Unsolved prosecutor deaths, reopened through testimony and the record.
Somebody Somewhere's third season reopens the 2003 death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna alongside United States v. Naco Brown, a case of his in which $36,000 went missing. David Payne gives a former federal judge, a former prosecutor and Naco Brown himself room to talk, then measures each account against the record.
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Somebody Somewhere is an investigative true crime series from Rainstream Media, and its third season takes up the 2003 death of Jonathan Luna, a federal prosecutor found dead in rural Lancaster County. By one account, the people working that case divided almost evenly, half seeing a homicide and half a suicide. The season treats the divide as a question of evidence. Much of that evidence runs through a second case, United States v. Naco Brown, a prosecution Luna handled in which $36,000 went missing. Did the loss give someone a motive to kill him, or leave him with enough shame to lend the suicide theory weight? The show puts the question bluntly. Former U.S. District Court Judge Andre Davis, who presided over the Brown case, calls it one of the more remarkable prosecutions of his fourteen years as a federal district judge. Former prosecutor Jackie Rodriguez-Coss says she had custody of the cash as it left the courtroom. That matters, because Naco Brown tells a different story about the money, one the show calls debunked, and he has left the host a voicemail pitching it. The season also gives him a life beyond the case. It hears from someone who met him while in prison and credits that meeting with bringing spiritual freedom, notes a prison ministry said to have mentored more than 2,000 men, and revisits his marriage with Vanessa, who reflects on how differently she sees it now. Those passages move the tone from grave to reflective. The episode titles borrow from hymn, scripture and fable: 'Amazing Grace', 'Nacoe of Nazareth', 'The Scorpion and the Frog'. The forensic thread is just as patient. The crime scene is picked apart question by question, from the choice of location to the dollar bills at the scene, and one interviewee states the principle behind it: witness accounts can change, physical evidence cannot. Paper matters too. After a judge's order, pretrial services sits down to go through its file, and whether Luna knew what that file held becomes its own line of inquiry. The narration stays in control throughout, letting witnesses talk and then stepping back in to weigh what they have just said. Each episode opens with a standing caution that opinions are only opinions, that everyone is presumed innocent, and that the credibility of witnesses is for the listener to decide. Earlier seasons are separate investigations, the first into the 2001 murder of another federal prosecutor, Tom Wales.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants an unsolved death worked through court files, chain of custody and interviews where witnesses are given room to talk, and who can hold conflicting testimony in mind without a neat verdict.
What sets it apart: It builds doubt from procedure rather than suspense. The judge who presided over the related trial and a former prosecutor go on the record, and pretrial files, chain of custody and crime-scene evidence are weighed against the suicide theory.
"Somebody Somewhere" is a true crime investigative podcast series from RainStream Media, Inc. Season 3 is a 10-part series that explores the questions around the unsolved, 2003 death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna and the bank robbery he prosecuted where the cash evidence went missing after trial. Season 2 takes listeners into the Seattle homeless encampment known as "The Jungle," as hosts David Payne and Jody Gottlieb investigate a mass shooting allegedly orchestrated by three teenage brothers. And in Season 1, Payne and Gottlieb tackle the open federal investigation into the 2001 murder of federal prosecutor Tom Wales. This 18-year-old case remains one of the highest priorities of the…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Somebody Somewhere connects disputed evidence to the people and legal procedures that determine what an unresolved case comes to mean.
David Payne works outward from disputed evidence, asking how a case was built and what its official version leaves unsettled. Somebody Somewhere uses serialized true crime to follow separate investigations across seasons, including a 2001 murder, a 2016 double homicide, and the…
An encampment video makes you ask what owning a gun proves about a killing.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A disputed money claim leads back to Jonathan Luna's unresolved death and the stories still forming around it.
Somebody Somewhere's bonus episode treats the unresolved death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna as a case study in how contested stories start to harden into public narrative.
A call about expected pleas complicates one piece of the suicide theory around Jonathan Luna's death.
Stash House Records gives Jonathan Luna's death investigation a tighter center: a rap music drug case tied to money moving through a Baltimore recording studio, plus a call asking Gail Gibson to be in court because defendants were likely to plead out.
A defense lawyer's indictment opens another path into Jonathan Luna's unsolved death.
The Defense Lawyer ties Jonathan Luna's unsolved death to the later indictment of defense attorney Ken Ravenel, who had faced Luna in the Naco Brown bank robbery case years before.
A judge's detailed memory gives the missing-money case weight while the suicide theory stays unsettled.
Jonathan Luna's death sits between a missing-money case and the possibility that shame led a federal prosecutor to take his own life. This episode keeps that tension intact through legal memory and reporting texture.
A measured review of a case where the suicide theory strains against the road trip, wounds, blood evidence, and an unreleased autopsy.
Jonathan Luna's death is framed as a case that refuses to settle into a clean sequence. A federal prosecutor leaves a courthouse, drives for five hours across four states, and is found dead in rural Lancaster County.
The Missing Money turns the Jonathan Luna case into a careful, evidence-led story.
Season three's The Missing Money remains firmly with the Jonathan Luna case and the sealed money evidence, relying on testimony and physical detail to keep the episode grounded.
A missing U.S. attorney case shaped by family memory, legal tension, and physical evidence.
The episode centers Jonathan Luna by way of the people around him, and that choice gives the case a grounded, human shape. Reggie’s skepticism about prosecutors, set against his best friend becoming one, supplies the clearest emotional thread, while the portrait of Jonathan as a…
A retrial that turns family ties, police treatment, and witness credibility into the real story.
Somebody Somewhere keeps its attention on how police treatment can shift depending on who is being heard, and that focus gives the 2016 double homicide retrial a sharper edge.
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard traces con man John Meehan's fraud, abuse, and its Bravo TV adaptation.
UFO disclosure with teeth.
Bleak news, deadpan jokes, no broadcast polish.
Australian investigations, followed from the ground up.
In Somebody Somewhere S3 Episode 11, David Payne revisits the unsolved 2003 death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna as the 19th anniversary approaches without new investigative leads.
Somebody Somewhere: S3 Episode 6, “The Defense Lawyer,” examines Ken Ravenel’s 2019 indictment for alleged money laundering and drug conspiracy while revisiting his defense of bank robber Naco Brown.
David Payne examines Jonathan Luna’s final courthouse hours, including a five-hour drive across four states after a plea negotiation and the question of why Luna returned to work before leaving again.
Somebody Somewhere: S3 Episode 5 - Character Assassination examines how FBI leaks about Jonathan Luna’s relationships, debt, and alleged sexual activity shaped public perceptions after his death.
Jonathan Luna's disappearance sits at the center.
It opens on the missing money in the Jonathan Luna case.
Somebody Somewhere Season 3 Episode 7, “Nacoe of Nazareth,” examines Naco Brown through testimonies from Doyle Lee, Antonio Espy, and Sarah Wells.
Somebody Somewhere: S3 Episode 2 - Stash House Records examines Jonathan Luna's work, values, and final federal drug case before his 2003 death.
Somebody Somewhere: S3 Episode 9, “The Phoenix,” examines the unsolved 2003 death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna and the disputed handling of the missing money, press leaks, and physical evidence.
Somebody Somewhere: S3 Episode 3 - Amazing Grace examines the December 2, 2003 meeting where Barbara Skidmore briefed Ken Rabineau and Archie Tuminelli about cooperating witness Warren Grace.
David Payne revisits the third Jungle Murders trial in Somebody Somewhere after two hung juries, describing six weeks of testimony in a 2019 Seattle courtroom.
The episode stays with the retrial of a 2016 double homicide.
David Payne interviews Olivia Yuhashi Ta'afalusia about her brothers James and Jerome, their father's drug use, and the Samoan church community that shaped her choices.
Somebody Somewhere's "Who are the Good Guys?" examines conflicting accounts surrounding the 2016 double homicide and the credibility of people connected to Seattle's jungle encampment.
Somebody Somewhere: “S2 Episode 6 - The New King of the Jungle” follows Jody Gottlieb and her co-host as they investigate unanswered names and competing motives surrounding the 2016 jungle murders.
Somebody Somewhere: “Run OJ Run” examines the 2018 trial of James Tophelicia and Jerome Tophelicia for the January 26, 2016 killings of Janine Brooks and James Tran and the wounding of three others.
David Payne interviews Tracy Bauer about her movement from an IHOP job in Seattle to selling drugs from tents and caves near Yesler Street.
Somebody Somewhere: S2 Episode 3, “Too Big to Fail,” investigates the Seattle Jungle’s 2016 double homicide by contrasting residents’ experiences with police and prosecutors’ description of the encampment.
David Payne investigates how the 2016 Seattle jungle shooting case shifted from two persons of interest named Juice to the arrest of James and Jerome Ta’afalusia.
The host, David Payne, opens Special Episode 50, Don't F with the Kraken, on a murder from 2001.
A true crime investigative podcast exploring unsolved murders and related criminal cases.
This episode investigates the unsolved 2003 death of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna and the missing cash evidence from a bank robbery case.
This episode updates listeners on recent developments in the investigation of federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna's 2003 death, including a press conference announcing increased reward money.