LOVE MURDER

On July 15, 1992, 23-year-old Rachel Nickell was murdered on Wimbledon Common in broad daylight, with her two-year-old son as the only witness. With no DNA at the scene, police fixated on the wrong man, building an infamous honey trap operation around a profiler's hunch while the real killer stayed free. It took sixteen years and a DNA breakthrough to finally get justice. This week, Andie covers o...

In August 2006, Bernadette Vander Meer fell 1,200 feet from the summit of Angels Landing in Zion National Park on what was supposed to be her tenth anniversary trip. Authorities called it an accident and closed the case. Twenty years later — after a tip from a former youth group member, a phone call from a pastor who never believed it, and an affidavit laying out an affair, a breakup two days befo...

A former football superstar Steve McNair seemed to have it all: fame, fortune, family and a lasting legacy. But a secret affair was quietly unraveling, and before the 4th of July holiday weekend was over, two people would be left dead. Sources: 1. Hill, Vincent.  Incomplete Pass . 2026. 2. “Kazemi Requested Money from McNair - ESPN.”  ESPN.Com , ESPN, 20 Oct. 2009,  https:...

When a popular, openly gay University of Missouri student is murdered on campus, police interview his friends and lovers as well as looking at the murder as a possible hate crime. The entire time the detectives are digging into Jesse’s personal life, the actual killer is hiding in plain sight, much closer to the investigation than anyone expected. Sources: Davidson, Linda.  The Cop With A Sec...

Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial killer, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murders of seven women, after admitting to killing eight over a 17-year span. This week, Jessie and Andie discuss the sentencing hearing, the families’ devastating victim impact statements, and the long-delayed reckoning for the women Heuermann murdered. Current Affairs is Love Murder’s shorter show about th...

When a young woman falls in love with a wealthy heir, she thinks she is marrying into a life of privilege and adventure. Instead, she finds herself trapped in a relationship filled with infidelity, abuse, fear, a crap ton of weaponry, and so many mysterious murders that there is a possible link to the Zodiac Killer. Sources: 1.  Thoresen, Louise, and E. M. Nathanson.  It Gave Everybody S...

Two women, decades apart in age, whose relationships turned deadly within days of each other. In Berkeley, thirty-seven-year-old Vanessa Sanchez was fighting Stage 4 breast cancer when the man police called her boyfriend walked into her apartment — and days later walked out with a roller suitcase. In southeastern Kentucky, eighteen-year-old Jadeance Hale spent her final hours trying to leave her b...

When a loving young mother is shot in cold blood, her nine-month-old daughter is left crying at the scene. Police interview several suspects, including her ex—the baby’s father—his current girlfriend, a man she had been dating, and another who wished he could. Sources: 1. “Danielle Marshall Murder Back in Spotlight |  11alive. Com .”  11Alive. Com , 10 AD,  https://www.11alive....

This week on Love Murder Current Affairs, Jessie covers the devastating case out of Muscatine, Iowa, where police say a domestic dispute ended with Ryan McFarland killing his ex-wife Lisa and five of her children across three locations before taking his own life.  Family GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/johnathan-mcfarland Sources: https://apnews.com/article/03c85292f6bda89b524e7280052f03...

A forbidden love affair turns deadly when one teenage girl brutally murders the object of her obsession in 1892 Memphis, Tennessee. Sources : 1. Coe, Alexis.  Alice + Freda Forever . Millbrook Press, 2019. 2.  News 3 Channel ,  https://wreg.com/news/1892-memphis-teen-female-love-affair-turned-murder-is-new-opera/ . Accessed 3 May 2026. 3.  Find A Grave ,  https://www....

Sophie Toscan du Plantier was a 39-year-old French producer, wife, and mother who traveled alone to her remote cottage in West Cork just before Christmas 1996. Two days later, she was found dead outside her gate, beaten beyond recognition, in a case that drew in Irish folklore, French cinema, a troubled local journalist, years of failed prosecutions, and a family’s long fight for justice across tw...

Three of our past subjects died this spring. Betty Broderick, who served 35 years for the 1989 La Jolla murders of her ex-husband Dan and his new wife Linda. Raynella Dossett Leath, the Tennessee nurse twice tried in the deaths of her district attorney husband and her second husband, and ultimately cleared. And Claudine Longet, the French-born singer whose 1976 shooting of Olympic skier Spider Sab...

A tumultuous marriage between an Egyptian “prince” and a French courtesan with ties to the British Royal Family ends in murder at The Savoy in 1920’s London. Sources: 1. Rose, Andrew.  The Woman Before Wallis . Picador, 2013. 2.  Lady Killers . 1980. 3. Leake, Natasha. “How a Beguiling French Courtesan Captured the Heart of a Young British Prince, in a Love Affair That Scandalised t...

This week on Love Murder Current Affairs, Jessie and Andie cover two major updates in cases of love gone fatally wrong: Kouri Richins is sentenced to life without parole for the fentanyl poisoning murder of her husband Eric, and the South Carolina Supreme Court overturns Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions after finding his trial was tainted by the court clerk’s improper comments to jurors. Current...

When a beloved Arizona teacher, therapist, and artist is bludgeoned to death in her own home, suspicion falls on the two men who loved her — an ex-husband who couldn't accept the divorce, and the best friend living in her guest house. A phone call cut short, mysterious DNA under her fingernails, and a marriage that wouldn't die collide in a case that twists through an anonymous email, a contaminat...

This week on Current Affairs, two cases of love gone fatally wrong. In Houston, restaurateur Matthew Mitchell shot and killed his wife Thy and their two young children before turning the gun on himself, leaving the city's food scene and a tight-knit family in shock. In Miami, 18-year-old Jahara Malik was sentenced to 17 years for fatally stabbing her boyfriend Yahkeim "Keimo" Lollar in an apartmen...

When a hardworking Hollywood cameraman is found shot dead in his Los Angeles home, police initially assume it’s a burglary gone wrong. With no forced entry and no stolen items, however, the investigation turns to personal vendettas, ultimately leading to the discovery of an additional linked murder and landing one of the perpetrators on death row. Sources: 1. Dziemianowicz, Joe. “‘Green Widow...

New court filings lay out prosecutors’ most detailed theory yet in the case against singer d4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. This episode breaks down the latest developments, including the prosecution’s new evidence brief, the judge’s decision not to seal it, the delayed preliminary hearing, the family’s response, and what remains unverified as...

When a devoted wife and mother is handcuffed in a Target parking lot in broad daylight by an official-looking woman wearing a badge, witnesses assume they are watching a real arrest. When the woman doesn’t return home and no police department can find any record of the detention, suspicion falls on those closest to her. Sources 1.  Dateline NBC . 1992. 2.  Deadly Women . 2008. 3. Di...

In this Current Affairs episode, Jessie and Andie cover the resolution of the decades-old disappearance of Teresa Peroni, who vanished after a Fourth of July party in Oregon in 1983. More than forty years later, modern DNA testing identified her remains, renewed witness interviews helped revive the case, and Marcus Sanfratello pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Current Affairs is Love Mu...

A bright young woman from Texas falls in love with a self-proclaimed counterculture guru in Philadelphia in the 1970s. The relationship that ensues is incredibly toxic and results in a missing person's case. When the truth comes out, the suspect goes on a flight from justice that lasts for years and spans countries. Sources Levy, Steven.  The Unicorn’s Secret . Open Road Media, 2016. “Einhorn...

Three developing cases: the arrest of singer David Burke, known as d4vd, in connection with the killing of 13-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez; the murder-suicide involving former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax and his wife Cerina Fairfax; and the death of influencer Ashly Robinson, known as Ashlee Jenae, under disputed circumstances at a resort in Zanzibar. Sources: https://www.reute...

When a newlywed is killed 3 months after their wedding, suspicion turns on the surviving spouse. Was it simply an accident or an act of jealous revenge? If so, was it the spouse or possibly the spouse’s ex? Sources: 1. Daniels, Frank J.  Dead Center . 2. “A Murder Disguised as a Hunting Accident - ABC News.”  ABC News , ABC News, 28 Jan. 2004,  https://abcnews.com/Primetime/sto...

Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect suspected in the Gilgo Beach serial murders, stood up in court and admitted to killing eight women over seventeen years. We break down the plea, the DNA evidence that finally caught him, and what this means for the families who waited more than a decade for answers. Sources: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gilgo-beach-serial-killer-suspect-rex-heuerman...

In the summer of 2019, a man drowned at a popular vacation spot outside Seoul while his wife stood just feet away on shore. What first looked like a tragic accident would unravel into a disturbing case involving financial control, multiple alleged murder attempts, an affair hidden in plain sight, and the television appearance that helped bring everything back into the spotlight. Sources: https://k...