Love and Murder: Heartbreak to Homicide

Two Florida cases, two sets of parents, and two stories that should’ve never been allowed to happen in the first place. In the first case, six-year-old Anthony Rouse is found unresponsive in a bathtub. His parents claim he drowned… but the truth came out in text messages, a dog cage, and a sibling’s terrified confession. The second case takes another turn. Nine children removed from a home full of...

A mother goes to clean her son’s closet… and instead finds two bags so heavy, so wrong that she can’t bring herself to open the second layer. Minutes later, police arrive—and 19-year-old Brian Cohee calmly tells them exactly what they’re about to find. A human head and human hands. And the name of the man they belonged to: Warren Barnes, a beloved figure known around Grand Junction as “the reading...

A respected law professor. A bitter custody battle. And a murder that took more than a decade to fully unravel. When Dan Markel was gunned down in his Tallahassee driveway in 2014, investigators uncovered a murder-for-hire plot tied to his ex-wife’s family, the Adelsons. Now, after years of wiretaps, arrests, and courtroom chaos, the matriarch herself, Donna Adelson, has finally faced justice. Con...

A three-year-old boy is rushed to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, his hands and arms covered in blistered burns. Doctors take one look and know—this wasn’t an accident. This is the case of Breanna Lair and Jacob Snead. Then, another Louisville. This time, Alabama. A mother, Amber Winstead, wakes up in a motel bathtub to find her baby, Ki’Arri Rayne Winstead, underwater. What she told pol...

When Hollywood actress Dominique Dunne landed her breakout role in Poltergeist, her future looked unstoppable ... until love turned deadly. At just 22, she was strangled outside her West Hollywood home by her ex-boyfriend, John Sweeney, a man whose obsession spiraled into violence. But what followed was almost as shocking as the murder itself. How did a confessed killer serve less than four years...

A frantic 911 call, a baby in the backseat, and a story that didn’t add up. When police in Ormond Beach, Florida arrived, 18-month-old Sebastian Gardner was already gone. His small body showed signs that he’d been left in a hot truck for hours while his father, Scott Gardner, sat drinking inside a bar. What followed was a case that shocked even seasoned officers, not just because of what happened,...

When a scuba diver unzipped a duffel bag at the bottom of a quiet Ohio quarry, he expected lost gear,  not what spilled out next. Inside were towels, rocks… and the body of a newborn baby boy. The community called him Baby Boy Hope, vowing to find the monster who had done it. But the truth, when it finally came six years later, stunned everyone. The killer wasn’t a stranger ... it was a girl they...

When 43-year-old Kristil Krug was found beaten and stabbed in her Colorado garage, police thought her past had caught up with her. For months, she’d been stalked and terrorized by who she thought was her ex-boyfriend—sending threats, photos, and messages that tracked her every move. Her estranged husband, Daniel Krug, was "there to protect her." But as police dug deeper, they realized that what be...

A 911 call from Merritt Island, Florida, revealed every parent’s nightmare — a two-month-old baby, cold and unresponsive in his bassinet. But what started as a mysterious infant death soon pointed to something far darker. As investigators pieced together text messages between the parents, Belle and Donovan Winter, medical reports, and interviews, the story that emerged would expose exhaustion, ang...

A 911 call in Birmingham led police to a heartbreaking scene — three-year-old Keterrius “KJ” Sparks, lifeless after being left in a parked car for more than five hours in sweltering heat. But the kicker? The person who forgot him in the car, was his DHS case worker. ************************************** Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true crime case you’d like to hea...

When a Michigan father calmly told 911 that his baby was “dead as a doornail,” even the dispatcher couldn’t believe his tone. But what police found inside the farmhouse was far worse than anyone expected. Ten-month-old Mary Welch had wasted away from starvation. Her parents, Seth Welch and Tatiana Fusari, claimed faith over medicine and refused to take their children to doctors. What followed was...

It started with a haunting 911 call — a Florida man sobbing, “I just shot my family… I love my family!” When deputies arrived, they found a scene that would stay with them forever: a mother and three young children murdered inside their Crestview home. Army veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson, claimed masked intruders had done it. But as investigators dug deeper, a darker story emerged — one of rage, brain...

When a panicked 911 call came from a quiet home in Colesville, New York, dispatchers could hear a mother’s desperate pleas, “please don’t die.” Moments later, the truth emerged, 28-year-old Patrick Proefriedt had fired a crossbow at his wife, Megan, as she held their three-week-old baby, Eleanor. What followed was a crime so cruel it stunned even veteran officers, and a courtroom hearing where a 2...

On October 7, 2024, a Texas mother vanished after failing to pick up her daughter from school ... something she never missed. Within hours, friends were calling police, her husband was spinning excuses, and investigators began uncovering a trail of lies. Suzanne Simpson’s disappearance out of Olmos Park quickly spiraled into one of Texas’s most haunting “no body” murder cases, one built on surveil...

**An Apology** Hey, LaMs! Before bringing you today’s case, I want to have an open conversation with you. I know you noticed the episode length and might’ve worried about what that means for your podcast. Fear not! This is just a brief explanation post, and I’m asking you to lend me five minutes of your time. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this hectic time. I appreciate you c...

When 50-year-old Chuanying He called 911 on August 21, 2025, she calmly told dispatchers she’d just poured sulfuric acid on her husband, Robert Heyden.  This horrific act was a calculated act of revenge — one that left even seasoned detectives stunned. ************************************** Past cases mentioned in this episode: Jealous Father Murders Rising Tennis Coach Daughter | Deepak Yadav htt...

When Hurricane Milton hit Florida in October 2024, 32-year-old Robert Hendrix invited his mother to stay with him for safety. But once the storm passed, what she found inside his Jacksonville home was far worse than anything the hurricane left behind. What began as a hurricane shelter turned into a murder scene, exposing a crime that may have stayed hidden forever if not for one mother’s horrifyin...

It started with a 911 call from a terrified 15-year-old boy in Fall City, Washington claiming his brother had shot their entire family, then turned the gun on himself. But when deputies walked into the Humiston home, the truth was far worse. What looked like a murder-suicide was something else entirely; a meticulously staged massacre inside a home that neighbors once called “picture-perfect.” ****...

When 34-year-old Awal Noor Kiftan stepped outside his San Antonio apartment, he had no idea it would be the last thing he ever did. Minutes later, he was found shot to death.  As detectives followed the trail, a shocking twist emerged online: the suspected killer, Naqibullah Habibzoi, bragged about the shooting in a series of TikTok revenge videos. What began as an unsuspecting murder turned into...

A Detroit eviction turned into one of the most disturbing discoveries in U.S. true crime history. When officers opened a deep freezer inside Mitchelle Blair’s apartment, they found the frozen bodies of her two children—Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry—hidden there for years. What unfolded next exposed years of child abuse, a system that failed to protect them, and a mother whose own words still haunt...

For 25 years, Pretty Woman Escorts operated in plain sight in South Florida—posing as a real estate business while allegedly running one of the most lucrative escort operations in the region. Prosecutors say Margareta von Lambert and her son Christopher Jelavic laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars all while evading law enforcement.  But in 2024, a months-long undercover investigation finally...

When UK British heiress and her partner Mark Gordon went on the run with their newborn, a nationwide manhunt ended in tragedy.  Now, after Constance Marten's retrial filled with courtroom drama, chaos, explosive revelations, and shocking testimony, the verdict is finally in.  What really happened to baby Victoria—and how did this high-profile case of parental neglect and deception unfold? Listen t...

When Robert Howard went missing in Memphis in 2021, all that was found was his cell phone—abandoned and silent. Hours later, the investigation pointed to someone no one expected: Memphis police officer Patric Ferguson, a man once romantically linked to Robert’s girlfriend. What followed was a shocking case of kidnapping and murder by a police officer, a betrayal of the badge that left a family in...

Two days before her wedding, 35-year-old Molly Watson was found shot execution-style on a rural Missouri road, her marriage license with fiancé James Addie still in her car. Investigators quickly discovered that corrections officer James Addie was living a double life—he was already married. What should have been a Beauty-and-the-Beast-themed dream wedding became the shocking Missouri bride-murder...

Two five-year-old twins were found locked in a dark shed off of a busy Florida highway—malnourished, abandoned, and left with nothing but fear. Their own mother, Tamara Stoiber, and grandmother, Sabine Thrift, now face charges of neglect and false imprisonment. Listen to the full, sad case now. ************************************** Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true...