissa Jeltsin, host of What Happened to Talina's R. It's the story of a woman who disappears in the early days of COVID lockdowns, and the group of online sleuths who try to find her. I didn't want to be talked out of this plan. After I post this, I am turning off my phone for exactly this reason. I kept just kind of asking everybody, anyone else think this is strange?

You'll notice that about me. I don't lurk. I'm out there. I'm an action kind of girl. You can now get access to episodes of What Happened to Talina Czar, 100% ad free, with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription. I'm a subscriber and you should be too.

So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe today. Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tramarchi, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the Highwayman suggests men dominated the field. But tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrer's, known as the Wicked Lady, who terrorized England in the mid-1600s.

Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A crime makes headlines. People talk about it for a few days, then it disappears. But for the people left behind, their story is just beginning. But at night, we hear the garage opening, and my son hears it, we freak out. Honestly, I didn't tell my son this, but I felt that was it. From the exactly right network, this is The Knife.

Real stories of crimes ripple effects told by those who lived them. New episodes every Thursday. Listen to The Knife on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.