4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 September 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
First responders arrive at a “battle scene” in 77-year-old Barbara Steele's West Virginia home. Her body is beaten, eviscerated, and positioned on a makeshift altar by 28-year-old Joshua Drennen, who after leaving her residence, continues his string of assaults on unsuspecting civilians, until immobilized by a Charleston police officer.
In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the antique item used in the physical attacks and injuries sustained by Barbara Steele and two other individuals in the community.
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
2:46 - Description of an antique iron owned and utilized by 77-year-old Barbara Steele
6:47 - Police are alerted to a criminal act committed by Joshua Drennen inside Barbara Steele’s home
8:03 - Joe describes the crime scene, the assault on Barbara Steele’s vehicle, and her participation within the community.
10:45 - Jackie and Joe discuss the continued acts of violence by Joshua Drennen against a woman inside her parked vehicle
9:23 - An explanation of cubing injuries to a body from an explosion of safety glass and how investigators use that information to determine a body’s position within a vehicle
13:31 - Joshua Drennen’s continued acts of violence throughout the community
17:29 - Charleston Police Patrolman Terrence Casto stops the threat by Joshua Drennen
18:24 - Joe describes the violent crime scene and the horrendous blunt force trauma Barbara Steele’s body experienced
26:21 - Beyond the trauma to her face and head, the police noticed Barbara's body had been eviscerated, as well as sexually assaulted post-mortem
31:33 - Joe and Jackie discuss the way Barbara Steele’s body was positioned and items located near her after the attack
35:49 - Why Barbara Steele and the woman in the parking lot?
37:24 - Overview of Joshua Drennen’s trial and conviction
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. |
0:20.5 | As I've gotten older, I think that corner of things I enjoy doing more than anything |
0:24.8 | all weekends with my wife. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it is actually going |
0:28.8 | and teaking. I love to go to old junk stores and I love to go to antique shops and just |
0:35.2 | look at things. It's not that I'm necessarily going to buy anything. I like, you know, I think |
0:39.5 | because I'm a frustrated historian at heart and every item in every one of these stores |
0:45.4 | has its own tale to be told. And it's fascinating, particularly when you walk through an area |
0:52.8 | of a store and you see tools that are left behind that people find useless nowadays. |
0:58.4 | But it's things that meant something to people in their work-a-day life, things that they |
1:02.8 | use on a regular basis. And it draws you in. You can learn a lot about a person in the |
1:11.2 | life that they have lived, I think perhaps, by those things that they utilized. And that |
1:18.2 | brings me to what we're going to talk about today, a lady that had lived a full life, |
1:26.6 | had made it into her 70s, had retired, and was now just wanting to live at peace, |
1:33.1 | working on clothing, working as a seamstress, and using an old-fashioned iron, a steam iron. |
1:40.5 | And then all of a sudden, the whole world exploded in Charleston, West Virginia. |
1:46.0 | My name is Joseph Scott Morgan, and this is Body Vax. |
1:56.6 | I was very hesitant to talk about this case today. However, I think that |
2:04.7 | it's emblematic of how quickly terror can fall upon us at any moment in time. |
2:13.7 | And I had to talk about this case with my friend Jackie. Jackie Howard from Crime Stories |
2:21.0 | of Nancy Grace. Jackie, I don't know that over the course of our discussions, I've encountered a |
2:26.2 | case like this, but it really kind of punched me in the gut when I began to think about |
2:32.8 | you'll live your life, and you just want to be at peace. You just want to love those that are |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.