Campus Crime Chronicles

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). So, I’m sure you’re familiar with the tragedy associated with one of America’s oldest and most famous road races, the Boston Marathon. On April 15, 2013, two brothers detonated a pair of homemade bombs in the crowd of spectators watching the race, ultimately killing three people and severely injuring at least 260 others. It took law enforcement an impressive 102 hours to identify, pursue, and arrest the suspects, from the moment the bombs went off to the capture. But sometime around hour 80 of that pursuit, the bombing suspects walked onto the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commonly known as MIT, and blatantly took another life – the life of 27-year-old MIT police officer Sean Collier.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). When 22-year-old college student Jenna Burleigh didn’t show up to classes during the first week of school and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, her father quickly became worried and reported her missing. Unfortunately, Jenna’s body was found a few days later, over 100 miles away. An intense, yet swift investigation led police right to her body, and her killer. Listen now to hear the full story.

This episode is rated a 1.5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Let’s all put ourselves back in college for a minute. Think back to those early years of going away from home for the first time, living on campus, making new friends... You know, truly embracing “college life.” Well, what would you do if one of the friends you made inn the dorm and hung out with every day turned out to be a complete imposter? Like, the person did not attend the school at all, but pretended like they did for nearly a whole year! That's exactly what happened in this story.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). Yesterday, Aug. 1, 2021, marked the 55th anniversary of the first public mass shooting in U.S. history. In this episode, I tell the story of how one man climbed to the top of the clock tower on the University of Texas campus, loaded with plenty of guns and ammo, and wreaked havoc on people below for 96 minutes. By the time three brave men took him out, he had killed a total of 14 people and injured another 31 more.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale). It’s the story of Illinois State University graduate student Jelani Day. Earlier this year, on Aug. 25, Jelani was reported missing and shortly after, on Sept. 4, Jelani’s body was found floating face down in the Illinois River in Peru, Illinois. After an autopsy supposedly revealed no evidence of assault or altercation, the county coroner concluded the cause of his death was, simply, drowning. BUT, Jelani’s family, friends, and thousands of supporters think there is much more to the story than an accidental drowning. Find out all the details of this story on Chronicle 19, #WhatHappenedtoJelaniDay.