Aug 10, 2026 · 8 min · 9 segments
A man goes missing. Fifteen months later, his family finds a fresh concrete slab poured in his backyard. What's buried underneath changes everything. Five years ago, journalist Justine van der Leun…
Justine van der LeunHost
Kwaneta HarrisGuestI first got to know Quanetta as a pen pal of sorts, and through our years-long correspondence, I learned about her past and what brought her to prison.
Like so many women I've reported on, she had a history of abuse and trauma.
For such women, killing can mean an end to their torment, and I'd wanted to make this podcast because I thought that story deserved to be told, and Quanetta agreed.
But the more I dug in, the more people I talked to, the more I realized that my initial concept of Quanetta, of what she'd been through and what she'd done, it flattened her.
At first, I thought Quanetta's narrative would move from point A to point B pretty easily.
But soon, I learned that with Quanetta, there were no straight lines, only a labyrinth, elaborate and disorienting.
When they meet her, it, it's like they on a high, and just slowly but surely, you know, that high comes down.
Holy cow.
She's just...
And she...
I said, "This is not true.
This, it didn't happen like you said, did it?"
Sometimes when you're a light, you attract, you know, darker entities.
There had guns in the kitchen, k- in everywhere.
Uh, and sh- one time she shot at me.
Hey, listen.
It was a lot going on back.
Turned out there were many versions of Quanetta's story, and almost every single version contradicted the one before.
I first got to know Quanetta as a pen pal of sorts, and through our years-long correspondence, I learned about her past and what brought her to prison.
Like so many women I've reported on, she had a history of abuse and trauma.
For such women, killing can mean an end to their torment, and I'd wanted to make this podcast because I thought that story deserved to be told, and Quanetta agreed.
But the more I dug in, the more people I talked to, the more I realized that my initial concept of Quanetta, of what she'd been through and what she'd done, it flattened her.
At first, I thought Quanetta's narrative would move from point A to point B pretty easily.
But soon, I learned that with Quanetta, there were no straight lines, only a labyrinth, elaborate and disorienting.
When they meet her, it, it's like they on a high, and just slowly but surely, you know, that high comes down.
Holy cow.
She's just...
And she...
I said, "This is not true.
This, it didn't happen like you said, did it?"
Sometimes when you're a light, you attract, you know, darker entities.
There had guns in the kitchen, k- in everywhere.
Uh, and sh- one time she shot at me.
Hey, listen.
It was a lot going on back.
Turned out there were many versions of Quanetta's story, and almost every single version contradicted the one before.
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