A Night Out in Denver: The Start of a Tragic Story March 31st, 2011, was just another busy evening in downtown Denver. The city hummed with the energy of nightlife—clubs overflowing, streets bustling, and drinks flowing a little too freely. O…
The Dark Roots of Keith Jesperson’s Childhood In the 1950s, Selah, Washington, wasn’t just a small, picturesque town—it was a battleground for young Keith Jesperson. Towering over his peers and burdened with a quiet, shy demeanor,…
The Morning Routine That Defied Death For Peter Porco, November 15, 2004, wasn’t supposed to be memorable. It was just another Monday, the kind of day you coast through without a second thought. The 52-year-old court clerk in Delmar, New York…
A Late-Night Bong Hit and a Cryptic Confession It was 2001, and Lloyd Avery II sat in the family garage with his younger brother, Che. Lloyd passed the bong across the dimly lit space, and Che took a hit that nearly floored him. “I’ve …
The Unlikely Beginnings of Theodore Coneys: A Life Shaped by Illness and Isolation Most of us stand at our refrigerators, pondering snacks or leftovers, blissfully unaware that such a mundane moment could mark the end of a life. But for one man in …
A Camping Trip in Gitchie Manitou Takes a Deadly Turn In 1973, five teenagers headed into the serene woods of Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in Iowa for a night of campfire fun. Among them were Roger Essam, 17; Stewart Baade, 18; his younger brothe…
The Mysterious Death of Cindy James: A Decade of Fear Ends in Tragedy On June 8, 1989, a disturbing discovery was made in the backyard of an abandoned house in Richmond, Canada. Cindy James was found hogtied, drugged, and strangled with a black nyl…
A Quiet Romance: The Love Story of Teri Helfrich and Charles Brandt In 1986, Teri Helfrich found what many spend a lifetime searching for—a love that felt like home. Teri was the kind of person who lit up every room she entered. A free spirit…
A Killer’s Beginnings: The Early Life of Peter Sutcliffe “Bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. I was just cleaning up the place a bit.” Those were the words of a man whose reign of terror gripped the UK for five yea…
The Curious Transformation of Manuela Bartel: From Model Student to Chaos Incarnate Manuela Bartel was the kind of kid who made parents breathe a sigh of relief—polite, hardworking, and bright. Growing up in 1980s and 1990s Germany, her life …
Augusta Gein: Tyrant, Preacher, and Queen of Condemnation Augusta Wilhelmine Gein ruled her household like a fire-and-brimstone despot, her reign extending over a remote Plainfield, Wisconsin farm where she kept a firm grip on her two sons, Henry a…
A Killer’s Checklist: Errands with a Dark Purpose “Get killing knives, get sledgehammer, bring food grinder, get bleach…” Sounds like the twisted to-do list of a Hollywood villain, right? Except this isn’t fiction. T…
Henry Lee Lucas: A Grim Beginning in Blacksburg, Virginia “I killed ’em every way there is except poison. Strangulations, knifings, shootings, hit-and-runs… I had no feelings for the people themselves… It was just, like I …
Bloodlines of Chaos: The Troubled Origin of Richard Chase When it comes to true crime, some cases read like poorly thought-out fiction—implausible, grotesque, and baffling. Then there’s Richard Chase, whose life was a parade of warning …
The Making of a Monster: Daniel LaPlante’s Early Years A loner. A creep. A childhood soaked in neglect and streaked with a steady parade of run-ins with the law. Some stories seem almost engineered to remind us why certain stereotypes exist. …
The Disappearance of Maura Murray: True Crime’s Most Baffling Mystery What would drive a seemingly normal college student to pack up her belongings, crash her car on a remote and snowy New Hampshire road, and vanish into thin air? That’…
The Typical Courtroom Playbook (And a Surprise Third Option) When a case heads to court, the script usually follows one of two familiar paths. First, the defendant might plead guilty, which speeds things up by skipping straight to the sentencing ph…
The West Memphis Three: Convicted for Being “Weird”? The story of the West Memphis Three isn’t just a true crime case; it’s a cautionary tale about how badly things can go when fear and bias overtake reason. What if three te…
The Crime That Shook West Memphis: 1993 In 1993, West Memphis, Arkansas, was the kind of place where people left their doors unlocked and kids rode their bikes until dinner. That peace shattered when the bodies of three eight-year-old boys—St…
The Shocking Rise and Mysterious Fall of Natalie Wood A Love Story on Screen, a Tragedy Off It“One hand, one heart, even death won’t part us now.” Those dreamy lyrics from West Side Story sound like a promise, don’t they? A …
The Baton Rouge Killer Wasn’t Alone On May 27, 2003, Derrick Todd Lee, the Baton Rouge Killer, was finally in cuffs. Cue the collective sigh of relief from Baton Rouge. The boogeyman was behind bars, and surely, the nightmare was over. Case c…
A Chilling Day in Delphi: The Last Moments of Libby and Abby On an unseasonably warm February afternoon in 2017, best friends Liberty “Libby” German and Abigail “Abby” Williams set out to explore the Monon High Bridge Trail …
Who Was Brian Wells? Brian Douglas Wells was, by all accounts, the human equivalent of a reliable clock. Forty-six years old, a pizza delivery man with a decade-long tenure at the same pizzeria, and a guy who didn’t just show up—he alwa…
Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey Dives into the Unsolved Mystery The Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey takes a deep dive into the chilling and endlessly frustrating investigation sur…
