Episode 358: Anatomy of Betrayal

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a woman made the life-changing decision to anonymously donate her kidney, she did it out of pure compassion for a total stranger. But what happens when that stranger doesn’t stay anonymous? When the recipient of your organ begins threatening your safety, and turning your act of selflessness into a nightmare? In episode 358, Jac and Lex delve into the harrowing story of one woman’s gift, and how it came back to haunt her. In a legal system unprepared for a case like this, she found herself caught in a web of fear, confusion, and emotional devastation. What do you do when the lines between medical ethics, personal safety, and criminal law blur? When the very act that saved someone’s life puts your own in danger? And in the end… could she ever make it stop?

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first degree.
0:02.8	First degree.
0:03.9	First degree.
0:05.2	First degree.
0:06.3	First degree.
0:07.3	The first degree.
0:08.9	You see it on the news.
0:10.1	You see it on the paper.
0:11.1	You see it on Facebook.
0:13.2	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:31.6	So I, as he kept making comments, because then he started to say directly that maybe I will just kill myself by stabbing myself in your kidney. So he's calling it mine, not his.
0:34.6	And at one point he even offered to mail it back to me after stabbing it. I don't know how
0:40.9	that would work. But so then I called the police again because I'm like, okay, now I'm getting
0:45.5	pretty scared. Welcome to the first degree, the true crime podcast that you might end up on. My name
0:52.0	is Jack Fannick. I'm sitting here with the Alexis Link Letter. Happy Wednesday people, hump day baby. In full effect.
0:59.5	In full effect. Hope everybody's having a good week so far. We're so happy to have you
1:05.8	with us on this fine day. And we have got a doozy of an episode this week. It's kind of different than
1:12.1	our like normal first degree episodes. I love our ability to cover stories that frame crime
1:17.3	in just a completely different way. So I'm thrilled to hear what everyone thinks about this once we
1:22.4	dive in. Yeah. And I guess just when it comes to our submissions, like if you're listening to this episode and you have a similar story, this one has no murderer in it.
1:32.0	It's very interesting and a bizarre case.
1:36.7	But there are many like that out there and maybe you haven't thought about writing us in.
	...

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