The Skull in the Wall: DNA Reveals Esther Granger’s Story
America's Crime Lab
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
4.8 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Illinois, a DIY home renovation uncovered a human skull hidden inside a wall. When the case went cold, the remains sat for decades on a museum office shelf, forgotten and unidentified. Years later, a staffer’s rediscovery gave investigators a second chance. Using forensic DNA technology, they finally uncovered the identity of Esther Granger, and the mystery of how her skull ended up in a family home.
America’s Crime Lab is a true crime podcast about how science solves cold cases, missing persons, and other unsolved cases. Hosted by journalist and clinical psychologist Elin Lantz Lesser, and powered by Othram’s forensic DNA lab, the show connects the science to the story, revealing what really happens in the lab and why it matters.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:07.0 | The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, |
| 0:14.0 | until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. |
| 0:20.9 | America, y'all better work the hell up. |
| 0:22.9 | Bad things happens to good people in small towns. |
| 0:32.5 | Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:38.9 | And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:46.1 | On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. |
| 0:57.3 | Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. |
| 1:01.0 | How does someone prove that they deserve to live? |
| 1:03.9 | We are starting the recording now. |
| 1:05.8 | Please state your first and last name. |
| 1:09.3 | Krista Pike. |
| 1:10.9 | Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you |
| 1:18.4 | get your podcasts. |
| 1:22.1 | People called them murderers. |
| 1:24.3 | Ten years later, they were gods. |
| 1:26.9 | Today, no one knows their names. A group of maverick |
| 1:30.4 | surgeons who took on the medical establishment who risked everything to invent open heart |
| 1:35.2 | surgery. Welcome to the Wild West of American Medicine. I'm Chris Pine and this is cardiac cowboys. |
| 1:42.4 | If you like medical dramas, if you like heart-pounding thrillers, you will love cardiac |
| 1:46.7 | cowboys. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.