The Hate Crime Files

Episode 4: Jason Gage

It was a Friday night on March 11, 2005, when 29-year-old Jason Gage walked into Kings & Queens, a local gay bar in Waterloo, Iowa. Jason Gage was probably just looking forward to meeting some friends and having a fun night out, but that's not how the night would end.For that would be the night Jason Gage was murdered. 

Episode 3: Gabriel Fernandez

Gabriel Fernandez was eight years old. In photographs, he often has close-cropped dark brown hair, which accentuates his sharp features and almond-shaped eyes. Those features soften when his face opens up into a smile, revealing two missing front teeth. In one, he sits on the floor at home, wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with the face of the cartoon character Sponge Bob Squarepants on it.

One final picture is a close-up of Gabriel's face as he lies in a hospital bed. His almond-eyes are swollen shut, his face is bruised, and tubes have been inserted in his nose and mouth.

Episode 2: Anthony Avalos

On June 20, 2018, paramedics found 10-year-old Anthony Avalos unresponsive in the Mohave Desert, California apartment he shared with his mother, 29-year-old Heather Barron, her 32-year-old boyfriend Kareem Leiva, and his eight other siblings. Barron had called 911 claiming that Anthony had been injured in a fall.

What the paramedics found when they arrived told a very different story.

Episode 1 - Michells Abdill and Roxanne Ellis

Michelle Abdill and Roxanne Ellis were coworkers when they met in Colorado Springs in 1983 and eventually became a couple. In 1990, they moved to Medford, Oregon to escape anti-LGBT hostility in Colorado Springs. They wouldn't avoid it entirely. In 1995, they were murdered by Robert Acremant, in part because they were lesbians.

 

Episode 00 - Preview

This episode introduces the podcast and offers some background.