PODCAST · true crime
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book
by Donna Waters
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book is where the story continues—beyond what could be written, and into what still lingers.In this podcast, Donna Waters revisits the real-life story behind Wrong Ride Home, sharing the moments that didn't make it onto the page, the emotions that never really settled, and the questions that still don't have clear answers.Through honest reflection and immersive storytelling, each episode explores the deeper human side of the case—the impact, the uncertainty, and the quiet weight of living with a story that doesn't end when the book does.This isn't just a retelling.It's what comes after.
Episodes
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Epilogue: Forget Me Not!
Day 3,408. Thirty-three episodes. Eight months. One story that refuses to be forgotten. When I began this podcast, I wanted to take you beyond the pages of Wrong Ride Home. I wanted you to hear the testimony, examine the evidence, question the investigation, and decide for yourself whether…
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The Chapter I Hid: The Story That Changed Me
There is a chapter of Wrong Ride Home that no one has ever read. I wrote it. I finished it. And then I hid it. Not because I stopped believing there were serious questions surrounding Austin Burke's conviction, but because when I went back and read it, I could hear how angry I was. Somewhere…
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Chapter Seventeen: He Said, She Said Conviction, Part Two
This episode takes us back to Pizza Joe's. Unlike so much of this case, this crime was captured on camera. We can see the robber. We can see the clothing. We can measure the time. But the one thing the video cannot clearly tell us is who was underneath the mask. So in Part Two, I go back through...
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Chapter Seventeen: He Said, She Said Conviction, Part One
How did conflicting witness statements become a conviction? In this episode of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, I revisit the testimony that helped convict Austin Burke of Brandon Sample's murder. We examine injuries that raised unanswered questions, allegations of burned clothing at the Roupe...
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Chapter Sixteen — But Wait There's More, Part Two
Just when I think I finally understand this case, another file appears. Another report. Another interview. Another video. Another question that somehow survived for years without a clear answer. In Episode 29 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, I continue Chapter Sixteen: But Wait There's More....
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Chapter Fifteen: Defense Mistakes? Part Two
In Part One, I corrected something I wrote in my own book: Austin's defense did challenge the State's case. Part Two asks a harder question: What did they investigate for themselves? We look at Brandon's Malibu, his final phone activity, the video evidence witnesses claimed supported their…
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Chapter Fifteen: Defense Mistakes? Part One
When I wrote Chapter Fifteen of Wrong Ride Home, I believed Austin Burke's defense attorneys failed to challenge the State's case. After spending thousands of hours going back through the trial transcripts, exhibits, testimony, phone evidence, and court records... I need to correct my own…
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Chapter Fourteen: Injustice Downloading, Part 2
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Chapter Fourteen: Injustice Downloading...
The trial was over. Austin Burke had been convicted, sentenced to 47 years to life, and transferred into the Ohio prison system. But for Jamie, the fight was only beginning. In this episode of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, we enter Chapter Fourteen and a completely different part of the…
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Chapter Thirteen: 12 Minutes
A guilty verdict ended the trial. But it didn't end the questions. In Episode 24 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, we move into Chapter 13 and the day Austin Burke learned just how much of his life the State of Ohio intended to take. Before sentencing, his attorneys made one last attempt to...
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Bonus Episode: The Story the Jury Was Given, Part Two: When the Story Became Proof
In Part One, we looked at how the State's case was built. In Part Two, we test it. This episode looks at what happened after the pieces had already been arranged into one complete story. What evidence was lost, destroyed, never collected, or never fully tested? Which witnesses stayed closest to...
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Bonus Episode: The Story the Jury Was Given, Part One: How the Pieces Became a Story
By the time the State rested its case against Austin Burke, the jury had been given what sounded like one complete story. There were witnesses who said Austin confessed. There was Hatchet Man Road. There was a distinctive silver gun Austin had been photographed holding. There were phone records,...
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Chapter Twelve: Closing Statements and a Jury's Verdict
For nearly two weeks, the jury listened. They heard detectives explain the investigation. They heard friends accuse friends. They watched surveillance videos, examined photographs, and listened as experts tried to make sense of the evidence left behind. Now, the witnesses were gone. The evidence...
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Chapter 11: Case Closed?
After three days of testimony, the State rested its case. Jurors had heard from investigators, forensic experts, eyewitnesses, jailhouse witnesses, family members, and friends. They had been shown photographs, surveillance videos, phone records, and countless exhibits. By the end of the day, the...
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Chapter Eleven: Case Closed Part One
For the first time, the jury hears from the people who were together on the night Pizza Joe's was robbed. Friends. Witnesses who all describe the same evening—but not exactly the same way. What began as a day at Willow Lake ended inside Melanie Engle's apartment, where a group of young adults...
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Special Episode: When the Detective Took the Stand – Part Two
Detective John Greaver spent nearly two days on the witness stand explaining how the State built its case against Austin Burke. But every investigation must eventually face its toughest test: cross-examination. In Part Two of this special episode, we slow down and examine what Detective Greaver...
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Special Episode: When the Detective Took the Stand
For the first time in this series, we're stepping away from the chapter-by-chapter format to focus on one witness whose testimony shaped nearly every part of the State's case. Detective John Greaver wasn't just another witness. He was the lead investigator. The detective who interviewed…
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Chapter 10: Conflicting Stories – Part Two
The prosecution's case continues as the jury begins hearing from experts, investigators, and witnesses whose testimony was meant to strengthen the State's theory. But does the evidence actually support the stories the jury has already heard? In this episode, we examine testimony about cell phone...
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Chapter Ten: Conflicting Stories - Part One
After two episodes filled with alleged confessions and conflicting witness accounts, the prosecution finally begins presenting the evidence jurors had been waiting for. In this episode, we hear from the officer who discovered Brandon Sample's abandoned Malibu, Brandon's father as he recalls the...
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Chapter Nine: Stories of Betrayal, Part Two
By the end of the day, the prosecution finally had what it had promised the jury during opening statements: witnesses who claimed that Austin Burke had confessed. Nathan Moats, Rickey Roupe, and Deidre Keener each took the stand and told jurors what they believed happened to Brandon Sample. The...
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Chapter Nine: Stories of Betrayal- Part One
After nearly nine months of investigations, motions, media coverage, and preparation, the trial of Austin Burke finally begins. In this episode, we take a detailed look at the opening statements presented to the jury and the first witnesses called to testify. Prosecutors lay out the timeline they...
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Chapter Eight: Welcome, Jury
After nine months of investigations, interviews, arrests, media coverage, and legal battles, Austin Burke's case finally reaches trial. But before a single witness testifies, before opening statements begin, and before any evidence is presented, twelve strangers are selected to decide his future....
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Chapter Seven: Loading a Trial...
Episode 11 takes listeners into the months before Austin Burke's trial, where the pressure surrounding the case was already building long before a jury heard the first witness. In this chapter, we examine the decision to combine two separate cases into one trial, the motions filed by the defense,...
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Chapter Five — Stepping Into Ohio's Judicial System (Part Two)
Episode 9 dives deeper into the investigation that continued long after Austin Burke was already sitting in jail. In Chapter Five: Stepping into Ohio's Judicial System — Part Two, we examine the witness interviews, shifting timelines, and growing inconsistencies that continued unfolding behind…
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Chapter Five — Stepping Into Ohio's Judicial System (Part One)
This is the moment everything changes. Up until now, this case has been about questions—timelines, witness statements, and what may or may not have happened. But in Episode 8, the system steps in. And once it does… it doesn't stop. Within 72 hours of Austin Burke's arrest, the legal process…
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Chapter Four: Arrested — Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Chapter Four: Arrested — Guilty Until Proven Innocent What happens after the arrest… is where everything really begins. In this episode, we step inside June 21, 2017—the day Austin Burke wakes up in a jail cell and his life changes in ways he couldn't have imagined. But this isn't just about an...
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Chapter Three: In Pursuit of a Warrant- Part 2
We're back inside the investigation—and this is where things start to shift. In this episode, we take a closer look at the statements that helped build the case. Not just what was said, but how those statements changed… and how they line up against each other. Because when you slow it all down…
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Hatchet Man Road: The Legend, the Location, and the Lead That Wasn't Followed (Ohio True Crime)
Hatchet Man Road. If you've heard of it, you probably already have a version of the story. A road in Trumbull County. A house in the woods. A man with a hatchet. But depending on who you ask… the details don't stay the same. In this special episode, we step away from the timeline—just for a...
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Chapter Three: In Pursuit of a Warrant Part One
This is where everything shifts. What started as a missing person case is now a homicide—and instead of slowing down to build a full timeline, the investigation begins to take direction. In this episode, I walk through the first major witness interview with Josh White—the person who said he was…
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Chapter Two: The First 48 Hours
Episode 3 takes us into the first 48 hours of Brandon Sample's disappearance — the hours that should have mattered most. What starts as an abandoned car on a bike trail quickly turns into something much more complicated. A missing person report. Conflicting statements. Tips that don't quite line...
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Chapter One: Wrong Ride Home
Episode 2: Chapter One — Wrong Ride Home Before there was an arrest… there was a normal day. In this episode, we slow everything down and go back to where this story really begins—June 11, 2017. A family outing. A simple decision. A ride that, at the time, didn't seem like it mattered. But it…
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Finding Our Voices Together
Before the story unfolds, there's a moment where everything is quiet—and you have to decide if you're ready to speak. In this first episode of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, Donna Waters opens the door to the journey ahead, not just as a storyteller, but as someone still learning how to carry…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book is where the story continues—beyond what could be written, and into what still lingers.In this podcast, Donna Waters revisits the real-life story behind Wrong Ride Home, sharing the moments that didn't make it onto the page, the emotions that never really settled, and the questions that still don't have clear answers.Through honest reflection and immersive storytelling, each episode explores the deeper human side of the case—the impact, the uncertainty, and the quiet weight of living with a story that doesn't end when the book does.This isn't just a retelling.It's what comes after.
HOSTED BY
Donna Waters
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book have?
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book currently has 33 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book about?
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book is where the story continues—beyond what could be written, and into what still lingers.In this podcast, Donna Waters revisits the real-life story behind Wrong Ride Home, sharing the moments that didn't make it onto the page, the emotions that never really settled,...
How often does Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book release new episodes?
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book has 33 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book?
You can listen to Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book?
Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book is created and hosted by Donna Waters.
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