Let's be frank. We don't know the truth. We can only assemble the opinions and first-hand

accounts of the priests, parishioners, and police who are willing to talk. But at this point

in the investigation, we have talked to priests, parishioners, and policemen on both sides of the metaphorical aisle.

And time and time again, it seems that those who have lived with accepting what the death certificate reads are misinformed.

We are hoping Father Joe's friends,

who took their colleague in the medical examiner's office

or in the precinct's word for it,

we'll listen to this podcast and consider the odds

and re-examine their idea of the truth.

Thank you. Rachel and I are not from Buffalo. In 2012, we hadn't even met yet. And almost everyone who was in the church, at the crime scene, or with Father Joe the day he died,

has either passed away in the last 10 years or won't talk.

We were in the middle of this investigation, and we couldn't find an unbiased,

Buffaloan who was in the Catholic diocese or the

DA's office or the police force. We needed an inside man with no agenda who did not know Father

Joe but lived and breathed in Buffalo long enough to know how the city works. And we knew we had to go back to

Buffalo to find him. The 10-year anniversary of Father Joe's death was approaching, and without a

certain plan for publishing this podcast series, Rachel and I traveled back to Buffalo. The town of Tonawanda was more haunting this time. Erie County

was living up to its Erie name with a constant gloom shading the sun from piercing through.

We were no longer tourists oblivious to the corruption plaguing the city, and we were on a mission.

We're on a mission. The meaning of the Lord, we've got to understand it.

We're on a mission from God.

And like clockwork, the coincidences started.

...