Inside the Mind of a Homicide Prosecutor: A Conversation with Matt Murphy
Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.4 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2024
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matt Murphy is a former homicide prosecutor with over 20 years of experience at the Orange County District Attorney’s office. He is currently a legal analyst for ABC News and an avid shark diver and surfer. His new book, The Book of Murder, chronicles his career and the lessons he learned from prosecuting some of the most notorious cases in Southern California.
Listeners can learn more about Matt Murphy at his website, or on IG @mattmurphylaw
Resources:
The Book of Murder : A Prosecutor’s Journey Through Love and Death
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, talks with Matt Murphy, a renowned legal analyst, former homicide prosecutor, and shark diver. With over 20 years of experience in the Orange County DA’s office, Matt shares his unique insights into solving cold cases, tackling notorious serial killer cases, and the emotional toll of bringing justice to victims and their families. The conversation also covers his new book, The Book of Murder: A Prosecutor's Journey Through Love and Death, and how his career has shaped his outlook on life.
Show Notes:
- (0:00) Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum
- (0:10) Sheryl introduces guest, Matt Murphy to Zone 7
- (2:00) Matt Murphy's cold case approach
- (5:20) “The only thing worse than losing a loved one is losing a loved one to murder. And the only thing worse than losing a loved one to murder is when the killer gets away with it.”
- (10:00) Matt’s personal hobbies - shark diving
- (14:00) Teamwork and collaboration in solving cases
- (20:00) Life as a homicide prosecutor - impact on personal life
- (23:30) The importance of teamwork and mentorship
- (30:30) The significance of bringing justice to murder victims’ families
- (38:00) “Monsters can mask their true nature, especially in settin’s, where you get limited exposure to their full selves.”
- Thanks for listening to another episode! If you’re loving the show and want to help grow the show, please head over to Itunes and leave a rating and review!
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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.
Social Links:
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
- Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
- Instagram: @officialzone7podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Y'all, tonight we have a legend. |
| 0:15.1 | Matt Murphy is with us. |
| 0:18.6 | He is a legal analyst for ABC News. He's a former homicide prosecutor, and y'all, he's spent |
| 0:26.0 | over 20 years prosecuting homicides, violent sex cases, all with the Orange County DA's office. |
| 0:35.2 | He's, you know, prosecuted some pretty notable cases. Some were cold cases. |
| 0:40.4 | He's done famous serial killer cases, no body cases, you name it. If it came out of that office, |
| 0:47.1 | he had his hands on it. You know him from ABC, obviously, but you've also seen him on 2020. |
| 0:57.0 | Good Morning America. Eye crime with Elizabeth Vargas. He also is an avid surfer, and one thing I want to talk to him about, he's a shark diver. |
| 1:06.7 | Because, you know, his life wasn't risky enough going to crime scenes, running up and down the street with, you know, detectives on homicide cases and mafia cases and, you know, different things with serial killers and all. |
| 1:20.3 | Y'all, he loves to also paint, which I did not know about him. |
| 1:25.6 | Several of y'all have been with me at CromCon |
| 1:29.2 | where he has taken the stage and flat shone off. |
| 1:35.0 | I'm a huge fan, not just a friend, I'm a huge fan. |
| 1:38.6 | So y'all help me welcome Matt Murphy to Zone 7. |
| 1:43.1 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:43.9 | Well, I've been looking forward to this because, you know, there's one thing, Welcome, Matt Murphy to Zone 7. Thank you very much. |
| 1:49.2 | Well, I've been looking forward to this because, you know, there's one thing I left out. |
| 1:51.6 | And we're going to get to it in a minute, y'all. |
| 1:55.2 | But I left out a real important thing that he's got on his resume too. But if we could, I always like when I talk to prosecutors or veteran detectives, I like to know your |
| 2:04.4 | process. How do you take on a cold case, Matt? Like what is your first thing when you get it on |
| 2:10.5 | your desk? Well, I think that when I was working those cases, so Orange County is a vertical |
| 2:16.2 | system. So it's a little bit different than most |
... |
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