NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Bear Brook follows New Hampshire cases where the official story keeps cracking under later scrutiny. It moves through barrels, DNA evidence, interrogation rooms, court records, family memory, and the slow work of asking what can still be proven.
PRESS PLAY
Bear Brook is a serialized, narrated true-crime and investigative journalism podcast produced by New Hampshire Public Radio. Episodes are reported documentary-style rather than in a studio-interview format, with host and reporter Jason Moon narrating developments, playing tape from investigators and officials, and following ongoing case updates in real time rather than a fixed archive of past events. The show is built around two long-running investigations: the identification of the 'Bear Brook' barrel victims, which draws in genetic genealogists, cold-case volunteers, and state police, and the wrongful-conviction case of Jason Carroll, which involves innocence-project attorneys, forensic DNA experts, and newly surfaced evidence. Recurring themes include cold-case forensics, genetic genealogy, false confessions, chain-of-custody problems with old evidence, and the mechanics of how DNA testing and legal appeals actually proceed. The show occasionally airs 'update' episodes that revisit prior seasons as new facts emerge, such as a 2025 episode confirming the final unidentified victim's identity. Its producers have extended the same investigative approach beyond true crime into public-health reporting, cross-promoting the spinoff Safe to Drink, which examines industrial PFOA contamination of a New Hampshire town's water supply. Guests and sources tend to be case participants rather than celebrity commentators: genetic genealogists, forensic scientists, defense attorneys, state officials, and affected residents. Listeners who want procedural detail on how cold cases get solved and wrongful convictions get challenged, rather than dramatized retellings, are the core audience. Production credits (editors, fact-checkers, legal review) are read out on newer episodes, reflecting an NPR-style newsroom process behind the reporting.
Made for: Listeners who follow long-form investigative true crime and want procedural detail on cold-case forensics, genetic genealogy, and wrongful-conviction litigation rather than dramatized retellings.
What sets it apart: Produced by NHPR newsroom reporters conducting original, ongoing investigations rather than commentators recapping closed cases, with real-time case updates and a spinoff into related public-interest reporting like PFAS water contamination.
Bear Brook, hosted by Jason Moon, is the critically-acclaimed true crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. Season 1 - Two barrels. Four Bodies. And a cold case that’s changing how murders will be investigated forever. Season 2: A True Crime Story - Jason Carroll is serving life in prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. The only evidence against him? His own taped confession. More than 30 years later, is it possible to get to the truth – and who gets to tell it? Stephen King called both seasons “the best true crime podcasts I've ever heard. Brilliant, involving, hypnotic...
A mislabeled shirt and a coerced confession will ruin your appetite for neat answers.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful, uneasy investigation into contaminated water, official uncertainty, and families forced to make daily choices without clear answers.
A New Hampshire town's water scare gets the Bear Brook treatment: patient, unnerving, and fixed on the gap between official reassurance and what families can actually live with.
A birth record makes the cold case hit with painful clarity.
Bear Brook finds its cold-case turn in something almost disarmingly plain: a daughter, her mother, and a birth certificate that points Terry Peter Rasmussen back to the unidentified child.
A tense Bear Brook update on Jason Carroll's DNA fight and the evidence that may still complicate the case.
Bear Brook returns to the box of evidence now sitting at the center of Jason Carroll's push for DNA testing in Sharon Johnson's murder case. The episode has its charge in the physical details: fingernail clippings with blood on them, clothes from the investigation, and items…
Payne Lindsey's season-long investigation into two disappearances from Nome, Alaska.
CBC's true crime feed tracing Cleo's case into cold cases across its investigative podcast network.
Journalists chase a decades-long trail through a coronial inquest and Rick Bloom's dozens of aliases.
A New York Times reporter reinvestigates Laramie's unsolved 1985 murder of Shelley Wiley.
Safe to Drink launches with Londonderry, New Hampshire dad Ben Pierce finding 2,700 gallons of bottled water on his driveway and learning his family's tap water is contaminated with PFOA, a forever chemical.
In this Bear Brook episode, reporter Jason Moon reveals that Rhea Rasmussen, daughter of serial killer Terry Peter Rasmussen and a woman named Pepper Reed, has been identified as the fourth and final unidentified victim found in barrels near New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park.
This episode introduces a new podcast series about a missing cat named Sergeant Tibbs that leads to an epic neighbor dispute involving a mysterious death, investigation, and courtroom drama.
After 17 months of resistance, New Hampshire reverses course and agrees to post-conviction DNA testing in the Sharon Johnson murder case that put Jason Carroll in prison for 35 years.
Bear Brook: This Side of the Line examines false confessions through psychologist Fabiana Alceste's research and the cases of Jason Carroll and Hugh Burton.
This episode examines the case of Jason Carroll, who was convicted based on his own confession, and questions the reliability of that confession.
This episode examines the murder of Sharon Johnson and the controversial confession of Jason Carroll, who claims innocence.
This episode continues the investigation into Jason Carroll's murder conviction, focusing on the taped confessions and the role of Tony Puff.
This episode of Bear Brook Season 2 explores the complex character of Jason Carroll through a prison interview, contrasting his past and present while delving into his personality and interests.
This episode examines the case of Jason Carroll, who was convicted of murder based on a taped confession, and questions the reliability of such evidence.
This episode introduces the story of Sharon Johnson and sets up a season about Jason Carroll's wrongful conviction based on a taped confession.
This episode continues the investigation into the Bear Brook murders, focusing on DNA evidence linking victims and a potential killer.
A true crime podcast investigating a serial killer's cold case and a wrongful conviction based on a taped confession.
This episode explores the psychology of a killer and the investigation into a cold case involving multiple victims, while also delving into a wrongful conviction case.
The episode details a press conference revealing new connections in the Bear Brook murder case.
This episode continues the investigation into a cold case involving barrels of bodies and a wrongful conviction based on a taped confession.
A woman recalls meeting her cousin's creepy new boyfriend at a Y2K party, setting up a murder investigation.
This episode introduces the Bear Brook murders and a press conference revealing new DNA testing results in the cold case.
A true crime podcast investigating a cold case involving barrels containing bodies and a wrongful conviction based on a taped confession.
This episode investigates Jason Carroll's life sentence for a murder he claims he didn't commit, focusing on his taped confession and the quest for truth.