Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Human Wreckage, the podcast that
(00:02):
explores the darkest corners ofhuman nature, where ordinary
lives are shattered byunimaginable violence, and the
line between reality andnightmare disappears.
Today's episode takes us to thequiet streets of Somerville,
Massachusetts, a close knitneighborhood just outside
Boston, where in the summer of1995 an unspeakable act of
brutality would forever alterthe lives of two families and
(00:25):
leave a community searching foranswers.
This is the story of EdwardO'Brien Jr., a well liked
fifteen year old high schoolsophomore.
Smart, charming, athletic, thekind of kid you wouldn't look at
twice, except maybe to say, thatboy's going places.
But on july twenty third,nineteen ninety five, the mass
dropped.
(00:45):
That afternoon, forty two yearold Janet Downing, a mother of
four and the single parent ofO'Brien's close friend, was
found brutally stabbed to deathin her home.
Her body was discovered by herteenage sons, her blood staining
the walls and floors of thehouse where she had tried to
raise her family in peace.
The attack was frenzied,vicious, overkill.
(01:06):
She had been stabbed nearly onehundred times.
At first, investigators werebaffled.
There was no forced entry.
Nothing stolen, no knownenemies, just a trail of blood,
and a teenage boy with wounds onhis hands, a strange
explanation, and more than a fewsecrets.
Within hours, suspicion turnedtoward Edward O'Brien junior,
(01:27):
the boy next door, the bestfriend of Janet's son, but no
one wanted to believe it.
How could a fifteen year oldcommit such a savage, calculated
murder?
How could someone so young becapable of that level of
violence?
As police pieced together theevidence, what emerged was a
chilling portrait of a teen witha dark imagination, a
fascination with knives andperhaps a hidden rage no one had
(01:50):
seen coming.
This wasn't just a murder.
It was a rupture in the fabricof a neighborhood, a crime so
shocking that it would sparknational headlines and a
courtroom battle over whether achild should be tried as an
adult for the ultimate crime.
Tonight we'll explore whathappened in that quiet
Somerville home.
We'll trace Edward O'Brien'sdescent into infamy, revisit the
(02:11):
trial that tested the limits ofjuvenile justice, and ask, What
really turns a teenager into akiller?
This is human wreckage, and thisis the story of Edward O'Brien
Junior.
(03:09):
rushed to the vehicle to carrythe grocery bags inside.
Standing at six feet four inchesand weighing two hundred sixty
pounds, Edward was described bythe locals as a gentle giant.
He was a former altar boy thatloved sports.
It started out as a typicalSunday.
It was a scorching hot summer'safternoon and Janet had done the
grocery shopping and stopped tochat to her neighbor.
(03:32):
They spoke of the shock of therecent unsolved murder of
seventeen year old DeannaKremen.
Little did they know that injust several hours another
murder would take place in theircity.
Janet decided to take a napafter putting the groceries
away.
Ryan and Edward had planned ongoing to the local swimming pool
that afternoon.
Why is your mother sleeping?
Edward inquired as he stoodstaring at Janet.
(03:54):
Ryan shrugged and said, Let's goswimming.
Edward decided against goingswimming and the duel went their
separate ways.
Some peculiar occurrences hadbeen happening in Janet's home
over the past several months.
Items appeared and thendisappeared including her
favorite Christmas decorationsand her daughter's house keys.
Someone put perfume in hercoffee, put windshield wiper
(04:16):
fluid in her car, and left a bagof clothing in her closet.
It wouldn't be until ten PMlater on that night that Ryan
came home from swimming andhanging out with his friends.
He was met by an unforgettablescene.
At some point between Ryanleaving the house and returning,
somebody had entered theirfamily home and brutally
murdered his mother.
Janet had been slashed andstabbed over ninety times.
(04:39):
Blood was spattered all acrossthe room and across the family
photographs.
Ryan ran across the street toEdward's home and told his
parents to call the police.
Edward O'Brien Sr.
ran to the Downing family homeafter calling the police,
assuming that some kind ofaccident had taken place.
He realized straight away thathe was in the middle of a
(04:59):
gruesome crime scene and thatthis certainly was no accident.
Who could do such a thing, hewondered.
Within days, however, his ownson would be charged with the
murder.
As police were rushing to thecrime scene, Edward Jr.
walked to the store where heworked part-time.
He told the manager that he hadbeen mugged and slashed with a
knife by muggers who he saidwere African American or
(05:21):
Hispanic.
He was reluctant to call thepolice, but the manager
persuaded him.
His hand was sliced up prettyseverely, and he had fresh
scratches and blood on his legs.
When police arrived to takeEdward's statement in regards to
the so called mugging, theybecame immediately suspicious.
The area Edward claimed he hadbeen mugged was a highly
trafficked area, yet nobody sawa thing.
(05:44):
They became even more suspiciouswhen Edward recited his address.
Three friends of Edward and Ryancame forward to recollect that
they had gone to Ryan's housethat night, but received no
answer at the door.
They stated that they heard loudnoises coming from the backyard.
When they went to investigate,they found Edward crouching in
the bushes.
They said he glanced and smiledat them before calmly walking
(06:06):
away without saying a word.
According to investigators, theyfound Edward's fingerprints and
blood on the front door, as wellas on a wooden post in the
cellar.
In addition, a knife hilt foundin Janet's home matched a knife
owned by Edward that they laterfound in the trash.
When Edward was arrested andcharged with Janet's murder, he
was unnaturally cool.
(06:27):
There was absolutely nothingcoming out of him.
Nothing, no fear, no screaming,I didn't do this.
Nothing in any way thatresembled what you might expect
out of a fifteen year old kidwho's being charged with cutting
up his best friend's mother.
His eyes were black.
Nothing there, it made my bloodrun cold.
Recalled Middlesex CountyDistrict Attorney Tom Riley.
(06:49):
While Edward initially claimedthat he hadn't been in the
Dowling home on the night of themurder, when presented with the
evidence that placed him at thescene, he changed his story.
He then claimed that he hadencountered a masked man over
the body of Janet and that theman threatened to kill him if he
told anybody about what he hadseen.
Edward was tried as an adult dueto the horrific nature of the
(07:09):
crime and an ambitious districtattorney, Thomas Riley.
During his trial, it wastheorized that Edward killed
Janet because he had developed asexual obsession with her.
According to Riley, Edward useda telescope to watch Janet
undress from across the street.
He also asserted that he wasfascinated with violence.
Edward refused to testify attrial.
(07:30):
Edward O'Brien Jr.
was found guilty and sentencedto life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
The jury had deliberated foreight hours before deciding that
Edward used extreme cruelty andatrocity when he killed Janet.
As the sentence was read aloud,his father gasped, Oh my God,
but Edward showed no emotion.
(07:51):
As he was led from thecourtroom, his father shouted,
We know you're innocent, we loveyou.
According to Edward's family,Janet's brother in law, Artie
Ortiz, was the real killer.
She was afraid of Artie Ortiz.
He murdered her, shoutedEdward's mother Trisha,
following the verdict.
You're a liar, you're a liar,screamed Janet's daughter,
(08:12):
Carrie Ann Downing.
Ortiz and his wife had livedwith Janet.
However, four months before hermurder, Janet kicked them out
after she discovered that Ortizhad been dealing drugs out of
the home.
Apparently, he refused to returnhis keys.
Ortiz was never even considereda suspect in Janet's murder.
According to Middlesex CountyDistrict Attorney Thomas Riley,
(08:34):
there was never any evidencepointing towards him being
guilty, but a profusion pointingtowards Edward.
It's a terrible injustice thathas been done by even bringing
in a man who is totally innocentinto this case by injecting his
name into this case, he said.
Trisha told people that Edwardwas a scapegoat.
She contended that Ortiz's cabwas towed from their street on
(08:55):
the night of the murder with atrail of blood beside it.
However, police stated that theblood was Edward's and the cab
was towed because Ortiz lost hiskeys in the confusion of the
murder.
Make no sense about it, it wasthe evidence that convicted
Edward O'Brien, said Riley.
In the book, The Politics ofMurder, Margot Nash, a trial
attorney assigned by the courtto be Edward's guardian,
(09:18):
highlighted some of the evidencewhich she claimed pointed
towards Edward being innocentand Ortiz guilty.
The attack was so vicious thatthere was blood across the
stairs and walls pooling at thefloor.
However, Edward had no blood onhim.
The prosecutor decided againstidentifying the DNA under
Janet's fingernails, as well asother DNA and fingerprints at
the scene.
(09:38):
Gina Mahoney, a neighbor, hadseen Ortiz entering Janet's home
when she was out several timesin the past.
Furthermore, before her murder,Janet had expressed her fears
about Ortiz.
When Mahoney asked to speak toinvestigators, they declined her
attempts to be interviewed.
They also refused to speak toVirginia Recly, who had
apparently heard a commotion ata point during the short time
(10:01):
window when the murder couldhave taken place, but when
witnesses had established thatEdward was elsewhere.
While the evidence againstEdward may have been compelling
at the time, the crime scene hadnot been adequately secured for
several hours, and while more isknown about forensic science
nowadays that may have raisedreasonable doubts in a jury's
mind.
In 2013, a ruling by theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial
(10:24):
Court ruled that juvenilesconvicted of murder serving a
mandatory life sentence shouldhave a chance at parole, meaning
Edward's case could go up forreview.
However, to be eligible forparole, Edward would have to
confess to the crime.
Since he professes hisinnocence, that is something he
is not willing to do.
Edward O'Brien Jr.
was convicted of the murder ofJanet Downing in 1996.
(10:47):
He was sixteen years old whenthe trial began in seventeen
when the verdict came down,guilty of first degree murder.
He's now serving a life sentencewithout the possibility of
parole.
To the prosecution, it was anopen and shut case.
The wounds on his hands, the DNAevidence.
The knife was allegedly found inhis room a violent crime.
(11:08):
A violent boy, case closed.
But if you look closer, thestory starts to shift.
The forensic evidence wascircumstantial.
The so called murder weaponwasn't conclusively tied to the
crime.
His wounds, they could beconsistent with defensive
injuries or with something elseentirely.
And despite the brutality of theattack, no physical evidence
(11:30):
definitively placed O'Brieninside the crime scene at the
time of the murder.
There was no confession, nowitnesses, no clear motive, just
a string of inferences and agrowing pressure to find someone
to blame.
He was a teenager with a darkimagination and a growing
interest in knives.
But does that make him a killer?
Some people say yes, othersaren't so sure.
(11:52):
Supporters of O'Brien, includingmembers of his family and a
small group of legal advocates,have continued to raise
questions about how theinvestigation was handled and
whether confirmation bias ledpolice to build a case around
him instead of following theevidence wherever it led.
Was justice truly served?
Or did the system fail a fifteenyear old boy and a murdered
(12:14):
mother by settling for the mostconvenient answer?
Janet Downing's family deservestruth.
Edward O'Brien deserves it too,because the horrifying reality
is this, if he didn't do it, thereal killer has never been
caught.
In the end, this case leaves uswith a haunting uncertainty
about guilt, innocence, and thefragile line between the two.
(12:34):
Thanks for joining us on HumanWreckage.
If you found this episodeunsettling, good, so did we.
Follow us for more true crimestories that challenge what we
think we know about human natureand the wreckage we leave
behind.
Welcome to Human Wreckage, the podcast that
(00:02):
explores the darkest corners ofhuman nature, where ordinary
lives are shattered byunimaginable violence, and the
line between reality andnightmare disappears.
Today's episode takes us to thequiet streets of Somerville,
Massachusetts, a close knitneighborhood just outside
Boston, where in the summer of1995 an unspeakable act of
brutality would forever alterthe lives of two families and
(00:25):
leave a community searching foranswers.
This is the story of EdwardO'Brien Jr., a well liked
fifteen year old high schoolsophomore.
Smart, charming, athletic, thekind of kid you wouldn't look at
twice, except maybe to say, thatboy's going places.
But on july twenty third,nineteen ninety five, the mass
dropped.
(00:45):
That afternoon, forty two yearold Janet Downing, a mother of
four and the single parent ofO'Brien's close friend, was
found brutally stabbed to deathin her home.
Her body was discovered by herteenage sons, her blood staining
the walls and floors of thehouse where she had tried to
raise her family in peace.
The attack was frenzied,vicious, overkill.
(01:06):
She had been stabbed nearly onehundred times.
At first, investigators werebaffled.
There was no forced entry.
Nothing stolen, no knownenemies, just a trail of blood,
and a teenage boy with wounds onhis hands, a strange
explanation, and more than a fewsecrets.
Within hours, suspicion turnedtoward Edward O'Brien junior,
(01:27):
the boy next door, the bestfriend of Janet's son, but no
one wanted to believe it.
How could a fifteen year oldcommit such a savage, calculated
murder?
How could someone so young becapable of that level of
violence?
As police pieced together theevidence, what emerged was a
chilling portrait of a teen witha dark imagination, a
fascination with knives andperhaps a hidden rage no one had
(01:50):
seen coming.
This wasn't just a murder.
It was a rupture in the fabricof a neighborhood, a crime so
shocking that it would sparknational headlines and a
courtroom battle over whether achild should be tried as an
adult for the ultimate crime.
Tonight we'll explore whathappened in that quiet
Somerville home.
We'll trace Edward O'Brien'sdescent into infamy, revisit the
(02:11):
trial that tested the limits ofjuvenile justice, and ask, What
really turns a teenager into akiller?
This is human wreckage, and thisis the story of Edward O'Brien
Junior.
(03:09):
rushed to the vehicle to carrythe grocery bags inside.
Standing at six feet four inchesand weighing two hundred sixty
pounds, Edward was described bythe locals as a gentle giant.
He was a former altar boy thatloved sports.
It started out as a typicalSunday.
It was a scorching hot summer'safternoon and Janet had done the
grocery shopping and stopped tochat to her neighbor.
(03:32):
They spoke of the shock of therecent unsolved murder of
seventeen year old DeannaKremen.
Little did they know that injust several hours another
murder would take place in theircity.
Janet decided to take a napafter putting the groceries
away.
Ryan and Edward had planned ongoing to the local swimming pool
that afternoon.
Why is your mother sleeping?
Edward inquired as he stoodstaring at Janet.
(03:54):
Ryan shrugged and said, Let's goswimming.
Edward decided against goingswimming and the duel went their
separate ways.
Some peculiar occurrences hadbeen happening in Janet's home
over the past several months.
Items appeared and thendisappeared including her
favorite Christmas decorationsand her daughter's house keys.
Someone put perfume in hercoffee, put windshield wiper
(04:16):
fluid in her car, and left a bagof clothing in her closet.
It wouldn't be until ten PMlater on that night that Ryan
came home from swimming andhanging out with his friends.
He was met by an unforgettablescene.
At some point between Ryanleaving the house and returning,
somebody had entered theirfamily home and brutally
murdered his mother.
Janet had been slashed andstabbed over ninety times.
(04:39):
Blood was spattered all acrossthe room and across the family
photographs.
Ryan ran across the street toEdward's home and told his
parents to call the police.
Edward O'Brien Sr.
ran to the Downing family homeafter calling the police,
assuming that some kind ofaccident had taken place.
He realized straight away thathe was in the middle of a
(04:59):
gruesome crime scene and thatthis certainly was no accident.
Who could do such a thing, hewondered.
Within days, however, his ownson would be charged with the
murder.
As police were rushing to thecrime scene, Edward Jr.
walked to the store where heworked part-time.
He told the manager that he hadbeen mugged and slashed with a
knife by muggers who he saidwere African American or
(05:21):
Hispanic.
He was reluctant to call thepolice, but the manager
persuaded him.
His hand was sliced up prettyseverely, and he had fresh
scratches and blood on his legs.
When police arrived to takeEdward's statement in regards to
the so called mugging, theybecame immediately suspicious.
The area Edward claimed he hadbeen mugged was a highly
trafficked area, yet nobody sawa thing.
(05:44):
They became even more suspiciouswhen Edward recited his address.
Three friends of Edward and Ryancame forward to recollect that
they had gone to Ryan's housethat night, but received no
answer at the door.
They stated that they heard loudnoises coming from the backyard.
When they went to investigate,they found Edward crouching in
the bushes.
They said he glanced and smiledat them before calmly walking
(06:06):
away without saying a word.
According to investigators, theyfound Edward's fingerprints and
blood on the front door, as wellas on a wooden post in the
cellar.
In addition, a knife hilt foundin Janet's home matched a knife
owned by Edward that they laterfound in the trash.
When Edward was arrested andcharged with Janet's murder, he
was unnaturally cool.
(06:27):
There was absolutely nothingcoming out of him.
Nothing, no fear, no screaming,I didn't do this.
Nothing in any way thatresembled what you might expect
out of a fifteen year old kidwho's being charged with cutting
up his best friend's mother.
His eyes were black.
Nothing there, it made my bloodrun cold.
Recalled Middlesex CountyDistrict Attorney Tom Riley.
(06:49):
While Edward initially claimedthat he hadn't been in the
Dowling home on the night of themurder, when presented with the
evidence that placed him at thescene, he changed his story.
He then claimed that he hadencountered a masked man over
the body of Janet and that theman threatened to kill him if he
told anybody about what he hadseen.
Edward was tried as an adult dueto the horrific nature of the
(07:09):
crime and an ambitious districtattorney, Thomas Riley.
During his trial, it wastheorized that Edward killed
Janet because he had developed asexual obsession with her.
According to Riley, Edward useda telescope to watch Janet
undress from across the street.
He also asserted that he wasfascinated with violence.
Edward refused to testify attrial.
(07:30):
Edward O'Brien Jr.
was found guilty and sentencedto life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
The jury had deliberated foreight hours before deciding that
Edward used extreme cruelty andatrocity when he killed Janet.
As the sentence was read aloud,his father gasped, Oh my God,
but Edward showed no emotion.
(07:51):
As he was led from thecourtroom, his father shouted,
We know you're innocent, we loveyou.
According to Edward's family,Janet's brother in law, Artie
Ortiz, was the real killer.
She was afraid of Artie Ortiz.
He murdered her, shoutedEdward's mother Trisha,
following the verdict.
You're a liar, you're a liar,screamed Janet's daughter,
(08:12):
Carrie Ann Downing.
Ortiz and his wife had livedwith Janet.
However, four months before hermurder, Janet kicked them out
after she discovered that Ortizhad been dealing drugs out of
the home.
Apparently, he refused to returnhis keys.
Ortiz was never even considereda suspect in Janet's murder.
According to Middlesex CountyDistrict Attorney Thomas Riley,
(08:34):
there was never any evidencepointing towards him being
guilty, but a profusion pointingtowards Edward.
It's a terrible injustice thathas been done by even bringing
in a man who is totally innocentinto this case by injecting his
name into this case, he said.
Trisha told people that Edwardwas a scapegoat.
She contended that Ortiz's cabwas towed from their street on
(08:55):
the night of the murder with atrail of blood beside it.
However, police stated that theblood was Edward's and the cab
was towed because Ortiz lost hiskeys in the confusion of the
murder.
Make no sense about it, it wasthe evidence that convicted
Edward O'Brien, said Riley.
In the book, The Politics ofMurder, Margot Nash, a trial
attorney assigned by the courtto be Edward's guardian,
(09:18):
highlighted some of the evidencewhich she claimed pointed
towards Edward being innocentand Ortiz guilty.
The attack was so vicious thatthere was blood across the
stairs and walls pooling at thefloor.
However, Edward had no blood onhim.
The prosecutor decided againstidentifying the DNA under
Janet's fingernails, as well asother DNA and fingerprints at
the scene.
(09:38):
Gina Mahoney, a neighbor, hadseen Ortiz entering Janet's home
when she was out several timesin the past.
Furthermore, before her murder,Janet had expressed her fears
about Ortiz.
When Mahoney asked to speak toinvestigators, they declined her
attempts to be interviewed.
They also refused to speak toVirginia Recly, who had
apparently heard a commotion ata point during the short time
(10:01):
window when the murder couldhave taken place, but when
witnesses had established thatEdward was elsewhere.
While the evidence againstEdward may have been compelling
at the time, the crime scene hadnot been adequately secured for
several hours, and while more isknown about forensic science
nowadays that may have raisedreasonable doubts in a jury's
mind.
In 2013, a ruling by theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial
(10:24):
Court ruled that juvenilesconvicted of murder serving a
mandatory life sentence shouldhave a chance at parole, meaning
Edward's case could go up forreview.
However, to be eligible forparole, Edward would have to
confess to the crime.
Since he professes hisinnocence, that is something he
is not willing to do.
Edward O'Brien Jr.
was convicted of the murder ofJanet Downing in 1996.
(10:47):
He was sixteen years old whenthe trial began in seventeen
when the verdict came down,guilty of first degree murder.
He's now serving a life sentencewithout the possibility of
parole.
To the prosecution, it was anopen and shut case.
The wounds on his hands, the DNAevidence.
The knife was allegedly found inhis room a violent crime.
(11:08):
A violent boy, case closed.
But if you look closer, thestory starts to shift.
The forensic evidence wascircumstantial.
The so called murder weaponwasn't conclusively tied to the
crime.
His wounds, they could beconsistent with defensive
injuries or with something elseentirely.
And despite the brutality of theattack, no physical evidence
(11:30):
definitively placed O'Brieninside the crime scene at the
time of the murder.
There was no confession, nowitnesses, no clear motive, just
a string of inferences and agrowing pressure to find someone
to blame.
He was a teenager with a darkimagination and a growing
interest in knives.
But does that make him a killer?
Some people say yes, othersaren't so sure.
(11:52):
Supporters of O'Brien, includingmembers of his family and a
small group of legal advocates,have continued to raise
questions about how theinvestigation was handled and
whether confirmation bias ledpolice to build a case around
him instead of following theevidence wherever it led.
Was justice truly served?
Or did the system fail a fifteenyear old boy and a murdered
(12:14):
mother by settling for the mostconvenient answer?
Janet Downing's family deservestruth.
Edward O'Brien deserves it too,because the horrifying reality
is this, if he didn't do it, thereal killer has never been
caught.
In the end, this case leaves uswith a haunting uncertainty
about guilt, innocence, and thefragile line between the two.
(12:34):
Thanks for joining us on HumanWreckage.
If you found this episodeunsettling, good, so did we.
Follow us for more true crimestories that challenge what we
think we know about human natureand the wreckage we leave
behind.
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