This podcast details true crime cases.

It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

It is not intended for children.

Listener discretion is advised.

Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

It's springtime, and we all know what that means.

This is the time of the year when all our fancies turned to thoughts of sports.

Whether we're headed out to the ballgame or shuffling the kids in between softball games and soccer practice,

in the first mile days of spring, many spend enjoyable afternoon's playing or watching sports.

But every once in a while, these wholesome and family-friendly activities can devolve into not-so-pleasant incidents.

In this month's series, Bad Sports, I'll share stories about bad things happening at sporting events or by sports figures.

In this first episode, a neighborhood ice hockey rink, a pee-wee hockey pickup game,

and some unsportsman-like conduct leads to a confrontation between parents that ends with tragic results.

This is the case of Thomas Jenta, hockey dad.

It was a warm day in Reading Massachusetts, when Thomas Jenta aged 44,

ended his workday driving his delivery truck.

It was late afternoon, around 2 p.m., when Jenta got a call from his wife Michelle, a part-time swimming instructor.

Thomas and Michelle had been married for 14 years and had two children.

Their son, Quinlan, was 10 years old, and their daughter, Kendall, 17.

Michelle asked her husband to swing by the Burbank ice arena to pick up their son and his two friends, Travis and Garrett.

The boys had been dropped off at the public ice arena earlier that afternoon to practice their hockey skills.

Sticked practice, as it was called, was informal and open to everyone.

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