True Crime Brewery

The Murder of Alan Helmick On the morning of June 10, 2008, a robbery was staged in the Colorado home of businessman Alan Helmick. His wife, Miriam, came home to find Alan on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Because Alan had been shot in the back of his head, investigators believed that he had been taken by surprise and executed. But who was Alan’s killer and what was the motive? Join us at t...

On May 20, 1988, 30-year-old Laurie Dann left poisoned snacks and juice boxes at several houses, started a fire that nearly killed a mother and her two children, and sprayed bullets inside of an elementary school classroom. After years of living with a serious mental illness, she had made a plan to hurt everyone she believed had slighted her as well as others who were completely innocent. There ha...

On November 10, 2010, in broad daylight, a man broke into the home of Tina Herrmann and her two young children. The attacks, murders, and kidnapping that followed were some of the worst crimes in the history of the state of Ohio. Matthew Hoffman was known by his neighbors as a bit of an oddball, but this didn’t necessarily mean that he was dangerous. He did have a history of breaking and entering...

In September 1985, two Muncie, Indiana, teenagers were shot and killed in their car while parked in the popular Westside Park. The murders stunned Muncie families because the victims were well-liked students at Muncie Northside High School. Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were found late at night by the police officer who was clearing out the park at closing time. Their car was still running, with...

Sandra Renee Cantu vanished from her Tracy, California, mobile home park in March of 2009, just weeks after her 8th birthday. It was a Friday afternoon. Sandra left home at around 4 p.m. to play at a friend’s house. She was expected home for dinner, but her mother called the police and reported her missing at 7:53 p.m. Police did not find Sandra that day, but they did locate surveillance camera fo...

1998 was a shocking and disturbing year for the residents of Port Angeles, Washington. First, a three-day old infant died at the hands of beloved pediatrician Dr. Eugene Turner. Then, the wife of ER physician Bruce Rowen was found hacked to death inside of her car. But were these two deaths connected? Join us at the quiet end for A Very Bad Year in Port Angeles . Dr. Eugene Turner was considered s...

No one really knows what happens between two people in a marriage. But after events in the home of couple Mary and Matthew Winkler led to a deadly shooting, everyone had an opinion. Mary and Matthew had married young. Matthew was a preacher for the Church of Christ in a small town in Tennessee. Depending on who you’re talking to, Matthew was either a devoted family man or an abusive deviant and Ma...

When Jeanne Dominico woke up on the morning of August 6, 2003, she didn’t expect to die that day. She was a hard-working divorced mom of two teenagers, so every day was busy. After working one of her three jobs, Jeanne would go home to fix dinner and clean up the house for her son, Charlie, and her daughter, Nicole. Nothing was more important to Jeanne than her children. For the past three years o...

On a chilly January morning in 2002, 12-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared on her way to her school bus stop in Oregon City, Oregon. Two months after Ashley disappeared, Miranda Gaddis, age 13, also vanished while on her way to the same bus stop. Miranda and Ashley were good friends and they lived in the same apartment complex. They were both friends with Mallori Weaver too, the daughter of local ma...

The day of July 22, 2007 had been a typical Sunday for the Petit family of Cheshire, Connecticut. But on that summer day, a convicted felon out on parole noticed mother Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela, shopping at a neighborhood grocery store. Michaela had taken an interest in cooking and she was choosing ingredients for the family dinner she would prepare that night. A...

Whenever we hear of a case of a healthcare professional purposefully hurting a patient, I feel outraged. When the patients hurt are children, it’s ten times worse. The case of Genene Jones, LVN, is one of the most reprehensible instances of child abuse and murder in recent history. During her time working in a pediatric intensive care unit and then in a pediatric office, Genene was responsible for...

Jay Orbin lived to be exactly forty-five years old. He was murdered on September 8, 2004, which was his forty-fifth birthday. It was just over a month later when his decomposing torso was found in a Rubbermaid container in the Phoenix desert. Everyone would agree that Jay had been kind and hard-working. He was a self-made man and a loving father. Unfortunately, he was married to a conniving and co...

Russ Faria was a normal, working guy, in love with his wife, Betsy, when he was framed for her murder. He was convicted and spent years in prison before an acquittal was won by his attorney, Joel Schwartz. This story was enough for a true crime book or an episode of Dateline, but it was just the beginning. It turns out that the person responsible for framing Russ and brutally murdering Betsy was h...

On May 27, 1978, a crime took place in the Lowcountry town of Walterboro, South Carolina, that created a cloud of fear and sadness over everyone who lived there. Hometown girl, twenty-six-year-old Gwendolyn Elaine Fogle, was attacked in her home, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. That Saturday evening, Elaine had babysat for friends, arriving at their home at about 6:45 p.m. She was happy...

After sharing a celebratory birthday dinner with her family, 57-year-old Susan Sutton and her husband John were attacked in their home by a masked gunman. Because credit cards, jewelry, and cash were found out in the open and undisturbed, investigators believed early on that this was an inside job. John Sutton was a successful civil attorney who had made some enemies over the years. Susan was love...

Edith Meyer was born on Independence Day and soon went by the nickname “Pen.” It suited her, because Pen was her own person. At age 55, Pen was living her best life in the small town of Goshen, New Hampshire. She was a recovering alcoholic and known for her helpfulness and compassion towards others in the program. Join us at the quiet end for One Day at a Time . Sadly, it was Pen’s concern for oth...

Candace Mossler was a well-known socialite in Houston, Texas, in the 1960s. She was charming and attractive in a Marilyn Monroe type of way, with a voluptuous figure, an easy smile, and a soft, breathy voice, much like the late actress. She was a woman who could have anything she wanted, until what she wanted threatened to end her lavish lifestyle. Candice lived in a three-story mansion in one of...

Shayna Hubers called 911 on October 12, 2012 to report that she had killed her boyfriend in self-defense. According to Shayna, Ryan Poston had beaten her and he was reaching for a gun when she grabbed it and shot him. She said that Ryan was throwing her around the room like a ragdoll, into furniture, the walls, and onto the floor. He was evil, she said, and he deserved what he got. But evidence di...

On the day she died, Patricia Blakely Kimble was both in love with and afraid of her husband Ted. After years of loving him and hoping for his love in return, the two were married in the spring of 1994. Ted’s father, a Baptist pastor, officiated. It was the happiest day of Patricia’s life, but for Ted the marriage was only a necessary step to further his career. His boss had told him that he could...

It was a frigid December afternoon in 1986 when Jerry Tobias was found dead in the back of his pickup. The 31-year-old oil field worker was curled up in the fetal position on the truck bed’s bare metal floor, wearing only blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and cowboy boots. Join us at the quiet end for False Witness . Jerry’s death was a mystery. The first clue was inside the cab of his truck, where pol...

In 2017, 45-year-old Lloyd Neurauter told his 19-year-old daughter, Karrie, that he couldn’t afford to pay child support to her mother, Michele, anymore. He shared his plan A and plan B with Karrie: He could either murder Karrie’s mother or he would take his own life. Lloyd was definitely leaning toward murdering Michele. But he couldn’t do it alone. He needed help. Join us at the quiet end for Th...

In the early morning hours of June 19, 1982, Virginia and James Campbell were sound asleep when intruders entered their home through a window and entered their bedroom. As their grandsons slept nearby, six rounds were fired into the defenseless couple. The two young boys ran to their live-in housekeeper’s room for help and she called 911. When first responders arrived at the Campbell home in Houst...

Kirsty Grabham died in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her husband, Paul, in 2009. Her death is all the more heartbreaking for her family because Kirsty had fallen into a life of drug addiction, prostitution, and violence, months earlier. They could see that Kirsty was in danger and they were helpless to save her. Kirsty’s mother, Cathy, and her sisters, Sonya and Hayley, were dev...

On December 27, 2011, in a small town outside of St. Louis, Missouri, Russ Faria called 911. His wife, Betsy, was lying in a pool of blood, dead, with a kitchen knife protruding from her neck. The house was in disarray, with shopping bags and Christmas decorations scattered on the floor. Russ had been at game night with some friends that evening. When he returned home to the horrific, heartbreakin...

Christine Paolilla was an outsider at Clear Lake High School. Looking different and lacking self-confidence, she was brutally teased and bullied. Christine was awkward, near-sighted, and she had alopecia, requiring her to wear thick glasses and wigs. But then, Christine was befriended by two pretty, popular girls: Rachael Koloroutis and Tiffany Rowell. They helped Christine improve her appearance...