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The Case of Quincy Cross
📻 Episode #541
🎙️ Hosted by Guest Host Maggie Freleng
📅 Sep 04, 2025
About This Episode
18-year-old Jessica Currin’s burned and decomposing body was discovered on August 1, 2000 behind Mayfield Middle School in Mayfield, KY. Jessica had lacerations on the back of her head, nose and chin, and stab wounds. The medical examiner also believed she had been strangled but there was no evidence to support this theory. The case…
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
18-year-old Jessica Currin’s burned and decomposing body was discovered on August 1, 2000 behind Mayfield Middle School in Mayfield, KY. Jessica had lacerations on the back of her head, nose and chin, and stab wounds. The medical examiner also believed she had been strangled but there was no evidence to support this theory. The case went cold for a few years, until a couple of supposed eyewitnesses came forward, motivated by promises of reward money, and told inconsistent stories that they and multiple others had kidnapped, killed, and raped Jessica. They said Quincy Cross was one of the people involved, and that he was the person who hit and strangled Jessica. Based on this unreliable testimony, as well as a jailhouse snitch, and despite a lack of physical evidence connecting him to this crime, Quincy was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Jessica Currin and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Maggie Freleng talks to Quincy Cross and Miranda Hellman, Quincy's attorney.
https://www.change.org/p/free-quincy-cross
www.kentuckyinnocenceproject.org
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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.
00:04:57“Speaker 3: of town, where you know, the white population lives in another. Speaker 3: So the police and really the city government in Mayfield Speaker 3: has had a few scandals throughout its time. The one Speaker 3: that I think is most connected to this case would Speaker 3: be the assistant police chief, Ronnie Lear.”
00:21:28“Speaker 1: Nevertheless, that item later showed up as evidence at trial. Speaker 3: Victoria gets on the stand and says it's the murder weapon. Speaker 3: I buried it in the backyard along with some clothing. Speaker 3: And they never find the clothing. They never find the Speaker 3: baseball bat. They only find this ratchet, and it becomes”
00:37:00“Speaker 3: I found this massive case. It had fourteen eighteen boxes Speaker 3: sitting on a shelf. It was very messy, it was Speaker 3: not in any order. I couldn't tell what I even Speaker 3: had to look at. So I started digging, and I Speaker 3: think probably from the first thirty minutes and looking in”
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Also on the podcast: #389 Quincy Cross · #544 Maggie Freleng on Quincy Cross and Graves County