True Crime Arizona

In March 2020, as the world was shutting down at the beginning of the pandemic, Sandee Hines disappeared from her Mesa, Arizona home. But she didn’t just vanish alone. Her husband, Jason Hines, was also gone. Hines was a convicted criminal and became a fugitive on the run for sex crimes against children. The last known surveillance video of Sandee Hines’ car, shows Jason getting out of it. But eve...

For nearly two months, the Idaho man known as the “Doomsday Prophet,” Chad Daybell, faced witness after witness as he stood on trial for the murder of his wife Tammy Daybell, and the murders of Lori Vallow’s two young kids Tylee Ryan, and JJ Vallow. The killings were all tied to radical religious beliefs that a Second Coming was approaching, and people were “light and dark” spirits. Come with us a...

On May 17th, 2024, police are called out to a home in Surprise, AZ for an unknown shooting. They learn a woman, Allie, had escaped from being held hostage, but her 6-month-old baby, Jaxson, was still inside with his father and in danger. That man, Todd Marchetti, then shoots his own baby multiple times, and officers go inside to rescue Jaxson. A standoff then ensues, until the house unexpectedly g...

The newly released incident report and 911 calls from the day 22-year-old Mercedes Vega’s body was found in a burning car reveals new details about what was seen on the freeway that day in April 2023. We learn who made the 911 call, what he saw from the road, and what kind of car she was found in – a car that was not hers. Mercedes Vega was shot, hit, and eventually burned alive after going missin...

On June 4 2022, 19-year-old Rachel Hansen woke up to a stranger in her Gilbert, AZ apartment. The suspect shot her, then left, and Rachel later died at the hospital. The teen had been working for years as a horse trainer and had just moved into that apartment after living on a ranch. Nearly two years later, her murder remains unsolved, but her parents feel two odd circumstances in the days leading...

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer from Bullhead City, AZ, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Halyna Hutchins. Hutchins was the cinematographer on the movie ‘Rust’ starring Alec Baldwin, when in 2021, a prop gun the actor was rehearsing with on set had a real bullet inside instead of a fake one. When Baldwin fired it during the scen...

The high school basketball coach and man famously known for his “Mr. ORNG” character at Phoenix Suns game has now been arrested for soliciting sexual videos and pictures from teen boys. According to police, 37-year-old Patrick Battillo asked male students at the school he coached at to send explicit videos of themselves via Snapchat, in exchange for money. Another teacher at the high school as arr...

Queen Creek Police released 42 minutes of 911 calls from the Halloween party where 16-year-old Preston Lord was fatally beaten on October 28, 2023, including the desperate call when people on scene were trying to save his life before police arrived. They also released more than 1,100 pages of the police report. True Crime Correspondent Briana Whitney, chief investigative reporter Morgan Loew, and...

Chance Comanche was a well-known name in Arizona—a former University of Arizona basketball player that had gone on to play in the professional NBA G-league. Comanche was in Las Vegas in December 2023 for a basketball tournament, when he and his ex-girlfriend were the last ones to see Marayna Rodgers, from Washington state, alive. As detectives searched for Rodgers, the investigation led to a trail...

Months after Preston Lord died after being beaten at a Halloween party, multiple suspects, including several teenagers, have been arrested and indicted for first-degree murder and kidnapping. True Crime Correspondent Briana Whitney, investigative reporter Morgan Loew, and Arizona’s Family anchor Nicole Crites analyze how prosecutors got to these charges, the shocking new information that was revea...

In 2005, a baby girl was found dead in the women’s bathroom trash can at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The medical examiner rule she was suffocated, and lived just 24 hours. She became known as “Baby Skylar.” For nearly two decades, police had no idea who the baby’s mother was, or why she was killed. Now, detectives have found and arrested 51-year-old Annie Anderson of Washington state for first deg...

She’s analyzed the behavior and words of serial killers like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ed Kemper. She’s received videos from one of the most famous cult leaders to live. She trained Jodie Foster for her role in  The Silence of the Lambs. She helped investigate where the 9/11 plan was hatched and who the bombers were. And she brought a new sense of empathy and intelligence to the behavioral sc...

Host Briana Whitney and Arizona Family reporters Alexis Dominguez and Casey Torres dive into and analyze the latest string of developments in the East Valley teen violence investigations, including an exclusive interview with the parents of a suspect in mutliple assaults, a teen victim's fight for change in Arizona law, and the community fallout from the Gilbert police chief's first press conferen...

True Crime Arizona host Briana Whitney and Arizona’s Family reporter Emma Lockhart break down the details in the five new arrests in East Valley teen violence cases, both admitted and possible ties to the “Gilbert Goons,” and the possible impact these arrests may have on the ongoing Preston Lord murder investigation. We hear from Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell on where the Lord investiga...

Just before Thanksgiving 2022, JoAnn Dudek was getting ready for a holiday trip to NYC to visit family, when communication suddenly stopped. JoAnn lived in Anthem, AZ with her husband and daughter, who were there the day she allegedly disappeared and told investigators she left behind most belongings. But it’s a case full of twists and turns: Bizarre phone calls that may or may not exist, another...

Exactly two months after 16-year-old Preston Lord was beaten to death at a Halloween party in Queen Creek, Arizona, police announced they are recommending charges against seven juveniles and adults involved in his death. It is now up to the Maricopa County Attorney to decide who and what to prosecute. This comes as other investigations into teen violence in the East Valley have been reopened with...

In August 1992, remains of an unidentified teenager were found by somebody walking their dog in Apache Junction, Arizona. 30 years later, DNA and forensic genetic genealogy have helped identify her as a girl from South Phoenix who went missing in June of 1992. Her family was able to answer some things, but how she got to the remote desert and her cause of death is unknown. The timing of her disapp...

Sixty years ago, in November 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while driving through downtown Dallas. It’s a historic event that has   fueled theories and conspiracies about what happened. But now, with modern technology, an engineering and animation lab has found something new that they said proves the “single bullet theory” is not possible scientifically. As they explain their fin...

In April 2023, 22-year-old Mercedes Vega was leaving her Tempe, Arizona apartment to meet friends for dinner. The next morning, her body was found burning in a car off the I-10 freeway 60 miles away in the rural desert. Once the autopsy report was released, the details revealed one of the most gruesome murders and causes of death. Now 7 months later, her parents are sitting down for the first time...

In 2004, 5-year-old Josh Eberle Martinson was found dead on a bunk bed in his father’s Phoenix apartment, while his father, Jeffrey Martinson, was in the next room passed out from an attempted suicide with prescription drugs and liquor. The medical examiner ruled Josh’s death was from an overdose of prescription meds, and his father was charged with his murder. However, multiple years and trials l...

More than four years after Jamie Yazzie disappeared on the Navajo Nation, her boyfriend learned his fate in a federal courtroom after being charged with her murder and assaulting other women.

DNA cracked the case in the brutal murder of a college student over three decades ago along a popular hiking trail. The Prescott, Arizona murder of Cathy Sposito in June of 1987 was unsolved but remained open and active for 36 years. In September 2023, the Yavapai County Sheriff named Bryan Scott Bennett as Sposito’s killer, but the investigation found Bennett also had more victims who were attack...

In June 1976, Phoenix newspaper journalist Don Bolles was blown up by a bomb placed under his car while he took a business meeting at the Hotel Clarendon about a possible land fraud story. Because of Bolles' reporting on Mafia involvement in Arizona and poor business dealings, rumors swirled about who was behind the murder. This is the story of the daughters–the daughter of the man twice convicted...

Barry Jones was convicted of first degree murder for the death of 4-year-old Rachel Gray in 1994,  and sentenced to death. But as the decades went on, several attorneys and officials found issues with how the case legally played out. In 2023, the AG’s office granted Barry Jones a plea deal and said he did not cause the girl’s injuries, but should have sought out medical care for her. He walked out...

Tiffany confronts her dad, Edison Sorrell, about her belief that he was involved in her mom’s disappearance. Briana interviews Edison on the phone, who shares his side of the story. The True Crime Arizona team learns there are more people among ‘The Forgotten’ who they interviewed, sharing details they never have before. The team gives updates on what’s happened since the documentary came out, and...