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The Case of Keith Harward
📻 Episode #506
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Jan 02, 2025
About This Episode
In the early morning hours of September 14, 1982, a man broke into a home in Newport News, Virginia and beat 30-year-old Jesse Perron to death with a crowbar. Then, over several hours, the attacker sexually assaulted Perron’s 22-year-old wife, Teresa, leaving bite marks during the assaults.
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
In the early morning hours of September 14, 1982, a man broke into a home in Newport News, Virginia and beat 30-year-old Jesse Perron to death with a crowbar. Then, over several hours, the attacker sexually assaulted Perron’s 22-year-old wife, Teresa, leaving bite marks during the assaults.
Teresa and Jesse Perron’s home was located near the shipyard where the U.S.S. Carl Vinson was harbored and where Perron worked as a welder. Over several months bite mark impressions were taken from hundreds of sailors on the Carl Vinson. Police had no suspects at that time.
Keith Harward had been among those whose teeth were examined in the immediate aftermath of the investigation, but he had been ruled out as the source of the bitemarks on Teresa by a civilian dental consultant working with the Newport News City medical examiner. When Harward came to court, Teresa was there, but could not identify him as the attacker.
After police asked Harward to submit to a second procedure to perform bite mark analysis, they determined that Keith’s bite marks matched the ones found on Teresa. Harward was subsequently convicted of capital murder, rape, robbery and burglary and sentenced to life in prison.
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/388-wrongful-conviction-junk-science-bite-mark-evidence-update/
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.
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.
00:03:38“Speaker 1: you know, because the Newport News shipyards is away from Norfolk, Speaker 1: which is normally where you would find sailors and uh, Speaker 1: That's what clue the men was the fact that he Speaker 1: was wearing a uniform, So apparently he had to be Speaker 1: on one of the ships or submarines that were there”
00:14:04“Speaker 2: fact that you can't hit it any worse, and ended Speaker 2: up serving thirty three years in prison. And let's let's Speaker 2: talk about that, Keith. Every day's got to be held. Speaker 2: But I mean, I don't want to put words in Speaker 2: your mouth because you share it.”
00:24:38“Speaker 2: but that's probably the worst crime that he's going to commit, Speaker 2: you know. So, So now take us to that moment of. Speaker 3: Justice finally being served. Speaker 4: Sure, so, we had DNA testing done on the evidence Speaker 4: that the Innocence Project had found, and the DNA results”
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Also on the podcast: #6 Keith Harward · #227 Keith Washington · #265 Keith Bush