Darkness

It has been nearly three weeks since the first bomb killed Stephan House, beginning an unprecedented time of terror in Austin. Law enforcement officials are closing in on the top suspect, and no one knows what will happen as the net closes around him.

While just seniors in college, Haley Butler and Tinu Thomas started work on The Orange Tree, a seven-episode podcast about the life and tragic death of a young woman who was killed near the University of Texas. So many of you listened to and appreciated the work of The Drag Audio Production House that we decided to make a new season based on a completely different case. In season two, Ashley Miznazi examines a series of crimes that put the city of Austin on edge in the spring of 2018. And we have more true-crime seasons that we’ve started working on as well, so we have decided to make The Orange Tree season one of a new multi-season podcast that we’re calling "Darkness." Here’s a preview of the second season of Darkness, which is coming Tuesday, November 2.

In a residential neighborhood on the other side of the city from where the three bombings had struck, a young man parks his truck and strings a wire across the sidewalk. The wire is connected to an explosive device, and the trap is set for random victims. As Austinites descend into panic, law enforcement officials get their first big break in the case.

Teenager Draylen Mason dreams of being a neurosurgeon, and he also excels in music, which draws an offer to study the double bass under world-renowned professors at the University of Texas. Ten days after the first bomb exploded in an Austin suburb, Draylen notices a package on the porch and brings it into his family’s home. The package explodes, and it becomes clear that the death of Stephan House, a 39-year-old Black man, was not an isolated incident. Since Draylen is also Black, the community fears that Austin’s Black population is being targeted by an unknown serial bomber.

Fellow inmates say Laura Hall has been talking in jail about her role in the Jennifer Cave case. She continues to talk when out on bond, others say. As Colton Pitonyak’s appeals lawyers look for an angle to try to get him a new trial, the lawyers convince several people to swear that Laura had a much larger role than anyone knew. Will it be enough to get Colton a new trial?