The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E5: Rose Solves, At Least, 86 Cold Cases

Rose Brady’s job running Baltimore County’s SVU was a frustrating one. The sexual violence crimes she and her team were investigating were just the tip of the iceberg. Her department was sitting on thousands of unsolved rape cases, dating back decades - with little hope of ever finding the perpetrators.

That was until Rose made an incredible discovery: At a local hospital, a diligent forensic pathologist had kept in storage all the biological evidence from every rape exam he had ever performed. This could be the key to getting justice for hundreds of desperate women.

This is a story of hard work, dogged persistence and a series of incredible coincidences…

Rose has her own show with her daughter, Sam: Sgt. Brady's Crime Podcast (not affiliated with The Girlfriends: Spotlight): https://podfollow.com/1560081982

 

If you’ve been affected by sexual violence, there are organisations which can help. 

In the US: https://www.nsvrc.org/survivors

In the UK: https://survivorsnetwork.org.uk/get-help/ 

 

We want YOUR stories for our Girlfriends hotline! Did your bestie ever bail you out of an awful date with a fake emergency phone call? Or show up on your doorstep with three weeks’ worth of lasagne when you’d just had a baby? Or sit with you in solidarity while you grieved the loss of a beloved grandparent? We want stories that are big or small, meaningful or silly.

Record yours as a voice memo (under 90 seconds) and email to thegirlfriends@novel.audio. Please don’t include your own name or anyone else’s real names.

 

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.

For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it mean to be a victim, or a villain? What happens when the line between the two starts to blur? On 7th July 2010, Kelly Harnett says her abusive boyfriend murdered a man right in front of her. 

So how did she end up in prison for it?

Anna Sinfield - the journalist behind the global number 1 podcast, The Girlfriends, returns with her toughest story yet. 

This series isn’t a whodunnit. It’s not even really about what happened. It’s about how a woman who was a victim of domestic violence became a villain in the eyes of the law. 

Found guilty of murder and locked up for over a decade; Kelly Harnett taught herself the law. And as she battled to overturn her conviction, she became a beacon of hope, fighting for the freedom of the abused women locked up alongside her. 

If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show please reach out to NO MORE at https://www.nomore.org a domestic violence charity we’ve partnered with. 

The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. 

Because The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer has been selected as one of Apple Podcasts’ Summer Listens, we’re offering a 30-Day Free Trial to iHeart True Crime + for a limited time. This includes early access to episodes, 100% ad-free listening, and exclusive bonus content. 

Open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “iHeart True Crime+, and subscribe today!

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In Season 1, it’s 1995 and Carole Fisher is a high-flying divorcee looking for love in Las Vegas. It’s slim pickings in the medical community she works in. But then Bob comes to town. Bob Bierenbaum is a plastic surgeon who flies planes and speaks several languages. Her mom loves that he’s Jewish - but there’s something off about him. He’s perfect on paper but he’s quick to anger and he never talks about his ex-wife. Who, it turns out, is missing and presumed dead. After Carole and Bob break up, she tells her friend Mindy all about Bob’s wife and his bizarre behavior. You see, Mindy dated Bob too, in fact a lot of women in Vegas dated Bob and they all have their own strange stories to tell. Before too long they form a club dedicated to bitching about Bob, eating noodles and figuring out what happened to his wife, Gail. In this riveting nine part series, Carole Fisher uncovers the truth of Gail Katz’s death, the systems that failed her and all the girlfriends that brought her justice.

In Season 2, The Girlfriends are back to investigate one part of the story that’s still a mystery. During the investigation into Gail’s case, a torso washed up on Staten Island and was misidentified as Gail. Nobody knows her name or what happened to her after she was ruled out from the case. The amateur lady's detective club have a new mission: to uncover the identity of this woman and finally find Our Lost Sister. The Girlfriends is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts. 

For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio

• No. of episodes: 34
• Latest episode: 2025-08-04
• Society & Culture True Crime Documentary

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