50 Cent’s latest project, 50 Ways to Catch a Killer, has debuted on FOX Nation, and its first episode features one of Montgomery County’s most tragic and widely followed cases: the 2017 murder of Olney resident and pregnant high school teacher Laura Wallen.
The true-crime series examines shocking homicide investigations across the country, focusing on how detectives pursue leads and ultimately bring killers to justice. In its opening installment, viewers are taken back to September 2017, when Wallen, 31 years old, four months pregnant, and a beloved teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, suddenly went missing on the first day of school.
What began as a missing person case quickly drew national attention. Wallen’s family spoke out publicly, urging for her safe return, while her boyfriend, Tyler Tessier of Damascus, appeared alongside them during emotional press conferences. Behind the scenes, however, investigators with the Montgomery County Police Department’s Major Crimes Division grew increasingly suspicious of Tessier’s shifting stories and troubling admissions.
The episode details how detectives uncovered key evidence, including surveillance footage of Wallen and Tessier at a Safeway in Olney, discarded belongings at an apartment complex in Columbia, and ultimately the grim discovery of Wallen’s body in a shallow grave on a Damascus farm. Tessier, who admitted to discarding her phone and driver’s license and lying about his alibi, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
By featuring the Wallen case, 50 Ways to Catch a Killer not only revisits the harrowing details of her disappearance and death but also highlights the painstaking investigative work by Montgomery County detectives that led to justice. The series aims to shed light on how law enforcement pieces together complex cases, with Wallen’s story serving as a powerful and heartbreaking example in its very first episode.
