Episode 354: Destiny McClain

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early morning hours of July 18, 2021, a 23-year-old woman is standing in line at a food truck outside a Phoenix nightclub when gunfire erupts. She is struck in the chest and later dies at the hospital, leaving her family devastated. As police investigate, they uncover very little evidence—aside from a grainy video of a dark-colored car speeding away. To this day, her case remains unsolved. In episode 354, Jac and Alexis revisit the night Destiny McClain’s life was stolen, and the powerful ways her mother has kept her memory alive ever since.

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	The first degree.
0:08.0	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.
0:16.0	That... That day was kind of, you know, I remember bits and pieces of it, but I don't remember all of it because it was just so much going on and it was so much to try and wrap my head around.
0:35.6	And that was the struggle, just trying to wrap my head around it
0:40.7	because I just couldn't comprehend it.
0:42.4	It just didn't make sense to me because she never went anywhere.
0:45.9	She was always at home.
0:47.8	And the one time she goes out to try and be there for somebody else, this is what happens.
0:54.8	Welcome to the first degree of the true crime podcast that you might end up on.
0:58.4	My name is Jack Fannick.
0:59.3	I'm sitting here at the Alexis Link Letter.
1:00.9	Were you mouthing my intro?
1:03.9	Yeah, I was.
1:05.9	I was falling along.
	...

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