10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

The Wrong Mother: How Julie Rea Was Convicted of Killing Her Own Son

In October 1997, ten-year-old Joel Kirkpatrick was stabbed to death in his bed in Lawrenceville, Illinois, in a homicide investigation that would expose the catastrophic consequences of tunnel vision policing, junk forensic science, and the weight a single courtroom assumption can carry. His mother, Julie Rea, a PhD student in educational psychology, was convicted and sentenced to 65 years in prison despite no physical evidence connecting her to her son's death.

What followed was nearly a decade of wrongful imprisonment, a true crime author who...

Sheila and Clay Fletcher: The Parents Who Let Their Daughter Die

On January 3, 2022, first responders entered a home in Slaughter, Louisiana, and discovered 36-year-old Lacey Fletcher deceased, the victim of years of catastrophic neglect committed by her parents, Sheila and Clay Fletcher. The investigation resulted in second-degree murder charges, a surprising plea deal, and a sentencing that ignited national outrage about vulnerable adult protections, caregiver accountability, and the failures of community oversight. What makes this case almost impossible to process is that Sheila Fletcher was a town alderman and court clerk, someone literally employed to uphold justice, while...

This is a sample from an episode of a new podcast called True Crime Blueprint. It's still hosted and created by me, Joe. But it's longer and more of a deep dive into selected and curated cases. 

To follow and subscribe, go here:

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-blueprint/id1877878404


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Amazon Music/Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7d5eaae-9d27-40f9-8efb-6864c2af8055


De...

The Shadow of the Adirondacks: Robert Garrow and the Lawyers Who Kept His Deadly Secrets

In the summer of 1973, serial killer Robert Garrow launched an 18-day murder spree through New York's Adirondack wilderness, triggering the largest manhunt in state history and leaving investigators with a map marked with 26 red dots and far too few answers. The homicide investigation surrounding victims Alicia Hauck, Daniel Porter, Susan Petz, and Philip Domblewski eventually led to a courtroom revelation that cracked American legal ethics wide open. Two defense attorneys knew where the bodies were buried and said nothing for five months, while...

Jeffrey Mundt and Joseph Banis: The Fourth Street House of Horrors

In December 2009, Jamie Carroll, a 37-year-old master hair stylist from Louisville, Kentucky, disappeared after a night of drugs and sex at a Victorian mansion on Fourth Street in Old Louisville. His body wouldn't be discovered for six months, sealed in a 50-gallon container and buried five feet beneath the basement floor. The investigation exposed a complex homicide case involving methamphetamine addiction, a sophisticated counterfeiting operation, and two men who each claimed the other was the killer. Federal agencies including the Secret Service and CIA became involved after...

This is a sample from an episode of a new podcast called True Crime Blueprint. It's still hosted and created by me, Joe. But it's longer and more of a deep dive into selected and curated cases. 

To follow and subscribe, go here:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43zuDpH01HtdIrH0ShCAid?si=86b2281063334139



Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-blueprint/id1877878404


iHeartRadio: https://iheart.com/podcast/323307878


Amazon Music/Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7d5eaae-9d27-40f9-8efb-6864c2af8055


De...

Justin Mohn: How Right-Wing Radicalization Led to Father's Beheading

On January 30, 2024, 68-year-old Michael Mohn, a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was shot and beheaded in his Levittown, Pennsylvania home by his 33-year-old son Justin Mohn. The murder investigation revealed forensic evidence including a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol purchased 24 hours before the killing, a notebook containing detailed plans labeled "Boom" and "Slice," and online search history going back at least five years showing research on handgun purchases, bullet penetration of skulls, and explosive-making instructions. Justin then uploaded a 14-minute YouTube video titled "Mohn's Militia...

Hello 10 Minute Murder listeners. This is a sample epiosde of a new podcast created by and hosted by Joe... the same as 10 Minute Murder. If you like what you hear in this episode, there are more to listen to. Go subscribe to True Crime Blueprint, right now!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43zuDpH01HtdIrH0ShCAid?si=86b2281063334139



Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-blueprint/id1877878404


iHeartRadio: https://iheart.com/podcast/323307878


Amazon Music/Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7d5eaae-9d27-40f9-8efb-6864c2af8055
<...

Julissa Thaler: The Mother Who Bought a Shotgun After Losing Custody Battle

In May 2022, Orono police discovered six-year-old Eli Hart's body in the trunk of his mother Julissa Thaler's vehicle during a routine traffic stop in Minnesota. The investigation revealed Thaler had shot Eli up to nine times with a 12-gauge shotgun just ten days after regaining full custody. Evidence included the weapon purchase six days after the father filed for custody, Google searches about child blood loss and life insurance payouts, and ammunition specifically requested to "blow the biggest hole." Despite 21 police calls to Thaler's home, documented...

Mississippi Civil Rights Murder: The Medgar Evers Case Explained

In June 1963, NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was shot in the back outside his Jackson, Mississippi home by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. The assassination triggered a 31-year investigation involving forensic evidence, FBI fingerprint analysis, two hung jury trials, and shocking interference by Mississippi's governor and a state-funded spy agency called the Sovereignty Commission that actively worked to protect the suspect from conviction.

While Medgar was bleeding out in his driveway at 12:30 in the morning, his wife and children heard him trying to reach their door...

Larry Gene Bell: The Sadistic Killer Who Tortured Families by Phone

In May 1985, seventeen-year-old Shari Faye Smith was abducted from her family's driveway in broad daylight near Lexington, South Carolina, sparking one of the most intensive FBI investigations in the region's history. The perpetrator, Larry Gene Bell, tortured Shari's family with phone calls for days before killing nine-year-old Debra May Helmick two weeks later, turning the Midlands into a landscape of fear during what became known as the "Summer of Terror."

This case has everything that makes true crime both fascinating and deeply unsettling. Bell didn't...

Four Dead in Ohio: The Kent State Shootings Investigation

In May 1970, National Guardsmen fired 67 rounds in thirteen seconds at Kent State University students protesting the Vietnam War's expansion into Cambodia, killing Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder, and wounding nine others. The FBI investigation, civil trials, and forensic analysis of audio evidence would span decades, with questions about whether guardsmen received an order to fire remaining central to the case.

Four days. That's all it took for a college campus in Ohio to go from burying a copy of the Constitution as a...

Herbert Mullin: The Santa Cruz Killer Who Believed Murder Prevented Earthquakes

In 1972, Herbert Mullin murdered thirteen people across Santa Cruz, California, during a six-month killing spree that terrorized the community already known as the "Murder Capital of the World." The homicide investigation revealed victims ranging from a hitchhiking college student to a Catholic priest killed inside a confessional booth, with forensic evidence and detective work eventually connecting the seemingly random murders to one disturbed killer whose conviction would hinge on whether his paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis proved legal insanity.

Herb Mullin genuinely believed he was saving California...

From First-Round Pick to Murder Conspiracy: The Fall of Rae Carruth

In November 1999, Charlotte real estate agent Cherica Adams was shot four times in an ambush on Rea Road orchestrated by her boyfriend, Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth, who faced mounting child support obligations and refused to accept her pregnancy. The investigation revealed a murder-for-hire conspiracy involving career criminal Van Brett Watkins, drug dealer Michael Kennedy, and Stanley Abraham, with forensic evidence including Adams' 12-minute 911 call and handwritten hospital notes identifying Carruth before her death 28 days later.This is the story of a first-round NFL draft pick...

Ray Lewis and the Super Bowl Murders: The Buckhead Stabbing Case

In January 2000, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and two friends were charged with the murders of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar outside an Atlanta nightclub during Super Bowl weekend. The investigation revealed tactical knives purchased days before, a missing blood-soaked suit, destroyed photographs, and a code of silence that nearly derailed the entire case. What started as a champagne bottle to the head ended with two young men from Akron bleeding out on a Buckhead street, while one of football's biggest stars faced life in prison. The...

Route 40 Killer: Steven Brian Pennell and the Blue Van of Death

There's something deeply unsettling about a killer who looks like everyone else. Steven Brian Pennell was a married electrician with two kids, the guy who'd wave to you from his driveway while mowing the lawn. Between 1987 and 1988, he turned a stretch of highway in Delaware into his own personal nightmare factory. Route 40 became a place where women disappeared into a blue van and were found days later showing signs of torture that would make seasoned homicide detectives need a minute. This is the story of how a...

The Assassination of Nipsey Hussle in South LA

In March 2019, rapper and community leader Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed outside his Marathon Clothing store at the intersection of Crenshaw and Slauson in South Los Angeles. The murder investigation revealed that Eric Holder Jr., a fellow Rollin' 60s Crips member, fired over ten shots at Hussle following a brief conversation about street rumors. The homicide trial of Eric Holder Jr. resulted in a first-degree murder conviction and a sentence of 60 years to life in prison.

So here's what makes this case absolutely devastating. Nipsey wasn't killed...

The Girlfriend in the Cooler: The Wade Allen Case

Wade Allen strangled and dismembered his girlfriend Kelly Jean Warner in May 2019 in Sturgis, Michigan. Police discovered her mutilated remains stored in two coolers inside Allen's apartment after an anonymous tip. The 39-year-old pleaded no contest to second-degree homicide, attempted dismemberment, and attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct. While incarcerated at St. Joseph County Jail, Allen sexually assaulted a cellmate who had reported his murder confession to authorities. A judge sentenced Allen to 39-60 years for murder with consecutive sentences for assault, effectively ensuring he'll likely die in prison.
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Homeschooled to Death: The Mary and Elwyn Crocker Jr. Torture Case

Mary Crocker murder case in Guyton, Georgia, where a 14-year-old girl was found buried in her backyard on December 20, 2018, alongside her brother Elwyn Crocker Jr. The homicide investigation revealed systematic torture, starvation, and child abuse by their father Elwyn Crocker Sr., stepmother Candice Crocker, and three other adults in Effingham County. This death penalty case exposed catastrophic failures in Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services, where reports of child cruelty were ignored while two children vanished from school records under the guise of homeschooling.

...

The Teahouse Killing: Sada Abe's Twisted Love Story

In May 1936, Tokyo geisha Sada Abe murdered her lover Kichizo Ishida through strangulation, then severed his genitals in what became Japan's most notorious crime of the Showa era. The homicide investigation revealed a twisted love affair between a former sex worker and a married restaurant owner that ended in mutilation, carving bloody inscriptions, and a three-day manhunt through Tokyo. Detectives found Abe carrying the severed body parts in her kimono, treating them like sacred relics.

This case goes way beyond tabloid shock value. You've got a woman who...

Left to Die: The Chante Mallard Case and the Man in Her Windshield

Gregory Biggs, a 37-year-old homeless man and former bricklayer, was struck by a car on Highway 287 in Fort Worth, Texas in the early morning hours of October 26, 2001. The driver, Chante Mallard, a 25-year-old certified nursing assistant, drove home with Biggs lodged in her windshield and left him to die in her garage. The homicide investigation led detectives through a shocking cover-up involving body disposal at Cobb Park and evidence tampering. Mallard was convicted of murder in 2003 and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

This...

The Soho House Murder: How Sylvie Cachay's Breakup Turned Deadly

Sylvie Cachay was a 33-year-old Peruvian-American fashion designer found dead in a bathtub at New York City's Soho House on December 9, 2010. The homicide investigation revealed Nicholas Brooks, her 24-year-old boyfriend, strangled and drowned the swimwear designer in what prosecutors called a staged crime scene. The murder trial in 2013 exposed intimate partner violence, financial exploitation, and a twisted family legacy involving Brooks's father, Academy Award-winning composer Joseph Brooks, who was awaiting trial for sexually assaulting 11 women

This is the story of a woman who survived the 2008 financial...

The Joker Killer: James Holmes and the Aurora Theater Massacre

James Eagan Holmes murdered twelve people and injured seventy others during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises at a Colorado movie theater on July 20, 2012. The Aurora theater shooting investigation revealed a University of Colorado neuroscience PhD candidate who meticulously planned a mass shooting while simultaneously rigging his apartment with homemade napalm and thermite explosives designed to kill first responders. Holmes bought his arsenal the same afternoon he failed his doctoral exams, then spent weeks building what the FBI called a "jungle gym of booby traps" in...

The Flint Serial Slasher: Elias Abuelazam

In August 2010, Elias Abuelazam was arrested at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport while attempting to flee to Israel after a brutal stabbing spree that terrorized Flint, Michigan. The serial killer murdered at least five men and attacked nine others across Michigan, Virginia, and Ohio between May and August 2010, targeting primarily African American men in what became known as the Flint Serial Slasher case. Arnold Minor, a 49-year-old handyman, became a key murder victim when investigators found his blood on Abuelazam's steering wheel and clothing.

This is the story of a predator who...

Natural Selection: How Religious Extremism Killed Mary Anne Welch

On August 2, 2018, ten-month-old Mary Anne Welch died of starvation in Solon Township, Michigan. Her parents, Seth Welch and Tatiana Fusari, were convicted of felony murder and first-degree child abuse after investigators discovered the infant weighed only eight pounds at death. The homicide investigation revealed a disturbing pattern of deliberate medical neglect, religious extremism, and a 90-minute delay before calling 911 while Seth consulted his lawyer.

This is the story of a baby who starved to death in plain sight. Seth Welch believed in "natural selection" and called doctors...

Birmingham's Forgotten Serial Killer: Jack Harrison Trawick

Jack Harrison Trawick murdered Stephanie Gach in Birmingham, Alabama in 1992 after abducting the 21-year-old college student from her apartment complex parking lot. The homicide investigation revealed Trawick had killed at least three women, including 17-year-old Betty Jo Richards in 1972 and 26-year-old Aileen Pruitt earlier in 1992. Forensic evidence from his white Toyota van, including fiber analysis and luminol-detected blood traces, led to his conviction and death sentence. Trawick had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with homicidal impulses in 1970, yet remained free to kill for decades.

This is the story...

The Birthday Cake Killers: Inside the 1973 Victor Massacre

In November 1973, Douglas Gretzler and Willie Steelman murdered nine people in Victor, California, including the Parkin family and their neighbors. The homicide investigation revealed a brutal massacre where victims Walter Parkin, Joanne Parkin, their children Lisa and Robert, Richard and Wanda Earl, their children Debbie and Ricky, and Mark Lang were systematically executed in their own home. This killing spree began in Arizona with multiple murders across the Southwest, totaling seventeen victims. The suspects used eyewitness elimination as their primary motive, leaving a trail of bodies from Phoenix to Sacramento...

Sarah Jo Pender: The Female Charles Manson Case Explained

They called her the Female Charles Manson. In October 2000, two people were shot to death in an Indianapolis drug house. Sarah Jo Pender bought the shotgun that morning at Walmart. Her boyfriend Richard Hull pulled the trigger. She got 110 years, he got 75. Now the prosecutor who convicted her says he was wrong. But here's the thing about Sarah Jo Pender: everywhere she goes, people end up doing things they wouldn't normally do. She manipulated a prison guard into breaking her out. She lived as a fugitive for months. And...

The Cereal Killer: Frozen Breast Milk Solved a Michigan Murder

Christina Harris died in her Davison, Michigan home in September 2014 from a heroin overdose. The 36-year-old mother's death was ruled accidental. Her husband Jason Harris collected $120,000 in life insurance, bought a plane ticket to visit another woman nine days later, and moved a new girlfriend into their home two weeks after Christina's funeral. The investigation into Christina's murder took five years before prosecutors could finally charge Jason Harris with first-degree murder.

This is the story of a man who tried to hire multiple people to kill...

Bible John: The Ballroom Killer

Patricia Docker, Jemima MacDonald, and Helen Puttock were murdered between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland after meeting their killer at the Barrowland Ballroom. The unsolved homicide investigation spawned one of Europe's most notorious cold cases when a witness described the suspect quoting scripture and condemning adultery, giving birth to the nickname Bible John. Police interviewed 5,000 people, created Scotland's first composite sketch of a murder suspect, and conducted DNA testing on exhumed bodies, yet the serial killer has never been identified.

This case has everything that makes a cold case absolutely maddening. You've...

Seven Deadly Sins: The Valhermoso Springs Massacre

The 2020 Valhermoso Springs murders left seven people dead in Morgan County, Alabama, when Frederic Rogers and John Michael Legg opened fire during a drug dispute that escalated into a mass homicide. The investigation revealed burned bodies, over 1,000 crime scene photographs, and a confession that detailed the premeditated execution-style killings carried out by members of a group calling themselves the Seven Deadly Sins.

This is the story of what happens when two guys watch too much Sons of Anarchy and decide stolen guns and a Facebook post are worth killing...

Death Cap Mushroom Poisoning: The Australian Family Lunch Murders

Erin Patterson murdered her former in-laws Gail Patterson, Don Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson using death cap mushrooms in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia on July 29, 2023. The homicide investigation revealed Patterson served poisoned Beef Wellington at a family lunch, resulting in three deaths and one attempted murder of survivor Ian Wilkinson. Forensic evidence included death cap traces in a concealed food dehydrator, digital records of foraging locations, and destroyed phone data showing mushroom weighing photos from months before the fatal meal.

So there's this lunch in a small Australian town...

From Best Friend to Murder: The Missy Avila Story

In October 1985, 17-year-old Michele "Missy" Avila was found murdered in Big Tujunga Creek in the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles, her body submerged under a 100-pound log. The homicide investigation revealed a brutal case of premeditated murder involving two of Missy's childhood friends, Karen Severson and Laura Doyle, who were later convicted of second-degree murder. What followed was one of the most disturbing cases of criminal deception in true crime history.

This is a story about friendship gone toxic, jealousy that turned deadly, and a betrayal...

Mississippi's Most Controversial Murder Trial: The Jessica Chambers Case

On December 6, 2014, Jessica Chambers, a 19-year-old from Courtland, Mississippi, was found burned over 93% of her body in a murder investigation that would grip the nation. The homicide case against suspect Quinton Tellis resulted in two hung juries, as forensic evidence, cell phone data, and witness testimony collided with the victim's dying words. First responders heard Jessica name her attacker before she died, but the name she spoke wasn't Quinton.

This case has everything that makes true crime both fascinating and frustrating. You've got a victim who fought...

The Babysitter Who Knew Too Much: Kimberly Cargill Capital Murder

Kimberly Cargill murdered Cherry Walker in Whitehouse, Texas on June 18, 2010 to prevent the mentally challenged babysitter from testifying at a child custody hearing. The Smith County investigation revealed Walker died from asphyxiation, her partially burned body discovered on Oscar Burkett Road. Cargill was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2012 after prosecutors presented forensic evidence including DNA found on Burger King coffee creamers at the crime scene.

This case gets wild because here's a woman who's already lost custody of two...

The Fake Pregnancy That Led to Murder: Taylor Parker's Deadly Deception

Taylor Parker murdered Reagan Simmons-Hancock in New Boston, Texas on October 9, 2020, brutally attacking the 21-year-old pregnant woman and cutting her unborn baby from her womb. The homicide investigation revealed Parker had spent ten months faking her own pregnancy through elaborate deception, including staged ultrasounds and a gender reveal party. The capital murder trial centered on whether baby Braxlynn Sage Hancock was born alive, a legal question that would determine if prosecutors could pursue the death penalty. Forensic evidence and medical testimony became crucial as detectives uncovered Parker's...

Bloody Bill Anderson: The Civil War Guerrilla Who Created Jesse James

William T. Anderson, known as "Bloody Bill," was a Confederate guerrilla fighter who terrorized Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War, becoming one of the most brutal figures in American history. The Centralia Massacre of September 1864 saw Anderson and his men execute 22 unarmed Union soldiers and kill 123 more in the subsequent battle, marking one of the highest casualty rates of the entire war. His guerrilla band included a 16-year-old Jesse James, who witnessed Anderson's systematic violence firsthand.

This is the story of how a frontier...

Burned and Flushed: The Dennis Nilsen Serial Killer Case

Dennis Nilsen murdered at least twelve young men between 1978 and 1983 in North London, making him one of Britain's most prolific serial killers. The investigation into the Muswell Hill Murderer only began after plumber Michael Cattran discovered human remains blocking a drain at Cranley Gardens in February 1983. Nilsen's victims were primarily vulnerable gay men, homeless youth, and runaways whose disappearances went largely unnoticed by police.This is the story of a killer who kept bodies as companions, a man so emotionally detached he compared disposing of human remains to washing...

Bible Belt Strangler: The 40-Year Hunt for a Killer Who Targeted Redheads

So there's this case that's been sitting in the shadows for over 40 years. Between 1978 and 1992, women with red hair started turning up dead along interstates across the South. Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi. All strangled or beaten. All dumped like they were nothing. The FBI task force called them the Redhead Murders. The media went with "Bible Belt Strangler." Most of these women stayed nameless for decades. Jane Does. Because they were hitchhikers, sex workers, women nobody was looking for. Then in 2018, forensic genealogy finally gave them...

Thanksgiving Day 2012: How Byron Smith Executed Two Teen Burglars

Byron David Smith, a 64-year-old retired security engineer, shot and killed teenagers Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer during a home invasion in Little Falls, Minnesota on Thanksgiving Day 2012. The double homicide investigation revealed audio recordings Smith made of the entire incident, leading to his arrest, trial, and conviction for first-degree premeditated murder. Forensic evidence and witness testimony showed Smith had prepared an ambush in his basement after multiple prior burglaries of his property.

Smith had been burglarized before. His father's POW watch was gone. Four thousand dollars...