Cold cases worked on tape, one season at a time.
Ashes to Ash TV gives each season to one cold case, from a missing boy in Pekin, Illinois to Kendrick Johnson, the teenager found in a rolled-up gym mat at a high school in 2013. The host keeps the legwork on tape: polygraph bookings, crew re-enactments and the shocked reaction when a result comes back.
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Ashes to Ash TV is investigative true crime that keeps the legwork in the recording. Each of the three seasons here follows a single case, and the episode numbers for one case run into the twenties. The first season, 'The Disappearance of Robert Bee', centres on a boy from Pekin, Illinois, known as Bonsai, who skipped school on November 17, 2016 and ran from police. His home life is described plainly. The host gets into the case through Facebook groups of amateur sleuths. One of them, called Lily to protect her identity, hands over a whole notebook of research and spends hours driving the team around town. By the end of that opening episode the talk has turned to who killed Robert, and one voice says the case will haunt them for life if it is never solved. Season 2, 'What Happened to Carolyn Blankenfeld', includes an episode titled 'Interrogation' that plays audio police recorded while questioning Chris in hospital. The third season, 'The Kendrick Johnson Investigation', takes up the 2013 death of a teenager found in a rolled-up gym mat at a high school, a death that was ruled accidental. Its episodes open on the same montage of news reports and protest audio. What follows is procedural. In one episode Kate, one of the show's main crew members, lies on a mat while helpers try again and again to roll it as tightly as the one at the scene. The reasoning is laid out plainly: if this were a homicide carried out in a six-minute window, the host argues, a hurried roll would be loose, not neat and fastened with its Velcro band. Another thread weighs a statement placing one man in Jacksonville, Florida in April 2016 against a news report that he was enrolled at Valdosta State University and living in Valdosta. The host asks anyone with evidence to the contrary to send it in. Then there is the polygraph. A man who asked to take a lie detector test gets one booked over a recorded call, down to the city and the date. When he passes, the reaction on tape is shock, and a sense that the result has raised a whole new set of questions. The show owns its errors too: one episode opens by correcting a mistake made in the one before. The closing credits give a tip email with a promise to keep sources anonymous, plus a subscription with commercial-free content, early access and uncut interviews. The series is also filmed, with a video version on YouTube. For the re-enactment and polygraph arc, start with the Kendrick Johnson episodes. To see how the show began, go back to Season 1, Episode 1.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants to follow a cold case investigation step by step, including the phone calls, re-enactments and surprise results, rather than hear a tidy retelling after the fact.
What sets it apart: Instead of narrating a closed file, the show records its own investigating: booking a polygraph, re-staging how a gym mat was rolled, checking a statement against a news report of enrollment, and correcting its own mistakes on air. There is also a video version of the series on YouTube.
Ashes to Ash TV is and episodic true crime series, that releases episodes as we are actively investigating. This show is a documentary series as well as a podcast.
A gym mat gets measured; your theory about Kendrick Johnson's death has to fit the evidence.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A passed lie detector test complicates the Kendrick Johnson investigation without closing the case.
"Results" shifts the Kendrick Johnson investigation onto Ryan Anthony Domek Hernandez's lie detector test, which he passes with "flying colors." The outcome does not settle the case so much as unsettle the people trying to process it.
A planned lie detector test and a disputed message sharpen the focus on Kendrick Johnson's officially accidental death.
"The Test" tightens the pressure around the Kendrick Johnson investigation by centering on a planned lie detector appointment for Ryan Anthony Domek Hernandez and a closer read of his messages with Fitzgerald.
A troubling disappearance becomes startlingly close to home.
This single-episode review traces the disappearance of Robert B. Jr., known as Bonsai, after he skipped school on November 17, 2016, ran from police, and was reportedly seen the next morning before heading toward a bus stop with a friend.
A gym-mat test weighs whether the accident ruling can withstand a murder-and-cover-up theory.
A tightly rolled gym mat sits at the center of this single-episode review of Kendrick Johnson's death, with the host asking whether the mat's neat shape supports a murder-and-cover-up theory.
A disputed death investigation turns on a Valdosta timeline and a question about who knew the Johnson family.
A disputed death anchors this investigation into Kendrick Johnson, whose body was found in a rolled-up gym mat in 2013 and later ruled accidental before officials said they were reopening the case.
Direct fuel for intentional living.
Cold cases, carried back into the light.
True crime built from the stubborn detail.
Ashes to Ash TV season 3, episode 26, "Results," centers on a polygraph given to Ryan Domek Hernandez about a 2016 conversation involving Brandon Bell and Brian Bell.
Ash Patino’s Ashes to Ash TV episode on Kendrick Johnson centers on Ryan Anthony Domek Hernandez, who says Brandon Bell told him about an argument between Brian Bell and Kendrick Johnson over a 45-pound weight or dumbbell.
On Ashes to Ash TV, the first episode follows the disappearance of 13-year-old Robert B., known as Bonsai, from Pekin, Illinois, beginning with his November 17, 2016 truancy-related police contact and a reported bus-stop walk the next morning.
Ashes to Ash TV season 3, episode 24, "The Rest of the Story" centers on the Kendrick Johnson investigation and the gym-mat timeline from January 2013.
Ash Patino says a new line of evidence in the Kendrick Johnson case may tie Ryan Anthony Domek Hernandez to the Johnson family through Connie Edwards and Barbara Arrington.
The episode investigates the disappearance of Carolyn Blankenfeld, focusing on her husband's inconsistent statements and the ongoing investigation.
A private investigator is called to work on the host's father's cold case, with interviews and reflections on suspicious deaths and relationships.
The episode follows the host's investigation into the disappearance of Carolyn Blankenfeld, including interviewing witnesses and reviewing police reports.
A true crime documentary series investigating the disappearance of Carolyn Blankenfeld, featuring police interrogation audio.
A private investigator and family members recount the disappearance of Carolyn Blankenfeld and the emotional aftermath.
The episode investigates the suspicious death of Carolyn Blankenfeld, focusing on how quickly her husband sold her belongings after her death.
A true crime documentary podcast investigating the disappearance of Carolyn Blankenfeld, featuring interviews and evidence analysis.
A true crime documentary series investigating the suspicious drowning death of Carolyn Blankenfeld, with active case updates and interviews.