Season 2 of Kentucky Case Files begins with a case that state authorities consider closed — but Joseph Smith's family does not.

On the night of March 5, 2021, 25-year-old Joseph Smith was fatally shot in the parking lot of a small grocery store in Upton, Ky. The man who shot him admitted to it, claiming self-defense. No one was ever arrested. No one was ever charged.

Hosts Marcus Roland and Emily Steele spent months independently investigating the case, filing open records requests with authorities and obtaining crime scene photographs, police records, and recorded interrogation footage — because there was almost nothing in the public record to rely on.

What they found raises questions that Smith's family says have never been answered. The first interview with the admitted shooter was conducted by a state trooper who knew him personally — and was not recorded. And according to Smith's relatives, police never meaningfully reached out to people who knew him.

Along a busy stretch of Interstate 65 near Mammoth Cave, a billboard reads "HELL IS REAL" — a warning about eternal damnation. For Joseph Smith's family, those words mean something else entirely.

This is Part 1 of a four-part investigative series. Kentucky Case Files obtained records through the Kentucky Open Records Act. The admitted shooter claimed self-defense. No charges were filed.

Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Keywords: Kentucky true crime, Kentucky Case Files, Joseph Smith, Upton Kentucky, Hardin County, self-defense shooting, Kentucky State Police, open records, wrongful death, true crime podcast, Kentucky podcast, small town crime, gun laws Kentucky, Season 2

On March 5, 2021, a 25-year-old man named Joseph Smith was shot and killed in a grocery store parking lot in Upton, Kentucky. The man who shot him claimed self-defense. No arrest was ever made. No charges were ever filed.

His family was told he "made bad choices." They have never accepted that answer.

For Season 2, Kentucky Case Files spent months conducting original reporting — obtaining Kentucky State Police records, recorded interviews, and 194 crime scene photographs through the state's Open Records Act, and interviewing the people closest to this case.

The Joseph Smith Case is a four-part series examining what the evidence shows, what the investigation missed, and why one family is still asking questions five years later.

Season 2 begins June 16. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Some stories live on through investigation — others through art.

In the season one finale of Kentucky Case Files, Marcus Roland and Emily Steele sit down with Louisville author Ellen Birkett Morris, whose short story "Lost Girls" was inspired by Ann Gotlib’s disappearance. Growing up near the mall where Ann was last seen, Morris transformed a city’s grief into a powerful meditation on loss, fear and resilience.

Through interview and dramatic reading in The Ann Gotlib Case, Pt. 3: Lost Girls, Kentucky Case Files explores how creative expression can give voice to tragedy — and how Ann’s story, though never fully resolved, continues to echo through time.

Listen at https://pod.co/kentucky-case-files, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.