At a time when violent crimes are at historical lows (despite what the current administration claims), there are more true-crime podcasts, books, TV shows, and general interest in the genre. True-crime podcasts are extremely expensive to make because of research costs, public records requests, the possible need to hire investigators, out-of-studio recording costs, and the production costs.
Therefore, the season-long, deep-cover investigations into a crime has given way to a more cost-effective, cursory, crime-of-the-week treatment that has not attracted the ratings number like Serial or S-Town. Large podcast networks watch the bottom line. Independent true-crime podcasts, however, take their cases to the finish line.
Not so with the independent podcast, The Murder Sheet.
The Murder Sheet
podcast has released over 700 episodes and won several awards,
including the Ear Worthy Award in 2024 for Best True-Crime Podcast. The
co-hosts, Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee, are true investigators, not
commentators and pundits. Check out the Burger King murder episodes.
Here's the latest from The Murder Sheet.
On
December 6, 1991, police and firefighters responded to a blaze at the I
Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas. The scene they
discovered inside was nightmarish. The bodies of 17-year-old Jennifer
Harbison, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and 17-year-old Eliza Thomas were
stacked, bound and gagged, and badly burned. Off to the side was
13-year-old Amy Ayers, who had been shot twice. The girls had each been
terrorized and brutally murdered. The case remained unsolved for years.
On Friday, September 26, 2025, Austin, TX, police announced that they could finally
tie a subject to the crime scene. DNA evidence linked serial killer
Robert Eugene Brashers to the murders.
Shocking new information about a Kentucky connection
On September 29, 2025,The Murder Sheet podcast
was the first outlet to release an extensive report on the Kentucky
connection to the Austin yogurt shop murders. Investigators at the press
conference noted that they were working closely with Kentucky State
Police and police in an unnamed Kentucky city. They noted that they had a
ballistics match to a 1998 cold case homicide case in the Bluegrass
State.
Combing
through the records of unsolved 1998 Kentucky cases, The Murder Sheet co-hosts, Cain and Greenlee, came upon the
murder of Linda Marie Nixon Rutledge. The 43-year-old mother-of-one was
killed on Friday, November 6, 1998. She was shot multiple times in the
Nixon Hearing Aid Center at 121 Malabu Drive in Lexington, Kentucky. Her
parents owned the shop, and she was employed there. After the murder,
the killer set fire to the business. The details of the crime were
chillingly similar to those of the murders in Austin.
The Murder Sheet team can also reveal their findings about the following:
- Information about Linda Rutledge's life before her murder.
- Details of the mystery around her death.
- Information about how the Rutledge murder reflected the modus operandi for Brashers.
- How Brashers went about a multi-state crime spree as a serial killer.
- Information on how Brashers was not even the only killer in his family.
Listen to The Murder Sheet's reporting and analysis here. And their breaking report here.
The Murder Sheet is
a podcast that specializes in investigative deep dives into crimes and
legal proceedings. It is an Indiana-based independent production,
hosted, written, researched, and edited by Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee.
Cain is a journalist who was formerly a senior reporter with Insider. Greenlee is an Indiana attorney.
The show's hosts have been featured on Wondery's The Donut Shop Killers audio series and Investigation Discovery's television special Murders at the Burger Shop. They have also published reporting on an important Indiana murder case in the Franklin Daily Journal of Indiana's Johnson County and wrote a longform narrative piece for Indianapolis Monthly magazine. Their reporting on murder cases has been cited in national, regional, and local press.
At a time when violent crimes are at historical lows (despite what the current administration claims), there are more true-crime podcasts, books, TV shows, and general interest in the genre. True-crime podcasts are extremely expensive to make because of research costs, public records requests, the possible need to hire investigators, out-of-studio recording costs, and the production costs. 
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