Woman launches true crime podcast to find her father's killer
21 years ago, Madison McGhee's father was shot in cold blood.
Madison was just six years old when her dad, John "JC" Cornelius McGhee, died, and was originally told he had passed away from a heart attack.
However, when Madison was in high school, she began to ask questions about what really happened that night.
"When I was 16 I had a weird feeling that something else was going on, so I asked my mum about a weird connection between my cousin and the death of my father," Madison told Today Extra.
"And that's when my mum told me that there was another side of the story and that my dad had actually been murdered and it was a cold case, completely unsolved."
Madison's father, who was a recovering drug addict and police informant, was shot in the head in the early hours of July 11th 2002 at his home in Ohio.
His 16-year-old daughter and Madison's half-sister, Alyssa, was home at the time and found her father's body on the ground with a bullet hole in a nearby wall.
Police investigated his death, but failed to find any evidence that could convict someone of his murder.
After Madison discovered the real nature of her father's death, she began digging into the cold case and decided to try and solve the crime herself.
In her efforts to find her father's killer, she launched a podcast called Ice Cold Case.
"I started asking questions, diving into it and that's when I realised it was much more layered than even I could have imagined," she said.
One line of theory by investigators was that JC's death was a home invasion gone wrong, but Madison said things just don't add up to support that.
"When you dive into the police files, it's very clear that this is suspicious," she said.
"A home invasion to my knowledge is usually very quick and something of value is stolen, but nothing was taken and this home invasion lasted for over 30 minutes.
"It just seemed suspicious that someone would feel so comfortable to break into a house and stick around for that long and not steal anything at all - it feels like it was planned and very intentional."
Madison admitted that is has been jarring looking into the death of her father, especially when no one has been held accountable, but she has put her own fears aside in the hopes of finding out what really happened.
"I do feel a little uneasy putting myself out there in this very public way, but I just feel like justice for my dad is so much more important than worrying about my own safety if his killer is still out there," she said.
"But I really want to find out what happened for him and for my own closure, so I have sort of pushed that to the side."
Image credits: Today Extra