Case Files Explained

Maya Millete vanished from her Chula Vista home on January 7, 2021. Her body has never been found. But prosecutors say her husband Larry left behind something even more damning than physical evidence: 1,700 pages of messages to spellcasters, documenting an escalating pattern of desperation that turned violent — and stopped the exact day she disappeared. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

The acquittal of former Uvalde officer Adrian Gonzales on child endangerment charges, and what it reveals about criminal accountability for law enforcement response failures This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Detective Matt Hutchison of Sunnyvale, California, has solved seven cold cases using forensic genealogy — including two teenage girls killed decades apart by different men who were never caught. Karen Stitt was 15. Estella Mena was 18. Both cases went cold for over forty years. Then Hutchison took over. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

On January 11, 1974, five-year-old Jonathan Waldman found his mother Barbara face down in her bedroom. For 52 years, Nassau County detectives chased false confessions and dead ends until genetic genealogy finally identified Thomas Generazio—a sanitation worker who lived blocks away and died in 2004, never knowing he'd been caught. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In March 2022, Eric Richins died in his bed after drinking a Moscow mule his wife made to celebrate a real estate deal. A year later, Kouri published a children's book about grief — written with her three sons. Weeks after, she was arrested for murder. This episode examines the financial forensics and witness testimony that led to her March 2026 conviction. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

From a discarded pizza crust to digital 'blueprints' for murder—how investigators built the case against a suburban architect accused of killing seven women over 17 years. Rex Heuermann's expected guilty plea marks the end of one of Long Island's most haunting cold cases. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In March 2026, FBI agents arrested 68-year-old Benjamin Wagner, a retired Detroit Police sergeant, in North Carolina on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting six girls and women between 1999 and 2003. The breakthrough came from Detroit's notorious rape kit backlog—over 11,000 untested kits discovered abandoned in a police warehouse in 2009. This episode examines how the evidence that could have stopped Wagner sat untested for years in a department where he worked and rose through the ranks. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

How a .380 shell casing and forensic genealogy finally linked the infamous Yogurt Shop Murders to a serial killer who died by suicide in 1999—and revealed a killing spree spanning nearly a decade across seven states. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

On February 1, 2026, Nancy Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of NBC's Savannah Guthrie — was taken from her home in Catalina Foothills, Arizona. Security footage captured a masked, armed intruder. Multiple ransom notes demanded cryptocurrency. DNA evidence was recovered from a glove left near the scene. Six weeks later, a massive federal investigation continues — but Nancy Guthrie's fate remains unknown. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Indiana State Police's forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG) team has cracked cases dating back five decades, including the 1975 abduction and assault of three young girls by the 'Slasher.' The unit combines scientists, genealogists, and detectives to transform cold case investigation in Indiana. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

On May 2, 2001, Leslie Preer was found murdered in her Chevy Chase, Maryland home. For 23 years, DNA evidence sat waiting. Then forensic genealogy led detectives to a name they recognized — her daughter's high school boyfriend. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In 1992, a man's body was pulled from Pittsburgh's Allegheny River after a witness reported an assault. Arthur Wiley was convicted of third-degree murder within a year — but the victim remained unidentified for over three decades. This episode examines how genetic genealogy technology finally revealed his name: Allan Barry Keener, born in 1940, with ties to Ohio and Kentucky. Through Othram's proprietary DNA analysis and a $100,000 state grant, investigators closed Allegheny County's longest-running unknown decedent case in February 2026. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Maya Millete, a mother of three, vanished from her Chula Vista home on January 7, 2021 — the same day she called a divorce attorney. Her husband Larry was arrested nine months later and charged with her murder despite her body never being found. Prosecutors revealed he spent over $1,100 on spells from online spell casters, initially asking them to bind his wife to him 'forever,' then escalating to requests for spells causing 'physical harm' and 'accidents to cripple.' Those requests stopped the day Maya disappeared. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In late 2025, the Dallas Police Department closed its oldest missing persons case when Detective Ryan Dalby connected 16-year-old Norman Prater, missing since 1973, to an unidentified hit-and-run victim found the same year. The breakthrough came from a rediscovered photograph—and a brother who recognized his sibling's distinctive scars after more than five decades. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

A Massachusetts nurse accused of killing her three children in what her defense calls a psychiatric emergency raises profound questions about postpartum mental illness, medication protocols, and criminal culpability. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In November 2010, Andrew (9), Alexander (7), and Tanner Skelton (5) disappeared after spending Thanksgiving with their father John in Morenci, Michigan. For fifteen years, John Skelton sat in prison on unlawful imprisonment charges while investigators searched in vain for the boys' remains. Days before his scheduled release in November 2025, prosecutors filed open murder charges—a rare move in a case with no bodies and no new physical evidence made public. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

How a concealed police report about a break-in at the crime scene—and a detective's false testimony—kept an innocent man imprisoned for four decades. Edward Wright was 22 when convicted. He was 63 when he walked free. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Detective Matt Hutchison earned the nickname 'America's Best Detective' for his relentless pursuit of cold case justice. Working often in his own time, he has solved at least seven murders spanning from 1979 to the present, using DNA genealogy, preserved evidence, and old-fashioned investigative persistence. This episode examines how his methodical approach brought closure to families who waited decades for answers. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

How a twisted extramarital affair led to an elaborate catfishing murder plot that ended with two dead and a family destroyed. Brendan Banfield, a former IRS agent, was convicted in February 2026 for orchestrating the murders of his wife Christine and an innocent stranger named Joseph Ryan. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In September 2025, investigators announced the identity of the final victim in New Hampshire's Bear Brook murders: three-year-old Rea Rasmussen, biological daughter of serial killer Terry Rasmussen. This episode traces the 40-year investigation from the discovery of four bodies in barrels to the groundbreaking use of genetic genealogy that identified both the killer and all his victims. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In January 2025, Scott Minton was exonerated in Tennessee after serving 31 years for a crime he didn't commit. Despite 18 alibi witnesses and timestamped receipts placing him in a different county, Minton—who lives with an intellectual disability—was convicted after coercive interrogation produced a false confession. This case reveals how the justice system can fail its most vulnerable. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Kouri Richins stands trial for allegedly murdering her husband Eric with a lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022. The prosecution argues she tried once before on Valentine's Day, obtained the drug from her housekeeper, and served it to Eric in a Moscow Mule cocktail. This episode examines the evidence trail, the alleged financial motive tied to insurance policies and debt, and the testimony from the woman who says she sold Richins the fentanyl. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In June 2025, a Massachusetts jury found Karen Read not guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, but convicted her of driving under the influence. The case became a national flashpoint, pitting the prosecution's theory that Read struck O'Keefe with her SUV against the defense's explosive allegations of a police cover-up involving a house party fight and a dog attack. The verdict satisfied no one—and left Canton, Massachusetts, struggling to heal. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

How a bullet casing in a drain and DNA under a fingernail finally solved Austin's most infamous cold case—and exonerated four innocent men after decades of wrongful accusations. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In February 2023, Fairfax County police found two bodies: Christine Banfield, stabbed to death, and Joseph Ryan, a complete stranger shot dead. What seemed like a home invasion was actually an elaborate scheme - Christine's husband Brendan had catfished Ryan on a fetish website, luring him to the home to frame him for a murder Brendan committed himself. The motive? An affair with the family's au pair. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In November 2006, University of Miami defensive tackle Bryan Pata was shot in the back of the head outside his apartment. The case went cold for 15 years until ESPN journalists cracked what police couldn't. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In December 2025, Cleophus Emmanuel Cooksey Jr. was sentenced to death for a killing spree that claimed eight lives in just three weeks across the Phoenix Valley. This episode follows the investigation that connected seemingly random murders through GPS data, ballistic evidence, and a stolen necklace — revealing how forensic science linked crimes that initially appeared unrelated, including the murder of the killer's own mother. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

How prosecutors are building a case that a children's book author systematically poisoned her husband for insurance money. Kouri Richins faces trial for allegedly killing Eric Richins with fentanyl after a failed Valentine's Day attempt. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Peter Sullivan entered prison at 29 years old, convicted of murdering 21-year-old Diane Sindall. He left at 68, after DNA technology unavailable in 1987 proved the semen found on Sindall's body wasn't his. Sullivan maintains he confessed only after being beaten, denied food and sleep, and threatened with rape charges. His case is now Britain's longest known wrongful imprisonment—and the real killer remains at large. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

On February 16, 2022, Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan was gunned down after stopping to move a tire blocking a Jacksonville Beach road—with his two-year-old daughter in the car. Prosecutors allege this was no random act: it was a meticulously planned murder-for-hire, orchestrated by his ex-wife Shanna Gardner and her estranged husband Mario Fernandez over a bitter custody dispute. The admitted gunman has pleaded guilty, but key questions remain as Gardner and Fernandez await trial in August 2026. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

Rex Heuermann's trial will test whether revolutionary whole-genome DNA sequencing — never before used in a New York courtroom — can link one man to seven murders spanning three decades. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

The 40-year forensic odyssey to identify four murder victims found in barrels—and the serial killer who put them there. In September 2025, investigators finally named the last of four victims found in Bear Brook State Park, New Hampshire. The case became a landmark in forensic genealogy, revealing serial killer Terry Rasmussen and his decades of hidden crimes. This episode was generated with AI assistance.

In May 2025, a Louisiana judge ruled that Jimmie 'Chris' Duncan was factually innocent of murder. Duncan had spent 27 years on death row—convicted entirely on bite mark evidence later proven to be fabricated. This episode examines the junk science that nearly killed an innocent man. This episode was generated with AI assistance.