Before we get started, we want to pause and give an important note that this episode is as heavy as the title suggests.

We'll be discussing phylliside, the heartbreaking loss of children whose lives should never have been cut short, as well as mentions of suicide.

These are difficult but necessary conversations, and with them comes the push for awareness and change.

Please know that listener discretion is strongly advised.

I'm Ashley.

And I'm Ricky.

And this is Crime Salad.

So at CrimeCon, Ricky and I had just finished getting ready for the day. We put on our

crime salad shirts. We got our overpriced coffees, prepared to meet hundreds of people,

share stories, and invite new listeners to listen to our show. But then something happened that

stopped me in my tracks. A woman approached our table holding a flyer, and on it were the faces of

children. With her was a wonderful person named Rachel from Momcast Productions, who introduced her

and gently explained her story. The woman by her side was Hope Houdin. Her two children had been the

victims of philicide, the unimaginable act where a parent or sometimes even a step-parent takes the

lives of a child. And in this case,

their father murdered her two children and then himself. As Hope stood there, I felt it instantly,

the weight of her grief. It was deep and raw, the worst pain a mother could ever feel. But right

alongside it, I felt something else,

strength. A strength I can only describe as the kind that comes from living through the unimaginable.

It resonated off her like a beam of light. Hope was standing in her truth. She got ready on the same

day, just like me wearing a shirt that says voices of

philicide here to tell her children's story, even if it meant reliving her pain of the words

...