A Murder on Orchard Street: Discussion with Host Christina Kiely

Fifteen years ago, police assured Burke O’Brien’s family they wouldn’t stop investigating until they found his killer.

Their son, who had just moved to NYC to start a career in banking, had returned to his Lower East Side apartment on Orchard Street following a night out with his sister and his friend Forrest Bloede. Earlier in the evening, the trio had been joined by Burke’s sister’s friend and the group went dancing. Upon their return, Burke was fatally shot. Forrest carefully placed a coat on his friend and rushed frantically to dial 911. In shock and unable to fully grasp the situation, Burke’s sister jumped into action trying to save her brother through CPR efforts.

What had transpired prior to the shooting would soon be deliberated by detective Kenny Silvia and his fellow officers at NYPD headquarters. The conversations would be captured on camera by ABC’s Christina Kiely who was shadowing NYPD detectives in accordance with her assignment for the network.

With so many twists, turns and complexities, the detective and the journalist would not be able to forget this unsolved case or put it on a shelf. The kindness and consideration of Burke’s supportive family would propel both of them to take a fresh look at events and reexamine them over a decade later.

According to an ABC press release:

While reviewing original case footage, Kiely stumbles upon a possible new lead that could change the course of the case completely. The series features nearly every player involved in the case – both then and now – including the detectives, the victim’s family and the people who were there in those fateful final moments. “Taking a fresh look at a captivating case like this one allows us an opportunity to creatively showcase our rich archive in a new and dynamic way,” said Roxanna Sherwood, Executive Producer of the series. “My hope is that the story will engage the public to help unravel new details and clues that could mean the difference for a family waiting so long to see justice done.” .

Now an ABC video series and an ABC podcast (that launched in October), Murder On Orchard Street is captivating armchair detectives as they tune in weekly. Following is my conversation with the host Christina Kiely:

Each episode is very short, about 15 minutes. I want more because this whole mystery has certainly gotten my interest.

It’s interesting because I never worked in podcasts before and this started as a video series. The original idea was one 20/20 piece. Then the executive producer (who I was working with on this) moved to Nightline. We decided to extend the digital series and spent time making the video series. Once that was nearing its end, the radio people (at ABC) said this could be an incredible podcast experience.

For this story, we focus on a different player involved in the case in each week’s episode. The story has a Rashomon effect. We’ve been thrilled with the response from listeners, and we love hearing from them. It’s gratifying that people want even more. A Murder on Orchard Street is ABC’s first serialized podcast, and we’ll certainly take into account what they like as we develop more of these kinds of stories.

Can you tell us about your past work?

My experience is with long form documentary series. I was working on medical documentaries prior to this, Trauma In The ER and Code Blue. I would be in a place for months and months and spend hours in an ER or surgery room.

When I came to ABC, I was brought on to do that with the NYPD and got started in a crime scene unit where I did the series NYPD 24/7. ABC had gotten open access to a tiny crew and each one of us would be alone with the camera assigned to a specific detective. We had this relationship of trust where we could record things, but they also have the right to refuse us. It was all about learning to be a fly on the wall - except you’re not really a fly on the wall because you have a camera in their faces. However, you have to be respectful as you’re working together, and as long as you are, you develop a good relationship.

Following them from the crime scene to homicide and special victims units was my entire existence because they got so comfortable with me. It got to be this great dynamic where sometimes they would even say ‘Christina, you go home and get some sleep. We’ll come pick you up if there’s a homicide.’

What in particular about THIS case, the Murder on Orchard Street, got you so intrigued and looking into it further?

There are 2 ways of answering that. At the time, we covered every single homicide I filmed, so we ended up with thousands of hours of footage and treated each of these cases in the same manner. We were focused on the detective matched to each case and so on.

Initially, police didn’t know what to make of Forrest’s account (that he and Burke had been robbed by two men and that one of the robbers shot Burke). They arrested Forrest early on, but then it became quite clear that Forrest wasn’t guilty. The way this case then took all these unexpected twists and turns is what really compelled us to explore it further.

So, all suspicion has been removed from Forrest?

The cloud of suspicion has been removed..However, it’s a fascinating thing because I know as a listener and viewer, you still do wonder things.

Ultimately, every piece of evidence that followed indicated Forrest didn’t do this.

There seems to be a question about the first witness who thinks he saw Forrest shoot his good friend Burke. The witnesses account was enough for them to initially arrest Forrest?

That’s the crux of so much of this story.

The primary reason this series exists is because Burke’s sister really wanted to know the truth and after the detective, Kenny, retired from the NYPD, he called me and asked if I could make a story about it. That happens all the time, but for this one I had the material and had always been curious about the case.

There were all these outlying things and there was this real opportunity to help Burke’s family. There were so many unanswered questions.

One of those questions is how Forrest could have been arrested. The report of every single detective who spoke to the witness that first night was that he was incredibly clear and articulate seemed to have an absolutely vivid sense of what he had seen and what had happened. In the witness’s initial account, he seems to very clearly think he saw Forrest point a weapon at Burke, fire and kill him. Then his story started to waver. But he was so clear initially that it solidified in their heads that by contrast, Forrest’s story sounded murky.

There were a lot of things that puzzled the detectives.For instance, when Forrest spoke to the 911 dispatcher and the dispatcher asked ‘did you see who shot him?’, Forrest didn’t answer. Also, he remembered so clearly what the gun looked like, but was hazy on other details - However, as it turned out, he had familiarity with the make and model of guns from growing up. His dad kept a gun in the house. Then they learn about a potential love triangle involving the friend of Burke’s sister, the one who was out dancing with them that night. The police had just come off another case where a love triangle resulted in murder, so that idea was fresh in their minds.

Were the witnesses looked into by the police?

That’s something you have to wait for and you’ll see in episode 6. Episode 6 and 7 will drop (on iTunes) in 2 weeks and the whole series will drop on Hulu right after that.

Is the potential love triangle going to be examined?

We talk about it in more detail, but we couldn’t end up using a lot of what the cops discussed because the language was more HBO than ABC.

My goal was to really understand the experience of a crime like this from every person’s perspective. Episode 5 is from the viewpoint of Forrest.

I understand that the O’Brien’s are supportive of this project.

Burke’s sisters, who you see in the series, are remarkable people. It’s 15 years later and they’ve grown up and have their own families today, but they were so devoted to their brother and are so devoted to their entire family. They are not the kind of people who want to be on television. However, they’re so determined and focused on finding Burke’s killer that that’s what they’ll do.

They are incredibly generous people. I’ve never in my life - as a filmmaker and producer - had anybody suffer the way they did and still care so incredibly much about me and my experience and well-being doing this. That made me want to invest in this more, and I’m committed to being as honest and true as possible. I always ask myself ‘how would the family feel about this being in the show?’

Is ABC’s ‘Nightline’ also going to be focusing on ‘A Murder on Orchard Street’?

Yes, Nightline is airing a piece each week, taking a deep dive into cutting edge policing, examining the various tools, tactics and technology that detectives use in their investigations.

Good Morning America is spotlighting the case as well. They are looking at what witnesses think they see and what they see.

Do you think the issues of race and class weigh in when it comes to this case? We know that both Burke and Forrest are white. Some listeners may think of them as privileged and react to Forrest bristling at the idea of being a suspect and subsequently being arrested.

We didn’t make this show on any level because Burke and Forrest were white. There are so many other cases that I want to report on that involve minorities and individuals from all different backgrounds. With this one, we went back to re-examine it specifically because there were so many twists and turns.

One twist that I find interesting is how the class issue presented itself here. The cops related more to the witness in this case than to Forrest because the witness was a working class guy. People have preconceived notions about who the police will believe, but with this case, there are layers and layers of who they trust and why. I think the listeners will find it really interesting and surprising because it is more complex than what you might think.

Tune in to ABC’s A Murder on Orchard Street by subscribing on iTunes to the podcast. You can also visit: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/deepdive/a-murder-on-orchard-street-50010941