Introducing "Three Weeks Of Hell: The DC Snipers," our latest true crime podcast
As we approach the 20-year anniversary of the DC beltway sniper killings, FOX 5 is launching a new podcast series: "Three Weeks of Hell: The DC Snipers."
We’ll be looking back on those three terrifying weeks in October 2002 that ended with 10 people shot and killed, several more severely wounded and the entire region gripped in fear. A time seared in our memories as two murderous snipers encircled the Washington, DC region. A time when those of us living here realized our life or death in those 22 days was just a matter of chance.
READ MORE: DC Sniper Shootings 20 Years Later: An Interactive Timeline
In this series, you’ll hear some of the heartbreaking 911 calls and from people close to the case you have likely never heard before: witnesses to the murders and survivors of the snipers’ often deadly aim.
Dr. Caroline Namrow watched in horror as one of the five murder victims was shot in the back and killed on October 3, 2002. The part-time taxicab driver, Prem Kumar Walekar was gassing up his taxicab next to Namrow’s minivan in Aspen Hill, MD. "I did realize it was a gunshot and then I looked up," Dr. Namrow tells us. "And then he walked to me… and he said ‘call an ambulance’ and he collapsed."
You’ll meet Iran Brown. As a 13-year-old middle school student, Brown was shot in the stomach as he arrived at school in Bowie, MD on October 7. 2002. "You just heard a loud bang as if a grenade went off. And immediately I knew I was shot," Brown tells us. He is now a 33-year-old father living near Atlanta.
In the series, we’ll hear from one of the lead federal investigators on the case, retired ATF special agent Mike Bouchard. "It was a mind game that they (were) playing with us," Bouchard explains. "In my opinion, they felt they had control" he says of the elusive killers.
Montgomery County state’s attorney John McCarthy was then chief deputy in that office and a legal advisor to the sniper task force. "It was frustrating and it was frightening and life changing," McCarthy says now. He will share with us new information about the investigation. Things we’ve never known.
The podcast is hosted by Melanie Alnwick and Bob Barnard. The two veteran FOX 5 reporters who were on the sniper case 20 years ago and for this series reflect upon that time - conducting new interviews and research.
You can watch & listen to FOX 5 DC's True Crime Podcast Series a number of ways. Episodes of "Three Weeks of Hell: The DC Snipers" come out on Wednesdays. You can find episodes on FOX5DC.com in addition to YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart, and TuneIn. You can also see an interactive timeline below.