Nearly five decades after the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley, NBC News Studios is revisiting one of Connecticut’s most scrutinized cases with a new investigative podcast, "Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder." The series promises fresh interviews — including multiple conversations with Michael Skakel — and a methodical look at the legal twists, media attention, and unresolved questions that have surrounded the case for years.
The 12-episode podcast is hosted by journalist Andrew Goldman and premieres November 4, with episodes releasing weekly. Framed as a comprehensive reexamination rather than a rehash, "Dead Certain" aims to place the known facts, courtroom outcomes, and competing narratives in conversation with one another to give listeners a fuller understanding of a case that has long captivated the public.
What The Dead Certain Podcast Will Cover
Goldman’s investigation brings together voices central to the Moxley story. According to NBC Universal News Group, the series features in-depth interviews with key figures, including some of Moxley’s close friends; retired FBI agent Jim Murphy; Michael Skakel’s brother, Stephen Skakel; and former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, whose work on the case drew national attention in the late 1990s.
Crucially, the podcast includes multiple interviews with Michael Skakel himself. Across the season, Goldman contextualizes those conversations with contemporaneous reporting, court records, and commentary from people who lived through the case, spotlighting how the story evolved from a local tragedy into a high-profile legal saga with intense media scrutiny.
Goldman’s connection to the case stretches back more than a decade. Skakel’s cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., previously hired Goldman to research and ghostwrite a book about the Moxley matter. Ten years later, Goldman undertook his own independent inquiry and now presents his findings — and the often-conflicting accounts that have accumulated over the years — in a serialized format designed to walk listeners through each major development.
The Martha Moxley Case: A Brief Timeline
Martha Moxley was 15 years old when she was killed in 1975 in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich, Connecticut. She was bludgeoned and stabbed with a broken six-iron golf club. The brutality of the crime and the prominent neighborhood where it occurred immediately drew attention, but the case remained unsolved for decades.
According to CBS News, Moxley was last seen spending time with young members of the Skakel family on the night she was killed. The Skakels — cousins of the Kennedy family — lived across the street from the Moxleys, a detail that kept the case in the headlines as investigators revisited old leads and new witnesses in the years that followed.
Twenty-five years after the murder, in 2000, Michael Skakel was charged in connection with Moxley’s death. He was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, per CBS News. The verdict marked a turning point in a case that had long resisted resolution, even as debate continued over the evidence and trial strategy.
More than a decade later, in 2013, a judge granted Skakel a new trial and ordered his release, concluding that Skakel’s first attorney had failed to adequately represent him. The legal saga continued for another five years, culminating in 2018 when the Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Skakel’s murder conviction and ordered a new trial.
In 2020, prosecutors announced they would not retry Skakel. The decision left the case without a current conviction while preserving the public’s lingering questions — questions that "Dead Certain" sets out to explore through first-person accounts and careful timeline reconstruction.
The case remains active in civil court. In January 2024, CBS News reported that Skakel filed a lawsuit against the lead police investigator, Frank Garr, and the town of Greenwich, alleging malicious prosecution, civil rights violations, and other wrongdoing. As of publication, that lawsuit has not been resolved.
Release Date And What To Expect
"Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder" premieres November 4, with new episodes released weekly. Produced by NBC News Studios, the podcast devotes each installment to a specific piece of the story — from the original investigation to the 2002 trial, the successful appeal over ineffective assistance of counsel, and the state’s 2020 decision not to retry.
Listeners can expect a blend of on-the-record interviews and contextual reporting designed to clarify rather than sensationalize. By speaking with people who knew Martha, law enforcement officials who worked the case, and members of the Skakel family, Goldman seeks to present the most complete picture yet of how a suburban tragedy became a nationally debated saga.
The series also examines the outsized role the media played in shaping public understanding. Over five decades, documentaries, books, and high-profile commentary contributed to a public narrative that sometimes outpaced court proceedings. Goldman’s approach — informed by years of research and his early connection to the case through Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — aims to separate what is documented from what is assumed.
While "Dead Certain" follows a compelling true-crime story, its focus remains squarely on process: how investigators pursued leads, how lawyers argued them, and how the courts ultimately ruled. Rather than delivering a single grand reveal, the podcast assembles a detailed record, allowing listeners to weigh the known facts and the remaining uncertainties for themselves.
For those who have followed the Moxley case since the 1970s and for newcomers encountering it for the first time, "Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder" offers a structured, week-by-week deep dive driven by new interviews and careful reporting. With its premiere set for November 4, the series adds a significant chapter to the ongoing conversation surrounding one of the most enduring and closely watched cases in modern American true crime.
