TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

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...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry with me today. In 2015, authorities in Detroit, Michigan, made a horrifying discovery while carrying out an eviction: the bodies of two of Mitchelle Blair’s children, 13-year-old Stoni Blair and 9-year-old Stephen Berry, hidden inside a deep freezer in the living room of her apartment. Investigators uncovered a hist...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Katlyn "Katie" Collman with me today. In January 2005, 10-year-old Katlyn “Katie” Collman was sent on a simple errand in her small Indiana town of Crothersville but she never made it home. Her disappearance sparked an intense search across the community. Five days later, her body was found in a lake about 20 miles away, her hands bound...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kerri Mcauley with me today. In January 2017, 32-year-old Kerri McAuley, a mother of two, was found beaten to death in her flat in Norwich, England, at the hands of her former partner, Joe Storey. Their relationship had been marked by a long history of violence and abuse and despite warnings, restraining orders, and previous attacks, the danger...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jennifer Morey with me today. In April 1995, 25-year-old Houston lawyer Jennifer Morey woke up in the middle of the night to a nightmare: an intruder on top of her, a knife at her throat. The attacker wasn’t a stranger off the street, he was Bryan Wayne Gibson, a Pinkerton security guard assigned to her apartment complex, hired to keep residents...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kaysi McLeod, LeAnn Emry, Jennifer Marcum, and Terry Kimball with me today. In the early 2000s, convicted con-man Scott Kimball reinvented himself as a federal informant and used that identity to hide something far darker. After meeting Lori McLeod, he quickly married her, gaining access to her life… and to her 19-year-old daughter, Kaysi McLeod...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Bjork with me today. In 1996, Icelandic singer Björk became the target of an obsessive and dangerous stalker: Ricardo López, a 21-year-old fan living in Florida. Over the course of months, López isolated himself and recorded hundreds of disturbing video diaries, documenting his fixation on the singer and his growing resentment when he learned sh...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Susan Lee Hutson with me today. Rachel Hutson was just 19 years old when she carried out a shocking and calculated crime. Armed with a handgun she had taken from her father’s safe, Rachel shot and killed her mother, Susan Lee Hutson, inside the family home. Moments later, she took a photograph of Susan’s body and sent it to her father as a messa...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Linda, Steve, Brittany, and Mary with me today. On New Year’s Eve 2017, what should have been a quiet family celebration in Long Branch, New Jersey, turned into a tragedy. Just before midnight, 16-year-old Scott Kologi opened fire inside his family home, killing his parents, his sister, and a family friend while relatives and neighbors gathered...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary-Jo and Blake Hadley with me today. In July 2011, 17-year-old Tyler Hadley shocked the quiet community of Port St. Lucie, Florida, when he murdered his parents, Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, inside their home and then hosted a house party while their bodies remained hidden in a bedroom. For hours, dozens of teens drank, played music, and partied...