Crimery

MICHAEL KERKOWSKI & TAMMY FASSETT: THE BACKYARD GRAVE

Jennifer Novotney Season 1 Episode 1

MICHAEL KERKOWSKI & TAMMY FASSETT: THE BACKYARD GRAVE

A trusted small-town pharmacist vanishes with his girlfriend and a year later investigators dig into a Kingston Township backyard and uncover a nightmare: multiple shallow graves, including Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, strangled with plastic ties and buried one atop the other. The tip that cracks the case? An unexpected confession from burglar Paul Weakley that leads police straight to Hugo Selenski’s property—and to a truth more brutal than rumor ever imagined. 

In this episode of CRIMERY, we follow the trail from Michael’s double life as a pill-mill pharmacist to the chilling backyard excavation, Selenski’s unnerving reactions, and the long, twisting road to justice. You’ll hear how money, manipulation, and betrayal turned friendship into fatal violence—and how a community struggled to rebuild trust. 

What you’ll learn

  • How an unrelated burglary case blew open a “missing persons” file. 

  • Why cadaver dogs targeted a concrete pad—and what crews found beneath it. 

  • The role greed played from pill ring to murder and cover-up. 

Content warning: drug crimes, violence, strangulation, human remains.

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CRIMERY is reported, written, and hosted by Jennifer Novotney. Produced by Timothy Novotney.

Tip line & inquiries: crimerypod@gmail.com

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Legal: Everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Content may include descriptions of violence. Listener discretion advised.

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