Day By Day: True Crime Stories

On December 6, 2009, 28-year-old Susan Powell spent the day going to church, making pancakes, and spending time with her two little boys in their Utah home. By the next morning, she was gone. Her husband claimed he’d taken the children on a spontaneous midnight camping trip in a blizzard. What police found in the home—and what they would learn in the weeks and years that followed—told a much darke...

On December 5, 2007, a quiet afternoon of holiday shopping in Omaha, Nebraska, turned into a nightmare. Nineteen-year-old Robert Hawkins walked into the Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall with a stolen semi-automatic rifle and opened fire. In just six minutes, he killed eight innocent people, wounded four more, and then took his own life. In today’s episode, we explore the devastating tim...

On this day in 1972, seven-year-old Steven Stayner disappeared while walking home from school in Merced, California. For the next seven years, he was held captive by a convicted child molester who convinced him his parents didn’t want him anymore. But in 1980, Steven made a brave decision that would save another boy—and bring his own ordeal to light. This episode explores Steven’s abduction, the y...

On this day in 1926, famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie vanished from her home in Berkshire, England, sparking one of the most bizarre and captivating missing persons cases in British history. Her empty car was discovered near a chalk quarry the next morning, igniting a national manhunt that drew in over a thousand police officers, 15,000 volunteers, and even fellow crime writers like Sir Arth...

On December 2, 2018, 22-year-old British backpacker Grace Millane was meant to be celebrating her birthday in Auckland, New Zealand. Instead, she was killed in a hotel room by a man she had met just hours earlier on Tinder. Her death shocked the nation and sparked international outrage, grief, and a reckoning with how violence against women is addressed in both media and the justice system. In tod...

On this day in 1972, 38-year-old Jean McConville was abducted from her home in West Belfast in front of her ten children. For decades, her disappearance was shrouded in secrecy, fear, and rumor. It wasn’t until 2003—31 years later—that her remains were discovered buried on a beach in the Republic of Ireland. The Provisional IRA eventually admitted to her murder, claiming she was a British informan...

On November 30, 1989, a seemingly ordinary encounter along a Florida highway marked the start of one of the most infamous crime sprees in American history. That day, 51-year-old Richard Mallory picked up hitchhiker Aileen Wuornos—an act that would end with his murder and launch a high-profile investigation into a series of killings by the woman the press would later call America’s first female ser...

On November 29, 1981, Hollywood legend Natalie Wood disappeared from her yacht off Catalina Island. Hours later, her body was found in the Pacific Ocean, wearing a nightgown, socks, and a jacket. Though her death was initially ruled an accident, shifting witness accounts, newly uncovered injuries, and a changed death certificate have kept the case alive for over four decades. Was it a tragic misst...

On November 28, 2009, 25-year-old Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada ran barefoot into a snowstorm and disappeared. For nearly a decade, his family in Council Bluffs, Iowa, searched for answers. Then, in 2019, contractors renovating the grocery store where Larry once worked made a chilling discovery—his remains trapped behind a commercial cooler. This episode explores the heartbreaking story of Larry’s dis...

On November 27, 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed inside City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White. What followed was a political and cultural aftershock that would reshape the city forever. This episode traces the morning of the killings, the controversial trial that gave rise to the “Twinkie defense” myth, and the explosive White Night riots...

On a cold November night in 1993, firefighters in Sunderland, England responded to a blaze in a garden shed—and found the body of 18-year-old Thomas Kelly. At first, it looked like a tragic accident. But within months, two more teenagers were dead under strikingly similar circumstances. This episode traces the chilling investigation that unfolded: from burned buildings and shifting theories, to th...

On Thanksgiving Day 2010, three brothers—Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton—vanished from their father’s home in Morenci, Michigan. For nearly 15 years, their disappearance remained unsolved. In 2025, just days before John Skelton was set to be released from prison, he was charged with their murders. This episode explores the heartbreaking timeline, the false leads, and the long-awaited charges...

On November 24, 1971, a man using the name  Dan Cooper  boarded a flight from Portland to Seattle, handed a flight attendant a note claiming he had a bomb, and calmly hijacked the plane. After collecting a $200,000 ransom and four parachutes, he jumped from the Boeing 727 into the night sky—and was never seen again. Known to the public as  D.B. Cooper  due to a media error, his identity remains a...

On November 23, 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 became the scene of a deadly hijacking that ended in tragedy just off the coast of the Comoros Islands. Three men seized control of the Boeing 767 and demanded to be flown to Australia—despite the plane only carrying enough fuel for its next scheduled stop in Nairobi. After hours of failed negotiations, the aircraft ran out of fuel and crash-land...

On November 22, 2003, 22-year-old University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin vanished after leaving work at Columbia Mall in Grand Forks. What began as a missing-person case quickly escalated into one of the most closely followed criminal investigations in the upper Midwest. In this episode, we trace the timeline of Dru’s disappearance, the massive volunteer-led search across North Dakota and M...

On November 21, 2016, the quiet Knoxville suburb of Sterchi Hills awoke to devastating news: 16-year-old Emma Walker, a high school cheerleader with a bright future, had been shot to death while sleeping in her bed. The shot came from outside her home, through the wall of her bedroom. What initially baffled investigators soon turned into a swift and chilling investigation—one that led back to Emma...

On November 20, 2012, 19-year-old Dashad “Sage” Smith left her Charlottesville, Virginia apartment to meet a man she’d been seeing—and never came home. This episode traces Sage’s life and identity, the final hours before she vanished, shifting police assessments, and the unresolved questions surrounding the only publicly named person connected to her last known plans. How you can help If you have...

On the morning of November 19, 1988, nine-year-old Michaela Garecht was abducted in broad daylight from a neighborhood market parking lot in Hayward, California. What began as a quick trip to grab snacks turned into a case that would haunt the Bay Area and the nation for decades. Despite massive search efforts, national media attention, and countless leads, Michaela was never found. Thirty-two yea...

On November 18, 1978, more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones, died in a remote commune in Guyana called Jonestown. What began as a congressional fact-finding mission ended in an ambush at a jungle airstrip and a mass poisoning at the compound itself. We walk through the chilling timeline of that day—from Congressman Leo Ryan’s final moments to the chaos at Port Kaituma, to t...

On the night of November 17, 1978, four young employees vanished from a Burger Chef in Speedway, Indiana. Two days later, their bodies were discovered in a remote Johnson County field—shot, stabbed, and beaten. This episode explores the timeline of one of Indiana’s most haunting unsolved cases. From early investigative missteps to decades of theories, confessions, and evolving forensic efforts, we...

On November 16, 1957, 58-year-old Bernice Worden vanished from her small-town hardware store in Plainfield, Wisconsin. By nightfall, investigators would discover her body—and uncover one of the most horrifying crime scenes in American history. This episode examines the disappearance that led authorities to local handyman Ed Gein and the grim findings inside his farmhouse. We trace the investigatio...

Eighteen-year-old Miranda Fenner was working the evening shift at a small video store in Laurel, Montana, when someone walked in, brutally attacked her, and disappeared into the night. The case went cold—until nearly 20 years later, a confession and DNA from a separate crime finally revealed what happened that night inside The Movie Store. In this episode of  Day by Day: True Crime Stories , we ex...

On a Friday night in 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk went to meet friends near the Craigflower Bridge in Saanich, British Columbia. She never came home. What began as a group gathering quickly turned violent—first with a brutal assault by several teenage girls, then, later that night, a fatal second attack that ended in murder. In this episode of  Day by Day: True Crime Stories , we examine the event...

Before it was a bestselling book or a horror movie, it was a crime scene. On November 13, 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found shot to death inside their Amityville, Long Island home. The killer? Their eldest son, Ronald DeFeo Jr. In this episode of  Day by Day: True Crime Stories , we revisit the brutal murders, the eerie unanswered questions that followed, and the trial that led to s...

On November 12, 1976, 36‑year‑old Renée MacRae and her three‑year‑old son, Andrew, vanished after leaving Inverness, Scotland. That night, Renée’s BMW was found burned in a lay‑by off the A9 — but the mother and child were gone. Their disappearance sparked one of the most haunting and enduring mysteries in UK criminal history. Decades of searches, shifting alibis, new forensic breakthroughs, and p...