Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

In this 2025 Year-in-Review Hidden Killers special, Tony Brueski breaks down one of the most talked-about courtroom moments of the year: the opening statements in the high-stakes murder-for-hire trial of Donna Adelson. From the prosecution’s meticulously crafted narrative to the defense’s chaotic stumble out of the gate, this episode captures the full shockwave of a trial Florida—and the nation—can’t stop watching.

Prosecutors came out swinging, painting Donna not as a grieving grandmother swept into family conflict, but as the driving force behind the plot to kill Florida State law professor Dan Markel. They laid out motive...

Relive the jaw-dropping DoorDash driver twist that rocked the Bryan Kohberger saga in this pulse-pounding deep dive from Hidden Killers 2025 Year in Review – a look back at the biggest cases of the year. Back in June 2025, a DUI arrest bodycam confession ignited true crime chaos: A delivery driver claimed she parked next to Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra outside the off-campus house minutes before the November 2022 Idaho student murders. Was it him lurking in the shadows, or a case of mistaken identity? As Kohberger now rots on four life sentences post-July guilty plea, we dissect her chilling account—delivering food to vict...

🔍 What does true crime guru Howard Blum now believe about Bryan Kohberger's fractured family and twisted motives? Paired with retired FBI behavior chief's razor-sharp breakdown of that abrupt July 2025 guilty plea – in this riveting rewind from Hidden Killers 2025 Year in Review – a look back at the biggest cases of the year. Blum unpacks the emotional rifts: Dad's uneasy post-murder road trip, sibling silences, and how Kohberger's criminology obsession birthed the #Idaho4 nightmare – sheath DNA damns, Amazon premed slips, and WSU stalking ghosts that universities ignored. FBI vet dissects the plea pivot: Ego-crushing evidence avalanche forced the "guilty" gasp, dodging death row but i...

In today’s episode, we break down the stunning split narrative unfolding around the Gilgo Beach murders—one fueled by Netflix’s Gone Girls, the other by Peacock’s explosive new documentary The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets. At the center of both? Asa Ellerup, the ex-wife of accused serial killer Rex Heuermann, whose reactions are raising eyebrows across the true crime world.

After watching Gone Girls, Asa reportedly began wondering whether her former husband might be a fall guy—an extraordinary claim considering the decades of corruption inside Suffolk County law enforcement. From former Police Chief James Burk...

Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman took center stage in the Donna Adelson trial and delivered one of the most consequential closing arguments of the entire case — a summation built on motive, timing, and a digital trail prosecutors say Donna cannot outrun.

Cappleman told jurors the path to the truth was simple: “Follow the evidence and find her guilty.” And with that, she walked them step by step through the 2014 murder-for-hire plot that left FSU law professor Dan Markel dead in his driveway.

Her message was direct. For Donna Adelson, relocation wasn’t a hope — it was a mission...

The Richard Allen interrogation at the center of the Delphi murders case has become one of the most fiercely debated moments in modern true crime. This episode dives deep into the alleged tactics investigators used during the October 13th and October 26th interviews—tactics that raise serious questions about procedure, ethics, and the integrity of the investigative process. From the unclear communication of Allen’s custodial status to the inconsistent reinforcement of his Miranda rights, the groundwork for a fair interview was shaky before questioning even began.

What unfolded next, according to filings and reports, was an interrogation envi...

In this full-length Hidden Killers special, Tony Brueski brings together the complete story of Donna Adelson, the woman prosecutors say sat at the center of one of Florida’s most cold-blooded murder-for-hire conspiracies. With three co-conspirators already convicted—including her son Charlie—Donna is now the final alleged architect heading toward trial, and this episode lays out the entire case: the family pressure, the money trail, the coded prison calls, and the psychology of a matriarch accused of pulling the strings.

We begin with the internal dynamics of the Adelson family, where prosecutors argue Donna exercised powerful influence over m...

🔍 Unravel the terrifying psychology behind the Idaho student murders with retired FBI profiler Robin Dreeke in this riveting deep dive from Hidden Killers 2025 Year in Review – a look back at the biggest cases of the year. As Bryan Kohberger serves four consecutive life sentences after his July 2025 guilty plea, we revisit the behavioral red flags that doomed his defense—from premeditated Amazon knife buys to DNA matches that obliterated third-party theories. Dreeke, ex-head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, exposes Kohberger's victim selection tactics, autism claims' fatal flaws, and the gap between real profiling and TV drama. Drug deal alibis? Dismant...

Two cases. Two different outcomes. One shared question the system still can’t answer.

In California, police say they moved quickly after Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death — confident they had enough evidence to arrest their son, Nick Reiner, within hours. The legal fight now centers on schizophrenia, medication changes, and whether mental illness excuses violence.

In Kentucky, the opposite happened. Everyone saw Mickey Stines unravel — law enforcement, attorneys, medical professionals. But because he was an elected sheriff, no one had the legal authority to stop him. No red flag law. No sus...

The prosecution wants to move this trial. Not the defense—the prosecution. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is asking the court to relocate the murder trial of former Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines, who shot and killed District Judge Kevin Mullins inside his chambers on September 19, 2024. The entire shooting was captured on security footage. There's no question about what happened. The question is why—and whether Stines was mentally capable of forming intent when he pulled the trigger.

Court documents reveal a man in freefall. The day before the shooting, Stines was diagnosed with acute stress reaction. Witnesses told inve...

Court filings in the Mickey Stines case reveal a chilling reality: everyone saw the breakdown coming — and no one had the power to stop it.

An elected Kentucky sheriff spiraled publicly. He called dead relatives on his phone. Lost weight rapidly. Stopped sleeping. Displayed paranoia. His own staff pushed him to see a doctor. The diagnosis? Acute stress reaction. The response? Send him home — with his badge, his gun, and his authority untouched.

Twenty-four hours later, Judge Kevin Mullins was shot nine times in his own chambers.

In this deep-dive, retired FBI Special Agent Jenn...

The state's key physical evidence against Richard Allen was a single unspent bullet found at the Delphi crime scene. What the jury never learned is that the first test came back negative.

ISP firearms analyst Melissa Oberg cycled six cartridges through Allen's gun and compared the marks to the crime scene round. According to trial testimony documented in the appeal, she found no match. The direct comparison—cycling to cycling—failed to connect Allen's weapon to the murders.

So she ran a different test. She fired cartridges from the gun, then compared those spent casings to the...

Nick Reiner was diagnosed with schizophrenia years ago. He was in treatment. Expensive treatment. According to multiple reports, his medication was changed just weeks before his parents were stabbed to death. His defense attorney, Alan Jackson — fresh off a major acquittal in another high-profile case — is already calling this case “very complex.”

Translation: the insanity defense is coming.

But insanity is not a diagnosis — it’s a legal standard. In California, the question is narrow and brutal: did the defendant understand what he was doing, and did he know it was wrong?

In this episode, we...

Sometimes things don't appear the way they seem. And the Charity Beallis case — from day one — hasn't felt right.

When the story first broke, it looked like a clear-cut domestic violence tragedy. Abused mother loses custody to her convicted abuser. Found dead with her twin children the next day. But the more we dug into the court records, police reports, and documented history, the more complicated this picture became.

Charity Beallis may have been a victim. Court records support that — her estranged husband Randy Beallis pled guilty to domestic battery after allegedly choking her in front of the...

By the time Romy Reiner walked into her parents’ Brentwood home Sunday afternoon, it was already over. Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner had been stabbed multiple times in their master bedroom. Their son, Nick Reiner, was gone. Investigators believe the killings happened hours earlier — giving Nick time to leave the house, check into a Santa Monica hotel, and eventually wander near USC, where he was arrested calmly at a gas station that night.

The murder weapon hasn’t been recovered. The hotel room Nick reportedly stayed in was partially cleaned before police arrived. And yet law enforcement says t...

Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke, who ran the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, joins us to analyze two cases that expose how predatory and crisis behavior escalates inside families while the people closest to it feel powerless to intervene.

First, the Nick Reiner case. The son of legendary director Rob Reiner now faces two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of both his parents at their Brentwood home. Dreeke examines the disturbing timeline that emerged in the hours before the killings: erratic behavior at Conan O'Brien's holiday party, repetitive questioning of celebrities like Bill Hader...

Richard Allen's appeal makes a stunning allegation: the search warrant that launched the entire Delphi case was built on misrepresentations.

In 2017, witness Sarah Carbaugh told police she saw a man walking down the road wearing a tan jacket. He was muddy. In 2022, Detective Tony Liggett swore under oath that Carbaugh described the man as wearing a blue jacket - and that he was muddy and bloody. Tan became blue. Muddy became muddy and bloody. According to the defense, that's not a mistake. That's allegedly altering a witness statement to fit a narrative.

But it doesn't stop...

A federal grand jury has indicted Myrtle Beach pastor John-Paul Miller on charges of cyberstalking and making false statements to investigators — charges directly connected to the death of his wife Mica Miller, who was found dead from a gunshot wound in April 2024.

But Mica isn't the only spouse linked to this man who's no longer alive.

According to court documents, Chris Skinner — a quadriplegic Army veteran — drowned in a neighborhood pool in 2021 just two weeks after confronting Miller about an alleged affair with his wife. That woman, Suzie Skinner, is now married to JP Miller.

Th...

Nick Reiner had access to the best psychiatric care money could buy. A $70,000-a-month facility. Doctors managing his schizophrenia. Parents who never gave up on him. And he allegedly threw it all away — choosing drugs over medication, manipulation over honesty, and ultimately violence over everything his family tried to give him.

For years, Rob Reiner publicly criticized the treatment industry. He said the experts were wrong. He said he should have listened to Nick instead of the people with diplomas on the wall. But here's the hard truth: the professionals were right. Nick was the one lying. Nick wa...

Brian Walshe was sentenced today to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife Ana Walshe. Judge Diane Freniere called his actions "barbaric and incomprehensible" before handing down the maximum sentence on all counts — life for murder, plus consecutive terms for misleading police and illegally disposing of Ana's body.

Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old mother of three and real estate executive, was last seen alive on New Year's Eve 2022 at the couple's Cohasset, Massachusetts home. Her body has never been recovered. What investigators did find was a digital trail that sealed Brian's fate: Google searches for "ho...

Former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke — who ran the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program — joins me to break down the psychology behind the JP Miller case and what the federal indictment reveals about predatory behavior and coercive control.

A federal grand jury just indicted Myrtle Beach pastor JP Miller on charges of cyberstalking and making false statements to investigators. The charges stem from a documented pattern of harassment against his wife Mica Miller in the months before her death in April 2024. According to the indictment, Miller posted intimate photos of her online without consent, placed tracking devices on her...

Where does accountability end and illness begin? That's the question at the center of the Nick Reiner case — and it's one a jury will have to answer.

Nick Reiner is facing two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for allegedly stabbing his parents Rob and Michele Reiner to death in their Brentwood home. The death penalty is on the table. Their daughter reportedly found the bodies. Nick was arrested hours later near USC after reportedly checking into a Santa Monica hotel.

This isn't a simple case. Nick Reiner has a documented, two-decade history of severe ad...

Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke joins us to analyze the behavioral red flags in the Nick Reiner case—the son of legendary director Rob Reiner who now faces two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of both his parents.

In this exclusive interview, Dreeke examines the disturbing timeline that emerged in the hours before Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead in their Brentwood home: the erratic behavior at Conan O'Brien's star-studded holiday party, the repetitive questioning of celebrities like Bill Hader and Jane Fonda, the explosive public argument between father and son, and Nick's re...

Brian Walshe has been convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife Ana Walshe. After just six hours of deliberation, a Norfolk County jury found the fifty-year-old Cohasset man guilty of premeditated murder, making this one of the rare cases where a conviction was secured without the victim's body ever being recovered.

Ana Walshe was a thirty-nine-year-old mother of three who disappeared on New Year's Day 2023. Prosecutors presented devastating digital evidence including Google searches from Brian's devices for best way to dispose of a body, hacksaw best tool to dismember, and how long for someone to...

Three days before Sheriff Mickey Stines allegedly walked into Judge Kevin Mullins' chambers and shot him nine times, an attorney contacted the Kentucky Bar Association asking what he could do to intervene. He had already warned Mullins directly. Told him Stines was losing it. The local police chief saw enough to say Stines had lost his mind. Staff inside the sheriff's office watched their boss place phone calls to relatives who had been dead for years. His friends took him to a doctor. The doctor diagnosed acute stress reaction and sent him home. Twenty-four hours later, Kevin Mullins was dead.<...

2026 is the year Rex Heuermann finally faces trial for seven murders spanning three decades. But before the courtroom doors open, a stunning arrest just reshaped everything we thought we knew about Gilgo Beach.

In December 2025, police charged Andrew Dykes — the father of "Baby Doe" — with murdering Tanya Jackson and their two-year-old daughter Tatiana. For fourteen years, investigators assumed they were victims of the Long Island Serial Killer. They weren't. Dykes had been cooperating with the investigation for months before his arrest. His name was on the child's birth certificate.

That means Ocean Parkway wasn't one killer's dump...

Rob and Michele Reiner spent nearly two decades trying to save their son Nick from addiction. They sent him to rehab seventeen times. They let him live in their guesthouse. They made a movie together about his struggles. When counselors warned them that Nick was lying and manipulating them, they eventually rejected that advice and publicly apologized for ever believing the professionals over their own son.

Now Rob and Michele are dead, allegedly stabbed by Nick in their Brentwood home the night after a Christmas party where they had asked the host if they could bring him just...

Nearly 29 years after six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in her family's Boulder, Colorado basement, Boulder Police have announced significant movement in the case. Chief Stephen Redfearn confirmed that investigators have collected new evidence, retested existing evidence with modern DNA technology, and conducted new interviews over the past year. Dozens of items are currently being tested at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — including evidence from the basement crime scene that was never tested before.

At CrimeCon 2025, the Ramsey family's former attorney Hal Haddon pointed to the garrote used to strangle JonBenét as potentially critical, noting that DNA...

Kentucky Sheriff Mickey Stines has admitted in court filings that he shot and killed Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers on September 19, 2024. Nine bullets. Seven of them fired while the judge was already on the ground. The entire killing was captured on video. But now Stines is claiming he had no control over his actions and his defense team is pointing to a rare neurological disease caused by bug bites as part of their explanation.

For over a year, no one could explain why a longtime sheriff walked into a judge's chambers and executed a man he had...

Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on December 14th, 2025. Their 32-year-old son Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances — charges that carry the death penalty in California. Defense attorney Alan Jackson says there are "very complex and serious issues" in this case. The DA's office is asking the public not to rush to judgment.

So what's really going on here?

In this interview, defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis breaks down both sides of this case — how prosecutors will try to secu...

Jesse Butler pleaded no contest to eleven felony charges including attempted rape, strangulation, and domestic assault against two teenage girls in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He faced up to seventy-eight years in prison. Instead, a judge granted him youthful offender status. His sentence: community service, counseling, and supervision until his nineteenth birthday. No prison. No sex offender registry. If he complies, his record gets sealed forever.

But the case is not over. Attorney Rachel Bussett just filed a motion that could reopen everything.

We break down every legal avenue that could still put Butler behind bars. The Marsy's...

Netflix's new documentary "Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story" drops December 30th, and it finally shifts the focus to where it belongs — not on Ruby Franke, but on the woman Ruby herself blamed for leading her into what she called "a dark delusion."

Jodi Hildebrandt wasn't just Ruby's business partner. She was a licensed mental health counselor with a documented history of ethical violations, a pattern of isolating clients from their families, and an ideology that former clients say destroyed marriages and lives for nearly two decades before she ever met Ruby Franke. In 2012, her license was put on...

The investigation into the death of thirteen-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez has reached a critical turning point. A Los Angeles County grand jury is now in its third week of testimony, and the people closest to singer D4VD are beginning to fracture under pressure.

Robert Morgenroth, general manager of D4VD's record label and president of his touring company, spent three consecutive days being questioned by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman. Three days for a non-target witness is extraordinary. According to reports, Morgenroth was overheard in the courthouse hallway telling his attorney that Silverman was aggressive about one...

The Netflix documentary Sean Combs: The Reckoning shattered records with nearly twenty-two million viewers in its first week. Before it even aired, Diddy's legal team fired off a cease-and-desist letter calling it a shameful hit piece and threatening a billion-dollar lawsuit. No lawsuit was ever filed. No injunction. No emergency motion. Just noise.

So what actually happened, and what comes next?

Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins us to break down the legal reality behind Diddy's threats. We examine what it would take to win a copyright claim over footage filmed by his own...

Rob and Michele Reiner spent nearly two decades trying to save their son. Seventeen rehab stays. Constant supervision. A guest house on their property so they could keep him close and try to manage the chaos. Every possible resource love, money, access, and opportunity could provide. And still, on December 15, 2025, they were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their son, Nick Reiner, now faces charges in their killings.

This is not a story about parents who missed the warning signs. It’s about parents who lived with those signs for eighteen years and had no legal wa...

Rebecca Park was twenty-two years old and thirty-eight weeks pregnant when she disappeared from rural Michigan on November third, 2025. Three weeks later, her body was discovered in Manistee National Forest. Her abdomen had been cut open. Her baby was gone.

Now her biological mother, Cortney Bartholomew, and stepfather Bradly Bartholomew face eight felony charges each, including first-degree murder and torture. But the allegations in this case extend into territory almost too disturbing to process.

According to the eighteen-page probable cause affidavit, Cortney had been having an affair with her own daughter's fiancé, Richard Falor, the man w...

Two cases this week that expose exactly how broken the American legal system is — in completely opposite directions.

In Arkansas, Aaron Spencer is heading to trial for stopping Michael Fosler, a 67-year-old man with 43 felony charges who was out on bond and actively taking Spencer's 13-year-old daughter in the middle of the night. Fosler had already assaulted her once. A no-contact order was in place. The system knew he was dangerous and let him walk anyway. When Spencer's daughter ended up in Fosler's truck heading toward Fosler's house, Spencer did what the system refused to do — he protected his...

Charity Powell-Beallis spent nine months trying to survive. She reported abuse to police. She filed for divorce. She obtained a protective order. She contacted a state senator and told him directly that she feared for her life. She posted publicly on Facebook, naming her case number and begging anyone to listen. The system heard her. Then the system gave her estranged husband joint custody of their six-year-old twins.

Twenty-four hours later, Charity and both children were found shot to death in their Bonanza, Arkansas home.

Dr. Randall Beallis had been arrested in February 2025 for allegedly strangling...

A stunning new revelation in the D4VD case: private investigator Steve Fischer has confirmed that an industrial-grade "burn cage" incinerator was discovered inside the Hollywood Hills rental where singer D4VD was living when 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez's dismembered remains were found in his Tesla. The incinerator, still unopened and in its original packaging, burns at 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit — 200 degrees hotter than what's required for human cremation. Fischer says the device was delivered under a false name but accepted at the residence, and notes that such incinerators are illegal to operate within Los Angeles County. The discovery comes as a gr...

Jesse Butler was eighteen years old when he pleaded no contest to eleven felony charges in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The charges included attempted rape, rape by instrumentation, and domestic assault by strangulation against two teenage girls. One victim was choked until she lost consciousness and required emergency surgery on her neck. Her doctor told her she came within thirty seconds of dying. Police recovered video from Butler's phone showing him strangling the other victim. Prosecutors could have pursued a sentence of up to seventy-eight years in prison.

Instead, a judge granted Butler youthful offender status. His punishment? Community service...