‘48 Hours’ True Crime Podcast Goes ‘Inside The Daniel Marsh Murders’

“48 Hours” Correspondent Erin Moriarty hosts a new podcast titled, “Fifteen: Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders.”

CBS News

It was the type of unthinkable crime that stays with you long after you cover the story. In 2013, 15-year-old Daniel Marsh was accused of killing and mutilating the bodies of an elderly couple living nearby his father in California. The teen was arrested after bragging about what he’d done to friends, and he later confessed and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

48 Hours Correspondent Erin Moriarty couldn’t shake memories of covering the case several years after the murders, when a legal development meant Marsh had a possibility for early release. Now, more than a decade after the murders, she is launching a new six-episode podcast that explores the motivations and psyche of the teenage killer. Fifteen: Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders launched today (listen to the trailer).

“This is the kind of story that is hard for a reporter to forget: the senseless murders of a married couple, Chip Northup and Claudia Maupin, with no evidence left behind at the scene and no murder weapon,” said Moriarty. “And the mastermind behind it all? A fifteen-year-old California boy named Daniel Marsh that law enforcement believed was a serial killer-in-training. The FBI special agent who later interrogated Marsh told me that the teenager was one of the most dangerous suspects he had ever interviewed.”

The podcast will be available on Apple and other platforms, dropping every Wednesday for six weeks. 48 Hours+ subscribers on Apple can access episodes ad-free and a week early.

Podcast Explores Daniel Marsh’s Crime And Remembers His Victims

The podcast goes in-depth into Marsh’s actions and doesn’t shy from sharing some of the terrible things that he endured in his childhood while also conveying that nothing excuses his actions.

Moriarty also wanted to tell the story of Maupin and Northup. The first episode details how Maupin moved to Davis, California, looking for love—and finding Northrup. They seemed happy until they failed to show up at church, worrying their families and leading to their discovery.

“Through the podcast, I was able to better explain how the victims’ families’ lives were ripped apart by these murders,” Moriarty said. “We also delved into the complexity of psychopathy, particularly in young men. And I was fortunate enough to reconnect with the psychiatrist who evaluated Daniel in 2013 and 2018 for his defense team. That psychiatrist, who once believed Marsh could be safely returned to society after treatment, talks about how his feelings have since evolved.”

Moriarty’s reporting also focuses on some interesting legal developments that led her to become interested in bigger questions. “As a reporter with a law degree, I try to focus on cases like this that raise important legal issues. In 2018, when I first started interviewing investigators and the victims’ families, recently passed California state laws meant that there was a very real chance that Daniel Marsh, who was serving a 50-plus-year prison sentence, would be eligible for early release,” Moriarty said.

“While there is a significant amount of evidence that young offenders can benefit from treatment, Marsh’s background and his diagnosis as a psychopath raised questions whether some juveniles are simply too dangerous to be safely released back to the community.” That helped drive her reporting.

True Crime Podcast Popularity Soars

Expanding her reporting for a podcast made sense. True crime podcasts have gone well beyond “having a moment” to lifting the format into a media phenom, and 48 Hours has experienced its own podcasting success.

Blood is Thicker, hosted by Peter Van Sant, hit #1 on the Apple podcast charts, and his “Trained to Kill,” which debuted this spring, was also a top 10 True Crime podcast on Apple.

Moriarty has hosted two prior podcasts—My Life of Crime and Murder in the Orange Grove: The Troubled Case Against Crosley Green, which reached No. 6 on Apple’s overall podcast charts.

“True crime continues to resonate in podcast form because you have time to tell a more nuanced story,” she said. “Cases like that of Daniel Marsh are complicated. This is a boy who suffered as a child. That being said, many others have suffered similarly and do not kill.”

She appreciates podcasts’ ability to zero in on small details of a case while also pulling out to examine the broader picture.

“These stories focus on a crucial question that experts have been unable to answer: What made a teenager like Daniel Marsh kill? Was he born that way or do other individuals and systems play a role in shaping who he became?” said Moriarty.