Crime Chats

In March 1989, Mark Kilroy traveled to South Padre Island with three close friends to celebrate spring break and his recent 21st birthday. During a night out in Matamoros, Mexico, Mark disappeared. His friends tirelessly searched for him, his family launched an extensive campaign to find him, and investigators worked hard to uncover the truth. The investigation took a shocking turn in April 1989,...

What if you could walk into almost any job, claim to be someone you're not, and somehow convince everyone around you that you belonged there? Meet Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. , better known as The Great Impostor . Demara spent much of his life assuming false identities and inserting himself into professions he had no formal training for. Jobs that required highly specialized knowledge. His remarkab...

What would you do if the teenager sitting next to you in class turned out to be a 34-year-old woman? And what if the story went far beyond one fake ID? In 2013, Charity Anne Johnson enrolled at New Life Christian School in Longview, Texas, as a 15-year-old sophomore named Charity Stevens . She made friends, completed her schoolwork, and became part of the tight-knit school community. Even the adul...

What would you do if the teenager sitting next to you in class turned out to be a 34-year-old woman? And what if the story went far beyond one fake ID? In 2013, Charity Anne Johnson enrolled at New Life Christian School in Longview, Texas, as a 15-year-old sophomore named Charity Stevens . She made friends, completed her schoolwork, and became part of the tight-knit school community. Even the adul...

In the quiet Northwood neighborhood of northern Ogden, Utah, rows of single-family homes sat on beautifully manicured lawns. From the outside, the community seemed to be tight-knit, warm, and welcoming. But behind closed doors was a world of absolute control, secrecy, and heinous abuse led by one man: Arvin Shreeve. In this episode of Crime Chats, we’re diving into the disturbing story of the Zion...

For the first case in our Cults & Con Artists theme, Hilary takes us down the rabbit hole of 7M Films, TikTok dancers, and Shekinah Church pastor Robert Shinn . What appeared to be an opportunity for young dancers trying to make it in Los Angeles became something much darker. Allegedly. As former members began speaking out, families described isolation, financial control, manipulation, and dev...

For the first case in our Cults & Con Artists theme, Hilary takes us down the rabbit hole of 7M Films, TikTok dancers, and Shekinah Church pastor Robert Shinn . What appeared to be an opportunity for young dancers trying to make it in Los Angeles became something much darker. Allegedly. As former members began speaking out, families described isolation, financial control, manipulation, and dev...

Raymond Henry Goedecke was just 18 years old when he killed his entire family in the early morning hours of August 15, 1964. His victims were his father, Henry; his mother, Joan; his 15-year-old sister, Ellen; and his 8-year-old brother, Mark. Goedecke attacked them in their home with an iron bar and later stabbed his father with a hunting knife. But what makes this case especially unusual isn't s...

Raymond Henry Goedecke was just 18 years old when he killed his entire family in the early morning hours of August 15, 1964. His victims were his father, Henry; his mother, Joan; his 15-year-old sister, Ellen; and his 8-year-old brother, Mark. Goedecke attacked them in their home with an iron bar and later stabbed his father with a hunting knife. But what makes this case especially unusual isn't s...

In 1993, the name Lorena Bobbitt became synonymous with one shocking act: she cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis while he was sleeping. That’s the part of the story almost everyone remembers. But what happened before that night is far more complicated—and far more important. In this two-part episode of Crime Chats , we take a detailed look at the infamous Lorena Bobbitt case, including...

In 1993, the name Lorena Bobbitt became synonymous with one shocking act: she cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis while he was sleeping. That’s the part of the story almost everyone remembers. But what happened before that night is far more complicated—and far more important. In this episode of Crime Chats , we take a detailed look at the infamous Lorena Bobbitt case, including the nigh...

In August 2021, Precious Bland drowned her 15-month-old daughter, Emii, in a bathtub and attacked members of her family. What followed was a complicated criminal case centered around one major question: Was Precious Bland legally responsible for what she did, or was she experiencing a severe psychotic episode that made her legally insane? In this episode, we take a closer look at the events leadin...

🧠 Episode Summary In Part 2 of our Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) series on the Vincent Li case, we pick up where Part 1 left off and take a closer look at the Greyhound bus attack, the immediate response by law enforcement, and aftermath of this tragedy. This episode explores the difficult questions raised by the case: Can someone who committed an unimaginable act truly recover? How sho...

We begin our Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) month with a 2-part episode covering one of Canada's most infamous cases: Vincent Li , the man responsible for the shocking killing of Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus in 2008. In Part 1, after a quick but horrifying look at the crime itself, we rewind to Vincent Li's early life, immigration to Canada, struggles with employment, and the gradual...

In October 2008, aspiring filmmaker Mark Twitchell lured a stranger into a garage using a fake online dating profile. What happened next was far more disturbing than anyone expected. Inspired by his obsession with movies, storytelling, and the TV show, Dexter , Twitchell attempted to create his own real-life “crime story.” Investigators quickly uncovered that his carefully planned fantasy had beco...

In March 2015, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn became the victims of a terrifying home invasion and kidnapping that would capture national attention. But not for the reasons it should have. After Denise disappeared from Aaron’s home, the investigation quickly took a shocking turn. Instead of being treated as victims, Denise and Aaron found themselves under intense scrutiny as authorities accused th...

A suspicious hit-and-run. A custody battle. A missing 6 year old. When little Michael Hughes vanished in 1994, investigators could not have known the chaos that would unfold before them. Decades of deception, stolen identities, abuse, and murder...all leading back to one man: Franklin Delano Floyd . ⚠️ Content Warning This episode contains discussions of murder, sexual abuse, and kidnapping. Liste...

In 2003, a pizza delivery driver named Brian Wells walked into a bank wearing what appeared to be a bomb locked around his neck . Later, he was surrounded by police on live television, insisting he had been forced to rob the bank. Then... the bomb exploded. What followed was one of the strangest criminal investigations in FBI history —a case involving scavenger hunts, homemade bombs, conspiracies,...

One bad date. One missing woman. Thousands of terrifying messages. When 37-year-old Cari Farver disappeared after spending the weekend with a man she'd just started dating, everyone believed she had simply become an obsessive ex-girlfriend. For years, friends, family, and investigators received bizarre texts, emails, and Facebook messages that appeared to come directly from Cari. She seemed determ...

This final chapter sees Ted Bundy coming unglued. His violence ramps up but, he also starts to make big mistakes. On this episode, we follow Ted from Chi Omega to the grave. 📚 Sources Bundy v. State . (n.d.). Justia Law. Retrieved June 22, 2026, from https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/1985/59128-0.html Carol DaRonch. (2022, July 11). Various clips Ted Bundy at Kimberly Leach trial...

In Part 3 of our Ted Bundy deep dive, we turn back the clock a bit to his time as a law student in Utah who enjoyed the occasional winter break trip to Colorado. We see him back at his old tricks, making women disappear, in a new locale. We'll discuss the murders in Colorado, how they were finally linked to the monster, how he was caught, and how he escaped justice TWICE. What should have been the...

In Part 2 of our four-part Ted Bundy series , we move from the making of Ted Bundy to the beginning of his deadly criminal career . We examine the disappearance of his first known victims in the Pacific Northwest , the terrifying escalation of his violence, and the investigation that slowly began to close in on one of America's most notorious serial killers. This episode covers the disappearances...

In Part 1 of our Ted Bundy Deep Dive , we're going all the way back to the beginning. Before the infamous murders, media frenzy, and courtroom spectacles, there was a young man whose early life has been scrutinized for decades in an attempt to understand how one of America's most notorious serial killers came to be. In this episode, we explore Ted Bundy's childhood, complicated family history, sch...

In this solo episode of Crime Chats , Lisa takes a deep dive into one of the most heartbreaking and controversial true crime cases in modern history: the case of Andrea Yates . Most people know the headlines, but this case is far more complex than many realize. Lisa explores Andrea's history of severe mental health struggles , the events leading up to the deaths of her five children, the role of r...

In this episode of Crime Chats , we discuss the heartbreaking and disturbing case of April Short , a mother convicted of murdering her 11-month-old son while her two older children were still inside the home. April’s husband James, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, reportedly received an alarming doomsday-style text message from his wife, prompting him to rush home to a horrifying scene. Accordin...