A Killing On the Cape

4,483

It was a crime that rocked an idyllic seaside town in Cape Cod -- the 2002 murder of Christa Worthington, found stabbed to death with her 2-year-old daughter, unharmed at her side. What came next was a three-year search for her killer that would involve unorthodox steps by police, a lengthy list of potential suspects, and an entire town under suspicion. Christa's trash collector, Christopher McCowen, would eventually be convicted of the crime, but his trial would raise questions about the evidence, investigative methods, and whether racial prejudice played a role. Now, ABC Radio and "20/20" take a look at all the evidence and for the first time ever, hear directly from Christopher McCowen, to examine whether the right man is behind bars.

Recent Episodes
  • 6. The Interview
    Nov 29, 2017 – 41:04
  • 5. The Verdict
    Nov 22, 2017 – 46:27
  • 4. The Garbage Man
    Nov 15, 2017 – 46:37
  • 3. More Leads, More Dead Ends
    Nov 8, 2017 – 38:57
  • 2. The Shellfish Constable
    Nov 1, 2017 – 39:34
  • 1. The Murder
    Oct 25, 2017 – 28:56
  • Trailer: A Killing On the Cape
    Oct 18, 2017 – 02:36
Recent Reviews
  • herewegoagsin
    Fantastic
    This is a interesting look into a famous cape cod murder. Typical ABC biased but well produced. A good listen!
  • BoyMama1516
    Ending?
    Where is the rest of it? Also definitely feel like it was biased but I was interested in the story.
  • Bongers9000
    Waste of time
    Decent production but extremely biased and literally no point. The man is guilty. More white guilt garbage
  • Truecrime Christie
    Must Listen
    Fantastic host…fascinating case…. I was completely mesmerized from start to finish. Hope to hear more from Mark Remillard.
  • carsgill
    Biased account
    Really biased podcast in my opinion
  • sdnjc
    All shows.
    Please stop background music etc. it’s distracting and irritating.
  • ravage2536
    Fairly interesting case, but………
    First and foremost, hats off to Christa’s friend for raising Ava to be a loving, affectionate, and intelligent young lady. Friends such as this woman are few and far in between. I think the guy that lived with her and his dad has something to do with it. I they both were there, the dad seen his som going into a rage, hit Christa multiple times, jumped into his car and fled. When the son was done murdering Christa, ran back to his dad’s house. When the murder aired on tv, it’s only natural for the dad to ask his son if he did it. That said, there’s some shiesty investigative work by the troopers. Considering murders only happens in this area once every green moon, I guess it should be expected. I’m still trying to figure out when did it become an option for homicide investigation interrogations to be recorded. That alone should create doubt and question the integrity of the troopers and the persons being interviewed. ALL INTERROGATIONS SHOULD BE RECORDING!! It’s a simple matter of integrity and should alleviate scrutiny. The fact of the troopers being ok without recording the interrogation pretty much gave way to them taking advantage of Christopher. Sure, we can’t prove they did. We also can’t prove they did not. This is without absolutely certainty. In other words, reasonable doubt. I don’t want to play the race card, but did I miss the part where Christopher took a polygraph? I recall hearing her dad’s girlfriend taking a polygraph and showing deception, but it was dismissed because she was “dope sick”. She volunteered her dna so they just forget about the results of her polygraph. Interesting! Yeah, ok. Get clean and we’ll test you again. Let’s not forget Christopher volunteered his as well. Why didn’t they polygraph him? That’s kind of fishy to me. To stab someone through and through and then into the floor is a crime of rage, but also, enraged people typically stab their victim multiple times
  • rudyjsalazar
    Fascinating podcast
    The podcast is well produced and does a good job of telling a complicated story in audio format. Very interesting and well worth your time to listen.
  • bella_wesley
    The bare minimum
    Perhaps if I was invested in this case on the 90’s, I’d find it more interesting? In my opinion the podcast was short, dull, and boring. Covers one thing in full, then goes onto cover the next thing in full. No big shockers or unexpected twists. Not much mystery involved in the way the story is told either. Nothing seems to loop back around in that satisfying way. Then again I stopped after episode 4. This podcast is just straight facts.
  • RussG9128
    Mess of a story
    I wanted a new podcast to listen to and saw this and so I was interested. I’m on the 4th episode and I’m already annoyed: the victim who sleeps around with random guys; the old married guy who was forced to basically pay child support with the victim. And then the disbelief the killer could have committed the crime all because of his skin color. So a POC cant be guilty of any crimes? It’s now racist to charge people based on evidence? Ugh.
  • MommaTrinn
    A Killing on the Cape
    Well produced; first podcast I have truly enjoyed in a long time. Has some similarities with stage setting ‘Serial.’ It’s so frustrating that the interrogation with Chris was not taped. Leaves so much doubt- Mark you did a good job laying out the holes. Please do a follow up when developments permit. Heartbreaking and true crime.
  • BobNotBobAgain
    It’s fine
    The way it’s produced makes it sound like someone just recorded it off the TV and uploaded it.
  • rneehnee
    He must think we’ve all got an IQ in the 70’s too
    Ok podcast. Not buying Chris McCowen’s bulls🤬🤬t explanation though.
  • Jdbowles1
    Worth a listen
    This is an entertaining podcast only because the story is compelling. The repeated claims of innocence is insulting to the intelligence of the listeners. You can listen to the interview in the last episode and know that he’s guilty. I can’t imagine that these journalists actually believe this guy is innocent.
  • antiwine
    Interesting but not convincing that accused is innocent
    Evidence was pretty compelling and his explanation not at all convincing.
  • SCR86
    It’s a no from me
    This whole podcast is one giant eye roll🙄. It’s such a forced narrative of “innocence”. It’s presented as if someone is reading from an essay. If the narrator states who is talking one more time I’m going to lose it. We know who is talking... we can literally hear their voice. They were just talking a second ago too. We didn’t forget. We get it. As far as the case... his story is all over the place and changes as recently as the interview for this podcast. He literally confessed to it, then realized he was in trouble and back tracked. Over it.
  • triumph luvr
    Super racist
    Drips of outrageously racist descriptions throughout. The podcast is a George Costanza effort by defense attorney to say all the stuff he could not say at trial. The man’s saliva was on her! Loved his dear old daddy calling him a playa! More #me too into the wood chipper! Bonus: ABC giving “Believe all women” a good beating in ep 2
  • Rocque Leigh Grandstrand
    Highly recommend
    This was great. No extra chit chat just the podcast. He kept me intrigued. Episodes weren’t too short, weren’t too long. Full of details. Also: they have the right guy in jail. Stop playing the race card. I don’t care about his color but why would an intelligent woman just on a whim have sex with a border line mentally retarded man?
  • Kyle 808 Kyle
    Solved
    Tim killed her. Who’s dad says let’s return a flashlight to the girl you are seeing. PleaSe!!! N
  • posseh
    Racism is alive and well
    I am white and convinced this was a classic case of black man being held guilty for something he didn’t do. Disgusting
  • unbiased listener
    Race-baiting throughout.
    Well produced podcast about a tragic and interesting story! That part I appreciated. A driving theme of the podcast, however, is that because one juror (who obviously joined the unanimous “guilty” verdict) decided to get media attention later - and state that one member of the jury referred to the suspect as a “big black man” meant that the whole thing was racist. False. He was a big, black man. Those are physical descriptors of him and are used everyday by people who are not at all racist. But the producers of the podcast are fixated on their presumption that he was convicted because he was black. False. He was convicted because his DNA was in this poor woman. The podcast further claims that rape was only brought up because he was black. False. He was convicted of rape because his DNA was in her. The claims that the DNA was degraded are also easily explained; the DNA sat in the lab backlog for almost a year waiting to be tested. The facts were very clear and evidence overwhelming (even though the podcast attempts to shift them through a racial lens): He raped and murdered this woman. Race had nothing to do with it.
  • ICEMAN11frost
    Crimes
    It is never mentioned at any point in the reporting that Mr. George the defendant's lawyer was himself convicted of money laundering and disbarred. Just an important follow up that was completely ignored in the original reporting from 2017 where the conviction and disbarrment happened in 2015. Just thought I'd share.
  • maccabyrd
    This podcast rubs me the wrong way
    The way things are presented matters. This podcast felt flippant and gossipy. And I wish it didn’t gloss over rape, like it was hardly worth a mention. Still, my heart aches for what seemed like an intricate and marvelous woman with some sorry excuses for men in her life, and that little girl of course. (I don’t mean her father, either, I think the way the media leapt on his girlfriend is shameful.)
  • BGParr
    Loved it!
    Really strong podcast and production. I think he’s innocent for sure and that the outcomes would be different if he was white. No forensic evidence, just semen that was broken down. He deserves a new trial.
  • Stuggghggg
    Great quicker listen & well put together
    I’d recommend
  • torh torh torh 567
    Good
    Good but it could use some work otherwise its good.🤮🤤😴🥱🤐🤐🤑🤑🤠🤠🤑🤕🤒🤒😷😷🥱🥱🥱🤤🤤😪😵😴😴😯😦😧😧😮😮😲😪😵👽☠️☠️☠️💀👻👎👍🏻👍🏻🤝👍🏻🤜🏼🤜🏼🤛🤜🏼👌☝🏻🤙🏻🖖🏻🖐🏻🤚🏻👇🏻👆🏻👉🏻👏🏻🤝👍🏻👎👊🏻👏🏻✊🏻🤟🏻💪🏻🤬🤯😭😢😫😟😟😕😎🧐🤓🤓😒😚😒😝😛🥰😕🥳🥰😕😕😕🙁🙁🥴🤠🥴🤠🤕🤠🤠🤤😵😥🥱😕😭🤭😭🤒😥😯🤒😐🤯😥🤭😢🥱🤒😑😏🤯😐😑😥😢🤒😬😥🤒😐😬😰😭🤒🤯😑😢🥱😑😳😑😏🤯🤐🥵😧🤒😳😦🤒😦😳🤗🤯😐😷😬🤤😨🤔🤐🤫😨🤔👻😬🤤😨😷🥱😧😬😨🤔👻😧👻😷🤔😴😧😬😨😰😶😱😤😟🧐😖😠😟😨😶🤯😱🤯😱🤯😱😖😩😠😛🥳😖😶😱😰😟😖😴😩😰😛😖😦😨😩😰😟😦😖😱😳😩😦😟😱😰😨🤗😠😦🤗😟😖😠😟😖😱😫😦🤗😟😖😫😛😖😦😫😦🤩😨😫😛😦😖😫😦🤬😤😳🤩🤗🤬😠😟😭😱🤔🤤😏😤🤔😰😭😣😶🤔😥😏😭😶😴😴🤔😖😖
  • commutelistening
    Well done
    This was well done. Both sides heard. Kept me listening. Waiting to hear what’s next
  • mbbbbbnbnnn
    Guilty as hell
    How come every time black man is found guilty it comes about race? If Christopher was white , he still would be guilty. There’s no way in hell that woman invited him to and have sex on the floor. And he only amid it to it after his DNA was found and he couldn’t come up with any reason for that. He admittedly was on Percocet and drinking heavily that night, he probably doesn’t even remember the crime. That is why he thinks he’s innocent because he doesn’t remember.Somebody strong kick the door opened!I believe the jury got it right.
  • Tawyna.L
    ...
    A very well done podcast. My opinion finding DNA (sperm) doesnt mean he is guilty. They could of had a thing. But definitely a good podcast
  • Sluvhp
    Good podcast but he’s guilty
    I found this to be a well done podcast on the production level. Are they a bit biased sometimes trying to make it look like he’s innocent yes. This guy was a criminal with a record and everyone was trying to portray him as this amazing guy. Do I think he is the only one involved with her murder, no? But he lied to the cops that he didn’t know her, but his dna was on her. If your telling the truth your story won’t change. His story changed over and over. Do I think the cops made mistakes yes and maybe he should get a retrial, yes. But like the jurors said they found him guilty due to him saying that he was at the crime scene and his dna was there. His own defense said he was there but his friend did it. Him and his friend should both be in jail.
  • Luzdsasf
    Biased
    A woman is dead they found dna of the killer, but the host and everyone else doesn't see to understand that they actually caught the killer being black or white who give a F he is a killer. Im tired is this racial biased IDEOLOGY I stoped on episode 3.. dont like the host telling me how to feel, just play the Facts.
  • @tartu85
    Victim blaming
    Amount of victim blaming and shaming is unbelievable. Shame on you!
  • Mommyof3:24
    Lovely!
    Sad that it is based on a true story But this is one of my favorite podcasts Well done!
  • jlkid11
    Slow Story
    I couldn’t get into this podcast for some reason. The narrator seems to be trying to draw out the story too much for me. I got almost through the third episode and gave up.
  • Nike Noodle
    Great work!
    Great Podcast, well written & presented! SPOILER ALERT ** Question for investigating team: if Christa told her recent Ex BF never to come to her house unannounced then WHY did he use the excuse to “return a flashlight”. In my opinion, his multiple voicemails proved evident he could not contain himself at home anymore without knowing why christa was ignoring him, prompting him to make an unannounced trip which possibly could have lead him to see Chris leaving or maybe she told him about their encounter. That’s motive to me..
  • Aidan???
    ...
    Great job of using chronological facts. You stuck to this primacy and it worked wonderfully. Great job.
  • Paula-rockville
    Good podcast
    Enjoyed the podcast. I wish there was more discussion on theories on how she could have died/who could have done it.
  • bookieR.P.C
    It’s funny
    Anytime a murder suspect is not white he’s automatically innocent what do they expect if you say you didn’t know her then they find your dna on her your probably going down . Good show though
  • Wishicoulduseabettername
    It just kind of ends....
    I thought I had missed a few episodes, it feels very incomplete
  • Adub0602
    Such a sad story.
    Very well done!
  • dang0927
    Good podcast and story told well
    Really liked quality of story and details. Sad some murder items never recovered.
  • Heidiho71368
    Frustrating
    I hate hearing these cases when I think their innocent! How many people are in jail and not the one who did the crime??
  • TT20110248
    Interesting listen
    Are they going to reopen this case now that Jeremy Frazier was accused of raping a 5 year old?
  • leaglelobster
    Killing on the Cape
    Don’t waste your time.
  • Kem010
    Great show
    Really interesting case!
  • naid18
    Too long!!!
    You could have done this in a hour. The 1st 4 episode are useless. Informative but a waste of time.
  • The Jagerbombcast
    Hearing The Father Speak
    Angers me. Holy...
  • jen stoddard
    a must
    excellent work, deep dive into the life stories
  • Henry37
    Try too hard to make The killer seem like he may be innocent
    Anyone with half a brain can see that the have the right person in jail for this crime. The host seems afraid to state the obvious. Christa would not have had sex on the floor with the garbage man she just met. It’s clear he did it. So while this is a interesting podcast it doesn’t raise any new questions.
  • lalalauren27
    female author is unbearable
    i almost turn it off every time this woman starts talking.
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