Episode 2: When Ivan Met Amy

March 24, 2024·58 min·4 clips

"I have not been able to use the phone for nearly 20 years" — a death row inmate's first phone call in two decades opens the episode.

The episode opens on a voicemail from about twenty years ago. Ivan says he has not been able to use a phone for nearly 20 years, and the call becomes a way back into a case where contact, follow-up, and memory all seem tangled. Ivan's version of the night takes center stage. He describes being at James's house with Amy K., talking about Matt the pizza man, moving between the foyer, the living room, and the bedroom, and noticing Amy K. on the phone with her mother while the evening kept unfolding. The timeline is the point. Ivan says James seemed to believe him, even after hearing about Matt and hearing the complaint that money was owed, and the episode uses that to keep the focus on how the conversation unfolded before the violence. James then asks for a favor. According to Ivan, James wants the Honda Accord left out front to make it look like he had company for the evening, because he owes someone a lot of money. Ivan hesitates. He says he had plans to go out with Amy B. and then leave for Arkansas in the morning, but he finally agrees to leave the Accord and use Amy K.'s Mercedes until the morning. The route gets very specific. Ivan says he takes the Mercedes, notices it is low on fuel, stops at the Texaco at Frankford and the North Dallas Tollway, picks up a few items at Albertson's on the same corner, and heads back to the apartment shortly after midnight. That is where Amy's accusation lands. She says Ivan came home with bloody clothes, while Ivan insists he was never wearing bloody clothes because he never killed James or anyone else. The episode keeps the dispute alive rather than smoothing it over. It returns to busted alibis, lies people have caught, and the sense that everyone is pointing at someone else while the official account stays contested. Ivan describes the stakes in blunt terms. He says trial leaves him one shot at being found not guilty or else prison and death row, and the show leaves that fear hanging over every claim that follows. The ending widens the search. It asks for tips on Raina, gives contact information for the podcast, and closes with a case that still depends on more names, more memory, and more proof.

As heard by us

An old voicemail, a disputed account, and a timeline that never quite settles.

The old voicemail gives the episode its best jolt. The case keeps circling the same pressure points: who said what, when it was said, and why the obvious people were not contacted sooner.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a 20-year-old voicemail and Ivan's side of the story to reopen the timeline, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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