Alleged eye drop murder. A divorce attorney accused of murder. Plus, criminal investigations at sea.
34m 34s
A series of high-profile true crime cases are unfolding across the U.S., each revealing complex legal, emotional, and investigative challenges. In North Carolina, former paramedic Joshua Hunsucker is charged with murdering his wife Stacey Hunsucker, with forensic evidence detecting tetrahydrozoline in her blood—though no autopsy occurred. The case has faced repeated delays, including a trial postponement to January 2027, due to defense claims of lost evidence and witness deaths, and allegations of witness intimidation and self-poisoning. In Cleveland, attorney Gregory Moore is being prosecuted for the 2013 stabbing of nurse Aliza Sherman, a case that took 12 years to resolve, with legal delays fueled by motions citing time-related evidence loss and the death of key witnesses, including her husband. In Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy’s defense is pushing for acquittal again, citing jury consensus on reasonable doubt, despite a prior mistrial. Meanwhile, the family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez has filed a civil lawsuit against David, his mother, and associates, alleging human trafficking due to an underage relationship. In another case, Nick Reiner’s parents’ murder is under investigation, with prosecutors choosing not to seek the death penalty and setting a trial for 2027. Finally, a Coast Guard special agent explains the unique challenges of maritime crimes, emphasizing that boats move, weather changes, and evidence is fragile, requiring specialized expertise and often beginning with public social media reports. These cases highlight the evolving nature of criminal investigations, where legal, emotional, and technological factors converge to shape outcomes.
Good morning.
It's the start of another workday for the Dateline team.
There's like zero shell casings, there's no footprints, there's no tire tracks.
Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news.
Was there any other suspects?
They did find one witness.
That's the latest on that.
Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly.
I'm Andrea Canning.
It's September 17th and here's what's on our docket.
In Cleveland, Ohio, courtroom battles upend the murder trial of a divorce attorney accused
of fatally stabbing his own client, nurse and mom of four, Aliza Sherman.
So things have gotten a little bit heated.
In Dateline Roundup, five months after the singer David was charged with the murder of
14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, her family is now accusing his mother and managers of
failing to protect her.
And we'll bring you the latest on the new controversy surrounding the Lindsay Clancy
holdout juror.
According to NBC Boston's reporting, last year, the juror's nephew filed a restraining
order against him.
Plus, crimes don't just happen on land.
What happens when there's a murder at sea?
A Coast Guard special agent gives us the lowdown.
It's not like a crime that happens at your local bank or grocery store or local house.
The boat is the scene and it moves.
But before all that, there is a case out of North Carolina we want to tell you about involving
a former paramedic who's facing one of the most bizarre crimes in the history of the
United States.
It's one of the most bizarre set of charges I think I've ever seen.
In September of 2018, the sudden death of 32-year-old North Carolina preschool teacher
Stacey Hunsucker left her two daughters without a mother and her husband Joshua without a
wife.
On the first anniversary of her death, he posted a tribute to her on Facebook.
NBC affiliate WCNC covered the story.
He described Stacey as an awesome mother and how he and their two daughters choose to live
happily.
Three months after that post, Joshua, a paramedic at the time, was arrested and charged with
Stacey's murder.
Prosecutors allege he poisoned her with tetrahydrosaline, a chemical found in eye drops.
Joshua Hunsucker has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Jury selection was set to begin in his trial last week, but a judge ruled the trial should
be postponed.
Here to bring us up to speed on the reason for the delay and on some other.
unique charges Hunsucker is facing is Dateline producer Marissa Meyer.
Marissa, thank you for being here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Marissa, start by giving us some background on the couple at the heart of this case.
So Stacey was, as you said, a young mom.
She had worked at a preschool in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And according to her obituary, she was an active member of her church.
And her husband, Joshua, or Josh, who is now 41, he was working at a preschool in Charlotte,
working as a flight paramedic, providing emergency medical care to patients transported
by helicopter.
The couple had been married for eight years, and they had two young daughters together.
Take us back to September 23rd, 2018, the day Stacey died.
Marissa, what happened?
So what we know of that day really comes from the probable cause affidavit.
And Hunsucker found his wife not breathing in their home, and she ended up dying.
From cardiac arrest.
There was no autopsy, her Joshua's request, and Stacey's remains were cremated.
It's important to note, Stacey had been having a number of health problems in the years before
her death, including problems with her heart.
And according to a GoFundMe campaign started by one of her friends, Stacey had been having
issues since the birth of the couple's first daughter in 2013.
Marissa, when did police start to suspect that Stacey's death was not from her husband?
So interestingly, the investigation actually began within the North Carolina Department
of Insurance.
And a spokesperson for that office told NBC News that after Stacey's death, Stacey's
mother contacted them.
And she said she was suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Stacey's death and of the fact
that Hunsucker received over $200,000 from two life insurance policies below $200,000.
So that's when the North Carolina Department of Insurance decided to start investigating.
So what did they uncover, the investigators?
Well, remember, there was no autopsy.
So investigators didn't have a body to examine or exhume.
But what they did have was some of Stacey's blood.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Stacey had been an organ donor.
And prior to her cremation, a sample of her blood had been preserved, as is the normal
process of possible organ donation.
And the affidavit states that the blood sample was sent to a lab for testing and came back
positive for a chemical called tetrahydrozoline, which is found in eyedrops.
And according to this document, Stacey had 30 to 40 times the therapeutic dose in her
system.
We've seen this chemical come up in Dateline stories before.
What does it do to the body, Marissa, when it's ingested?
It seems just it has a nasty host of symptoms.
It can cause vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, seizing, and even cardiac arrest.
After that chemical was found in Stacey's blood, insurance investigators sat down with
Joshua Hunsucker to get his side of the story.
What did he say?
That's right.
And this wasn't the first time he'd talked to investigators.
But according to the affidavit, the stories he'd given the police and insurance companies
had not been consistent.
And an attorney for the North Carolina Office of Insurance said at a preliminary hearing,
that while Hunsucker didn't confess anything to insurance investigators during that interview,
he allegedly gave them probable cause to arrest him.
Hunsucker was arrested in late 2019.
That was over a year after Stacey died.
He was charged with first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and obtaining property by false pretenses.
He has pleaded not guilty to those charges, as we mentioned.
Has Hunsucker's legal team given any hints about how they plan to defend him?
So that's the thing.
We know that from the very beginning of this case, Hunsucker's defense team has argued
that they would strenuously oppose the allegations.
They pointed out Hunsucker had no criminal record, and in fact, he was released on bond
a few days after his arrest.
At a hearing in 2023, according to the local newspaper, the Gaston Gazette, Hunsucker's
defense asked to do their own testing on that blood sample.
But we don't know what happened with that or whether it was even tested.
And what makes it hard to know much more about the defense and a lot of aspects of
this case is that a judge has imposed a gag order.
And so the attorneys really can't divulge anything about the case.
Hunsucker was released on bond.
But as we mentioned when we started this segment, that was not the end of his legal troubles.
There are a whole bunch of strange twists that we're about to talk about.
Let us know about the first one.
In 2021, he's out on bond and Hunsucker gets arrested again, this time on an arson charge.
And prosecutors allege that back in 2019, he started a fire on a medical helicopter
during a flight.
We should say the prosecutor is not connecting that with Stacey's murder in any way, alleged
murder.
This is a separate case, right?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
It happened after the alleged murder, about a month before his arrest.
And he. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Hunsucker hit the headlines again in 2023 when prosecutors accused him of faking his own
kidnapping?
Yeah, that's right.
Prosecutors say Hunsucker called 911 with a disturbing story that he'd stopped to change
a flat tire and was assaulted.
And he'd had his hands zip-tied and was then injected with an unknown substance.
And the person who he suggested was behind it was none other than
Stacey's father.
And according to prosecutors, this just wasn't true.
And the whole kidnapping was staged.
Do prosecutors have a theory about why Joshua would want to frame Stacey's dad?
Well, according to the state, Hunsucker has engaged in a pattern of harassment against
Stacey's parents for some time.
They say staging the kidnapping was part of that.
According to local reporters, prosecutors argued an emotion to revoke Hunsucker's
bond.
That he was attempting to intimidate his in-laws so that they wouldn't testify against him
in connection to the murder case.
And they've charged Hunsucker with four counts of witness intimidation and obstruction of
justice.
Hard to believe, Marissa.
But there is more.
Prosecutors say Hunsucker also attempted to poison his own daughter.
That's right.
So prosecutors are now alleging that Hunsucker gave one of his daughters that same chemical
that was found in Stacey's body.
And that the daughter got seriously ill.
We should point out he hasn't been charged with an alleged poisoning.
And he has pleaded not guilty to all the new charges.
We haven't really heard much from the defense on these allegations.
A lot has happened in the nearly eight years since Stacey's death.
After many delays, Joshua Hunsucker's long-awaited trial in the murder part of this, all of this,
was set to begin last week in Gaston County, North Carolina.
But?
That, Marissa, did not go as planned.
- Yeah, that's right.
It looks like now his trial will likely be rescheduled for January 2027.
And we don't know exactly why the trial was continued.
And we may not know the reason for the delay until the trial starts.
Fascinating case.
We will be sure to follow up on this one.
Marissa, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you so much, Andrea.
Coming up, last-minute defense filings through the trial of the man accused of fatally stabbing
Cleveland nurse Aliza Sherman into chaos.
More than 13 years ago, Cleveland nurse and mother of four Aliza Sherman was stabbed to
death outside her divorce attorney's office.
For 12 years, no one was charged.
Then, in May 2025, a bombshell arrest.
NBC affiliate WKYC covered the story.
51-year-old attorney Gregory Moore has been indicted on murder charges for the 2013 death
of Aliza Sherman.
Prosecutors indicted Aliza's own divorce attorney, accusing him of murdering her.
They allege he did it because he wasn't prepared to take Aliza's divorce case to trial.
Moore has pleaded not guilty.
His trial was finally supposed to begin this Monday.
Instead, Moore's defense team has filed motion after motion.
Dateline Field producer,
Simon Doolittle, has been at the courthouse all week, keeping an eye on things.
He's here now to bring us the latest.
Hey, Simon.
Hey, Andrea.
Simon, so you were calling us from the courthouse corridor,
if we hear some sounds in the background.
You expected jury selection to start Monday, but it didn't.
So what has been going on?
Yeah, there has been a lot of anticipation for this trial.
As you mentioned, 13 years since the murder, certainly for Aliza's family and loved ones,
a seemingly endless wait.
And a lot of us really did think things were going to get started at long last on Monday.
But instead, we've seen a flurry of motions by the defense trying to either
delay the trial or dismiss the charges altogether.
All right.
So before we get into these motions, remind us who Aliza was
and what her situation was before she died.
Yeah.
I mean, Aliza was a 53-year-old nurse, by all accounts, a really adored mother,
colleague, and friend.
She had been married to her husband.
A Sanford Sherman, a physician for more than 30 years.
But at the time in 2013, they were getting a divorce and it was a doozy.
Yeah.
So the divorce really comes into this because on March 24th, 2013, the day she was killed,
she was at Moore's office.
She was right outside the door.
And her divorce trial was supposed to get underway that week.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And mostly what we know is that she was a very good mother.
And what we know about Aliza's last day comes from the grand jury indictment.
She gets there, the doors are locked.
And according to the indictment, she sends a series of text messages.
She writes, will you be here soon?
Kind of cold.
Doors locked.
If you're here, why don't you let me in?
Right around those moments, prosecutors say someone with a knife comes up behind her,
chases her down the street, and ends up stabbing her more than 10 times.
Police later released a video of a clitted figure.
In dark clothing, from a nearby surveillance camera, they say this was the attacker fleeing the scene.
Were they able to make out a face of this figure in the dark clothes?
It's hard to identify the person from the video that was publicly released.
And it's not clear from the indictment whether they believe that Moore himself did the stabbing
or whether he simply orchestrated it.
But what is clear is that even though it took 12 years,
to arrest him and charge him with this murder,
that they were looking at Moore from the earliest days of this investigation.
Police say his story just didn't add up.
He told them he had been in his office waiting for her.
But according to the indictment, building records show that he re-entered a back door of the building after the attack.
So in 2017, a few years after the murder, he actually pleads guilty to making false statements.
about his whereabouts to police in the investigation.
And he served several months in jail.
And there was something else about Moore that made investigators take a closer look at him.
Something very strange, Simon.
Walk us through this other piece of all of this.
Yeah, so in 2012, this is before Aliza is murdered,
someone called bomb threats into three different courthouses here in the Cleveland area.
And before the murder,
prosecutors had started to look at whether Gregory Moore had made these bomb threats
as a way of delaying cases that he had in these courts.
Moore eventually pleads guilty to inciting panic for two of those bomb threats.
Fast forward to today, and prosecutors do believe that that behavior
sheds light on what may have motivated Moore to murder Aliza.
They essentially are arguing that Moore was taking even more extreme measures to delay a trial,
in this case, Aliza.
Instead of calling him bomb threats, they think he initially planned to kidnap Aliza,
but that somehow things escalated and she was killed.
Exactly how we go from a kidnapping plot to murder is unclear.
It's one of the things we're hoping to get clarity on in the trial.
So we're talking about 12 years between Aliza's murder and Moore being arrested.
And his defense is saying that that long time period,
has made it impossible for them to defend their client properly.
Yeah, Moore's attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the case
because of those 12 years.
They said witnesses had died, evidence had been lost.
At an evidentiary hearing in July,
the defense laid out leads they say they would have pursued,
had so much time not passed.
One key witness, Simon, they say they lost access to,
was Aliza's estranged husband, Sanford.
Absolutely.
Sanford died in 2024.
Look,
you can certainly understand why defense attorneys are very concerned about Sanford.
They brought a friend of his to the stand,
a retired police officer,
who testified that Sanford once asked him how someone could commit the perfect crime.
He said he told Sanford things like the importance of not using a gun or a car that can be traced back to you.
Investigators must have looked into Sanford early on.
Do you think he and Aliza were mid-divorce?
Absolutely.
And honestly, this was not just any divorce.
It was a really, really messy divorce.
In fact, there was a civil suit after Aliza's death brought by Aliza and Sanford's own daughter.
And, you know, she alleges that he mismanaged millions of dollars,
hid them from his wife,
blew all that money on strippers and affairs on the side.
And investigators did interview Sanford.
He denied having anything to do with her murder.
And police say cell phone records back him up.
He was nowhere near downtown when the attack happened.
There was another lead the defense said that they wished they could have explored.
And that came up during the testimony of one of Aliza's former co-workers.
Yeah.
This former co-worker testified that a threatening voicemail had been left at their office shortly before Aliza had been killed.
Who was it, this threatening voicemail?
This is something that depends.
This is raising as a sort of tantalizing alternate theory of the case that because so much time has passed,
they're really not in a position to chase down.
How did the prosecution handle this?
So prosecutors pushed back, essentially saying that none of this proves Moore can't still get a fair trial.
And in August, the judge agreed and denied the motion to dismiss.
That brings us to this week, Simon.
The trial was supposed to get underway Monday, and it didn't.
What happened?
Yeah, the defense filed motions requesting delays and again, dismissing of the charges altogether.
One of the things defense has raised is they say only recently have they received a really large volume of evidence,
including 40,000 pages of an expert report.
They claim they didn't have time to go over it all and give an adequate defense.
And then there's this fight over the lead prosecutor.
The defense says he had been communicating.
With an attorney who represented Moore years earlier.
Why is that a concern?
Yes.
Raising the possibility of whether confidential information about Moore's defense could have been shared with prosecutors.
Now, prosecutors vigorously deny any wrongdoing, say such flimsy accusations never before in their career had they seen these sorts of accusations been tossed around.
So things have gotten a little bit heated on that regard.
What was the judge's response to these motions?
Well, on Tuesday, she denied all of them, which one would think opens the door for the trial to finally start.
Yeah.
But the defense filed yet another motion, this time asking the judge to throw up the case.
And they're alleging double jeopardy.
Basically, they're saying the plea deal that Moore had back in 2017 to making false statements about his whereabouts to police should mean that he can't be charged with any crimes related to this incident.
Prosecutors have.
responded to that allegation of double jeopardy.
calling this motion a bad attempt toward justice for Aliza Sherman.
So after all that, Simon, the judge denied the defense motion.
So what's next?
Well, in fact, as soon as this call ends, I'm going to go to the latest hearing and
we will find out whether, in fact, the trial is going to start perhaps as soon as tomorrow
or whether there'll be yet another delay.
Thank you, Simon.
Thank you, Andrea.
Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup.
We've got updates in the David and Lindsay Clancy cases and news from the prosecutor
about what's next for Nick Reiner, the man accused of murdering his film director dad,
Rob Reiner, and photographer mom, Michelle Singer Reiner.
Plus, if a crime happens at sea, who gets the call?
A special agent with the Coast Guard explains.
Welcome back, everyone.
Joining me for this week's Roundup is Dateline booking producer Caitlin Cutt.
Hey, Caitlin.
Hi, Andrea.
So, Caitlin, for our first story, we have an update in the Lindsay Clancy case.
The mother and former nurse who recently stood trial in Massachusetts for killing her three children.
She says she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
Clancy's trial ended, of course, in a dramatic mistrial due to the 11-to-1 jury deadlock.
But Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington,
is not ready to accept that.
He has filed something called a renewed motion asking the court to find her not guilty.
Caitlin, what is this motion all about?
OK, so what's interesting is that word renewed.
Reddington has filed this motion twice during the trial,
asking the court to find Clancy not guilty.
Both times, the judge denied this motion.
Now, Reddington is asking the judge to consider this motion for a third time.
So what is the crux of this argument?
Is there anything different from the last time he tried this?
There is, yeah.
So he's arguing that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that Clancy was sane when she killed her kids.
What's different this time is that he's using what happened
during jury deliberations to bolster his case.
He's referring to the four-person's note,
which stated that the holdout juror admitted to having reasonable doubt,
meaning, according to Reddington,
that every single juror had reasonable doubt about the prosecution's case
and therefore the judge should acquit Clancy.
Caitlin, the jury continues.
to be in the news this week with the spotlight,
of course, being on the lone juror holdout,
and we've actually learned more about him.
Right.
NBC10 in Boston did an investigation into him
and flagged that he had been arrested and charged with domestic violence in 2021.
The criminal charge was later dismissed,
but according to NBC Boston's reporting,
last year, the juror's nephew filed a restraining order against him
after he allegedly punched his nephew in the face.
NBC Boston attempted to contact
the juror but has not received any response.
We should say that having an arrest history or restraining order
doesn't disqualify someone from serving on a jury under Massachusetts law,
but the report stirred up a lot of controversy.
A controversy, Caitlin, that has now gotten the judge's attention.
Tell us how he is weighing in on this.
Totally.
So, usually, juror information becomes public record once the trial ends.
But in Clancy's case, the judge issued two orders this week
sealing juror information.
He said that the case has created real concerns of juror safety.
He noted that some of the jurors have been identified publicly without permission
and that at least one juror has received threats.
Okay.
Any news on what's next in the actual case?
On September 29th, there is another hearing scheduled.
So maybe we'll find out then what the prosecution's planning.
Okay.
Lots ahead.
Next up, there has been a development in the case of singer David,
legal name David Anthony Burke,
who was charged with the murder of 14-year-old David Anthony Burke.
He was charged with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles alleged the singer was having a sexual relationship
with Celeste, who was underage.
They believe he killed her when she threatened to expose that relationship.
David has pleaded not guilty and remains behind bars.
Celeste's family has now filed a lawsuit against the singer
and some other people in his world,
some people that we hadn't heard much about before.
Yeah, that's right, Andrea.
Celeste's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit,
which names David, obviously, as a defendant,
but also his mother, Colleen, members of his management team,
his live-in security guard, and three companies connected to him.
It's essentially saying that these people should all be held liable for Celeste's death.
Specifically, what is the lawsuit saying about David's mother, Colleen?
The lawsuit says that Colleen served as David's personal finance director,
who had control over his funds.
The lawsuit claims that she therefore facilitated the relationship,
and the lawsuit also alleges that Colleen hosted Celeste for one or more nights in her own home
so the 14-year-old could spend time with David,
suggesting she knew about and enabled the relationship.
Now, it's really important to note here that Colleen is not charged with any crime,
and this lawsuit isn't saying that she was involved in the murder.
Instead, it's claiming that Colleen's negligence led to Celeste's death.
NBC News has reached out to Colleen Burke but did not receive a response.
The lawsuit also accused David of something that,
that is not a charge that he's facing in the criminal case.
So in the civil suit, it lists human trafficking.
Yeah, this is an interesting strategy and compelling
because Celeste's family is arguing that what David did to Celeste constitutes human trafficking.
According to the lawsuit, David gave Celeste shelter, money, food, designer gifts
in exchange for sexual acts.
And the lawsuit says that this is tantamount to human trafficking under the law,
especially since she was a minor and could not consent to that.
David's criminal trial does not have a date set yet,
but we will keep you posted on that and on the civil case.
Our final story is also out of Los Angeles.
Nick Reiner was back in court this week for a pretrial hearing.
Nick allegedly murdered his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner
and producer Michelle Singer Reiner, in their L.A. home in December 2025.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Caitlin, what came out of this hearing?
Well, Andrea, there's a few.
Two major updates here.
Right before the hearing started, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hockman
spoke to the press outside of the Los Angeles courthouse,
and he announced that prosecutors will not be seeking the death penalty in this case.
We did speak with Nick Reiner's siblings.
They made their views very clear.
We took their views into consideration in ultimately deciding not to seek the death penalty.
So this means that the maximum sentence that Nick would receive if convicted
will be life without parole.
Do we know, Caitlin, any of the details in the case against him yet?
They've been pretty tight-lipped.
Yeah, no.
The court has not released any details in this case.
All court transcripts, including evidence in the case, are sealed.
According, again, to the district attorney, Nick's siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner,
have asked the judge to keep them sealed because it would cause additional trauma for the family
if the details about their parents' killings were disclosed.
Has a trial date been set in this case?
Nathan Hockman said in the press conference that in his
estimate, the trial will not start before 2027.
OK, thank you for these updates, Caitlin.
Thank you, Andrea.
Recently, it feels like we've seen a lot of investigations that involve boats.
Just last week, we told you about the case of 18-year-old Anna Kepner,
who was murdered on a cruise ship.
In July, we covered the case of Mississippi teenager Nolan Wells,
who was found dead after traveling to a beach party on a boat.
And, of course, there's the case that took me to the Bahamas in April,
the mysterious disappearance of Lynette Hooker,
who was living with her husband on their boat called The Soulmate when she vanished.
Tonight, what police are calling a search and rescue for a 56-year-old woman
who vanished at sea in the Bahamas is intensifying.
These cases made us wonder what goes into investigating a case on the water
and what makes it different from solving one on land.
Today, we're joined by Caleb King,
a special agent with the Coast Guard Investigative Service, to give us the lowdown.
Welcome to the podcast, Caleb.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so, Caleb, you work with the Coast Guard Investigative Service, or CGIS.
What is your organization responsible for?
What types of cases do you deal with?
We, as CGIS, what we really try to be good at is crimes on boats.
And where CGIS really tries to fit in, unlike any other agency,
is just knowing all about boats and weather and systems on a boat
and what should be there, what shouldn't be there,
and also navigating the very complex nature of maritime law
and the application of U.S. extraterritorial law
for crimes that are committed on boats on the high seas or in U.S. waters.
And I know you deal with human trafficking, drug cases, murders.
How do these cases end up on your desk?
Sometimes a law enforcement partner, the Department of Justice,
the Coast Guard itself may ask us to join a case, but I would say,
an increasing number of our cases are ones that we find out about on our own
and initiate in the age of social media.
We see a lot of things on the Internet that pique our interest, for sure.
The true crime type of cases, missing persons, murders, things like that,
a lot of them, in the maritime domain, they start out as a search and rescue case.
But when something doesn't look right with a search and rescue, we take a look at it.
And we try to be really good at knowing what looks suspicious
to determine if there really was a missing person or if there was foul play involved.
The boats today are so sophisticated, you know, with their GPS and their radar.
You must have to be so on top of all the electronics.
Yes. So think about your car.
I mean, a modern-day car is recording information about speed, braking, air conditioning.
And think about a vessel that someone lives on that's put power systems and water systems
and navigation systems.
We've got every manner of experts on what happens when there's an accident with a vessel,
the dimensions, all of the different systems on a boat.
We have expertise within the Coast Guard of how to understand what those things are.
This, you know, this brings us to Brian Hooker's boat, Brian and Lynette Hooker's Soulmate.
Your organization ended up seizing that boat in Florida.
You know, the Soulmate is a U.S. flight vessel.
So the Coast Guard has jurisdiction.
The Coast Guard has jurisdiction for crimes committed on that vessel, essentially worldwide.
We knew we wanted to get the boat because as a crime scene at sea,
it's not like a crime that happens at your local bank or grocery store or local house
where police just can go to it, you can secure it, bring in your forensics people.
The boat is the scene and it moves, it's subject to weather, boats can sink.
But in TGIS, we know that if a crime happens on a boat, we either have to get the boat
or we have to get the boat.
And the Coast Guard used all of its resources, our aviation assets, our service assets and
small boats, and we basically followed that boat when it left the Bahamas and we boarded
and seized the boat about 40 miles off the coast of Florida and brought it back to the
Southern District of Florida.
And a lot went into getting that boat, but I think it'll prove to be very important.
If only we could be a fly on the wall.
We'll have to wait and see if anything comes out eventually, evidentiary-wise.
We should remind listeners that Lynette's husband, Brian, has not been charged with a crime
and says his wife fell off their dinghy.
Just speaking generally, I think there are people who think,
I can get away with a crime because I'm on the water.
There are no cameras, there are no witnesses.
What would you say to anyone who thinks that this is, you know, possibly the perfect crime?
Any criminal investigator, any federal agent, any detective will tell you, you know, we only need,
the bad guy to mess up once.
You know, we are going to seek every manner of digital evidence, physical evidence, interviews,
you know, cameras, communication systems, and it's very difficult in this day and age to not slip up.
Well, Special Agent King, thank you for joining us.
We appreciate all that you do to keep our waterways and our oceans safe.
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Podcast Summary
Key Points:
In North Carolina, a former paramedic, Joshua Hunsucker, is facing multiple bizarre charges including first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and witness intimidation, after a blood sample from his wife Stacey Hunsucker’s remains tested positive for tetrahydrozoline, a chemical found in eyedrops.
The trial against Hunsucker was postponed until January 2027 due to a judge’s ruling, amid ongoing legal delays and a gag order limiting disclosure of defense strategies.
Hunsucker’s defense has raised concerns about witness loss, evidence degradation, and a lack of time to prepare, particularly citing the death of Aliza Sherman’s husband in 2024 and a threatening voicemail left before her death.
In Cleveland, divorce attorney Gregory Moore was indicted for the 2013 murder of nurse Aliza Sherman, with prosecutors alleging he killed her to avoid a trial, though defense motions have repeatedly delayed jury selection and charged trial.
In the Lindsay Clancy case, a renewed motion seeks acquittal based on jury deliberation notes showing all jurors had reasonable doubt, despite a prior mistrial due to a 11-to-1 deadlock.
In the David and Celeste Rivas case, Celeste’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming David’s mother and management team, alleging negligence and human trafficking due to the underage relationship.
In the Nick Reiner case, prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty, citing family trauma, and set a trial date for no earlier than 2027, with all evidence currently sealed.
Coast Guard agents explain that maritime crimes are uniquely challenging due to mobile scenes, weather, and lack of witnesses, requiring specialized investigation and often beginning with social media alerts or search-and-rescue operations.
Summary:
, each revealing complex legal, emotional, and investigative challenges. In North Carolina, former paramedic Joshua Hunsucker is charged with murdering his wife Stacey Hunsucker, with forensic evidence detecting tetrahydrozoline in her blood—though no autopsy occurred. The case has faced repeated delays, including a trial postponement to January 2027, due to defense claims of lost evidence and witness deaths, and allegations of witness intimidation and self-poisoning.
In Cleveland, attorney Gregory Moore is being prosecuted for the 2013 stabbing of nurse Aliza Sherman, a case that took 12 years to resolve, with legal delays fueled by motions citing time-related evidence loss and the death of key witnesses, including her husband. In Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy’s defense is pushing for acquittal again, citing jury consensus on reasonable doubt, despite a prior mistrial. Meanwhile, the family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez has filed a civil lawsuit against David, his mother, and associates, alleging human trafficking due to an underage relationship.
In another case, Nick Reiner’s parents’ murder is under investigation, with prosecutors choosing not to seek the death penalty and setting a trial for 2027. Finally, a Coast Guard special agent explains the unique challenges of maritime crimes, emphasizing that boats move, weather changes, and evidence is fragile, requiring specialized expertise and often beginning with public social media reports. These cases highlight the evolving nature of criminal investigations, where legal, emotional, and technological factors converge to shape outcomes.
FAQs
Joshua Hunsucker is charged with first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and obtaining property by false pretenses. Prosecutors allege he poisoned Stacey with tetrahydrozoline, a chemical found in eye drops, which was found in her blood sample.
The trial was postponed because a judge ruled that the case needed more time to review, and the prosecution's evidence, including the blood sample, required further scrutiny. The trial is now set for January 2027.
He has been charged with arson and witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors allege he staged a kidnapping of Stacey’s father and attempted to poison his own daughter with the same chemical.
Stacey was an organ donor, and a preserved blood sample was sent to a lab. The sample tested positive for tetrahydrozoline, a chemical found in eye drops, at levels 30 to 40 times above therapeutic doses.
Moore, a divorce attorney, was indicted for allegedly stabbing Aliza Sherman to death outside his office in 2013. Prosecutors claim he did it because he wasn’t prepared to take her divorce case to trial.
The defense claims that 12 years have passed, witnesses have died, and evidence has been lost. They argue that the long delay has made it impossible to mount a proper defense, especially with the loss of key witness Sanford, who died in 2024.
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