Real Crime Stories

In August 2025, 34-year-old mother and small business owner Mariah Rosanna Samuels took critical steps to secure her safety by ending her relationship with David Eugene Wright and obtaining an Order for Protection. But on the morning of September 14, when Wright violated that order, the emergency response system failed her. A responding officer spent only four minutes on the scene and filed an ina...

Season 3 of Real Crime Stories examines domestic violence homicides through the lives of the victims, the warning signs that preceded the violence, and the investigations that followed. Monique Tepe's marriage to Michael McKee ended years before she and her husband, Spencer Tepe, were found murdered in their Columbus, Ohio home. Yet investigators would later allege that the danger had not ende...

In the multi-state aftermath of an execution, the legal system is forced to confront its darkest technicalities. In the season finale of "The Playbook," Real Crime Stories pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary trial and appellate battle of Larry Florentine. When federal prosecutors step in under the Violence Against Women Act to close state jurisdictional loopholes, the defense str...

When the vital lifeline calls to a grandmother suddenly stop, the silence reveals a terrifying reality. In Part IV of "The Playbook," Real Crime Stories covers the fracture and collapse of a killer's timeline. On June 13, 2020, a routine morning for a Kentucky cemetery groundskeeper takes a horrific turn after discovering a shallow, makeshift grave. As state police piece together an...

The timeline reconstructed by federal investigators reveals a journey across state lines that quickly devolved into a nightmare. In Part III of "The Playbook," Real Crime Stories tracks the dark center of this investigation. Somewhere along the roads of North Carolina, the vehicle becomes an execution scene. What follows is a multi-state flight defined by an unimaginable contrast: a kill...

Before a killer drove across state lines, a mother was just trying to survive the ashes of her old life. In Part II of "The Playbook," Real Crime Stories steps away from the investigative timeline to look at the passenger seat. Nichole Florentine wasn't a case file statistic—she was a mother of four, a sister, a daughter, and a granddaughter. In an increasingly hostile environment, h...

Every investigator who spends enough time on the street will tell you the same thing: monsters rarely strike out of nowhere. They leave a trail. They drop hints. Sometimes, they even hand over the exact blueprint of what they intend to do. In the premiere episode of Season 2, Real Crime Stories unpacks "The Playbook"... a chilling case of systemic failure and domestic escalation out of Y...

When a court issues a protective injunction, it is supposed to be a lifeline. A boundary between survival and disaster. But as investigators uncover time and time again, leaving an abusive relationship is often the most dangerous threshold a survivor will ever face. In this episode of Real Crime Stories , we look closely at the life of 58-year-old Alesa Leach...a mother, grandmother, city bus driv...

On December 17, 2025, two Florida men were killed just hours apart and investigators say both murders were connected to the same woman. In this episode, we break down the shocking case of Susan Avalon, who authorities accuse of targeting her ex-boyfriend Timothy Fletcher in Tampa before traveling to Bradenton and killing her ex-husband David Scott while disguised as a food delivery driver. From th...

A Mother’s Promise, A System’s Failure: The Tragic Story of Frezja Matisse Baker On December 4, 2025, a gray-blue Honda Accord pulled away from a Charlotte, North Carolina gas station. Inside, a brutal assault had just been captured on surveillance tape. A week later, that same car was found hidden behind an abandoned church. Inside was 31-year-old Frezja Matisse Baker, a devoted young mother whos...

Richard Eugene Cote was a 76‑year‑old Vermont business owner killed in his own home by someone he had known for decades. This episode examines the violent final night of his life, the evidence that followed, and the long history of warning signs tied to his killer—many of them known to the justice system. A case that raises difficult questions about intervention, accountability, and what happens w...

A chilling 911 call. A fake home invasion. And a Ring camera investigators say exposed everything. This episode dives into the killing of Jodi Cathcart, the alleged staging of the crime scene, and the shocking financial lie prosecutors say unraveled an entire family.

A toxic relationship on a college track team turns fatal. When 23-year-old Lincoln University sprinter Kevaughn Goldson is found with lethal stab wounds, investigators uncover a volatile history of secrets, a midnight confrontation, and a chaotic bedroom struggle. We break down the tragic timeline of betrayal, the forensic evidence, and the murder charges against his student-athlete girlfriend.

On January 16, 2026, a quiet morning on West Parker Road in Greenville County, South Carolina, shattered when twenty-three-year-old Trycina Nichole Whitehurst was found dead inside her home from a catastrophic gunshot wound. Hours later, her thirty-three-year-old boyfriend, Devortae Marquez Durham, was surrounded and arrested by a heavy tactical police response at a local Quality Inn & Suites....

When 23-year-old Ashanti Allen vanished from her Houston apartment on April 10, 2026, her family received a chilling text message from her phone stating she was "leaving and not coming back." But Ashanti was eight months pregnant with her first child, her baby supplies were untouched, and her loved ones knew something was terribly wrong. What followed was a heartbreaking search that expo...

In the debut episode of Real Crime Stories, we examine the killing of Adrian Valdovinos and the events that followed. We walk through the known timeline, the key people involved, and the evidence that shaped the case. This episode focuses on verified reporting, case records, and respectful storytelling centered on the human impact behind the headlines. Listener discretion is advised: this episode...