True Crime Brewery

After a night out clubbing with a friend in New York City, the beautiful and kind 20-year-old Kim Antonakos disappeared. Kim was on her way home in the early morning hours when she was abducted. Her father, wealthy businessman Tommy Antonakos, immediately began a widespread and organized search for his daughter. What he didn’t know was that Kim’s abductors were supposed friends of Kim. Right under...

In the early morning of April 22, 2016, relatives of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio, began to discover family members brutally killed in their own homes. In all, eight members of the Rhoden family were murdered, including one minor, 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden, Jr. The victims had been shot to death. Three young children, including a newborn infant, were left alive. Investigators determ...

This episode was suggested to us by Jeane, a long-time listener. In fact, Jeane was so enthusiastic about this case that she volunteered to write the script, and we took her up on that. Jeane was a federal prosecutor in the San Francisco Bay area for 27 years, focusing primarily on white-collar crimes, before she retired in 2018. She looks forward to the U.S. Department of Justice becoming a nonpa...

Something different today! We’re talking about untrue crimes which occurred in a high rise LA office building in 1988. At the center of these events was a detective from New York named John McClane. He and his wife Holly were separated at the time over issues including her blossoming career with the Nakatomi Corporation in Los Angeles, but John visited her for the holidays and soon found himself a...

Most of us have some compulsions or obsessions. But what if your compulsion was to poison people? Then you would be well on your way to becoming a killer. As a child, Graham Young began experimenting with poisons. By the age of 14, he was using his family as subjects. His father, step-mother, and sister suffered from episodes of excruciating stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then, while Graham...

In 1999, Leann and Michael Fletcher were just beginning to grow their family as Michael was busy building his career as an attorney. That August, the couple left their daughter, Hannah, with Leann’s parents. Michael took Leann to the shooting range to teach her how to shoot a gun. Afterwards, taking advantage of the free baby-sitting, they returned home and had afternoon sex. What happened next wo...

18-year old Angie Dodge had just moved into her first apartment in 1996 when her life was suddenly and violently snuffed out. In 1998, a young man named Christopher Tapp was convicted of Angie’s murder. The prosecution’s case relied on Christopher’s confession. The defense argued that the confession was coerced and that the state was ignoring DNA evidence from an unknown suspect. Angie’s heartbrok...

Jennifer Farber Dulos was a woman to be envied. Educated and attractive, she came from a wealthy New York City family, lived in beautiful Connecticut mansions, married a handsome educated man, and had five healthy children. After 13 years of marriage to her Greek-American husband, Fotis Dulos, he became aggressive and unfaithful. He told Jennifer that he had fallen out of love with her, but he did...

New Jersey mom Michelle Nyce spent the last night of her life working the makeup counter at Macy’s, followed by a romantic tryst with her lover. When she finally arrived home, her husband was waiting for her in a jealous rage. Michelle had come all the way from the Philippines when she was just 20-years old to be the wife of 41-year old Dr. Jonathan Nyce. After 15 years of marriage, they were rais...

Sex is a powerful motivator. So, when 53-year old Christopher Regan became involved with younger married woman Kelly Cochran, no one was completely shocked, even though Kelly was not Chris’ type. In fact, she was quite rough around the edges, abrasive, and only minimally attractive. But she was friendly, easy, and, most importantly, willing. She seemed to have no moral concerns about cheating on h...

Sometimes a small thing in life can change everything. That’s what happened when high school student Susan Mae Bolling was sent to a psychotherapist for treatment of depression and anxiety. Her therapist, Dr. Felix Polk, was married with two children, but that didn’t stop him from beginning a sexual relationship with Susan. Susan and Felix Polk married in 1982, shortly after he divorced his wife....

Rozanne Gailiunas was smart, caring, and a devoted parent. In 1983, her marriage to physician Peter Gailiunas was on the rocks. She was in love with contractor Larry Aylor, a man also in the middle of a contentious divorce. In fact, the two were making plans to spend the rest of their lives together. Then, a little past 6 p.m. on Oct. 4, 1983, police found Rozanne murdered in her suburban home. Sh...

Heart surgeon Dr. Darryl Sutorius thought he had found a second chance at true love when he married attractive divorcee Dante Britteon. But soon after the wedding, Darryl was depressed and disillusioned. Dante wasn’t who she had claimed to be and she worked hard to alienate him from his children. Much of what Dante had told Darryl about herself were lies. Her real name was Della Hall. She was not...

Family life is not always rooted in love. For the blended family of Lieth and Bonnie Von Stein, life was marked by disappointments, resentment, and deep-seated hate. One summer night in 1988, Bonnie and Lieth were viscously attacked in their own bed. Daughter Angela said that she had slept through the attack. Son Christopher was away, living in student housing at North Carolina University. The pri...

When Palo Alto music teacher Kristine Fitzhugh was found in a pool of coagulated blood at the bottom of her basement stairs, her husband Ken blamed her shoes. That's right, her shoes. He had warned her over and over, he said, that those shoes were dangerous. She must have stumbled and fallen in them. But it didn’t take long for investigators to question Ken Fitzhugh’s theory. The position of Krist...

On the remote island of Palmyra, about 970 nautical miles south of Hawaii, a series of crimes occurred against experienced sailing couple Mac and Muff Graham. A handful of other sailors spent time with the Grahams on the island, but the Grahams were eventually left alone with a desperate young couple: Stephanie Stearns and her fugitive boyfriend Lesley “Buck” Walker. Then the Grahams went missing....

In 2006, Jeffrey Deskovic’s indictment charging him with the rape and murder of a high school classmate was dismissed on the grounds of actual innocence. Post conviction DNA testing proved his innocence. It also identified the real killer. When a classmate of 16-year old Jeffrey was found raped and murdered in a local park, he was upset. The police said his behavior seemed odd. They were suspiciou...

For today’s episode, we’re diving back into the murky waters of the Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell case. Last week, we went over the marriages, families, strange religious beliefs, disappearances, and untimely deaths. This week, we’re delving deeper into everything and talking about what has happened since Lori and Chad’s shocking November 2019 wedding. Join us at the quiet end for Doomsday...

Normally, when we talk about parents who have a missing child, we’re talking about distressed, loving parents who will do anything to find their child. But in the case of missing children Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow, we’re delving into new and unimaginable territory. The lives of J.J. and Tylee’s mother, Lori Vallow, and their stepfather, Chad Daybell, have been suffused by drama and multiple death...

Carol Neulander was a mother, a business owner, and the wife of respected Rabbi Fred Neulander. On most Tuesdays, she drove home with the receipts from her popular bakeries, carrying thousands of dollars in her purse. Then came the Tuesday evening when two men showed up at her front door. Join us at the quiet end for The Good Wife: Carol Neulander . While Carol devoted herself to her home, her chi...

Sherri Rasmussen had everything going for her. She was smart, athletic, and beautiful. She graduated high school at age 16, breezed through college, and landed a prestigious job as a hospital director of nursing in her late 20s. In 1985, Sherri married the man of her dreams. Three months later, she was found murdered in her own home. The scene looked like a robbery gone terribly wrong, but after 2...

In November of 2012, Cari Lea Farver just up and left everything behind: her new boyfriend, her job, and even her son. This was not like Cari, who was a responsible worker, a reliable friend, and a devoted mom. Then an alarming string of texts from Cari’s phone set everyone on edge. Cari’s new boyfriend, Dave Kroupa, was surprised by her abrupt change of heart, but he had only known her for two we...

Law enforcement interrogation is a real skill, but much of it has been questioned in recent years with instances of botched police investigations and false confessions. When police have little forensic evidence, as is the case with many cold cases, witness interviews and suspect interrogations can be crucial in solving a case. But how far should detectives go for a confession? The disappearance of...

Heather Elvis was just 20-years old when she disappeared on a Tuesday night just one week before Christmas. Heather was kind and clever. She knew what it was like to work hard and she liked to have fun. She never would have disappeared from her family without explanation. When Heather’s father, Terry, was notified that her car had been abandoned at South Carolina’s picturesque Peachtree Landing, h...

Good friends 13-year old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German had a day off from school on Monday, February 13, 2017. At around noon, they decided to visit a local hiking trail. But when Libby’s father showed up at 3pm to pick up the girls, they weren’t there. By 5:30pm, the police were called and a search began. The next day, the girls’ bodies were found less than a mile away. Despite havin...