It’s been 28 years since 20-year-old US Air Force Airman Daniel Shersty drove his black Chevy Cavalier to the desert on the northwest edge of the Las Vegas Valley late in the evening of July 3, 1998, with his close friend, 24-year-old Lin “Spit” Newborn, and two girls they’d met earlier that day.
Headed down the road ahead with 2025 in the rear view
Through persistence and patience, we are closer than ever to being able to finish this film and tell this story in an impactful way.
A special note from director-producer Pj Perez
Another Independence Day has passed. Another year remembering the too-short lives and tragic murders of Lin “Spit” Newborn and Daniel Shersty. And another chance to reflect on the progress made in telling their stories.
Looking back at 2024 and toward the year ahead
With 2024 coming to an end, we reflect on the progress we’ve made on “Murdered on the Fourth of July” in the last 12 months.
26 Years Later
It’s been 26 years since Lin “Spit” Newborn and Daniel Shersty were killed in the desert outside Las Vegas after being drawn out there under false pretenses by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads. It’s been 26 years since parents lost their sons, a child lost his father, and a community lost one of its guiding […]
A quick production update as we head into spring
If things have seemed quiet around here since our last update following our December filming dates, that’s because the work that’s been happening on Murdered on the Fourth of July since then (following a little holiday break) has been less visible but very important, including: Ingesting, syncing, and transcribing filmed interviews Creating a “paper edit” […]
Las Vegas filming, week 1
Last week, we assembled our Murdered on the Fourth of July team–director/producer Pj Perez, co-producer Roudi Boroumand and cinematographer Winston Moon–in Las Vegas for a whirlwind three days of filming, with the aid of sound mixer Ty Peterson and production assistant Mario Martin. We crisscrossed the Las Vegas Valley to film interviews with five subjects […]
Our first crowdfunding campaign was a success!
Our crowdfunding campaign to kickstart production on Murdered on the Fourth of July ended this morning with a “Green Light” from Seed&Spark, having raised a total of $11,100–only 8% shy of our $12,000 total goal–thanks to the contributions of 92 generous supporters. That is incredible. It demonstrates how important this project is to so many […]
Remembering Spit and Dan on KNPR’s ‘State of Nevada’
On the October 24, 2023 episode of Nevada Public Radio’s “State of Nevada,” host Joe Schoenmann spoke with Murdered on the Fourth of July director/producer Pj Perez, Margaret Newborn (Lin Newborn’s sister), and retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police captain Harry Fagel about the circumstances that led to the murders of Lin Newborn and Daniel Shersty, and […]
Curious about our crowdfunding campaign? We have answers.
As we zoom into the third leg of our crowdfunding campaign to kickstart production on Murdered on the Fourth of July, we wanted to take a moment to answer some questions that have come up over the last few weeks from both current and potential supporters and provide a more thorough reminder of what this […]