TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Keiona Cecilia Braxton with me today. In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 2008, firefighters responding to smoke at an apartment in Henrico County, Virginia, found 26-year-old Keiona Cecilia Braxton dying inside. She was three months pregnant, and the fire had been staged to mask the attack: Keiona had been beaten in the head, stabbed 43 times...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Emma Walker with me today. In November 2016, 16-year-old Emma Walker, an honor student and cheerleader from Knoxville, Tennessee, was asleep in her bedroom when her ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old William Riley Gaul, fired two shots through the outside wall of her family’s house. One bullet struck Emma behind her left ear and killed her; the other lod...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Susan Walters with me today. In September 2006, 51-year-old Portland emergency-room nurse Susan Kuhnhausen came home after work and walked into an ambush planned by the man she was divorcing. Hiding inside was Edward Dalton Haffey, a man Susan’s estranged husband, Michael Kuhnhausen, had allegedly promised $50,000 to kill her and make it look li...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Linda Kologi, Steve Kologi, Brittany Kologi, Mary Schulz, Shirley Severance, Charles Severance, Chad Amato, Margaret Amato, Cody Amato, Alan Johnson, and Diane Johnson with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jessica Lyn Keen with me today. In 1991, 15-year-old Jessica Keen disappeared from a youth counseling program in Oregon just one day before she was scheduled to return home. Her disappearance became a haunting cold case until advances in DNA technology identified Marvin Lee Smith, Jr. as her murderer nearly two decades later. In this true crime...

In March 2013, 18‑year‑old Rachel Pernosky disappeared from her home in Mission, British Columbia, leaving behind her purse and cellphone, and three days later her body was found down a steep embankment in Chilliwack. The case shocked her family and community because Rachel was a young mother with a one‑year‑old child, and investigators quickly determined that her disappearance was not random. Yea...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lauren Giddings with me today. In June 2011, 27‑year‑old Mercer Law graduate Lauren Giddings vanished from her apartment in Macon, Georgia, just as she was studying for the bar exam. Her next‑door neighbor, Stephen McDaniel, had access to the building with a master key, and investigators later said he used it to enter Lauren’s apartment, strangl...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sarah Rosemary Everard with me today. The murder of Sarah Everard became one of the most high-profile true crime cases in modern British history. In March 2021, the 33-year-old disappeared while walking home through South London, sparking a nationwide search that ended in tragedy. As investigators uncovered the truth, they discovered that Sarah&...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Betsy Faria, Shirley Neumann, and Louis Gumpenberger with me today. In December 2011, 42‑year‑old Betsy Faria was found stabbed more than 50 times in her Missouri home, and suspicion quickly fell on her husband Russ even though he had a solid alibi. Pam Hupp, Betsy’s close friend and the last person known to see her alive, had recently become th...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering the Defeo family with me today. In November 1974, 23‑year‑old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family in their Amityville, New York home as they slept: his parents, two brothers, and two sisters. DeFeo later admitted he was the killer, but his story shifted over time as he blamed the mob, then claimed the house itself and “vo...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Maria Lizette Nemeth with me today. In this true crime documentary, we examine the brutal 2015 murder of Maria Nemeth in Sunrise, Florida. What began as a frantic 911 call from her boyfriend, Fidel Lopez, claiming she wasn't breathing quickly turned into one of Florida's most shocking homicide investigations. Detectives uncovered a horri...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kendra Hatcher, Robert Limon, Keiona Braxton, Heather Elvis, and Adrianne Jones with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Riley Whitelaw with me today. In June 2022, 17‑year‑old Colorado Springs high‑school student Riley Whitelaw went to her part‑time job at a Walgreens and never came home. When she didn’t return from a 15‑minute break, her manager went looking for her and found Riley dead on the floor of the store’s break room, with blood pooled around her and doz...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Paige Meredith Birgfeld with me today. In June 2007, 34-year-old Paige Birgfeld disappeared from Grand Junction, Colorado, leaving behind her three young children and a mystery that would grip the community for years. When Paige's car was discovered burned and abandoned in a parking lot, what began as a missing persons case quickly transform...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Gwen Amber Rose Araujo with me today. In October 2002, 17‑year‑old Gwen Amber Rose Araujo, a transgender girl from Newark, California, was attacked at a house party by a group of young men she knew after they forced a “sex check” and discovered she was trans. What started as taunting turned into hours of violence: they beat and choked her, struc...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary Griffith with me today. In 2009, 38‑year‑old Mary Griffiths was murdered in her home in Bury St Edmunds, England, by a man who had turned from rejected suitor into obsessive stalker. Mary had worked with John McFarlane and made it clear she did not want a relationship, but he began harassing and following her, to the point that she contacte...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Bennie Jo Tibbets and her son Billy Ray Tower with me today. In 1998, a devastating house fire in rural Oregon claimed the lives of Bennie Jo Tibbets and her son Billy Ray, but investigators soon discovered this was no tragic accident. Evidence revealed that both victims had been attacked with a hatchet before dying from smoke inhalation, launch...

In December 1991, 16‑year‑old Laurie Show was ambushed and killed in her bedroom in East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania, after months of jealous harassment from 19‑year‑old Lisa Michelle Lambert, who believed Laurie was trying to take her boyfriend, Lawrence “Butch” Yunkin. Laurie’s mother briefly left home because of a fake call posing as a school official; when she returned, she found Laurie on...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alexis Leigh Robinault with me today. In late November 2020, 26‑year‑old Houston Instagram influencer Alexis Leigh Sharkey (née Robinault) disappeared after reportedly leaving her apartment following an argument with her husband, Thomas “Tom” Sharkey. The next morning, a city public‑works employee spotted a pair of feet protruding from bushes al...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Ashley Ann Carlson with me today. The murder of Ashley Ann Carlson is one of the most disturbing child murder cases in Oregon true crime history. In February 1999, 7-year-old Ashley Carlson vanished from her neighborhood in Astoria, Oregon, sparking a massive search for the missing child. What investigators eventually uncovered shocked the commu...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Thadius Phillips and Chris Steiner with me today. In the summer of 1995, 13‑year‑old Thadius “Thad” Phillips was snatched from his bed in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and carried to the house of 17‑year‑old Joseph “Joe” Clark, who would become known as the “Bonebreaker” killer. Over the next roughly 43 hours, Clark sadistically snapped and twisted Thad’s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alice Ruggles with me today. In October 2016, 24‑year‑old Alice Ruggles was murdered in her Gateshead flat by her ex‑boyfriend, army Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon, after months of obsessive stalking that she had already begged police to help her escape. Alice had broken up with Dhillon after discovering he was contacting other women, bu...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Shawnlee Matilda Perry with me today. In May 1992, 5-year-old Shawnlee Perry disappeared from Earth, Texas, launching a massive missing child investigation that gripped the small community and became one of the state's most heartbreaking true crime cases. After weeks of searching, Shawnlee was found murdered, and investigators spent years wo...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Rachel Burkheimer with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary Ann Murphy with me today. In July 2012, 48‑year‑old Mary Ann Murphy was found stabbed to death in her bed in the family home in Humble, Texas, after her teenage daughter Keri ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911 claiming an intruder had kicked in the back door. When police arrived, they discovered a scene of extreme overkill: Mary Ann h...