Podcast review: Mystery over death of actress Michelle O’Keefe explored in The Girl in The Blue Mustang

An aspiring actress is found dead in her blue Mustang after appearing as an extra in a music video. This new podcast series attempts to unravel the mystery.

The podcast spin-off of television show Dateline NBC revisits Michelle O’Keefe’s murder. Picture: Dateline

An aspiring actress is found dead in her blue Mustang after appearing as an extra in a music video for rapper Kid Rock, her leg hanging out of the car’s open door in a parking lot in California’s Antelope Valley.

Michelle O’Keefe had been hit with a blunt object then shot to death inside her car on February 22, 2000. The 18-year-old’s tube top was down and her breasts exposed.

The car’s engine was running. Its headlights were on.

Did O’Keefe die in a sexual assault? The money in her wallet was untouched. Maybe she was killed by one of the gangs peddling meth in Antelope Valley.

The podcast spin-off of television show Dateline NBC revisits the strange mystery of O’Keefe’s murder.

Listeners of new series The Girl in the Blue Mustang hear O’Keefe, a former cheerleader, was focused and well rounded. Everyone liked her.

Her devastated parents Mike and Pat O’Keefe went on television programs appealing for information. Her mother recorded a public service announcement and billboards bearing O’Keefe’s face were erected, reading “I wasn’t ready to die at the age of 18. Are you ready to catch my killer?”

Television psychic Sylvia Brown said O’Keefe’s killer was someone with a large build wearing a blue uniform named Lee or Leon.

Not to cast aspersions on Ms Brown’s psychic powers, but did the cops background producers on their theories?

O’Keefe’s body was found by parking lot security guard Raymond Lee Jennings. Police found Jennings too eager to help and his recall of the crime scene eerily accurate.

Detectives were suspicious and interviewed Jennings over and over again. The security guard enthusiastically shared his theories, some audio of which is played in the podcast.

“At first I did think it was rape because her breasts were hanging out at the time and that was puzzling,” says Jennings.

“Why were her breasts hanging out? I thought she was a prostitute because of the way she was dressed and then I find out she was an extra in a Kid Rock video so that explains the way she was dressed (in that way).”

O’Keefe, a former cheerleader, was well rounded and well liked. Picture: Dateline NBC

Listen to the podcast and make up your own mind, but there are some facts that make this mystery less straightforward.

For one, Jennings quit his job at the carpark a few days after the murder, stating he was uncomfortable returning to the scene of a violent crime. Fair enough.

Jennings returned his unwashed security guard uniform, which detectives promptly seized and sent to forensics who found nothing. No blood, no gunshot residue.

A side thought separate from the podcast: Is there an ethical question around true crime twists and suspects who are later cleared?

What if listeners, viewers and readers don’t finish the series and walk away thinking an innocent person is guilty?

The Dateline podcast specialises in strange crime and the latest series is a weird one. It’s worth a listen if only for the smooth talking host Keith Morrison.

It’s hard to imagine Morrison doing anything other than narrating true crime stories, although the journalist has lent his voice to navigation app Waze and the mediation app Calm.

Also hats off to the succinct, if at times hammy, scripting. An example: “Murder is like a wrecking ball on a family. All in pieces. No one is the same after.”

In the queue

Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng – Innocent people tell their stories of being convicted for crimes they didn’t commit.

Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast – America’s former first lady unplugged on this series from Audible.

Digital Folklore – A fun deep dive into internet culture that has clues and puzzles in the audio.