After the Uprising iHeart True Crime

St. Louis County, 2016, the early hours after Labor Day. Darren Seals, 29 year old rapper and famed Ferguson activist, is found shot dead inside his burning Jeep. Six years later, the former Missouri state senator who was in the movement with him, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, joins co-host Ray Nowosielski and our investigative team to begin a two-plus years investigation. His activist friends point to a sloppy crime scene and rumors about cops and white suspects. But leads offer many directions.

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The strange torched vehicle M.O. of Darren Seals’ murder bears a striking similarity to another that took place two years prior, DeAndre Joshua. And his brother names a suspect, their friend Perez Reed. When Reed is suddenly arrested for a murder spree across Missouri and Kansas, it sends our investigators on the trail of an alleged serial killer. Could Reed be the answer to both Joshua and Seals?
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The streets talk, and they say Darren Seals was killed during an argument about music. But is this a red herring? The investigators work to pin down the details of a meeting Darren had in New York City with JayZ’s Roc Nation only one month before his death. Members of his rap group D.O.A. talk and lead us to a focus on another group Darren began managing during his final year, the Bottom Boyz. And a witness who saw the Jeep set on fire offers a description of the suspects involved, including “a white boy” with a ponytail.

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Amir Brandy, co-founder of Real STL News, and his videographer friend Darnell Singleton, undertook their own on-the-ground investigation into Darren Seals’ murder beginning the day he was found. Meeting them at the Ridgeview Apartments where his Jeep was driven and set ablaze, they reveal a lead as to where the actual killing took place. On Gamble Street, in the city of St. Louis, on that same night around the same time, another man matching Darren’s description was shot dead, Shaun Hawkins. But is there actually a connection?

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Before her sudden passing in 2023, Darren Seals’ mother Bonnie Otis sat down over several months for roughly 30 hours of conversations with this podcast. It becomes apparent that she was a central hub of sorts to whom tipsters turned. Using these varied and often conflicting accounts, our investigators piece together scenarios for Darren’s final night. 

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Darren Seals’ mother was certain the answer to his murder lay with the FBI. Dismissed as “conspiracy theory,” her assertion seems suddenly bolstered when a redacted document is released that reveals the existence of a U.S. government surveillance operation on Darren over his final six months. What were they after? Who was the informant that sent them to Darren? And what do they know?

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