Lie, Deny, Justify

Small Town Dicks

Audio 99

True Crime, Paul Holes, History, Small Town, Yeardley Smith, Society & Culture, Police

4.7 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a quiet desert town, a well-loved schoolteacher vanishes without a trace. Lieutenant Matt joins the search. The teacher’s husband has little to say, but the investigation goes on, eventually leading to a chilling discovery.

What began as a missing person report quickly spirals into a haunting story about betrayal, loss, and the quiet instincts that crack a case wide open.

Lieutenant Matt was born and raised in a small town in New Mexico. After high school, he attended the police academy at Western New Mexico University.

Lt. Matt started his law enforcement career at the Hidalgo County Sheriff Department (Lordsburg, NM) in 1994. In 2000, he transfered to the Deming Police Department (Deming, NM) where he held the ranks of patrol officer, Detective Sergeant and Patrol Lieutenant. Lt. Matt retired in in 2020.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey Smalltown fam, it's Yardley. I want to remind you that if you want access to bonus episodes
0:07.9	and regular episodes a day early and ad-free, and our community forum and other behind-the-scenes
0:14.8	goodies, you got to go to smalltowndicks.com slash superfam and then in the top right hand corner hit that little tab that says
0:25.9	join and then listen to the end of today's episode for a sneak peek at today's new bonus episode episode.
0:48.1	Hey, small town fam, it's Yardley. How are you guys? I hope you're all well. I'm so happy you're here with me. We have such an interesting case for you today. The story is as old as time. And yet, I don't think you're
0:57.6	going to feel any closer to understanding why people commit murders like this by the end of it
1:03.1	than you did before you pushed play on today's episode, because I certainly didn't. And it got me
1:10.2	thinking about something I've pondered a lot since hosting this podcast,
1:14.6	and that is, how come we're so bad at being honest with each other and ourselves?
1:22.0	This failing as human beings leads to so many terrible outcomes,
1:26.4	as in the case we follow today, where the suspect
1:29.4	abdicated his primary responsibility as a person in the world, which I believe is looking
1:35.3	after our own well-being. But this guy, he didn't do that. Instead, he blamed everyone else for
1:42.9	his misery, let it fester and metastasize, and then, somehow, convinced himself there was only one way out and that it would actually work.
1:54.2	Like I said, a story as old as time.
1:59.4	Here is, lie, deny, justify.
2:04.7	Hi there, I'm Yardley.
2:06.7	I'm Dan. I'm Dave.
2:08.3	And I'm Paul.
2:09.3	And this is Smalltown Dix.
2:11.6	Dave and I are identical twins and retired detectives from Smalltown USA.
2:15.9	And I'm a veteran cold case investigator who helped catch the Golden State Killer using a revolutionary DNA tool.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Audio 99, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Audio 99 and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.