True Crime Recaps

Eleven years separated the disappearances of two brothers, Michael and Chucky Palmer, yet the cases share a bond that investigators and the family have never been able to ignore. The first disappearance left a community with questions that were never fully resolved. When the second brother vanished years later under circumstances that drew uncomfortable comparisons, those questions took on an enti...

Alexis Von Yates, a stepmother from the United States, faced serious criminal charges involving the prolonged abuse of her young stepson. Authorities alleged a sustained pattern of mistreatment carried out within the family home, a setting where the child had no means of escape and no immediate protection. The case drew significant public attention once details began to emerge through the legal pr...

In August 2002, ten year old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished from the quiet town of Soham in Cambridgeshire, England. The two best friends were last seen entering the home of Ian Huntley, the caretaker at their local secondary school and the partner of their former teaching assistant, Maxine Carr. What followed was one of the most closely watched missing persons investigations in British...

In the late 1970s, Los Angeles was gripped by terror as young women began disappearing from the streets, only to be found brutally murdered in the hills above the city. Known as the Hillside Strangler, the killer, or killers, posed as police officers to lure victims before assaulting and strangling them. The case turned out to involve two men: Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, cousins whose partne...

In December 2000, 31-year-old Mike Williams left home before sunrise for a duck hunting trip on Lake Seminole. Later that day, his boat was discovered drifting on the water with no sign of him. Investigators quickly assumed he had fallen into the lake and been eaten by alligators: a tragic but believable explanation in the Florida wilderness. With no body and no clear evidence of foul play, the ca...

In March 2021, police in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire made a discovery that would shock even seasoned officers. A woman in her early forties was found severely malnourished, terrified, and living in conditions described as prison-like inside an ordinary family home. Prosecutors later revealed that she had been brought into the home at just 16 years old and allegedly held captive for more than two d...

Helen Brach was the wealthy heiress to the Brach candy fortune, living a life of privilege in Chicago. In February 1977, she traveled to the Mayo Clinic for a routine medical visit and was expected to return home shortly afterward. Instead, she vanished. Her houseman claimed she returned home briefly before leaving for Florida, but investigators quickly noticed inconsistencies in his story. Suspic...

On New Year’s Eve 2021, Morgan Metzer woke up inside her Canton, Georgia home to a masked intruder standing in her doorway. The man assaulted her, zip tied her, and dragged her outside into the freezing cold before fleeing. Moments later, her ex husband Rodney Metzer arrived and called 911, presenting himself as the man who had come to help. Investigators quickly began questioning how he appeared...

In 2005 and 2006, Phoenix was overtaken by fear as a series of sudden, violent attacks spread across the city. People were assaulted, robbed, kidnapped, and killed in parking lots, gas stations, restaurants, and quiet neighborhoods. There was no pattern, no specific victim type, and no warning, making everyday life feel dangerous. As the attacks escalated, police realized they were hunting one per...

Joe Metheny lived in a small trailer beside an industrial pallet yard in south Baltimore, working nights and keeping largely to himself. After his wife left and he lost custody of his son, Metheny spiraled into violence that would later shock the city. The case broke open in December 1996 when Rita Kemper escaped a brutal assault inside his trailer and alerted police. Investigators returned to the...

Michael Bullinger was living two completely separate lives. In Utah, he had a wife of seven years. In Idaho, he had a secret fiancée and her fourteen year old daughter. Neither woman knew about the other. Both believed they were building a future with him. In June 2017, Cheryl Baker, Nadja Medley, and Nadja’s daughter Payton were found shot and hidden beneath a tarp inside a shed on an Idaho prope...

Eighty four year old Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Catalina Foothills home in Tucson after returning from dinner with her daughter on January 31. At 1:47 a.m., her doorbell camera abruptly disconnected. Newly released FBI footage shows a masked and armed individual approaching the front door, attempting to block the camera, and then ripping it off. Blood matching Nancy’s DNA was later found o...

Toyah Cordingley was just 24 years old when she took her dog for a walk along Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland. It was a quiet afternoon in October 2018. Within minutes, everything changed. Toyah was stabbed 26 times and her body was partially buried in the sand dunes. Her dog was later found alive, tied to a tree. When she did not return home, her family searched through the night. By morni...

Eighty four year old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Catalina Foothills home in Tucson after returning from dinner with her daughter on January 31. At 1:47 a.m., her doorbell camera suddenly disconnected. Newly released FBI footage shows a masked and armed individual approaching the front door, attempting to block the camera, and then ripping it off. Blood matching Nancy’s DNA was found on the por...

In March 2014, an 18 year old approached a stranger’s home in Robstown, Texas, and calmly asked them to call 911. When police arrived, they learned the teenager, Kevin Davis, had taken the life of his own mother. The victim was 50 year old Kimberly Hill, a former Marine and hospice caregiver. Kevin told investigators the act was not impulsive. He said he had thought about harming his mother for ye...

On the morning of February 24, 2023, police responded to a home in Fairfax County, Virginia. Inside, they found 37 year old Christine Banfield critically injured. A man named Joseph Ryan was already dead, shot by Christine’s husband, IRS special agent Brendan Banfield. Brendan told investigators he had interrupted a violent attack and acted in self defense. At first, the explanation appeared strai...

When 55 year old Greg Fleniken failed to show up for work, coworkers requested a welfare check at his Beaumont, Texas hotel. He was found deceased inside his locked room. There were no signs of forced entry, no visible injuries, and no evidence of a struggle. Given Greg’s health history, investigators initially believed he had died of natural causes. That assumption quickly unraveled. An autopsy r...

In the early hours of a February morning in Michigan, a 911 dispatcher receives a call that immediately raises concern. A woman tells the operator that “things got out of hand” and that they were “supposed to leave yesterday.” What first sounds like confusion soon reveals a far more serious situation involving 17 year old Austin Pikaart. Investigators later learn that Austin’s mother, Katie Austin...

In 1927, four year old Billy Gaffney disappeared from his New York City apartment building while playing in the hallway. When questioned, the only other child present gave a chilling response, saying “the boogeyman took him.” Billy was never seen again, and at the time, no one understood what those words truly meant. A year later, a man using the name Frank Howard gained the trust of the Budd fami...

In May 2013, Tim Bosma left his rural Ontario home for a late night test drive with two men interested in buying his truck. He never returned. What followed was a complex investigation that uncovered a case driven not by need, but by entitlement. Authorities soon focused on Dellen Millard, a wealthy aviation heir known for risk taking and a pattern of reckless behavior. Investigators pieced togeth...

On August 22, 1990, Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson left a Houston nightclub and vanished. Their white car was later found abandoned at the end of a dark dead end street known locally as Lovers Lane. Inside the vehicle were broken glass, blood, and Cheryl’s belongings, but no sign of the couple. Hours later, police made a horrifying discovery in a nearby wooded field. Cheryl had been sexually assau...

On May 10, 1979, six-year-old Rebecca “Becky” Kunash went to sleep in her Merritt Island, Florida home with a night light glowing beside her bed. Sometime after midnight, while her parents slept just feet away, a man removed her window screen, entered her bedroom, and abducted her. By morning, Becky was gone. Her body was found hours later in a nearby canal. Investigators quickly focused on Bryan...

Emmy winning actor and director Timothy Busfield is facing serious criminal charges in New Mexico following allegations involving two child actors he worked with on the Fox series The Cleaning Lady. Prosecutors have charged Busfield with two counts of criminal sexual misconduct against a minor and one count of child abuse. He has denied all allegations and maintains his innocence. According to cou...

In November 1998, Shandelle Maycock trusted a man she knew from church, Harrel Braddy. What began as an uncomfortable acquaintance quickly turned into a violent kidnapping. Braddy attacked Shandelle inside her apartment, choking her unconscious multiple times before forcing both her and her five year old daughter, Quantisha “Candy” Maycock, into his car. When the pair tried to escape, Braddy force...

In late December, Monique and Spencer Tepe were found shot to death inside their Ohio home, the same place where they had once exchanged wedding vows. The killings happened in the early morning hours while their two young children slept in nearby bedrooms, unharmed and unaware. There were no signs of forced entry and no weapon left behind. Surveillance footage later showed a hooded figure walking...