Speaker 1: Y'all have heard about Jessica Kurrn's murder. I told you
Speaker 1: her story in the Graves County podcast, but there's a
Speaker 1: key piece I did not dive deep into and it's
Speaker 1: all coming out in a new series called My Mother's
Speaker 1: Lies from the Binge, and it's out now. It looks
Speaker 1: at the murder of Jessica Kurrn and the case against
Speaker 1: Quincy Cross from a different angle through the eyes of
Speaker 1: Susan Galbreath's son. Susan is seen as a hero to some,
Speaker 1: but now her son Ray brings that all into question.
Speaker 1: You can find My Mother's Lies in the description of
Speaker 1: this introduction, or by searching for My Mother's Lies wherever
Speaker 1: you've listened to podcasts, because if you've been listening to
Speaker 1: Bone Valley, Graves County, you know this case has never
Speaker 1: been just one story. Here's a sneak peek.
Speaker 2: Every murder trial tells a story. What happened, who did it,
Speaker 2: how did it happen, even why it happened. When there's
Speaker 2: strong corroborating evidence, that story is anchored to fact. But
Speaker 2: when there isn't, when the physical proof is missing, when
Speaker 2: there's nothing to go on by eyewitness testimony, the story
Speaker 2: that testimony becomes the case. This series is about a
Speaker 2: story that was repeated, reinforced, and eventually accepted as truth,
Speaker 2: a story that may have mattered more than evidence to
Speaker 2: the contrary, And at the center of it all is
Speaker 2: the woman who helped write that story. It's August first,
Speaker 2: and the year two thousand a bomby Tuesday morning in
Speaker 2: the small town of Mayfield in western Kentucky. Beyonce and
Speaker 2: the Boy, Vand and Sink are dominating the airwaves. Gladiator
Speaker 2: and X Men are playing at the local theater. At
Speaker 2: the local middle school, staff are now preparing for the
Speaker 2: coming year, though nothing could prepare teacher Tina Schlasser for
Speaker 2: what was to come. She steps outside to water the
Speaker 2: plants near the back of the school when she sees
Speaker 2: something out of the corner of her eye, something laying
Speaker 2: just behind the low brick wall. It's an item of
Speaker 2: clothing strewn on the grass, a single sandal, just laying there,
Speaker 2: she'd later say, as if someone had just run out
Speaker 2: of it. Walking closer, she peers around the corner and
Speaker 2: stops in her tracks. Standing rigid and horror. Before her
Speaker 2: lies the brutalized and partially burned body of a young
Speaker 2: black woman. The singed grass around her is a strange
Speaker 2: yellow color aside from the damaged dump by fire. The
Speaker 2: body is starting to decompose. Only later would they be
Speaker 2: able to identify the young woman as Jessica Curran. Her
Speaker 2: murder would shake this quiet town to its core and
Speaker 2: make headlines across the nation.
Speaker 3: Someone had murdered eighteen year old Jessica Curran, a local
Speaker 3: fire captain's daughter, a single mother. Her smile lit up
Speaker 3: her friends.
Speaker 2: Jessica was last seen by her parents, Joe and Gene Curran,
Speaker 2: on the afternoon of Saturday, July twenty ninth. They were
Speaker 2: taking care of her seven month old baby Cyon for
Speaker 2: the evening.
Speaker 4: We got up Sunday morning, and you know, my wife
Speaker 4: says she already knew something was wrong because Jesse normally
Speaker 4: calls and checks on Zion pretty often, and she hadn't
Speaker 4: called at night. We got up that morning and went
Speaker 4: by her house, knocked on the door, and we didn't
Speaker 4: get an answer.
Speaker 2: They didn't have to wait long to discover the awful truth.
Speaker 2: Less than forty eight hours later, the Mayfield Police Department,
Speaker 2: the local cops were scrambling trying to make sense of
Speaker 2: a chaotic crime scene. The police footage shows the half clothed,
Speaker 2: partially burned body of Jessica Curran. Her dress is torn,
Speaker 2: underwear discarded. The sandal lying nearby suggests she might have
Speaker 2: been attempting to flee her attacker. Plenty of theories about
Speaker 2: what happened and who did this would emerge, but for
Speaker 2: the police, it was too soon to say.
Speaker 3: Police say eighteen year old Jessica Alessa Current die from
Speaker 3: multiple blows to the body. Investigators say she was assaulted
Speaker 3: and her body set on fire. So far, police say
Speaker 3: there are no motives.
Speaker 2: And in the archive footage of the crime scene you
Speaker 2: can clearly see the yellow police tape blocking off the area.
Speaker 2: Cape is supposed to be a barrier between the crime
Speaker 2: scene and onlookers to protect the evidence from contamination, but
Speaker 2: it doesn't stop one curious Mayfield resonant from getting closer
Speaker 2: than she should. Susan Goalbreath. She's forty, white, slightly overlooked
Speaker 2: within the community, a little overweight, with bleached blonde hair,
Speaker 2: and a rough and ready charm brazen even She's not
Speaker 2: a journalist or a cop. She's a housewife. Exactly how
Speaker 2: she came to be at the crime scene is a
Speaker 2: matter of some debate, but here she is giving one
Speaker 2: version of events to a journalist. Some years later, a friend.
Speaker 5: And I are sitting at a restaurant and our waitress
Speaker 5: walked over and asked us if we had heard that
Speaker 5: there was a body that had been found at the
Speaker 5: middle school. As I'm heading towards home, I saw a
Speaker 5: crime scene tape and I started walking through this grass.
Speaker 5: As I come through the clearing of it, I just
Speaker 5: look up and there I see the body of a
Speaker 5: black woman.
Speaker 2: People kept fixated with true crime stories, and sometimes citizens
Speaker 2: sluice will jump in and try to solve or help
Speaker 2: the police, but they're doing it from afar. Susan lived
Speaker 2: in the same town where Jessica Curran was murdered, and
Speaker 2: Susan didn't know Jessica personally. In fact, she had no
Speaker 2: connection to her at all, and yet she felt so
Speaker 2: compelled as to physically step into the crime scene. Her
Speaker 2: name is there in black and white on the official
Speaker 2: police log.
Speaker 3: I knew that it had grabbed me.
Speaker 5: I knew it because I could not stop thinking about her.
Speaker 2: Susan's motivations will be a matter of debate for years.
Speaker 2: No one could know how this case would come to
Speaker 2: haunt Mayfield for the two decades, making Susan Gabre a
Speaker 2: hero to some and a villain to others.
Speaker 4: If you get somebody like that on the wrong track,
Speaker 4: they could take the ball and go to long divasion.
Speaker 2: What were Susan's real motives for trying to solve the
Speaker 2: Jessica current murder? She wasn't able to help them find
Speaker 2: the killer that killed their daughter. How did the authorities
Speaker 2: come to trust this middle aged housewife and her evidence?
Speaker 3: Is that normal?
Speaker 2: First, it says, to be walking around with case files
Speaker 2: motionless of discovery, it'd be very unusual. It's a question
Speaker 2: that has left many perturbed, including her son. It was
Speaker 2: just the lies. There are so many lives, so the
Speaker 2: narrative that's in front of us can't be the truth.
Speaker 2: Did Susan ultimately do more harm than good wine world?
Speaker 2: Would you allow them to get this close, especially somebody
Speaker 2: that would have a motive.
Speaker 4: I'm members economy said Nan, you need you on MySpace
Speaker 4: and look at this is I'm just like, you know,
Speaker 4: what do I know?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: My god?
Speaker 2: And perhaps the biggest question of all, did she help
Speaker 2: convict an innocent man?
Speaker 4: I do feel like that they got the wrong People.
Speaker 2: From Sony Music, Entertainment and Message heard you're listening to
Speaker 2: My Mother's Lies. I'm Beth Karas, a journalist and lego
Speaker 2: analyst who has been covering stories at the heart of
Speaker 2: our criminal justice system for decades. This is episode one,
Speaker 2: The Hero Housewife who sawd a Murder.
Speaker 1: You can keep listening to My Mother's Lies right now.
Speaker 1: Just search for it wherever you listen and subscribe to
Speaker 1: The Binge today to get all episodes early at free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or get Binge dot com.