True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Cindy Anthony’s 911 call on July 15, 2008, contained the most honest words spoken in the entire Casey Anthony case: the car smelled like a dead body. Three years later, on the witness stand, Cindy said it was just an expression. The protective instinct toward Casey had overridden the truth she’d blurted to a dispatcher in terror. The defense made it worse. Jose Baez accused George Anthony of cover...

It sounds like a legal thriller, but it's real. Rex Heuermann confessed to eight murders during family sessions run by Allison Winter, a counselor now facing eighteen felonies for allegedly practicing without a license and billing insurance for more than sixty thousand dollars. Legal analyst Eric Faddis lays out why that detail could give Heuermann's defense a genuine argument on appeal, even thou...

Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul. He pled guilty to decades of financial crimes. He staged a fake suicide attempt. And his surviving son Buster named his firstborn child after him. Buster attended every day of the six-week murder trial. He testified in his father’s defense. He continued visiting Alex in prison after the conviction. In a Fox Nation docuseries, h...

The chainsaws alone would be enough to make headlines. Add a burn box, bags, and a status conference that just wrapped, and you've got the D4VD case heating up right as a new Hulu documentary lands online, digging into the alleged relationship that led to fourteen-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez's death. Legal analyst Eric Faddis joins us to break down what happened behind closed doors at the lat...

Twenty-four members of the Menendez family showed up to a Los Angeles courthouse to fight for the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez — the men convicted of killing their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home in 1989. The press conference was led by Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s own sister. The family doesn’t deny the crime. They argue context. The brothers endured severe harm at the hands...

 It sounds like a legal thriller, but it's real. Rex Heuermann confessed to eight murders during family sessions run by a woman with no license to be in the room, and now that detail might give his defense something to work with. Legal analyst Eric Faddis lays out the theory: Heuermann may have pled guilty in large part to spare his ex-wife and daughter from testifying about that confession, and i...

It keeps happening. Someone standing just off to the side of a major criminal case ends up changing everything. In the Alec Murdaugh case, it was Becky Hill, whose conduct triggered a retrial. In the Nancy Guthrie case, it was questions swirling around Sheriff Nanos. Now it's Allison Winter, the woman who counseled Rex Heuermann inside the Suffolk County Jail for nearly three years — without a lic...

After Josh Duggar’s federal conviction on charges involving illegal material depicting minors, his mother Michelle wrote the judge a letter. She described Josh as “tender-hearted.” His wife Anna called him “kind, loving, supportive and caring.” They asked for five years. The prosecution asked for twenty. He got twelve and a half. Before the trial, Jim Bob Duggar took the stand and fought to protec...

Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and their unborn son Conner. He had an affair. He lied to investigators. The bodies washed ashore near where he said he went fishing. And his sister-in-law Janey Peterson has spent more than twenty years saying: the wrong person is in prison. Janey didn’t just feel it. She built the argument. She pointed to a burglary across the stre...

Chris Watts confessed to murdering his pregnant wife Shanann and their two daughters Bella and Celeste. He is serving life without parole. And within weeks of his sentencing, his parents Ronnie and Cindy Watts were on camera redirecting blame toward Shanann — the woman their son killed. Cindy described Shanann as controlling and suggested Chris had been pushed to a breaking point. Ronnie told repo...

Suzanne Morphew’s family was ready for October. The trial date was set. The travel was booked. Then Barry Morphew’s defense team filed a motion for a continuance, telling the judge they needed four to six additional months to review the evidence. The judge granted it. No new date has been set, but the trial could now stretch into mid-2027. This is the third time the Morphew case has been delayed o...

A cruise ship presents investigative challenges that land-based crime scenes do not. The vessel continues operating. The timeline for evidence recovery is compressed. The population aboard numbers in the thousands. And jurisdiction — in this case international waters — places the matter in federal court, under FBI authority, with procedural rules that rarely account for defendants as young as Timo...

The distinction matters. Rex Heuermann's defense attorney characterized the plea as a "calculated pivot," and the structure of the agreement supports that reading. This look back examines the plea not as a moment of reckoning but as a strategic act — and assesses what Heuermann secured in the process. Every pre-trial motion had failed: the DNA challenge, the motion for separate trials, the omnibus...

Four students, three floors, a few minutes before dawn — and a theory that refuses to die: no single person could have pulled it off. This episode takes the Idaho murders timeline apart and shows why Bryan Kohberger did this alone. We tackle the impossible math the doubters repeat, the scrubbed-scene story that traces back to a TV special the lead investigators called flat-out false, and the screa...

The unsealed autopsy findings in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez describe injuries consistent with a sharp instrument and physical evidence embedded in the remains that prosecutors say links the condition of the body to the defendant. This look back, with retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, examines the forensic record and its implications for the prosecution's case. The wound ch...

The Kouri Richins sentencing hearing produced an image that crystallized the entire case. As her three sons' statements were read aloud in a Park City courtroom by their therapists, Kouri was observed rolling her eyes and making faces. The boys described fear, locked rooms, and a household where they looked after one another. This look back examines that proceeding and the psychology it laid bare....

At the Kouri Richins sentencing, three clinical professionals read victim impact statements written by the defendant's own children, who were each under ten when their father died. This look back examines those statements, the defendant's response, and the contrast that defined the hearing. The boys' statements, read at their request word-for-word, described a household marked by locked bedroom do...

 Federal courts rarely handle defendants this young in cases this severe. Timothy Hudson, sixteen, faces first-degree murder and an additional serious federal charge in the death of his eighteen-year-old stepsister aboard the Carnival Horizon — a case in federal jurisdiction because it occurred in international waters. This look back examines how the defendant's age is reshaping every procedural d...

A guilty plea to seven counts of murder, with an admission to an eighth, establishes the underlying facts for purposes of civil litigation. This look back, with defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis, examines the wrongful death lawsuit filed in the wake of Rex Heuermann's plea and what it means for his family's legal exposure. The suit, filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack, names A...

Prosecutors have reportedly stated that David Anthony Burke did not act alone in the disposition of Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains. That assertion, combined with the documented pattern of resistance to testimony from multiple individuals in Burke's circle, raises substantive questions about potential criminal exposure beyond the named defendant. This look back, with former felony prosecutor Eri...

A recurring feature of certain high-profile spousal homicide cases is the perpetrator's apparent compulsion to control the public narrative — and, in doing so, to expose themselves. This look back examines that pattern through two convicted cases: Kouri Richins and Oregon novelist Nancy Crampton-Brophy. After Eric Richins died, Kouri produced a children's book about a father who dies and watches o...

The Reiner case reached a procedural standstill that surprised even seasoned observers: months after Rob and Michele Reiner died, the autopsy reports remained incomplete and under a law-enforcement security hold, and the preliminary hearing was continued to the fall. This look back examines the mechanics of that delay and what it indicates about the road to trial. Criminal defense attorney and for...

The evidentiary architecture connecting Rex Heuermann to the murders of Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy rests on two pillars: digital communications data and DNA. This look back examines how prosecutors constructed those connections and what they reveal about the methodology investigators spent more than a decade trying to identify. In Maureen's case, prosecutors alleged Heuermann u...

The charges filed against David Anthony Burke in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez represent the most serious allegations available under California law. This look back examines the charge sheet in detail and analyzes the prosecution's theory as constructed through the specific charges and special circumstances alleged. First-degree murder is accompanied by three special circumstances: lying in...

With Kouri Richins convicted on all counts, attention turns to what comes next — and the appellate road ahead is steeper than it first appears. This look back examines the foundation of the verdict and the realistic prospects of overturning it. The jury's path to conviction is itself notable: the foreperson told national media the panel began sympathetic to the defendant and was reluctant to convi...