In any homicide investigation, the physical evidence doesn't take sides. It can contradict. It can clarify. And sometimes, it raises questions that the official record leaves unanswered.

In Part 2 of Kentucky Case Files' four-part investigation into the death of Joseph Smith, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele turn to the forensic record — the state medical examiner's autopsy, the toxicology findings, and the bullet trajectories — to examine whether the physical evidence is consistent with the account authorities accepted the night Smith was fatally shot in a grocery store parking lot in Upton, Ky., in March 2021.

The autopsy found seven gunshot wounds. All five shell casings recovered at the scene were photographed inside the vehicle. The medical examiner's report documents bullet paths on the left side of Smith's body that traveled upward and to the right — findings the hosts examine alongside the admitted shooter's own account to police.

Methamphetamine was detected in Smith's system at the time of death. The prosecutor assigned to the case told Kentucky Case Files that the finding would have made it harder to convince a jury that Smith wasn't behaving erratically. But toxicologists have long cautioned that blood meth levels cannot reliably predict impairment — and according to official records, the admitted shooter never described Smith as acting violently or out of control.

More than three months after the shooting, the case went to a Hardin County grand jury. A veteran criminal defense attorney with 42 years of experience, who was not involved in the case, weighs in on what is standard grand jury practice — and what he found unusual. The grand jury did not return an indictment.

This is Part 2 of a four-part investigative series. Listen to Pt. 1: Hell Is Real first. The admitted shooter claimed self-defense. No charges were filed.

Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Keywords: Kentucky true crime, Kentucky Case Files, Joseph Smith, autopsy, forensic evidence, toxicology, self-defense shooting, grand jury, Hardin County, Upton Kentucky, Kentucky State Police, true crime podcast, homicide investigation, Kentucky podcast, Season 2

Season 2 of Kentucky Case Files begins with a case that state authorities consider closed — but Joseph Smith's family does not.

On the night of March 5, 2021, 25-year-old Joseph Smith was fatally shot in the parking lot of a small grocery store in Upton, Ky. The man who shot him admitted to it, claiming self-defense. No one was ever arrested. No one was ever charged.

Hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele spent months independently investigating the case, filing open records requests with authorities and obtaining crime scene photographs, police records, and recorded interrogation footage — because there was almost nothing in the public record to rely on.

What they found raises questions that Smith's family says have never been answered. The first interview with the admitted shooter was conducted by a state trooper who knew him personally — and was not recorded. And according to Smith's relatives, police never meaningfully reached out to people who knew him.

Along a busy stretch of Interstate 65 near Mammoth Cave, a billboard reads "HELL IS REAL" — a warning about eternal damnation. For Joseph Smith's family, those words mean something else entirely.

This is Part 1 of a four-part investigative series. Kentucky Case Files obtained records through the Kentucky Open Records Act. The admitted shooter claimed self-defense. No charges were filed.

Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Keywords: Kentucky true crime, Kentucky Case Files, Joseph Smith, Upton Kentucky, Hardin County, self-defense shooting, Kentucky State Police, open records, wrongful death, true crime podcast, Kentucky podcast, small town crime, gun laws Kentucky, Season 2

On March 5, 2021, a 25-year-old man named Joseph Smith was shot and killed in a grocery store parking lot in Upton, Kentucky. The man who shot him claimed self-defense. No arrest was ever made. No charges were ever filed.

His family was told he "made bad choices." They have never accepted that answer.

For Season 2, Kentucky Case Files spent months conducting original reporting — obtaining Kentucky State Police records, recorded interviews, and 194 crime scene photographs through the state's Open Records Act, and interviewing the people closest to this case.

The Joseph Smith Case is a four-part series examining what the evidence shows, what the investigation missed, and why one family is still asking questions five years later.

Season 2 begins June 16. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Some stories live on through investigation — others through art.

In the season one finale of Kentucky Case Files, Marcus Roland and Emily Steele sit down with Louisville author Ellen Birkett Morris, whose short story "Lost Girls" was inspired by Ann Gotlib’s disappearance. Growing up near the mall where Ann was last seen, Morris transformed a city’s grief into a powerful meditation on loss, fear and resilience.

Through interview and dramatic reading in The Ann Gotlib Case, Pt. 3: Lost Girls, Kentucky Case Files explores how creative expression can give voice to tragedy — and how Ann’s story, though never fully resolved, continues to echo through time.

Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

What did it mean to search for a missing child in 1983 — and how has that changed today?

In The Ann Gotlib Case, Pt. 2: How We Find Missing Kids, Then and Now, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele examine the evolution of missing child investigations, from analog flyers and phone trees to digital databases, Amber Alerts, and social media. They uncover how Ann’s case helped spur reforms, leading to the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and inspiring local programs like ECHO in Louisville. With expert insight, the hosts compare the fear-driven “missing children panic” of the 1980s to the data-driven systems that protect families now — and ask whether true closure ever really comes.

Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

June 1, 1983 — a summer day in Louisville turns into every parent’s nightmare. Twelve-year-old Ann Gotlib rides her red bicycle to the mall and never comes home. What follows is one of Kentucky’s most haunting mysteries: a desperate search, countless leads, and decades of unanswered questions.

In this first of a three-part season 1 finale, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele retrace the day Ann disappeared, explore the cultural and political backdrop of the early 1980s, and revisit the investigation that transfixed a city and helped forever change how America responds when a child goes missing.

Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

When Eric C. Conn fell, thousands of his clients fell with him. The U.S. Social Security Administration cut off benefits for nearly 4,000 disabled Appalachians, demanding they re-prove their cases years later — or pay back money they no longer had. Families lost homes, lives were upended, and some clients died waiting for help. Attorney Ned Pillersdorf and hundreds of volunteer lawyers waged a years-long battle to restore justice.

In the final episode of The Eric C. Conn Case, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele tell the story of the people left behind in the Conn scandal: the victims who were punished for their lawyer’s crimes.

Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

By 2017, Eric C. Conn’s empire was collapsing. Facing a prison sentence for bribery and fraud, he cut off his ankle monitor and vanished — kicking off one of the most audacious escapes in Kentucky history. From cryptically emailing a reporter, to taunting the FBI, to hiding out in a Honduran beach town, Conn lived as a fugitive until a Pizza Hut dinner finally brought him down.

In the third episode of The Eric C. Conn Case, hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele tell the story of Conn on the run — his ego, his theatrics, and the manhunt that ended with a bowl of soup.

Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.