Episode 353: Melissa Lamesch

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A 911 call brought firefighters to the home of Melissa Lamesch in November 2020. Melissa was only days away from being induced and delivering her first child, a son. Instead, first responders would find her unconscious on the kitchen floor. What seemed at first to be an accidental fire soon turned into a murder investigation. And the suspect? Melissa’s on-again, off again firefighter boyfriend and the father of her baby. In episode 353, Jac and Alexis dive into the case that left a small town in Illinois devastated and a family grieving.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first degree.
0:02.0	First degree.
0:03.0	First degree.
0:04.0	First degree.
0:05.0	First degree.
0:06.0	First degree.
0:07.0	The first degree.
0:09.0	You see it on the news.
0:10.0	You see it on the paper.
0:11.0	You see it on Facebook.
0:13.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life. He seemed very like normal and compassionate.
0:27.7	Like you would expect someone that worked in healthcare.
0:30.4	If you met him, like he was just so friendly.
0:33.9	Like he just seemed like a normal, friendly, funny EMT that you would meet anywhere, you know?
0:39.3	Every once in a while, it just gives me a little chill to know that I cross paths with someone
0:45.1	that did that.
0:45.8	I think that's probably what freaks me out the most and what I think about most when I think
0:49.9	of it is just how normal he seems and then how, you know, psychotic he ended up being.
0:58.2	Welcome to the first degree, the true crime podcast that you might end up on. I'm Jack Vanek. I'm
1:03.4	sitting here with Alexis Slinkletter. It's another Wednesday. Hump Day, baby. Hope you're having a good
1:08.2	week. Yeah, I hope so. We're almost for the week. It's almost the
1:12.1	weekend. Almost. If you're listening to this in the afternoon, you're more than halfway there.
	...

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