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The Case of Kristine Bunch
📻 Episode #595
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 15, 2026
About This Episode
This week’s episode is an update on the story of Kristine Bunch that was originally recorded in 2020. Kristine spent 17 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of setting the fire that killed her three-year-old son, Anthony. It was a conviction built on junk fire science and evidence that was later shown to be…
The Case
This week’s episode is an update on the story of Kristine Bunch that was originally recorded in 2020. Kristine spent 17 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of setting the fire that killed her three-year-old son, Anthony. It was a conviction built on junk fire science and evidence that was later shown to be false and misleading.
Since getting out, Kristine has devoted an extraordinary amount of her life to making sure other innocent people don’t suffer the way she did. She’s advocated for compensation for exonerees, helped train law enforcement, supported people coming home from prison, and worked alongside innocence organizations around the country. And now she’s taking that work even further.
In a remarkable full-circle moment, Kristine was named the first-ever Director of the Indiana Innocence Project — an organization she helped create. She can never get her son or the years she lost to her wrongful conviction back, but she has turned that loss into a life’s work of trying to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else.
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.
00:05:01“Speaker 2: panic in a time like that, even if you didn't Speaker 2: have kids, like waking up to a fire. Christine, what Speaker 2: are your memories of that awful night now 25 years ago? Speaker 3: I think the thing that sits with me the most Speaker 3: is it was just normal.”
00:22:01“Speaker 4: the myths that was used by the so-called arson investigator, Speaker 4: Brian Frank, was wrong. A V pattern does not indicate Speaker 4: a point of origin. It indicates a point where something Speaker 4: burned against a wall. Fire burns down not because of Speaker 4: a liquid accelerant, but because it's seeking oxygen and there”
00:36:45“Speaker 2: So are they really trying to relitigate this case? Speaker 3: No, they are not. Speaker 6: But as you go through the process, you fill out Speaker 6: a compensation application and then they review it. So for them, Speaker 6: they reached out to the prosecutor and the prosecutor said,”
Listen to the Episode
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← #594 Greg Bright #596 Terrel Barros →
Also on the podcast: #22 Kristine Bunch and Obie Anthony (Live from the Innocence Network Conference 2017) · #151 Kristine Bunch · #386 Kristine Bunch