Sword and Scale Episode 292

One morning, seven-year-old Adrian woke up to a confusing and upsetting scene at home. As he tries to understand what's happening, we learn about the hidden problems and growing conflicts among the adults in his life. This child's confusion turns into a harsh reality that will have a lasting impact on his world.

It was the trial heard around the country: The Black Swan Murder. Beautiful ballerina and former Trump groupie, Ashley Benefield, shot and killed her husband, claiming self-defense. But was it really that innocent? Was Ashley a victim of years of torture, or was she just a drama queen in an echo chamber of her own lies?

When 14-year-old Alianna Defreeze didn’t come home from school one January afternoon, her parents knew something terrible had happened. Police would follow clues from video surveillance to find the monster that was responsible for one of the most unjust crimes Cleveland had ever seen.

On January 11, 2018, a routine house fire revealed something much more sinister. 28-year-old Elisabeth Bell had burned to death on the second floor of her small eastside home in Buffalo. But as investigators pieced together the how, the real mystery remained as to why?