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Obscura: A True Crime Podcast · Justin Drown

MURDERED: Marvin Morales | Sacramento, CA 2010

February 17, 2026·42 min·1 clip
An expanded true crime episode tracing the full arc of former Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Marvin Morales — from a 2023 on-duty fentanyl overdose (after stealing drugs from a suspect and lying about it), to his firing in February 2024, to the December 2025 murder of his 11-year-old son in Elk Grove, a 25-mile highway pursuit, and his death in a police shooting at the I-5/Highway 12 interchange. The episode weaves raw body-cam audio, dispatch recordings, CCTV footage descriptions, and a deep examination of fentanyl's potency, meth-induced hypersexuality, ALPR surveillance technology, and the California AB 1506 process, concluding with a reflection on the irreversible loss of a child.

As heard by us

A grim true-crime account where addiction, duty, and institutional blindness come apart at once.

The episode treats a police officer's addiction as a failure that spreads well beyond one person, tracing the confusion around meth, a glove, foil, and a broken pipe while the paper trail trails behind what people in the room believe they have seen.

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Why you'd press play

You want a grim, evidence-led true crime story about a deputy's addiction and collapse.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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