Truer Crime

Welcome to Season Seven of Nobody Should Believe Me. Andrea revisits the case of Maya Kowalski—the story at the center of the Netflix film Take Care of Maya–and the family’s high-profile lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. What became widely framed as a story about “medical kidnapping” began when hospital staff reported suspected medical child abuse after Maya arrived with a his...

In this bonus episode of Truer Crime, we return to the disappearance of eight-year-old Relisha Rudd. In 2014, Relisha vanished from a Washington, D.C. homeless shelter. She was not officially reported missing for eighteen days. More than a decade later, she has never been found. I’m joined by Derrica Wilson and Natalie Wilson, co-founders of the Black and Missing Foundation, to discuss their two-p...

True crime is usually something we consume at a distance, through headlines, documentaries, podcasts. But what happens when those stories are tied to real places you can stand in front of? In this bonus episode, I’m joined by Adam Paul Levine, the founder of Graveline Tours, a Los Angeles–based company that takes people through the city’s most infamous crime scenes in restored vintage funeral limo...

Most of us were taught a simple version of what happened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: a lone gunman, a closed case, a tragic end. This episode of Truer Crime looks beyond that familiar story. Drawing on historical records, testimony, and a little-known 1999 civil trial brought by the King family, it examines the years of surveillance, intimidation, and unanswered questions surrounding King’s ass...

Two years after Jennifer Kirk was found dead on former mayor Clement Richards Sr.’s property, another woman was discovered at that same address: 30-year-old Susanna “Sue Sue” Norton, who was in a relationship with one of Richard's sons. To this day, no one has been charged in connection to her murder. Today’s episode examines how this could happen again on the same property, the questions still su...

In the small town of Kotzebue, Alaska, police responded to a call at the mayor’s property and found 25-year-old Jennifer Kirk dead, a rifle beside her and a bullet wound under her chin. Within days, her death was ruled a suicide. But many in the community saw something different: a history of domestic violence involving all three of the mayor’s sons, unanswered questions at the scene, and an inves...

Within days of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, her mother suspected Joran van der Sloot was involved. What she couldn’t have known was just how much, and for how long, Joran would manipulate the truth. For nearly two decades, he cycled through lies, near-confessions, and sensational claims that kept Natalee’s story in the headlines while dragging her family through hell. In Part 2, we follow the...

Eighteen-year-old Natalee Holloway vanished during a senior trip to Aruba, a disappearance that captured international attention and reshaped the island overnight. Her family fought for answers with a level of visibility most grieving families could only dream of. But more attention doesn’t always mean more truth. In Part 1 of our two-part deep dive, we revisit the night Natalee went missing, the...

In this bonus episode, I sit down with investigative reporter Jennifer Mayerle, the journalist behind the WCCO documentary Footprint to Murder. Jennifer spent years following Jeanie Childs’ case, building trust with Jeanie’s family and navigating the emotional and ethical challenges of reporting a story this complex. We talk about what it was like to cover this case from the inside: the relationsh...

For more than 25 years, Jeanie’s case stayed unsolved. Investigators had fragments—a DNA profile appearing across key items, a set of bloody footprints—but not a name. Then, a new technology entered the picture with the potential to blow the whole case wide open. In Part 2, we follow the quiet breakthrough that put a suspect in focus, the messy, very human work of proving it, and the questions tha...

In the Summer of 1993, a leak in a south Minneapolis high-rise led a caretaker to a horrifying discovery: 35-year-old Jeanie Childs, murdered inside her apartment. On the floor beside her, a haunting clue: a trail of bloody bare footprints. Today we start at the beginning of a decades-long search for answers, tracing Jeanie’s story, the evidence left behind, and the first threads investigators fol...

I’m going off the record with my co-producer, Olivia, to break down our Menendez Brothers series, from how the story evolved during production to what it reveals about our culture’s fascination with crime and punishment. We talk about the ethics of telling familiar stories, the lasting impact of media coverage, and the newest developments in the brothers’ case more than 30 years later. Want early...

Broadcast into millions of homes, the Menendez trial became something bigger than a murder case. It was television. Tabloid fodder. Even comedy material. But when trauma turns into spectacle, what gets lost? In Part Three, we trace how the case was flattened into a punchline, and why, 35 years later, it demands a different look. Want early access to every episode, all at once? Tenderfoot+ subscrib...

At just 18 and 21, Erik and Lyle Menendez stood trial for killing their parents. To many, it seemed unfathomable: how could two privileged kids from Beverly Hills do something like this? When they finally spoke, the picture that emerged was darker and more complicated than anyone expected. In Part Two, we follow the trial that gripped the country, and the stories the brothers had kept hidden for y...

In the summer of 1989, wealthy media executive José Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were found dead inside their Beverly Hills home. The brutality of the crime was shocking enough, until the truth came out. Their killers weren’t intruders. They were their sons, Lyle and Erik. In Part One, we begin unraveling the story of a family that looked perfect on the outside, but was breaking apart from within...

Keith LaMar has spent more than 30 years on death row for crimes he says he did not commit. With his execution date set for January 13, 2027, and his final legal options dwindling, Keith speaks candidly about betrayal by his own attorneys, the indifference of the courts, and why he believes the public may be his last chance at justice. But this is also a conversation about life—about what it means...

In many true crime stories, the ending comes with the verdict: guilty, condemned, case closed. But for Keith LaMar, that moment marked the beginning of another story. For three decades, he has fought to keep living inside a system determined to end his life. This episode explores what survival looks like on death row, and what it means to keep resisting in the shadow of an execution date. Want ear...

Keith LaMar once admitted to murder. But when prosecutors accused him of ordering deaths in the Lucasville prison riot, he drew a line: this time, he said, he was innocent. In this episode, we return to the crime that put Keith behind bars, and follow the trial that would decide his fate. Want early access to every episode, all at once? Tenderfoot+ subscribers get the full case at the start of eac...

For eleven days, turmoil gripped the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Hostages were trapped, negotiations collapsed, and the violence only grew. Inside those same prison walls, Keith LaMar was forced to witness horrors that would shape the rest of his life. This is the story of how the riot ended, and how Keith’s reckoning began. Want early access to every episode, all at once? Tenderfoot+ sub...

On Easter Sunday in 1993, the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville erupted into chaos. Tensions between prisoners and staff had reached a breaking point, sparking one of the longest prison sieges in U.S. history. Over eleven days, nine inmates and one corrections officer would lose their lives. But what caused the riot? And for the hundreds trapped inside, what did it mean to survive...

Celisia joins Meghan Sachs on Women + Crime to unpack the Cassie Ventura case and the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs. Together, they explore the power dynamics at play, the impact of the MeToo era, and the bigger questions about justice and accountability when the accused is one of the most powerful men in music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the worst day of your life becomes a talking point on national TV? In this special ‘Off the Record’ episode, we go deeper into the making of our two-part story on Mollie Tibbetts. I sit down with my co-producer Olivia Heusinkveld to unpack why we told this story, what didn’t make it into the episode, and the uncomfortable questions we wrestled with along the way. We talk about th...

For weeks, the search for Mollie Tibbetts consumed her small town, her face on posters, her name on everyone’s lips. And when investigators finally closed in on the man behind the wheel of the car seen circling Mollie on the night she vanished, justice for her family felt within reach. But what unfolded next wasn’t the ending anyone had imagined. Instead, Mollie’s disappearance was thrust into the...

In July of 2018, 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts went on a run in her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. Something she’d done countless times before. But this time, she didn’t come home. What followed was a search unlike anything this town had ever seen. Neighbors combed the fields. Reporters camped out at the local diner. And as the weeks stretched on without answers, the questions only grew louder: H...

Vanished. Vilified. Voiceless. This season on Truer Crime, every story has something in common: it’s not what it seems. What starts as a disappearance, a tragedy, or a headline quickly reveals something deeper—about power, about prejudice, about who gets to be heard and who gets written off. We’re digging into six gripping cases. Some you might recognize. Others you’ve never heard before. But ever...