Psychopedia: True Crime & Criminal Psychology

Former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn fantasized about murdering his wife, Ashley, and texted his mistress about ways to kill her without getting caught. Then, on February 16, 2026, Ashley Flynn was found shot twice in the head as she lay in bed. To the outside world, Caleb was a devoted Christian, loving father of two, and church worship leader. But behind closed doors, he was living a sordid double life involving an obsessive affair with a younger woman with whom he exchanged more than 100,000 secret text messages, many of which discussed their disturbing desire to Ashley DEAD.  In this episode, we...

At just 14 years old, Sandy Charles committed a horrific, horror movie-inspired murder that shocked an entire nation. In 1995, the teen from La Ronge, Saskatchewan became obsessed with the 1989 supernatural horror film Warlock and convinced that he could acquire the power to FLY by performing a gruesome ritual: murdering a young, male, fatherless virgin and cooking his body fat. Tragically, 7-year-old Johnathan Thimpsen fit the criteria.  What followed was an almost unfathomable act of violence, fueled by a twisted belief in black magic and the promise of supernatural powers. But how does a 14-year-old cross the line between cinematic fantasy an...

The infamous Amityville Horror House is the site of six brutal murders, alleged demonic hauntings, and one of the most controversial paranormal mysteries in American history. In November 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. slaughtered his parents and four younger siblings as they slept inside their family home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. Just over a year later, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the same house with their three children, only to claim they'd entered a living nightmare. Mysterious voices, unexplained physical attacks, and an unseen presence that seemed determined to drive them out. Their terrifying account would...

Hong Kong influencer and socialite Abby Choi gave her ex-husband's family everything: a multimillion-dollar home, jobs, and a lifestyle most people could only dream of. Then, in February 2023, the 28-year-old mother of four vanished.  Abby rubbed shoulders with fashion's elite while generously bankrolling her ex-husband, Alex Kwong, and his family. After she disappeared, police searched a village house in Tai Po. Inside, they found what appeared to be a makeshift butcher shop, dismembered human remains, and a skull in a pot of soup. As investigators pieced together Abby's final hours, suspicion fell on the people who had benefited most fr...

The Olney House of Horrors in Philadelphia has recently become the center of a truly disturbing investigation into Raymond Horsch, a pornographic filmmaker suspected of harboring secrets far more sinister than anyone could have imagined. Behind the walls of his home, investigators uncovered a disturbing collection of sexually explicit photographs and videos, raising horrifying questions about whether some of the violence he filmed was staged- or whether countless women were actually murdered on camera. With seven missing women reportedly linked to the investigation, allegations of snuff films, and authorities searching the property for possible human remains, the line between...

Sarah Boone, infamously known as “The Suitcase Killer,” zipped her boyfriend inside a suitcase, laughed as he desperately begged to be let out, and recorded his final pleas for help on her cellphone. What she later described as an innocent game of hide-and-seek ended with 42-year-old Jorge Torres Jr. suffocating to death inside a suitcase in their Florida apartment. As investigators uncovered chilling cellphone footage, bruises and cuts on Jorge's body, and a deeply troubled relationship, Sarah launched into a years-long legal circus involving countless attorneys, outrageous courtroom demands, and a defense that seemed almost too bizarre to believe. In the...

Arthur Shawcross, the “Genesee River Killer,” murdered two children and after serving just over 14 years in prison, he was released back into society. Then women started disappearing. Their bodies began turning up around Rochester, New York, many near the Genesee River, as police searched for a serial killer they had already caught once before. By the time investigators finally connected the murders to Shawcross, he had been free for less than two years and 11 more people were dead. This is the horrifying story of a convicted child killer who was released from prison, the victims who paid the ultimate price...

In September 2026, a former Cornell student known only as Jane Doe filed a 101-page lawsuit against seven Chi Phi fraternity members, Cornell University, and more than a dozen other defendants. The complaint alleges she was incapacitated inside the frat house in October 2024, that drugs were involved, and that a message to a fraternity group chat invited others upstairs. She reported it to Cornell police weeks later. The university ran a Title IX investigation, the chapter was banned from campus, and according to reporting on the case, the accused students received a range of sanctions, from expulsion to suspension to w...

Pastor J.P. Miller preached about marriage, submission, and a wife’s duty to her husband while his own wife, Mica Miller, was desperately trying to escape him. Mica accused J.P. of tracking her movements, harassing her with dozens of calls, interfering with her finances, sabotaging her car, and posting a nude photo of her online. Then, just days after filing for separation, 30-year-old Mica was found dead from a gunshot wound in a remote state park.  Her tragic death was ruled a suicide, and authorities found no evidence J.P. was involved. But what investigators uncovered about the...

Fidel Lopez claimed that his girlfriend, Maria Nemeth, had been injured during a night of “rough sex” - but when police found Maria dead and disemboweled, with her intestines torn from her body and blood and tissue scattered throughout their apartment, it became horrifyingly clear that this was no sexual accident. What began as a night of tequila and intimacy in their Sunrise, Florida, apartment descended into an almost incomprehensible act of violence after Maria called out her estranged husband’s name during sex. Under interrogation, Fidel’s story began to collapse - and what he eventually admitted to doing to...

Stephen Griffiths, the “Crossbow Cannibal,” hunted his victims with a crossbow before dismembering their bodies and eating their remains. A criminology student in Bradford, England, Griffiths didn’t just study murder - he became the very thing he had spent years obsessing over: a serial killer. Horrifyingly, part of his blood-soaked reign was captured on CCTV when a terrified woman was seen running for her life through his apartment building's hallway, with Griffiths chasing close behind. Moments later, he shot her in the head with a crossbow. But what investigators uncovered would reveal something even more disturbing: a killer consum...

Seventeen-year-old Destry Allen was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head by his own father, Bart. Authorities ruled it a "pristine suicide" - but to Bart, and to several experts who later examined the case, almost nothing about the scene pointed to suicide. The subsequent investigation did little to resolve those questions. No autopsy was conducted, despite state law requiring one. No toxicology screen. No meaningful ballistics analysis. No testing of the blood evidence. Simply put: the investigation into Destry Allen's death seemed to end before it ever truly began.

For Psychopedia’s 200th episode, I wan...

Famous Brazilian football/soccer star Bruno Fernandes de Souza had the mother of his child, Eliza Samudio, kidnapped, murdered, dismembered, and allegedly fed to a pack of Rottweilers. At the height of his career, Bruno was the celebrated goalkeeper and captain of Flamengo, one of Brazil’s biggest football clubs, with fame, money, and an adoring fanbase. But behind that superstar image was an increasingly vicious battle with 25-year-old Eliza Samudio, a former model who became pregnant with Bruno’s child and demanded that he acknowledge the baby and provide financial support. Eliza reported threats and violence, sought protection from...

16-year-old Gabrielle "Britney" Ujlaky was strangled, stabbed in the neck, and left in the Nevada desert by her 18-year-old best friend, Bryce Dickey - but not before she took a Snapchat selfie that would help solve her own murder. When Britney disappeared in March 2020, investigators went searching for a mysterious "cowboy" who had supposedly driven off with her shortly before she vanished. But the cowboy story began to fall apart as Britney's final hours were reconstructed through surveillance footage, cell phone data, DNA, and one eerily ordinary Snapchat photo taken inside a truck. What emerged was a case of...

When Aziza Kibibi was eight years old, her biological father Aswad Ayinde, an award-winning video director working with artists like Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, began abusing her. By the time Aziza was twelve, her father had subjected her to years of abuse and treated her as his property; and by fifteen, Aziza had become a mother to her father’s children. Everything Aswad claimed to be - educator, protector, husband, father, even a conduit to God - was a fiction sustained by fear. And the home he built to supposedly shield his children from the dangers of the out...

A discarded cup of coffee is what finally brought serial killer John Getreu down. After evading justice for nearly 50 years, investigators used DNA recovered from a discarded coffee cup to expose a man who had spent decades hiding behind the image of a trusted Boy Scouts leader, mentor, husband, and neighbor. But when his DNA was compared to evidence preserved from long-forgotten crime scenes, it revealed a vicious predator linked to the murders of multiple women. In this episode, we unravel the astonishing investigation that finally caught up with John Getreu, examine the warning signs that were missed for...

Five sadistic men brutalized one innocent woman in a case so horrifying, it altered the DNA of Australia forever. In 1986, 26-year-old nurse Anita Cobby began her walk home from a train station when she was abducted by five men out for blood.  What these men did to Anita defies comprehension. The sheer brutality of the crime shocked Australia, sparked one of the nation's most infamous murder investigations, and left a scar that remains nearly four decades later. In this episode, we look beyond the headlines to honor the woman Anita was, examine the unimaginable torture she endured at the hands...

A 28-year-old female teacher. Multiple teenage boys. And a case that forces us to confront one uncomfortable question: Why is society so much slower to recognize abuse when the predator is a woman and the victim is a teenage boy? In this episode, we examine the case of Rebecca Joynes, a former teacher convicted of sexually abusing teenage students she was entrusted to protect. We break down the evidence presented in court, the grooming behaviors that allowed the abuse to continue, the lasting impact on the boys at the center of the case, and the psychological dynamics that make f...

Trigger warning: This episode discusses domestic violence, homicide and cannibalism. Please listen with caution.

On November 12, 2010, Isakin Drabbad, aka The Skara Cannibal, walked into his girlfriend's bedroom carrying a knife and committed one of the most brutal homicide cases in modern Scandinavian history. After fatally slashing Helle Christensen's throat, Isakin violated her body, decapitated her, dismembered her remains, and removed portions of her flesh, which he later cooked and consumed. The cannibalism is certainly what made headlines...but it wasn't the full story.  It was merely the final, devastating expression of a mind that had be...

Trigger Warning: This episode discusses the difficult topic of sexual abuse. Listener discretion advised.

"Big Girls Wanted: Escaping Pearadise" has taken the internet by storm, and it's easy to see why. Beyond the allegations themselves, it forces us to confront a number of uncomfortable but important conversations.  In this episode we dive deep into Pearadise, the viral content house in Las Vegas built around "BBW" (Big Beautiful Women) that's igniting debates about body positivity, feederism, fetish culture, and online fame. Is Pearadise creating a space where plus-sized women can thrive and take control of their...

Trigger Warning: This episode discusses SA, child homicide, and graphic violence. Listener and viewer discretion advised.

Serial killer Paul John Knowles was desperate to leave behind a legacy and to go out in a blaze of glory. Linked to the deaths of at least 18 people, the "Casanova Killer" recorded a "kill tape" confession detailing one of the deadliest multi-state killing sprees in American history. Guilty of assault, murder, and attempted necrophilia, Paul was driven by his desire to become famous for the heinous crimes he committed. In Part 2, we continue to explore his horrific c...

Trigger Warning: This episode discusses SA, child homicide, and graphic violence. Listener and viewer discretion advised.

Now on YouTube!  Watch + subscribe: @investigatorslater

Paul John Knowles is an American serial killer linked to the deaths of at least 18 people. He recorded a chilling "kill tape" confession detailing his murders and carried out one of the deadliest multi-state killing sprees in American history in just a matter of months. Known as the "Casanova Killer" because of his conventionally handsome appearance, Paul murdered men, women, and children, sexually assaulted many of his vi...

Trigger Warning: This episode discusses SA, child homicide, and graphic violence. Listener and viewer discretion advised.

Now on YouTube!  Watch + subscribe: @investigatorslater

Paul John Knowles is an American serial killer linked to the deaths of at least 18 people. He recorded a chilling "kill tape" confession detailing his murders and carried out one of the deadliest multi-state killing sprees in American history in just a matter of months. Known as the "Casanova Killer" because of his conventionally handsome appearance, Paul murdered men, women, and children, sexually assaulted many of his vi...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of domestic abuse and child SA.  Please listen with caution.

Five wives. A revered spiritual leader. A celebrated actor whose role in Dances with Wolves made him famous around the world. For decades, Nathan Chasing Horse cultivated an image as a respected medicine man and cultural figure - but behind the scenes was a sprawling web of sexual abuse, manipulation, and control. Nathan Chasing Horse used his spiritual authority to convince followers that he possessed supernatural powers, that he could see the future, and that young girls were des...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of domestic abuse and child SA.  Please listen with caution.

Five wives. A revered spiritual leader. A celebrated actor whose role in Dances with Wolves made him famous around the world. For decades, Nathan Chasing Horse cultivated an image as a respected medicine man and cultural figure - but behind the scenes was a sprawling web of sexual abuse, manipulation, and control. Nathan Chasing Horse used his spiritual authority to convince followers that he possessed supernatural powers, that he could see the future, and that young girls were des...

FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE to Psychopedia wherever you are listening!This week I was joined by special guest Kaelyn Moore of Heart Starts Pounding and Clues podcasts!In 1897, in a small town in West Virginia, a 23-year-old woman named Elva Zona Heaster Shue was found dead under mysterious circumstances and quickly laid to rest. Her tragic story might have ended there, if not for what happened next. According to local legend, Zona returned from the grave and appeared to her mother night after night to describe in chilling, accurate detail how her husband had murdered her and broken her neck.  What fo...

FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE to Psychopedia wherever you are listening!This week I was joined by special guest Kaelyn Moore of Heart Starts Pounding and Clues podcasts!In 1897, in a small town in West Virginia, a 23-year-old woman named Elva Zona Heaster Shue was found dead under mysterious circumstances and quickly laid to rest. Her tragic story might have ended there, if not for what happened next. According to local legend, Zona returned from the grave and appeared to her mother night after night to describe in chilling, accurate detail how her husband had murdered her and broken her neck.  What fo...

TRIGGER WARNING: Please note that this episode contains discussions of pedophilia, grooming, and graphic violence involving a 14-year-old girl.  Additionally, please note that this investigation remains active and ongoing. Ergo (noice): all statements regarding alleged conduct discussed in this episode are allegations only, and all individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The name d4vd used to mean viral music and sold-out concerts. Now, it's at the center of one of the most disturbing criminal cases in recent memory. David Anthony Burke, known to the world as d4vd...

TRIGGER WARNING: Please note that this episode contains discussions of pedophilia, grooming, and graphic violence involving a 14-year-old girl.  Additionally, please note that this investigation remains active and ongoing. Ergo (noice): all statements regarding alleged conduct discussed in this episode are allegations only, and all individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The name d4vd used to mean viral music and sold-out concerts. Now, it's at the center of one of the most disturbing criminal cases in recent memory. David Anthony Burke, known to the world as d4vd...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse.  Please listen with caution.

According to 18-year-old killer Miranda Barbour, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen she participated in a cross-country satanic killing spree that claimed at least twenty-two victims. While those claims have never been substantiated, what was proven in court was the brutal murder of 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara. Using a fake Craigslist ad offering sex, Miranda lured Troy to a meeting under false pretenses. Then, she and her husband, Elytte Barbour, carried out a savage and premeditated attack that left Troy dead in a ditc...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse.  Please listen with caution.

According to 18-year-old killer Miranda Barbour, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen she participated in a cross-country satanic killing spree that claimed at least twenty-two victims. While those claims have never been substantiated, what was proven in court was the brutal murder of 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara. Using a fake Craigslist ad offering sex, Miranda lured Troy to a meeting under false pretenses. Then, she and her husband, Elytte Barbour, carried out a savage and premeditated attack that left Troy dead in a ditc...

Former beauty queen, ex-Mormon, and alleged “love-obsessed” Joyce McKinney flew across the world, handcuffed her ex-lover to a bed in rural England, and forced him into what the British press dubbed “sex in chains.” But beneath the campy headlines and late-1970s media circus was something far darker and stranger: a disturbed woman who insisted she was rescuing the man she loved from a religious cult, a kidnapped Mormon missionary who was tortured and sexually assaulted for three days, tabloid hysteria, countless aliases, fugitive drama, and a case so outrageous it blurs the line between true crime, psychological obsession, and a fu...

Former beauty queen, ex-Mormon, and alleged “love-obsessed” Joyce McKinney flew across the world, handcuffed her ex-lover to a bed in rural England, and forced him into what the British press dubbed “sex in chains.” But beneath the campy headlines and late-1970s media circus was something far darker and stranger: a disturbed woman who insisted she was rescuing the man she loved from a religious cult, a kidnapped Mormon missionary who was tortured and sexually assaulted for three days, tabloid hysteria, countless aliases, fugitive drama, and a case so outrageous it blurs the line between true crime, psychological obsession, and a fu...

On April 22, 2018, a partially naked young man named Travis Reinking opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee, killing four innocent people and injuring others. He had a documented history of erratic behavior, including delusions that Taylor Swift was stalking him, as well as a 2017 arrest in Washington, D.C., after attempting to breach White House security. That incident led to his arrest and the confiscation of his firearms, weapons that were later returned to his father and ultimately given back to him.  This devastating case is not just about the horror of that night...

On April 22, 2018, a partially naked young man named Travis Reinking opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at a Waffle House in Antioch, Tennessee, killing four innocent people and injuring others. He had a documented history of erratic behavior, including delusions that Taylor Swift was stalking him, as well as a 2017 arrest in Washington, D.C., after attempting to breach White House security. That incident led to his arrest and the confiscation of his firearms, weapons that were later returned to his father and ultimately given back to him.  This devastating case is not just about the horror of that night...

Looking for more mystery to fill your week? While this isn’t a Psychopedia production, we're excited to introduce you to another podcast we think you’ll enjoy. Family Lore is a weekly narrative podcast that celebrates and investigates ancestral mystique. Each episode begins with a guest sharing a fascinating family legend, followed by a historical deep-dive to uncover the truth and meaning behind the tale. Available now.

https://link.pscrb.fm/f0281/FLFD

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

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Looking for more mystery to fill your week? While this isn’t a Psychopedia production, we're excited to introduce you to another podcast we think you’ll enjoy. Family Lore is a weekly narrative podcast that celebrates and investigates ancestral mystique. Each episode begins with a guest sharing a fascinating family legend, followed by a historical deep-dive to uncover the truth and meaning behind the tale. Available now.

https://link.pscrb.fm/f0281/FLFD

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

<...

In May 2016, Blake Leibel - a Canadian comic book creator and aspiring Hollywood filmmaker -brutally murdered his girlfriend, Iana Kasian, in their Los Angeles apartment. Iana’s body bore injuries so horrific they seemed ripped from the pages of Blake’s own graphic novel, Syndrome, which depicted eerily similar acts of torture and mutilation.  This tragic case is widely regarded as one of the most gruesome and sadistic murders Los Angeles has ever seen.  Please listen with caution.

FOLLOW AND SUBSCRIBE to Psychopedia wherever you are listening!

FOLLOW Investigator Slater on Instagram + TikTok...

In May 2016, Blake Leibel - a Canadian comic book creator and aspiring Hollywood filmmaker -brutally murdered his girlfriend, Iana Kasian, in their Los Angeles apartment. Iana’s body bore injuries so horrific they seemed ripped from the pages of Blake’s own graphic novel, Syndrome, which depicted eerily similar acts of torture and mutilation.  This tragic case is widely regarded as one of the most gruesome and sadistic murders Los Angeles has ever seen.  Please listen with caution.

FOLLOW AND SUBSCRIBE to Psychopedia wherever you are listening!

FOLLOW Investigator Slater on Instagram + TikTok...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of suicide and may be distressing to hear.  Please listen with caution.In 2017, a series of disappearances began to ripple through Zama, just outside Tokyo. The victims were young women between the ages of 17 and 26 who all left behind the same digital footprint: Twitter posts expressing a desire to die. What no one realized at the time was that those posts had drawn the attention of a murderous predator.  By the end of that year, the investigation led police to a single apartment, where a scene of calculated horror was waiting: nine dismembered bodie...