Author: Suzanne Hamlin

Show: Interrogation Raw

Police interviews take center stage

Interrogation Raw
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About Interrogation Raw

Ever wonder how detectives get a suspect to confess to a crime? Interrogation Raw answers that question. Instead of centering on the investigations, the victim, or who the various suspects are in a homicide case, the show focuses on police interviews, including how detectives read body language, use specific interrogation techniques, and try to get suspects to confess.

In each episode, detectives who investigated the cases describe their interviews while analyzing interrogation video. Episodes do not include the full interviews of suspects or witnesses, just the relevant pieces of each interrogation, to demonstrate the path to the confession. Most of the interviews are non-confrontational, showcasing techniques outside of the typical Reid technique.

Because the show emphasizes interviews, it includes cases that were solved quickly, which allows for many cases not presented on other shows.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 4 (2022-)

Where to stream: Tubi, Hulu, The Roku Channel

More shows like Interrogation Raw: The Interrogation Room, The Interrogator, The Murder Tapes

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✘ Narration
✘ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Documentary: Finding Andrea

The missing persons case of Andrea Knabel

The first thing you need to know about Finding Andrea is that the case remains unsolved. If you’re the type (like me) who hates unsolved cases, don’t watch this documentary. But if you’re the type who enjoys following the path of these kinds of cases, read on.

Finding Andrea is a four-part documentary that investigates the missing persons case of Andrea Knabel. Andrea disappeared in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2019, and was, ironically, involved in an organization called Missing in America, for which she helped find missing people around the country.

Andrea went missing after a fight with her sister at her mother’s home, where they had both been staying. The documentary follows the search for her by family members, women who worked with her in Missing in America, her father, and a retired homicide detective, offering various theories about her disappearance. Did she go missing because of undercover work she was doing for a private investigator? Were her family members, particularly her sister and brother-in-law, involved? Was the disappearance due to her associations with drug dealers, or are her friends suspects?

None of these theories has been proven, and the case is still open, so detectives involved in the official investigation do not appear in episodes. Instead, the women she worked with, her family members, and a retired homicide detective who took up the case offer their insights.

Throughout the documentary, it feels as if the producers tried to create tension and suspicion where there really isn’t any, in order to drag out the story into four episodes. Therefore, it’s a very slow slog through the evidence, and could have been just one episode, particularly because there is no resolution and no information about the actual police investigation. Because of its slow pace and veiled attempts to create suspicion and red herrings, it fails to be engaging enough to recommend. Pass.

Show: Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence

Detectives use digital technology to solve murders

Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence
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About Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence

As technology evolves, so does evidence in murder cases, and detectives are taking advantage of text messages, GPS, app information, phone tracking, and other digital technology to find and convict killers. This type of evidence takes center stage in the cases in Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence.

The show focuses on how technology has changed the way investigators solve murders, particularly their use of technology to track suspects. Detectives in various murder cases share how they applied technology in creative and unusual ways to solve cases, illustrating how, ultimately, a digital footprint is often better than a real one.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 1 (2023-)

Where to stream: Tubi, Hulu, The Roku Channel

More shows like Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence: Caught in the Net, Web of Death

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✘ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: The Murder Tapes

Video footage helps solve murders

The Murder Tapes
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About The Murder Tapes

Few people realize just how much they are on camera throughout the day. At the grocery store, on the street, walking by a neighbor’s house. And the increasing use of surveillance and video cameras is helping detectives solve murders.

The Murder Tapes utilizes 911 calls, police body cams, police interviews, and surveillance camera footage to trace homicide investigations. Episodes focus on surveillance and video evidence, and the show provides insight into how investigators do their jobs, deal with witnesses and suspects, and collect this evidence to solve homicides.

The Murder Tapes has even more video evidence than See No Evil, so if you’re a fan of that show, check this one out.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 10 (2019-)

Where to stream: HBO Max, Hulu, Discovery+

More shows like The Murder Tapes: See No Evil, Lies, Crimes & Video, Body Cam

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Fatal Family Feuds

Family feuds that end in murder

Fatal Family Feuds
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About Fatal Family Feuds

When you think of family feuds, the Hatfields and McCoys might come to mind, two feuding families that fought over decades. Fatal Family Feuds has a few cases between different families, but it mostly details murder cases involving members of the same family. And they’re not so much feuds as disagreements and issues involving child custody, inheritance, life insurance, or divorce.

Sometimes the cases consist of intimate partner homicide, or murders of one spouse by their in-laws, or sometimes adult children kill a parent out of bitterness or for money.

In each episode, family members provide their perspective on the cases, and detectives chime in on the investigations. Fatal Family Feuds has a lot of overlap with Blood Relatives, Evil Kin, and Dateline, but some cases are newly covered.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 2 (2023-)

Where to stream: Peacock, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Fatal Family Feuds: Blood Relatives, Evil Kin, Feuds Turned Fatal

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Cold Case Files: Dead West

Cold Cases in the American West

Cold Case Files: Dead West
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About Cold Case Files: Dead West

Cold Case Files: Dead West puts a spin on the Cold Case Files series with a focus on murders in the American West. From Montana to Texas, the show looks at murders in specific locations in the West that were long-unsolved and traces how detectives and cold case units solved them after many years, and sometimes, decades.

Unlike other Cold Case Files shows, the narrator isn’t Bill Kurtis. Instead, this show adds a little western atmosphere with a narrator who sounds like a weathered old cowboy. It’s a regional series similar to Southern Fried Homicide and Sins of the South, but focusing on cold cases.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 1 (2025-)

Where to stream: Hulu

More shows like Cold Case Files: Dead West: Southern Fried Homicide, Sins of the South, Murder in the Wicked West, Homicide City: Charlotte, Homicide Squad: Atlanta, Murder Nation: Blood on the Bayou, The Real Murders of Atlanta, Serial Killer Capital: Baton Rouge, Southern Gothic

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✘ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Murder Under the Friday Night Lights

Football is the setting for murder

Murder Under the Friday Night Lights
Photo by Jean-Daniel Francoeur on Pexels.com

About Murder Under the Friday Night Lights

Football is a violent sport, no doubt, but who knew there were so many murders associated with it? Murder Under the Friday Night Lights presents cases of cheerleaders, football players, coaches, and even marching band members involved in murders and attempted murders, either as victims or perpetrators.

These murders occurred in various areas of the US—many in small towns, where football is a major part of life—and some even involved NFL players.

Re-creations are minimal, and there is no narration, so detectives, journalists, and victims’ friends and family are the main voices for the story.

Even if you’re not a football fan, you’ll likely find most of the cases in the series engaging.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 4 (2022-)

Where to stream: HBO Max, Hulu, Discovery+

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✘ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Death by Fame

Fame leads to murder

Death by Fame
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About Death by Fame

Fame has its perks and its downsides, but no one expects murder to be part of celebrity. Death by Fame features stories of murders about famous, almost famous, and aspiring actors, musicians, models, fashion designers, reality TV stars, and filmmakers, either as victims or suspects.

Included in episodes are the stories of detectives who investigated the cases, family and friends of victims, and police interviews of suspects.

Some of the cases involve people as famous as Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, and others only aspire to fame, but all had their lives and career paths changed by murder. The show might make any wannabe celebrity think twice.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 3 (2023-)

Where to stream: HBO Max, Hulu, Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Death by Fame: Hollywood & Crime, Murders of Hollywood, Hollywood Demons

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✘ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Murder by Medic

Murders by medical professionals

Murder by Medic
Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

About Murder by Medic

They’re supposed to save lives, but sometimes, they take lives. Murder by Medic details murders by healthcare professionals in the US, UK, Australia, and Germany, including doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and paramedics, who killed patients, spouses, or others, many in healthcare or elder care settings.

Few episodes include victims’ loved ones and their stories. Instead, experts like criminologists, psychologists, retired detectives, and doctors such as Bryanna Fox, Joni Johnston, Donna Youngs, Sarah Jarvis, and Rod Demery are joined by investigators to describe the murders.

The show has a lot of overlap with Nurses Who Kill, but also includes high-profile cases like Jack Kevorkian, Christopher Duntsch, and Yolanda Saldivar.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 4 (2024-)

Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Tubi, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Murder by Medic: Nurses Who Kill, Deadly Dentists

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✘ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✓ Experts
✘ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Documentary: An Update on Our Family

The fall of the Stauffer family and its popular YouTube channel

The perfect family is not always what it seems, and An Update on Our Family documents the crumbling facade of one such family: the Stauffers. The Stauffers attempted to sell its perfection through a YouTube channel that presented their idyllic family life. The channel became increasingly popular with pregnancy announcements, and ultimately, the adoption of a boy from China with special needs.

But as with all perfect families, the facade fell apart, a deterioration that began when the adoption did not go the way the Stauffers intended and did not fit into the glossy presentation of their family.

This three-part HBO docuseries reveals the monetization behind these types of channels, what happens when fans become overly invested in a family, and particularly, what happened when the Stauffer family made a tough decision about their adopted child, and the backlash that occurred. It includes interviews with other family channel parents, journalists, adoption experts, and a YouTube expert, but not the Stauffers themselves.

Anyone who has watched a family channel, read a mommy blog, or is interested in the dark side of this type of content should check out An Update on Our Family.