Even a town as elite and picturesque as Princeton has its secrets.
No one knows this better than Kevin Shea, our dogged reporter covering the town for decades. He could never shake one crime in particular, committed in broad daylight a block from one of the world’s most prestigious universities. He wanted to shine a spotlight on it in the hopes that the murder of Princeton’s grande dame could finally be solved.
While gardening on a spring afternoon in 1989, Emily “Cissy” Stuart, the formidable matriarch of the family that ran the town’s newspaper, was stabbed to death in her basement storage room. The killer padlocked the door and slipped away, leaving few clues and no apparent motive for the vicious murder.
Over the years, police sources impressed by Kevin’s passion let slip key details about the theories they believed but were never able to prove.
But the case went truly cold for over 15 years.
Our goal was to exert pressure on authorities to restart the investigation with modern forensics. We also wanted to reveal and investigate the leading police theories, tracking down the people involved and facing head-on the question: Did obsession drive the investigation instead of hard evidence? And finally, we wanted to bring Cissy Stuart to life for listeners, so they felt a personal connection to this big-hearted woman and the need for justice after 35 long years.
Our plan was to tell the full story of this case for the first time, clearly framing the facts and revelations. We also wanted to bring listeners on our journey as reporters searching for the truth and where it led.
Our reporting process started with a list of potential sources, from Cissy’s loved ones, witnesses and people police investigated, to cops and crime-scene experts. We reached more than 100 such sources and interviewed or received comment from more than 60.
Because of the trust Kevin Shea has earned with police, he had amazing access to law enforcement sources we needed to tell the story. Still, tackling this cold case was extremely challenging. Cissy Stuart’s family did not participate and her contemporaries are dead. Two suspects are also dead, as is the police chief who spearheaded a critical part of the investigation. Plus, a number of people we wanted to interview are now in high-level positions and did not want their names anywhere near this.
We tried everything we could to hear from the Stuart family, including calls, emails, letters, communications with attorneys and an in-person visit. We still needed to find some sources who knew Cissy, so we used public records to track down former neighbors who recalled her as a memorable and caring character.
We successfully obtained never-before-released police documents. They allowed us to paint a picture of the crime scene and take listeners through the investigation by late Chief Tony Federico.
Our plan of reporting had to constantly evolve as new information led to more questions. We found ourselves visiting Princeton University’s archives to read a senior thesis police had subpoenaed and discovering new information by digging through the Maine attic of the late chief.
Our plan for scripting also had to evolve because of the challenges of a case so sensitive that sources did not want to be associated with it. But they needed to be part of the story, and we had a duty to allow them to tell their side. Voice alteration, actors and pseudonyms were methods we eventually employed that allowed us to do both.
We did multiple rewrites of each episode, trying different methods to make the investigation, including interrogation scenes from decades ago, feel active and exciting as if they were happening live.
We realized we needed to confront weak spots in the police investigation, including the question of whether an overzealous investigator had read too much into witnesses’ shaky memories.
Like our first podcast, “Father Wants Us Dead,” this new series combines the thrill and mystery of true crime with the comprehensive, facts-first reporting of dedicated, veteran journalists. “In the Shadow of Princeton” was a unique effort in the true-crime podcasting space in 2024. The entire process took us more than a year. We refused to cut corners, exhausting every avenue and tracking down every source possible to find the truth.
While Cissy Stuart’s case remains unsolved, we consider our podcast a success because after we started asking questions, the prosecutor delved into the murder and brought it to a new, statewide cold case task force. The task force accepted the case, creating an opportunity for grant-funded advanced DNA testing. If there are any updates on this front, we will update listeners with bonus episodes.
We also were successful in finding a balance between presenting investigators’ theories while also examining them critically. We needed to put listeners in the investigators’ shoes, so they could see the compelling theories cops were chasing, but when necessary, question some of their logic and methods.
And finally, despite the significant challenges in finding people who knew Cissy well, we succeeded in humanizing Cissy, partly by revealing our own feelings about her after a year of living her case and our sincere hopes that she’ll get the justice she deserved.
