Podcaster Determined to Solve Her Father's Murder Is Back With Part 2 of “Ice Cold Case”
Madison McGhee's father was murdered in 2002 — and she's trying to get to the bottom of it
When Madison McGhee began digging into the unsolved murder of her father, she never expected it to gain a lot of attention. But after she was the subject of multiple articles and made several television appearances, her true crime podcast, Ice Cold Case, became a hit.
On July 11, 2002, John Cornelius McGhee, known to everyone as J.C., was shot in the head in the doorway of his home in Belmont County, Ohio, near the West Virginia border. The murder is still unsolved but it has become his daughter's mission to find answers. Now she’s back for part 2.
“Things are definitely heating up,” Madison tells PEOPLE. “I received a lot of tips from part one, just the press that it garnered. Through that, I heard from people that I either was never expecting to hear from or had no idea that they existed”
Shared exclusively with PEOPLE, the trailer for part two of Ice Cold Case hints at more intrigue to come. Expect part two to have never-before-heard interviews with individuals connected to the twisty case.
“There’s two sides to every story,” says Madison.
In the years since the murder, Madison was misled about how her father really died. As a 6-year-old, she was told it had been a heart attack. It wasn’t until she was 16 that she learned that it was murder. Not knowing the truth for ten years meant Madison had to grieve her father’s death twice.
Police came to the conclusion that J.C.’s murder stemmed from a home invasion gone wrong, but that has seemed dubious to Madison. She became even more skeptical after learning her father had been a drug dealer-turned-informant who had helped police arrest a number of people, including one of his nephews, who was sentenced to life in prison.
Madison, who now lives in Los Angeles, was raised in Charleston by her White mother and grandmother. Growing up, she only saw her father, who was Black, and half-sister Alyssa on occasion. But since starting the podcast, she has been brought closer to her dad’s side of the family, she says.
Though the podcast has brought Madison closer to Alyssa, as she’s found out more details about the case and developed theories, it has also rubbed some extended family members the wrong way.
“[My extended family] don't know that I'm doing more episodes, and I don't think they're going to like it,” she says. “It doesn't necessarily implicate my family, but I don't know that they're going to love the skeletons I'm bringing out of the closet. I, to be frank, do not care.”
Having been kept in the dark for so many years, her resilience has kept her questioning everything, with the hope that eventually it will lead to conclusive answers.
So far, Madison’s work has received acclaim. Ice Cold Case recently made the shortlist for the 2024 UK True Crime Awards Rookie of the Year.
Part two of Ice Cold Case premieres March 20 on all major streaming platforms, with new episodes premiering every other Wednesday.
“Not everything is what it seems,” Madison says. “I'm very excited to share with the listeners what I've learned and what this other side of this story really holds, and I’m hopeful that it gets me closer to solving the case.”
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Read the original article on People.