True Crime Reports

Thank you for joining us for the first season of True Crime Reports. We are gearing up for a thrilling second season! After a groundbreaking first run exploring global crime stories, we’re excited to bring you new mysteries, fresh investigations, and more shocking revelations. Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, catch up on all 20 episodes and share your thoughts with us. We enjoy r...

A shocking murder rocks South Korea when a young woman, obsessed with true crime stories, kills a random stranger to satisfy her darkest curiosity. But how can fascination with real-life murder cases spiral into deadly actions? Are true crime podcasts and shows fueling dangerous fantasies? Can constant exposure to violence blur the line between entertainment and reality? We investigate the chillin...

Esmond Bradley Martin spent decades going undercover in the dangerous world of ivory and rhino horn trafficking, risking his life to expose shadowy smuggling rings and the powerful figures protecting them. But just as he was preparing to reveal his most explosive findings yet, Esmond was found murdered in his grand Nairobi home.  Was this the revenge of an illegal wildlife syndicate he’...

After her son was kidnapped in 1988, a mother spent 32 years looking for him. Never giving up, she put up over 100,000 flyers and travelled across the country. But little did she know, she wasn’t alone in this nightmare.  As many as 200,000 children go missing in China every year, a number that links back to the 1970s, the One Child Policy and a dangerous industry of child trafficking....

Ross Ulbricht built an empire in the shadows—a sprawling digital bazaar called The Silk Road, hidden on the dark web. There, drugs, weapons, and stolen secrets flowed freely, all paid for in untraceable cryptocurrency. To his global clientele, he was a legend: the Dread Pirate Roberts. But after a dramatic arrest and a staggering double life sentence, Ulbricht’s fate took another twist...

Far out in the Pacific, Pitcairn Island was once seen as an untouched paradise.  But beneath the tranquil surface, police uncovered years of devastating abuse—crimes against women and girls that everyone knew about, but no one stopped. When the truth finally emerged, it exploded into a global scandal that shattered lives and exposed a legacy of silence and betrayal. In a place so isolat...

Karen Rodríguez was kidnapped and murdered by one of Mexico’s most feared cartels in 2014. Most families would have been forced into silence, but not hers. Refusing to give up, her mum, Miriam Rodríguez, launched her own relentless quest for justice. In a country where cartels operate with impunity, kidnappings are commonplace, and speaking out can get you killed, Miriam’...

In the late 1990s, the quiet of a small Russian town was shattered when Irina Ganyushkina stumbled into a police station—an escapee from a living nightmare. Irina revealed to authorities that she was one of five women kidnapped and held captive in a secret underground bunker by a notorious serial killer: Aleksandr Komin, chillingly nicknamed ‘the maniac.’ For Irina and the other...

In 1944, amid the harsh glare of Jim Crow, 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. was strapped into South Carolina’s electric chair after a trial that lasted just a single day. With no physical evidence, no defense witnesses, and an all-white jury that deliberated for ten minutes, he was convicted of murdering two white girls. Nearly seven decades later, a judge threw out the verdict. What does Geor...

In the 1950s, fear gripped the Philippines as rumors of a blood-drinking vampire spread across the countryside. One chilling death sparked widespread panic, leaving villagers to wonder if a supernatural predator was lurking in the shadows. At the same time, the CIA was locked in a brutal struggle against communist Huk rebels, deploying a mysterious operative named Edward Lansdale to lead covert op...

Could the unthinkable be true? In the aftermath of the Bosnian War — a conflict marked by atrocities and genocide — rumors swirled of wealthy outsiders flying into war-torn Sarajevo to pay for a gruesome and forbidden thrill: hunting humans for sport. What sort of person would take part in a human safari? In this episode: Mirsad Sijarić, Sniper Alley witness and director of National Mu...

Thank you for joining us for the first 10 episodes of True Crime Reports. We’ll be taking a mid-season break, but have no fear, we will be back with 10 more episodes! In the meantime, catch up on the latest episodes and share your thoughts with us, we enjoy reading your comments. See you June 1st. Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on Instagram , X , Facebook and YouTube

With the charm of a family man and the cunning of a criminal mastermind, Tse Chi Lop lived a life cloaked in contradictions.  Behind his mild-mannered demeanor lay the ruthless leader of Asia’s most powerful drug syndicate—a vast empire built on the billion-dollar trade of crystal meth. How did a seemingly unremarkable man rise to the top of the global narcotics underworld? And ho...

For nearly 40 years, a secretive colony in the Chilean countryside hid unspeakable horrors: child abuse, torture, and a twisted legacy of Nazism. Colonia Dignidad, led by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, thrived not just as a cult but as a brutal tool of oppression during Chile’s Pinochet regime. How did this enclave evade justice for so long—and why did the Chilean government turn a blind e...

What if an online game could push teenagers to their darkest edge? The Blue Whale Challenge is rumored to have taken lives around the globe, igniting fear, panic, and speculation between parents. From Russia’s nationwide hysteria to stories of tragic teenage deaths worldwide, the phenomenon shocked millions. But does this deadly game even exist? In this episode:  Evgenii Berg ( @genuine...

Was al-Assad's Syria a narco-state? Captagon—a deadly, addictive amphetamine—has turned Syria into the heart of a $2 billion drug empire few know about, with the Assad regime at the center of it all. From secret labs to smuggling routes, we uncover how this shadowy network operates and its devastating impact across the Middle East. With the regime’s fall, what happens to this ill...

How far will Western powers go for conservation? In 2015, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, guards shot and killed an Indigenous boy searching for herbs with his father. This tragedy spotlights the violence faced by Indigenous communities from international conservation efforts. Is human life the cost of wildlife protection? In this episode:  Fiore Longo ( @LongoFiore ), campaigner at...

We all know a scamming story: Someone rings or texts you, trying to get your personal information or asking you to log in to your account. But what you might not know is that the person behind that phone could be someone who’s been trafficked and enslaved. Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in scamming farms across Southeast Asia. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, and it&r...

Two Americans and one Brit were invited to Communist Cambodia in 1978 to meet the brutal dictator Pol Pot. The Brit is called Malcolm Caldwell, a professor from Scotland, and a big Pol Pot fan.   Just hours after he meets his hero, Malcolm is shot dead. So, who killed Malcolm Caldwell? In this episode:  Elizabeth Becker,( @ehb47 ), journalist and author Sophal Ear, ( @sophal_ear ),...

Ruth Thalía’s truth would cost her everything. On national television in Peru, the nineteen-year-old revealed her darkest secrets for a prize, only to be found dead just two months later.  A game show called ‘The Value of the Truth’ launched in South America in 2012. In it, contestants must reveal the most shocking and intimate details about their own lives in front o...

A murder that rocked the Sikh community in British Columbia, Canada. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader, was fatally shot in his car just after leaving his local temple in 2023. This wasn't just another crime - it was an event that would spark international tension and raise alarming questions:  Who assassinated Hardeep? Did the orders come from the Indian government itself? In thi...

Thabo Bester is South Africa’s most notorious con man. In 2012, he was locked away for life for murder and rape. But when in 2022, a fire suddenly breaks out in Bester’s cell, and nothing but a charred body remains, the country’s in shock. Is that the end of Thabo Bester? This is a story about how a serial rapist worked his way into South Africa’s most exclusive circles and...

This is immersive true crime, done differently. True Crime Reports brings you crime stories from the global south and beyond; tales of corruption, power, and injustice that often haven’t reached headlines in the West. Hosted by journalist Halla Mohieddeen, each week you’ll be taken to countries like Peru, South Africa, Syria, and Cambodia, hearing from eyewitnesses, journalists, and fa...