TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Bjork with me today. In 1996, Icelandic singer Björk became the target of an obsessive and dangerous stalker: Ricardo López, a 21-year-old fan living in Florida. Over the course of months, López isolated himself and recorded hundreds of disturbing video diaries, documenting his fixation on the singer and his growing resentment when he learned sh...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Susan Lee Hutson with me today. Rachel Hutson was just 19 years old when she carried out a shocking and calculated crime. Armed with a handgun she had taken from her father’s safe, Rachel shot and killed her mother, Susan Lee Hutson, inside the family home. Moments later, she took a photograph of Susan’s body and sent it to her father as a messa...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Linda, Steve, Brittany, and Mary with me today. On New Year’s Eve 2017, what should have been a quiet family celebration in Long Branch, New Jersey, turned into a tragedy. Just before midnight, 16-year-old Scott Kologi opened fire inside his family home, killing his parents, his sister, and a family friend while relatives and neighbors gathered...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary-Jo and Blake Hadley with me today. In July 2011, 17-year-old Tyler Hadley shocked the quiet community of Port St. Lucie, Florida, when he murdered his parents, Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, inside their home and then hosted a house party while their bodies remained hidden in a bedroom. For hours, dozens of teens drank, played music, and partied...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kaye Tiede and Beth Potts with me today. In December 1990, a quiet Christmas gathering turned into a nightmare at a remote family cabin in Oakley, Utah. Kaye Tiede and her close friend Beth Potts were brutally murdered inside the cabin by two men who had been invited into the home. Kaye’s husband, Rolf Tiede, was also shot multiple times and lef...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Annabelle Richardson with me today. In May 2017, 18-year-old high school senior Brooke Skylar Richardson secretly gave birth in the bathroom of her family home in Carlisle, Ohio. Hours later, the remains of her newborn daughte, whom she named Annabell, were found buried in the backyard. The discovery triggered national headlines and a highly emo...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Denise Hallowell with me today. In July 2019, 57-year-old schoolteacher Denise Hallowell was found dead in her home near Inverness, Florida. She had been struck repeatedly in the back of the head with an axe as she sat in her bedroom. Investigators initially searched for signs of a break-in, but the focus soon shifted to someone much closer, Den...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Charles Taylor with me today. On April 4, 2015, 59-year-old Charles Taylor was brutally murdered in his home in California by his daughter-in-law, 24-year-old Amanda Taylor, and her friend Michelle Dondelinger. Investigators revealed that the women attacked Charles with a knife and blunt force, killing him inside his own house. After the murder,...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Cassie Jo Stoddart, Elyse Pahler, Janett Christman, and Payton Leutner with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Venus Rose Stewart with me today. In April 2009, 34-year-old Venus Rose Stewart vanished from her home in Colorado Springs, just weeks after filing for divorce from her husband, Glen Stewart, a U.S. Air Force master sergeant. She left behind her two young daughters and a trail of red flags that quickly pointed to someone close to her. Investigat...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jennifer Paulson with me today. On February 26, 2010, 30-year-old special-education teacher Jennifer Paulson was fatally shot in the parking lot of the school where she worked in Tacoma, Washington. Her killer was 33-year-old Tyler Peterson, a former classmate who had been stalking her for months after she repeatedly rejected his advances. Jenni...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Betty Jeanne Torrey Solomon with me today. In January 1989, 40-year-old Betty Jeanne Solomon was found shot to death in her home in Greenburgh, New York. Her husband was initially questioned, but investigators soon uncovered a hidden affair, between Betty Jeanne’s husband and a young elementary school teacher named Carolyn Warmus. Prosecutors ar...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Marvin Gaye with me today. On April 1, 1984, legendary soul singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., during a violent argument inside the family’s Los Angeles home. Marvin, who had moved back in to help care for his parents, had become increasingly volatile in the months leading up to the shooting. After a heated con...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Matt Cecchi with me today. In August 1996, 9-year-old Matt Cecchi was on a family vacation at a campground in El Dorado County, California, when he walked into a public restroom and never came back out alive. Moments later, his sister discovered him fatally stabbed, a random, senseless attack that shocked the community. The killer was 36-year-ol...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Anna, Gracie, Shanann, Bella, Celeste, Ronald, Louise, Dawn, Allison, John, Marc, Helen, Patricia, John, Jr., Frederick, and Alma with me today. Family annihilators are some of the most chilling figures in true crime history. These individuals, usually men, murder their entire families, driven by motives like financial collapse, loss of control,...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Anthony Riggs with me today. In March 1991, 22-year-old Army Specialist Anthony Riggs returned home to Detroit after serving in the Persian Gulf, only to be brutally murdered less than a week later. As he loaded belongings into a van to help move his wife and stepdaughter, shots rang out, and Anthony collapsed, fatally wounded. What first looked...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lawrence King / Latisha King with me today. On February 12, 2008, 15-year-old Larry King was shot twice in the back of the head in his classroom at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California, by a fellow student, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney. The shooting happened after repeated harassment and bullying, reportedly driven by hatred toward Larr...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Bruce Miller with me today. On November 8, 1999, 46-year-old Bruce Miller was found dead at his junkyard in Flint, Michigan, the victim of a shotgun blast. His wife, Sharee Miller, had conspired online with an internet lover to lure him into a deadly trap. She misled her lover by claiming abuse, a fake pregnancy and the need to escape, all to ma...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon Stevens with me today. In August 2016, 19-year-old college student Austin Harrouff violently attacked and killed John Stevens III and Michelle Mishcon outside their Florida home. Police arrived to find Harrouff on top of Stevens, biting his face and exhibiting extreme strength. Toxicology reports showed no signs...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Molly McLaren with me today. In June 2017, 23-year-old university student Molly McLaren was brutally murdered in broad daylight in a parking lot in Kent, England, by her ex-boyfriend Joshua Stimpson. Just 12 days earlier, Molly had ended their relationship after noticing increasingly controlling and obsessive behavior. She later reported him to...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Barbara Olson with me today. In 2014, a quiet neighborhood in El Cajon, California, was shaken when 12-year-old Raven Juarez and her 13-year-old friend Monique Trevino ambushed Raven’s grandmother, Barbara Olsen, inside her home. The girls had planned the attack days in advance, convinced that killing Barbara would allow them to run away togethe...

As always, thank you for hanging out talking about John Hinckley Jr. with me today. On March 30, 1981, outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. opened fire on U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley’s bullets struck four people, including Reagan himself, who was hit in the chest but survived. Investigators soon uncovered a disturbing motive: Hinckley had become obsessed wi...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Maria Eugenia Munoz with me today. On September 22, 2020, 31-year-old Maria Muñoz, a stay-at-home mother in Laredo, Texas, was found unresponsive after her husband called 911 claiming she had overdosed. What seemed like a tragic accident soon revealed dark secrets. Toxicology results uncovered seven powerful anesthetic drugs, including one typic...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Robert Whitwell with me today. In August 2016, 19-year-old Brittney Jade Dwyer traveled from Queensland to Adelaide with her friend, Bernadette Hoang, to visit her grandfather, 81-year-old Robert Whitwell. But the visit wasn’t out of love, it was part of a plan. Brittney wanted the $100,000 inheritance she believed she was entitled to, and she w...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Channon Christian and Chris Newsom with me today.