Profiling Evil

Today I’m looking at the targeted killing of five relatives in East St. Louis, the evidence presented against the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, the fatal shooting of Deputy U.S. Marshal Drew Hanson in Louisiana and the robbery-homicide case involving American marine biologist Kent Carpenter in the Philippines. Along with the basic facts and current court status, we’ll discuss the behavioral...

In this episode of Profiling Evil, I sit down with Sarah Edmondson and Anthony “Nippy” Ames from A Little Bit Culty for a raw and honest conversation about cult behavior, coercive control, undue influence and the slow erosion of personal autonomy. They were inside NXIVM, the organization led by Keith Raniere, who was convicted in federal court in 2019 of racketeering, sex trafficking, attempted se...

The Nancy Guthrie investigation continues to generate questions, speculation, and plenty of opinions. Over the last several days, we’ve learned more about one man who admitted sending fraudulent communications connected to the case, but it doesn’t answer the larger questions that still haunt Nancy’s family and investigators. Let’s examine the behavioral differences between genuine offender communi...

Federal prosecutors have announced arrests tied to an alleged plot to attack the #UFCFreedom250 event at the White House. According to the Department of Justice, the alleged plan included explosive-laden drones, forced crowd movement, and sniper fire aimed at government officials and others attending the event. This episode is not about politics. It is about behavior. Let’s look at this case throu...

The Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing is less about dramatic testimony and more about the fight over what the judge, the public, the media, and eventually a jury pool should be allowed to hear before trial. Investigators testified about the investigation after Robinson turned himself in, Robinson’s roommate and his statement and whether it will be admitted into evidence. Prosecutors wanted the au...

Agent Hull’s testimony in the Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing gave us a much better look at how prosecutors are trying to move this case forward. The judge is not deciding guilt at this stage, instead he’s trying to determine if there is reasonable cause to bind Tyler Robinson over for trial in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Pay attention to the way investigators...

Day one of the Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing in Utah was exactly what I expected it to be, slow, procedural, and at times rather painful. This was not opening statements in a trial. This was the prosecution beginning the process of showing the judge that there is enough probable cause to send the aggravated murder case against Tyler Robinson forward to trial in the shooting death of Charlie K...

The Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing is underway in Provo, Utah, and this could give the public its first real look at the evidence in the Charlie Kirk murder case. Robinson is charged with aggravated murder in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if he is convicted. This is a preliminary hearing, where the judge decides whet...

The Larry Millete murder trial in San Diego is now moving toward closing arguments. Prosecutors spent nearly a month laying out their case that May “Maya” Millete did not simply walk away from her life, her children, her job, and her family. They argue that her husband, Larry Millete, killed her after their marriage collapsed, after she sought divorce information, and after he became increasingly...

The Fourth of July in the United States is supposed to be about celebration, fireworks, family, and freedom. But in some cases, that same holiday mix of travel, late nights, alcohol, crowds, arguments, unfamiliar places, and changed routines can create risk. Let’s examine five missing person cases connected to the Fourth of July holiday period: #RoxannePaltauf, #PattiAdkins, #BonnieLeeSchultz, #Ed...

Sam Bateman, the self-proclaimed prophet tied to a polygamous FLDS offshoot, took the stand in his own defense and the jury did not buy it. Bateman was already serving a 50-year federal sentence for a child sexual abuse conspiracy involving underage girls, but this state case focused on three young girls found inside an enclosed trailer he was hauling through Flagstaff in 2022. This episode walks...

New reporting in the Nancy Guthrie case reveals disturbing details about that second ransom note sent after the 84-year-old Tucson woman was abducted from her home. The news feels old, but the clarifications are breaking! According to reports, the note said Nancy died shortly after she was taken and was “buried in nature.” That phrase caught my attention because it may be more than just unusual wo...

Between 1962 and 1964, thirteen women in the Boston area were murdered in a case that terrified a city and became known around the world as the Boston Strangler murders. For decades, the public was told Albert DeSalvo was the killer. He confessed, the headlines moved on, and Boston tried to put the nightmare behind it. But DeSalvo was never convicted of the Strangler murders. His confession had pr...

Rex Heuermann has now been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for the Gilgo Beach serial killings. After pleading guilty to seven murders and admitting responsibility for an eighth, the former Long Island architect stood in court as victims’ families finally had the chance to speak directly about the pain, the waiting, and the years stolen from them. In this episode we’ll look at He...

Rex Heuermann is scheduled to be sentenced in Long Island, New York on June 17, 2026, after pleading guilty to the murders of seven women and admitting responsibility for an eighth. In this episode, Profiling Evil looks at the Gilgo Beach case from a criminal behavior perspective, not by glorifying the killer, but by asking a practical question: why do serial killers do what they do? We’ll talk ab...

Chad Daybell said his “Letters from Chad” project would finally tell the truth about the murders of JJ Vallow, Tylee Ryan, and Tammy Daybell. Ten letters later, he’s paused the series and nothing has changed. In this Profiling Evil breakdown, Mike King walks letter by letter through Daybell’s self-serving narrative, using “The Ten Failed Commandments” to show how each installment dodges responsibi...

While filming a new documentary in Los Angeles, a story from Japan caught my attention and I keep thinking about it. It's the story of 20-year-old Auburn University student James "Weston" Higginbotham, a young man who disappeared during a family trip to Japan and was later found deceased after an extensive search in the mountains outside Kyoto. This isn't a video about assigning blame or creating...

When survivors begin talking about abuse years later, the story often does not come out in a clean timeline. It can come back through sensory details, body reactions, fragmented memories, and moments that leave spouses, families, and even investigators struggling to understand what they are hearing. In this episode, Mike King sits down with Dr. Judy Ho to unpack what trauma can do to memory, why t...

Seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro was reported missing in August 2025 after his mother, Rebecca Haro, claimed he had been kidnapped during a diaper change in a Yucaipa parking lot. That story triggered a community search, media coverage, and public fear. But investigators later said the kidnapping story did not hold up. Emmanuel’s father, Jake Haro, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, assault on a...

What does control actually look like when you strip away the labels and get down to behavior? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Steven Hassan to talk about the BITE Model, one of the most practical frameworks for understanding how controlling people, high-demand groups, and manipulative systems gain influence over others. Dr. Hassan draws from his own experience of being recruited into the Unif...

Barry Morphew is preparing to stand trial for the alleged murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, whose disappearance on Mother’s Day weekend in 2020 became one of Colorado’s most watched criminal investigations. The first prosecution was dismissed in 2022, but after Suzanne’s remains were found in 2023, prosecutors brought a new first-degree murder indictment in 2025. Barry Morphew has pleaded not g...

The South Carolina Supreme Court has reversed Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions and ordered a new trial, but this decision does not declare Murdaugh innocent, and it doesn’t erase the evidence presented at trial. What it does say is that the jury process was contaminated by improper influence from Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. What a horrible consequence of bad choices. Let’s break...

I’m still on vacation, but I can’t drive through Europe without noticing the crime stories hiding in plain sight. In this final segment of this European Roadtrip, I travel through Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Paris, and Antwerp, digging into some of the most consequential crimes tied to this route. We’re talking about the Strasbourg Christmas market attack and the Bridge of the Butchers, Luxembourg’s (...

I’m standing at a remote rest stop in eastern Nevada, south of Ely where a 1974 stopover became the crime scene of yet another victim of serial killer Paul John Knowles, also known as The Casanova Killer. This episode examines how Knowles used mobility as a weapon, why rest stops and highways became part of his hunting strategy, and how his victim selection evolved as his confidence grew and his m...

I’m continuing my true crime travels through Europe, this time through Baden-Baden, the Black Forest, Triberg and Freiburg. These are some of the most beautiful places you can visit in Germany, but each one carries a darker story beneath the scenery. In Baden-Baden, we look at the witch trials of 1627 to 1631, when fear, religion, politics and forced confessions helped turn accusation into executi...