Episode 324

Sword and Scale

Incongruity

True Crime, Entrepreneurship, Business, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4 • 61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the mountain valley town of Questa, New Mexico, a group of teenagers spent a summer afternoon the way so many do: unsupervised, a little bored, and pushing boundaries. But by nightfall, 13-year-old Amber Archuleta was dead. What followed was a tangle of grief, blame, and questions about the adults who were supposed to be keeping them safe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Sword and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.
0:06.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:12.0	We don't have another place to go.
0:14.0	You got better?
0:15.0	You appreciate there as a dead girl on your porch, right?
0:17.0	Yeah.
0:18.0	I don't have an option either.
0:35.5	15-year-old Frankie Archiletta is running as fast as he can.
0:44.7	Each step kicks up the cloud of dust as 104 Cabresto Road shrinks behind them. That's where police were supposed to go, but they missed it.
0:48.8	And now Frankie has to find them.
0:51.6	His lungs burn, partly from the running, but mostly from panic.
0:58.1	Finally, he sees the red and blue lights getting closer.
1:02.1	Frankie frantically waves his arms, trying to flag them down.
1:07.5	The cruiser barely slows to a stop before Frankie jumps in the back seat.
1:11.1	Stop right here, this turn.
1:12.8	This turn here.
1:13.8	No, the gate, yeah, there's two gates.
1:15.7	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:19.7	Just go in.
1:21.7	I know, dude.
1:22.7	I don't get it.
1:23.7	Oh, my fucking go.
	...

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