About This Episode
Hope Hooton sat down at the microphone for episode 67 of the American true crime podcast FAMILICIDE: True Crime Survivor Stories of Family Murder to tell a story she should never have had to tell: how her two children were shot and killed by their father during an unsupervised visitation — and how the justice system ignored the warning signs she desperately tried to raise.
A Mother's Account of the Unthinkable
Hope Hooton's testimony is the heart of what the FAMILICIDE podcast was created to amplify: voices that are rarely heard in mainstream true crime productions. Not the perpetrator's psychology, not a detective's pursuit — but survivors' own words about what led up to the violence, what happened, and what came after.
In the episode, Hope describes how, in the period leading up to the killings, she repeatedly tried to warn authorities about her ex-husband's behavior and the danger she believed he posed to their children. Despite her efforts, his visitation rights were never altered, and the children were alone with him when it happened.
It is a story that far too many survivors of family violence recognize — and one that familicide has internationally been shown to follow a pattern that is rarely identified in time.
Systemic Failure as a Recurring Theme
Since its launch, the FAMILICIDE podcast has had a stated mission: to shine a light on the structural and legal failures that enable family . Episode 67 with Hope Hooton is a stark example of that format at its most direct.