TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Carlo and Liana with me today.
On December 29, 2022, 61-year-old Carlo Secondino was killed and his 19-year-old daughter, Liana, was seriously wounded inside their home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Prosecutors accused Carlo’s older daughter, 22-year-old Nikki Secondino, of attacking them following an earlier argument with her father over a laptop.

According to the indictment, Nikki attacked Carlo while he was sleeping on the couch at about 5:20 a.m., striking him repeatedly with a hammer before stabbing him with a kitchen knife. When Liana heard the commotion and tried to...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering the victims of the Aurora Colorado Dark Knight Rises mass movie theatre shooting with me today.
On July 20, 2012, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes opened fire during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises at the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. He released tear-gas canisters and fired into the audience, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. The victims who died ranged in age from six to 51.

Police arrested Holmes outside the theater shortly afterward. Investigators discovered that he had also rigged his apartment with explosives, creating a separate...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Nicole Van Den Hurk with me today.
On October 6, 1995, 15-year-old Nicole van den Hurk disappeared while cycling to her supermarket job in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Her bicycle and backpack were subsequently recovered, but there was no sign of Nicole until November 22, when her body was discovered in woodland between Mierlo and Lierop. She had been sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed. Despite an extensive investigation, the case remained unsolved for years.

In 2011, Nicole’s stepbrother, Andy van den Hurk, posted a confession on Facebook and was arrested. He wa...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tessa Rane Majors with me today.
On December 11, 2019, 18-year-old Tessa Majors, a first-year student at Barnard College in New York City, was attacked during an attempted robbery in Morningside Park, near her campus. Three teenagers approached her, and 14-year-old Rashaun Weaver stabbed her repeatedly during the confrontation. Tessa managed to reach a staircase leading out of the park, where a security guard found her. She was taken to a hospital but died from her injuries.

Investigators identified Weaver and two other teenagers: Luchiano Lewis, also 14, and a 13...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Martha Moxley with me today.
On October 30, 1975, 15-year-old Martha Moxley went out with friends in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich, Connecticut, for “Mischief Night,” the evening before Halloween. She spent part of the night at the nearby Skakel family home but never returned to her own house. The following afternoon, her body was found beneath a tree in her family’s yard.

Martha had been beaten with a golf club and stabbed with its broken shaft. Investigators traced the club to a set belonging to the Skakel...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Denise Lee with me today.
On January 17, 2008, 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee was abducted from her home in North Port, Florida, by Michael Lee King, leaving her two young sons alone inside. King took her to his house, where he sexually assaulted her, then drove away with her bound in the backseat of his green Chevrolet Camaro.

Despite being restrained, Denise managed to get King’s cellphone and call 911, pleading to be released so she could return to her husband and children. A passing driver, Jane Kowalski, also ca...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tiana Angelique Notice with me today.
On February 14, 2009, 25-year-old Tiana Notice, a University of Hartford graduate student, was murdered by her former boyfriend, James Carter II, outside her apartment in Plainville, Connecticut. Carter stabbed her approximately 20 times. Tiana managed to call 911 and identify him as her attacker, but died later that night at Hartford Hospital.

The attack followed weeks of harassment and threats after their relationship ended. Tiana obtained a restraining order against Carter on January 8, 2009, and repeatedly reported that he was violating it. In the 24 hours...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Christine Vu and Wendie Prescott with me today.
In 1996, Dale Devon Scheanette committed two rapes and murders at the same apartment complex in Arlington, Texas, crimes that later led to his nickname, the “Bathtub Killer.” On September 17, 25-year-old elementary-school teacher Christine Vu was found sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, strangled, and left face-down in a partially filled bathtub in her apartment.

About three months later, on Christmas Eve, Scheanette attacked 22-year-old Wendie Prescott, a teacher’s aide. Family members went to check on her after she failed...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alesha MacPhail, Stoni Blair, Stephen Berry, Grace Packer, and Samiah Downing with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Melissa Dohme Hill with me today.
On January 24, 2012, 20-year-old Melissa Dohme agreed to meet her ex-boyfriend, Robert Lee Burton Jr., outside her home in Clearwater, Florida. They had broken up, and a no-contact order was in place after an earlier domestic battery incident. Burton had repeatedly called and texted her that night, asking for one last hug. When she embraced him, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her 32 times. Two witnesses intervened, and Burton fled.

Melissa suffered wounds to her head, neck, face, and arms, as...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Cheryl, Christie, and Stephen with me today.
On the night of May 19, 1983, Diane Downs drove her three children, Christie, 8, Cheryl, 7, and Danny, 3, to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Oregon. All three had been shot at close range in the family car. Cheryl died from her injuries, while Christie and Danny survived with severe, life-altering wounds; Downs had a comparatively minor gunshot wound to her forearm.

Downs initially claimed that a “bushy-haired stranger” had tried to carjack her on a rural road and shot the children. Investigators found her acco...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Shirley and Charles Severance with me today.
In May 2014, Charles and Shirley Severance, both 70, were killed in their Sterling, Colorado, home by their grandson, Brendan Johnson, 19, and his girlfriend, Cassandra Rieb, 18. Prosecutors said the couple planned the murders because Johnson expected to inherit the house and about $20,000.

Johnson and Rieb strangled the couple. Charles’s body was left in the home, while Shirley’s remains were burned and scattered in an effort to hide the crime. Johnson later called 911 to report discovering his grandfather’s body, but police...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Aaron Davis with me today.
In November 2022, 21-year-old Aaron William Davis, a recent Brigham Young University–Idaho graduate, stopped in Rome, Georgia, to spend time with his longtime friend Brandon Christopher Risner while travelling to visit his girlfriend in Alabama. The two men had known each other since high school. After a night out, Davis stayed at Risner’s home but never continued his trip.

Davis’s family reported him missing after he failed to return home. His Toyota Prius was found abandoned in a canal, and invest...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kenia Monge with me today.
In the early hours of April 1, 2011, 19-year-old Kenia Monge disappeared after leaving the 24K Lounge in downtown Denver, Colorado. She had left her purse, phone, and keys inside the club. Travis Forbes, 31, later portrayed himself to police as a “good Samaritan,” claiming he had found Monge intoxicated and offered her a safe ride home in his white van. That account was a lie intended to distance himself from her disappearance.

Monge got into Forbes’s van after he approached her and offered help...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sarah Ludemann with me today.
In April 2009, 18-year-old Sarah Ludemann was fatally stabbed by 19-year-old Rachel Wade outside the Pinellas Park, Florida, home of Joshua Camacho, the young man both women had been involved with. The case arose from months of jealousy, arguments, confrontations, and hostile online and phone exchanges linked to the volatile relationship between Wade, Ludemann, and Camacho.

On the night of April 14, Ludemann went with friends to Camacho’s home, where Wade was also present. A confrontation developed outside. Wade had brought a kitchen kn...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kerryn O’Neill and Alton Grizzard with me today.
In the early hours of December 1, 1993, Ensign George P. Smith, 24, shot and killed his former fiancée, Ensign Kerryn “Kerry” O’Neill, 21, and their friend, Lt. j.g. Alton Lee Grizzard, 24, inside O’Neill’s room at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters on Naval Amphibious Base Coronado near San Diego. Smith then died by suicide. The killings followed the recent end of Smith and O’Neill’s engagement, which had begun when they were students at the U.S. Naval Academy.

O’Neill had as...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Samiah Downing with me today.
In December 2012, four-year-old Samiah Christine Cornell Downing died in Adelanto, California, after prolonged abuse by her father, Ronald Dean Greer, and his girlfriend, Bianca Annie Mae Stanch. Prosecutors said Stanch resented Samiah and, with Greer’s participation, subjected her to repeated beatings, whipping, deprivation, and torture in the apartment where they lived.

In the days before her death, Samiah was whipped with a belt and electrical cords and suffered scald burns after boiling water was poured on her. She had been deprived of...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie, and Madison with me today.
In December 2001, Christian Longo killed his wife, MaryJane Longo, 34, and their three children, Zachery, 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2, after the family relocated to the Oregon coast while he was facing escalating debts, fraud allegations, and financial pressure. The victims’ bodies were discovered over several days in coastal waters and inlets around Newport, Oregon, near Christmas.

Evidence established that Longo strangled MaryJane and two-year-old Madison, then disposed of their bodies in suitcases in the water. He initially claimed that MaryJane ha...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alison Botha with me today.
In the early hours of December 18, 1994, Alison Botha, a 27-year-old insurance broker, was abducted outside her home in Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha, South Africa. Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger forced her into her own car at knifepoint, drove her to a secluded area near Noordhoek, and subjected her to a prolonged sexual assault.

Afterward, the men took Botha to an isolated field and attempted to murder her. She was stabbed more than 30 times, often reported as 37 wounds and her throat was...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Aliza Parsy, Rachel Pernosky, and Mary Ann Murphy with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Larry Streeter with me today.
On Christmas night in 1997, brothers Ted and Jesse Ernst drove to the home of Dr. John Bradshaw near Bigfork, Montana, intending to burglarize it while Bradshaw was away. Ted Ernst, then about 20, was a well-known local wheelchair-racing athlete whose public image as an accomplished paraplegic competitor had made him something of a hometown hero.

Larry Streeter, a 51-year-old businessman and Bradshaw’s friend, was checking on the house while Bradshaw was out of town. After noticing the Ernsts’ car at the property, Stre...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Liz Reiser & Brandi Hicks with me today.

In May 2000, best friends Elizabeth “Liz” Reiser, 17, and Brandi Hicks, 18, went to a Hollywood Video store in New Philadelphia, Ohio, after a choir banquet to pick out a movie. As they were leaving, 27-year-old Matthew Vaca approached and said he needed a ride home, offering them $20. The girls, who knew each other through church and believed they were helping someone in need, agreed.

Once inside their car, Vaca gave conflicting directions and led them away from town...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tim Mclean with me today.
On July 30, 2008, 22-year-old Tim McLean was travelling on a Greyhound bus through Manitoba, Canada, when he was killed by fellow passenger Vince Weiguang Li. McLean had been sleeping or resting in his seat near the rear of the bus when Li suddenly attacked him with a knife. The assault was unprovoked, and terrified passengers and the driver escaped after the bus stopped near Portage la Prairie.

Li stayed on the bus after the passengers fled. During a police standoff that lasted several...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Edwin John Olson Jr. with me today.
In May 1998, 14-year-old Terry Charles Olson shot and killed his father, Edwin John Olson Jr., inside their home in Ferndale, Montana. Terry later testified that he had endured severe abuse, saying his father withheld food and beat him and that he believed killing him was the only way to make it stop.

After shooting his father in the head, Terry checked for a pulse, showered, took money from his father’s wallet, and drove to a mall to play arcade ga...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lindy Sue Biechler with me today. Lindy Sue Biechler’s 1975 murder in Lancaster County went unsolved for nearly five decades, becoming the county's oldest cold case. The 19-year-old was brutally stabbed in her apartment while putting away groceries, and despite exhaustive investigations, including theories involving serial killers, psychics, and a mysterious letter, the case went cold. In 2022, advances in forensic genealogy finally identified her killer: David Sinopoli, a former neighbor. Using DNA from the crime scene and advanced genetic tracing, police matched Sinopoli's discarded coffee cup to the evidence. The ar...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jonathan Gilbert aka Tyler Lane with me today.

In July 2023, 22-year-old Johnathan Gilbert, known as Tyler Lane, was outside a home on Dobbins Mill Road in Spalding County, Georgia, when three teenagers arrived to egg the property amid an ongoing “lover’s quarrel.” Tyler was visiting another woman whom his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Sydney Maughon, reportedly wanted to confront and fight.

When Tyler, who was unarmed, came outside to confront the group, they ran back toward their car. Video and prosecutors’ evidence showed Maughon urging someone to “shoot him...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kendra Hatcher with me today.
In September 2015, 35-year-old Dallas pediatric dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher was shot in the head as she stepped out of her car in the parking garage of her Uptown apartment building—the day before she was due to fly to Cancún with her boyfriend. What police initially considered a robbery quickly unraveled into a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Brenda Delgado, the jealous ex-girlfriend of Kendra’s boyfriend, Dr. Ricardo “Ricky” Paniagua.

Prosecutors said Delgado stalked Kendra, asked several people to kill her, and ultim...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Deanna Antoinette Cook with me today.
In August 2012, 32-year-old Deanna Cook called 911 from her Dallas home while being attacked by her ex-husband, Delvecchio Patrick. The dispatcher heard her struggling, screaming, and calling Patrick by his nickname, “Red,” but failed to obtain her address or classify the call as an emergency; officers did not reach the home for roughly 50 minutes and left after receiving no answer.

Two days later, Deanna’s family forced their way inside and found her face down in a bathtub, where she had been strang...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Keiona Cecilia Braxton with me today.
In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 2008, firefighters responding to smoke at an apartment in Henrico County, Virginia, found 26-year-old Keiona Cecilia Braxton dying inside. She was three months pregnant, and the fire had been staged to mask the attack: Keiona had been beaten in the head, stabbed 43 times in the abdomen, and shot, while gas had been left on and aerosol cans placed in the oven in an apparent attempt to cause an explosion.publications.

Investigators focused on Ka...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Emma Walker with me today.
In November 2016, 16-year-old Emma Walker, an honor student and cheerleader from Knoxville, Tennessee, was asleep in her bedroom when her ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old William Riley Gaul, fired two shots through the outside wall of her family’s house. One bullet struck Emma behind her left ear and killed her; the other lodged in her pillow.

Emma had ended the relationship after Gaul’s behavior became controlling and aggressive, and friends later testified that she had grown afraid he would kill her. Prosecutors said Gaul...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Susan Walters with me today.
In September 2006, 51-year-old Portland emergency-room nurse Susan Kuhnhausen came home after work and walked into an ambush planned by the man she was divorcing. Hiding inside was Edward Dalton Haffey, a man Susan’s estranged husband, Michael Kuhnhausen, had allegedly promised $50,000 to kill her and make it look like a burglary. Haffey attacked Susan with a claw hammer, but she fought back, disarmed him, and strangled him during the struggle, a killing authorities ruled self-defense.

The evidence left behind tied the plot to...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Linda Kologi, Steve Kologi, Brittany Kologi, Mary Schulz, Shirley Severance, Charles Severance, Chad Amato, Margaret Amato, Cody Amato, Alan Johnson, and Diane Johnson with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jessica Lyn Keen with me today. In 1991, 15-year-old Jessica Keen disappeared from a youth counseling program in Oregon just one day before she was scheduled to return home. Her disappearance became a haunting cold case until advances in DNA technology identified Marvin Lee Smith, Jr. as her murderer nearly two decades later. In this true crime video, we examine the Jessica Keen murder case, the investigation, the evidence that finally solved the mystery, and the devastating impact her death had on her family.

In March 2013, 18‑year‑old Rachel Pernosky disappeared from her home in Mission, British Columbia, leaving behind her purse and cellphone, and three days later her body was found down a steep embankment in Chilliwack. The case shocked her family and community because Rachel was a young mother with a one‑year‑old child, and investigators quickly determined that her disappearance was not random.

Years later, police charged her estranged half‑brother, Mathew Pernosky, after a lengthy investigation and a “Mr. Big” sting operation led to a confession. Prosecutors said he suffocated Rachel, then moved her body and dumped it in s...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lauren Giddings with me today.
In June 2011, 27‑year‑old Mercer Law graduate Lauren Giddings vanished from her apartment in Macon, Georgia, just as she was studying for the bar exam. Her next‑door neighbor, Stephen McDaniel, had access to the building with a master key, and investigators later said he used it to enter Lauren’s apartment, strangle her in her bedroom, then dismember her body with a hacksaw and dump most of the remains in a campus trash bin.

The case grew even darker when Lauren’s torso wa...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sarah Rosemary Everard with me today. The murder of Sarah Everard became one of the most high-profile true crime cases in modern British history. In March 2021, the 33-year-old disappeared while walking home through South London, sparking a nationwide search that ended in tragedy. As investigators uncovered the truth, they discovered that Sarah's killer was a serving Metropolitan Police officer, a revelation that shocked the United Kingdom and ignited worldwide conversations about women's safety, police accountability, and public trust. In this true crime documentary, we examine the timeline of Sarah Everard's...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Betsy Faria, Shirley Neumann, and Louis Gumpenberger with me today.
In December 2011, 42‑year‑old Betsy Faria was found stabbed more than 50 times in her Missouri home, and suspicion quickly fell on her husband Russ even though he had a solid alibi. Pam Hupp, Betsy’s close friend and the last person known to see her alive, had recently become the sole beneficiary of a $150,000 life‑insurance policy, and prosecutors later said she used that advantage to frame Russ and divert attention from herself. Russ was wrongly convicted at first, but afte...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering the Defeo family with me today.
In November 1974, 23‑year‑old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family in their Amityville, New York home as they slept: his parents, two brothers, and two sisters. DeFeo later admitted he was the killer, but his story shifted over time as he blamed the mob, then claimed the house itself and “voices” pushed him into it, while investigators found all six victims face down in their beds with no signs of a struggle.

The crime became infamous because it was later...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Maria Lizette Nemeth with me today. In this true crime documentary, we examine the brutal 2015 murder of Maria Nemeth in Sunrise, Florida. What began as a frantic 911 call from her boyfriend, Fidel Lopez, claiming she wasn't breathing quickly turned into one of Florida's most shocking homicide investigations. Detectives uncovered a horrific crime scene that contradicted Lopez's story, leading to his arrest, guilty plea, and life sentence without parole. This video explores the full timeline of the Maria Nemeth murder case, the police investigation, interrogation, forensic evidence, and the disturbing events...

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kendra Hatcher, Robert Limon, Keiona Braxton, Heather Elvis, and Adrianne Jones with me today.