True Crime Brewery

The Heather Rich Story Heather Rich was only 16-years-old when she was brutally victimized by people she knew and trusted. A petite and pretty girl with translucent gray-blue eyes, Heather liked to laugh and she enjoyed the attention of her peers. But adolescence is not everything that they make it out to be in the movies. As a cheerleader and a nominee for homecoming queen, Heather was also a tro...

The disappearance of Scottish mother-of-two Arlene Fraser in April of 1998 alarmed her loved ones and set off rumors and theories throughout her community. After all, she’d waved goodbye to her children as they went off to school one morning and was never seen again. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. But, of course, she hadn’t. Join us at the quiet end for From Missing to Murdered: Arle...

Rick Anderson and his girlfriend Chantina Ginn were carnies, following a travelling carnival from Kansas to Arkansas in September of 1980. At the campground where the two slept, they met another couple. The two men, strung out on uppers and looking for cash, made plans to rob a jewelry store. Of course, their intended victims had no idea of what was coming. Join us at the quiet end for The Staton...

Barbara Weaver was raised in a strict Amish community where she learned to be caring and obedient. She knew her future husband, Eli Weaver, from childhood. They courted according to their church rules. But after marriage, Eli did not live up to the expectations of a devoted husband. He left the community more than once and was repeatedly unfaithful, making life miserable for Barbara. Join us at th...

Bruce Cleland was a shy, intelligent man who, at age 41, had very little experience with women. Rebecca Salcedo was younger, extremely manipulative, and very experienced with men. When the two came together as a couple, it was a complete disaster. Bruce adored Rebecca and would do anything to please her. Unfortunately, there was no pleasing Rebecca. Join us at the quiet end for Despicable She: The...

In a classic Keith episode of Dateline, a rural Michigan community searches for a young woman last seen at a Halloween party. The party took place on acres of farmland with hard rock bands, plenty of alcohol, and no guest list. 22-year-old Chelsea Bruck went to the party with her girlfriends, but they left without her. She had been so excited about having fun in her homemade Poison Ivy costume, bu...

Richard Marc Evonitz had already abducted three girls from their front yards in Virginia before he took 15-year-old Kara Robinson from her friend’s house in South Carolina. Evonitz had a troubling history of criminal sexual behavior, but his friends and neighbors knew him as a good-looking, intelligent, and compassionate person living an ordinary middle-class life. Only his victims, teenage girls...

Vicki Bader’s divorce from her attorney husband Seth Bader was beyond contentious. Alimony and child custody issues persisted well after the break up. Vicki, emotionally fragile and at times suicidal, endured months of harassment and gaslighting by Seth and his toxic accomplices. But when Seth decided to involve their oldest son in his campaign to destroy Vicki, things took an ominous turn. Join u...

The Murder of Steven Beard Steven Beard grew up poor in Dallas, Texas. He had ambitions to go to medical school, but he joined the Navy during World War II. After the war, Steven took a job at a department store. He met his first wife, Elise, while working at the store. They had three children together. Hard working, smart, and good with people, Steven worked his way up to become an executive and...

The Story of Debra & Christopher Milke Debra Milke was a cute 24-year-old single mother in 1989. She and her 4-year-old son, Christopher, were living with a friend while Debra prepared to move into her own apartment and start a new job. She was excited for what she saw as a fresh start, saving up new clothing and household items for her and Christopher’s new life. But, on December 2nd, Christo...

The Murder of Alan Helmick On the morning of June 10, 2008, a robbery was staged in the Colorado home of businessman Alan Helmick. His wife, Miriam, came home to find Alan on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Because Alan had been shot in the back of his head, investigators believed that he had been taken by surprise and executed. But who was Alan’s killer and what was the motive? Join us at t...

On May 20, 1988, 30-year-old Laurie Dann left poisoned snacks and juice boxes at several houses, started a fire that nearly killed a mother and her two children, and sprayed bullets inside of an elementary school classroom. After years of living with a serious mental illness, she had made a plan to hurt everyone she believed had slighted her as well as others who were completely innocent. There ha...

On November 10, 2010, in broad daylight, a man broke into the home of Tina Herrmann and her two young children. The attacks, murders, and kidnapping that followed were some of the worst crimes in the history of the state of Ohio. Matthew Hoffman was known by his neighbors as a bit of an oddball, but this didn’t necessarily mean that he was dangerous. He did have a history of breaking and entering...

In September 1985, two Muncie, Indiana, teenagers were shot and killed in their car while parked in the popular Westside Park. The murders stunned Muncie families because the victims were well-liked students at Muncie Northside High School. Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were found late at night by the police officer who was clearing out the park at closing time. Their car was still running, with...

Sandra Renee Cantu vanished from her Tracy, California, mobile home park in March of 2009, just weeks after her 8th birthday. It was a Friday afternoon. Sandra left home at around 4 p.m. to play at a friend’s house. She was expected home for dinner, but her mother called the police and reported her missing at 7:53 p.m. Police did not find Sandra that day, but they did locate surveillance camera fo...

1998 was a shocking and disturbing year for the residents of Port Angeles, Washington. First, a three-day old infant died at the hands of beloved pediatrician Dr. Eugene Turner. Then, the wife of ER physician Bruce Rowen was found hacked to death inside of her car. But were these two deaths connected? Join us at the quiet end for A Very Bad Year in Port Angeles . Dr. Eugene Turner was considered s...

No one really knows what happens between two people in a marriage. But after events in the home of couple Mary and Matthew Winkler led to a deadly shooting, everyone had an opinion. Mary and Matthew had married young. Matthew was a preacher for the Church of Christ in a small town in Tennessee. Depending on who you’re talking to, Matthew was either a devoted family man or an abusive deviant and Ma...

When Jeanne Dominico woke up on the morning of August 6, 2003, she didn’t expect to die that day. She was a hard-working divorced mom of two teenagers, so every day was busy. After working one of her three jobs, Jeanne would go home to fix dinner and clean up the house for her son, Charlie, and her daughter, Nicole. Nothing was more important to Jeanne than her children. For the past three years o...

On a chilly January morning in 2002, 12-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared on her way to her school bus stop in Oregon City, Oregon. Two months after Ashley disappeared, Miranda Gaddis, age 13, also vanished while on her way to the same bus stop. Miranda and Ashley were good friends and they lived in the same apartment complex. They were both friends with Mallori Weaver too, the daughter of local ma...

The day of July 22, 2007 had been a typical Sunday for the Petit family of Cheshire, Connecticut. But on that summer day, a convicted felon out on parole noticed mother Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela, shopping at a neighborhood grocery store. Michaela had taken an interest in cooking and she was choosing ingredients for the family dinner she would prepare that night. A...

Whenever we hear of a case of a healthcare professional purposefully hurting a patient, I feel outraged. When the patients hurt are children, it’s ten times worse. The case of Genene Jones, LVN, is one of the most reprehensible instances of child abuse and murder in recent history. During her time working in a pediatric intensive care unit and then in a pediatric office, Genene was responsible for...

Jay Orbin lived to be exactly forty-five years old. He was murdered on September 8, 2004, which was his forty-fifth birthday. It was just over a month later when his decomposing torso was found in a Rubbermaid container in the Phoenix desert. Everyone would agree that Jay had been kind and hard-working. He was a self-made man and a loving father. Unfortunately, he was married to a conniving and co...

Russ Faria was a normal, working guy, in love with his wife, Betsy, when he was framed for her murder. He was convicted and spent years in prison before an acquittal was won by his attorney, Joel Schwartz. This story was enough for a true crime book or an episode of Dateline, but it was just the beginning. It turns out that the person responsible for framing Russ and brutally murdering Betsy was h...

On May 27, 1978, a crime took place in the Lowcountry town of Walterboro, South Carolina, that created a cloud of fear and sadness over everyone who lived there. Hometown girl, twenty-six-year-old Gwendolyn Elaine Fogle, was attacked in her home, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. That Saturday evening, Elaine had babysat for friends, arriving at their home at about 6:45 p.m. She was happy...

After sharing a celebratory birthday dinner with her family, 57-year-old Susan Sutton and her husband John were attacked in their home by a masked gunman. Because credit cards, jewelry, and cash were found out in the open and undisturbed, investigators believed early on that this was an inside job. John Sutton was a successful civil attorney who had made some enemies over the years. Susan was love...