The Coroner’s Report

When the flames died, the spin began. Governor Orval Faubus tried to shift blame while reporters and investigators searched for answers. Deputy State Fire Marshal Bill Struebing examined the ashes, Dr. Howard A. Dishongh, Pulaski County coroner, signed the death certificates, and survivor Roy Davis kept telling the truth about what really happened. With commentary from Marlon Weems and historical insight from Dr. Brian Mitchell, Tr...

March 5, 1959—sixty-nine boys were locked inside a wooden dormitory as flames tore through the building. Twenty-one never made it out. Survivors Roy Davis, Archie Ray Poole, and Otis Sidney describe the terror of waking to smoke and locked exits, while fire investigators Jim Hawley and Keith Hulse, both retired New York City firefighters, explain how panic and bad design turned the dorm into a furnace. Superintendent Buddy Gaines, ...

It began as a promise and it ended in betrayal. In 1936, Arkansas built the Negro Boys’ Industrial School in Wrightsville, calling it a place for “wayward youth.” What they created was a prison farm for children. In this first episode, Tracey Carrington and Steve Nawojczyk uncover how decades of racism, neglect, and forced labor turned a so-called reform school into a deathtrap. With historian Dr. Brian Mitchell exposing the state’...

In the final part of our three-part series on Ruth Sumlin, The Coroner’s Report follows the case from the discovery of J.Y. “Shorty” Cooper’s mutilated body along a logging road, through Ruth’s shocking confessions, and into the courtroom battles that sealed her fate.

We trace how investigators, including retired Arkansas State Police investigator David Hendershott, pieced together evidence linking Ruth to the jailbreak, the shooti...

In Part Two of Ruth Sumlin-For the Love of a Good Woman, The Coroner’s Report presents a story that turns darker and more violent. What began as whispered plans between husband and wife explodes on Thanksgiving night, 1977. Before Ruth can even step inside the Columbia County jail, she lures Shorty Cooper into the woods—where liquor, sex, and violence end in his brutal murder and mutilation.

With Shorty’s car, 22 year old  Ruth the...

In this first installment of Ruth Sumlin-For the Love of a Good Woman, The Coroner’s Report uncovers the beginnings of one of Arkansas’s strangest true crimes. Before the gunfire and the castration, there was Ruth Brewer—a bright college student from small southern town with a promising future. That future began to unravel the night she met Warren Sumlin, a 44-year-old career criminal with a violent past and a plan to never see the...

Join former coroner and Arkansas State Crime Lab Director Steve Nawojczyk and his partner, Tracey Carrington as they wrap up their dive into serial killing, black widow, Nannie Doss. With original records and an interview with one of Nannie's living descendants, we learn the true story of what happened. In Episode 6 Part 4 of The Coroner's Report Podcast, we learn the fate of Nannie and how she lived out the rest of her life. Lucki...

Join former coroner and Arkansas State Crime Lab Director Steve Nawojczyk and his partner, Tracey Carrington as they dive back into the story of Nannie Doss who killed four of her five husbands and countless family members. Yet, her story was almost lost to time. With original records and an interview with one of Nannie's living descendants, we learn the true story of what happened. But, that body count? Well, sometimes secrets lik...

Join former coroner and state crime lab director Steve Nawojczyk and his partner, Tracey Carrington as they dive back into the story of Nannie Doss who killed four of her five husbands and countless family members. Yet, her story was almost lost to time. With original records and an interview with one of Nannie's living descendants, we learn the true story of what happened. But, that body count? Well, sometimes secrets like that ju...

Join the Coroner’s Report Podcast with Steve Nawojczyk and Tracey Carrington as they continue the search for two missing cousins in two different states. Episode 5-Part 3 moves this double case from Arkansas to Peoria, Arizona, where Pam Frisby Page went missing just three years after her cousin, Darla. The circumstances were the same. Was this just a coincidence? Did lightning strike this family twice? Where did these women go and...

Join the Coroner’s Report Podcast with Steve Nawojczyk and Tracey Carrington as they dive into the case of two missing cousins. Part 2 focuses on the Darla Harper case. Listen as the investigators and family members discuss what they remember about the case.  Of course, Darla wasn't the only missing family member. What happened?  Did the husbands do it, or was something more sinister at play? Now streaming on all podcast platforms,...

Join the Coroner’s Report Podcast with Steve Nawojczyk and Tracey Carrington as they dive into the case of two missing cousins. The first case takes place in Arkansas in 1986 when Darla Harper, a young single mother, vanishes from her apartment in the middle of the night, leaving almost no clues. Then, three years later, in Arizona, Darla’s first cousin, Pam Page, also disappears. Were the cases somehow connected? Did the husbands ...

Imagine living a long life struggling with a handicap, only to die and lose your name. Even more…imagine becoming more famous in death than you were in life…yet still have no name. 

Join the Coroner’s Report Podcast as we dive into the mystery over 110 years in the making. Just who was Old Mike, and how did his body end up mummified and on display at an Arkansas funeral home for over 60 years? 

Unravel the details of his story as w...

We have reached the conclusion of the sixth and final installment of the Miss Maybelline, the Pied Piper, and a Clown Named Hobby series. Experts have proven that the fire at the Maybelline manor was intentionally set. We have also discussed the three likely persons of interest. We will follow the aftermath of the tragic death of the Maybelline Queen and the impact that her demise had on those who loved her. Join us as we uncover t...

Miss Maybelline, Evelyn Williams, heiress to the Maybelline cosmetic fortune, is dead. Her body was discovered in the hallway of her charred lakefront home. No, the doorknob wasn’t in her hand, and she didn’t struggle to get out of the house. There were no signs of any struggle at all. Our fire experts have determined that the fire was not accidental, with evidence of multiple ignition sources. These experts find it highly unlikely...

In Episode 3, Part 3 of this 6-part series, Our story continues after Evelyn Williams divorces her grifting husband, Hobby Derrick. She settles into her new life in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but Hobby's Skating Rink is a financial drain. Miss Maybelline decided to flip the skating rink into a dinner theatre with the help of trusty wigmaker, Danny King. Sadly, Evelyn died in a house fire the day after her dinner theatre opened. So what...

In Episode 2 of this 6-part series, our story continues featuring Evelyn Williams who married into the family who founded the cosmetic company, Maybelline. Episode 2 picks up in the 1960s in California as Evelyn inherits her fortune and starts looking for love in all the wrong places, unveiling a tangled web of jealousy, deception, and intrigue that ultimately leads to her tragic demise in Arkansas. Join us as we explore the hidden...