KPBS Investigates

Aug 28 2024 22 ep. 16 mins 50
KPBS Investigates Podcast artwork

KPBS News serves the people of the San Diego region with trustworthy, in-depth information that allows the community to hold its leaders accountable. We show how global and local current affairs change our lives, and how San Diego changes the world. We tell you more than just what is happening—we tell you why. Be sure to go back and listen to our first series, "Dr. J's." In it, KPBS investigative reporter Claire Trageser explores a horrific crime and its lasting impacts on Southeast San Diego, a lower income and predominantly African-American pocket of the city.

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Episode 7: What happens next

Aug 28 2024 22 mins  
We still have no strong leads on who actually killed Bob Dorotik. This episode goes through how DNA evidence led to Jane’s charges finally being dismissed, and why that same DNA evidence can’t lead police to the actual killer. It also looks at what’s next for Jane and how she is devoting all her time to activism, lobbying the government for prison reform. This episode looks a

Episode 6: Implications for other cases

Aug 28 2024 17 mins  
The bad science in Jane’s case has implications for many other cases in San Diego County as well. The work of Jane’s lawyers led the District Attorney’s office to send out a Brady letter to defense attorneys warning them that evidence used in other cases could be questionable. But there’s no list of all those cases, and the DA deletes emails after 90 days so tracking them a

Episode 5: How forensic science is used

Aug 28 2024 15 mins  
Popular culture and the media are obsessed with forensic science. There are TV shows, podcasts and documentaries devoted to it. But much of that science does not always hold up to scrutiny, especially as our technology advances. Things like bite mark analysis, tire track analysis, hair analysis and other techniques are regularly used in courtrooms but do not always produce accurate

Episode 4: Bad science

Aug 28 2024 15 mins  
Jane Dorotik’s luck had finally begun to change. While she was still in prison for her husband’s murder, she was able to get the attention of lawyers with the Innocence Project. They reviewed her case and found much of the evidence and scientific analysis used in court appeared faulty. This episode details how Jane’s lawyers reviewed her case, and how things began to change o

Episode 3: Jane’s time in prison

Aug 28 2024 11 mins  
Jane Dorotik had always believed the justice system worked just fine, and people who were in prison likely deserved to be there. When she was convicted of her husband’s murder, she quickly realized that was not the case. Then when she went to prison, she met more women who had also been treated unfairly. She began to see how broken the system is, even for women who were guilty of

Episode 2: Jane’s trial

Aug 28 2024 17 mins  
Jane Dorotik’s trial began in March 2000 and it was a media circus. While the prosecution focused on scientific evidence — tire tracks, blood pattern analysis, contents of Bob’s stomach — the defense didn’t tackle that evidence and instead took the unusual strategy of blaming Jane’s daughter Claire for the murder. This only added to the circus aspect — a wealthy white

Episode 1: What happened to Jane Dorotik?

Aug 28 2024 14 mins  
On Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000, Jane Dorotik’s husband Bob went out for a run and never came back. He was found dead by the side of the road early the next morning, and Jane’s life changed forever. Three days later, she was arrested for his murder. This opening episode gives the details on who Jane was and what happened the day Bob was murdered. It also points at what’s to come —

Free Jane Trailer

Aug 21 2024 2 mins  
On Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000, Jane Dorotik’s husband Bob went out for a run and never came back. He was found dead by the side of the road early the next morning, and Jane’s life changed forever. Three days later, she was arrested for his murder. Over the next two decades Jane would become a convict, a martyr, an advocate, and she would play a key role in exposing fatal flaws in th

Episode 1: San Diego's first freeway

May 09 2023 24 mins  
An architect has a radical idea for San Diego's oldest freeway, SR-163, which cuts through Balboa Park. An environmental justice activist dreams of someday reconnecting her community that was divided by Interstate 5. If San Diego is serious about its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, how will our relationship with freeways have to change?

Episode 2: A feat of (social) engineering

May 09 2023 23 mins  
The American freeway is born in a time of intense optimism around the promise of the automobile. President Eisenhower sees the country's dilapidated road network as a barrier to economic growth and national defense. Jacob Dekema, the father of San Diego's freeway network, sees freeways as lifesavers. How did our optimism blind us to the freeway's dark side? Magic Highway USA: ht