TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Cherish Lily Perrywinkle with me today. In June 2013, 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle was shopping with her mother and sisters at a Walmart when they were approached by a stranger, Donald James Smith, who pretended to be a good Samaritan offering help to the struggling family. After hours of gaining their trust inside the store, Smith convinced C...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Joel Guy Sr. and Lisa Guy with me today. In 2016, 28‑year‑old Joel Guy Jr. was accused of murdering and dismembering his parents, Lisa and Joel Guy Sr., inside their Knoxville, Tennessee home over Thanksgiving weekend, after years of being financially supported by them. Prosecutors alleged that Joel killed them to collect life insurance and inhe...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Debbie Elizabeth Cameron Griggs with me today. In May 1999, Debbie Griggs, a 34-year-old pregnant mother of three from Deal, Kent, suddenly vanished from her home, sparking a missing persons investigation that would remain a mystery for decades. Debbie was three months pregnant when she disappeared, and suspicion quickly surrounded her husband,...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Donna Ongsiako with me today. On a July night in 2013, 51‑year‑old Colts Neck, New Jersey mother Donna Ongsiako was attacked in her kitchen by a 16‑year‑old neighbor, Brennan Doyle, who had entered her home and stabbed her repeatedly before fleeing in her car. Donna survived the assault and was able to call for help, and investigators later link...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Christian Andreacchio with me today. On a February afternoon in 2014, 21‑year‑old tugboat worker Christian Andreacchio was found slumped over the bathtub in his small Meridian, Mississippi apartment, a single gunshot wound to the head and a pistol resting on the wrong side of his body. His death was ruled a suicide in under an hour, the scene qu...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tiffany Salter with me today. In 2012, 28‑year‑old Tiffany Nicole Salter was killed outside the Richmond County, Georgia home she shared with her boyfriend, Todd Goff, after a violent argument turned physical. Tiffany was found dead in the yard, and an autopsy determined she died from asphyxiation due to strangulation after Todd’s mother called...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering David Riess and Pamela Hutchinson with me today. In 2018, the shocking case of Lois Riess, often referred to as the “Killer Grandma,” stunned the nation. After her husband, David Riess, was found shot to death inside their Minnesota home, Lois disappeared.. withdrawing thousands of dollars and sparking a multi-state manhunt. But this wasn’t just...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Eve Marie Carson with me today. Eve Marie Carson was a 22‑year‑old student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was abducted near her home in March 2008. She was forced to withdraw money from ATMs and was then shot and killed; her body was found on a residential street not far from campus. Investigators identifie...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sophie Sergie with me today. Sophie Sergie was a 20‑year‑old Alaska Native student from the village of Pitkas Point who was found murdered in a residence hall bathroom at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in April 1993. She had been visiting a friend on campus when she disappeared; hours later, a janitor discovered her body in a bathtub. She ha...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering all the women and young girls who lost their lives at the hands of this LOSER with me today. Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game Killer," murdered at least seven young women and girls across California and New York in the 1970s, posing as a photographer to lure victims. His confirmed killings included 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1979 and f...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Christina Marie Williams with me today. In 1998, 13‑year‑old Christina Marie Williams disappeared while walking her dog near her home on the former Fort Ord Army base in Seaside, California. Her dog returned alone, prompting a large‑scale search; months later, Christina’s remains were found in a remote area a few miles away, confirming she had b...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Rachel Lynn Castillo with me today. In November 2022, 25-year-old Simi Valley social worker and graduate student Rachel Castillo vanished from her sister’s apartment after a routine custody exchange with her two young sons. Her sister found a large amount of blood inside, but Rachel and her car were gone, sparking an urgent missing-person invest...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jake Merfeld with me today. In April 2013, Julia Merfeld, a 21-year-old newlywed from Muskegon County, Michigan, was arrested after attempting to hire a hitman to kill her husband, a plot that turned out to be a police sting operation. Merfeld had contacted a man she believed could arrange the murder, offering $50,000 in life-insurance money to...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering George Harrison and Olivia Harrison with me today. In December 1999, former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and his wife Olivia Harrison survived a terrifying home invasion at their estate in Henley-on-Thames, England. In the middle of the night, a man named Michael Abram broke into their home armed with a knife. Abram attacked George, stabbin...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts with me today. The murder of Mollie Tibbetts is a haunting true crime case that shattered the illusion of safety in small-town America. On July 18, 2018, the 20-year-old University of Iowa student vanished while out for a routine evening jog in Brooklyn, Iowa.. a run she had taken countless times before. When Mollie faile...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Meggan Lambesis with me today. In May 2013, Tim Lambesis, the lead singer of the metal band As I Lay Dying , was arrested in San Diego, California, after attempting to hire a hitman to kill his estranged wife. What Lambesis didn’t know was that the person he contacted was actually an undercover police officer. During recorded meetings, Lambesis...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alexis Tiara Murphy with me today. In August 2013, 17-year-old Alexis Murphy disappeared after leaving her home in Nelson County, Virginia, to buy something at a nearby gas station. Surveillance footage captured her arriving but she never returned home. Investigators soon focused on Randy Allen Taylor, a local man whose vehicle was seen at the s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tatiane Spitzner with me today. In June 2018, 29-year-old Tatiane Spitzner, a university professor and martial arts instructor in Guarapuava, Brazil, was found dead under a bridge near her home, her body discovered hours after she was last seen at a birthday party. What initially looked like a tragic fall quickly turned into a harrowing case of...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Michael Tatalovich, Jonathan Gilbert, and Michelle Machusko with me today. In January 2008, a quiet evening near Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania turned into a deadly attack when 23-year-old H. Paul Visnansky, a part-time postal worker, entered a North Fayette apartment and opened fire on three students studying together. Two of the youn...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Melissa Jenkins with me today. In March 2012, 33-year-old science teacher Melissa Jenkins, a beloved educator at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont and devoted mother, was kidnapped and murdered after being lured from her home under a cruel pretext. A couple she loosely knew called her that evening, claiming their car had broken down and asking fo...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Iana Kasian with me today. In May 2016, 30-year-old Iana Kasian, a Ukrainian-born model living in West Hollywood, California, was found dead in the apartment she shared with her fiancé, Blake Leibel. Iana had just given birth to their daughter three weeks earlier, but what should have been a joyful new beginning instead became a horrifying trage...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sheri, Garrett, and Gavin with me today. In May 2009, what appeared to be a devoted husband and father in Columbia, Illinois turned out to be something far darker. Christopher “Chris” Coleman, a former Marine and head of security for a prominent televangelist’s ministry, strangled his wife, Sheri Coleman, and their two young sons, 11-year-old Ga...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Melanie Davis with me today. In August 2012, 15-year-old Zachary Davis murdered his mother, Melanie Davis, while she slept in their Tennessee home, striking her repeatedly with a sledgehammer. After the killing, he attempted to murder his older brother by setting the house on fire, a plan that ultimately failed when his brother escaped and polic...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kelly Bullwinkle with me today. On September 13, 2003, 18-year-old Kelly Bullwinkle, a college student from Redlands, California, vanished after finishing her shift at a fast-food restaurant. Her abandoned car was found at a nearby mall, and weeks of searching followed until paintball players discovered her body in a shallow grave in San Timoteo...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Heather Rich with me today. In October 1996, 16-year-old Heather Rose Rich, a high school cheerleader from Waurika, Oklahoma, disappeared after leaving home to meet a local teen on what was supposed to be a first date. Her body was found days later in Belknap Creek in Montague County, Texas, shot nine times with a shotgun and left in the water n...