After my first podcast episode came out in the winter of 2021,

Sherry's three children wanted to meet with me.

They wanted to thank me for the time I put into telling their

mother's story. And as I sat in a Bethesda, Maryland restaurant with Tiffany, Darren, and Luke,

I was surprised when Tiffany handed me a gift bag. Inside was a card and a figurine, a small statue of

a guardian angel.

Over the years, victims' families have thanked me for telling their stories,

but I had never received anything like this.

From that day on, that angel has lived on my desk,

and I've prayed every day that Detective Bernie Nelson would solve the case.

When I got the call from Bernie on November 8, 2025, I felt a wave of emotions.

For Bernie, I felt a sense of relief. The burden he had carried for more than 27 years was now off his shoulders. Job well done.

For the three Crandall kids, I felt finally they have an answer to that question. Who?

Who did this to Mom? The unknowing is an altogether different burden.

After all these years, my prayers had been answered and so had theirs,

as you'll hear in just a bit. As I came down from that adrenaline rush, I had so many questions,

but key among them was who was Barry Shabazz, and what brought him to the hospital that awful night, 28 years ago?

I'm Paul Wagner, and this is episode 8, answered prayers, the conclusion of season two of the

American Nightmares podcast series Murder in a Safe Place.

When Luke Crandall and his sister Tiffany walked into the news conference where police would be announcing the closure of what was widely known as the hospital case, neither of

them had seen a picture of the man who police say killed their mom.

So I hadn't seen the picture of Edward at all up until the point of the presser at the

...