MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Spencer Irwin
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What happened to Spencer Irwin on that fateful day?
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Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt.
Today's story about Spencer Irwin is one that I know you've never heard before because it's never been reported on before. And that's probably because if you were to ask Fresno police, there's no story to tell. Or at least they would have said that for a while. Spencer was a 30-year-old man that they found naked, covered in dirt at the bottom of a loading dock back in 2024. They initially assumed that he was homeless, assumed he died of a drug overdose, assumed that there was nothing they deemed worthy of investigating. So they didn't. But boy, were they wrong. Because Spencer Irwin was none of the things they assumed. And he has a mother in his corner who has been doing all the investigating they wouldn't.
And now she's got us in her corner. And you won't believe what together we found. This is Spencer Irwin's story.
From the moment Kelly Irwin first got a call from the Fresno County Deputy Coroner telling her that her son was dead, things felt disorienting. It was just before 11 a.m. on Friday, August 2nd, 2024, when she was told that her 30-year-old son Spencer had been found the day before naked near some dumpsters. And they couldn't say for certain yet, but based on the fact that there were no external signs of trauma, they were pretty sure that he died from an overdose. Kelly never knew her son to use drugs, and she had no idea why he would be naked or why he was found where he was. Honestly, part of her was sure that this was some kind of huge misunderstanding. Like, it had to be someone else, and everyone was just confused.
It had to be. Kelly wanted to go down to the Fresno County Sheriff Coroner's office to see him for herself, but they tell her that she can't. They are sure it is Spencer, and she's going to have to wait five agonizing days before while they get him cleaned up and transferred to the funeral home before she can see him. But five agonizing days later, that doesn't even happen. Now, Kelly knows the guy who works at the funeral home, and he stops her. He's like, listen, Kelly, I'm not going to let you see him. Spencer was in such an advanced state of decomposition that they wanted to spare her from that being the last mental image of her son. So instead, she asked to see at least a picture of a tattoo that Spencer had.
When they gave her that, she finally believed them. It really was her firstborn that they found. But she still can't understand how. According to the medical examiner, they were still waiting on the toxicology results to come back, which they were pretty confident were going to confirm what they'd been thinking all along, that Spencer just died from an overdose. Like I said, Kelly had never known her son to do drugs. And I don't mean that in like a naive parent way where you think your kid is like some kind of saint and you're like oblivious to what is like actually going on in their life. Kelly is the first person to tell you that Spencer struggled with alcohol use and was currently in a period of recurrence.
He was really open with her about his struggles, but he wasn't the party with drugs type of guy. She said that he would drink alcohol, beer or vodka, but typically at home in sort of like a self-medicating type of way by himself.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened to Spencer Irwin on that fateful day?
0:00–5:45
2
Why did authorities dismiss Spencer's death as an overdose?
5:45–11:15
3
What were the toxicology results and what did they reveal?
11:15–17:10
4
How did Kelly Irwin begin her own investigation into her son's death?
17:10–23:37
5
What inconsistencies arose during Kelly's search for answers?
23:37–28:36
6
What role did Angel Gonzalez play in Spencer's life?
28:36–34:15
7
How did the investigation shift after new evidence was uncovered?
34:15–39:49
8
What does Kelly hope to achieve moving forward in Spencer's case?
39:49–54:32