AI Summary
5 min readIn the desert community of Scottsdale, Arizona, where neighbors rarely lock their doors and the February sun is warm and bright, a 31-year-old medical sales representative named Alison Feldman was building the life she had always wanted. She had just bought her own home, was excelling at her job selling wound care products to hospitals, and volunteered at Camp Courage, a camp for children who had been burned. Her family described her as “kind of like gravity”—someone who drew people in with unconditional acceptance. On the evening of February 17, 2015, after a routine day of work and errands, Alison came home. That night, a neighbor reported hearing a long, intermittent scream.
The next day, Alison’s boyfriend, Alex Stone, used his key to enter her house after she failed to answer texts or calls. He found her body on the hallway floor. The 911 call captured his raw, desperate screaming. When police arrived, the front door was open, and the overwhelming smell of bleach hung in the air. Inside, blood was smeared throughout the home. Alison was completely naked, her dress pulled over her face. The attack had been brutal—a blitz-style assault that included blunt force trauma to the back of the head, manual strangulation, and violent sexual assault. She had fought hard: broken fingernails were found in several places, and the struggle had spilled into the backyard and pool, where a
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:43) **A Vibrant Life, Then Silence** - Introduces Alison Feldman, a 31-year-old burn-specialist sales rep living in Scottsdale, Arizona, and her close relationship with her family; the clockwork calls and texts suddenly stop one February afternoon in 2015.
- 2 (03:55) **The Victim and the Secure Suburb** - Builds a portrait of Alison as a vibrant, successful woman who loved U of A sports, bought her own home, and volunteered at Camp Courage for burn-injured children.
- 3 (06:50) **The Day of the Murder** - Reconstructs Alison’s final day: a normal Tuesday of work, a performance review, errands at Kohl’s and Walmart, then home; by the next morning, her phone is off and she is unreachable.
- 4 (08:00) **Alex Stone Finds Her Body** - Security video catches Alex arriving at Alison’s house, using his key to enter, and then emerging to make a frantic 911 call; he finds her lying on the floor, the house disheveled.
- 5 (11:31) **The Forensic Scene: Pool, Hair, and a Broken Bottle** - Detective John Heinselden walks through the mountain of evidence: an earring in the pool, a blood-stained carpet remnant, a clump of Alison’s hair, and—critically—a broken Leinenkugel’s beer bottle under a couch.
- 6 (13:48) **Reconstructing the Timeline** - Using security video, alarm records, and witness accounts, detectives narrow the attack to around 9:30 PM, with the killer staying in the house for nearly four hours until 1:04 AM.
- 7 (16:17) **The First Suspect: Alex Stone** - Detectives immediately focus on Alison’s boyfriend, who had access to the house and discovered the body; they interview him and collect his clothing and DNA.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
A young woman is murdered in her own home, leaving only one mysterious clue to help catch a killer. John Quiñones investigates this heart pounding, incredible story.
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