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The Case of Heidi Fero
📻 Episode #308
🎙️ Hosted by Guest Host Amanda Knox
📅 Nov 14, 2022
About This Episode
On January 7, 2002, Heidi Fero was taking care of 15 month old Brynn and her 4.5 year old brother, Kaed, along with her own two similarly aged children. That evening, Heidi called the children’s father, reporting that Kaed physically hurt Brynn by pushing her head against the wall. Within hours, Brynn was unresponsive and…
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 January 7, 2002, Heidi Fero was taking care of 15 month old Brynn and her 4.5 year old brother, Kaed, along with her own two similarly aged children. That evening, Heidi called the children’s father, reporting that Kaed physically hurt Brynn by pushing her head against the wall. Within hours, Brynn was unresponsive and Heidi called 911. Brynn survived, but she will forever require a caregiver from the injuries she endured. Heidi was ultimately prosecuted and convicted for first degree assault of a child, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In 2007, as an American college student abroad in Italy, Amanda was accused of murdering her roommate. After an 8-year trial and 4 years in an Italian prison, Italy’s highest court ultimately exonerated Amanda. She has since become an advocate for criminal justice reform and media ethics. Amanda is also a journalist, public speaker, author, and co-host, with her partner Christopher Robinson, of the podcast Labyrinths.
Amanda’s personal experience has led her to become a fierce advocate for wrongfully convicted women – and the same goes for Heidi. Heidi and Amanda met at an Innocence Network Conference years ago, and they have remained friends since. Separately and together, their advocacy work is largely driven by the importance of highlighting female wrongful convictions, and, as in Heidi’s case, the fact that the majority of wrongfully convicted women were – and are – incarcerated for crimes that never even happened.
https://wainnocenceproject.org/
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.
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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.
00:07:21“Speaker 3: to them. And I wanted to do something with that. However, Speaker 3: I didn't have X, my ex husband did not support Speaker 3: me to go to school, and I had two young children. Speaker 3: So I'm wondering, if. Speaker 2: We can now just talk a little bit about what happened,”
00:28:19“Speaker 4: I think you know, the trial is pretty straightforward. The Speaker 4: state had a theory they did. As I mentioned earlier, Speaker 4: the state spun a few different theories on the reasons Speaker 4: that Heidi would be aggressive with Brnn, that she was crying, Speaker 4: that Heidi just lost her temper, that there were all”
00:51:07“Speaker 3: family law attorney. We're worried that they're going to come Speaker 3: and take the baby from the hospital. Oh oh god, Speaker 3: they weren't going to let me. Speaker 3: What went through your mind? It felt like burning down Speaker 3: the world. I felt silenced again that they weren't just”
Listen to the Episode
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