True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
The Reiner Tell-All: Revenge or Delusion?
Is Nick Reiner plotting a calculated act of revenge from behind bars — or is his reported tell-all just another manifestation of the delusion that multiple sources say has consumed him inside Twin Towers Correctional Facility? That’s the question at the center of this episode, and the answer matters far more than the tabloid headline suggests.
According to insiders cited by Globe magazine, Nick allegedly wants to expose his parents’ secrets, name Hollywood names, and burn down the reputations of people who’ve reportedly cut ties with him since his arrest for the stabbing deaths of Rob and Mich...
IBLP’s Duggar Curriculum: The Fake Science Inside the Booklets (Pt. 2)
The Duggar family curriculum didn’t just fail at academics. It replaced real science with superstition and called it God’s design. IBLP told families that Cabbage Patch dolls were spiritually dangerous, that any music with a backbeat was more addictive than crack, and that mental illness was a spiritual failure — not a medical condition. The organization’s medical arm operated without a licensed doctor and distributed health guidance that included suggestions violating patient privacy laws. Adopted children were taught they carried inherited sin. We break down the specific health and science claims inside the Wisdom Booklets and the real har...
D4vd Charges: Special Circumstances and Forty Terabytes of Evidence
David Anthony Burke, 21, known professionally as D4vd, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder with special circumstances, one count of continuous abuse of a child under the age of fourteen, and one count of unlawful mutilation of human remains in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14, of Lake Elsinore, California. Burke entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment. He is held without bail at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.
The special circumstance allegations include murder for financial gain and murder of a witness. Prosecutors allege Burke ended Celeste’s life be...
Nick Reiner Case: Alleged Tell-All Complicates Murder Defense
Nick Reiner, 32, faces two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders in the alleged stabbing deaths of his parents, director Rob Reiner, 78, and photographer-producer Michele Singer Reiner, 70, at their Brentwood residence. Reiner pled not guilty in February 2026 through public defender Kimberly Greene, who assumed representation after defense attorney Alan Jackson withdrew from the case under undisclosed circumstances. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will seek the death penalty.
Reports now indicate Reiner is allegedly planning a tell-all from Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where he is held without bail. The reported manuscript...
Sandra Birchmore: A Youth Program Turned Predator Pipeline
Sandra Birchmore wanted to be a cop. She walked into the Stoughton Police Explorers program at twelve years old full of admiration for the badge, looking for belonging, looking for guidance, looking for the kind of structure her difficult childhood hadn’t provided. What she found instead were predators wearing uniforms.
Federal prosecutors allege that Matthew Farwell, an instructor in the program, began grooming Sandra almost immediately. By the time she was fifteen and he was twenty-seven, he had initiated a sexual relationship with her. Text messages uncovered during the investigation show him acknowledging that he took he...
D4vd and Kepner Cruise Ship: Murder Charges and Indictments
Two active murder prosecutions with significant forensic and procedural dimensions are examined in this episode with analysis from retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer.
In Los Angeles, David Anthony Burke faces first-degree murder with special circumstances — lying in wait, financial gain, and the alleged killing of a witness — in the death of fourteen-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Additional charges include lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under fourteen and mutilation of a body. District Attorney Nathan Hochman alleges Burke killed Rivas to protect his music career. The unsealed autopsy documents two stab wounds with smooth-edged wound characteristics, dism...
Amy Duggar King's Complete Account of Duggar Family Dysfunction
Amy Duggar King, Jim Bob Duggar's niece and author of the memoir Holy Disruptor, provides a comprehensive account of the behavioral patterns, information suppression, and alleged generational abuse she says have defined the Duggar family across three generations.
Amy traces the origins to her grandfather Jimmy Lee Duggar, whom she describes in her published memoir as violent and predatory. She alleges her mother Deanna was beaten severely by Jimmy Lee and that protective measures within the household were constant. She says Jim Bob Duggar witnessed his father's conduct firsthand before establishing his own family structure within the...
Kepner Cruise Ship Case: Federal Murder Charges Filed
A federal grand jury has indicted sixteen-year-old Timothy Hudson as an adult on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated abuse in the death of his eighteen-year-old stepsister, Anna Kepner. The indictment was returned on April 13, 2026, after the case was transferred from juvenile proceedings by order of U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom. Hudson pleaded not guilty on April 22, 2026, through defense attorney Eric Cohen. He remains in the custody of an uncle under GPS monitoring, with restrictions including no unsupervised contact with anyone under eighteen. Prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to revoke his pretrial release; that matter remains unresolved.<...
Rex Heuermann Called Her "Dear" After Confessing to Gilgo Beach Killings
There's a moment in the final episode of the Peacock docuseries House of Secrets that stopped me cold. Rex Heuermann is on the phone from jail with his ex-wife Asa Ellerup. He's already confessed to killing eight women. He's already told her he strangled and dismembered victims in the basement of the home they shared. He's already described to their daughter Victoria how his victims weren't real people in his mind. And on this call, he calls Asa "dear." And she smiles.
That single moment tells you more about the aftermath of the Gilgo Beach case than...
IBLP’s Duggar Curriculum Exposed: The Booklets That Replaced School (Pt. 1)
The Duggar family curriculum wasn’t a fringe experiment. It was a closed system that educated thousands of children across America — fifty-four pamphlets called Wisdom Booklets that promised a college-equivalent education and delivered chaos dressed up as curriculum. Bill Gothard and IBLP told families this was better than school. Certified educators who reviewed the material found fabricated science, no academic progression, and content so incoherent that a professional scientist needed an hour per topic to untangle it for a high school student. The enrollment process didn’t screen for readiness. It screened for compliance — no TV, no unapproved music, no worki...
D4vd Case: LAPD Evidence Handling Under Scrutiny
The prosecution’s timeline in the David Anthony Burke case raises significant questions about both the defendant’s alleged conduct and the investigative response. Prosecutors allege Burke killed fourteen-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez on April 23, 2025. He was not arrested until April 16, 2026 — nearly a year later. During that interval, Burke allegedly continued public professional activity, including a concert tour and album release, while Rivas’s remains were discovered in an impounded Tesla registered to him on September 8, 2025.
LAPD held the vehicle for 48 hours to process evidence before releasing it to the impound lot. The vehicle was subsequently retrieved under Burke’s...
D4vd Murder Charges: Autopsy and Exploitation Evidence
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has charged David Anthony Burke with first-degree murder with special circumstances — lying in wait, financial gain, and the alleged killing of a witness — in the death of fourteen-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Additional charges include lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under fourteen and mutilation of a body. District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges, alleging Burke killed Rivas to protect his lucrative music career after she allegedly threatened to expose their relationship.
The unsealed autopsy documents two stab wounds to the torso with smooth edges from a sharp instru...
Nancy Guthrie Investigation: Institutional Failures and Ransom Analysis
Nancy Guthrie, eighty-four, the mother of NBC Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reportedly abducted from her residence in the Catalina Foothills community near Tucson, Arizona, on or about February 1, 2026. Bloodstains at the scene were confirmed as Guthrie's. Her Bluetooth-enabled pacemaker disconnected from her phone at approximately 2:30 a.m., suggesting movement out of range. Surveillance footage captured a masked individual on Guthrie's porch carrying a backpack investigators identified as a big-box retail purchase. No arrest has been made. No suspect has been publicly named. A multi-agency task force led by the FBI is conducting the investigation.
Multiple ransom...
Lucy Letby Case: Conviction, Institutional Failure, and Expert Challenge
Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in England, was convicted in August 2023 of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder involving infants under her care between June 2015 and June 2016. An additional attempted murder conviction was secured at retrial. She is serving fifteen whole-life orders — the British equivalent of life without the possibility of parole. Two applications for leave to appeal have been refused by the Court of Appeal.
The prosecution's case was built on the correlation between Letby's shift patterns and the unprecedented cluster of deaths and collapses on th...
Duggar Family Pattern: Secrecy Architecture and Institutional Control Examined
The pattern of internal management of serious allegations within the Duggar family is now documented across two generations. Josh Duggar's admitted abuse of his sisters was handled privately for years before becoming public. Joseph Duggar allegedly admitted to the conduct described in the arrest affidavit when confronted by the victim's father — and according to that affidavit, no contact was made with law enforcement until the father came forward approximately six years later. Authorities investigating Joseph's case reportedly discovered exterior-mounted locks on the couple's children's bedroom doors. A family spokesperson characterized the Arkansas charges as "totally unrelated" to the Florida ca...
D4VD Charge Sheet Breakdown: Special Circumstances and Prosecution Theory
David Anthony Burke, twenty-one, professionally known as D4VD, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with first-degree murder with three special circumstances — lying in wait, commission of a crime for financial gain, and killing a witness to a crime — as well as continuous sexual abuse of a child under fourteen years of age, lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under fourteen, and mutilation of human remains. Burke has entered a plea of not guilty. The combined special circumstances render Burke eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death pena...
Duggar Family Case: Generational Pattern and Kendra's Legal Position
Amy Duggar King, the cousin of the Duggar siblings and author of the memoir Holy Disruptor, has publicly identified her grandfather, Jimmy Lee Duggar, as the origin point of the family's pattern of control and alleged abuse. In her account, Jimmy Lee's violence against her mother Deanna was known within the family and protected by silence for decades. Amy contends that the behavioral framework Jim Bob Duggar built — reinforced by the theology of the Institute in Basic Life Principles — is a direct continuation of that generational pattern.
Retired FBI Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke examines the stru...
D4VD Murder Defense Examined: Special Circumstances and Evidence
David Anthony Burke, twenty-one, professionally known as D4VD, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with first-degree murder with three special circumstances — lying in wait, commission of a crime for financial gain, and killing a witness to a crime — as well as continuous sexual abuse of a child under fourteen years of age and mutilation of human remains in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Burke has entered a plea of not guilty. The special circumstances render Burke eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
The...
Joseph Duggar: Two States, Two Cases, Two Alleged Confessions
Joseph Garrett Duggar, thirty-one, formerly of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting, has been charged in Bay County, Florida, with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under twelve years of age and lewd and lascivious conduct — charges classified as life felonies under Florida law. Duggar has entered a plea of not guilty and was released on six hundred thousand dollars bond. The court has ordered no unsupervised contact with any minor, including Duggar's own four children.
The charges stem from a 2020 family vacation to Panama City Beach. A fourteen-year-old victim participated in a forensic interview, disclosing incidents from wh...
D4VD Murder Prosecution: Grand Jury Silence and Witness Flight
David Anthony Burke, twenty-one, professionally known as D4VD, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under fourteen years of age, and mutilation of human remains in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Burke has entered a plea of not guilty. The special circumstances — lying in wait, commission of a crime for financial gain, and killing a witness to a crime — render Burke eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
The procedural path to thes...
D4VD Formally Charged: Celeste Rivas Murder Case Examined
David Anthony Burke, twenty-one, professionally known as D4VD, has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under fourteen years of age, and mutilation of human remains in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Burke has entered a plea of not guilty. The special circumstances attached to the murder charge — lying in wait, commission of a crime for financial gain, and killing a witness to a crime — render Burke eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors have...
Amy Duggar King Addresses Kendra Duggar's Legal and Family Situation
Amy Duggar King, Jim Bob Duggar's niece and author of Holy Disruptor, addresses the situation facing Kendra Duggar — the twenty-seven-year-old wife of Joseph Duggar who now faces her own criminal charges alongside her husband's pending case in Florida.
Joseph Duggar, thirty-one, was arrested March 18 and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under twelve, according to the Bay County Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit. He posted a $600,000 bond on March 31 and has pleaded not guilty. Both Joseph and Kendra were charged in Arkansas with four counts each of endangering the welfare of a minor and four co...
D4vd and the Kepner Cruise Ship Murder With Attorney Eric Faddis
Today on True Crime Today, the full Eric Faddis interview. We move through the David Anthony Burke case in two parts, first the people around him and who is still legally exposed, then the felony complaint and the defense strategy already forming, then pivot to federal court in Florida for the Anna Kepner not guilty plea and what the defense moves are signaling.
If you only listen to one legal breakdown on either case this week, make it this one.
Subscribe to True Crime Today for daily true crime analysis from working investigators and trial...
Lucy Letby: Death Certificates Still Say Natural (Pt. 5)
Years after a jury convicted Lucy Letby of murdering seven babies, some of those children's death certificates still officially list the cause of death as natural or unknown. The Cheshire Coroner's Court has opened formal inquests into five of the deaths. Full hearings are provisionally scheduled for September 2026, pending the outcome of the Thirlwall Inquiry. The families are still fighting for a piece of paper that reflects what a jury already decided happened to their children.
That single fact tells you everything about the pace and complexity of the legal reckoning surrounding this case. The Thirlwall Inquiry...
Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Murder: A Trial Attorney Reads the Defense Signals
On today's True Crime Today, Eric Faddis walks us through the federal case against Anna Kepner's stepbrother. The not guilty plea. The strategic decisions already made by the defense. The cellphone data reportedly pulled from Anna's father. The seven-day trial estimate that raises its own questions.
We cover the plea procedure, the defense's own request for the adult transfer, the judge-selection strategy, the discovery handover, and what a working trial attorney sees when he reads all of those moves together. If you have been following this one, Eric's read on where it is heading is the one...
Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Murder: The Not Guilty Plea Explained
The person accused of killing Anna Kepner aboard a Carnival cruise ship just pleaded not guilty in federal court — and he didn’t even show up to say it. His attorney filed a one-page document while the sixteen-year-old stayed home, wearing a GPS ankle monitor, living with a relative, and recently cleared to work at his biological father’s landscaping business.Â
That’s the reality of this case right now.Anna Kepner was eighteen years old. She was found dead under a bed aboard the Carnival Horizon — wrapped in a blanket, concealed beneath life jackets — during what was supposed...
Warren Jeffs’ FLDS Empire: Fractured But Not Dead — Part 5
Warren Jeffs will die behind bars. The FLDS he built is hemorrhaging members. Short Creek—the community he sealed off from the world—now has soccer games, bars, and a winery. But the story is not over. From a Texas prison cell, Jeffs continues issuing edicts. A hardened core of followers—scattered across multiple states—still considers him their prophet. Reports suggest plural marriage may be restarting in hidden locations.
The final episode of the Hidden Killers five-part FLDS series covers the financial reckoning: a $152 million judgment, a $12 million food stamp fraud case, and Elissa Wall’s years-long...
The D4vd Complaint: Death Penalty Charges and a Defense Already Swinging
On today's True Crime Today, Eric Faddis takes us inside the David Anthony Burke felony complaint. Three special circumstances. A continuous sexual abuse charge that defines the witness-murder theory. And a defense team using very precise legal language Eric says tells you exactly where this trial is headed.
We hit the financial-gain theory and whether protecting income you already have fits that statute, the complaint-versus-indictment question after the grand jury failed to indict, the discovery battle over the forty-plus terabytes of evidence, the unsealed autopsy, and the difference between saying "he didn't do it" and saying "he...
Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Murder: Federal Charges Expose Key Evidence
Anna Marie Kepner, eighteen, a senior at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, was found dead on November 7, 2025, inside a cabin she shared with her stepbrother and half-brother aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship during a family vacation. Her body was reportedly concealed under a bed, wrapped in a blanket, and covered with life jackets. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation.
Her sixteen-year-old stepbrother has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse. He has entered a plea of not guilty. The...
D4vd's Inner Circle: Eric Faddis on the Witnesses Who Haven't Been Charged
On today's True Crime Today, trial attorney Eric Faddis joins us to break down the legal architecture of the David Anthony Burke case. Prosecutors have reportedly said Burke had help disposing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains. So far he is the only name on the complaint.
Eric, a former felony prosecutor, walks us through the cooperation language around Neo Langston, the grand jury testimony by Robert Morgenroth, the multi-client conflict issues with attorney Evan Jenness appearing to represent multiple witnesses, and the Burke family's Texas subpoena fight that went all the way to a state appeals court...
Amy Duggar King Describes Family's Alleged Suppression System
Amy Duggar King, Jim Bob Duggar's niece and author of the memoir Holy Disruptor, provides detailed testimony about what she describes as a systematic pattern of information suppression within the Duggar family and its associated religious communities.
Amy characterizes Jim Bob Duggar as someone who controls information with the same precision others apply to financial management — determining who knows what, when, and how much. She describes an ecosystem where disclosures of abuse were allegedly handled through church counseling and internal family channels rather than through law enforcement.
The public record includes Josh Duggar's federal conviction an...
D4VD: The Interview That Goes Where Others Won't
Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott brings over three decades of clinical expertise in trauma, violence psychology, and forensic mental health to a complete three-part examination of the D4VD case with Tony Brueski.
The charges against David Anthony Burke in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez include first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child, lying in wait, financial motive, and mutilation of remains. Scott — author of The Minds of Mass Killers — examines the psychological landscape underneath every element.
Part 1: How does a 13-year-old become this vulnerable? The family dynamics, the resource gap, the...
Lucy Letby and a Wrongful Conviction Parallel (Pt. 4)
Lucia de Berk was a Dutch pediatric nurse convicted in 2003 of murdering patients. The evidence: she was present during unexplained deaths, statistical correlation suggested her presence wasn't coincidence, and medical experts interpreted clinical events as deliberate harm. She was sentenced to life in prison. In 2009, a court accepted the deaths were natural. She was completely innocent. She served six years for crimes that never happened.
The experts who helped overturn de Berk's conviction say the Lucy Letby case follows the same pattern. The same type of evidence. The same structural flaws. The same certainty built on the...
D4VD: Was the Music Warning Us All Along?
David Burke grew up in a religious household. He was homeschooled. He listened exclusively to gospel music until age 13. Within a few years, he went from Fortnite montages in a closet to a world tour and millions of streaming fans. His biggest hit was called "Romantic Homicide." His debut album was called "Withered." And now he's charged with first-degree murder, sexual abuse of a child, and mutilation of remains.
In the final part of a three-part interview series, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott sits down with Tony Brueski to examine the psychological profile that emerges when you place the...
Duggar “Satan Claus”: The Blacklist Behind the Beliefs
You think you know the Duggars’ rules. The matching outfits. The courtship rituals. The no-kissing-before-marriage thing. But there’s a list behind the list — and it starts with Santa Claus. In the IBLP, Santa’s name was treated as an anagram of Satan. The Duggars erased him from Christmas entirely. And that was just the beginning of a blacklist that went far beyond holiday traditions.
Tony Brueski lays it all out. Cabbage Patch dolls, declared demonic — families were told to burn them, not throw them away. Disney, torched in a backyard bonfire. Rock music, even worship music with a bea...
How a Hoax Call Exposed Warren Jeffs’ FLDS Compound — Part 4
In 2008, Texas authorities raided the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch and removed more than 460 children—the largest child custody action in U.S. history. The phone call that triggered the raid came from a woman in Colorado who had never been to the ranch. It was a complete fabrication. And it led investigators to evidence that was anything but fake.
Inside the compound: a temple with beds for underage ceremonies. A Bishop’s Record documenting child marriages. More than one in four of the teenage girls either married or pregnant. And audio recordings that captured Warren Jeffs’ voice...
D4VD Toured for Months. His Circle Said Nothing.
Prosecutors allege David Anthony Burke performed on a world tour for months after Celeste Rivas Hernandez was allegedly killed — including the night her body was discovered in Los Angeles. His close friend Neo Langston fled to Montana rather than testify before a grand jury. His parents tried to quash their subpoenas. His manager testified over several days. And through all of it — months of public silence while a family grieved and a community demanded accountability.
In Part 2 of a three-part interview series, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott examines the psychology behind the alleged coverup and the wall of silence that...
D4VD: Every System Failed Celeste Rivas Hernandez
The charges against David Anthony Burke in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez are staggering — first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child, mutilation of remains. But the psychological questions underneath those charges start years before the alleged crime.
How does a 13-year-old end up living with a 19-year-old celebrity? How does an online connection on a Discord server allegedly evolve into cohabitation and exploitation? What does repeated runaway behavior actually mean — and what was Celeste running toward that made her so vulnerable to someone who allegedly knew exactly what to offer?
In t...
Amy Duggar King Details Alleged Generational Abuse in Duggar Family
Amy Duggar King, Jim Bob Duggar's niece and author of the memoir Holy Disruptor, details the alleged generational abuse she says began with her grandfather, Jimmy Lee Duggar, and has continued through subsequent generations of the Duggar family.
According to Amy's published account, Jimmy Lee Duggar was physically violent and predatory. She alleges her mother Deanna was beaten so severely she nearly died, and that protective measures — including her grandmother locking bedroom doors from the inside at night — were standard practice in the household. Jim Bob Duggar, Amy says, grew up witnessing these conditions before establishing his own...
D4VD Murder and Duggar Prosecution: Complete Legal Analysis
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta joins Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke to provide detailed legal analysis of two significant active prosecutions: the first-degree murder case with special circumstances against David Anthony Burke (D4VD) in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, and the multi-jurisdiction charges against Joseph and Kendra Duggar.
In the Burke matter: Motta examines the three special circumstances—lying in wait, financial gain, and killing a witness—the prosecution’s theory connecting the sexual abuse charges to the murder motive, the defense’s stated position and its potential legal basis, the independent evidentiary challenge of the m...