A humorous look at strange murders, murderers, and evidence
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About Bizarre Murders
For a lighter, comical take on murder cases, check out Bizarre Murders. Hosted by former FBI agent Steve Moore, this true crime show presents dramatized versions of strange murder cases and characters, through re-enactments and commentary on them. The show omits interviews with detectives, experts, or victims’ loved ones, choosing instead to present a semi-humorous version of a case, with some details changed.
Moore provides sardonic and amusing asides to the often dumb mistakes killers make and adds his expert perspective on the cases. Episodes include weird situations like vampires, cannibalism, a murderer obsessed with Dexter, and nicotine poisoning. Sometimes the murder itself isn’t bizarre, but the people involved are (e.g., Mexican wrestlers), or the evidence is weird (hot dog bun, anyone?). Episodes are on the shorter side, approximately 22 minutes, great for brief bites when you’re jonesin’ for some true crime.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 1 (2018)
Where to stream: True Crime Network, Tubi, The Roku Channel
Valentine’s Day turns deadly in these murder cases I don’t know about you, but my favorite kind of true crime show is the Dateline-esque “the spouse did it” type. And there are plenty of those cases happening on Valentine’s Day, when love turns to murder and romance turns to tragedy. But other murder cases occurred … Continue reading “Forget the Rom-Com: Watch These 30 Valentine’s Day True Crime Show Episodes”
Valentine’s Day turns deadly in these murder cases
I don’t know about you, but my favorite kind of true crime show is the Dateline-esque “the spouse did it” type. And there are plenty of those cases happening on Valentine’s Day, when love turns to murder and romance turns to tragedy. But other murder cases occurred on the day for lovers, including cases of missing persons.
Forget the rom-coms, check out this list of Valentine’s murders instead, murders related to relationships gone bad, missing children, a case involving Oscar Pistorius, and others on Valentine’s Day, even a case of a killer prostitute from 1930s Texas.
Baptist missionaries Nathan and Denise Leuthold live a seemingly happy and devoutly religious life in Peoria, Illinois. On Valentine’s Day 2013, after Nathan reports a possible home invasion, police find her dead from a gunshot wound to the head, in what looks like a botched robbery. They learn that Nathan was having an affair with a Lithuanian exchange student, Aina Dobilaite, which they both deny, but Denise’s notes in her day planner, and text messages between Nathan and Aina, suggest otherwise. Subsequent investigation continues to point to Nathan as the prime suspect.
Keith Morrison tells the story of Richard and Stacey Schoeck, who make a date to rendezvous at a secluded park on Valentine’s Day 2010 in Lula, Georgia. But when she arrives, she finds him dead from five gunshots. Police learn that Stacey is having an affair and question her boyfriend, who has an alibi. They use cell phone and financial records, along with tire marks, to uncover a murder-for-hire plot planned to look like a robbery, involving co-worker Lynitra Ross and personal trainer Reginald Coleman. One particularly chilling piece of evidence: Ross had sent Stacey a text wishing her a “Happy Valentine’s Day,” as if to let her know the deed was done. Although Stacey claims at one point that Richard molested one of their children—with no evidence—life insurance seems the likelier motive.
On the Case with Paula Zahn: “Dance to Doom” (Season 24, Episode 8)
Dateline NBC: “After the Dance” (Season 30, Episode 14)
Ft. Worth, Texas. February 16, 1974. 17-year-old Carla Walker hasn’t returned home from a Valentine’s Day dance with her boyfriend Rodney, who finally arrives at her parents’ house covered in blood, saying that a man pistol-whipped him and abducted Carla when they were parked at a bowling alley after the dance. At the scene, police discover her purse and a gun magazine. They locate her body four days later in a culvert, strangled and raped. They search for the owner of the gun without success, but another abduction occurs, one in which the girl escaped, and Rodney identifies the suspect as Carla’s killer. But he has an alibi and is not charged with Carla’s murder. The case goes cold until 2018, when a new detective collects DNA from Carla’s dress and bra and uses the burgeoning field of genetic genealogy to match it to Glen McCurley, who confesses to police. However, he pleads not guilty, but in a courtroom twist, changes his plea to guilty after his confession is played during the trial.
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Primal Instinct: “Murder on Camera” (Season 1, Episode 5)
Deadline Crime with Tamron Hall: “If I Can’t Have You” (Season 4, Episode 4)
In Plainville, Connecticut, a case of jealousy leads to a chilling 911 call and a Valentine’s Day murder. Tiana Notice has been leading a seemingly uneventful life until her boyfriend of only a few months, James Carter, confesses that he was sentenced to five months for domestic abuse charges against an ex-girlfriend. She decides to date other men while he’s in jail, and upon his release, she ends their relationship. Unable to let go, he begins to stalk her, and she receives threatening emails from his new girlfriend, Jessica. Tiana goes to court to get a restraining order against both of them and discovers that Jessica doesn’t actually exist. Frightened, Tiana’s father sets up a surveillance system in and outside her apartment. On Valentine’s Day 2009, James sends an apology email to Tiana, who finds him waiting at her apartment. He pulls out a knife, stabbing her, and despite her injuries, she is able to call 911 saying that she’s bleeding to death, but the ambulance is too late. The surveillance system captures the murder on audio.
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Dateline NBC: “The Rise and Fall of Oscar Pistorius” (Season 28, Episode 45)
Model and paralegal Reeva Steenkamp is dating South African Paralympic and Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, when he murders her on Valentine’s Day in 2013. He shoots her four times through the bathroom door at his house in Pretoria, insisting that he thought she was an intruder and feared for his life. But his neighbors report hearing yelling that night, and further investigation reveals that Pistorious had been abusive and controlling towards Reeva. What was his real motive?
Secrets of the Morgue: “My Bloody Valentine” (Season 1, Episode 9)
Snapped: “Kimberly Hricko” (Season 1, Episode 5)
Forensic Files: “Whodunit” (Season 6, Episode 12)
Sins & Secrets: “Happy Valentine’s Day” (Season 4, Episode 2)
Deadly Women: “Behind the Mask” (Season 3, Episode 4)
Valentine’s weekend 1998, and Stephen and Kim Hricko plan a romantic getaway at a beach resort in Maryland. They attend a murder mystery play, and upon returning to their room, argue, so Kim leaves. When she comes back from taking a walk, she finds their room on fire, and firefighters discover Stephen dead. Kim insists that Stephen must have been drinking and passed out, accidentally setting the bed on fire with a cigar. As police investigate, they determine that Kim is less than the innocent wife she appears to be, and life insurance proves to be a strong motive.
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In Linton, Indiana, Valentine’s Day turns deadly when Connie Tomich finds her husband Ron murdered in their home. He had been shot, but evidence of a robbery is lacking. As detectives question those in his inner circle, they learn from Connie that he had received threatening calls from people he had laid off at work, but his supervisor counters that claim, saying there were no issues with his co-workers. Police discover that Connie was having an affair with Ron’s friend while he was working out of town. But Connie has an alibi: she was shopping with her daughter, Alyssa, and daughter’s friend, Melissa. Alyssa says she heard gunshots when they got home, after Connie and Melissa went into the house. A twisted plot unravels, leading to the killer, or killers.
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People Magazine Investigates: “The Delphi Killer” (Season 5, Episode 4)
Down the Hill: The Delphi Murders
In Delphi, Indiana, Liberty German and Abigail Williams decide to visit Delphi Historic Trails on February 13, 2017. When Liberty’s dad arrives to pick them up, they’re nowhere to be found. Police, family, and friends scour the trails for them and come across their bodies on Valentine’s Day. Audio from one of their cell phones reveals a chilling recording of a man saying “down the hill,” and police release the recording to the public to see if anyone recognizes it, or the sketches of the suspect. The case is unsolved to this day.
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Stream Down the Hill: The Delphi Murders on Discovery, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video
True Crime with Aphrodite Jones: “Loved to Death” (Season 3, Episode 6)
Dateline NBC: “Valentine’s Day Mystery” (Season 18, Episode 24)
American Monster: “The Last Valentine” (Season 3, Episode 7)
Susan Hamilton and her husband John, an OB-GYN, live in a ritzy suburb of Oklahoma City. On Valentine’s Day 2001, he stops by the house between surgeries to find Susan dead in the bathroom, naked, bludgeoned, and strangled. John seems over-emotional during the police interview, and detectives figure out that the neckties used to strangle Susan came from his closet. They also discover her blood in his car and on the inside cuff of his shirt, as well as her jewelry hidden in a drawer, as if to stage a burglary. During the search of his car, they come across a Valentine’s Day card from Susan implying that there was a problem in their marriage, and after further questioning of her friends, determine that she had decided to divorce John because she thought he was having an affair with a stripper. Furthermore, his alibi doesn’t check out.
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Stream American Monster on Discovery+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video
On the Case with Paula Zahn: “Ring of Truth” (Season 8, Episode 14)
On February 16, 2009, a body is found on the side of the road in the San Bernardino Mountains. It is identified as Cori Desmond, whose Jeep is located 80 miles away in Redondo Beach, where she lived. She had left work in the evening on Valentine’s Day and was seen at a bar arguing with a man. A woman comes forward, informing police that her boyfriend, Tony Perez, never came home on Valentine’s Day and had been acting suspicious. Was he the killer? Or someone else she ran into that night?
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February 13, 2001. Pat Viola isn’t at home in Bogota, New Jersey, when her husband Jim returns from work with Valentine’s Day gifts. An alarm had gone off that morning while she was at work, but nothing is disturbed when she comes home at noon. Jim comes across her purse, phone, and epilepsy medications still in the house. Detectives learn that she had told a friend that she was upset about something, something a mystery to everyone, and needed to talk. Was it suicide? A seizure? The case goes cold, but her body is eventually found.
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The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas: “Killer Valentine” (Season 2, Episode 9)
Valentine’s Day weekend 2009 in Washington, DC, and Pam Butler is missing. When her family checks her home, they encounter an eerie scene in the bedroom with the sheets removed from the bed and a window unlocked. Her purse is also there. Police watch the video from her surveillance system and see her enter the house with her boyfriend Jose Rodriguez-Cruz on February 12, who leaves the next morning. He returns that evening with flowers, and the video catches him outside several more times. During questioning, he admits that they argued about his ex-girlfriend and then broke up. Cameras capture him carrying things out of the house over the next three days. A previous relationship in his life also involved a missing woman, deepening the detectives’ suspicions.
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See No Evil: “The Man in the Red Jacket” (Season 5, Episode 16)
Valentine’s Day 2015 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. James Enright and his friend Victoria plan an anti-Valentine’s Day night. Things get slippery at the train station later that night when concerned citizen Victoria records a fight involving two men (one in a red jacket) and some others. When the man in the red jacket sees her recording him, he attacks her, punching her through the open car window. James, aiming to defend her, exits the car and is stabbed once in the chest, off-camera, but Victoria’s phone records the audio from the entire attack. The man in the red jacket, Taitusi Vikilani, turns himself in to the police, says he was drunk and can only remember punching Victoria, but not stabbing James. His friend, Jesse Sellam, who was at the station that night, had left town and someone else points the finger at Jesse for the stabbing. Who was the real killer?
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Crime Stories: “The Missing Mom” (Season 7, Episode 3)
Betrayed: “Beware the Au Pair” (Season 3, Episode 8)
Valentine’s Day 2007 in Washington Township, Michigan, should have been a romantic day for married couple Tara Lynn and Stephen Grant. Instead, he reports that Tara Lynn had been missing for five days after she left with someone in a black car. Detectives question her boss and nanny, but Stephen refuses to speak to the police and makes friends with the press instead, claiming that maybe Tara was having an affair. When a random stranger comes across a plastic bag with latex gloves and blood in it near their home, the police comb through their garage and discover a suspicious plastic bin containing a dismembered torso. They hunt for evidence in a nearby park and find other body parts, all belonging to Tara. The autopsy reveals the cause of death as strangulation, and Stephen confesses that he choked her in a rage after they argued on February 9, possibly over her work schedule or his affair with the nanny.
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Stream Betrayed on Discovery+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video
Deadly Women: “Bad to the Bone” (Season 10, Episode 3)
1933. Toni Jo Henry, a prostitute and heroin addict in Shreveport, Louisiana, moves to Austin, Texas, and becomes a waitress. She meets former boxer Claude “Cowboy” Henry in 1939, who helps her quit her heroin habit. They marry, but her former life confronts her when a previous customer sees her at a bar and asks if she’s still turning tricks. Claude beats him to death and goes to prison, and she conspires with his friend, Arkie Burks, to rob a bank in order to get money for a new lawyer to help Claude. On Valentine’s Day 1940, they rob and murder Joseph Calloway, whose car they planned to use as a getaway car. Both are sentenced to death.
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No One Can Hear You Scream: “Big Sky Mystery” (Season 1, Episode 3)
In Poplar, Montana, in 2013, a state trooper comes across a strange scene on the side of the highway: an abandoned car, with the keys and two guinea pigs locked inside. The car belongs to Nicole Waller, who had gone to visit her boyfriend Cory Johnston in Fairview. Texts to friends say that she was returning home on Valentine’s Day because they couldn’t work out their problems. Cory contends that he hadn’t gone home the night of February 13 because they argued about him dating her friend Amy, and that Nicole was gone when he returned the next day. Surveillance video on Valentine’s Day shows a truck following Nicole’s car, a truck that the police learn belonged to Cody’s friend Bill, who had given Cody a ride that morning after he left a car on the side of the road. Unbeknownst to Bill, the car turned out to be Nicole’s. He also tells detectives that Cody had asked him for a barrel, the reason also unknown. They arrest Cody, even though Nicole’s body has never been found.
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Scorned: Love Kills: “A Fatal Affair” (Season 1, Episode 11)
Gwinnett County, Georgia, in 2010. A happy Valentine’s Day turns tragic. Shelley Dunn spends the day with her new boyfriend Travis, after leaving her jealous and abusive husband Chad. Chad gets a pocket dial from Shelley and hears a man’s voice in the background, enraging him. She goes to pick up the kids from him, and they argue about Travis. Chad stabs her three times in the back and stabs himself in the chest, all in front of their kids. She dies, but he lives, and is found guilty of murder.
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On the Case with Paula Zahn: “A Heartbreaking Discovery” (Season 20, Episode 15)
Boulder, Colorado. Valentine’s Day 2017. A missing persons case turns into a monstrous murder of a young mother. Ashley Mead is reported missing by a co-worker, and even more alarming, so is her 13-month-old baby. At her apartment, detectives find a partially cooked dinner, the door open, and her purse, glasses, ID, and cell phone left behind, but her car gone. Her ex-boyfriend Adam Densmore, who she was stilling living with, has also disappeared. They learn that Ashley’s last cell phone activity was two days earlier, coinciding with a loud noise coming from her apartment. Adam’s parents in Louisiana tell detectives that he had just been there with the baby and was on his way to Arkansas. Police question Ashley’s new boyfriend, search his home, and determine that he has a solid alibi. When they finally get in touch with Adam, he admits that he and Ashley had a fight, so he left with the baby. Detectives see scratches and a bite mark on his body, and a person at a gas station comes forward after stumbling across a suitcase with a human torso inside. The torso is identified as Ashley’s, and cameras show Adam putting the suitcase in the dumpster. They also find a saw in a shed at his parents’ house with blood and tissue on the blade.
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Video surveillance is a detective’s best friend, and a witness that doesn’t lie
About See No Evil
It’s easy to overlook the fact that we are watched almost everywhere we go, as silent surveillance cameras shadow our daily lives. Murderers forget this small fact, too, but cops are well aware.
Video surveillance is investigators’ key to catching killers in See No Evil, using this “witness that doesn’t lie.”
A sister show to Hear No Evil(which focuses on audio recordings), See No Evil features cases involving video recordings of events before, during, and after all kinds of murders, recordings from store surveillance videos, home security cameras, and other cameras. Some of the video is obvious—a killer disposing of evidence, a victim driving through the streets—while others are chilling scenes of a killer stalking their prey or getting rid of a car with a body hidden in the trunk.
The 10 seasons of this true crime show make for interesting and binge-able viewing. Episodes include narration, re-creation, police interviews, and detectives and victim’s loved ones talking about the cases. Some of the cases have been covered elsewhere, but See No Evil provides extra detail from the videos.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 13 (2014)
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Discovery+
More shows like See No Evil: Hear No Evil, The Murder Tapes, Confessions of a Serial Killer, Lies, Crimes & Video
Detectives trace the last day of a murder victim’s life
About Dateline: The Last Day
Dateline: The Last Day is a Dateline spin-off that presents murder cases through the perspective of the victim’s last day (much like The Last 24). The tone surrounding the true crime show is more serious than Dateline, but it features regular Dateline correspondents Keith Morrison, Josh Mankiewicz, and Andrea Canning, along with additional contributor Stephanie Gosk.
Each episode follows the events of the victim’s last day and the key people they interacted with during those events, described by the investigators involved, victims’ friends and families, and through police interviews.
In the first season, the show has less emphasis on intimate partner homicide than Dateline and includes murders by strangers, friends, and others. And unlike Dateline, it omits lengthy trial clips or description of the trials. Instead, the focus is squarely on the timeline of the victim.
If you can’t get enough Dateline in your life, this show is for you.
How the Secret Service used a counterfeiting investigation to the find the victims of James DeBardeleben
Suzanne Hamlin
(Note: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
The Mall Passer doesn’t sound like the name of a serial killer. And technically, it isn’t. It’s the name of a counterfeiter hunted by the Secret Service for four years, whose arrest led to the discovery of a trove of evidence and constellation of crimes not at all related to counterfeiting, and much more disturbing.
This is the story of James Mitchell “Mike” DeBardeleben and the reverse investigation that occurred as the Secret Service searched for his victims following his arrest in 1983 in Tennessee for passing and manufacturing fake $20 bills, which he used to buy small items at malls across the country, pocketing the change and thereby making a profit.
James Mitchell “Mike” DeBardeleben
The Evidence
The Secret Service was first established in 1865 to combat counterfeiting (one of the many fascinating facts that can be gleaned from the DeBardeleben case). The agency was in the midst of investigating DeBardeleben when they stumbled across, in his car and storage units in Virginia, police paraphernalia, handcuffs, photos of nude and bound women, guns, women’s underwear, newspaper clippings of other people’s crimes, notes and diaries, and audio tapes, all found while searching for the printing press he used to make the counterfeit bills.
Most disturbing were the photos, notes, and audio tapes. The tapes recorded the torture and sexual assault of several women, who investigators surmised were abducted when DeBardeleben posed as a police officer to lure them into his car.
The notes detailed his plans, goals, and tasks, including the type of women and torture he desired, details on how to abduct women, and ideas on how to be more attractive to women and control them. This evidence more than sparked the curiosity of the investigators, Secret Service Agents Greg Mertz, Dennis Foos, Mike Stephens, and Jane Vezeris, who were determined to find the unknown victims and put names to their faces and the crimes committed against them. Were these women murdered? Kidnapped? Sexually assaulted? DeBardeleben refused to talk, and the FBI declined to get involved without any names of victims.
The Investigation
The Secret Service pushed on and sent the photos of the unknown women to law enforcement agencies across the US. Some police departments contacted the Secret Service with matches to open cases regarding abduction, sexual assault, and other crimes. And there was an FBI case in Maryland, the kidnapping and rape of Laurie Jensen, which finally spurred the FBI’s involvement.
Lucy Alexander and Elizabeth Mason
The FBI was able to identify DeBardeleben in photos he appeared in with the victims, some showing parts of his body (but not his face), by matching freckles and moles on his body to the body in the photos. This was key to the prosecution, along with handwriting analysis and eyewitness testimony from women who could identify themselves in the photos and tapes.
The Prosecution
He was charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery, sodomy, armed robbery, and aggravated criminal sexual assault in Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Missouri, Virginia, and New Jersey. In the end, DeBardeleben was sentenced to 375 years for counterfeiting, kidnapping, attempted robbery, and sodomy. The victims of these crimes include Jensen, Lucy Alexander, Elizabeth Mason, Dianne Overton, Maria Santini, and David Starr.
It seems nothing was off-limits for this jack-of-all-crimes. He was also indicted for the murders of Jean McPhaul in Louisiana and Edna Terry McDonald in Rhode Island, but was never tried for these murders, as prosecutors felt that the 375-year sentence for his other crimes would keep him in prison for the rest of his life. Rightly so, as he died of pneumonia in prison in 2011. Investigators speculate that he may have committed many more crimes involving up to 200 victims, including the murder of Joe Rapini, and may have been a serial killer.
Where to Watch the Case
Hear No Evil, The New Detectives, and Cruel Deception (an FBI Files special) capture the many twists of the DeBardeleben case. Hear No Evilincludes excerpts from the audio tapes (omitting the most graphic parts), while Cruel Deception includes photos of the evidence found during the investigation, as well as some of DeBardeleben’s notes.
The New Detectiveslooks at the story from the perspective of the FBI profiler who examined the case, and incorporates some photos of evidence, but none of the audio. The case is also detailed in Stephen G. Michaud’s book Beyond Cruel: The Chilling True Story of America’s Most Sadistic Killer, previously published as Lethal Shadow: The Chilling True-Crime Story of a Sadistic Sex Slayer.
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Learn more about the case in Hear No Evil(“The Sound of Terror,” Season 1, Episode 5), The New Detectives(“Mind Hunters,” Season 2, Episode 1), and Cruel Deception.
Audio evidence is the key to solving murder cases in this chilling true crime show
About Hear No Evil
A snippet of audio is played. Graphic. Unsettling. You won’t know who the voice is—the victim or the killer—until almost the end of the episode. That’s how Hear No Evil compels you to watch and takes you on a twisty and suspenseful ride towards a big reveal.
It’s the type of true crime show that makes you think, this case could be a movie. Take “The Sound of Terror” (Season 1, Episode 5), for instance, which starts with Secret Service agents talking about a counterfeiting case and ends up in a place surprising to even the investigators.
A companion to See No Evil, Hear No Evil places audio recordings at the center of episodes, recordings of murders themselves, or events leading up to them, recordings that end up being the key to solving the case and often changing detectives’ initial impressions of the suspect. No need for narration here; the recordings and police interviews speak for themselves.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 1 (2017)
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Discovery+
More shows like Hear No Evil: See No Evil, The Murder Tapes, Confessions of a Serial Killer, Lies, Crimes & Video
Offices may be shuttered, banks may be closed, but murder doesn’t take time off for the holidays. Ring in the New Year with these true crime episodes featuring murders around New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Tales of mass murder, friends killing friends, intimate partner homicide, cold cases, and even serial killers who got their start on New Year’s Eve. There’s something for everyone in this smorgasbord of true crime!
Homicide for the Holidays: “New Year’s Evil” (Season 2, Episode 4)
Murder Comes to Town: “Lord of the Rockies” (Season 2, Episode 9)
Killer Kids: “Simon Says/For No Good Reason” (Season 3, Episode 7)
It’s New Year’s Eve 2000 in Guffey, a small town in Colorado, and Tony Dutcher spends the night at the house of his grandparents, Carl and JoAnna Dutcher. When no one hears from them a few days later, sheriffs do a welfare check and find Carl and JoAnna shot and Tony missing. They discover Tony in a fort nearby, with his throat slashed. They turn to his friends to solve the case.
Stream Homicide for the Holidays on Peacock and Hulu
Stream Killer Kids on Amazon Prime Video and The Roku Channel
Homicide for the Holidays: “Bloody New Year’s” (Season 2, Episode 8)
Two days before New Year’s Eve 2014, in Edmonton, Alberta, Cindy Luu is shot while her husband and three children are home, by a man unknown to them. Police then receive a 911 call from a woman concerned about her father, who seems suicidal. They go to his house and discover three bodies lined up in the living room and four others throughout the house. They eventually realize the link between the murders and find the killer.
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Dateline NBC: “After the Party” (Season 24, Episode 47)
It’s 2011 in West Evans, Colorado, and a New Year’s Eve party at the Fallis house just ended. Ashley and Tom Fallis are arguing. Soon after, Tom calls 911 and tells the operator that Ashley shot herself. He reveals to the police that she was upset about a recent miscarriage and had threatened to commit suicide in the past. The coroner rules the death a suicide, but the case is later reopened after new witnesses come forward, and Tom is charged with murder. Keith Morrison narrates the episode.
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The Murder Tapes: “Sergeant Hassel” (Season 8, Episode 2)
Deadly Women: “Making a Killing” (Season 14, Episode 13)
American Justice: “Sleeping with the Enemy” (Season 16, Episode 7)
Snapped: Killer Couples: “Kemia Hassel and Jeremy Cuellar” (Season 13, Episode 8)
Killer Cases: “The New Year’s Eve Murder” (Season 2, Episode 1)
New Year’s Eve 2018 in St. Joseph, Michigan. Kemia Hassel calls 911 to report that her husband, Tyrone Hassel III, had been shot outside the house. Family and friends reveal to police that Kemia was having an affair with an army colleague of Tyrone, and that she would receive hefty life insurance and death benefits if Tyrone died.
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Stream Deadly Women on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Discovery+
Stream Killer Cases on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and The Roku Channel
Wicked Attraction: “Evil in the Blood” (Season 3, Episode 3)
New Year’s Day 2006 in Richmond, Virginia, and firefighters respond to a fire at the house of the Harvey family and find all four members stabbed and bludgeoned to death. A few days later, police do a welfare check on Ashley Baskerville and discover her and her parents, Mary and Percyell Tucker, suffocated and stabbed to death. Police connect the cases through a ring found on one of the victims, and link both to an older murder.
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2013. It’s New Year’s Eve in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, and Ashley Kline is a no-show at a party. Police discover her personal items at a factory two days later, then two hikers stumble across her burned body in a wildlife preserve on January 12. She had been stabbed and beaten.
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Cold Case Files: “Weepy-Voiced Killer; The Mr. Big Sting” (Season 3, Episode 14)
Mark of a Serial Killer: “Killer Caller” (Season 2, Episode 1)
New Year’s Day 1981 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Police get a phone call from a man reporting that a woman is hurt outside an industrial building, a man with a “weepy” voice. Karen Potack, who celebrated New Year’s Eve in the Twin Cities at a bar, had been beaten, but is still alive. After another phone call and a murder in June, police release the calls to the media, hoping someone can identify the Weepy-Voiced Killer. An additional body and call 14 months later, and witnesses at a bar come forward to identify the person seen with the victim. Yet another victim is found, and police receive a call in which the killer claims that he’s hurt. They find and arrest him, and he eventually confesses.
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Kurt Johnson lives a seemingly peaceful life in Cooperstown, North Dakota, and disappears after going to a bar on New Year’s Eve in 2010. Police question the person he left with and find Johnson’s decapitated head in his basement.
Stream Heartland Homicide on the True Crime Network
Cold Case Files: “The Clock Strikes Murder” (Season 7, Episode 16)
Pensacola, Florida. New Year’s Day 1985. Tonya McKinley is found strangled and sexually assaulted. The case goes cold, and it takes 35 years for police to solve it, using genetic genealogy matching the DNA from a discarded cigarette butt to the killer.
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Detectives solve cold cases through forensics and other techniques
Cold Case Files
About Cold Case Files
Cold Case Files comes in two flavors: the classic series narrated by Bill Kurtis (sometimes called Cold Case Files Classic) and the re-boot narrated by Danny Glover and later Kurtis. Kurtis’ mellifluous voice will make you sleepy, but the cases are too absorbing and the writing too deftly crafted to nap through.
From serial killers to serial rapists, episodes feature one to two stories each and focus on investigative techniques used to crack cold cases, particularly DNA and other forensics, including forensic anthropology, entomology, and even botany. Forensic specialists appear on the show and sometimes demonstrate the steps of the methods they used to help unravel a cold case, such as DNA testing, fingerprint identification, or sculptural reconstruction of the face, providing a fascinating look inside the field.
This true crime show doesn’t dwell on the victim’s background or suspect’s trial and instead leads viewers through the strategies used to solve long-unsolved cases. The newer version of Cold Case Files has more re-creations and less narration, allowing those involved to tell their stories in their own words. Convicted offenders sometimes offer their accounts of the crimes, and sometimes even fess up to them.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 9 (1999-2012, 2017-)
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, and Discovery+
Small towns learn that they aren’t immune to murder
About Murder In The Heartland
A sleepy small town is awakened by a shocking murder. So is the premise of Murder in the Heartland.
Similar to Heartland Homicide and Murder Comes to Town, this true crime show focuses on homicides occurring in quiet, languid small towns across the US, rural areas not just in the “heartland” of the country. From Idaho to Indiana, the show travels to small towns to interview families and detectives in their surroundings, showing them going about their daily lives, feeding pets or making dinner, as they tell the stories of the murders (with motives ranging from robbery to jealousy) that changed them forever. It’s a slice of life that illustrates the ordinariness of their lives in juxtaposition with shocking murders that jarred them from a normal existence supposedly safe from murder.
Murder in the Heartland combines interviews with detectives and victims’ families and friends, photos of ordinary family life, re-creations, and police interviews, and omits any narration, letting those involved tell the stories themselves. Detectives sometimes walk the audience through the crime scene, adding another realistic element to the story.
The Show Elements
Seasons: 6 (2017-)
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Hulu, and Discovery+
A certain dance occurs when two people plot a murder together, and Killer Siblings delves into these types of homicide cases. It focuses on those involving siblings (and sometimes additional perpetrators) who murder strangers, acquaintances, and even members of their own families.
Some of the stories are about minors, making the cases even more disturbing, and the show provides insight into what can happen when two people feed off of each other, with tragic consequences.
Detectives and others involved in the cases share their investigation stories, victims’ loved ones detail their experiences, and police interviews and trial clips complete the stories, along with information on the family and criminal background of the siblings.
Even though it follows the formula of most true crime series, the show’s focus on killer siblings is the most unsettling aspect, that two or more people from the same family could have a predisposition for murder. It leaves viewers wondering, maybe nature is at work here.
True Crime Docket 