Hey, sugar fans. This is Amory Severtzinn, producer emeritus of Dear Shuggers. And I'm dropping
in here because I've just launched a new podcast series that I think you'll want to hear.
It's called Beyond All Repair. And it tells the story of a murder, but also the woman
who was accused of that murder, Sophia. Sophia was newly married, and she was six months
pregnant when she was charged with murdering her mother-in-law back in 2002. She gave birth
to a son in jail that she hasn't seen since. And for the last three years, she's been telling
me her story in hopes of getting justice for her mother-in-law, of having a chance at
finally meeting her son, and of finally being believed. There are big themes in this story.
There's a really complicated family at the center of it. The murder itself is a sibling
he said she said. And there are deep reflections on mistakes made and time lost woven into
this larger pursuit for the truth of what actually happened. So I'm going to share the
first episode of Beyond All Repair with you right here, right now. I hope you'll give
it a listen. And if you want to keep going after that, episode two is already waiting for
you. Just look for Beyond All Repair in your podcast app. Okay, here's the show.
The WBWR podcast, Boston.
Heads up. This show has descriptions of violence and strong language.
Shane, you have no idea how much I'm trying to protect you little brother. You don't know
it yet, but you're being misled. It's the same. Good morning, how you doing? Listen to me carefully.
You're not ready for what will come down if you don't stop your nonsense and keep away.
If you guys attempt to sabotage or to trouble me in any which way or to try to slow down my
life, I'm going to fight you guys. You don't want your playing with, okay? I wanted nothing
to do with it in the beginning and up to now I still want nothing to do with it. Stop
talking shit about me and all I am me. But I'm not going to let anybody lie on me, okay?
Okay. You're worse than Judas. You wicked. All I'm doing is I'm giving you fear fucking
warning. If you come at me, I'm going to destroy you, dude. You're hearing an implosion
of sorts, a family on the brink of a civil war or maybe not so civil. This is the voice
mailbox of a guy named Shane, the two people leaving him messages, his older brother,
keep me out of it. And his dad. Watch your mouth. But Shane isn't receiving the worst of
it, especially from his father. Shane's sister is. You are the disease of this fucking family.
You're devious, you're worthless. That's from her voice mail collection. Here's another
one. Oh, you're so fucking idiot. You're not stopping. Did I tell the reporter to your
life? Give that to the reporter too. The dad says. Hey, hi. Hello. I'm the reporter. And
I'm the reason for these intimidating voice messages. Part of it anyway. They started
after I called that brother and father days earlier. My name is Amary Severtsen. I work
for WBUR. It's a national public radio station. Okay. I have reopened a box. Let's just
say that some members of this family were hoping would stay shut forever while others
are the reason it showed up on my doorstep three years ago. Inside are the details of something
that ripped this family apart. He said she said between two siblings that left one of
them a continent away and the other on the run. Sister fighting against brother tried
to lie to shut up your own brother. What kind of feelings you have, lady? And despite
the fact that this event happened more than 20 years ago, it's never been resolved. I'm
talking about a murder. I'm Amary Severtsen from WBUR and ZSP Media. This is beyond all
repair. Chapter one. Boxes. Let's start with the younger brother receiving voicemail threats
from his family. Shane Kiraia. He's the reason I'm here. Hi, I'm Shane Amary. So nice to
meet you. Thanks. Thank you. I first met Shane back in 2017. I'd gone to his New York
City apartment to interview him for another podcast I make called Endless Thread. It was
for an episode about his experience with homelessness. Shane spent a period of time in his teens
sleeping on the subway. No where else to go. I was angry and pissed and sad. I only had
until morning when when school started for like some normalcy. Back then, I didn't know
much about the murder that affected Shane's life. But the way I see it now, Shane doesn't
end up sleeping on the subway without that dark chapter.
Shane was born in the Bronx, the youngest of four siblings, three boys and a girl with
parents who were never not fighting, name calling, violence, and ugly divorce. It was a bad
scene. So by his preteen years, Shane and his mom and sister had moved across the country
to Washington State. They were all devout Jehovah's Witnesses.
First Corinthians 1533 do not be misled. Bad association's oil-seasful habits. Still
known my verse. Couldn't shake that part.
Shane is not a Jehovah's Witness anymore. In large part because of something he was realizing
about himself around this time.
I remember the night that I came out to my mom. She was in her room and I like roll in
the chair for my room and like put it in the doorway. And like, so mom, I have something
that I want to tell you. And I'm like trying to couch it as much as possible. And I tell
her I'm attracted to men. And she looked at me and she said, well, how is it my children
become my worst fears?
Shane's mom mostly stopped talking to him. She'd leave food outside his bedroom door as
if he were in solitary or something. And then right around this same time came this.
Arrests made in women's killing. Daughter-in-law accused in women's killing.
The daughter-in-law accused is Shane's sister. Women pleads not guilty to murdering her mother-in-law.
Slaying suspect has bail tripled. Women's murder charge upgraded.
This murder was a big deal in a small Washington town. And words started spreading from newspaper
headlines to gossiping teenagers at Shane's school.
I remember like going into the lunchroom and like this group of kids is like coming toward
me and like the kid that I don't like. It's like, so is it true that your sister killed
someone?
And honestly after that, I just kind of stopped going to school. I'd always been a really
good student up to that point and then I just kind of shut down.
Going to school felt impossible. Being at home with a mom who had barely talked to him felt
impossible. So Shane flew back across the country by himself to the only other place he
knew. New York.
So I slept on the train. Went to school, went to work, still got our net paycheck hourly.
Shane finished high school like this. Unhoused. He worked part-time jobs to get by.
And like going to work in a grumbled suit because you have no place to put it. Like that
was when I actually started to feel homeless.
Shane eventually pieced together enough of an income to rent a room in an apartment. He
put himself through college, then law school. By the time I spoke to Shane for endless thread,
he was working in the Bronx District Attorney's office. The criminal justice system to Shane
is something that's brought order to a chaotic life. It's dealt with things in a way he hasn't
been able to, including his sister being accused of murdering her mother-in-law. Even when
asked point blank back in 2017, do you think she did it?
I don't know. Everyone's got a different story and this is where I just kind of surrender
to the justice system.
That's where we'd left things back then, as far as the murder was concerned. But the
experience of hearing his larger story told by an outsider was pretty cathartic, Shane
told me. He wrote to me after that episode came out, saying, I feel a bit more unleashed
from some stuff I didn't fully know was holding me back.
And that was it. I thought. Time passed. Shane changed legal jobs. Adopted a dog.
And then, about three years later, in the spring of 2021, I got an email from Shane out
of the blue. There was someone else looking to be unleashed from something holding her back.
Look, I don't really know her story.
Shane that's been boxed up and for Shane at least untouched for more than 20 years.
Do I think that my sister is capable of committing such a brutal crime?
Shane was reaching out to say that that question might finally get answered because the person
who could settle it for him once and for all, she wanted to talk. And she wanted to talk
to me. Coming up, Shane's sister.
Did you kill Marlene Johnson?
I think you're one of the first people to have actually asked.
From WBUR and ZSP Media, this is beyond all repair. A new podcast about an unsolved
murder that will leave you questioning everything.
Somebody should be in jail for murdering my sister.
A woman who's never been believed.
As long as they think I have done this, then they're not looking for who actually did
this. And that's what makes it a cold case.
No, it's a boxed case.
And a search for the truth.
Once and for all.
Wow, it just gets more interesting.
Beyond all repair.
Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Be careful.
You're digging in a place that's been very peaceful for a while.
Do it anyway.
It's a couple weeks after Shane emailed me, saying his sister wanted to quote, speak openly
about something that has caused a lot of pain in our collective lives.
The murder of her mother-in-law.
I'd seen pictures of Shane's sister in newspaper clippings from the early 2000s, hand-cuffed,
wearing the stereotypical bright orange jail get-up, no makeup.
Her expression ranging from self-assured to resigned.
I didn't know what to expect 20 years later.
And the last I'd heard about it from Shane.
Uh.
Didn't put me at ease.
And yet, when she appeared on my screen, I felt surprisingly calm.
Hi, good morning.
How are you?
I'm okay.
This is Sophia.
A little nervous, I won't lie.
Yeah.
Well, we're embarking on something new.
I say that as if I knew what we were embarking on.
But listening back to this, I want to warn my past self.
Girl, you have no idea what's coming.
Sophia didn't either.
Well, let's just see where it goes.
Why not?
Sophia showed up to our first video call, looking nothing like the woman I'd seen in the newspapers.
Her long jet-black hair, shiny and neat.
Her face impeccably made up.
Winged eyeliner, red lipstick, meticulously-shaped eyebrows.
And an almost airbrushed appearance that defied everything I knew about her life at that
point.
I wake up.
I have usually several cups of coffee and I'm watching the news.
She sounded so normal, sweet even.
I do a little bit of gardening.
I listen to music.
She was talking to me from...
...e...
Yeah, I can't say where she is.
I can't say why I can't say either.
Yet.
I can say that contrary to her appearance, Sophia feels anything but put together.
The only thing I can do because I'm at my bottom is stand up for myself because I have
zero expectations that anyone else can do it for me.
She feels held back from the life she had imagined for herself.
A life that was really just starting 22 years ago.
With a new husband of four months, new in-laws with whom she'd quickly become close.
Then came January 10th, 2002.
Sophia's mother-in-law, Marlene, was supposed to come over to her house for lunch that day.
She didn't show.
And when Sophia and her husband went over to Marlene's house to check on her, they found
her lying on the basement floor.
Marlene Johnson had been bludgeoned to death.
Is there something that you typically do on this day?
This is a day I wish never existed.
It's now January 10th, 2022.
20 years to the day that Sophia's mother-in-law was murdered.
Sophia's in her mid-40s at this point.
But every year, on this day, she says she's transported back.
I'm 23 years old in my head.
And this is 2002.
You know what I thought?
I thought it's January 10th.
And whoever did this to her, do they know it's January 10th?
Do they know?
They're out there, somewhere.
And again, there are a lot of people who would say that the person who killed Marlene
is talking to me right now.
I want to say and be very honest with you that if I did Marlene's murder, they wouldn't
have to worry about finding me out there myself in.
Sophia has always held fast that she did not kill her mother-in-law.
She also says there's a lot to this story that she's never told anyone until now.
This is how she thinks about her life.
It is a house that has lots of boxes and lots of different rooms that need to be unpacked.
And not necessarily sure where to start.
Okay.
This Monday, April 26th, 2021, and I got a box today.
The day I started unpacking metaphorical boxes with Sophia, a physical one showed up at my
office.
Inside this box were VHS tapes.
Sophia says that she's never watched them.
She told me today that she does not want to watch them.
She said that she's worried that it'll put someone else's version of the story back
in her head.
And right now she just wants to focus on what she knows to be true about what happened.
Thirteen tapes in black and gold cardboard cases.
Oh, this is a lot.
It was like a time capsule, this box.
Those white stickers along the long edges, handwriting labeling each one in blue and
black pen.
All right, let's see.
So these tapes on the side.
Oh my god.
It says state V. Johnson, comma, Sophia.
We're ready for the jury.
Yes, you're on.
Thank you.
Okay, Lannan, bring in the jury, please.
These tapes are the video footage of Sophia's murder trial.
And they were really just the beginning.
I didn't know what was in all of Sophia's boxes.
I know now there's disownment, deportation, allegations of abuse, financial crimes, to
start.
The boxes of my own life look nothing like Sophia's.
And yet the more of hers I've opened, the more I've realized that they hold a lot of
my greatest fears.
Long betrayed by someone who's supposed to be on my side, never being truly believed,
loving something more than anything in the world, only to have it taken away.
My son turned 19 years old yesterday.
Never met him.
Don't know anything really about him.
Her son.
When Sophia was accused of bludgeoning her mother-in-law to death, she was six months pregnant.
She gave birth to her only child while incarcerated, and hasn't seen him since.
And I do not want another one of his births to go by without at least having an image
of me and hearing the truth about what I'm sure he's read and heard about his entire
love.
That's when I realized that Sophia is really trying to clear her name in the eyes of one
person.
The only thing he will ever know is that I was accused.
His grandmother is dead.
This is my legacy.
This is forever my legacy.
But maybe it doesn't have to be.
Sophia can't start over, but she might still have time to change that legacy.
Clearly into reporting this story, someone told me that Sophia's life just seemed so
fubar.
I wasn't familiar with this term, but it's a military acronym.
Fucked up beyond all repair.
Beyond all repair.
That idea has stayed with me.
Not as a statement, but a question.
Is Sophia's life beyond all repair?
And if she is, in fact, innocent of murder, will telling her story help change
some people's minds about her, starting perhaps with Shane?
Do I believe what she's saying that she believes she's innocent?
I can believe that, but believe is very different from fact.
Someone still died.
If he believes that anybody believes that I am that person, then I just don't know
what that says.
That means that I'm not explaining it right, or he doesn't know enough.
And I never want my son to ever think that.
Mom, I love you anyway.
That is not the right answer.
That's not the right answer.
The right answer to me is just the truth.
I've been up front with Sophia about this from the very beginning.
I can't root for people in this story, but I can root for the truth.
And if the people are aligned with the truth, then I'm rooting for the people, you know?
I agree with that.
It's been almost three years since my first conversation with Sophia.
I've spoken to dozens of people connected to this story.
Five thousands of pages of case files and court records, I have information.
And now...
What the fuck?
Shane does, too.
Oh, this hurts.
This hurts.
I can't read it.
Twenty years after this murder uprooted his life, Shane's decided he's not going to surrender
to the justice system anymore.
Because according to the justice system, this murder is technically a cold case.
This is not right.
I don't care who it is.
Next time, Shane digs into his sister's case file, and I dig into Sophia's trial, and
the key witness who testified against her.
The person kind of took, it was like stalking off their face, and it turned out to be my
sister.
Sophia's other brother.
I'm going to fight you guys.
Beyond All Repair is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR, and ZSP Media.
It's written and reported by me, Amary Severtzen, and produced by Sophie Codner.
Mix, Sound Design, and Original Scoring by Paul Vikas, production manager of WBUR Podcasts.
Theme and Credits Music by Me.
Our managing producers are Summita Joshi for WBUR, and Liz Styles of ZSP.
The show is edited and executive produced by Ben Brock Johnson of WBUR and Zach Stewart
Pontier of ZSP Media.
If you have questions about the case, the real people at the center of this story, or anything
else about this series, we want to hear them.
Email BeyondAllRepairPod at gmail.com.
Voice message, written message, you do you.
BeyondAllRepairPod at gmail.com.
Hey, do me a favor, will you? Tell someone you love them and tell them about this show.
In that order.
Thank you for listening.
That was the first episode of BeyondAllRepair from WBUR and ZSP Media.
The two, it's already waiting for you, so search for BeyondAllRepair in your podcast
app, and I'll talk to you over there.
Thank you for listening.
