← All Cases / Episode #440
The Case of Cassandra Black Elk
📻 Episode #440
🎙️ Hosted by Maggie Freleng
📅 Apr 01, 2024
About This Episode
On the morning of February 19th, 2022, Cassandra Black Elk awoke to find her three-week-old daughter StarLight lifeless beside her. Police insisted the baby had died due to Shaken Baby Syndrome - and that Cassandra was responsible. “They were telling me their story,” Cassandra remembers, “that somebody did something to StarLight…somebody killed her.” Cassandra knew…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On the morning of February 19th, 2022, Cassandra Black Elk awoke to find her three-week-old daughter StarLight lifeless beside her. Police insisted the baby had died due to Shaken Baby Syndrome - and that Cassandra was responsible. “They were telling me their story,” Cassandra remembers, “that somebody did something to StarLight…somebody killed her.” Cassandra knew she hadn’t hurt her baby. She asked her lawyer repeatedly - what does the autopsy report say? But by the time she got the answer, Cassandra had been convicted of having caused her daughter’s death, and was already in prison.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/cassi-black-elk-innocent-and-finally-freed
https://www.greatnorthinnocenceproject.org
F5 Project
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:03:49“Speaker 1: the girls were all at home together. So what do Speaker 1: you remember from that night? Speaker 1: How did the night start? Tell me? I guess from Speaker 2: I don't know. We were hanging out after my oldest Speaker 2: got back from school. We was watching a movie, we”
00:14:39“Speaker 4: autopsy report at that point, but she didn't give up. Speaker 4: She kept working on her own to get a copy Speaker 1: Cassie called the Medical Examiner's office in Bismarck over and Speaker 1: over from prison, asking for the report. Finally she was Speaker 1: able to fill out an online form to have it”
00:24:43“Speaker 4: the effect of you'll be home before you know it. Speaker 4: She'd never been in prison before. This was a totally Speaker 4: new experience for her, so the idea that they wouldn't Speaker 4: be such a big deal to go to prison for Speaker 4: eighteen months is just shocking.”
Listen to the Episode
🎧 Listen on Omny / the podcast's platforms
Resources & links from the episode:
Share this case, follow the organisations working on it, and support the podcast's fight for the innocent at lavaforgood.com.