Episodes

  • Twisted Bonds: The Case of Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah

    Twisted Bonds: The Case of Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah
    Apr 25 2026
    In 1993, a 17-year-old named Nikki unexpectedly gave birth to twin girls, Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah. Raising them as a young single mother was challenging, especially without support from the girls' married father, so she relied heavily on her great-grandmother to help care for them while she focused on securing work and an education. As young children, the twins shared a deep bond and initially excelled academically, bringing immense pride to their mother, who wanted to ensure they had the bright future and stability she had missed out on.The family dynamic shifted significantly when Nikki met a truck driver named Robert. She eventually regained full custody of the twins, who were around ten years old at the time, and moved them to Clarkston, Georgia, to live with him. As the twins entered adolescence, their behavior changed drastically. Their grades plummeted as they began skipping school, constantly using their cell phones, and dating older boys. Nikki, highly focused on their education and anxious to prevent them from repeating her past mistakes, clashed heavily with her daughters, leading to intense and bitter household conflicts.By 2008, the teenage rebellion had escalated to alarming levels. During one fierce dispute over a 19-year-old boyfriend, one of the twins jumped out of a moving vehicle just to prove she would not be controlled. On another occasion, an argument turned so physically violent that Nikki had to lock herself in a room to escape her daughters and call the police. Although the girls initially played the calm victims for the arriving officers, the police soon realized their true aggressive nature when they secretly listened to the girls continuing to scream and fight after the officers pretended to leave. Consequently, custody was temporarily transferred back to their elderly great-grandmother, whom the girls easily manipulated to do as they pleased.Despite court-ordered family therapy, the relationship remained deeply fractured. In January 2010, Nikki successfully regained custody of the girls, a decision met with intense hostility; one twin even threatened to end her mother's life if forced to return to her home. Nikki's attempt to ease the tension with a welcome-home party at a bowling alley ended in failure, as one twin refused to attend and the other engaged in arguments.The underlying wrath culminated in tragedy on the morning of January 13, 2010. Nikki attempted to have a serious, calm conversation with her daughters about their truancy and suspected drug use. The confrontation rapidly deteriorated into a horrific physical altercation. One of the girls struck Nikki in the head with a vase, and she was subsequently stabbed 80 times with a sharp object, likely a knife.In a frantic attempt to cover up the crime, the twins dragged their mother's body to the bathtub, cleaned the house, and went to school as if nothing had happened. Upon returning, they feigned shock and flagged down a police officer, pretending to have just discovered the gruesome scene. Investigators, however, quickly saw through the deception. There were no signs of forced entry, and physical evidence—including footprints, hair in the bathtub, and Nikki's skin found under the girls' fingernails from the struggle—undeniably linked the twins to the violence.Following a four-month investigation, Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah were arrested in May 2010. After years of denial, they finally confessed to the crime in 2014 and were each sentenced to 30 years in prison for the brutal murder of their mother.

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    48 mins
  • 🪓 The Porco Family Tragedy

    🪓 The Porco Family Tragedy
    Apr 24 2026
    Peter and Joan Porco resided in the quiet, safe town of Delmar, New York. Peter worked in the legal field, and Joan was a well-regarded pediatric speech therapist. They were an upper-middle-class couple who heavily valued education for their two sons, Jonathan and Christopher. Christopher, the younger son, developed a habit of habitually lying to his peers about his family possessing immense wealth and luxury properties.While attending the University of Rochester, Christopher failed several classes but forged his academic transcripts to appear successful to his parents and his university. To fund his lifestyle, he fraudulently took out approximately $50,000 in loans, including a loan for a yellow Jeep, by forging his father's signature. He also ran an online scam using his brother's name to sell items he never shipped, and he was linked to the theft and sale of laptops taken from his parents' home, as well as equipment stolen from a veterinary clinic where he worked. When Peter discovered the forged loans, he sent Christopher an email threatening to involve the police if it happened again, and the family planned to discuss the matter during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.In the early morning hours of November 15, 2003, an intruder entered the Porco home, disabled the alarm system using the correct code, and severed the telephone lines. The attacker then went to the master bedroom and brutally struck Peter and Joan multiple times with a family fire axe. Remarkably, Peter survived the initial attack but suffered severe brain trauma, causing him to completely suppress the event. Operating in a state of shock, he went about his morning routine and even wrote a $100 check to cover Christopher's recent speeding ticket, before eventually collapsing and dying at the bottom of the stairs.Joan miraculously survived the attack, although she suffered massive injuries, including the loss of an eye. While being treated by paramedics, she was unable to speak but communicated by nodding her head, explicitly indicating that her son Christopher was the attacker. Christopher claimed he had spent the entire night sleeping in his college dorm room. However, campus security cameras captured his yellow Jeep leaving at 10:30 PM and returning at 8:30 AM, perfectly fitting the exact six-hour round trip needed to drive to Delmar and back. A neighbor also spotted the vehicle in the Porcos' driveway that night. Authorities believed his motive was to collect up to a million dollars from his parents' life insurance policies and to avoid facing the consequences of his financial frauds.During the investigation and subsequent trial, Joan retracted her initial identification, claiming she had no memory of the attack and firmly insisting that her son was innocent. She even paid his $250,000 bail, allowing him to live with her while awaiting trial. The defense argued that there was no physical evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints, linking Christopher to the scene or found in his vehicle. Nevertheless, on December 12, 2006, Christopher was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Joan continues to maintain his innocence to this day.

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Behind Closed Doors: The Brown Family

    Behind Closed Doors: The Brown Family
    Apr 23 2026
    David Brown was born on November 16, 1952, into a large, struggling family with eight children. After his family relocated from Phoenix, Arizona, to Garden Grove, California, David learned the value of money early on and became highly resourceful, eventually leaving school after the eighth grade to enter the workforce. Despite his intelligence and knack for computers, David had significant emotional issues; he was likely a narcissist, highly manipulative, and a severe hypochondriac who frequently faked illnesses—including terminal cancer—to gain sympathy and attention from others.His tumultuous romantic life began at age 15 when he met his first wife, Brenda. The teenage couple moved out, eventually married in May 1970, and had a daughter named Cinnamon. During this time, David returned to his education, completing high school and pursuing a career as a computer technician. However, the marriage fell apart after four years due to David's possessiveness and his affair with a coworker named Lori, who soon became his second wife. While married to Lori, David earned a computer science degree and secured a highly-paid job, but he soon grew bored with the relationship and divorced her in 1978.Even before his second divorce was finalized, David targeted a teenager named Linda Bailey, who came from a destitute family with eleven children and an uninvolved single mother. Using his classic manipulation tactics, David pretended to be terminally ill with only six months to live to convince Linda's mother to let her daughters clean his house. He quickly won the impoverished family over by showering them with gifts, food, brand-name clothing, and trips to Disneyland. David and Linda married in June 1979, but he filed for divorce just a few months later, complaining that she was unready for marriage and wanted to socialize with friends.Shortly after discarding Linda, David married his coworker Cindy in May 1980, marking his fourth marriage. He quickly grew dissatisfied, claiming she only cared about his money, and he divorced her less than a year later. Throughout his brief marriage to Cindy, David had secretly continued his relationship with Linda, who remained infatuated with him.To win back Linda's skeptical family, David leveraged his newly founded, highly successful hard drive data recovery business to employ Linda and her siblings, giving them well-paying jobs. This manipulative strategy worked, and David and Linda remarried in Las Vegas in December 1981. The couple moved into a luxurious, rented house in Garden Grove. They were soon joined by Linda's 15-year-old sister, Patti, and David's teenage daughter, Cinnamon, who frequently clashed with her biological mother, Brenda, and preferred living with her father and her young stepmother.

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    50 mins
  • Dark Secrets of the Bain Family

    Dark Secrets of the Bain Family
    Apr 22 2026
    The Bain family from New Zealand appeared to be a conventional household, but behind closed doors, they lived a highly unusual and dysfunctional life. Robin Bain, an introverted and religious teacher, married the charismatic and outgoing Margaret in 1969. Together, they had four children: David, Arawa, Laniet, and Stephen.During a lengthy stay in Papua New Guinea, Margaret became deeply fascinated by local indigenous beliefs, natural medicine, and spiritual rituals. She eventually rejected modern medicine and conventional schooling, leaving the children with severe educational and social deficits. Upon returning to Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1988, the family's situation deteriorated further. Margaret developed an obsession with evil energies, eventually convincing herself that Robin was the embodiment of evil, even referring to him as the demon "Belial". She forced him to sleep in a camper van parked outside, while the eldest son, David, became her favored confidant and took on a controlling role over his siblings.The family's internal tensions culminated on July 20, 1994, when 22-year-old David called emergency services around 7:09 AM, stating that his entire family was dead. Robin, Margaret, Arawa, Laniet, and 14-year-old Stephen were all found fatally shot with a .22 caliber Winchester rifle. A cryptic message left on the family computer read: "Sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay".Initially, investigators suspected Robin of a murder-suicide. The rifle was found next to his body, and it was rumored that his daughter Laniet was about to expose him for alleged incest and abuse, providing a strong motive. However, police soon concluded that Robin's arms were too short to have pulled the trigger on himself.Suspicion quickly shifted to David, the sole survivor. Evidence mounting against him included his bloody fingerprints on the weapon, a missing lens from his glasses found in Stephen's room (suggesting a violent struggle), and a suspicious delay between the time David claimed to have returned from his morning paper route and the time he called the police. David was tried and convicted of the five murders in 1995, receiving a life sentence.The story took a massive turn when former rugby player Joe Karam took a keen interest in the case, spending years and his own fortune campaigning for David's innocence. He argued that the initial investigation was severely flawed and pushed for a retrial, which was eventually granted in 2009. During the retrial, the defense dismantled much of the original evidence: an expert testified that Robin could have shot himself depending on the angle, the bloody footprints in the house did not match David's shoe size, and the blood on the gun was proven to be animal DNA from a prior hunting trip. They heavily emphasized Robin's motive to silence Laniet and his declining mental state leading up to the tragedy.In June 2009, David Bain was completely acquitted of all charges. He was later awarded over $925,000 in compensation from the government. Despite the acquittal, the tragedy remains one of the most heavily debated mysteries, with public opinion still divided over whether David or Robin was the true perpetrator.

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    36 mins
  • The Pastor’s Wife: A Deadly Domestic Tragedy

    The Pastor’s Wife: A Deadly Domestic Tragedy
    Apr 21 2026
    Mary Freeman grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a strict and deeply religious family where her father ruled with absolute authority. As a teenager, Mary suffered a profound trauma when her younger sister Patricia passed away. Despite Mary's desperate pleas for psychological help, her father forbade her from speaking with secular counselors, leaving her to grapple with the grief alone.At a university in Nashville, Mary met Matthew Winkler, a charismatic and ambitious young man who came from a long line of pastors. They married in 1996. Matthew was determined to lead his own congregation and carefully curated the public image of an ideal, deeply religious family. However, behind closed doors, the marriage was fraught with psychological and physical abuse. Matthew was controlling, frequently criticized Mary's appearance, and constantly directed his frustrations at her. When Mary suggested a divorce in 2002, Matthew flatly refused and threatened to sabotage the brakes on her car if she tried to leave him. Neighbors and acquaintances occasionally noticed Mary with physical injuries, which she would dismiss as sports accidents or being bumped by a dog.The marital tension peaked in 2006 when Mary became the victim of an internet advance-fee scam. Believing she had won a lottery, she deposited fake checks and accrued a $17,000 debt to pay supposed taxes. The bank demanded an in-person meeting with both Mary and Matthew to resolve the issue, but Matthew blamed Mary entirely, ignored the severity of the situation, and refused to cooperate.On the morning of March 22, 2006, after an argument where Matthew continued to blame and ignore her, Mary reached her breaking point. Hoping to force her husband to simply look at her and acknowledge her distress, she grabbed a shotgun. The weapon discharged, fatally wounding Matthew. Mary immediately gathered her three young daughters, disconnected the house phone so Matthew could not call for help, and fled to Alabama. She was apprehended the very next day and immediately confessed to the authorities.During her trial, psychologists testified that Mary suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, rooted in her sister's early death and severely exacerbated by years of domestic abuse. Experts concluded she was experiencing cognitive dissonance at the time of the shooting and had not premeditated the act. Because she lacked a financial motive, confessed immediately, and was a documented victim of abuse, the jury showed extraordinary leniency. She was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the heat of passion. She was sentenced to only 210 days in prison—which was largely covered by the time she had already served—plus two months in a psychiatric facility. Following her release, Mary found employment, eventually regained custody of her children, and publicly expressed deep remorse for her actions.

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    41 mins
  • The Fatal Infatuation of Sharon Kinne

    The Fatal Infatuation of Sharon Kinne
    Apr 20 2026
    Sharon Elizabeth Hall was born in 1939 and grew up in Independence, Missouri. Known for being manipulative and ambitious from a young age, she sought a life of luxury and focused on finding a wealthy husband. At the age of 16, she met James Arthur Kinne, a university student studying electrical engineering. To secure a marriage, Sharon falsely claimed she was pregnant, and the couple married in 1956. They eventually had two children, Donna and James Jr., and settled down in a newly built house.The marriage quickly deteriorated due to Sharon's excessive spending and frequent affairs, including an ongoing relationship with a high school acquaintance named John. Sharon eventually demanded a divorce, but insisted on keeping the house, full custody of the children, and a substantial financial payout. James, influenced by his family and religious beliefs, refused to end the marriage. In March 1960, James was found dead in their bedroom from a gunshot wound to the head. Sharon claimed that their two-year-old daughter, Donna, had accidentally pulled the trigger of a .22 caliber pistol while playing. Because the weapon had been heavily oiled, no fingerprints could be recovered, and the death was treated as a tragic accident. Sharon subsequently collected $29,000 from James's life insurance policy.Shortly after her husband's death, Sharon purchased a new Ford Thunderbird and began a romantic affair with Walter Jones, the married car salesman who sold her the vehicle. She falsely claimed to be pregnant in an attempt to force Walter to leave his wife, Patricia, but he refused. In response, Sharon contacted Patricia, posing as a woman whose sister was having an affair with Walter, and arranged a secret meeting. Patricia disappeared that night and was later found dead, having been shot four times with a .22 caliber pistol. Although Sharon was tried for Patricia's murder, she was acquitted due to a lack of concrete evidence and the absence of the murder weapon.Following her acquittal, authorities brought charges against Sharon for the murder of her husband, James, after an acquaintance admitted to purchasing a separate .22 caliber pistol on her behalf. She was initially convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but the verdict was overturned. After a series of mistrials and legal complications, Sharon was released on a $25,000 bail paid by her former parents-in-law.While awaiting her next trial in 1964, Sharon began dating a petty thief named Samuel Pugliese. The couple used forged checks to fund a trip to Mexico, effectively fleeing the United States. When they ran out of money, Sharon accompanied a Mexican-American photographer named Francisco Ordonez to his hotel room, where she shot and killed him. She was arrested at the scene and claimed she acted in self-defense. When Mexican authorities searched her belongings, they found multiple firearms, including the exact .22 caliber pistol that had been used to kill Patricia Jones.Sharon was convicted of Ordonez's murder and sentenced to 13 years in a Mexican prison. However, on December 7, 1969, she vanished from the facility, failing to appear for the daily roll calls. It is highly speculated that she may have bribed guards or received outside help to escape. To this day, Sharon's whereabouts remain completely unknown, and she is still a wanted fugitive.

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    49 mins
  • The Tragic Case of the Shepard Family

    The Tragic Case of the Shepard Family
    Apr 19 2026
    In the early 1950s, Dr. Sam Sheppard and his wife Marilyn lived a wealthy, seemingly idyllic life in Bay Village, Ohio. However, their marriage faced difficulties, primarily due to Sam's infidelity, including an affair with a lab technician named Susan. On the night of July 3, 1954, after hosting neighbors, Sam fell asleep on the living room couch. In the early hours of July 4, he was awakened by his wife screaming his name. Rushing to their bedroom, he claimed to see a "bushy-haired" intruder who knocked him unconscious. When he awoke, he chased the man outside toward the lake, where they struggled, and Sam was choked and knocked out again. Marilyn was found dead in her bed with 35 brutal head injuries.The investigation quickly focused on Sam. The police and the local coroner, Dr. Samuel Gerber, believed Sam's story was highly illogical. They questioned why the intruder would spare Sam's life, why the family dog did not bark, and why their seven-year-old son sleeping in the next room did not wake up. There were no signs of forced entry, and it appeared the scene had been staged with drawers carefully pulled out. The media, fueled by leaks and public statements from Dr. Gerber, aggressively campaigned for Sam's arrest, portraying him as an unfaithful husband seeking a way out of his marriage. After a heavily biased and public investigation, Sam was arrested and subsequently convicted of the crime in December 1954, receiving a life sentence.Following his conviction, Sam's parents both died within weeks, leaving him devastated. However, his family continued to fight for his innocence, and in 1961, they hired a new lawyer, Francis Bailey. Sam was eventually granted a retrial due to the highly prejudicial media coverage and the biased nature of the original judge, who had declared Sam guilty before the trial even began. During the second trial in 1966, a blood spatter expert named Dr. Paul Kirk testified that the killer was likely left-handed and lacked significant physical strength, which did not match Sam's profile. The defense also highlighted that the murder weapon was never found. Consequently, Sam was acquitted in October 1966.Despite regaining his freedom, Sam struggled to rebuild his life. He briefly returned to medicine but resigned after making fatal surgical errors. He later became a professional wrestler under the moniker "Killer" Sam Sheppard, descended into severe alcoholism, and died of liver complications in 1970.Over the years, several alternative suspects have been proposed. The most prominent is Richard Eberling, a window washer who worked at the Sheppards' home. Eberling was later convicted of murdering an elderly woman and was found in possession of Marilyn's rings. He even allegedly confessed to a friend that he had killed Marilyn, knocked out her husband, and taken her jewelry. Other theories suggest the involvement of neighbors Spencer and Esther Hawk, driven by rumors of an affair between Spencer and Marilyn. Another suspect was James, an AWOL Air Force major who matched the "bushy-haired" description and was committing burglaries in the area at the time. Ultimately, despite these alternative theories, the tragic case remains officially unresolved.

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    24 mins
  • The Case of Larissa Schuster: Improper Love

    The Case of Larissa Schuster: Improper Love
    Apr 18 2026
    Larissa Foreman grew up on a farm in the small town of Clarence, Missouri, where she developed an early passion for biology and agriculture. Known for being highly ambitious, determined, and analytically minded, she dreamed of achieving great success and moving away from her rural roots. While studying biochemistry at the University of Missouri, she met Timothy Schuster, a nursing student. Timothy was Larissa's polar opposite: warm, patient, and content with a peaceful, non-materialistic life. The two married in 1982 and eventually had two children, a daughter named Christine and a son named Tyler.The family relocated to Fresno, California, in 1989, where Larissa's career skyrocketed. She fulfilled her dream of opening her own highly successful plant research laboratory. As Larissa became the primary breadwinner—eventually earning double her husband's salary—Timothy took over the majority of the household and parenting responsibilitieswhile working at a medical center. However, Larissa's growing financial success led to an extreme sense of superiority, and she began to look down on her husband. The marriage deteriorated severely, compounded by Larissa's controlling behavior, intense conflicts with their teenage daughter (whom Larissa sent away to Missouri), and an affair Larissa had in 1993.In February 2002, Larissa filed for divorce, demanding that Timothy leave the marriage with no assets, no claim to their shared home, and no custody of their children. When Timothy fought back for his share of the property and his parental rights, Larissa was infuriated. She began continuously harassing him, leaving aggressive voicemails, and even breaking into his apartment to steal a piece of furniture. Driven by her absolute refusal to compromise and a desire to retain all her wealth, Larissa meticulously planned Timothy's murder.She enlisted the help of her 21-year-old laboratory employee and babysitter, James, instructing him to purchase zip ties and a stun gun. On the night of July 9, 2003, Larissa lured Timothy to open his door by falsely claiming their son was ill. Timothy was incapacitated, kidnapped, and taken to Larissa's home, where he was placed into a large blue barrel filled with acid—a method Larissa devised using her professional biochemistry knowledge to destroy all physical evidence.The next day, Timothy's friends and colleagues noticed his sudden disappearance when he missed several scheduled appointments, including a job interview and a custody exchange. Meanwhile, Larissa uncharacteristically arrived late to work and later took her son on a vacation to Disneyland. Police quickly suspected Larissa after finding hostile messages she had left on Timothy's phone and catching her in a lie about her recent call logs. After interrogating James, who eventually confessed to his involvement, authorities secured a search warrant and discovered the blue barrel containing the evidence of the crime in Larissa's storage unit.Larissa was arrested at the airport upon returning from her theme park vacation. Both she and her accomplice were found guilty. On May 16, 2008, Larissa was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the exact same sentence that James received.

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    43 mins