Review: ‘Burden of Guilt’ (2025), starring Tracyraquel Berns, Jim Mabe, Jeff Brickman, Lee Anne Mangone, J. Tom Morgan, Tiffany Moore and Jackie Wilson

February 16, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Burden of Guilt” (2025)

Directed by Patrick Stegall

Culture Representation: The three-episode documentary series “Burden of Guilt” features an all-white group of people talking about the case of Matthew Stephen Golder, a 4-month-old baby boy who died under suspicious circumstances in Atlanta, in 1971.

Culture Clash: Matthew’s older sister Tracyraquel Berns (formerly known as Tracy Rhame and Tracy Golder) was 2 years old when she was wrongfully blamed for his death; years later as an adult, she fought many obstacles to find out the truth.

Culture Audience: “Burden of Guilt” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about cold cases that get solved and wrongfully accused people being exonerated.

“Burden of Guilt” tells the disturbing true story of Tracyraquel Berns’ fight to find the real killer of her baby brother after she was blamed for killing him at 2 years old. This documentary series is a worthy visual version of the “Burden of Guilt” podcast from 2023. Nancy Glass, who hosted the “Burden of Guilt” podcast, is an executive producer of the “Burden of Guilt” docuseries through her Glass Entertainment production company. She can be heard but not seen asking some of the questions in the documentary.

Directed by Patrick Stegall, “Burden of Guilt” is a co-production of Glass Entertainment and See It Now Studios, the production company founded by former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky. “Burden of Guilt” has a lot of dramatic editing and music that are often seen in reality shows, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of this riveting story. Even if you listened to the entire podcast, the “Burden of Guilt” docuseries is worth watching for additional footage that wasn’t part of the podcast.

In the “Burden of Guilt” docuseries, Episode 1 is titled “Mishap or Murder?,” Episode 2 is titled “A Case for Justice,” and Episode 3 is titled “The Final Reckoning.” The documentary is a combination of exclusive interviews and non-exclusive archival footage. Most of the archival footage consists of what took place in a courtroom for this case.

There is some use of artificial intelligence altering to simulate old photos of the two parents involved in this case. Each A.I.-generated photo is clearly marked with the words “graphic rendering,” although some viewers might not know that it means it’s not a real photo. The documentary also has some re-enactment footage, but it’s not as prevalent as re-enactment footage is in many other true crime documentaries.

The narration and perspective for the “Burden of Guilt” docuseries are mainly from Tracyraquel Berns (formerly known as Tracy Rhame and Tracy Golder), who tells her harrowing story of living with the shame that she caused the death of her 4-month-old baby brother Matthew in 1971, when she was 2 years old, only to find out when she was an adult that it was all a lie. Berns then spent years trying to get justice. Her story is truly an example of never giving up despite many obstacles and setbacks.

“Burden of Guilt” begins with Berns saying in a voiceover narration: “All my life, I knew there was something wrong with Matthew’s death, but I was not prepared for the truth.” Matthew Stephen Golder was born on August 9, 1971. He died on December 27, 1991, in Atlanta, where the family was living at the time. The official cause of death was initially ruled as an accident because authorities were told that Berns threw Matthew out of his crib.

The truth was that Matthew was murdered. And all the evidence pointed to someone in the household who committed the murder. “Burden of Guilt” details Berns’ complicated and troubled family history to explain the circumstances that led to this tragic death of a child. It’s an unsettling story of abuse, secrets, lies and cover-ups of crimes.

Berns’ mother is Kathie Almon, born in 1950, whose problems seemed to begin when she was a teenager. She got pregnant at 15 years old and went to what she thought was an obstetrician appointment but it turned out to be an appointment for her to get an abortion, which was illegal at the time. Almon was secretly dating a popular “bad boy” in her high school named Jan Barry Sandlin, who was also born in 1950.

Almon’s parents did not approve of Sandlin, so she began publicly dating a schoolmate named Ted Golder while still seeing Sandlin on the side. Almon got pregnant, she and Golder got married, and in 1969, she gave birth to a daughter named Tracy Golder, who later became Tracy Rhame and then Tracyraquel Berns. Matthew was also born during the marriage of Almon and Ted Golder.

According to Berns, her mother continued to have an on-again/off-again relationship with Sandlin during and after the marriage. Ted Golder was in the military and was shipped off to fight during the Vietnam War. While he was away, Almon decided to end her relationship with Ted and sent him a breakup letter.

Almon and Sandlin then moved in together and lived as common-law spouses. Sandlin raised Tracy and Matthew as his own children, even though Matthew was really the biological child of Ted Golder. Berns says she’s not sure if Golder or Sandlin is her biological father. And apparently, she doesn’t want to know.

Berns says that she has no memories of Matthew except for fleeting memories of the day he died. On that day, Berns and Almon were out of the house, and Sandlin was left alone with Matthew. At first, Almon and Sandlin sad that Almon and her daughter Tracy were out of the house because Almon was doing errands. Later, Berns found out that Almon was going to take her to a hospital for injuries she had suffered from Sandlin’s physical abuse.

The stories varied on what happened to Matthew. Sandlin says that he didn’t see Berns throw Matthew over the crib but 2-year-old Berns was in the crib when Sandlin says he heard crying and saw a limp and unconscious Matthew on the floor. Almon gave a similar story at the time in 1971, but she later changed her story. Over the years, Berns says that family members told different stories about Matthew’s death, ranging from saying that Matthew fell out of the crib himself to Matthew dying in his sleep from sudden infant death syndrome. All of those stories were not true, based on the evidence that was uncovered many years later.

Berns says she remembers some of the chaos at Northside Hospital, where Matthew was taken for a head injury. Matthew died at the hospital. There was no pediatric neurologist at the hospital.

Berns was too young to know at the time that Matthew’s skull looked like it had been cracked with a large object. His injuries were not consistent with the story that Almon and Sandlin told about Tracy tossing the baby from a crib. Even so, the coroner for Georgia’s Dekalb County (where there was no medical examiner at the time) ruled the cause of death as accidental. Matthews was buried in a grave in Cullman, Alabama.

The cause of Matthew’s death was something that Berns says her family didn’t like to talk about when she was growing up. And when they did talk about it, they gave vague or contradictory statements. Berns was an adolescent when she found out that she had been named as the person who caused Matthew’s death when she was 2 years old. Berns says finding out this information put her on a downward spiral of guilt and shame.

By this time, Berns said she had suffered years of abuse from Almon and Sandlin. Berns says one of her earliest memories was when she was 2 years old, after Matthew’s death, her mother jumped off a second-floor balcony with Berns in her arms. Almon survived this suicide/murder attempt but broke her own arms and legs as a result.

Berns says that as young as 3 years old, her mother forced her to do household duties that an older child or adult should have handled. She describes her mother and Sandlin (who was in and out of the family’s life) as being verbally and physically abusive to her. Berns details getting severe beatings, especially from Sandlin. In one particular incident, she says she was 4 or 5 years old when Sandlin viciously assaulted her because she demanded to go to Matthew’s grave.

Berns says when she was an underage child, she was also forced to raise her younger brother Jason, who is four or five years younger than she is. According to Berns, she was more of a mother to Jason than their own mother. Jason is not interviewed in the documentary and is not mentioned again.

According to Berns, she also witnessed Sandlin beat and rape her mother many times. One of the most heinous things she describes is she says Berns often forced her to eat roaches on buttered toast while he masturbated. You get the feeling he did things that were a lot worse to her but she probably doesn’t want to talk about it in a documentary.

Berns says that when she was a teenager, she was a cheerleader in high school as a way to ecape and deny many of her problems at home. Her childhood friend Tiffany Moore, who knew Berns in high school, describes Berns as being “very responsible and independent” but an “old soul” as a teenager, who also seemed to be hiding sadness that was going on in her life. Moore also describes Almon as being an emotionally distant parent and confirms Berns’ stories that Berns was the real mother of the household.

In addition to getting constant abuse from the only parents she knew, Berns says she had to move around a lot and lived in various places in and around Atlanta. And many times, she says, when Sandlin lived with them, he would throw Almon and the kids out of the house and they would have to sleep outside for the night. Berns says her mother kept going back to Sandlin because Almon was addicted to him.

Things got so bad for Berns, she tried to kill herself after being involuntarily put in a psychiatric facility. In 1983, Berns says she was 15 years old when her mother had her committed to the psychiatric facility for 48 hours. It was also around this time that Berns attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. Berns says that her mother’s reaction to this suicide attempt was to get angry at her.

Did anyone else know about the abuse and turmoil in the household? Yes, according to a former neighbor named Jackie Wilson, who was a good friend of Sandlin’s first wife Nancy Tegeder Sandlin. Wilson says that the family fights in the Almon/Sandlin household could be heard by people outside and in nearby houses but no one did anything because any witnesses didn’t want to get involved. It’s one of the reasons why an adult Berns says in the documentary that she felt isolated and helpless as an abused kid.

The documentary mentions that Tegeder Sandlin died in September 1971, of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. At the time, she and Sandlin were separated, and she was pregnant with another man’s child. Her death was ruled a suicide. Although there was speculation that Sandlin could’ve had something to do with her death, he was never arrested or charged for it. Still, many people found it to be very suspicious that his estranged pregnant wife and a baby he was co-parenting died within three months of each other.

Berns says that when she turned 18 years old, she joined the U.S. Army, and she found her purpose and identity. Her experiences in the Army, including learning combat skills, greatly improved her self-esteem. She later became a wife and mother. But she was still haunted by what happened to Matthew.

In 1994, Berns was 25 years old when it became very clear to her that she couldn’t have possibly killed Matthew. This moment of clarity happened when Berns saw her daughter Goldie, who was 18 months old at the time, struggle to pick up a gallon of milk that weighed about eight or nine pounds. Knowing that a typical 4-month-old baby boy weighs about 15 pounds, Berns knew that at 2 years old, she wasn’t strong enough to pick up Matthew and toss him over a crib.

Determined to prove her innocence and get justice for Matthew, Berns then went on a long and arduous quest that had many obstacles and uncovered some shocking secrets. What she found out won’t be revealed entirely in this review, but it’s enough to say that there were three different trials for Matthew’s murder, and one person was the defendant for all three trials. Berns believes at least one other person was responsible for Matthew’s death and got away with murder. Berns also reveals that she thinks there was a plan to kill her when she was a child, but the plan didn’t happen because Matthew’s death was already suspicious.

Other people interviewed in the documentary are J. Tom Morgan, Dekalb County district attorney from 1992 to 2003; Jim Mabe, retired homicide detective for Dekalb County; Jeff Brickman, Dekalb County assistant district attorney from 1989 to 1997; Lee Anne Mangone, Dekalb County assistant district attorney from 1992 to 1999; Dr. Steven Dunton, Dekalb County co-deputy chief medical examiner; journalist Jill Jordan Sieder; defense attorney Steven Sadow; and Berns’ children Goldie Rhame Marks and Hunter Berns. Brickman and Mangone are among the most compelling of these interviewees in how they tell this story.

The documentary also has an April 2024 interview with Sandlin, who has changed his story over the years about how Matthew died. In this 2024 interview, he says that Matthew might not have been thrown out of the crib and could have just fallen if someone dropped him. He also says he doesn’t know who could have dropped Matthew, even though he and Almon both said in 1971 that 2-year-old Tracy Golder was the one responsible for Matthew’s death. Sandlin’s least believable statement in this interview is his claim that when he picked up a limp Matthew before Matthew was taken to a hospital, he saw no injuries on Matthew, which is a direct contradiction of a medical exam report that stated Matthew’s head injury was so large, it looked like a crater.

The documentary has footage of an ambush interview in Duluth, Georgia, at what appears to be the home of Kathie Almon. Kathie’s sister Sheila Almon answers the door while Kathie Almon is nearby. Kathie refuses to be interviewed, but Sheila gives a brief interview where she denies that Kathie was ever an abusive mother. Sheila also says that her niece Tracy is lying about everything. In response, Berns says in a separate interview that Sheila has been arrested many times and can’t be trusted. The documentary quickly shows Sheila’s arrest record, which includes a March 1991 arrest for armed robbery and opiate possession.

“Burden of Guilt” is gripping from start to finish. Berns story isn’t just about being an abuse survivor but also about someone who didn’t give up when experiencing crushing rejections and going up against seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s also a story about a dedicated team of prosecutors who understood how important it was not to give up on this case. “Burden of Guilt” isn’t an award-worthy documentary, but the subject matter certainly makes it one the most unique true crime documentaries of the year.

Paramount+ premiered “Burden of Guilt” on February 4, 2025.