Fault Line: Haditha

NCIS Special Agent Mike Maloney prepares a forensic test to answer one question: was a three-year-old girl in the back bedroom of House 2 executed at point-blank range? But then his superiors inexplicably order Maloney to shut down his protocol before he can determine the truth. This isn't the only instance of the government interfering with Maloney’s findings. It isn’t even the worst. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Private First Class Humberto Mendoza is the first Marine to be granted immunity; his freedom traded for testimony. But once Mendoza takes the witness stand, his testimony not only contradicts the forensic evidence but also implicates a Marine other than Frank Wuterich for the murder of the women and children in House 2. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich is charged with 18 counts of murder in Haditha. And yet, he maintains his innocence. “There’s no way I could go into a room and shoot women and children. Not a chance in hell,” he tells Epstein. But here’s the thing, when asked, “Who did it? If you didn’t shoot everyone, who did?” Wuterich claims he can’t remember, something even his own lawyers don’t believe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCIS Special Agent Mike Maloney spends four months living inside the crime scene photos of the back bedroom of House 2, an experience that will haunt him for years. Maloney examines the photos pixel by pixel, wound by wound, piecing together how a roomful of women and children were murdered by U.S. Marines. His conclusions will lead to SSgt Frank Wuterich being charged with the murder of five children and two women in House 2. WARNING: This episode contains a detailed reconstruction of the crime scene where five children, their mother, and their aunt were murdered. It is intended for mature listeners only. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A young lance corporal is handed a Sharpie and ordered to photograph the dead women and children. He does, holding onto the pictures alone for months, telling no one, waiting for an investigation that never comes. Eventually, the photos drive him mad, and he is medevac'd out of Iraq. When NCIS agents finally come calling, the photographs become the single most important piece of forensic evidence in the entire Haditha case. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Marine Corps reports that a roadside bomb killed fifteen Iraqi civilians in Haditha, but it is a lie — they were killed by U.S. Marines, and the government knew it. Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Michael Epstein finds a way to film inside the defense of the Marine at the center of the investigation without the government's knowledge. What he eventually discovers over the course of a twenty-year investigation is a cover-up that reaches the highest levels of the United States Marine Corps. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For twenty years, the United States Marine Corps has tried to bury the truth about Haditha. In 2005, 24 civilians were killed by a squad of United States Marines in the Iraqi city of Haditha, a massacre that became one of the most notorious and controversial incidents of the war. What followed was a years-long battle over what really happened, who would be held accountable, and how far the Marine Corps would go to protect itself. At the center of the story is NCIS Special Agent Michael Maloney, the most senior forensic consultant assigned to the case. As Maloney examined the evidence, he discovered that prosecutors hid from him a key eyewitness, sponsored perjured testimony, and granted immunity to Marines who were likely guilty of murder. When Maloney spoke up, he came under intense political pressure to alter his findings and his testimony in the case. Now, for the first time, the complete story is finally being told. Based on over 100 hours of documentary footage shot without the government's knowledge or permission, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Michael Epstein delivers a gripping investigative series that finally reveals the truth about the Haditha Massacre and the government cover-up that followed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.