Dateline: The Smoking Gun takes old Dateline episodes and repackages them into a new show, hosted by Andrea Canning. This “new” series is based on the idea of a smoking gun, or one piece of evidence that leads detectives to the killer, such as an audio recording, video evidence, or a movie script.
If you like Dateline and haven’t seen all of the episodes, check it out. But you won’t get any new content in this series, disappointing for avid Dateline fans.
A stellar true crime show doesn’t just have compelling cases, it has attention-getting writing and a narrator with a voice and rhythm that can deliver that writing with panache. Most shows offer run-of-the mill narrators who possess a strong voice but don’t leave their mark on the genre. If the case is interesting enough, they’ll suffice, but sometimes you want to sink into the voice of a narrator who envelops you into the world of a case. If you’re the type who likes to listen to your true crime rather than watch, check out how these seven experts spin their tales.
1. Keith Morrison, Dateline
Keith Morrison isn’t just a narrator or interviewer, he’s a storyteller. He delivers the lines of a Datelineepisode like your favorite uncle telling a scary bedtime story (check out his tellings of “The Night Before Christmas” and other Christmas classics). His episode intros set the stage for murder cases that might not be that interesting by themselves, but he makes them so, very, interesting. He hits the words with just the right tone, inflecting his trademark creepiness just enough to compel you to listen.
Actors Paul Winfield and Keith David match the amazing writing of the original City Confidential with their fluid storytelling and strong voiceovers. Winfield’s voice sounds like a semi-distant relative of Morgan Freeman, and David’s sounds like a friend sharing an easy conversation over coffee. Before describing specific murder cases, each episode features an initial segment laying out the history of the city or town where they occurred, and Winfield and David make even the most podunk of towns intriguing.
Not afraid to include lightness and humor when appropriate, the classic series required voiceover actors who could step up to the plate and deliver the lines with precision. Winfield and David met that challenge. The show’s revival in 2021 brought on actor Mike Colter, who has a great voice but lacks the personality of Winfield and David, and the episodes fail to live up to the intriguing writing of the 1998-2005 episodes.
Paul Winfield narrating City Confidential
Keith David narrating City Confidential
4. Bill Kurtis, Cold Case Files and American Justice
Before retiring, Bill Kurtis had a long career as a journalist and news anchor, but his narration of true crime shows and documentaries doesn’t sound like a typical news reporter. Kurtis has a smooth, rich voice that keeps you listening while lulling you into stories revolving around cold cases and the criminal justice system. Kurtis’ voice alone is worth watching any show or documentary he narrates, but coupled with the amazing writing, it makes Cold Case Filesand American Justicemust-watch shows. Kurtis also narrates the series Cold Case Files: DNA Speaks.
Cold Case Files
American Justice
5. Stacy Keach, American Greed
Veteran actor Stacy Keach, known for the show Mike Hammer and many other television and film roles, brings his voice to another top-shelf show: American Greed. Keach relates stories of corruption, greed, and corporate and financial crimes like that grandfather who tells stories around the fireplace on a cold winter night. You’ll want to pull up a blanket and pillow and sink into the episodes.
American Greed
6. Christine Estabrook, Deadly Wives
Actress Christine Estabrook is another narrator who delivers the smart writing of a true crime show with just the right punch. Deadly Wives is a clever show that sometimes injects humorous asides about women who kill their spouses, and Estabrook knows just how to convey them. Wives kill their spouses, Estabrook narrates the cases, and her voice adds a hint of sarcasm—you can almost hear her rolling her eyes at the women’s mistakes and lies. It’s a shame the run of the show was so short.
Deadly Wives
7. Joe Alaskey, Murder Comes to Town
Murder Comes to Town, which focuses on murders in small towns, has two narrators who vary in style (Joe Alaskey and Anthony Call), but Alaskey wins the race for the creepier narration. He sounds like the voice-child of Paul Winfield and Vincent Price and delivers words like “murder” and “bloody corpse” with an electricity that sends a chill across the screen and up your spine. When Alaskey died in 2016, actor Anthony Call took over the narration, without the same creepy flair as Alaskey.
Can’t get enough of Keith Morrison? Here are 10 more of his best episodes from Dateline, complete with twisty stories, creepy voiceovers, and suspect pushback.
(Note: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
1. “The Last Ride” (Season 31, Episode 1)
Professional cyclist Moriah Wilson is found murdered in her apartment in Austin, Texas, in 2022, dead from two gunshot wounds. Was it her colleague and romantic interest, fellow cyclist Colin Strickland? Or someone else? As the police investigate, they discover video surveillance of a vehicle arriving at the apartment just before the murder. It’s a twisty episode full of jealousy, stalking, and murder, even a suspect on the lam, who flees to Costa Rica to start a new life under an assumed name but is caught 43 days later.
2. “The Real Thing About Pam” (Season 30, Episode 22)
In 2011, Betsy Faria is found stabbed to death in her home in Missouri. Police find bloodstained slippers in her husband, Russell’s, closet, and a document by Betsy expressing her concern that he might kill her. Betsy’s friend tells the police that he had threatened to kill Betsy. But he had an alibi, and he wasn’t the recipient of the life insurance money. The killer is also suspected in two other murders. If you can’t get enough of the case, check out Keith Morrison’s podcast on it and NBC’s limited series, The Thing About Pam.
3. “The Ascension of Mother God” (Season 30, Episode 4)
The mummified body of spiritual leader Amy Carlson, who called herself “Mother God,” is found in the house of some of the members of her cult, Love Has Won, in rural Colorado. The body was wrapped in Christmas lights and covered with a sleeping bag. Was it murder or did she die another way? The episode is full of conspiracies, cult beliefs, and other weirdnesses perfect for Keith to report on.
4. “Buried Secrets” (Season 20, Episode 58)
David Jackson disappears in 1988 in Florida, just before he is supposed to meet someone at a motel. Three months later, his car is discovered at the airport, but police have no other leads. The case goes cold until 14 years later, when a new detective links a skeleton in a box to his disappearance. The bones were recovered during the construction of a new Walmart in Florida years earlier. Further investigation leads to a confession, but were all the killers caught? Is everyone telling the truth? Keith interviews one of the suspects and pushes for answers.
5. “Tangled” (Season 24, Episode 38)
In Walsenburg, Colorado, Ralph Candelario is found in front of his house, injured and calling for help. His wife, Pam, is found murdered inside. Both had been beaten by burglars in the middle of the night. When investigators look at the closest people in Pam’s circle, they discover another murder by their main suspect. A letter to the town newspaper, written by the suspect, raises the suspicions of police and leads to answers.
6. “Secrets in a Small Town” (Season 20, Episode 17)
In Alabama, Theresa Mayfield is found shot dead in her car on a dirt road. She had gone there to help a friend whose car had broken down, but the police only discover her body in her car, with the window rolled down. With no other clues, the case goes cold until a witness comes forward, claiming that he had been on the same road that day and someone had given him a gun in a plastic bag. The gun was the murder weapon.
7. “The Family Secret” (Season 18, Episode 26)
When Lloyd Ford leaves his wife and family in Ainsworth, Nebraska, his children assume he’ll come back. Years pass, and he never returns, so his wife files for divorce. But one of his daughters knows what really happened, that he’s been dead for years, and it takes her 25 years to tell anyone. Keith interviews the daughter, and the story she reveals is both shocking and heartbreaking.
8. “In the Dead of Night” (Season 19, Episode 3)
At a farm in rural Nebraska, Wayne and Sharmon Stock are found shot dead on Easter Sunday in 2006. Police immediately look to their closest circle and become suspicious of their nephew Matthew, who was supposedly angry at them over money. He fails a polygraph and upon questioning, confesses, saying that he and his cousin Nick murdered the couple. But an engraved ring found at the murder scene is unexplained. When police investigate, they begin to question Matthew’s confession. If you’ve ever been skeptical about police interrogations, polygraphs, and the Reed technique, check this episode out.
9. “The Disappearance of Debbie Hawk” (Season 18, Episode 55)
In Hanford, California, Debbie Hawk’s children come home to find her missing and blood leading from the bedroom to the garage. Papers are scattered everywhere. To the police, the crime scene looks staged. They find her car abandoned with keys in the ignition. Debbie’s ex-husband has an alibi—he was at home with the kids all night. But suspicions build, and they divide the family. Keith’s pushback against the main suspect, who he interviews, is classic.
10. “Miles from Nowhere” (Season 22, Episode 5)
At a remote cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Chad Wallin-Reed and his family feel threatened by vandals who stole a light from their property, concerned due to recent break-ins at their cabin. When the vandals return the following night, Chad fires a warning shot at their car then follows in his own car. When he catches up to them, someone fires a gun at him, so he continues to follow them and fires back. The car stops, and he approaches, finding the driver wounded, possibly dead. In fact, he had shot not just the driver but six men. Chad tells the police that they had shot at him and that it was all in self-defense. But that’s only one side of the story, and when police investigate, the truth surfaces.
Grab your favorite Halloween candy, and turn the lights off for these spooky murder cases. Many of the murders occurred on Halloween, at parties, at bars, or when trick-or-treaters ate poisoned candy, and some involve dark nights filled with vampires, paganism, and other elements scary enough to keep you away from Halloween celebrations and trick-or-treaters. From Homicide for the Holidays to Bizarre Murders, these episodes offer something spooky for every true crime junkie.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Halloween Horror” (Season 4, Episode 5)
On Halloween morning 2010, in Oak Harbor, Ohio, Laurie Morse is having trouble getting in contact with Derek Griffin, her nephew, and her sister Sue Liske. When Laurie calls her other nephew, Devon, who is at home, he checks his parents’ bedroom and finds blood. Sue and her husband Bill Liske are dead in the bed. They had been shot multiple times. Upon further investigation of the house, police find Derek dead in his bedroom from blunt force trauma. There is no evidence of forced entry or burglary. Neighbors had heard a banging noise that morning. Police consider whether the murders were part of a cult activity because they occurred on Halloween. When police question Devon, they discover that his stepbrother BJ Liske was at home that morning but was gone by the time Devon returned from church. Further investigation reveals troubling family dynamics and that the killer is close to home.
Homicide for the Holidays: “All Hallow’s Evil” (Season 4, Episode 5)
It’s Halloween 2012 in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and Rebekah Gay doesn’t show up for work. Her manager checks her home, but she’s missing and her purse is there. He then finds her car at a bar near her home, but no one had seen her there, and the driver’s seat had been pushed back. Police talk to John White, Rebekah’s mother’s boyfriend, who went to her home to babysit Rebekah’s son on Halloween morning. He says that he talked to Rebekah from another room until she left for work but never actually saw her. Police find blood in the back of his truck, as well as a necklace. They also discover that he had been convicted of attempted murder and involuntary manslaughter in the past.
Dateline NBC: “Under a Halloween Moon” (Season 22, Episode 6)
In this episode, Josh Mankiewicz details the murder of Joel Lovelien, which occurred outside a bar he went to with his fiancée for a Halloween party in 2007 in North Dakota. Lovelien was beaten to death in the parking lot, and police search for the killer among the large group of people in costume. This one has a surprise ending.
Dateline NBC: “The Halloween Party” (Season 26, Episode 5)
Keith Morrison lends his spooky narration to the story of Chelsea Bruck, who attends a Halloween party as Poison Ivy at a rural property in Michigan in 2014. She disappears that night, and police find her body several months later. She had been sexually assaulted and died from blunt force trauma.
Dateline NBC: “The Night Before Halloween” (Season 19, Episode 53)
It’s Halloween morning 1984, and Robin Hoynes is found dead at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Torrance, California, where she worked as assistant manager. Police find evidence of tampering on the restaurant safe and surmise that Robin had been stabbed in an attempted robbery, yet there were no signs of forced entry. They also discover a few drops of blood on the safe and some foam rubber on the floor. They question William Marshall, a former assistant manager who had been recently fired, but his girlfriend provides him an alibi. Police find a boning knife in his backpack and arrest him, but the district attorney says there isn’t enough evidence to prosecute him, and he is released. With no other evidence, the case goes cold until 2003, when detectives re-interview a key witness and link the foam rubber to the killer.
In 1974, 8-year-old Timothy O’Bryan and his sister Elizabeth went trick-or-treating on Halloween with their father Ron in Pasadena, Texas. At home, they examine their spoils. Tim chooses one piece of candy to eat that night: a giant Pixy Stix. Later that night, Tim becomes very sick and is taken to the hospital, where he loses consciousness and dies. Doctors run tests and find cyanide in his blood. Police canvass the neighborhood and take all the candy from the children and parents, finding a total of four Pixy Stix with cyanide. But none of the neighbors had given them out. So who poisoned Timothy? Further investigation reveals a dark plot.
Dead of Night: “Nothing to Hide” (Season 2, Episode 1)
In Bend, Oregon, it’s Halloween night in 2004, and 21-year-old Nicole Hutchings goes to a Halloween party but doesn’t come home. Her parents call the police, who search for Nicole and talk to other people who attended the party, with no answers. After several months, they notice activity on her credit card but find out that it was her mother using the card. Two and a half years later, Nicole’s friend Suzanne comes forward and tells them more about the Halloween party and who killed Nicole.
Killer Kids: “Vampire and the Essay” (Season 4, Episode 8) Handsome Devils: “Blood Lust” (Season 1, Episode 4)
The 16-year-old leader of a vampire cult murders Naomi Ruth Queen and Richard Wendorf in 1996 in Florida, the parents of a 15-year-old girl who ran away from home with his group. Although the ringleader was convicted of murder, she was never charged.
City Confidential: “Monsters on Main Street” (Season 7, Episode 1) Cold Case Files: “Little Girl Lost” (Season 1, Episode 1)
An 11-year-old girl, Shauna Howe, disappears on the way home from a Halloween party in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1992. Police discover her body three days later, but the murder goes unsolved until 2003. The town banned nighttime trick-or-treating for 15 years after the murder.
In 1984, pregnant mother Doreen Erbert is murdered on Halloween in California by a man in a wolf mask wielding a machete. The episode is rare coverage of a male killer on the female-focused series.
It’s Halloween night 2006 in Seattle, Washington, and a detective discovers a dead body behind a dumpster at a church, along with a cryptic message on a poster. Police find more messages around the church alluding to other victims. They identify the body as that of a local drug dealer, who had died of a drug overdose. But police learn that the victim had recently converted to Christianity after becoming sober. So why was he dead from a drug overdose? And what about the messages found with the body? Was it murder or accidental? A bag of drugs at the scene reveals the answer.
In a ritualistic killing, a teen interested in the occult kills an elderly woman, removes her heart, and drinks her blood. The episode is based on the story of the murder of Maybel Leyshon in the UK in 2001.
Killer Cases: “Murder Under a Blue Moon” (Season 1, Episode 2) Family Massacre: “The Smith Family” (Season 1, Episode 8) American Justice: “Bad Blood” (Season 15, Episode 13)
This case involves the triple homicide by a man who kills his mother, Voncile Smith, and two half-brothers, Richard Thomas Smith and John William Smith, in Florida in 2015. The murder occurs close to the blue moon, and the positioning of the bodies and the killer’s pagan practices make detectives mistakenly think it is a result of witchcraft.
(Note: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Season 32
The Girl with the Hibiscus Tattoo If These Walls Could Talk The Night Time Stopped True Confession The Secret in Black Rock Canyon The Last Weekend Part of the Plan The Case of the Man With No Name On the Hunt for the Zombie Hunter Bethany Vanished
Season 31
The Killings on King Road The Trial of Lori Vallow Daybell Killing Time Along Came Sarah Laci Peterson: A New Turn Finding Rita Who Killed Mindy Morgenstern? On a Dark, Deserted Highway Killings in a College Town The Last Walk The Sisterhood The Last Ride
Season 30
The Day the Music Died The Curious Case of Sherri Papini The Real Thing About Pam In the Light of Day Echoes in the Canyon What Happened in Vegas The Doomsday Files Ascension of Mother God Kill Switch The Evil That Watches
Season 29
Secrets by the Bay The Necklace Mommy Doomsday The Waiting Car The Woman with No Name Broken Circle Night of the Summer Solstice Into the Night – Part 2 Far from Spider Lake 10 Minutes to Sunset Hope Whispers Killer Role Left for Dead
Season 28
The Rise and Fall of Oscar Pistorius What Happened to JJ and Tylee? Unbreakable Family Business The Death of Gianni Versace What Happened to the Children? Before Daylight The Ranch Where are the Children? The Black Candle Confession In a Lonely Place 2 While They Were Sleeping The Black Widow of Lomita The Box Haunted The Thing About Pam
Season 27
Into the Dark Robert Durst: The Secret Tapes The Secret Keepers Before Midnight Into the Night #2 The Betrayal of Sarah Stern Evil Intent Evil Was Watching The Motive In a Lonely Place Suspicion in Silver City Everything She Knew At the Bottom of the Lake
Season 26
A Deal with the Devil No Title (segment: the bail project) Trapped Prairie Confidential The Threat The Other Side of Paradise The Watcher Silent Witness Into the Night No Way Out A Crack in Everything Secrets on the Emerald Coast The Women & Dirty John Unthinkable: The Menendez Murders Black Friday The Halloween Party At the Bottom of the Pool Scorned
Season 25
Dark Valley The Summer of Manson The Knock at the Door A Shot in the Dark The Death of Gianni Versace: A Dateline Investigation The Laci Peterson Story: A Dateline Investigation Nightfall Good & Evil Double Lives Vanished Heart of Darkness The House on the Lake Stranger Than Fiction The Man Who Knew Too Much Secrets in the Smoky Mountains A Dangerous Man After the Storm
Season 24
Family Secrets The Bastille Day Attack Manson The Feud After the Party Tangled The Hometown Hero & The Homecoming Queen Deadly Desire Smoke and Mirrors A Place on the Sand The Interrogation The House on Badger Lane Return to Game Night Where the Heart Is Mystery in Big Sky Country Under a Full Moon In the Shadow of Justice: The Confession Footprint in the Dust
Season 23
The Shadow Miami Heat Game Night Robert Durst: The Lost Years A Perfect Spot The Fugitive Millionaire Deadly Twist Infatuation In Broad Daylight The Trap The Root of All Evil Someone Was Out There While She Was Sleeping The Wire
Season 22
Into the Wild Bad Blood Family Business The Man Who Talked to Dogs Deadly Connection The Vow Swept Away The House on Sumac Drive Secrets in the Mist The Mystery on Bridle Path Graduation Night A Killing in Cottonwood Secrets in Pleasant Grove The Wrong Man Miles from Nowhere Burning Suspicion Up in Flames
Season 21
Secrets in the Desert The Stranger A Cold December Morning Mystery at Payson Canyon Deadly Desire Deception What Happened to the Beauty Queen? Secrets in the Mist Vanished Under the Desert Sky Under a Killing Moon Secrets in the Snow
Season 20
The Confession Tragedy in Colorado Finding Booker’s Place/Deadly Conspiracy (segment “Deadly Conspiracy”) The Last Dive Buried Secrets Who Killed the Radio Star? Poison Deadly Trust A Family’s Story Suspicion Deadly Triangle The Player Someone Was Watching Strangers on a Train Crossing the Line Justice for Bonnie Silent Witness
Season 19
The Day She Disappeared Path of Destruction/Royal Wedding (segment “Path of Destruction”) As Darkness Fell The Boy from Baby House 10 Disaster in Japan Haunting Images Conduct Unbecoming In the Dead of Night Blind Justice Deadly Ambush Mean Girls The Night Before Halloween Lost and Found The Mystery of the Murdered Major Deadly House of Cards
Season 18
The Disappearance of Debbie Hawk The Mystery in Rock Hill The Secrets in the Suitcase The Family Secret The Desperate Hours Mystery at Lost Dog Road The Grifters Flying High at Cocktail Cove/Disappearance Before Dawn Recipe for Murder
Season 17
Michael Jackson: Remember the Time Deadly Sanctuary
Season 16
The Devil’s Business The Stripper and the Steelworker 10 Most Unforgettable 911 Calls/The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom (segment “The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom”) The Santa Strangler
Season 15
Somewhere in the Shadows Family Ties Death in the Hollywood Hills Fatal Exposure/The Death of a Centerfold Blood Ties The Miraculous Life of Jonathan Swain The Party’s Over/Death in the Desert Blood Ties Suspicion
Season 13
Children of War/Rocky Mountain High/The Perfect Storm (segment “Children of War”) Secrets & Lies (II) Blackout: Minute by Minute/Blackout: Answers/Total Recall II/Going South (segment “Going South”)
Season 11
Secrets & Lies Say You Will Against All Odds A Separate Peace Separate Lives 9-11 Investigations/NYC Principal/Stephen Ambrose/The Heroes of Flight 93/Arab Americans (segment “Arab Americans”)
Unknown Season
The Good Samaritan/Dark Victory (segment “The Good Samaritan”) Tower of Terror/Animal Kingdom (segment “Animal Kingdom”) Out of Gas/Sonny’s Story/True Lies? (segment “Sonny’s Story”) Under the Gun/The Families vs. O.J. Simpson/Survivor: Troubled Waters/Who Killed JonBenet? (segment “The Families vs. O.J. Simpson”) Language Barrier?/Deep Pockets/North by Northwest/Consumer Alert: Coming Clean (segment “Language Barrier?”) In an Instant
You know you’re watching a classic Keith Morrison Dateline episode when it has an outside shot of Keith doing his patented, casual lean-against-something, a pensive look, a creepy voiceover line that drops an octave at the end and trails off in a “well…,” or Keith pushing back against a suspect or their attorney. And of course, it has to have a great story.
There are too many episodes to sift through to find these gems, and since we at True Crime Docket are unabashed Keith Morrison fans, we’ve done that just for you.
(Note: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
1. “The Black Widow of Lomita” (Season 28, Episode 8)
This is not your typical black widow story. Instead, it’s a twisty story about a woman (Sonia Rios) in Lomita, California, whose two marriages end in death when her husbands die within 20 years of each other. The case leads to the discovery of a murderer who is killed by their family member before an arrest can occur, and it includes plenty of creepy voiceovers by Keith.
2. “Scorned” (Season 26, Episode 1)
In this episode, a strange story begins with a love triangle and unfolds into stalking, arson, and murder, leading investigators to the discovery of a woman impersonating the victim. Keith adds his usual creepy narration, and the story will keep you guessing until the end. The case is also detailed in American Justice.
3. “A Shot in the Dark” (Season 25, Episode 34)
When Cara Ryan kills her ex-husband in her bedroom, she claims that it was self-defense. She appears on the show, and Keith provides plenty of pushback against her story.
4. “Deadly Desire” (Season 24, Episode 36)
Two seemingly normal couples in Idaho, Kandi and Rob Hall and Emmett and Ashlee Corrigan, are caught in a tangled relationship that leads to affairs, murder, and a surprising defense. In his interviews, Keith pushes back against the main suspect and his wife, and the episode contains plenty of spooky narration.
5. “The Shadow” (Season 23, Episode 74)
Late one night in Iowa, Angie Ver Huel wakes up to find her fiancé, Justin Michael, dead in their bed. Questioning by detectives leads to the discovery of a convoluted plan by the killer to pin the murder on someone else. Keith not only provides his classic chilling narration, but plenty of empathy for Michael’s family and fiancée. The case is also covered by The Last 24.
6. “The Man Who Talked to Dogs” (Season 22, Episode 53)
In this case involving a love triangle and divorce, dog trainer Mark Stover is murdered. The draw of the episode is when Keith confronts the lies of the main suspect, who also tries to push back against Keith. How dare he!
7. “Secrets in Pleasant Grove” (Season 22, Episode 9)
Martin MacNeill finds his wife Michele dead in the bathtub a few days after she had a facelift. Family secrets come out, and the truth of Michele’s death is revealed. Keith provides entertainingly eerie dialogue and plenty of sarcasm, as well as lots of resistance against the suspect’s story.
8. “Under the Desert Sky” (Season 21, Episode 14)
In this compelling episode, Keith details the murder of Micaela Costanzo, a 16-year-old high school student from a small town in Nevada. You’ll be shocked by the identities of the murderers, and what they claim happened. The case is also detailed on Snapped: Killer Couples.
9. “Secrets in the Snow” (Season 21, Episode 2)
Stephanie Roller Bruner is found dead in the snow one winter night in Colorado, and a love triangle comes to light. Police investigate three suspects, and Keith provides the requisite creepy narration, along with pushback against one of the suspects.
10. “Deadly House of Cards” (Season 19, Episode 95)
In Edmonton, Canada, Johnny Altinger vanishes, leading police to a killer inspired by the show Dexter. The episode and twisty story will keep you watching until the end. It includes footage from a weird police ride-along with their key suspect, in which he is creepily silent the entire time. The case is also covered on Bizarre Murders.
Bonus: Keith Morrison has some fun with Seth Meyers
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.
Stream On the Case with Paula Zahn on Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu
Stream Dateline on Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu
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.
Stream Primal Instinct on Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu
Stream Deadline Crime with Tamron Hall on Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu
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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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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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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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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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.
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.
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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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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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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.
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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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Gather ‘round the Christmas tree and snuggle up for some holiday tales of murder and mayhem.
Happy holidays? Nuh-uh, says Homicide for the Holidays, which dominates the round-up of Christmas true crime show episodes. But there are plenty of gems hiding in other shows, including several shows about the JonBenét Ramsey case. And scroll down for a bonus story from Dateline’s Keith Morrison.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Christmas Carnage in Carnation” (Season 1, Episode 2)
It’s the day after Christmas 2007 in Carnation, Washington, and a co-worker worries that her friend, Judy Anderson, hasn’t shown up for work. She drives to Judy’s house and stumbles across four of Judy’s family members dead in the home, including two children, and Judy and her husband Wayne dead outside near a shed. Eerie, silent 911 calls had been made from someone at the house on Christmas Eve, but police could not legally go past the locked gate to the property. Other family members are also missing, and when found, the truth comes out.
Homicide for the Holidays: “A Christmas Massacre” (Season 1, Episode 3)
Christmas Eve 2008 in Covina, California, turns from a fun family celebration into a horrific mass shooting. During a poker game after dinner, a man dressed as Santa Claus enters the home of Joseph and Alice Ortega, shoots and kills nine people, and sets the house on fire using a homemade flamethrower. In nearby Sylmar, a man discovers his brother dead in his apartment, and police find a booby-trapped car, both connected to the Christmas massacre.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Christmas Morning Murder” (Season 1, Episode 4)
Steve and Carla Barron are shot and killed early Christmas morning while sleeping in their home in Tyler, Texas, in 1999. Police come across the murder weapon in their daughter’s room. She appears on the episode.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Christmas Mourning” (Season 2, Episode 3)
Christmas Eve 2003, in Nampa, Idaho, and Bob and Idella Young are found stabbed and bound with Christmas lights, each having one strategically placed stab wound to the back. The case goes cold by the next Christmas, and it is finally solved a few years later.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Christmas Rampage” (Season 2, Episode 5)
December 28, 1987, in Russellville, Arkansas, four shootings across different locations in the town leave two people dead. The police apprehend the shooter and take him into custody, discovering five more bodies at his house, seven in a mass grave outside the house, and two dead infants in a car trunk, all family members killed around Christmas.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Christmas Rager” (Season 2, Episode 6)
A few days before Christmas 2007 in St. Paul Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, Kristine Larson fails to show up to make Christmas cookies with her mother. A stranger finds Kristine’s dead body in a burning car in an alley, strangled. Detectives investigate both her ex and her current boyfriend.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Silent Night, Lethal Night” (Season 2, Episode 7)
Nightmare Next Door: “Murders Under the Mistletoe” (Season 7, Episode 10)
It’s Christmas Eve 2002 in Middletown, Pennsylvania, and Jean Wholaver, her two daughters, and her granddaughter fail to show up for dinner at Jean’s parents’ house. Police find Jean and her two daughters shot dead in her home and the baby abandoned. The daughters had made allegations of sexual abuse against their estranged father, and the case was scheduled for trial that January. From jail, he attempts to hire someone to stage a suicide and pin the murders on someone else.
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Homicide for the Holidays: “Last Christmas” (Season 3, Episode 2)
Two days after Christmas 2005 in Fort Myers, Florida, 911 operators receive a call with a young child’s voice in the background. Police discover the child covered in blood at the home, and his parents, Steven and Michelle Andrews, dead. Steve had been shot, and Michelle had been beaten, strangled, and posed nude.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Christmas Heartbreak” (Season 3, Episode 3)
Jack and Elaine Denney are found shot on Christmas Day 2007 in their home in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. The case goes cold and is finally solved seven years later.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Death in Santa Claus” (Season 3, Episode 4)
In the aptly named Santa Claus, Georgia, it’s three weeks before Christmas 1997, when a passing motorist finds three girls from the Daniels family wandering on the side of a road, after a family friend had woken the girls up and told them they needed to leave with him. Police officers go to the Daniels house and discover four bodies, including two children, all members of the family. One of the daughters shares her experiences in the episode.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Six Slays of Christmas” (Season 4, Episode 2)
Sins of the City: “Dayton, Ohio” (Season 3, Episode 3)
In 1992, several seemingly unconnected shootings around Christmas in Dayton, Ohio, are traced to a group of four young people, who murdered six people between Christmas Eve and December 26 in a spree shooting.
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Homicide for the Holidays: “Killing of the Christmas Tree Farmers” (Season 4, Episode 3)
A Time to Kill: “The Mystery Passenger” (Season 5, Episode 9)
Cold Case Files: “Killings on Christmas Eve” (Season 1, Episode 2)
Christmas tree farmers Ed and Minnie Maurin disappear from their home December 19, 1985, in Ethel, Washington. Police officers find their car dumped in a parking lot, but no Maurins, only their blood. A random motorist discovers their bodies on Christmas Eve, and it takes 27 years to solve the crime.
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Stream A Time to Kill on True Crime Network, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Discovery+
Stream Cold Case Files on Netflix, The Roku Channel, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Discovery+
Homicide for the Holidays: “Murder Under the Mistletoe” (Season 4, Episode 4)
Pregnant mother Melissa Sowders disappears the day after Christmas 2013 in Houston, Texas. Police find her abandoned car the next day, and eventually discover her body on the banks of a river. A love triangle holds the key to solving the case.
Deadly Women: “Red Hot Temper” (Season 9, Episode 10)
In the third story in this episode, a drunk Karen Walsh breaks into the house of her neighbor, Maire Rankin, on Christmas Eve in Newry, Northern Ireland, in 2008. After Maire lectures Walsh about her drinking, Walsh attacks her, and beats her to death with a crucifix. She then passes out on her bed and finds her way home the next morning. Maire’s family discover her body on Christmas Day.
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Christmas night 1986 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Donald Ott’s roommate finds him dead in their apartment and assumes it’s a suicide. He has a gunshot wound to the head, but a gun is nowhere to be found. Police learn that Ott’s brother is involved in the drug trade and their investigation leads to the killer.
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JonBenét: An American Murder Mystery (3-part series)
The day after Christmas 1996 in Boulder, Colorado, and Patsy Ramsey finds a ransom note claiming that her daughter, JonBenét, had been kidnapped. Police allow Patsy’s husband John and his friend to search the house, and they find JonBenét in the basement dead, strangled and bound. The crime scene had not been secured, leading to a botched investigation, despite DNA evidence, and an unsolved case to this day.
Law enforcement officers who participated in the case appear on People Magazine Investigates, JonBenét: An American Murder Mystery, and How It Really Happenedwith Hill Harper. The Barbara Walters Presents episode includes an interview with John and Patsy Ramsey from 2000, as well as an interview with John Ramsey from 2015. True Crime with Aphrodite Jones takes a different approach, bringing in outside experts and a private investigator for the Ramsey family to review the case, while How It Really Happenedwith Hill Harper includes a plethora of news clips, especially from CNN.
There are additional series specifically focusing on the case; see this list for more details.
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Stream JonBenét: An American Murder Mystery on Discovery+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video
Stream How It Really Happenedwith Hill Harper on Discovery+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video
Stream True Crime with Aphrodite Jones on Discovery+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video
Stream Barbara Walters Presents on Discovery+ and Amazon Prime Video
A Crime to Remember: “Coffin for Christmas” (Season 5, Episode 4)
College student Barbara Mackle is kidnapped on December 17, 1968 in Atlanta, Georgia, by a man dressed as a police officer and someone wearing a ski mask. A ransom note is found at the family home in Miami, asking for $500,000 and claiming that Mackle is buried in a ventilated container. The ransom drop is interrupted by the Miami police, who were unaware of the kidnapping. A new drop is scheduled, and on December 21, the FBI gets an anonymous tip to where Barbara is buried.
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December 15, 2013, when people are preparing for Christmas in Spokane, Washington, Doug and Elberta Carlile return to their home to find a masked man in black who shoots and kills Doug. Police discover another murder related to Doug’s business dealings, then a murder-for-hire plot against the estranged wife of the main suspect. Keith Morrison narrates the episode.
True Crime Docket 