Hidden Killers Live! Daily True Crime News & Breakdowns

Security footage: a nine-year-old in a gray hoodie and wig beside her mother at a Lompoc rental-car counter.
Three days later, the mother returns — alone.

In this Hidden Killers round-table, Tony Brueski and the team dissect the road-trip timeline that has investigators racing from California to Nebraska and Kansas.
Why disguise a child?
Why drive 1,500 miles and come home without her?
And why hasn’t Ashlee Buzzard been charged?

We’ll walk through the digital trail — credit-card pings, cell data, GPS logs, and OnStar records — the forensic bread crumbs the FBI is now recons...

How does a child disappear while every agency insists it’s “following policy”?

Tonight on Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski and the panel trace the bureaucratic breakdown that let Melodee Buzzard, 9, fade from every official record.
Complaints were filed. CPS was warned. The school marked her “independent study.” And still, no one saw her for more than a year.

We unpack the entire chain of failure — from overloaded caseworkers and loophole homeschooling laws to judges demanding “visible danger” before approving removals.
The grandmother reported rotting food and filth; social workers logged a “monitor.”
By the time anyone knoc...

Melodee Buzzard’s disappearance isn’t an anomaly — it’s the warning sign of a statewide collapse.

Between 2019 and 2022, California’s public-school rolls dropped by 270,000 students.
Roughly 150,000 of them remain unaccounted for in any school, private affidavit, or relocation record.
They didn’t all move — many simply vanished from the data, the same way Melodee vanished from oversight.

In this episode of Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski and the panel connect the dots between one missing-child case and the larger crisis of invisible minors.
We’ll analyze state education reports, CPS workload numbers, and how “independent...

What happens when the grooming starts long before the predator ever arrives? Virginia Giuffre’s Nobody’s Girl traces that timeline—from a chaotic childhood to the psychological capture engineered by Epstein and Maxwell.

Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, Todd Michaels, and retired FBI behavioral chief Robin Dreeke dissect the emotional architecture of trafficking: the grooming cycles, the normalization tactics, and the moment victims become complicit just to survive. Dreeke breaks down why fear—not money or fame—is the real currency of control, and why Epstein’s operation mirrors cult dynamics more than conventional criminal networks.

They also ta...

Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl isn’t just another Epstein chapter—it’s a psychological case study in how fear becomes control. In this raw episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski  sits down with retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke, the former Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, to unpack how predators like Epstein and Maxwell systematically identify and break their targets.

Giuffre’s memoir lays bare every step—from her father’s early betrayal to the moment she realized fear, not freedom, ruled her life. Dreeke explains how Epstein’s network weaponized shame, isolation, a...

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl doesn’t just tell a story—it indicts an entire system built on power, grooming, and silence. In this episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels sits down with FBI veteran Robin Dreeke to map out how the Epstein-Maxwell machine turned trauma into obedience and money into immunity.

Dreeke unpacks every psychological layer: how parental betrayal created lifelong vulnerability, how Maxwell’s “female reassurance” normalized exploitation, and how fear—not force—enslaved an entire network of victims. He also explores why Giuffre’s brutal honesty about recruiting other gir...

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl doesn’t just tell a story—it indicts an entire system built on power, grooming, and silence. In this episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels sits down with FBI veteran Robin Dreeke to map out how the Epstein-Maxwell machine turned trauma into obedience and money into immunity.

Dreeke unpacks every psychological layer: how parental betrayal created lifelong vulnerability, how Maxwell’s “female reassurance” normalized exploitation, and how fear—not force—enslaved an entire network of victims. He also explores why Giuffre’s brutal honesty about recruiting other gir...

Two stories. One broken system.
In Idaho, Bryan Kohberger could legally make money off his own murders. In Virginia, a first-grade teacher named Abby Zwerner was shot after four separate warnings were ignored. Both stories show how America’s justice system has traded accountability for excuses — and how law, morality, and bureaucracy keep collapsing under their own contradictions.

Tony Brueski and former prosecutor Eric Faddis connect these cases in one of their most morally charged episodes yet. The first half, When Infamy Becomes an Industry, explores how constitutional loopholes turned the First Amendment into a profit shield for...

When Ajike Owens was killed through a closed door, her four children lost their mother — and a nation faced the consequences of unchecked paranoia.
In this exclusive episode, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels to dissect the mental chain reaction behind that fatal moment.

Scott explores how chronic resentment, fear scripting, and entitlement converge in what she calls “justified aggression”—the mind’s way of excusing harm under the guise of self-protection. She breaks down how fear, when reinforced over years, becomes not a response but an identity.

The discussion turns towa...

Imagine fifteen people—five of whom personally knew Laci Peterson—telling police they saw her alive, walking her golden retriever, after her husband had already left for his solo fishing trip.
Now imagine every single one of them ignored.

That’s the picture painted by the LA Innocence Project in its new 600-page petition for a new trial.
The filing lists more than a dozen witnesses who saw a pregnant woman matching Laci’s description between 9:45 and 11:30 a.m. on Dec 24 2002, right in the Petersons’ Modesto neighborhood.

Detective Grogan told jurors no “verifiable” sightings existed. Yet o...

In this full episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels take you inside the minds of two of America’s most notorious convicted murderers — Donna Adelson and Chad Daybell — through the words they wrote themselves.

Segment 1: Donna Adelson’s Prison Letter
From a Florida jail cell, Donna Adelson wrote a 2024 letter to her husband Harvey describing how her heart “breaks” over missing her grandsons’ first day of school. What could have been a rare glimpse of remorse quickly spirals into denial and bitterness:

“If I don’t get out, then hopefully I die so...

A six-year-old brought a gun to class. Four adults sounded the alarm. The assistant principal said the boy’s pockets were too small to hold a gun. Hours later, teacher Abby Zwerner was bleeding on a classroom floor. The bullet came from a child’s hand — but the failure came from the adults who didn’t listen.

In this episode, Tony Brueski and former prosecutor Eric Faddis dig into The Price of Ignorance — the $40-million civil trial that exposes how bureaucracy, denial, and institutional cowardice nearly cost a teacher her life. They break down the legal concept of foreseeabi...

Bryan Kohberger can’t leave his cell — but his story can. In the state of Idaho, there’s no Son of Sam law, meaning that a convicted murderer can legally make money from the story of his crimes. Books. Documentaries. Interviews. Royalties. In this episode, Tony Brueski and former prosecutor Eric Faddis expose how one of the most horrifying modern murder cases has collided with one of America’s oldest constitutional blind spots: the First Amendment’s protection of speech — even when that speech turns into profit from murder.

Tony opens with the question every viewer needs to hear: How ca...

Two stories. One broken system.
In Idaho, Bryan Kohberger could legally make money off his own murders. In Virginia, a first-grade teacher named Abby Zwerner was shot after four separate warnings were ignored. Both stories show how America’s justice system has traded accountability for excuses — and how law, morality, and bureaucracy keep collapsing under their own contradictions.

Tony Brueski and former prosecutor Eric Faddis connect these cases in one of their most morally charged episodes yet. The first half, When Infamy Becomes an Industry, explores how constitutional loopholes turned the First Amendment into a profit shield for...

Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels to unpack the warped psychology behind The Perfect Neighbor case — where “fear” became justification for a killing.

For two years, Susan Lorincz saw danger in ordinary life: neighborhood kids, laughter, noise. That chronic hyper-vigilance — mixed with grievance and entitlement — built a narrative that only she believed. Scott explores how paranoia and cognitive distortion feed on isolation, turning imagined threat into moral crusade.

From micro-aggressions to the myth of the “good citizen,” this interview asks what happens when anxiety weaponizes itself and empathy disappears. Scott also offers trauma...

A mother is dead. A neighbor claims fear. But what really drove Susan Lorincz to pull the trigger through a closed door?
 In this exclusive conversation, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski. Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels to dissect the psychology behind The Perfect Neighbor case — where paranoia, entitlement, and grievance collided in one deadly moment.

Scott unpacks the behavioral descent that transforms everyday irritation into lethal certainty. Was Lorincz truly afraid, or was “fear” the mask for long-nurtured anger? From chronic irritability and confirmation bias to the self-righteous delusion of being “under siege,” Scott breaks down the cogniti...

When Ajike Owens was killed through a closed door, her four children lost their mother — and a nation faced the consequences of unchecked paranoia.
In this exclusive episode, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels to dissect the mental chain reaction behind that fatal moment.

Scott explores how chronic resentment, fear scripting, and entitlement converge in what she calls “justified aggression”—the mind’s way of excusing harm under the guise of self-protection. She breaks down how fear, when reinforced over years, becomes not a response but an identity.

The discussion turns towa...

At Scott Peterson’s 2004 trial, one expert witness sealed his fate. Dr. Terry D’Vor told jurors that baby Connor’s fetal measurements proved Laci Peterson died on or before Christmas Eve 2002—the same day Scott went fishing.
Jurors called his testimony “the nail in the coffin.”

Now, in 2024, D’Vor has recanted.
After reviewing modern NIH and WHO fetal-growth studies, he signed an affidavit admitting the old 1990s charts he used were scientifically obsolete. The updated data show Connor’s gestational age was consistent with a January death, not December 24.

That’s when Scott Peterson was...

It’s one of the most shocking allegations to ever surface in a high-profile murder case: that detectives in the Laci Peterson investigation met behind closed doors to discuss discovery—and the very next day, marked key evidence for destruction.

According to the new 600-page LA Innocence Project petition, internal Modesto Police logs show that on May 6 2003, investigators gathered to decide what to hand over to the defense. By May 7, they’d ordered the destruction of two critical items: the videotaped interrogations of burglars Steven Todd and Glenn Pierce, and the safe stolen from the Medina home across the st...

Imagine fifteen people—five of whom personally knew Laci Peterson—telling police they saw her alive, walking her golden retriever, after her husband had already left for his solo fishing trip.
Now imagine every single one of them ignored.

That’s the picture painted by the LA Innocence Project in its new 600-page petition for a new trial.
The filing lists more than a dozen witnesses who saw a pregnant woman matching Laci’s description between 9:45 and 11:30 a.m. on Dec 24 2002, right in the Petersons’ Modesto neighborhood.

Detective Grogan told jurors no “verifiable” sightings existed. Yet o...

In this chilling segment of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski reads and dissects Chad Daybell’s Letter #7 — a rambling, supernatural account written years before the doomsday murders that would make him infamous.

In the letter, Daybell claims that while working as the sexton of a Utah cemetery, he was haunted by the ghost of a petty thief named Eddie — a spirit that supposedly opened gates, picked locks, and moved padlocks onto pegs. He writes that he eventually told Eddie to “go toward the light,” and that the disturbances stopped.

Then the letter descends into something far darker. Da...

In this episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels take listeners inside a letter that shocked everyone who followed the Dan Markel murder case — a 2024 note written by convicted killer Donna Adelson from her jail cell.

It begins with a mother’s lament — the pain of missing her grandsons’ first day of school — but quickly morphs into something darker.

“If I don’t get out, then hopefully I die soon so that no one remembers me in prison garb behind bars.”

The words read less like remorse and more like resentment...

In this full episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels take you inside the minds of two of America’s most notorious convicted murderers — Donna Adelson and Chad Daybell — through the words they wrote themselves.

Segment 1: Donna Adelson’s Prison Letter
 From a Florida jail cell, Donna Adelson wrote a 2024 letter to her husband Harvey describing how her heart “breaks” over missing her grandsons’ first day of school. What could have been a rare glimpse of remorse quickly spirals into denial and bitterness:

“If I don’t get out, then hopefully I die soo...

Power protects itself.
That’s the unspoken rule inside elite institutions — and it’s what former FBI agent Robin Dreeke and Tony Brueski expose in this gripping episode of Hidden Killers.

From Jeffrey Epstein’s library of blackmail tapes to the Department of Justice’s locked files, the evidence is there — and yet, nothing happens. Why?
Because predators protect predators.

In this extended, unsparing interview, Robin and Tony go beyond the headlines to uncover the psychology of protection: how abusers recruit other enablers, how fear and leverage turn good people into silent accomplices, and how institut...

“I don’t know anyone who protects a predator… other than a predator.”
That single line cuts to the core of this conversation.

In this Hidden Killers exclusive, Tony Brueski sits down with former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke to dissect one of the darkest truths in human behavior — why predators don’t just act alone. They build networks. They build protection systems. They build institutions that mirror their pathology.

This isn’t just about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, or Virginia Giuffre’s tragic final act. It’s about the broader culture of power — how entire systems learn...

The most dangerous thing to a predator isn’t exposure — it’s a survivor who refuses to stay silent.

In this episode of Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski and former FBI Behavioral Expert Robin Dreeke break down the psychology of predators protecting predators, through the lens of Virginia Giuffre’s life and legacy.

Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl isn’t just a story — it’s an indictment. Behind every abuser stood an army of protectors: lawyers, politicians, academics, and agents who looked the other way. Tony and Robin analyze how that happens — how power turns protection into addi...

The most dangerous thing to a predator isn’t exposure — it’s a survivor who refuses to stay silent.

In this episode of Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and former FBI Behavioral Expert Robin Dreeke break down the psychology of predators protecting predators, through the lens of Virginia Giuffre’s life and legacy.

Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl isn’t just a story — it’s an indictment. Behind every abuser stood an army of protectors: lawyers, politicians, academics, and agents who looked the other way. Tony and Robin analyze how that happens — how power turns protecti...

Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner promised reform.
Instead, he’s delivered a revolving door for violent offenders.

From Officer James O’Connor IV to Kada Scott, lives keep ending the same way — with suspects his office already had, and already let go.

In this explosive interview, former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Tony Brueski and Stacy Cole to expose how ideology, ego, and neglect turned Philadelphia into a test lab for failed justice:
• Why Krasner’s violent-crime conviction rate collapsed to 33%.
• How dropped gun and assault cases fueled record homicides.
• What internal culture protects...

Two crimes. Two young lives. Two moments of sheer panic that turned fatal.

A musician whose Tesla held the body of a missing 15-year-old.
A college cheerleader who hid her newborn in a closet, then went out for fast food.

In this extended Hidden Killers episode, Tony Brueski and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott dissect the chilling psychology behind both the D4vd / Celeste Rivas Hernandez and Laken Snelling cases — revealing how fear, shame, and an underdeveloped brain can twist reality into delusion.

Why do young people believe they can hide what can’t be hidd...

There’s a disturbing pattern in America’s justice system — one that stretches from the past into the present.
From the John Wayne Gacy investigation of the 1970s to Aaron Spencer’s prosecution today, we keep coming back to the same haunting question:
Why does the system protect predators and punish those who fight them?

In the first half of this episode, Defense Attorney Bob Motta — host of Defense Diaries and BURIED: Inside the John Wayne Gacy Investigation — takes us deep inside the newly remastered Gacy Tapes: never-before-heard recordings of Gacy speaking with his defense attorneys, including Bo...

A private investigator’s shocking account is raising new questions in the ongoing investigation linked to musician D4vd and the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

The PI says that after LAPD executed a search warrant at a Hollywood Hills property, he entered and found what he describes as “sadistic plans” related to Celeste — items he claims were overlooked by investigators. LAPD has not commented publicly on the specifics, but the allegation has stirred public concern over evidence handling and procedural rigor.

Tony Brueski speaks with retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, who explains how warrant searches...

DA Larry Krasner says his office “could have done better.”
Tell that to Kada Scott’s family.

At 23, Kada was building a career caring for others. She reported harassment, she said she felt unsafe — and she was ignored. Two weeks later, she was found in a shallow grave.
The suspect? A man Krasner’s office had already released after dropping a violent-kidnapping case caught on camera.

Former prosecutor Eric Faddis sits down with Tony Brueski to ask the questions Philadelphia still hasn’t answered:
– Why was the prior case abandoned?
– Who signed off on letting a...

When 23-year-old Kada Scott vanished after her shift at a Philadelphia nursing home, her family knew something was wrong. Two weeks later, her body was found behind an abandoned school.
The man charged with her kidnapping, Keon King, had already been arrested months earlier for stalking and strangling another woman — a case with video evidence that District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office dropped.

Former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Tony Brueski and Stacy Cole to break down the failures step by step:
• Why that earlier case never made it to trial.
• What tools prosecutors ignored.
• How bail r...

Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner promised reform.
Instead, he’s delivered a revolving door for violent offenders.

From Officer James O’Connor IV to Kada Scott, lives keep ending the same way — with suspects his office already had, and already let go.

In this explosive interview, former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Tony Brueski and Stacy Cole to expose how ideology, ego, and neglect turned Philadelphia into a test lab for failed justice:
• Why Krasner’s violent-crime conviction rate collapsed to 33%.
• How dropped gun and assault cases fueled record homicides.
• What internal culture protects...

When 21-year-old University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling gave birth alone in her apartment, what happened next stunned investigators. She wrapped her newborn in a towel, placed the body in a trash bag inside her closet — and then, according to court documents, ordered McDonald’s through an app and tried to go about her day.

This episode digs into that impossible contradiction: how someone can experience the most traumatic moment of their life and immediately act as though nothing happened. Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott explore the psychological mechanics of shock, shame, and denial — and why th...

When police found the body of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez inside the front trunk of a Tesla registered to the musician known as D4vd, it didn’t just expose a horrifying crime scene — it exposed a psychological collapse. A moment where fear, immaturity, and denial replaced logic.

In this episode, Tony Brueski sits down with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott to examine the psychology of impulsive concealment — why young people in crisis make catastrophic, irrational choices that they somehow believe will “fix” the problem.

Why would anyone think a body in a frunk wouldn’t be found? Why do young...

Two crimes. Two young lives. Two moments of sheer panic that turned fatal.

A musician whose Tesla held the body of a missing 15-year-old.
A college cheerleader who hid her newborn in a closet, then went out for fast food.

In this extended Hidden Killers episode, Tony Brueski and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott dissect the chilling psychology behind both the D4vd / Celeste Rivas Hernandez and Laken Snelling cases — revealing how fear, shame, and an underdeveloped brain can twist reality into delusion.

Why do young people believe they can hide what can’t be hidd...

It’s one of those stories that makes you stop and ask — what the hell happened to justice?
In Lonoke County, Arkansas, Aaron Spencer — a father who allegedly shot a known predator he found with his 14-year-old daughter — isn’t being hailed as a hero. He’s being prosecuted for second-degree murder.
Meanwhile, the same system that failed to protect his child seems more determined to protect its own image.
The man he shot, Michael Fosler, wasn’t a mystery to law enforcement. His record included sexual indecency with a child and online predation charges. Yet somehow, he was still f...

There are stories we think we know — and then there’s the John Wayne Gacy case.
The killer clown. The crawl space. The 33 victims. But BURIED: Inside the John Wayne Gacy Investigation exposes what the public never heard — the story behind the story.

In this conversation, criminal defense attorney Bob Motta joins me to go inside his groundbreaking podcast BURIED, featuring the remastered Gacy tapes — real recordings of John Wayne Gacy speaking with his defense attorneys, including Motta’s own father, Robert Motta Sr., who defended Gacy during his insanity trial. For decades, these tapes were locked away, unhe...

There’s a disturbing pattern in America’s justice system — one that stretches from the past into the present.
From the John Wayne Gacy investigation of the 1970s to Aaron Spencer’s prosecution today, we keep coming back to the same haunting question:
Why does the system protect predators and punish those who fight them?

In the first half of this episode, Defense Attorney Bob Motta — host of Defense Diaries and BURIED: Inside the John Wayne Gacy Investigation — takes us deep inside the newly remastered Gacy Tapes: never-before-heard recordings of Gacy speaking with his defense attorneys, including Bo...