Introducing The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

Documentary, True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.”

New episodes of Death and Deceit in Alliance will be available every Tuesday and Friday starting on December 2 wherever you get your podcasts. To binge the entire season, ad-free, subscribe to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple podcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi all, Amber here. You know me as a podcast host and researcher, but I also do a fair bit of editing.
0:09.1	A few years ago, I edited a riveting investigation spearheaded by fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Maggie Freeling,
0:16.2	who when I was editing was reporting this case out in real time. Now, with the benefit of hindsight,
0:21.9	Maggie is releasing a creator's cut of that investigation, one that reflects what she learned
0:27.2	along the way, and what didn't sit right once the reporting was done. The case begins on April
0:32.9	Fool's Day in 1999 when 26-year-old Yvonne Lane was found murdered in her Alliance Ohio home.
0:39.9	Her ex-boyfriend, David Thorn, became the focus of the investigation.
0:44.1	Another man confessed to the killing, but claimed David paid him to do it.
0:48.6	David was sentenced to life without parole.
0:50.6	What unfolds here is not a typical wrongful conviction story. It questions the
0:56.3	investigation, the advocates, and even the role journalists play when we believe we're on the right
1:01.7	side. Truly, this was a wild case from start to finish, and I'm so proud of the work Maggie did
1:08.2	on it and grateful that I got to play a part.
1:13.7	You're about to hear a portion of the first episode.
1:18.4	New episodes of the Burden, Death, and Deceit and Alliance drop weekly.
1:24.6	If you like what you hear, subscribe to the Burden Death and Deceit and Alliance wherever you listen to podcasts.
1:31.3	Today we have a special preview of Death and Deceit in Alliance, episode one.
1:36.7	To hear the podcast in its entirety go to Death and Deceit and Alliance in the feed of the show,
1:37.7	The Burden.
1:44.6	Today's date of July 14th, 1999, Wednesday, it's 1309 hours. My name is Detective Bud Samson.
1:46.5	We're in the Ravanaugh Police Department interview room, along with me is Detective William
1:50.8	Mucklo and Detective John Leach of the Alliance Police Department.
	...

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