Cousins by Blood · Matt Duff

Episode 14: What's Amy Been Up To?

March 10, 2024·32 min·2 clips
Jeff Boettcher testified that Ivan asked him to help clean up after he murdered his cousin James — but nobody outside the Boettcher siblings ever heard Ivan say anything like it.
The fear comes first. Through TJ, Amy sounds worried that talking to the podcast could bring trouble. The host reads it a little differently: maybe the scarier thing is someone getting close to the truth. So before Amy's interview, TJ fills in the recent contact, the nervousness, and the case around her. Ivan's situation sits in the background: one chance to be found not guilty, with prison and death row on the line, and a file crowded with bad alibis, lies, and people blaming each other. Then the courtroom record takes over. Jeff Boettcher is asked about his drug use, Amy's drug use, and how often he was around Ivan Cantu. His answers hit hard. He says he saw Ivan every day with a chrome gun with a black handle, kept in a jacket pocket. He also says Ivan called the ammunition cop killers because it would go through bulletproof vests. Then Jeff gives the claim that lands the hardest: Ivan asked him to clean up after he killed James, tied to cocaine, marijuana, and cash. The host does not just nod along. He says it sounds damning, especially next to Amy Boettcher's testimony, but he keeps drawing the line around who heard Ivan say any of it. In his framing, only Jeff and Amy Boettcher put those words in Ivan's mouth. The doubt sits right there, between a scary story, a court record, and a very small circle of witnesses.

As heard by us

A measured case update built from interviews, contradictions, and one sharp thread.

What's Amy Been Up To? follows a recent neighbor interview and folds in Amy's account to keep fear, rumor, and the search for truth in view. The episode moves between what TJ said in October and what Amy later described, which gives the story its shape.

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Why you'd press play

You want a true-crime update that keeps pressure on every claim.

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