Behind the Files

Hi, first of all, Zahra Baker's case was absolutely haunting. That girl fought so hard for her survival only to be killed by the people who were supposed to protect and care for her. Afrer finishing the episode this thought lingered in my brain: I see so many cases, often involving a child or family member as a victim, where the perpetrator is presented by evidence that it was a homicide, the response is often specific; "i found (victim) dead and didn't know what to do.." The part where is loses its logic completely (at least for me) is when they decide to not call emergency services for eventually ressurcitation. Nope; the next best move is to dismember them and hide the body plus evidence. How on earth does anyone think that is even plausible? Is there a cause for this kind of response, and is there a protocol or definition for this? Sorry for the long question, casefile just tends to grind my gears! Compliments to the whole crew

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Top notch

Hello, I’ve been a long-time listener and a more recent Patreon subscriber, so glad I can support the podcast in this way! I live in the United States Midwest, Iowa. Home-state of the Dustin Wehde case, which I recently gave a re-listen to this week! Listening to last month’s Behind the Files, I really enjoyed learning that new writer Brianne was able to sit down in-person with an investigator on the John Zera case, which kicked everything off for her research and writing. My question is: How often do Casefile writers and researchers connect personally with law enforcement, family members of victims (I know this is absolutely the case for other Casefile Presents podcasts!), authors of books on cases, etc.? I think this season has been really great - Thank you to all on the team!

I was wondering if you guys were planning on doing a part 2 or a casefile revisited episode of case 119 Abigail Williams & Liberty German now that it’s solved and been finalised at court?

How do you choose the cases to revisit? Is it just particularly interesting ones which you want to breathe fresh life into, ones with quality issues or another reason? Really enjoyed listening to the revisits particularly the Eriksson twins and the most recent Pamela Lawrence episode 👍

This question has probably been asked before, but this is for Casey. How difficult was it for you to pronounce the names in Megumi's case? What are the ways you go about trying for correct pronunciation?

Regarding the Greg Fleniken case—I’m honestly shocked the doctor missed the fact that Greg was shot. I know the entrance wound was pretty hidden but that amount of internal damage? It didn’t sound like he noticed any external bruising to explain that damage either, which I would imagine HAD to have appeared if he was beaten. Amazing work this year!

On case 345 The Barking Murders: Do you think the offender was drugging the victims with the intent to kill them? If so, do you he committed necrophilia? Separately, I’ve been reading a book about Zachary Xerxes Ramsay, a boy who disappeared from Montana USA in 1996. I think his case would make for a good episode.

Just a comment. Both stories of Megumi Yokota and Greg Fleniken were so surprising!!!! Very different resolutions for both stories, sad endings, but it is a true crime podcast. Thanks for putting together another amazing season this year. Sorry to see some of the negative comments online, but that is to be expected with great success. Keep up the amazing work, I admit I tend to hold your show up as the gold standard when listening to other podcasts.

I had a question for the writer who did all the research on the Zahra Baker case. Did the police ever consider charging her father? I was so shocked that he was able to walk away with no prison time. I was curious how the writer/researcher felt about the father's role in her death. In his victim impact statement he appeared to take zero responsibility for the death of his daughter, blaming it all on his wife. What a heart breaking story, thank you for telling it in a way that allowed us to know Zahra and what an amazing person she was.

If I remember the timeline, you guys asked for help pronouncing Japanese and Korean words 2 weeks before releasing Megumi Yokota's story. Are the breaks helping or barely keeping you guys afloat to make the release dates? I think it's important for the people who get mad at the breaks to be able to understand how necessary they are, you guys work so hard! In the case of Zahra, it's hard to imagine a father going from being so doting to being so checked out of her life and I think Emily did a great job with this one. How did you manage to avoid blaming the father (since he was never charged with her death) but still highlight how much he changed? I don't think I could personally keep from blaming him.

Question: Will you ever work on the Monster of Florence case?

All incredible episodes. What happened to Megumi Yokota was such insane evil. Did the researcher know much about the case or Japanese-Korean relations before writing?

Greg Fleniken might be my favorite Casefile episode ever! I read another article featuring private investigator Ken Brennen about the attack on a woman at a hotel. Would the Casefile team consider telling that story? Thanks, and keep up the great work!

I would like to know and understand what an extra episode is and means because its mind boggling

Since Greg Fleniken was a totally new case, why wasn’t it released as a regular episode? Was it because it was shorter than the usual length? Will future Casefile Extras also be on the shorter side? Great work this year!

Question for anyone on the team but especially the researcher - what do you personally think happened to Megumi Yokata? Incredible season, xoxo Annie

Not a question - but for Zahra Baker my mother in law was one of the nurses who cared for Zahra before she moved to America. My MIL was completely distraught when she found out Zahra had been killed and to this day she gets extremely upset talking about her. She said that you captured Zahra’s essence, personality and resilience perfectly. I just thought I would mention this because it’s so important for people to understand that behind these podcasts are very real people who have gone through something horrific. For people to listen to a podcast about a victim they knew very well, and hear the victim be described perfectly instead of focusing on the offender, brings a little bit of peace to those people I think.

Hi all, love the show! I don't have a question per se, more of an episode request! Would you consider covering the Bega Schoolgirl Murders? Either way, thanks for all the episodes!

My question is how do you find these cases/ what makes you choose the specific ones is there anything that stands out. Especially some of these recent cases such as Julia Wallace just to name one, I imagine it wouldn’t be the first one to come up in general searches?

Email question - In the Zahra Baker case, the four investigations by children’s services that turned up no signs of abuse are outlined in detail in the episode. But there’s no indication that there was ever any formal follow-up enquiry involving how these investigations were carried out and how they managed to fail. Did the authorities ever look into this? Another really strong season underway, keep up the good work. Hal in Canada