TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Ava Grace Majury with me today. In 2021, 15‑year‑old TikTok creator Ava Majury blocked a follower whose comments had turned from fan messages into creepy, persistent demands for photos, only to have him reappear under new accounts, then finally at her front door. In the early hours of July 10, 2021, 18‑year‑old Eric Rohan Justin traveled from Ma...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jennifer Rothwell and her baby with me today. In November 2019, 28‑year‑old chemical engineer Jennifer Rothwell vanished after leaving her home in Creve Coeur, Missouri, and her husband, Beau Rothwell, tearfully reported her missing and joined public search efforts. Within days, investigators found bleach‑soaked, blood‑stained carpet in the coup...

In August 2016, Russian-born Viktoria Nasyrova went to the Queens apartment of her lookalike, 35‑year‑old eyelash stylist Olga Tsvyk, carrying a gift: a slice of cheesecake. Prosecutors said Viktoria had laced the dessert with phenazepam, a powerful sedative, then waited as Olga grew violently ill and lost consciousness, before staging the scene to look like a suicide and stealing her passport, ca...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jessica L. Kaczmar Padgett with me today. In November 2014, Jessica Padgett, a 33-year-old mother of three from Northampton County, Pennsylvania, vanished after leaving work during her lunch break to visit her stepfather’s nearby business... what seemed like a routine errand quickly turned into a missing persons case that shocked the community....

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Shad Thyrion with me today. In February 2022, 24‑year‑old Shad Thyrion was killed inside his mother’s home in Green Bay, Wisconsin, after a meth‑fueled sexual encounter with 24‑year‑old Taylor Schabusiness. Investigators say Taylor strangled Shad with a chain during sex, continued choking him until he died, then sexually assaulted his body and d...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Imani Serafina Roberson with me today. In July 2023, 29‑year‑old mother of four Imani Roberson disappeared after leaving her mother’s home in Conyers, Georgia, following a Sunday family dinner with her children. Days later, her SUV was found burned out near Atlanta, and after a nearly three‑week search, investigators located Imani’s body and det...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Robert Mendoza “Rob” Limon Jr.with me today. In August 2014, 38-year-old Robert Limon was shot and killed at his workplace in Tehachapi, California, in what initially appeared to be a robbery gone wrong. However, the investigation quickly shifted when authorities uncovered a secret affair between his wife, Sabrina Limon, and firefighter Jonathan...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Ryan Poston, Brandon Duran, Frankie Fitzgerald, and Darlene Vandergiesen with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Phil Hartman with me today. On May 28, 1998, comedian and actor Phil Hartman was shot to death in his sleep by his wife, Brynn, in the bedroom of their home in Encino, California. After an argument late that night, Phil went to bed; sometime before 3 a.m., Brynn entered the room and fired three shots at close range with a .38‑caliber handgun, hi...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Aliza Parsy with me today. In August 2005, 18‑year‑old Aliza “Lizzy” Parsy was found murdered in the Staten Island home she shared with her mother, her body hidden under a mattress with a towel over her face and the house staged to look ransacked. At first, detectives focused on strangers and an ex‑boyfriend, but autopsy results showed Aliza had...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Shari Faye Smith, Debra May Helmick, and Sandee Cornett with me today. The case of Larry Gene Bell is one that completely shook South Carolina in 1985, after two young girls, 17-year-old Shari Faye Smith and 9-year-old Debra May Helmick, were kidnapped and murdered just weeks apart in Lexington County and Richland County. Shari was taken from he...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Danielle Keener and Daniel Zapp with me today. On the night of January 8, 2000, 18‑year‑old college students Danielle Keener and Daniel Zapp were walking near a marina outside York, Pennsylvania, when a man in a red pickup truck blocked their path, pulled a 9mm handgun, and forced them into his vehicle at gunpoint. He drove them to an isolated s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Chad, Margaret, and Cody Amato with me today. In January 2019, 29‑year‑old former nurse Grant Amato murdered his parents, Chad and Margaret Amato, and his younger brother Cody inside the family home in Chuluota, Florida, shooting each of them in the head and then attempting to stage the scene as a murder‑suicide by placing a handgun near Cody’s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Grace Packer, Stoni Blair, Stephen Berry and Dylan Groves with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Adrianne Marie Reynolds with me today. The murder of Adrianne Reynolds is one of those true crime cases that’s hard to wrap your head around because of how senseless and calculated it was. In January 2005, 16-year-old Adrianne was lured out of her home in East Alton by someone she thought was her friend, Sarah Kolb, along with Sara's "b...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kim Tae-Hyun's victims with me today. In March 2021, 25‑year‑old Kim Tae‑hyun traveled to the northern Seoul apartment of a young woman he had met through an online game and had been stalking for weeks after she cut off contact with him. Disguised as a deliveryman, Kim forced his way inside, stabbed the woman’s younger sister to death while...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alesha MacPhail with me today. In 2018, six‑year‑old Alesha MacPhail vanished from her grandparents’ home on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, and was found hours later in a wooded area, sexually assaulted and murdered. Her disappearance triggered an island‑wide search and intense media attention, as the quiet holiday community struggled to understa...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Dr. James Edward Kohnle with me today. In June 2007, a house fire in Ringgold, Georgia left 57-year-old chiropractor Dr. James Kohnle dead in his bedroom, and at first, it looked like a tragic accident. But as investigators dug deeper, they began to suspect arson, uncovering evidence that the fire may have been intentionally set while he was sti...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Myriam Dienes, Robert Dienes, Lynn Reister, Susan Lee Hudson, and Anna Karissa Grandine with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Dan and Linda Broderick with me today. In 1989, San Diego socialite Betty Broderick shot and killed her ex‑husband, prominent medical malpractice attorney Dan Broderick, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, as they slept in their home, after a long, bitter divorce and custody battle. Betty had spent years alleging emotional abuse, financia...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jessica Padgett with me today. In November 2014, 33‑year‑old mother of three Jessica Padgett left her job at a Northampton, Pennsylvania daycare on her lunch break to use the fax machine at the nearby home office of her stepfather, Gregory Graf and never came back. After a days‑long search, Jessica’s body was found buried behind a shed on the Al...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jamie Michelle Stice with me today. In April 2011, 21‑year‑old expectant mother Jamie Stice left her Morgantown, Kentucky home with a woman she’d befriended on Facebook, 33‑year‑old Kathy Coy, believing they were going shopping for baby supplies. Instead, Kathy lured Jamie to a rural area, shocked her with a stun gun, slit her wrists and throat,...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alesha MacPhail, Stoni Blair, Stephen Berry, Grace Packer, and Samiah Downing with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Maddie Clifton with me today. In November 1998, 8‑year‑old Maddie Clifton vanished while playing outside her home in Jacksonville, Florida, sparking an intense week‑long search through her neighborhood. The search ended when Maddie’s body was found hidden inside the waterbed frame in the bedroom of her 14‑year‑old neighbor, Joshua Phillips, with...

On a September morning in 2010, single mom Marti Hill followed handyman Brian Pennington down into the basement of her Prairie Village, Kansas home, expecting to talk about repairs, not to fight for her life. Without warning, Brian attacked her from behind, strangling her, beating her, and slashing her throat before leaving her on the cold concrete floor, convinced she would never get back up. Mar...