CRU with Sheryl McCollum: 7.18.25 | Tarantulas, Tragedy & a New Era for Crime Roundup

This week on Crime Roundup, Sheryl McCollum takes the mic solo as Nancy Grace officially steps back from her regular Friday seat. Sheryl looks back on the past year with gratitude, sharing what made their time together unforgettable—Nancy’s sharp wit, loyalty, and the kind of friendship that runs deep. Then, it’s on to two cases that are anything but ordinary: a 17-year-old girl accused of murdering her parents, and a smuggler in Germany caught with 1,500 tarantulas… packed in cake boxes. And don’t miss the big announcement—Crime Roundup is welcoming a brand-new co-host starting next week.

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Show Notes:

• (0:00) Welcome to a solo edition of Crime Roundup
• (0:45) Sheryl looks back with gratitude on Nancy Grace’s year at the mic
• (3:00) Case 1: 17-year-old Sarah Patrick charged in her parents’ murders
• (5:00) Case 2: 1,500 tarantulas smuggled through Germany—in cake boxes!
• (6:30) From giraffes to Ziplocs: the wild world of animal smuggling and the strange methods behind it
• (7:45) Meet your new co-host: Joshua Schiffer joins Crime Roundup next week

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Nancy Grace is an outspoken, tireless advocate for victims’ rights and one of television's most respected legal analysts. She had a perfect conviction record during her decade as a prosecutor and is the founder and publisher of CrimeOnline.com, a crime-fighting digital platform covering breaking news, missing persons, and cold cases. 

Her daily show, Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, airs on SIRIUS XM’s Triumph Channel 111 and is available on all major podcast platforms.

https://www.crimeonline.com/

X: @nancygrace

Instagram: @thenancygrace

Facebook: @nancygrace

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award–winning CSI, crime scene expert, and writer for CrimeOnline. She’s also co-author of Cold Case: Pathways to Justice and serves as a CSI for a metro Atlanta police department.

Email: [e-mail]

X: @ColdCaseTips

Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Crime Round Up. I'm Cheryl McCollum and this
is Zone seven, y'all. I am so low this morning.
Nancy Grace. I'm just gonna be honest. I got tired
of her ride my coattails. Y'all know that ain't true.
The truth is she's out looking for off campus housing

(00:28):
so that when she moves in with Lucy and John
David next year in college, so she doesn't have time
to come on Crime Round Up. She's got to find
several places to live so that she's ready with whatever
college they choose. She's already got a place to live
right across the street. Look, I'm gonna lay this out.
Nancy Grace is a loyal, supportive friend. She has been

(00:53):
there for me, y'all in ways I could never even
tell you. She said to me, hey, let's do a
Crime round this Friday for fun and just talk about
some of the cases that's going on, because it's been
a crazy week. We did that. It was supposed to
be a one time thing. She did it for over
a year. She ain't gone forever. She's going to be

(01:15):
a special guest from time to time. And we've got
somebody starting next week. Y'all need to rest up for
a whole week to get ready for Who's coming next
Friday to join Crime Round Up. But today I just
want to say a really heartfelt special thank you to
the Queen Nancy. Thank you so much for allowing me

(01:38):
to show everybody our relationship, our true friendship, your humor,
your brilliance. I just appreciate it, and all I can
do is thank God, Voodoo Dolls and shut up David
for you. I love you. Even though Nancy will not
be with me every Friday on Crime Round Up, don't

(02:00):
y'all ditch me. I know y'all are loyal to her.
Y'all are going to follow Nancy and Crime Stories with
Nancy Grace, but please come back. I'm gonna need you
because y'all know who's riding whose coattails. But I do
appreciate Nancy, and I'll tell you something as her friend.
Y'all may or may not realize how busy she is

(02:24):
between Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She's an expert on
all these other shows they call her in. She does
interviews all the time, she has crime online. She helps
me every single week, whether y'all hear her voice or
not so the fact that she would carve out all

(02:44):
of this time for over a year for something she
was going to do one day. I just want to
tell you again her friendship, her support, her loyalty is
second to none. Now y'all listen, just real quick. There's
two things I want to talk about this week. One
seventeen year old Sarah Patrick. Sarah was in her home

(03:10):
when her five year old sister came and got her
because her mother and stepfather had been killed. Sarah immediately
called down one one and told them about the brutal
murder of her mom and stepfather. She even gave the
eulogy at their funeral. She never heard the four gunshots.

(03:35):
She did hear her stepfather's alarm going off on his
heart monitor, which signaled his heart had stopped, but not
four gun shots. Well, family members started to suspect something
about her story's not right. Her story changed a little bit.
She would cry, but there would be no tears. She

(03:57):
would get choked up, but again not really trying. At
the end of the eulogy, the last thing she said
was I'm sorry. Well, shortly after that, she was arrested
and charged as an adult for killing her mom. And stepfather.
Still we don't know a motive. Some family members, like

(04:19):
her grandfather are trying to support her, trying just to
in their mind, he can't even believe this little girl
that he knew and helped raise would do this. Other
family members have flat said she's a monster in address.
So we will see as this thing goes to trial

(04:40):
what all evidence they have, because law enforcement has been
clear there is plenty of physical and electronic evidence that
Sarah did this by herself. She's the only one that
could have. So we'll stay on this one and see
what transpires in the months coming up. The other thing

(05:00):
I want to mention there's a case out of Germany
where a man smuggled fifteen hundred tarantulas one thousand, five
hundred tarantulas. Listen, y'all, they didn't all make it. Some
died during the smuggling because of trauma because they weren't

(05:25):
packaged properly. If you're a smuggler, you can sell them
to a collector anyway, they can display one that's no
longer alive. You won't make as much money. But again,
with that many spiders worth three to four hundred dollars
a piece, still a significant payday. But that's part of
the issue with smuggling. No matter what it is, whether

(05:47):
it's monkeys or giraffes, you are not always going to
be able to keep that animal alive. We've got two
baby giraffes that have disappeared from a private zoo in
virgin We don't know what they're alive or not. They
were taken from their mothers immediately, and nobody knows where

(06:08):
they ended up. If they were sold on the you know,
black market, if somebody came and picked them up and
it was a cash sell. We don't know. But that's
part of the risk when you're smuggling any animal. Now,
he smuggled them in cake boxes, but the folks at
the airport found them because they said nothing in that

(06:31):
big old thing smelled like confection. It didn't smell like chocolate.
So when they searched it again, they found fifteen hundred tarantulas. Now,
this is the only time tarantulas have been smuggled. In
twenty two, a man from Columbia tried to smuggle one

(06:53):
hundred and forty three. In twenty twenty four, a man
in Peru tried to smuggle them and listen to how
he did it take to his body in ziplock bags.
Some of these transelas are beautiful, but I don't want
them take to my body. I don't want to feel
that crawling. That just seems awful to me. But again,

(07:16):
some of these animals are endangered, they are listed, they
are protected. But yet, if you've got fifteen hundred and
they're worth about three hundred to four hundred dollars apiece,
that ain't a bad payday. So there's all kind of
crimes going on this week that are unusual, that are crazy. Listen,

(07:39):
I'm not even gonna keep y'all in suspense. Next Friday
for Crime Roundup, I'm gonna be joined by the one
and only Joshua Schiffer. Y'all know him, fame defense attorney.
Nobody can turn a phrase like Joshua. Y'all love him

(08:00):
whenever he's on court, TV or own Zone seven. But
now he's gonna be with us every single week to
lay out all the trials, all the cases, all the
arrest It is gonna be something else. But I'm gonna
tell you I think, even though it'll maybe be a
little old, we got to ask him about the cold

(08:22):
play Bust where you're gonna be on the jumbo tron
having an affair. I cannot wait to talk to him
every week. All right, y'all get ready. This is Crime
Round Up and I'm Cheryl McCollum. Thank you, friend. I
love you. I love you.