Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Cindy Anthony called 911 and said the car smelled like a dead body. Then she spent three years walking it back. On the witness stand, she told the jury the words were just an expression. She described removing Caylee’s doll from the car and spraying it with Febreze. A mother who knew what she smelled tried to un-know it under oath. George and Cindy held together through the investigation and the t...

 Rex Heuermann confessed to eight murders in front of his own family, in sessions run by a counselor who had no legal right to be there. Allison Winter now faces eighteen felonies for allegedly posing as a licensed clinical social worker and billing insurance for more than sixty thousand dollars while treating Heuermann for nearly three years. Legal analyst Eric Faddis joins us to explain why that...

Buster Murdaugh named his baby after Alex Murdaugh. That single fact contains everything you need to know about this episode. Alex was convicted of murdering Buster’s mother and brother. He pled guilty to decades of financial crimes. He staged a botched suicide attempt. And Buster — the surviving son — gave his child his father’s name. But when the SC Supreme Court overturned the conviction and or...

The D4VD case just cleared another status conference, and a new Hulu documentary dropped right alongside it, putting new pressure on a story that had largely stayed under wraps until charges were filed. Legal analyst Eric Faddis joins us to explain what these pretrial hearings typically cover and why this one is shaping up to be a fight over publicity as much as evidence. Faddis breaks down why th...

Joan VanderMolen loved her sister Kitty. She also stood at a Los Angeles courthouse in 2024 and said Kitty’s sons — the men who killed Kitty — should be released from prison. More than twenty family members stood behind her. The Menendez brothers have never denied killing their parents. The family’s argument is that the full story includes what José Menendez did to his sons, and that the 1996 conv...

Rex Heuermann's guilty plea may hinge on a conversation that never should have happened the way it did. His ex-wife and daughter were in the room when he confessed to eight murders, in sessions facilitated by Allison Winter — the counselor now charged with practicing without a license. Legal analyst Eric Faddis lays out a theory that could shape what happens next: if Heuermann pled guilty in part...

Allison Winter spent nearly three years inside the Suffolk County Jail, counseling Rex Heuermann and his family session after session. She was there for some of the most consequential conversations of his case. She just wasn't legally allowed to be doing any of it. Winter is now facing eighteen felony charges, including grand larceny, scheme to defraud, and unauthorized practice of a profession, f...

Josh Duggar was convicted on federal charges involving illegal material depicting minors. Prosecutors described it as among the worst they had encountered. And his mother Michelle wrote the judge a letter calling Josh “tender-hearted” and asking for the family to be reunited. His father Jim Bob took the stand at a pretrial hearing and fought to keep Josh’s prior conduct with minors out of the reco...

For more than twenty years, Janey Peterson has been saying her brother-in-law Scott did not kill Laci. She hasn’t wavered. She hasn’t changed the core argument. She’s pointed to the same uninvestigated burglary across the street, the same witness sightings, the same evidentiary gaps — and in 2024, the Los Angeles Innocence Project agreed there was enough substance to take the case on. Scott Peters...

Chris Watts pled guilty. He confessed in detail. His daughters’ bodies were recovered from crude oil tanks at his worksite. There is nothing left to dispute. And his parents responded by forgiving him at sentencing, blaming Shanann on camera, and telling reporters there were still unanswered questions. This episode traces the Watts family’s loyalty from the sentencing hearing through the media int...

Barry Morphew posted a three-million-dollar bond and walked out of an Alamosa County jail in September 2025. He was fitted with an ankle monitor and ordered to remain in Colorado while awaiting trial for the murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew. The trial was set for October 13, 2026. It was supposed to last six weeks. Both sides agreed to the date. Then the defense asked for more time. Attorney Al...

Unsealed court records lay it out: security footage tracking Timothy Hudson's movements the night Anna Kepner died, a phone that ended up smashed in a trash bin, and DNA testing that points hard in one direction. Anna was found concealed beneath a bed aboard the Carnival Horizon — wrapped in a blanket, covered with life jackets, cause of death mechanical asphyxiation. Ship surveillance reportedly...

 During a confidential session before the plea, Rex Heuermann brought up Karen Vergata — a woman he was never charged with killing. Her case was folded into the agreement. No separate prosecution. No public presentation of the evidence against him in her death. This look back examines a plea that wasn't just about admitting guilt — it was about controlling what came out and what stayed buried. The...

The medical examiner's office completed its findings on Celeste Rivas Hernandez months before the public ever saw them. Then LAPD sought a court order to seal the report — and the ME's office publicly objected, stating the hold prevented them from serving the community with transparency. The people whose job it is to speak for the dead were told to stay silent. This look back, with retired FBI Spe...

The night Eric Richins died comes down to a gap that prosecutors couldn't stop pointing to. This look back walks through that night and the first seventy-two hours after — the window where, the state argued, Kouri Richins' story began to come apart. Digital forensics told a quiet, damning story. Prosecutors say Kouri picked up her phone around 3:06 a.m., then didn't call 911 until roughly fifteen...

Eric Richins' three sons didn't walk to the podium at their mother's sentencing. They were too young, and carrying too much. So they handed their written statements to therapists and asked them to read their words exactly. This look back walks through what those boys said — and how Kouri Richins responded as she listened. The statements were devastating in their plainness. The boys described locke...

Within weeks of Anna Kepner's death, court filings show Timothy Hudson's biological mother — Shauntel Hudson, married to Anna's father Christopher Kepner — expelled Timothy from the household. Neither she nor her husband has seen him since. His biological father put a text exchange into the court record alleging Shauntel said she couldn't jeopardize her marriage to help her own son. Filings allege...

Rex Heuermann's guilty plea ended the criminal case. It may have opened a new front entirely. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack names Asa Ellerup and their daughter Victoria as defendants, alleging the family profited from a documentary and showed disregard for the victims. Asa's attorney has called the claims reckless. Victoria has publicly stated she believes her f...

 Prosecutors have reportedly said David Anthony Burke did not act alone in disposing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains. That statement, combined with the pattern of resistance from his inner circle, raises a question this look back puts directly to former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis: who else is legally exposed, and what would it take to cross the line from witness to co-defendant? Faddis wal...

Months after Rob and Michele Reiner were found stabbed in their own home, their son Nick's case still hadn't reached a preliminary hearing — and the reason is striking. The autopsy reports weren't finished, terabytes of discovery were still changing hands, and the whole proceeding got pushed to the fall. This look back unpacks what a delay like that actually tells you. Eric Faddis — criminal defen...

The most dangerous moment in a controlling relationship isn't the worst fight — it's the exit. According to prosecutors, Eric Richins had quietly begun consulting divorce attorneys and restructuring his finances before he died, and the prosecution's theory holds that his moves toward the door are when the danger spiked. This look back uses that pattern as the frame for one of the most important co...

The connection between David Anthony Burke and Celeste Rivas Hernandez wasn't hidden. It was visible — on livestreams, in photos near her home, backstage at concerts, in matching tattoos. A thirteen-year-old girl who had been reported missing three times kept appearing in the orbit of a twenty-one-year-old musician with millions of followers. And no system intervened. This look back examines how t...

For five weeks after Melissa Barthelemy vanished, someone used her phone to call her fifteen-year-old sister Amanda. Always from crowded Manhattan locations. Always under three minutes. Always targeting the teenager, never the mother. The calls described what had happened in terms designed to terrorize a child. Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to Melissa's murder. This look back examines the phone evi...

The Kouri Richins jury didn't want to convict her. The foreperson said the panel came in sympathetic, even hoping she was innocent. They returned a unanimous guilty verdict in about three hours anyway. This look back, with retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, examines the evidence strong enough to defeat the jury's own wishful thinking. The case had visible holes. No murder weapon. A s...

Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the stabbing deaths of his parents. He's held without bail, the harshest penalty remains on the table — and his siblings, Jake and Romy, are done. Sources close to the family put it bluntly: Nick's defense is Nick's defense, and they're not part of it. This look back examines where the case stood at t...