Blood at Dawn

Episode 6: Benefit Me

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 11:30:00 +0000

“I have to think about it. I have to think about how it would benefit me to talk.”

Those were Richard Fikejs' words when investigators asked whether he wanted to explain why he was in police custody.

In the aftermath of the brutal murders of Kevin Carroll, Keith Chavez, and Donald Mikesh, Jr., investigators faced a difficult task: separating fact from fiction as three suspects offered competing accounts of what happened inside the condo on Chicago's Southwest Side.

In this episode of Blood at Dawn, we examine the statements of Kevin Aalders and Richard Fikejs, the disturbing physical evidence collected after their arrests, and the contradictions that emerged as investigators worked to reconstruct the events of October 12, 1996.

Former Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Golden shares his firsthand recollections of encountering Aalders, including an interaction that has stayed with him for nearly thirty years.

And for host Heather Stephens, a photograph obtained through a public records request brings the unimaginable violence of that morning into devastating focus.

Three suspects. Three versions of events. And three victims who would never have the opportunity to tell their own stories.

Content warning

This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence, blood evidence, multiple homicides, and foul language. Listener discretion is advised.

Featured voices

Heather Stephens, Kevin’s daughter and host of Blood at Dawn and former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney, Kevin Golden

Sources and background

Police reports and Heather’s recorded interview with Golden

Explore more:

Visit www.bloodatdawn.com to learn about the podcast and Kevin’s story

Credits:

Created, written and hosted: by Heather Stephens

Production and editing by Jen Rivera and Fire Eyes Media

Cover art: Jen Rivera

Drone footage/photography: Jovan Landry (@JLeslieMonique)

Follow:

Facebook: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Instagram: @bloodatdawnpodcast

Tiktok: @bloodatdawnpodcast

Youtube: Blood at Dawn Podcast

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Episode 5: Black Boots

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 11:15:00 +0000

When Chicago police forced open the door of the condo on 64th Place, Kevin Carroll was still alive.

As officers confronted the scene inside and pursued Kevin Aalders and Richard Fikejs, Rhonda Thompson made her way home. What she did over the following hours - and what she later told investigators - would become central to the case against her.

In this episode of Blood at Dawn, Heather follows the first police response, the recovery of evidence, and Thompson’s movements after leaving the condo. A discarded knife. Washed clothing. Black boots rinsed under running water. And an account that changed as investigators asked more questions.

Former Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Golden shares his memories of the investigation, while trial testimony reveals the differences between Thompson’s explanations and investigators’ recollections. Thompson said she believed she was the State’s star witness. By the end of the weekend, she was being accused of murder.

Content warning

This episode contains graphic descriptions of fatal injuries, blood, breathing difficulties and a crime scene; discussion of homicide, weapons, drug possession, alleged threats against children, and strong language.

Featured voices

Heather Stephens, Kevin’s daughter and host of Blood at Dawn and former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney, Kevin Golden

Sources and background

Trial testimony from responding officers, investigators, medical examiner Dr. Edmund Donoghue, Kevin Golden and Rhonda Thompson; Heather’s recorded interview with Golden.

Thompson’s explanations are presented as her testimony or reported statements. Where those accounts differ from investigators’ recollections, the episode identifies those differences. Thompson’s interviews discussed here were not audio- or video-recorded.

Explore more:

Visit www.bloodatdawn.com to learn about the podcast and Kevin’s story

Credits:

Created, written and hosted: by Heather Stephens

Production and editing by Jen Rivera and Fire Eyes Media

Cover art: Jen Rivera

Drone footage/photography: Jovan Landry (@JLeslieMonique)

Follow:

Facebook: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Instagram: @bloodatdawnpodcast

Tiktok: @bloodatdawnpodcast

Youtube: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 4: Band Together

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 11:00:00 +0000

On Saturday, October 12, 1996, Heather’s family woke up expecting an ordinary day. There was marching band, a football game, a babysitting job- and a father who hadn’t come home.

Heather and her family had no idea that Kevin Carroll had been murdered.

In this episode of Blood at Dawn, Heather steps away from the suspects’ accounts to tell the story of the people left behind. Through her own memories, and interviews with her mother and older sister, she revisits how the news reached their family, the painful days that followed, and the friends, relatives, and neighbors who helped carried them through.

From the moment the family learned Kevin had been killed to the wake, the funeral and the quiet afterward, this is the story of a family learning to live without him - and the community that showed up for them.

Content warning

This episode contains discussion of homicide, parental loss, childhood grief, identification of a deceased loved one, and funeral preparation, including references to injuries

Featured voices

Heather Stephens, Kevin’s daughter and host of Blood at Dawn, with recorded recollections from her mother and older sister.

Sources and background

Heather’s personal recollections; interviews with her mother and older sister; case records referenced in the episode. Memories are presented as the speakers’ recollections nearly thirty years later.

Explore more:

Visit www.bloodatdawn.com to learn about the podcast and Kevin’s story.

Credits:

Created, written and hosted: by Heather Stephens

Production and editing by Jen Rivera and Fire Eyes Media

Cover art: Jen Rivera

Drone footage/photography: Jovan Landry (@JLeslieMonique)

Follow:

Facebook: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Instagram: @bloodatdawnpodcast

Tiktok: @bloodatdawnpodcast

Youtube: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 3: Blind Rage

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:30:02 +0000

Colleen Turner has walked away from the condo on 64th Place. Behind her are raised voices and shattering glass. What happens next is told through three conflicting accounts.

In Episode 3 of Blood at Dawn, Heather Stephens examines Rhonda Thompson’s trial testimony alongside the accounts given by Kevin Aalders and Richard Fikejs. Thompson describes herself as a terrified witness forced to help conceal evidence. Aalders and Fikejs describe her as an active participant, while offering their own explanations for the violence and shifting responsibility between one another.

Their versions overlap in some places and diverge sharply in others. Who began the attack? Who wielded which weapon? What did each person admit, and what did they blame on someone else?As police arrive and the three flee, the story turns toward the families who do not yet know what has happened...

Content warning:
This episode contains graphic descriptions of fatal stabbings, throat injuries, and beatings. It also includes strong language, threats involving children, and discussion of unwanted sexual advances. Listener discretion is advised.

Featured voices:
Heather Stephens, Kevin’s daughter and host of Blood at Dawn. The defendants’ accounts are narrated from records; they are not interviews conducted for this podcast.

Sources and background:
This episode draws on Rhonda Thompson’s trial testimony and accounts given by Kevin Aalders and Richard Fikejs, including Fikejs’s statement to police. Each account is attributed to the person who provided it. Presenting a defendant’s statement does not establish that statement as fact. The episode examines their claims, admissions, and contradictions.

Explore more:
Visit www.bloodatdawn.com to learn about the podcast and Kevin’s story.

Credits:
Created, written and hosted by Heather Stephens
Production and editing by Jen Rivera and Fire Eyes Media
Cover art: Jen Rivera
Drone footage/photography: Jovan Landry (@JLeslieMonique)

Follow:
Facebook: Blood at Dawn Podcast
Instagram: @bloodatdawnpodcast
Tiktok: @bloodatdawnpodcast
Youtube: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 2: Breaking Glass

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:15:02 +0000

A shift at work. Drinks with coworkers. A chance reunion between former classmates. An invitation to see a new condo. In the early morning hours of October 12, 1996, two groups crossed paths at a Chicago bar called Touch of Class. Before sunrise, eight people would gather inside Donald Mikesh’s condo on 64th Place.

Three of them - Kevin T. Carroll, Keith Chavez, and Donald Mikesh - would never leave alive...

In Episode 2 of Blood at Dawn, Heather Stephens reconstructs the hours leading up to her father’s murder through trial testimony and statements to police. As the gathering unfolds, uneasy exchanges, a cigarette run, and an unexpected stop begin to change the shape of the night.

Paul Tyeptanner decides to leave. Colleen Turner eventually walks away, too. Behind her, she hears breaking glass.

Content Warning:
This episode discusses the events preceding a triple homicide and includes references to alcohol and drug use, weapons, and sexual propositions.

Featured voices:
Heather Stephens, Kevin’s daughter and host of Blood at Dawn, with a recorded recollection from her mother about their final conversation with Kevin.

Sources and background:
This episode draws on trial testimony and statements to police, including accounts from Paul Tyeptanner, Colleen Turner, Rhonda Thompson, and Richard Fikejs, along with testimony concerning the victims’ lives and Kevin’s work schedule. These accounts do not always agree. Conflicting recollections and statements are identified throughout the episode rather than presented as a single, undisputed sequence of events.

Explore more:
Visit www.bloodatdawn.com to learn about the podcast and Kevin’s story.

Credits:
Created, written and hosted by Heather Stephens
Production and editing by Jen Rivera and Fire Eyes Media
Cover art: Jen Rivera
Drone footage/photography: Jovan Landry (@JLeslieMonique)

Follow:
Facebook: Blood at Dawn Podcast
Instagram: @bloodatdawnpodcast
Tiktok: @bloodatdawnpodcast
Youtube: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 1: Before

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:00:03 +0000

Before he became one of the victims of a brutal triple homicide on Chicago’s Southwest Side, Kevin Carroll was a husband, a son, a White Sox fan, and my dad.

He was the one that would work nights, come home and make breakfast for us before he went to bed. The one who read us bedtime stories, complete with different voices for all the characters.
But he was also a man who was struggling with alcohol addiction. Loving him, meant loving both the warmth and the unpredictability. And remembering him - is remembering both of those things.

In the first episode of Blood at Dawn, Kevin’s daughter, Heather Stephens, returns to the ordinary goodbye that became her last. Through her own memories, and interviews with her mother and older sister, she introduces the complicated man that is the center of this story, and the family that he left behind on October 12, 1996.

Nearly 30 years later, Heather begins reading the records she once feared opening, and asking the questions about the story she was told at 13.

Content Warning:
This episode discusses alcohol addiction, difficult family experiences, the murder of a parent, childhood bereavement, and grief.

Featured Voices:
Heather Stephens, Kevin Carroll’s daughter, and host of Blood at Dawn, with personal reflection from her mother, Lynn, and older sister.

Sources and Background:
This episode draws primarily on Heather’s personal memories and recorded interviews with her mother and older sister. It also introduces her examination of court records, transcripts, motions, and appeals relating to the murders of Kevin T. Carroll, Keith Chavez, and Donald Mikesh. Family recollections reflect each speaker’s experiences and memories nearly thirty years after the events.

Explore more:
Visit www.bloodatdawn.com to learn about the podcast and Kevin’s story

Credits:
Created, written and hosted by Heather Stephens
Production and editing by Jen Rivera and Fire Eyes Media
Cover art: Jen Rivera
Drone footage/photography: Jovan Landry (@JLeslieMonique)

Follow:
Facebook: Blood at Dawn Podcast
Instagram: @bloodatdawnpodcast
Tiktok: @bloodatdawnpodcast
Youtube: Blood at Dawn Podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Blood at Dawn - A New True Crime Podcast

heather@fireeyesmedia.com (Fire Eyes Media LLC) — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 19:27:49 +0000

On October 12th, 1996, Kevin Carroll, Keith Chavez, and Donald Mikesh Jr. were brutally beaten and murdered inside a condominium on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Three people were arrested. Three people were convicted. Each was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences in prison.

The case may have ended in convictions, but nearly 30 years later, the story is far from over...

Blood at Dawn is a multipart true crime series hosted by Heather, Kevin Carroll’s daughter. She was just 13 years old when her father was killed. Now, for the first time, she is going back through the case that changed her life. Using court testimony, police records, and interviews with family members and people closely involved in the investigation, Heather reconstructs the hours leading up to the murders. She examines the investigation and trials that followed, as well as the conflicting stories told by the three people convicted of the crime. But this story did not end when the verdicts were read.

Blood at Dawn explores what happens to the families left behind once the headlines disappear and everyone else moves on. They are expected to live with what happened. Then, decades later, they discover that the people convicted are asking the state for mercy. Nearly 30 years after her father walked into that condominium and never walked out, Heather is returning to the evidence, the memories, and the questions that never completely went away.

This time, she is telling the story...

All episodes drop on October 12th, 2026.

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