UNSOLVED - A True Crime Podcast · Kristy Kramer

Episode 19 The Murder of Sue Clason

·38 min·2 clips

The autopsy showed manual strangulation, a gunshot to the back of the head, and signs she was grabbed.

Christy Kramer begins by reminding listeners that Michigan Unsolved covers unsolved cases of every size. She says the show is about giving victims the voice they deserve, and she sounds especially frustrated by how little evidence some crimes leave behind. A local person reached out about this case. Kramer had never heard of it before, but she immediately connects it to the same Michigan territory that keeps surfacing in the show, including Cadillac and Reed City. She frames the case as an older one from 1984, which helps explain why the record feels thin. That thin record becomes part of the tension. From there she lays out the known facts: the victim was beaten, shot in the back of the head, and found with abrasions on her shins. Kramer keeps trying to reconstruct the scene from those injuries. She wonders whether the victim may have been forced into a kneeling position or tried to get away before the shot was fired. The clothing details matter to her, especially the torn sleeve, the tear near the bottom of the shirt, and the description that the clothes were disarranged. Those details lead her to suspect the attack may have involved an attempted sexual assault. She is careful not to overstate it, because the evidence never fully tells the story. At the same time, she points out that the property showing and the fact that a gun was brought along make the situation feel more deliberate than random. That is where her theory starts to lean toward planning. She keeps asking why the killer had the weapon in the first place. The official cause of death is a single gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death is homicide. Near the end, Kramer turns from theory to grief and talks about the little lady across the street with binoculars who saw something was wrong, along with the husband who found the victim. She lingers on the fact that those people, and the son, have lived with the lack of closure for far too long. The episode closes as a plea to keep sharing the case so the family can finally get an answer.

As heard by us

A Michigan cold case told with grief, local detail, and stubborn uncertainty.

The episode treats the 1984 Michigan homicide as a stubborn local cold case, and the best moments come from how little evidence is left to lean on.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Michigan unsolved case told through the lens of missing evidence and the long shadow it leaves on a family.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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