Private Thoughts
Forensic Files
HLN
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode originally aired January 24, 2019. Firefighters find an entire family dead inside their burned-out home, and at first glance, it appears to be a case of murder-suicide. But clues found at the scene soon lead investigators to believe otherwise. Forensic science, a time card, a drawing, and an audiotaped diary help prosecutors to build their case, and bring the killer to justice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | When firefighters found an entire family dead inside their home, it looked like a murder suicide. |
| 0:10.0 | But there were several inconsistent clues in the rubble. |
| 0:16.0 | Could ballistics, a time card, and some secret audio tapes unravel the mystery. |
| 0:22.6 | The mystery. |
| 0:23.6 | Firefighters in Vinton in Virginia were called to a daybreak on August 29, 1994, firefighters in Venton, Virginia were called to a house fire on Virginia Avenue. |
| 0:45.1 | When the fire was extinguished, rescuers found the bodies of all four members of the Hodges family. |
| 0:53.3 | 41-year-old Blaine Hodges, his 37-year-old wife, Teresa, and their two daughters, 11-year-old |
| 1:01.1 | Winter, and three-year-old Anna. |
| 1:04.2 | I think it's hard enough to lose one family member, but once you lose four, the numbness |
| 1:08.8 | and the grief that comes over you is unbearable. |
| 1:13.8 | Teresa Hodges was on the sofa downstairs. |
| 1:17.9 | She had been strangled to death. |
| 1:20.6 | An empty diesel fuel can lay nearby. |
| 1:25.8 | Upstairs, the two little girls were in bed. |
| 1:30.1 | Both had been shot to death. |
| 1:33.3 | Blaine Hodges was dead from a gunshot wound in the master bedroom. |
| 1:37.9 | A 22-caliber pistol was on the floor by his side. |
| 1:42.1 | It looked like Blaine Hodges had killed his wife and two young daughters, and then set |
| 1:49.2 | the home on fire and got in bed and killed his cell. |
| 1:52.8 | Blaine Hodges had recently had some difficult times. |
| 1:57.7 | He had been fired from his job at the post office for allegedly stealing $4,600. |
| 2:03.8 | It had been convicted of an investment charge and was on the verge of going off to jail for a short period of time. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from HLN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of HLN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.