Wendy Wolin

March 6, 2026·50 min·5 clips

Fire dispatcher Charlie Stevens opens Wendy's coat to discover she was stabbed, not punched, in a shocking turn of events.

The episode opens with Sarah Turney naming Wendy Sue Wolin's case. She starts with a familiar true-crime idea, that one killing can make a community feel unsafe, then says Elizabeth, New Jersey, really did change in March 1966. The point lands because it stays small. Sarah cites Michael Lepola, described as a former First Assistant Prosecutor of Union County who was 10 years old then, remembering in the Daily Beast that before Wendy's killing, the worst local trouble sounded like a stolen bicycle. Then the police work takes a weird turn. To help witnesses identify Wendy's killer, Elizabeth police bring all 13 witnesses into a ballroom at the Elizabeth Carteret Hotel and show them living models of the suspect. Broadway actors Charles Reynolds and Richard Ho are dressed and made up to match the description as closely as possible while officers ask witnesses about hair, hat, shoes, and jacket. It takes about an hour. Then one witness looks away from both models and points to Chief Michael D. Roy, saying the killer had broad shoulders like his. So Roy joins the lineup. He goes into hair and makeup, puts on clothing matching the description, and the same witnesses compare him with the actors. They say yes. Sarah quickly pulls the story back from the obvious twist: Roy is not presented as Wendy Wolin's killer. His alibi sounds unusually hard to shake. Roy says he was coming back from a law enforcement convention in Connecticut, and the two men riding with him, both police chiefs too, vouched for him. Still, the moment sits there. Sarah says she was not convinced at first, then notes that the witnesses also said Roy was shorter than the killer, darker in complexion, and had much less hair. The excerpt closes on prevention, families, and people tied to true-crime cases, followed by a goodbye and a podcast promo.

As heard by us

A 1966 murder case becomes a vivid look at a city shaken by violence and an unusual witness procedure.

Sarah Turney roots Wendy Sue Wolin in March 1966 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the episode shows how one violent crime can spread outward through an entire city.

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Why you'd press play

You want a hotel-ballroom lineup that feels stranger than fiction.

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