Episode 273: Joseph Heidesch

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

Society & Culture, News, True Crime

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On October 6th of 2021, Catholic high school music teacher 45-year-old Joseph Martin “Joe” Heidesch is arrested for multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a child and breach of privacy. Further investigation reveals that, from 2016 to 2021, the choir director secretly filmed his female students changing into their performance outfits in his private office. Court documents revealed that Mr. Heidesch would strongly encourage his female students to use his office to change clothes. He told the girls there was a “‘special lock” on his office door that would make their experience safer. Ultimately, more than 100 young women who attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas, are notified that they were victimized by Mr. Heidesch’s crimes. In episode 273, Jac and Alexis unravel how one man’s pedophilia, lies, and exploitation negatively impacted many young women, their families, and the community as a whole.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's a degree.
0:02.0	First degree.
0:04.0	First degree.
0:05.0	First degree.
0:06.0	First degree.
0:07.0	The first degree.
0:08.0	The first degree.
0:09.0	You see it on the news.
0:10.0	See it on the table and you see it on Facebook.
0:12.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies. See it on a paper, you see it on Facebook.
0:13.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:16.0	You know how you're sitting around having these hypothetical conversations with your friends?
0:26.3	You know anybody who could be a serial killer?
0:28.8	You don't really think they're going to be a serial killer, but you're going to have a list of
0:31.5	people who pop into your head even
0:33.0	though it's ridiculous you know but I mean if we were ever talking about somebody who
0:36.8	would be Joe wouldn't even have popped into my head as a possibility you know not even
0:41.0	for one to for me to just be like oh no it couldn't have been Joe like he
0:44.3	wouldn't even have occurred to me it's such a weird headspace to be in because there's like the
0:49.1	before Joe who was really sweet and he would he would be more likely to come to your defense than to be an offender,
0:56.3	you know, and just be a really trustworthy, nice, just a really good guy.
1:02.1	I'm like, this is not the guy I know. This is like a completely different person.
	...

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