Beth Karras

Every murder trial tells a story.

What happened?

Who did it?

How did it happen?

Even why it happened?

When there's strong corroborating evidence, that story is anchored to fact.

But when there isn't, when the physical proof is missing, when there's nothing to go on but eyewitness testimony, the story, that testimony, becomes the case.

This series is about a story that was repeated, reinforced, and eventually accepted as truth.

A story that may have mattered more than evidence to the contrary.

And at the center of it all is the woman who helped write that story.

It's August 1st in the year 2000, a balmy Tuesday morning in the small town of Mayfield in western Kentucky.

Beyoncé and the boy band NSYNC are dominating the airwaves.

Gladiator and X-Men are playing at the local theater.

At the local middle school, staff are now preparing for the coming year, though nothing could prepare teacher Tina Schlosser for what was to come.

She steps outside to water the plants near the back of the school when she sees something out of the corner of her eye.

Something laying just behind the low brick wall.

It's an item of clothing strewn on the grass.

A single sandal.

Just laying there, she'd later say, as if someone had just run out of it.

Walking closer, she peers around the corner and stops in her tracks, standing rigid in horror.