MURDERED: Shawn Edwards (Part 2)
After years of rumors, gossip and dead end leads, the investigation into 14-year-old Shawn Edwards’ murder heats up – but even a shocking confession can’t close this cold case.
For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode.
Photo Source: Edwards family; printed in the Times Herald Record on January 19th, 1986
Photo Source: Edwards family; printed in the Times Herald Record on January 19th, 1986
Shawn Edwards
Photo Courtesy of Cynthia Edwards
Forensic testing was conducted on Shawn’s football jacket
Photo Source: Middletown Police Department
Timothy Fairweather on the front page of the Times Herald Record on October 10th, 1992
Photo Source: Times Herald Record archives
A Times Herald Record photo of Timothy and his lawyer Dennis McCormick, in court on October 13th, 1992.
Photo Source: Times Herald Record archives, by Eric Krieger
Please contact the authorities If you have any information about the case:
Anyone with information about the homicide should call Middletown Police at 845-343-3151.
We’d love to speak with you and see how we can support.
If you’re a law enforcement agency or family member of one of the people we mentioned in this episode, or if you’re looking for more coverage on a case, please reach out. You can email us at:
Episode Source Material
- Original reporting by Nina Schutzman
- Court records, Orange County Clerk
- Public records, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
- The Times Herald Record: Suspect held in teen’s slaying. (10-8-1992, by John Scibelli & John Milgrim) accessed via microfilm
- The Times Herald Record: Suspect implicates two others in Shawn Edwards’ slaying. (10-10-1992, by John Milgrim & Tristam Korten) accessed via microfilm
- The Times Herald Record: Murder suspect: I passed lie test. (10-11-1992, by Julie Campbell) accessed via microfilm
- The Times Herald Record: Slay suspect ‘sorry’ – but Fairweather wrote he ‘didn’t do it’. (10-14-1992, by Tristam Korten) accessed via microfilm
- The Times Herald Record: Accused murderer ‘asleep’ during stabbing. (10-15-1992, by Tristam Korten) accessed via microfilm
- The Times Herald Record: Edwards’ murder suspect free. (10-20-1992, by Tristam Korten) accessed via microfilm
- Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law: False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, and Implications, by Richard A. Leo
- Crime Scene Investigator Network: Collection and Preservation of Blood Evidence from Crime Scenes, by George Schiro
- Headquarters Department of the Army: Law Enforcement Investigations field manual
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