Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is one that has been keeping me up at night. Because it shows you just how quickly a case can be closed when on paper it looks open and shut, even when nothing about the details add up. Because when a mom of two is found in the Puget Sound in Washington at the start

of the pandemic, investigators were quick to rule her death of suicide. But that didn't make

sense to her loved ones, or to me. So we started asking questions about how a devoted mom could

vanish in the dead of night, about the witness who never told the same story twice,

and about the husband whose answers only raised more questions.

But once we started pulling at those threads,

we realized that nothing about this story is simple,

and it unraveled into something far more chilling than we expected.

This is the story of Gwen Hasselquist.

Music You know, I'm going to be able to All right, let me take you back to a time that we all wish we could forget.

It is March 20, 2020.

The global COVID pandemic had finally gripped the U.S.

And we couldn't just drink bleach to make it go away despite previous advice from a president.

Now, where our story takes place in none other than Washington State, schools are closed, grocery

shelves are empty, and stay-at-home orders are just about to take hold.

But while most people are hunkered down inside, Washington State Trooper Daniel Knox is out

on his regular patrol in Pierce County.

The streets are quieter than normal, but not yet completely free of traffic or traffic

calls.

And just after midnight, dispatch radios him about a minivan stopped on the shoulder of the

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is like this mile-long suspension bridge that crosses over the

Puget Sound from Gig Harbor to Tacoma. Now, Trooper Knox drives over, and he spots it right away,

...