Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast

On July 25, 2021, Shawtyeria Waites was celebrating her 20th birthday with friends in Houston, Texas. But after meeting a man at a nightclub and accompanying him to an apartment complex, Shawtyeria suddenly vanished. Her friends searched for her, but her phone went straight to voicemail, and no one could explain where she had gone.

That same night, a neighbor reported hearing a woman screaming inside an apartment, prompting a police response that would later raise troubling questions. As Shawtyeria's family desperately searched for answers, investigators began uncovering disturbing evidence that revealed what happened to her on the night she disappeared.

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A conviction brought accountability, but Stepha Henry’s family is still waiting to bring her home.

On this episode of Afterthoughts, Amara and Jason discuss the seventeen-year wait for trial, the sacrifices her parents made to keep searching, and the loss her younger sister, Shola, carried into adulthood. We also reflect on what justice means when the man convicted of murder refuses to reveal where his victim’s remains are.
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In May 2007, 22-year-old Stepha Henry traveled from Brooklyn to South Florida to celebrate her younger sister’s sixteenth birthday. After days of shopping, family visits, and a reggae concert, Stepha went out for one final night before heading home. She never returned.

As her family searched desperately, investigators uncovered disturbing evidence inside the car that had taken her to the nightclub. But an arrest was only the beginning of a seventeen-year wait for justice.

This week on Black Girl Gone, we share Stepha’s story, her family’s relentless fight for answers, and the painful question a murder conviction still could not resolve: Where is Stepha?

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For seven years, they called her “Baby Bones.”

In March 2005, a hunter discovered a little girl’s remains in the woods of Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey. Investigators had no name, no confirmed cause of death, and no missing-child report that led them to her identity. Someone had tried to destroy her remains—but who was she, and why hadn’t anyone reported her missing?

In 2012, her older sister came forward. The child was nine-year-old Jon-Niece Jones, and the account her sister shared would reveal a devastating story of abuse, secrecy, and the adults who concealed her death.
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Twenty years after Tiesha Sargeant was murdered inside her Brooklyn apartment, her family is still waiting for justice.

On this episode of Afterthoughts, Amara and Jason discuss the unanswered questions surrounding her boyfriend’s account, the concerns expressed by those closest to Tiesha, and how reporting about drug activity overshadowed her life and death. We also reflect on the media attention her case lost—and the devastating cost of two decades without answers.
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