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If you're a crime junkie, then you know we don't just go surface level for cases. We have all the questions and
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when we do, we always go a layer deeper. And sometimes this deep digging means filing a FOIA request. FOIA, the Freedom
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of Information Act, gives anyone, you, me, the legal right to request records from federal agencies. It's one of the
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most powerful tools available to us in our investigations. And if you've been here for a while, then you've definitely
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heard me say, "We filed a FOIA request." Often followed up by, "Our FOIA request
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was denied." But sometimes, sometimes it unlocks something no one expected. Today, I'm sharing three cases where
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filing a FOIA request led us to new or more information. Details that changed what we thought we knew, shifted our
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investigation, or raised even more questions. Let's get into it. Number three, our
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look into the murder of Kristin David. In 1981, a 22-year-old college student set out on a 3-hour ride through rural
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Idaho and she never made it home. Days later, her dismembered body was found floating in garbage bags in the Snake
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River. Now, for decades, her case has been linked to a suspected serial killer in the Pacific Northwest, but we believe
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that it is possible she may have been killed by someone else entirely. And to dig deeper, we filed a FOIA request to
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access the original case file. On June 26, 1981, Kristin David left Moscow, Idaho planning to bike 30 miles back to
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Lewiston. It was mostly downhill, so a ride that she could easily handle. Multiple witnesses reported seeing her
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along Highway 95, but some of those witnesses also described something that, looking back, is a bit chilling. A brown
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van with Oregon plates, a bearded man, and one person reported seeing Kristin loading her bike into the back of that
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van. Then, on July 4th, a fisherman found black garbage bags floating in the Snake River. Five bags in total, and
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inside were parts of Kristen's dismembered body. The dismemberment was described as almost surgical, precise,
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methodical. Newspapers from April 1981 were used to wrap the body parts before they were placed in the bags. So,
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whoever did this had time and likely privacy. Police canvassed the area for brown vans with Oregon plates. They
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pulled DMV records manually, narrowing down the plates ending in 37 or 737, but nothing stuck. They profiled the
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killer as a white male in his early to late 20s, intelligent, possibly narcissistic, likely to keep souvenirs,
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even body parts. Over the years, dozens of men were investigated and ruled out. But, we didn't just rely on only public
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archives for our investigation. We obtained Kristen's case file through a FOIA request, and with that, we were
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able to review things like autopsy documentation, forensic reports, evidence logs, and investigative notes.
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And inside that file was something major. Detailed documentation of Kristen's cause of death and specific injuries.
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Now, the detective that we worked with for our full episode on Kristen's case requested that we not publicly disclose
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those details. Now, out of respect for the ongoing investigation, we're not. But, we now know that's information that
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they have to keep the investigation moving forward. This case is still active. The FOIA file also included
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detailed documentation about a possible crime scene at the Sacagawea Lodge. Apparently, a housekeeper had reported
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finding a blood-soaked bathtub, a bloody suitcase stand, and hair samples that did end up getting tested. One hair was
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consistent with Kristen's, but not conclusively identified. Now, that hotel room had been rented to someone by the
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name of Pete Madsen, a name that led investigators and me, obviously, down multiple rabbit holes. But ultimately,
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those fizzled out. Unlike some cases where FOIA uncovers explosive misconduct, in Kristen's case, it really
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did serve the purpose of transparency that strengthened our reporting on the case.
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We believe that Kristen may not be connected to the well-known Lewis Clark Valley murders that she is often
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considered to be a part of. But investigators are still digging. And so are we. And in this case, FOIA confirmed
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something critical. There is still evidence, there are still unanswered questions, and the investigation is far
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from over. Number two, the mysterious death of Steven Altman and Mary Ann Hayes. Two
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deaths, 12 years apart, both ruled suicides. But decades later, one woman uncovered documents that completely
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changed how she saw her brother and her mother's deaths. And it all started with
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a FOIA request. In 1984, 21-year-old Steven Altman was found hanging from a crane hoist inside
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his stepfather Don's Chicago workshop. Police ruled it a suicide. Then 12 years later, in 1996, Steven's
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mother, Mary Ann Hayes, was found dead in her bedroom with an extension cord wrapped around her neck. Her death was
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also ruled a suicide, specifically self-strangulation. But Robin Altman, who is Steven's sister
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and Mary Ann's daughter, never felt right about either case. Steven had been making future plans, and
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he told friends that he would be right back the night he died. And Mary Ann, she was fixing up a condo, preparing for
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a new chapter after separating from Don. But the cases were closed, that is, until 2013.
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Nearly 30 years after Steven's death, Robin decided to file a FOIA request with Chicago police for her brother's
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case file. Because remember, anyone can file one. She was hoping to finally see what investigators had documented in her
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brother's case. But instead, Chicago PD responded that they had no records. No investigative file, no detailed reports,
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no documented interviews. Nothing for a death ruled a suicide inside a business property.
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So, her request wasn't exactly denied, but it didn't result in anything helpful, either. And that wasn't just
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shocking, it was revealing. It raised questions around whether or not Steven's case was meaningfully
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investigated at all. But that was not the only FOIA request that she filed. At the same time, Robin
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filed a second FOIA request. This one with Northfield police for her mother Mary Ann's 1996 case.
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And this time, the response that she got back was completely different. Her request was approved. And what she
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received would change everything. Inside the file were full police reports, witness statements, and evidence logs.
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And as she looked through, Robin quickly noticed something disturbing. The police report of her own interview
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didn't match what she remembered saying. Then came the forensic bombshell. The file showed that police had collected
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the extension cord used around Mary Ann's neck, a broken fingernail with blood, and vaginal swabs. And the
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vaginal swab contained unknown male DNA. The crime lab even recommended comparing
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that DNA to a potential suspect. But because the case was ruled a suicide, that never happened. And FOIA
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exposed that critical evidence had sat untested for two decades. Armed with these new documents, Robin
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went back to Northfield police in 2018 and pressed for the case to be reopened. And remarkably,
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they agreed. The vaginal swab and the fingernail were re-submitted to the crime lab, and the
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results confirmed that the unknown male DNA was still present. Police brought in one individual for
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questioning and asked for a DNA sample. That person initially agreed, then asked
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for a lawyer, and ultimately refused. And after that refusal, the report states that the case would
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remain closed. Again, independent forensic pathologist later reviewed Mary Ann's autopsy and called
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the investigation a cataclysmic failure, arguing that self-strangulation without
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a locking mechanism is extremely rare. But despite expert opinions and renewed attention, both deaths remain officially
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ruled suicides. FOIA did something powerful, though. It exposed that Steven's case had virtually no preserved
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documentation, that Mary Ann's file contained DNA evidence, that key forensic leads were
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never pursued, and that decades later, even after reopening, the case stalled when cooperation ended. Without FOIA,
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Robin and all of us would never have known what police documented and what they didn't. Today, Mary Ann's case is
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used nationally as an example of what experts call a hidden homicide, which is a death staged to look like a suicide.
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And it all began with one woman filing the FOIA requests. It didn't secure convictions, but it did force
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transparency. Number one, our investigation into the mysterious death of Gwen Hassellquist.
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In this case, FOIA definitely functions as a tool for transparency and re-examination, as we question the
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official ruling of Gwen's death. In March 2020, as the world shut down from COVID, Gwen Hassellquist, a Washington
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mom of two, vanished in the middle of the night. Hours later her body was found in the Puget Sound and police
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ruled it a suicide. But five years later when we dug into this case, what we uncovered through FOIA requests raised
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serious questions about whether law enforcement's investigation ever truly dug deep enough. Just after midnight on
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March 20th, 2020, a Washington State Trooper found a wrecked minivan stopped on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. All four
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doors were open, the passenger side windows were shattered and glass covered the roadway.
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Now police told us that it looked like the van had hit the guardrail and a man named Demetrius Jackson was standing
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nearby holding a beer. And his story changes quite a bit. One of his accounts claims that the woman,
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who we know to be Gwen, gave him the van and then just disappeared. The van was registered to Gwen's husband, Eric
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Hasselquist. Gwen had left home at around 10:19 p.m. according to a Ring doorbell screenshot that he showed
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police. By 2:00 a.m. Eric called 911 to report Gwen missing. Later that afternoon, so now it's March 21st, her
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body was found 7 miles from the bridge. She had tiny shards of broken glass stuck to her clothes, multiple rib
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fractures, bruising, a missing tooth and more injuries. Clonazepam, an anxiety medication, was
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in her system. The medical examiner ruled her death as suicide from multiple traumatic injuries
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consistent with jumping from a height. Case closed. Or is it? Last year we began reviewing
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the case from scratch. And this is where FOIA becomes crucial. We filed multiple
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Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain the full police reports, the investigative documents and photos of
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the van. And through those FOIA documents we were able to see exactly what investigators
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documented and more importantly what they didn't. For example, photos that we obtained through FOIA showed only the
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damaged van but not the guardrail that it allegedly struck. There were no clear images showing paint transfer or
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definitive impact points. We were told that some of the damage appeared inconsistent with a simple scrape along
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the bridge rail and may have happened before the van ever even reached the bridge. So, do we actually have proof
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that Gwen's van hit the guard rail? Or is it possible that more happened, maybe related to her death, maybe not,
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somewhere else? That detail was buried and only surfaced for us because we had access to the original reports through
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FOIA. But that's not all. Then there was the timeline problem. Gwen left home at 10:19 p.m. and her van
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was found at around 12:20. But the bridge is only about 20 minutes away. So, why wasn't her van discovered
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sooner? Where was she for over an hour? To answer that, we filed FOIA requests for bridge traffic camera footage and
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toll booth video. If Gwen drove onto the bridge, there should have been footage of her vehicle passing through.
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But we were told that the traffic cameras were live feed only, meaning nothing was saved.
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So, we struck out there, but not because our FOIA request was denied. The toll booth footage, on the other hand, wasn't
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considered public record. So, we did not obtain that footage that would have confirmed whether Gwen was even driving
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the van. That missing piece is one of my biggest lingering questions in this case.
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But there is more footage. We also discovered through our records review that police relied heavily on a
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screenshot from Eric's Ring camera showing Gwen leaving, but there was no timestamp embedded in the video file
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they later received. The original full footage was never secured via warrant. When they asked Eric for the complete
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file, he said that he believed it had been deleted. So, here, FOIA didn't just reveal evidence,
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it revealed investigative gaps. Now, there is one place in this case where our FOIA request was indeed denied, and
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that was when we attempted to FOIA Eric's military records after learning of prior domestic violence allegations
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during his service. But overall, for this investigation, we were actually able to FOIA some really
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valuable information. While in Gwen's case, FOIA exposed blind spots. It showed what investigators
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documented and what they seemingly never pursued. And those are three cases where
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filing a FOIA request didn't just give us paperwork. It more information and more perspective.
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In Kristen Davis' case, FOIA confirmed that critical details still exist and that the investigation is still very
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much active. In Steven and Mary Ann's cases, FOIA exposed missing records, untested DNA, and investigative
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decisions that changed how a daughter understood her family's deaths. And in Gwen Hassellquist case, FOIA
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revealed the blind spots. The photos that weren't taken, the footage that wasn't saved, and the questions that
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maybe should have been asked sooner. FOIA doesn't always reveal a figurative or literal smoking gun, but it can show
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us what's documented, what isn't, and what still deserves a second look. Because the truth isn't always buried in
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a conspiracy. Sometimes it's buried in a file cabinet, and anyone, literally anyone, can ask to
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see it. If you want to hear the full deep dives into these cases, you can find them on Crime Junkie. And if you're
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interested in how FOIA works or more of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into our investigations, let us know in
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the comments. And don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that bell so you never miss our next
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investigation.