Obscura: A True Crime Podcast · Justin Drown

MURDERED: Leah Kline & Vivian James | Jacksonville, Florida 2019

·32 min·2 clips

On Christmas Day 2019, Perkins strangled Leah Klein at a west side motel and left her body in a dumpster.

1. Obscura: A True Crime Podcast examines the Jacksonville murders of Leah Klein and Vivian James in December 2019. 2. The episode is anchored by host narration and transcripted police interviews involving Zebulon Lorenzo Perkins Sr., whose arrest history matters to the case. 3. The core question is how a Christmas weekend in Jacksonville turned into two killings tied to the same man. 4. A 911 call from Jacksonville opens the episode with a report of a friend lying on the floor, not breathing, and with purple hands. 5. The narration then places Zebulon Lorenzo Perkins Sr. at the center of a long Jacksonville criminal record that began in 2012. 6. The episode says Perkins was arrested nine times by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office between 2012 and 2019. 7. It specifically names 2014 domestic battery, domestic battery by strangulation, domestic assault, and a 2015 battery charge involving a weapon. 8. The story introduces Vivian James as a chemistry teacher at Atlantic Coast High School who had also taught at Andrew Jackson High School. 9. It identifies Leah Klein as a 38-year-old woman from Florida whose life was described as unstable and vulnerable. 10. The episode says Klein and Perkins were together at a west side motel on Christmas Day 2019. 11. It states that Perkins strangled Klein during an altercation and later put her body in a dumpster near the motel. 12. The narration moves to Vivian James’s home on Glenallen Court the next day after Christmas. 13. It says Perkins told James about Klein and that James advised him to turn himself in to police. 14. The episode then says Perkins beat James, strangled her with a cord, and took her Toyota Camry, televisions, computer monitor, and laptops. 15. The narration adds that he dismantled James’s surveillance camera and took that too. 16. It says detectives later found James’s vehicle at the Westside Motel while Perkins was loading items into it. 17. The interview audio includes a discussion of a woman named “Cricket,” a hotel, and a cellphone conversation about choking and a dumpster. 18. The tone mixes documentary narration with interrogation-room dialogue, and the pacing stays procedural and grim. 19. Listeners interested in Jacksonville true crime and police interview transcripts would get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting light conversation or a short, low-stakes listen would probably skip it.

As heard by us

A grim case study in warning signs, interrogation, and the cost of looking away.

Jacksonville's west side is part of the story, not just a backdrop, and the episode uses public arrest records to lay out a violent pattern in plain view.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a Jacksonville case built on police questioning, a side-door living-room account, and a nine-arrest history.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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