Hidden Killers Live! Daily True Crime News & Breakdowns

Two courtrooms produced evidence that had been sitting untouched. At Murdaugh's pretrial hearing, his defense showed unknown male DNA under both of Maggie's hands and on her phone — SLED never ran further tests. A drug dealer's statement connecting $15,000-a-week pill sales to the Murdaugh family had sat in evidence files for three years. Harpootlian claimed a passed polygraph; the judge put the failure on the record and warned him about candor. At Farwell's federal murder trial, an FBI agent and a prosecutor read his text messages with Sandra Birchmore to the jury. He told her he figured she would ha...

Timmy Gibson didn't just attend church for forty-eight years. He ran one. He led worship teams, traveled as a healing evangelist, and served on staff at a megachurch. Then he walked away and became an atheist. On Homicide Happy Hour, he brought that history to the Caleb Flynn case, and the first thing he said is that what Flynn was doing on the worship team happened at every church Gibson ever served. Flynn was convicted on all nine counts in the murder of his wife Ashley in Tipp City, Ohio. He'd been carrying on with a fellow worship team...

State Police had Matthew Farwell's personal phone. That didn't stop his searching. Eight days after Sandra Birchmore's death, Farwell used his department-issued phone to look up consent revocation in Massachusetts and whether Cellebrite can extract deleted iMessages. The FBI's forensics examiner presented phone data from the night Sandra died: her device tracked six steps at 9:10 PM, screen lock at 9:13, eight steps at 9:40, then zero activity. Surveillance placed Farwell inside her building. A baby names list found on Sandra's phone — saved two days before she died — ended with the name Matthew. She had been sharing ultrasound images. The defense cited a se...

In federal court, a prosecutor read Matthew Farwell's texts while an FBI agent read Sandra Birchmore's. His own words: he figured she would have said no because she was young. He got addicted. He called it tutoring at the library — prosecutors say the relationship became physical there while she was a high school student. He admitted to the FBI that 2012 was on the table. Sandra Birchmore was fourteen years old. Farwell directed Sandra to wipe their text history — not once, but multiple times. FBI testimony placed his conduct within the legal definition of aggravated statutory offense. He was a poli...

Harpootlian claimed flying colors. The record says failure. Alex Murdaugh's polygraph tested financial deception, not the murders of Maggie and Paul — and Murdaugh was never tested about the killings at all. The judge rebuked Harpootlian on the record: candor with the court is not optional, and this conduct will not be tolerated going forward. The hearing also laid bare fights over evidence handling — the state delivered 73 gigabytes of material three days before the first trial. A SLED ballistics expert who testified he'd never encountered .300 Blackout in a homicide was undercut by SLED's own logs showing those cartridges processed routinely. The...

At a pretrial hearing ahead of Alex Murdaugh's retrial, defense attorneys laid out DNA evidence the first jury never saw. Maggie Murdaugh had unknown male DNA under both sets of fingernails — not just the one hand SLED disclosed — and on the cell phone thrown from the car. Alex Murdaugh matches none of it. Three days before the original trial, the state delivered a data dump containing a federal prisoner's statement: Ryan Spencer North claimed he sold $15,000 a week in prescription pills to the family. He named Eddie Smith and a $165,000 debt to a violent gang. That statement went uninvestigated. The...

Two deaths. Two investigations where the scene was compromised before law enforcement got the chance to protect it. In Sandra Birchmore's case, the compromise came from inside the department. In Ken Urker's case, it came from a relative of his ex-partner. Tony and Bob Motta ask what a defense attorney makes of both and whether either investigation was built to find the truth.

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Leaked recordings reportedly capture Gypsy Rose Blanchard telling Ryan Anderson she hoped Ken Urker would overdose. That was 2020 and 2021. Ken is dead with drug paraphernalia at the scene and no official cause of death released. Tony and Bob Motta ask whether those recordings change what the sheriff's office should be investigating, what it means that Gypsy's brother entered the scene first, and what the Urker family should be demanding.

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Canton PD, State Police, and the Norfolk DA all looked at Sandra Birchmore's death and called it self-inflicted. The defense is telling the jury the people who were actually in that apartment and had the evidence in their hands all reached the same conclusion. Prosecutors say Farwell's DNA is on the strap. Tony and Bob Motta ask whether a defense attorney can turn a failed investigation into reasonable doubt — and what it means for a juror who believes the original investigation was compromised.

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The federal case against Matthew Farwell exists because the FBI reopened an investigation that local and state agencies closed. His twin brother, a former deputy chief, the DA's office, and the medical examiner all moved in the same direction on the same case. Tony and Bob Motta ask at what point a pattern of failures stops looking like incompetence, what charges could exist for the people and institutions that let it happen, and what Sandra's family was supposed to accept as justice.

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Lobby footage showed Matthew Farwell entering Sandra Birchmore's building the night before she was found. His phone stopped transmitting near her apartment. DNA was collected from the strap around her neck and from her underwear. Witnesses reported that he made statements about wanting her to end her own life. Prosecutors allege all of it existed during the original investigation and none of it moved the case forward. Tony and Bob Motta ask what a defense attorney sees when an investigation has everything it needs and still calls it closed.

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Bryan Kohberger told Judge Steven Hippler under oath that he was guilty of killing four University of Idaho students. A year later, he filed a petition saying his legal team convinced him to enter a plea he did not freely choose. Which version can a court rely on?

Kohberger accuses Anne Taylor and other members of his former defense team of misleading him about conditions on death row and evidence they allegedly did not share. Those claims will need proof. The judge can compare any testimony or records about the plea talks with Kohberger’s own answers in...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard reached toward a phone as Ken Urker tried to end a July 2025 livestream. She appeared to be slurring her speech, and the exchange ended abruptly. People watching a few seconds of video argued over what it meant for their relationship. Ken’s death more than a year later made that old clip circulate in a very different atmosphere.

There is a longer history behind that public moment. Gypsy left prison in December 2023 after serving about eight and a half years for her role in Dee Dee Blanchard’s killing. She has described those years as a...

Bryan Kohberger's attorney asked to remove Judge Steven Hippler from the case challenging Kohberger's own guilty plea. Before that request could be argued on October 15, the court vacated the hearing and wiped out the June 2027 dates for a status conference and possible evidence hearing. The new order leaves the recusal motion unresolved.

Kohberger pleaded guilty to murdering Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin and received four consecutive life sentences. At the July 2025 plea hearing, he said under oath that he was guilty. His later petition alleges ineffective assistance from the Anne Taylor defense team...

Sandra Birchmore’s phone registered eight steps at 9:40 p.m., according to federal prosecutors. Surveillance footage showed Matthew Farwell leaving her apartment building at 9:43. A phone can log movement, but it cannot testify about who was holding it. That is why the prosecution’s precise timeline deserves close scrutiny instead of an instant conclusion. 

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer joins Tony Brueski to work through listener questions about the final recorded activity and the other evidence needed to interpret it. The government alleges Farwell strangled Sandra and made the apartment look like the scene of a suici...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard says Ken Urker once threatened to seek sole custody after she damaged a headboard with a knife. That claim comes from a September 2025 recorded prison call, not a police complaint or custody filing. With Ken dead, the account has become part of a public argument over their daughter Aurora.

Autumn Urker says her brother wanted Aurora in Texas and that his relationship with Gypsy had already ended. Gypsy points to September 2 texts discussing shared parenting and handling an agreement without opposing lawyers. The published messages are evidence of that conversation. They do not establish...

Kouri Richins’ attempt to win a new trial now intersects with criminal charges against two sheriffs. Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds pleaded not guilty after a grand jury accused them of obstructing justice in connection with her prosecution. An important part of the story remains behind redactions in the charging documents. 

Before Kouri’s murder trial, prosecutors received an anonymous letter containing allegations about Detective Eric Mainord. According to reporting on search warrant affidavits, the dispute also involved Mainord’s decision to run against Rigby for sheriff. Investigators examined whether accusat...

Ken Urker’s sister Autumn says he slept with a gun because he was getting death threats. She explicitly said he wasn't doing that out of fear that Gypsy Rose Blanchard would hurt him. Those details are central to the listener questions surrounding his death. 

Ken was found dead on October 1, 2026, his 34th birthday, at a home in Raceland, Louisiana. The sheriff’s office said it had not found evidence of foul play, while cautioning that the investigation had not ended. An official cause of death and final toxicology results had not been publicly released in the cover...

Matthew Farwell reportedly asked Sandra Birchmore for a key to her apartment in the days before she died. According to prosecutors, Sandra told friends the former Stoughton detective had abruptly begun treating her more kindly after a police disclosure threatened to expose their long relationship. 

The federal government alleges that Farwell had been involved with Sandra since she was underage after meeting her through a Stoughton police youth program. A friend called the department in January 2021 to disclose that relationship. Prosecutors say he reacted angrily and later changed course. They say that change was meant to lower S...

The jury found Caleb Flynn guilty on nine counts, and the court sentenced him to life without parole. His trial lawyer Patrick Mulligan then filed a notice of appeal and asked for a public defender to take over. The defense says the proof of prior calculation and design was insufficient and has identified concerns about the jury instructions and trial location.

With Robin Dreeke, Tony Brueski takes listener questions about the legal road ahead and the testimony that continues to trouble viewers. Alleigha Botner told jurors about the vast volume of messages she exchanged with Flynn. One...

Christa Pike received two doses of pentobarbital during Tennessee’s September 30 execution attempt and survived. The Tennessee Department of Correction says it complied with its protocol, which did not permit an additional step after the backup dose. The state’s own description has become central to questions about what that protocol anticipated. 

The warning signs were in litigation before Pike entered the execution chamber. Her lawyers described a blood condition and difficult IV access. Tennessee disputed the risks, citing routine blood draws and accessible veins. The execution proceeded after testimony before a special master. 

Pike’s lawyer...

Kohberger said guilty and wants it unsaid. His judge vacated every hearing. The prosecution wants his petition dead without testimony. His alibi has no witness, no phone, and contradicts the cell data. His attack on Anne Taylor opened three years of conversations. Farwell's DNA is on the weapon that killed Sandra Birchmore. He walked in wearing a mask, stayed twenty-nine minutes, and her phone stopped three minutes before he left. She sent six hundred texts that day, searched baby shower venues, and left no note. The defense says she ended her own life. Eric Faddis, defense attorney and former...

Surveillance footage shows Matthew Farwell entering Sandra Birchmore's building at 9:14 PM wearing a mask and hood. He left at 9:43. Her phone stopped moving three minutes before he walked out that door. He went home and deleted every message between them. His DNA is the major contributor on the strap prosecutors say killed her. Sandra had told eighty people about the baby. She was searching baby shower venues, paying for nursing school, and sent six hundred texts that day. She left no note. The trooper who called it a suicide didn't collect the strap, didn't record Farwell's interview, and didn't...

Kohberger's post-conviction case depends on proving his attorneys failed him. He accused Anne Taylor of hiding evidence and lying about death row to scare him into a plea. Filing that claim waived attorney-client privilege  —  every conversation they had for three years is now exposed. Taylor filed a sealed memo before the plea warning Hippler that Kohberger couldn't comprehend adverse rulings. Hippler denied the continuance request. Kohberger pleaded guilty weeks later and is now using the same argument against Taylor that she put on the record herself. If she testifies, she carries the transcript where Kohberger said he was satisfied, init...

His defense team filed an alibi notice before the plea  —  he was driving alone to look at the moon and the stars. No witness to confirm it. His phone was off during the window that mattered. Against that: his DNA on the knife sheath, over twenty phone pings near the house, his car on surveillance, a Ka-Bar knife bought with a gift card, a cleaned vehicle, and a roommate who saw him inside. Kohberger pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. If the plea gets thrown out, the deal dies with it and prosecutors already announced intent to seek deat...

Bryan Kohberger's disqualification hearing was on the calendar. Judge Hippler vacated it himself the night before  —  and took every other court date with it. The June evidentiary hearing on the plea withdrawal, the status conference, all of it gone. The prosecution wants the petition dismissed outright, calling Kohberger's claims bare and conclusory. The defense says Hippler's sentencing comments  —  calling Kohberger the worst of the worst  —  prove he can't be fair. They also want the case moved to Latah County. Goldman, Kohberger's family attorney, says this marks the start of a longer battle. Eric Faddis joins Tony to unpack why a judge faci...

Nick Godejohn did what Gypsy Rose Blanchard asked and got life without parole. Ryan Anderson waited outside the prison at 3:30 a.m.; she left him in ninety days. Ken Urker proposed, left, came back, had a daughter with her, and died on his 34th birthday. His family says they’re afraid to cross Gypsy over the baby. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, author of Nightbird, traces this pattern across four segments. The first puts the medical paper on the table: a negative biopsy Dee Dee ignored, a doctor who caught it and said nothing. The second follows Gypsy through prison, where sh...

Ken Urker’s sister Autumn says their mother told her in tears after his death, “We have to be nice to Gypsy or she won’t let her see Aurora.” She says Ken told her in their last call he wanted to bring Aurora “back home” to his mother. Those are one sister’s claims. What’s documented is that Ken is gone, Aurora is 21 months old, and every road to that child runs through Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Before prison, Gypsy built Facebook characters to get Nick Godejohn to kill Dee Dee. At his trial, the defense called her first. Dee Dee k...

Her parole ended in June 2025. Within days, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was on a livestream slurring, “I’m pretty sure I reached my limit. But I am going to continue to drink.” Ken Urker, off camera, said, “I’m glad that was all caught on tape,” ended the stream, and she grabbed for the phone to keep it going. That spring they’d started couples therapy. It was the first summer of her life nobody could tell her no, and the first thing she tested was how much. Before that night, she’d packed three years of milestones into eighteen months: eight mi...

Matthew Farwell was interviewed twice by state police investigators about Sandra Birchmore’s death. Both times in a parking lot. Neither session was recorded. Not a single note was taken.

Lobby footage captured Farwell arriving at Sandra’s building at 9:28 p.m. on the night she died, in a hooded sweatshirt and a mask. There were no cameras on her floor, outside her door, or in the stairwell. Trooper Dunne acknowledged there was no way to know when Farwell actually left.

Investigators already had text records between Sandra and Farwell suggesting he’d put his hands...

In 2016, Gypsy Rose Blanchard said, “She taught me to lie, and I don’t wanna lie.” That year, Rod and Kristy were still catching her in small lies. She’d been seeing a therapist in county jail, but whether Chillicothe gave her one trained for a case like hers, there’s no public record. She went in at 23, unable to read past second grade, never having picked out her own clothes. She came out with a husband, a book deal, and a TV contract. Her lawyer said she gained fourteen pounds while his other clients lost weight. Her stepmother said she’d...

Rod Blanchard called his daughter on her 18th birthday. Dee Dee Blanchard took the phone and said, “She thinks she’s 14.” When Gypsy Rose was arrested in 2015, she told police she was 19 — she was 23, and her mother held power of attorney over a grown woman’s medical decisions. Behind that lie was a medical file. Tulane ran a muscular dystrophy biopsy in 2001 and it came back negative. Dee Dee found another doctor. In 2007, a neurologist wrote “Munchausen by proxy” in the chart and never reported it. The surgeries kept going on a child who didn’t need them. The prosecutor said...

A convicted killer named her partner's cause of death before the coroner. A family had to hire its own pathologist to get Sandra Birchmore's suicide ruling withdrawn. A judge who called Bryan Kohberger a "faceless coward" is hearing Kohberger's motion to remove him. Four live listener segments. Ken Urker died October 1, 2026, his 34th birthday; Gypsy Rose Blanchard called it an overdose the next day, toxicology still pending, and a September 2025 prison call has her describing a knife and his headboard. Matthew Farwell is on trial in Boston federal court; prosecutors say the troopers who closed Sandra's case never recorded...

Bryan Kohberger's lawyer put Judge Hippler's own words in a motion: "faceless coward," "worst of the worst," and the line that nothing redeeming survived his acts. Greg Rauch argues those sentencing remarks and Hippler's refusal to give the defense more time before the July 2, 2025, plea show the judge can't fairly rule on whether that plea was coerced. The hearing on removing Hippler is October 15, 2026, in Ada County, and Hippler presides. Kohberger, who told Hippler under oath that he was guilty of murdering four University of Idaho students, filed a handwritten petition a year later claiming ineffective counsel and a...

Sandra Birchmore's death was ruled a suicide within three months, and prosecutors say the troopers who got there never recorded their interview with Matthew Farwell or asked for a warrant for his home or phone. Farwell, a former Stoughton detective, is on trial in federal court in Boston charged with killing a witness and causing the death of her unborn child. Video shows him entering her Canton apartment building on February 1, 2021, and leaving roughly 28 minutes later. The state medical examiner withdrew the suicide ruling in April 2026. Dr. Michael Baden, retained by her family, says she was strangled. The defense...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard describes, in her own voice, drinking, grabbing a kitchen knife, and going after Ken Urker's headboard after finding a card he wrote to an ex. The recording is a September 2025 prison call the Daily Mail published, more than a year before Ken was found dead on October 1, 2026. In it she says Ken photographed the damage and threatened to file for sole custody of Aurora. The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office says it never received a report. Autumn Urker says the relationship was over a month before Ken died and that he wanted Aurora in Texas with his...

Autumn Urker and Gypsy Rose Blanchard agree on almost nothing about Ken Urker's death except this: he was doxxed, threatened, and sleeping with a gun because of people online. Ken was found dead at his Raceland, Louisiana home on October 1, 2026, his 34th birthday. The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office says the case is being investigated as drug-related, toxicology pending, no immediate signs of foul play. Gypsy told People the next day he overdosed and has since written that she won't say whether it was intentional. Her ex-husband Ryan Anderson's first words on hearing the news were "how'd that happen," and...

Robin Dreeke joins Tony for four Q&A segments spanning two active cases. Caleb Flynn's lawyer filed the appeal and said his firm was done. Alleigha Botner texted I want to kill her, deleted her messages the morning Ashley died, and was cleared on a parked car. In the Matthew Farwell federal trial, prosecutors told a jury he was with Sandra Birchmore from the time she was 15 and killed her at 23 when she was pregnant. Defense attorney Kimberly Stevens called it an affair and built a suicide defense from Sandra's own phone. Your questions land on what went unchecked...

Robin Dreeke returns to take your questions about the defense case for Matthew Farwell. Kimberly Stevens opened by calling the relationship with Sandra Birchmore an affair and putting her arm around Farwell in front of the jury. She used Sandra's own phone to build a suicide theory: the suicide ribbon search, the image asking who would cry, the original medical examiner's ruling. Prosecutors countered with years of texts about Farwell grabbing Sandra's throat, zero searches for methods on her devices, and the examiner's revised finding of undetermined. Jen wants to know how the same phone proves opposite things. Amanda...

Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke joins Tony to answer listener questions about the Matthew Farwell federal murder trial. Prosecutors allege Farwell met Sandra Birchmore through a police youth program when she was 12, was with her by 15, and strangled her when she was 23 and pregnant. The prosecution says he did a complete 180 in the twelve days before her death, turned kind, and asked for a key to her apartment. He allegedly entered her building with his hood up and a mask on during a pandemic he openly opposed. The state police unit that closed Sandra's case in hours is...