On today’s episode of True Crime Time For, Woody welcomes September and looks ahead to Labor Day weekend while hoping the holiday does not bring the violent crime and mass shootings that so often dominate the news. He reminds listeners that those stories will be covered as they develop before getting into the day’s true crime.
Khalil Wheeler-Weaver and the Murder of Robin West
For On This Day in Crime, Woody looks back to September 1, 2016, and the murder of 19-year-old Robin West, the first known victim of New Jersey serial killer Khalil Wheeler-Weaver.
West was seen getting into Wheeler-Weaver’s vehicle on the night of August 31. Prosecutors said Wheeler-Weaver strangled her, left her body inside an abandoned home in Orange, New Jersey, and set the building on fire. Her remains were so badly burned that identification took approximately two weeks.
Wheeler-Weaver went on to murder Joanne Brown and Sarah Butler and was convicted of kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder in his attack on Tiffany Taylor, who survived. A jury convicted him in 2019, and in 2021 he was sentenced to 160 years in prison, with 145 years required before parole eligibility.
Woody plays audio from Wheeler-Weaver’s sentencing, where victims’ families pleaded with the judge to show the killer no mercy. Despite his convictions, Wheeler-Weaver continued to maintain his innocence.
Woody focuses on what that denial means to the families—and to Taylor, who survived his attack and testified against him.
Nearly 25 Years Later: Where Is Justice for 9/11?
As the anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, Woody turns to something he says remains personally difficult for him to discuss: 9/11.
The focus is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the extraordinary length of the military-commission proceedings at Guantánamo Bay.
Woody discusses why the case has dragged on for decades, the complications created by the military-commission system, disputes surrounding statements made during interrogations, previous attempts to reach plea agreements, and the enormous emotional toll the process continues to have on victims’ families.
His central question is simple: How can a case involving one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history remain unresolved nearly a quarter-century later?
Family Matters: Meeting His Biological Father Ends in Death
In Family Matters, Woody travels across the pond for the unusual case of Martin Greensmith, who is on trial for manslaughter after an encounter with Stephen Shevels, the man Greensmith had only recently learned was his biological father.
According to the account presented at trial, Greensmith was at a pub with family when his mother identified Shevels as his father. Greensmith said Shevels had never been part of his life and that he had no desire to establish a relationship with him.
The two later encountered one another in the pub’s beer garden. Greensmith testified that he felt intimidated when Shevels approached him and claimed he pushed him only to create distance. Shevels fell, struck his head, and later died from the injury.
Greensmith denies manslaughter and told jurors that he never intended to fight or kill his biological father. The trial was ongoing at the time covered in the episode.
Who Wanted Chicago Mail Carrier Octavia Redmond Dead?
Then Woody covers the disturbing murder of Octavia Redmond, a 48-year-old U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, wife, and mother who was gunned down while working her route on Chicago’s South Side in July 2024.
Redmond was shot multiple times at close range and later died at a hospital.
The investigation eventually expanded beyond the teenage shooter. Prosecutors allege the killing was planned in advance and that Redmond’s mail route had been watched before her murder. Woody discusses the allegations that the teenage gunman was threatened into carrying out the shooting and the still-lingering question at the center of the case:
Why was a mail carrier targeted for murder?
Livingston Parish: A Newborn Killed Minutes After Birth
Woody ends the episode close to home in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, with an extraordinarily difficult case involving a teenage mother and her newborn baby.
According to prosecutors, the girl was only 14 when she gave birth to a full-term, living infant inside her bedroom in 2025. Authorities alleged that she then used a sharp object to inflict fatal injuries to the newborn’s neck and concealed the baby’s body inside a tote in the bedroom.
The state attempted to have the juvenile prosecuted as an adult for first-degree murder, but the transfer was denied because of her age. The teenager was ultimately adjudicated in juvenile court and committed to the custody of Louisiana’s Office of Juvenile Justice until her 21st birthday.
Woody wrestles with whether that outcome constitutes justice for the newborn while also acknowledging that there may be circumstances involving the young mother’s age, development, or mental condition that are not apparent from the basic facts reported publicly.
He also focuses on another group profoundly affected by cases like this: the deputies, detectives, medical personnel, and forensic professionals who must recover and examine the body of a murdered newborn.
Woody closes by telling the Lifers that significant developments are coming in the cases RLRC has been working—particularly What Happened to Madison—and asks listeners for patience: “Just wait.”
True Crime Time For, Real Life Real Crime, Woody Overton, Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, Robin West, Joanne Brown, Sarah Butler, Tiffany Taylor, New Jersey serial killer, dating app killer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, September 11, 9/11, Guantánamo Bay, military commission, Martin Greensmith, Stephen Shevels, Octavia Redmond, Chicago mail carrier, USPS, postal worker murder, Livingston Parish, Louisiana crime, juvenile murder, newborn murder, juvenile justice, What Happened to Madison, true crime podcast
- Khalil Wheeler-Weaver
- Robin West murder
- Joanne Brown
- Sarah Butler
- Tiffany Taylor
- Dating-app serial killer
- 160-year prison sentence
- September 11 attacks
- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
- Guantánamo Bay
- Military commissions
- 9/11 victims’ families
- Martin Greensmith
- Stephen Shevels
- Manslaughter trial
- Octavia Redmond
- Chicago postal worker murder
- Planned murder allegations
- Livingston Parish newborn murder
- Juvenile first-degree murder
- Louisiana juvenile justice
- What Happened to Madison
- Khalil Wheeler-Weaver targeted women he believed were vulnerable, but the evidence—and the determination of victims and their loved ones—ultimately helped put him away for what effectively amounts to life.
- Robin West was a person, not simply the first name on a serial killer’s victim list. Her murder began a series of killings that eventually resulted in Wheeler-Weaver’s 160-year sentence.
- The 9/11 military-commission proceedings demonstrate how procedural and constitutional issues can make even an enormously consequential criminal case extraordinarily complicated and prolonged.
- Octavia Redmond’s murder raises an unanswered question: why was a postal worker allegedly surveilled and targeted in a planned killing?
- The Livingston Parish case presents an exceptionally difficult collision between the killing of a newborn and a defendant who was herself only 14 years old when the crime occurred.
- Woody ends September’s first episode with a message for everyone following RLRC’s ongoing investigations: developments are coming, and he will share them when he can.
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