On the Case: True Crime Recaps
Lashanda Wilder's girlfriend pleads guilty to son's murder; Katelynn Hipes denied bond a second time; the final installment of "Fatal Maternity"
Okay, we are back and hopefully back on track. When I said I was going to write a piece into “Fatal Maternity” about wrongful convictions, I had NO idea the rabbit hole of discredited expert witnesses, junk science, and cases I would willingly jump down not knowing how far it went.
There I was, almost 8,000 words into that piece and I realized, “Well, this is going to be its own series, isn’t it?”
And soon, it will. For the time being, “Fatal Maternity” is done and I am going to take a break from the long-form posts for the month of July to finish up my book, “Beyond Dark 2: Gravedigger.” I have final edits to finish, it has to go to my editor, and I need to get cover art done for both books 1 and 2. The pre-publishing stage takes some time, hence my need for a semi-break from Substack. Regular updates will still go up and this newsletter will still go out every second Friday in the time being. Then, we’ll jump into wrongful convictions.
This might give me some time to write a bit ahead on that series too so I get a bit of a head start. These series take a lot of time. I do a lot of scrolling through searches, reading scholarly papers and old articles, getting details of cases, backgrounds, and organizing it all into a list of coherent thoughts I can translate into a piece that makes sense to readers. Then I write and edit. It takes a lot of time away from book writing, and while I love this blog, my main focus is on my books. If you find you need some extra reading during my semi-break, I have two books published as of now (One in the “Beyond Dark” series, and a novella call “Martha Holmes Mysteries”)! Writing “Beyond Dark” is what prompted me to start this true crime blog with the focus on female killers. It’s become much more than I ever expected.
Beyond Dark - a crime fiction series
Veteran criminal psychologist, Agent Alyssa Rawkesby, has spent her career studying, chasing and arresting the most prolific female serial killers around the world. She delves into the terrifying minds of women who kill, minds that, sometimes, are too similar to her own. They are mothers, daughters, grandmothers and they seem perfectly normal. But as th…
So, bear with me for the month. I appreciate it. As I frequently, we are only human and need to know our limits. I hit mine and need to shift focus for a few weeks.
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Pre-Headlines
I saw a headline in the Boston Globe (story was behind a paywall, so I didn’t get to read the whole thing) about how Lindsay Clancy is to undergo testing this fall in regards to her defense of being not guilty due to suffering postpartum psychosis at the time she allegedly murdered her kids. NBC also reported that a court hearing was held for which she didn’t appear. It was a quick one, and the next hearing is August 25, 2025. Attorneys said they remain on schedule to start the trial in Feb. 2026.
Do you have any ideas for cases I should cover, old or new? Feel free to let me know! I am open to suggestions!
If you want to catch up, or just want to browse my backlog of content, please check out the “On the Case Index,” where I keep a documented list of my stories and categorize them for your convenience. It’s frequently updated.
On the Case: Index
In order to help readers navigate my backlog of content, I have accumulated the current stories we’re following, “Case Files”, and other series into this index. “Headlines” is for the cases we are currently following. The stories listed first are the “top stories,” so to speak, with the most recent update on the rest of the cases following that.
Lashanda Wilder’s girlfriend has pleaded guilty in her involvement in the murder of Wilder’s 8-year-old son, Martonio.
Lashanda Wilder: Girlfriend pleads guilty to involvement in murder of Wilder's son
A woman charged with the death of her girlfriend’s son has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to life in prison.
Katelynn Hipes has been denied bond a second time in the alleged murder of Kevin Small, and a few more details emerged about what possibly happened.
Katelynn Hipes: Denied bond for a second time in death of Virginia man; new details emerge about alleged murder
A woman charged with murdering a man in Shipman, Virginia, has been denied bond for a second time, according to WSET.
The final installment of the “Fatal Maternity” series: Child Survivors. We explore the aftermath of filicide by looking at the children who survive the wrath of their mothers, no matter the motive for the crime. I felt it was important to end this series with a focus on the true victims of filicide as there was such a heavy focus on the mothers. But we can’t forget the children who suffered. It leaves a long-lasting impact on those who survive. They grieve for the siblings they lost, the mothers they lost to suicide or prison, and the loss of their innocence. They endure this trauma for the rest of their lives.
Fatal Maternity (Part 9): Child Survivors
Trigger warning: I don’t always add these warnings (this is true crime, I feel like people expect some level of graphic and potentially triggering content) but this includes some discussion of severe child abuse and attempted filicide. I minimized most graphic content for the duration of this series, and here I tried to keep it as subtle as possible, bu…
Final Thoughts
Thank you for coming along with me on the “Fatal Maternity” journey. I wrote it back when I was on Medium (save for the wrongful conviction addition). Rereading and rewriting these to add new information and new perspectives made it a whole new journey all over again. I hope you learned as much reading this as I did writing it. Murder isn’t always as black and white as it’s made it out to be.
So, what’s next? I have lots in store. I’ll delve into the wrongful conviction series once I am done with pre-publishing stuff for my book. I have a series on Susan Smith, who drowned her sons in 1994, to post, and a series about parricide called “Dangerous Daughters,” about daughters who murder their parent(s). And I have a series planned but not yet written about Black Widows, women who kill spouses and children, or any family member, for financial gain.
So many rabbit holes, so little time. Stick around, there’s so much to come. As always, take care of yourselves and each other.
— Lav