Episode 365: Carrie Lepak

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Homicide detectives are trained to speak for the dead. They build cases from silence, piecing together fragments of lives they never truly knew. Rarely do they ever get to meet the people they fight for. But for one Los Angeles investigator, that changed in the fall of 1987, when a woman lived through the impossible. After being abducted, held captive for 48 hours, and shot in the head twice, she somehow survived. Her story not only defied medical odds, it reshaped a detective’s career and life, forging a bond between victim and investigator that would endure long after the case was closed. In episode 365, Jac and Lex delve into the survival story of Carol LePak, with the help of retired LA homicide investigator, Don Tabek. 🎟 Catch up to FOUR bonus episodes per month plus full video episodes over on Patreon: patreon.com/thefirstdegree 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/thefirstdegree 🕺 TikTok: tiktok.com/@thefirstdegreee 👤 Facebook: facebook.com/thefirstdegree Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.7	The first degree.
0:32.8	First degree. First degree. First degree. First degree. First degree. First degree. The first degree.
0:38.3	You see it on the news. You see it on the paper. You see it on Facebook.
0:42.3	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:50.3	I couldn't believe that I was talking to someone who had been shot in the head twice,
0:56.5	and one of the bullets was still in her brain, and one exited her neck right about at
1:01.9	the juggler vein in the left center of neck.
1:05.0	So how I miss the juggler, how this woman is sitting there been.
1:09.1	So I've never experienced anything like this.
1:13.9	Welcome to the first degree of the true crime podcast that you might end up on.
1:17.7	My name is Jack Fannick.
1:18.6	I'm sitting here with Alexis Linklitter.
1:20.3	It's another day, another Wednesday.
1:22.1	Happy hump day.
1:23.0	Happy hump day.
1:24.2	We really hope that we are making your day a little bit better,
	...

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