Episode 7: The Guilty Party

For Temujin Kensu to have a chance at leaving prison, his legal team would have to convince courts that another person killed Scott Macklem. There are theories pointing to at least three suspects. Can any new evidence emerge after so many decades? And what does it do to the criminal legal system wh…

Episode 6: The Women

Note: This episode contains descriptions of rape and sexual assault. With his state and federal appeals almost exhausted, Temujin Kensu turns to the work of private investigators like Herb Welser, who’ve managed to uncover new evidence in his case. But the law still has a problem with Temujin, a p…

Episode 5: Time Barred

The trial of Temujin Kensu had happened quickly, just six months from arrest to verdict. What came next was unbearably slow. And with every year that passed, his odds of getting out of prison would go down. But then, one judge decided to rule in his favor. Was this his chance?  You can hear the en…

Episode 4: The Alibi

At trial, Temujin Kensu’s defense is simple — he was across the state when the crime occurred. In court, he brings multiple witnesses to testify that they saw him in the Upper Peninsula, more than 400 miles from Port Huron. But then prosecutor Robert Cleland pulls an unusual Hail Mary. You can hea…

Episode 3: The Ninja

In November 1986, Robert Cleland was the head prosecutor in St. Clair County, Michigan. The morning after Cleland lost a statewide race for Attorney General, Scott Macklem was murdered. Cleland decided to prosecute the case himself, depicting the defendant as a dangerous ninja out for revenge. You…

Episode 2: The Hypnotist

Temujin Kensu spent much of his youth wandering, mainly in his home state of Michigan. In 1986 he and his then-fiancée moved to a cabin outside Port Huron, where he briefly dated someone else. A few weeks later, he and his fiancée moved again, more than 400 miles away, to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula…

Episode 1: The Good Cop

On the morning of November 5th, 1986, students at a community college in Port Huron, Michigan, heard the sound of what many thought was a car backfiring. It was a gunshot, and it killed a student named Scott Macklem. The murder would leave the community shocked, and police baffled. Until they found…

Trailer: The Backfire Effect

In 1986, a man named Scott Macklem was killed in broad daylight. Eight days later, a suspect was arrested. But now, almost 40 years later, reporter Josie Duffy Rice is re-examining this case. Has the wrong man been in prison this whole time? New episodes drop September 14. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to…

Lost Hills is Becoming Examined

Lost Hills has been quiet for a bit, so we've decided to do something different: turn this feed into a home for a new kind of story, told fresh each season. Starting this fall, this feed becomes Examined — a show about overlooked cases that never got the real investigation they deserved and need to…

Episode 8: The Finish Line | Valley of Shadows

A reunion between two retired detectives brings new focus to the Aujay investigation, just as Hayley and Betsy find out about another tragedy in the Punchbowl area. When a woman and her father are shot dead in deputy Engels’ home, the fatalities should’ve prompted the sheriff’s department to take a…