Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Dateline Presents: Murder in the Moonlight

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

As a bonus for Sunday Sitdown fans, we’re sharing the trailer for Murder in the Moonlight, an all-new original podcast series from Dateline and Keith Morrison.  In this podcast, Keith Morrison takes listeners to a quiet farmhouse on America’s Great Plains, where Sharmon and Wayne Stock have just celebrated Easter with their big, loving family. That night, under a pale moon, the couple is shot to death in their bedroom. The investigation includes four suspects, spans three states, and comes down to a single shiny clue: A gold ring found at the scene of the crime.  If you like what you hear, just search Murder in the Moonlight to listen to the first two episodes now, completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers get early access to new episodes and can listen to all Dateline podcasts ad-free.    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are verities in this great land. The simple joys of an Easter egg hunt. The family-centered traditions on a fine big farm in the heart of the Western Plains. The all but certain confidence that some places are safe from chaos and violence. Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents' house taped off, the farm taped off by that yellow tape? It was a very brutal crime scene. One of the worst I've ever seen.

Careful. What myths you choose to rely on. Like truth, for example, and the weakness that makes us think we alone have found it. Leisure, gas, lethal injection. That's what kind of case this is. As we stumble in the dark, until we hear what we need to hear. Put the gun to her face and blew it away. An inside job, apparently.

A family affair, as murder often is. You're just sitting there trying to take it. it all in, trying to figure out why does this happen. But sometimes it takes a second set of eyes to see a clue missed until that moment that took a case of double murder on a long, strange trip. I said that's like looking for a needle in a hay sack. Three tiny letters, the ultimate key, to a mystery. That pretty much sends a chill down your spine.

Sometimes the least likely of all things can be real. I am not kidding. And if no one believes me, then I really want to go back to myself. Truth can be hidden in strange places. She looked at me and she said, I'm screwed. And I said, you just got to tell the truth. That's all you can do at this point. If there was truth to be found, maybe who's lying to you?

Not a chance. If anyone could figure it out. It was this and then it was that and then it was this and then it was that. When a top law man was caught in a lie. You wake up one morning and they'd say. I say you're a criminal. Well, it kind of was like that. You know, wish there was a time machine

and go back in time and say, forget this ever happened. I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Murder in the Moonlight, an all-new podcast from Dateline. Listen to the latest episodes, completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium

on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Dateline Premium.com. Subscribers get early access to new episodes and can listen to all Dateline podcasts, ad-free.