TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Shari Faye Smith, Debra May Helmick, and Sandee Cornett with me today. The case of Larry Gene Bell is one that completely shook South Carolina in 1985, after two young girls, 17-year-old Shari Faye Smith and 9-year-old Debra May Helmick, were kidnapped and murdered just weeks apart in Lexington County and Richland County. Shari was taken from he...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Danielle Keener and Daniel Zapp with me today. On the night of January 8, 2000, 18‑year‑old college students Danielle Keener and Daniel Zapp were walking near a marina outside York, Pennsylvania, when a man in a red pickup truck blocked their path, pulled a 9mm handgun, and forced them into his vehicle at gunpoint. He drove them to an isolated s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Chad, Margaret, and Cody Amato with me today. In January 2019, 29‑year‑old former nurse Grant Amato murdered his parents, Chad and Margaret Amato, and his younger brother Cody inside the family home in Chuluota, Florida, shooting each of them in the head and then attempting to stage the scene as a murder‑suicide by placing a handgun near Cody’s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Grace Packer, Stoni Blair, Stephen Berry and Dylan Groves with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Adrianne Marie Reynolds with me today. The murder of Adrianne Reynolds is one of those true crime cases that’s hard to wrap your head around because of how senseless and calculated it was. In January 2005, 16-year-old Adrianne was lured out of her home in East Alton by someone she thought was her friend, Sarah Kolb, along with Sara's "b...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kim Tae-Hyun's victims with me today. In March 2021, 25‑year‑old Kim Tae‑hyun traveled to the northern Seoul apartment of a young woman he had met through an online game and had been stalking for weeks after she cut off contact with him. Disguised as a deliveryman, Kim forced his way inside, stabbed the woman’s younger sister to death while...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alesha MacPhail with me today. In 2018, six‑year‑old Alesha MacPhail vanished from her grandparents’ home on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, and was found hours later in a wooded area, sexually assaulted and murdered. Her disappearance triggered an island‑wide search and intense media attention, as the quiet holiday community struggled to understa...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Dr. James Edward Kohnle with me today. In June 2007, a house fire in Ringgold, Georgia left 57-year-old chiropractor Dr. James Kohnle dead in his bedroom, and at first, it looked like a tragic accident. But as investigators dug deeper, they began to suspect arson, uncovering evidence that the fire may have been intentionally set while he was sti...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Myriam Dienes, Robert Dienes, Lynn Reister, Susan Lee Hudson, and Anna Karissa Grandine with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Dan and Linda Broderick with me today. In 1989, San Diego socialite Betty Broderick shot and killed her ex‑husband, prominent medical malpractice attorney Dan Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, as they slept in their home, after a long, bitter divorce and custody battle. Betty had spent years alleging emotional abuse, financia...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jessica Padgett with me today. In November 2014, 33‑year‑old mother of three Jessica Padgett left her job at a Northampton, Pennsylvania daycare on her lunch break to use the fax machine at the nearby home office of her stepfather, Gregory Graf and never came back. After a days‑long search, Jessica’s body was found buried behind a shed on the Al...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jamie Michelle Stice with me today. In April 2011, 21‑year‑old expectant mother Jamie Stice left her Morgantown, Kentucky home with a woman she’d befriended on Facebook, 33‑year‑old Kathy Coy, believing they were going shopping for baby supplies. Instead, Kathy lured Jamie to a rural area, shocked her with a stun gun, slit her wrists and throat,...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alesha MacPhail, Stoni Blair, Stephen Berry, Grace Packer, and Samiah Downing with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Maddie Clifton with me today. In November 1998, 8‑year‑old Maddie Clifton vanished while playing outside her home in Jacksonville, Florida, sparking an intense week‑long search through her neighborhood. The search ended when Maddie’s body was found hidden inside the waterbed frame in the bedroom of her 14‑year‑old neighbor, Joshua Phillips, with...

On a September morning in 2010, single mom Marti Hill followed handyman Brian Pennington down into the basement of her Prairie Village, Kansas home, expecting to talk about repairs, not to fight for her life. Without warning, Brian attacked her from behind, strangling her, beating her, and slashing her throat before leaving her on the cold concrete floor, convinced she would never get back up. Mar...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Cherish Lily Perrywinkle with me today. In June 2013, 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle was shopping with her mother and sisters at a Walmart when they were approached by a stranger, Donald James Smith, who pretended to be a good Samaritan offering help to the struggling family. After hours of gaining their trust inside the store, Smith convinced C...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Joel Guy Sr. and Lisa Guy with me today. In 2016, 28‑year‑old Joel Guy Jr. was accused of murdering and dismembering his parents, Lisa and Joel Guy Sr., inside their Knoxville, Tennessee home over Thanksgiving weekend, after years of being financially supported by them. Prosecutors alleged that Joel killed them to collect life insurance and inhe...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Debbie Elizabeth Cameron Griggs with me today. In May 1999, Debbie Griggs, a 34-year-old pregnant mother of three from Deal, Kent, suddenly vanished from her home, sparking a missing persons investigation that would remain a mystery for decades. Debbie was three months pregnant when she disappeared, and suspicion quickly surrounded her husband,...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Donna Ongsiako with me today. On a July night in 2013, 51‑year‑old Colts Neck, New Jersey mother Donna Ongsiako was attacked in her kitchen by a 16‑year‑old neighbor, Brennan Doyle, who had entered her home and stabbed her repeatedly before fleeing in her car. Donna survived the assault and was able to call for help, and investigators later link...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Christian Andreacchio with me today. On a February afternoon in 2014, 21‑year‑old tugboat worker Christian Andreacchio was found slumped over the bathtub in his small Meridian, Mississippi apartment, a single gunshot wound to the head and a pistol resting on the wrong side of his body. His death was ruled a suicide in under an hour, the scene qu...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tiffany Salter with me today. In 2012, 28‑year‑old Tiffany Nicole Salter was killed outside the Richmond County, Georgia home she shared with her boyfriend, Todd Goff, after a violent argument turned physical. Tiffany was found dead in the yard, and an autopsy determined she died from asphyxiation due to strangulation after Todd’s mother called...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering David Riess and Pamela Hutchinson with me today. In 2018, the shocking case of Lois Riess, often referred to as the “Killer Grandma,” stunned the nation. After her husband, David Riess, was found shot to death inside their Minnesota home, Lois disappeared.. withdrawing thousands of dollars and sparking a multi-state manhunt. But this wasn’t just...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Eve Marie Carson with me today. Eve Marie Carson was a 22‑year‑old student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was abducted near her home in March 2008. She was forced to withdraw money from ATMs and was then shot and killed; her body was found on a residential street not far from campus. Investigators identifie...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sophie Sergie with me today. Sophie Sergie was a 20‑year‑old Alaska Native student from the village of Pitkas Point who was found murdered in a residence hall bathroom at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in April 1993. She had been visiting a friend on campus when she disappeared; hours later, a janitor discovered her body in a bathtub. She ha...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering all the women and young girls who lost their lives at the hands of this LOSER with me today. Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game Killer," murdered at least seven young women and girls across California and New York in the 1970s, posing as a photographer to lure victims. His confirmed killings included 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1979 and f...