Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Nick Reiner — son of legendary director Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner — pleaded not guilty on February 23rd, 2026 to two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the December 14th, 2025 stabbing deaths of his parents at their Brentwood, California home. He is held without bail. The death penalty remains on the table. And his siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, are done.

Sources close to the family told TMZ directly: "Nick's defense is Nick's defense. They're not involved." The high-profile defense attorney they initially funded, Alan Jackson — known for winning the Karen Read acquittal — withdrew from the case...

Most coverage of the Kouri Richins trial focuses on the night Eric died. This episode focuses on everything that came before it — and everyone who was allegedly in the way.

Trial testimony has produced something more damning than any single piece of forensic evidence: a map of every person prosecutors say Kouri Richins used and what happened to them when they were no longer useful. A husband secretly trying to leave. A best friend who lost her life savings. A boyfriend leveraged for labor and love. A housekeeper turned immunity witness. A family that spent over $100,000 just to...

The courtroom evidence in the Kouri Richins trial is one thing. What the jury is actually absorbing is another. Bob Motta and Robin Dreeke break down the specific moments and pieces of testimony that are going to follow those twelve jurors into deliberations — and why some of it is going to be nearly impossible to set aside.

Two texts are at the center of this discussion. One Kouri sent to her boyfriend roughly two weeks before Eric died: "If he could just go away and you could just be here." One she sent to her friend Chelsea Ba...

Two mistrial motions. Forty prosecution witnesses. A case built entirely on circumstantial evidence. The defense in the Kouri Richins murder trial hasn't shown their full hand yet — but the moves they've already made are saying a lot.

Bob Motta and Robin Dreeke step into the panel to break down the defense's strategy from the ground up. Why file mistrial motions in the middle of the prosecution's case? What does fighting for the full retreat journal — not the redacted version — tell us about where the defense thinks their best argument lives? And in a case where the prosecution's own im...

In 2009, Jodi Hildebrandt's niece went to police alleging abuse. Tied up. Duct taped. Forced to sleep outside. The allegations went nowhere.

Fourteen years later, Ruby Franke's children were found bound and starving in Jodi's house. By then, Jodi had spent nearly two decades destroying families through a "life coaching" business that former clients describe as cult-like.

Part 2 of "The Good Mother" examines how helpers become captors — and what happens when someone you love falls under influence you can't reach.

Jodi built ConneXions Classroom for Mormon families seeking guidance. The methodology: daily accountability calls, la...

Hidden Killers delivers the complete listener Q&A — the Nancy Guthrie disappearance and the Kouri Richins murder trial examined back to back with former FBI behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke and host Tony Brueski. This is the investigative and analytical deep-dive both cases have warranted from the beginning.

The Guthrie evidence thread runs through a set of details that have been underexamined in the public conversation. The FBI's decision to return to Nancy's neighborhood and canvass again a full month after the initial sweep is a procedural signal — investigators don't do second-round door knocking without a reason, and Robi...

Chad Daybell kept spreadsheets.

Not business records. Not finances. Lists of people — family, friends, his own children — each assigned a "light and dark rating" on a scale he invented.

Everyone who dropped below a certain number was declared a "zombie." Everyone declared a zombie ended up dead.

This is Part 2 of "The Chosen Ones," Hidden Killers' 5-part psychological examination of spiritual abuse and religious trauma through the Vallow-Daybell case. Today we focus on Chad Daybell: the gravedigger who claimed to see visions, the author who said his fiction was prophecy, the man who buil...

A federal judge has denied former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell's motion to dismiss the charges against him in the death of Sandra Birchmore — and the October 2026 trial is locked in.

Sandra Birchmore was 23 years old and three months pregnant when she was found dead in her Canton, Massachusetts apartment in February 2021. For years, her death was officially ruled self-inflicted. No charges. No trial. Just a closed file and a grieving family left with nothing but questions.

What investigators and prosecutors later uncovered is one of the most disturbing law enforcement abuse cases in recent me...

The Kouri Richins murder trial is built on a stack of evidence that includes text messages, cell tower data, fentanyl receipts, and two witnesses who changed their stories after receiving immunity. Hidden Killers examines the evidentiary architecture of this case in a listener Q&A with former FBI behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke and host Tony Brueski.

The escalation detail is one of the most significant in this case. According to prosecutors, after an alleged first attempt failed, Kouri Richins allegedly sought out a more lethal method — specifically requesting what has been described as "the Michael Jackson drug." In...

The defense in the Kouri Richins murder trial has built its case around one central argument: Eric Richins had a history of substance use, and his death was a tragic accident. On the tenth day of testimony, a private investigator hired by Eric's own family took the stand and systematically dismantled that theory from every angle.

Todd Gabler spent roughly a year investigating Eric's death independently before Kouri was arrested. Operating under rules that gave him access law enforcement couldn't get without a warrant, he pulled phone billing records and found that Carmen Lauber — the housekeeper prosecutors sa...

The evidentiary details in the Nancy Guthrie case are accumulating — and several of them aren't getting the scrutiny they deserve. Hidden Killers digs into the evidence layer with former FBI behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke and host Tony Brueski in this listener Q&A focused on what the physical and forensic record actually tells us.

The pacemaker. Nancy's device last synced at 2:28 in the morning. In a case where the timeline of events that night is still not publicly established with precision, that data point is significant. Tony and Robin examine what a pacemaker sync can and cannot te...

The details in the Nancy Guthrie case that aren't getting enough attention are precisely the ones that matter most to understanding what happened and who's responsible. Hidden Killers brings you a deep-dive listener Q&A with former FBI behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke and host Tony Brueski — going beyond the press conference talking points and into the evidence.

The night Nancy vanished, the internet in her neighborhood went out. Was that a coincidence? Was it targeted? And if someone cut it deliberately, what does that level of pre-operational planning tell investigators about who they're looking for? Robin Dreeke wa...

Ruby Franke built a parenting empire on YouTube. 2.5 million subscribers watched her raise six children. She looked like exactly what she was selling: a devoted mother with answers for everything.

Her children experienced someone different.

Part 1 of "The Good Mother" examines narcissistic mother psychology through the Ruby Franke case — the parent whose public warmth masked private cruelty, whose love was conditional on compliance, whose children learned early that their value was measured by how well they maintained her image.

In August 2023, two of Ruby's children were found starving and bound in her bu...

Todd Gabler, Private Investigator, takes center stage in the Kouri Richins trial.

Kouri Richins stands accused of poisoning her husband Eric Richins with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022—allegedly to collect on a $1.9 million life insurance policy she secretly increased just weeks before his death. What prosecutors describe as a calculated murder-for-profit scheme, the defense calls a tragic accident involving a man who, they claim, had a hidden drug problem.

This is gavel-to-gavel coverage of one of the most closely watched trials in Utah history. A children's book author. A grieving widow who wr...

One is a missing persons investigation that has consumed the country for over a month with no arrest and one suspect still unidentified. The other is a murder trial built entirely on circumstantial evidence, currently anchored by two immunity witnesses who cannot agree on what drug was sold. Jennifer Coffindaffer — who spent years as an FBI Special Agent working the kinds of cases most people only follow in the news — has important things to say about both.

This episode covers all three segments of our interview. On Nancy Guthrie, she decodes the investigative language coming out of the...

Jamye Woody, Police Detective, takes the stand in the Kouri Richins trial.

Kouri Richins stands accused of poisoning her husband Eric Richins with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022—allegedly to collect on a $1.9 million life insurance policy she secretly increased just weeks before his death. What prosecutors describe as a calculated murder-for-profit scheme, the defense calls a tragic accident involving a man who, they claim, had a hidden drug problem.

This is gavel-to-gavel coverage of one of the most closely watched trials in Utah history. A children's book author. A grieving widow who wr...

How do you recognize spiritual abuse before it's too late?

It starts with feeling chosen. Someone tells you that you're special — that they can see your divine purpose, that you were set apart before birth, that the rules don't apply to someone at your level.

That's how it started for Lori Vallow. A religious conference. A man named Chad Daybell. A claim that they'd been married in a past life.

Within a year, her husband was dead. Within fourteen months, her children were buried in Chad Daybell's backyard.

This is Part 1 of...

Matthew Throckmorton, handwriting expert, takes center stage in the Kouri Richins trial.

Kouri Richins stands accused of poisoning her husband Eric Richins with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022—allegedly to collect on a $1.9 million life insurance policy she secretly increased just weeks before his death. What prosecutors describe as a calculated murder-for-profit scheme, the defense calls a tragic accident involving a man who, they claim, had a hidden drug problem.

This is gavel-to-gavel coverage of one of the most closely watched trials in Utah history. A children's book author. A grieving widow who wr...

Nine days of testimony. A housekeeper who says she sold fentanyl. A dealer who says it was oxycodone. A boyfriend's intimate texts read aloud in court. Phone searches asking what poison does to a death certificate. A case built entirely on circumstantial evidence — and a retired FBI Special Agent who knows exactly where it holds and where it doesn't.

Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down the Kouri Richins murder trial from a trained investigative standpoint — starting with the fundamental problem the prosecution now owns: when two immunity witnesses directly contradict each other about whether the drug sold was fentanyl or o...

Cody Wright, Eric's former business partner, takes center stage in the Kouri Richins trial.

Kouri Richins stands accused of poisoning her husband Eric Richins with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022—allegedly to collect on a $1.9 million life insurance policy she secretly increased just weeks before his death. What prosecutors describe as a calculated murder-for-profit scheme, the defense calls a tragic accident involving a man who, they claim, had a hidden drug problem.

This is gavel-to-gavel coverage of one of the most closely watched trials in Utah history. A children's book author. A grieving wi...

The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office has released the official autopsy results in the Charity Beallis case. Her manner of death has been ruled self-inflicted. Her six-year-old twins, Eliana and Maverick — homicide.

Three months of investigation involving the FBI, Homeland Security, Secret Service, and Arkansas State Police. The alibi evidence for Randall Beallis is verified across multiple independent sources: Tesla location data, cell tower records, and home security system logs all confirm he wasn't at the Bonanza residence that night.

But the death certificate says "gunshot wounds" — plural. Randy Powell, Charity's father, told us she had woun...

Days after Eric Richins was found dead, his housekeeper called his wife with one question: please tell me those pills were not for him. According to testimony, Kouri Richins answered without hesitation. Eric died of a brain aneurysm, she said.

That lie — delivered calm and clean to the one person who knew exactly what those pills were — is the moment prosecutors say tells you everything about how Kouri Richins allegedly operated. Not with panic. With management.

The woman she lied to is now immunized and testifying against her. She says she bought fentanyl for Kouri four...

The suspect on Nancy Guthrie's porch has visible eyebrows. A visible mustache. A pinky ring. He was on camera. And according to retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer — who built a career inside the Bureau working cases exactly like this — someone in that man's life knows who he is.

That person has been sitting on that knowledge for over a month.

In this episode, Coffindaffer focuses on the dimension the media rarely covers in depth: not the forensic evidence, not the command center logistics — but what is happening right now with the people who know someth...

"Definitely closer." That's what Sheriff Nanos told the Today show. "Red hot." That's what retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told Newsweek. Both phrases sound like momentum. But inside an FBI investigation, those words carry a specific weight — and a specific limit.

Coffindaffer spent years inside the Bureau. She knows the difference between an investigation generating activity and one generating resolution. In this conversation, she pulls apart the language being used publicly in the Nancy Guthrie case and explains what it actually reflects — and what it doesn't guarantee.

The FBI's command center has relocated from Tucs...

The prosecution's motive case against Kouri Richins is built in dollars and bank statements. Forensic accountant Brooke Karrington testified that by March 2022, Kouri carried $7.5 million in debt, was hemorrhaging $80,000 monthly in payments, and owed four payday lenders $2,100 every single day. Her business account was "perpetually in the hole." December 2021 alone saw 77 overdraft transactions.

One day after Eric Richins died, Kouri purchased a $2.9 million Midway mansion. Listed it seven days later. It foreclosed. The $1.35 million from Eric's life insurance policies? Gone within three months. By September 2022, she allegedly had $800 left.

But the defense hasn't called a...

The jury needed less than two hours. Colin Gray is guilty of second-degree murder on all 29 counts—the first parent in Georgia history convicted for a school shooting committed by his child.

The evidence was overwhelming. The FBI warned Colin Gray in 2023 after his son threatened to shoot up a school online. His response? Buy the fourteen-year-old an AR-15 for Christmas seven months later. No safe. No lock. The rifle stayed in Colt Gray's bedroom next to a shrine of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz—which Colin Gray claimed he thought was "the guy from Green Day."

Hi...

Forensic analysts recovered a deleted file from Rex Heuermann's basement. According to prosecutors, it's the Long Island Serial Killer's planning document for murder.

The document—titled HK2002-04—was hidden on one of fifty-eight hard drives seized from the Massapequa Park home. Created in 2000, modified through 2002, it allegedly contained eighty-seven details prosecutors say match the methodology used on the Gilgo Beach victims. A "Supplies" section allegedly listed cutting tools, acid, tarps, and cat litter. A "Body Prep" section allegedly stated: "remove head and hands, remove ID marks like tattoos." A "Things to Remember" section contained alleged lessons lear...

Everyone loves them. Your friends think they're charming. Your family thinks you're lucky. You know what they're really like at home.

That's the loneliest place a human being can be. Tonight we're examining the psychology of coercive control through the Kouri Richins case—Parts 3 and 4 of "Surviving the Fog." We're not diagnosing anyone. We're exploring documented patterns.

Financial abuse creates invisible chains. Prosecutors allege Kouri was $4.5 million in debt when Eric died. Over 200 overdraft transactions. A $3.2 million mansion closing the day of his death—one she allegedly couldn't afford. Financial desperation is a lethality indicator in d...

This is our Week in Review of the Kouri Richins murder trial—and the prosecution's key witnesses are telling different stories under oath.

Carmen Lauber testified she bought fentanyl for Kouri Richins four times before Eric died. Robert Crozier—the man who allegedly supplied those drugs to Lauber—took the stand and said something different. He testified he only sold oxycodone, not fentanyl, because "everybody was scared of fentanyl" at the time. He claimed he was "detoxing and out of it" during his original statement to detectives. Lauber herself admitted confusion under cross-examination.

When your t...

Everyone watching the Nancy Guthrie case has said the same thing: the suspect looks incompetent. The Walmart backpack. The awkward holster. The camera cover made from plant leaves. Former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke says that assessment misses the point entirely.

Dreeke spent 21 years with the FBI, including serving as Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. His analysis: this suspect isn't unusually sloppy. He's average. The cases that get solved—home invasions, abductions, crimes that end in arrests—most involve exactly this level of preparation. Hollywood has conditioned us to expect professional-grade execution. Real offenders show up w...

Breaking down the digital evidence that could define the Kouri Richins murder trial—and the psychological patterns that explain how Eric never saw it coming.

Forensic testimony focused on data from seven phones. Digital analyst Chris Kotrodimos showed the jury deleted meme thumbnails recovered from Kouri's device—accessed moments after first responders left the home where Eric lay dead. One meme was captioned "I'm really rich." Another showed a woman crying into cash. The timing is almost incomprehensible—unless you understand documented patterns of narcissistic behavior.

The data gets worse. Hundreds of messages, web searches, and ca...

You've been flooding us with questions about the Nancy Guthrie disappearance. Tonight we're answering them—no guests, no filter, just the facts and what they tell us.

Four weeks. An 84-year-old woman still missing. A suspect captured on camera whose face has been seen by millions. Fifty thousand tips submitted. And somehow, not a single person can identify him. How is that possible? Not one coworker, neighbor, family member, or casual acquaintance has recognized this man and come forward. We break down what that absence of identification actually means for the investigation.

The DNA evidence ha...

Breaking testimony from the Kouri Richins murder trial as the prosecution's key witness takes the stand. Carmen Lauber, testifying under immunity deals with three Utah counties and federal authorities, has told jurors she purchased drugs for Kouri Richins four separate times in early 2022—and that Kouri knew the final batch contained fentanyl.

According to Lauber's testimony, the drug procurement evolved from pain pills to something lethal. Cash was left in properties Kouri was flipping. Pills were dropped in a firepit. When Lauber told Kouri the drugs were fentanyl, not just standard painkillers, Kouri allegedly said to proceed an...

Breaking developments in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigation—and they're coming from inside the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Multiple current and former members of Sheriff Chris Nanos's own agency are publicly questioning how the search for Savannah Guthrie's mother is being handled.

Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, delivered a damning assessment to reporters: "It is a common belief in this agency that this case has become an ego case for Sheriff Nanos." Former Chief Deputy Richard Kastigar, who gave 46 years to the department and served directly under Nanos, says the sheriff holds "gr...

Investigators had been watching the man they believed was LISK—the Long Island Serial Killer—for months. They had cell tower evidence. Burner phone records. But they needed DNA.

Then he threw away a pizza box.

In the final part of our Gilgo Beach Killer series, we examine how a discarded pizza box allegedly provided the evidence that led to charges in a thirteen-year cold case—and what happens when the alleged Long Island Serial Killer faces trial in September 2026.

The investigation stalled for years after bodies were discovered along Ocean Parkway. Then a new...

Three cases. Three legal minefields. Former prosecutor Eric Faddis breaks down the week's biggest developments in one extended conversation.

Kouri Richins' finances are now on full display for the jury. A forensic accountant testified she was $1.6 million in debt the day after Eric died—business imploding, checks bouncing, hard money loans stacking. The prosecution wants jurors to see premeditation. The defense says it's just reckless spending from someone who was always in over her head. Eric Faddis explains how financial evidence becomes murder motive—and where that argument can fall apart.

In the Nancy Guthrie case...

Leaving is the most dangerous time.

The moment you start seeing clearly is the moment risk spikes. The relationship was never about love. It was about control. When control slips, they tighten their grip.

This is Part 5 of "Surviving the Fog"—examining escalation through the Kouri Richins case. We're not diagnosing anyone. We're exploring documented patterns.

Prosecutors allege Eric was asking questions. Wanted to change his will. Something was shifting.

Valentine's Day 2022: Eric allegedly gets sick after eating a sandwich prosecutors say Kouri bought. He recovers.

Two weeks later, fi...

For 25 years, the Cascio family was Michael Jackson's shield. They testified at his 2005 trial. Frank Cascio wrote a book defending him. They went on national television saying Jackson never harmed anyone.

Now all five Cascio siblings are suing, alleging Jackson drugged, raped, and sexually trafficked them since childhood. The estate says it's a $200 million extortion scheme.

Former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Hidden Killers to break down the most complicated credibility question in recent entertainment law: what happens when your most loyal defenders become your accusers—after decades of sworn statements saying nothing happened?

Th...

The Kouri Richins murder trial entered its ninth day with prosecutors unleashing their most personal evidence yet — the words of her closest friends and the text messages she sent in the weeks and months after her husband Eric Richins died of a fatal fentanyl overdose in 2022.

A coworker testified Kouri said it would be better if Eric were dead — then held her ground on the stand even after being confronted with her own recorded doubts from a prior interview. A divorce attorney confirmed Kouri was quietly exploring her options months before Eric died. And Kouri's lifelong best frie...

No arrest. No suspect. No person of interest. A month after Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped from her Tucson home, investigators have nothing public to show—but innocent people are already paying the price.

A 37-year-old man living with his elderly mother was handcuffed and questioned for hours after SWAT executed search warrants. He was released. His attorney issued a statement saying he has "no link whatsoever" to the case. A schoolteacher has been harassed at his home because amateur investigators decided he looked like the masked figure in doorbell footage. Sheriff Nanos had to publicly clear the Gu...