A new investigative podcast from Syracuse.com tells the story of one of Upstate New York’s most horrific crimes like it’s never been told before.
Carol Ryan, a 42-year-old mother, was found on the side of the road outside Syracuse, N.Y. in 1996, viciously beaten, and brutalized by an explosive device.
Police never made an arrest in her case. Carol’s friends and family feel like everyone has forgotten her. But we haven’t. We believe her cold case deserves more attention.
Our new true crime podcast “Firecracker” takes listeners through the chilling story with fresh information and analysis gleaned from interviews with 30 sources.
Voices on the podcast include Carol’s only son, Onondaga County’s district attorney, the medical examiner who wrote Carol’s 22-page autopsy report, detectives, sheriffs, forensic experts, and even persons of interest questioned in this case. Some had never spoken publicly about Carol’s murder before.
Watch the podcast trailer below.
The story begins with Carol’s relatively normal upbringing in a tiny Oswego County town.
Born on the 4th of July, Carol had red hair and a free, fiery personality. Her nickname was Firecracker.
She volunteered at a local daycare and sang in her school chorus.
But after an early pregnancy and 10 years in an abusive marriage, Carol got divorced and moved south from Fulton to Syracuse, N.Y.
She settled into a cozy apartment in the city village of Eastwood, with her fluffy cat named Byrd. She stayed close with her beloved son Shawn and her mother Edith. She loved to read Stephen King novels and dance like no one was watching.
“She was one hell of a good woman,” said her only son, Shawn Hamilton. “There wasn’t a shy bone in her body.”
After a night of bar-hopping on Labor Day weekend in 1996, someone violently attacked Carol. She was beaten, raped with an explosive device, and left for dead.
A fisherman found her clinging to life in a compost site driveway in Jamesville, N.Y., a sleepy suburb just south of Syracuse. He called 911 and emergency workers rushed Carol to a local hospital, but she died five hours later.
“She was stolen from me,” Carol’s son Shawn shares in the podcast. “It’s a never-ending nightmare.”
The original lead detective believes the true killer slipped right through their fingers.
“It brings back a lot of bad memories,” said retired detective Carl Kruger. “Just that there’s somebody out there that could do something so terrible to another human being. That’s why it stuck in my mind.”
He calls this case the only regret of his career.
Dr. Mary Jumbelic, a board-certified forensic pathologist, examined Carol before and after she died in 1996. She went on to serve as Onondaga County’s chief medical examiner from 1998 until 2009.
It took hours for doctors and detectives to figure out what weapon had been used to hurt Carol.
“There was so much tissue damage that it defied a reasonable explanation,” Dr. Jumbelic told syracuse.com. “Was she shot and then she was hacked? Was it an ax? What exactly happened here?”
Carol’s injuries were so grisly that the ER workers who tried to save her were given counseling.
“When you see something out of context, it’s very shocking and difficult to piece together,” Dr. Jumbelic said.
In the podcast, Dr. Jumbelic read aloud a few sections from Carol’s autopsy report, and shared clues she thought would be important to investigators.
There’s a five-drawer filing cabinet in the Onondaga County Sheriff’s office, stuffed with hundreds of documents related to Carol’s vicious murder. Detectives chased hundreds of leads, but never arrested anyone.
Who killed her?
Was it the ex-boyfriend, who had been fighting with Carol just a few days before her murder?
Was it her ex-husband, who had a troubling history of abuse?
Or was it a total stranger?
“Firecracker” unpacks the horrific Syracuse crime with the investigative heft you would expect from a team of reporters with more than 40 years of combined experience.
The reporting keeps Carol’s story alive, 27 years later, and introduces a parade of disturbing suspects who walked free after her murder. It’s the most in-depth journalistic investigation of this case.
Syracuse.com has partnered with Wondery+ to debut this podcast for a national audience.
Listen and subscribe to the “Firecracker” podcast, now available exclusively on Wondery+, the premium podcast subscription from Wondery.
If you have information about Carol Ryan’s case, contact the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office at 315-435-3051. To submit an anonymous tip, text TIPONON and your tip to 847411.
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Katrina Tulloch shoots videos and writes stories for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact her anytime: Email • Instagram • X • Facebook • 518-810-5022
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