She said two seconds and muted her mic. The recording ran for two more hours.
Tuesday, 9 March 2021, the first spring of the pandemic year, and every show in Austin is recorded over the internet. Tessa Harlow, 33, co-host of the investigative podcast Porch Light, is in the converted garage behind her East Austin bungalow, interviewing a former property manager about a landlord who has already threatened to sue her. Her co-host and her producer are on the call from their apartments; the guest is in San Antonio.
At 21:47 she says she will be two seconds and mutes her microphone. She never unmutes it, and the session keeps recording. At 22:39 her producer, who drove over when she stopped answering, finds her face down on the studio floor beside the desk chair. A 25-pound kettlebell lies under the desk.
A recording platform logged every device that joined the call, two Ring cameras watched the alley, and Venmo kept the money. Six people had a reason, a login or a story. Read the logs and decide.
Read all 24 documents and name the person who killed Tessa Harlow. One accusation. Right or wrong, the solution file opens and shows every document that convicts. There are no hints and nothing is marked.
Press play and choose Create a room. Up to eight of you read the file on your own phones, see what the others have opened, vote in secret and let the host reveal. Only the host needs to own the case; guests play free.