The Villains

In Minnesota’s Crow Wing County, Michael Lee LaFlex (46) faced prosecution after 23-year-old Bryce Brogle—his daughter’s boyfriend—vanished in October 2022 following a visit to LaFlex’s storage unit; investigators alleged LaFlex confronted Brogle because he believed Brogle had been mistreating his daughter, and that the confrontation ended in a fatal incident involving a firearm, after which LaFlex tried to clean up evidence and conceal Brogle’s remains on rural/public land near Merrifield/Mission Township. The case began when LaFlex’s daughter reported Brogle missing, and search efforts later led authorities to a concealed site tied to the disappeara...

Tynesha Evans was a 45-year-old mother of four from Alpharetta, Georgia, whose case drew attention after she died in a violent incident on March 16, 2019, outside a Wells Fargo branch on North Main Street; police responded late that morning, and investigators said the confrontation happened during an argument in the parking lot. Authorities identified Othniel (Othniel Nathan) Inniss as the suspect and reported that he and Evans had been in an on-and-off relationship, with public records and family statements pointing to a troubled history between them. The story spread widely because Evans’ children spoke publicly about the sudden loss of th...

Cynthia Berendzen was at the center of a Las Cruces, New Mexico case that began after neighbors reported not seeing her for weeks, prompting a welfare check at her home. When officers entered the residence, they found signs that the scene had been cleaned and later confirmed she had died. The investigation led to charges against her son, and the case moved through the New Mexico court system over the following months.

Court coverage reported that a jury found Dillon Alexander Waller guilty of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in connection with Cynthia Berendzen’s death. Mu...

In Battle Creek, Michigan, two men (Fred Bissel, 62, and Jason Dush, 41) were found unresponsive in an apartment at Silver Star Apartments on April 12, 2020.

Investigators said there were signs of a struggle and worked from witness accounts, security video, and scene evidence to identify Kenneth Hoskins (56, from South Bend, Indiana) as the suspect; police also said he had been staying in the same apartment.

Later that same day, Hoskins was taken into custody in Kalamazoo County after a separate incident on I-94 involving a truck/vehicle, and authorities subsequently filed two “open” counts in connection with the...

The Donovan Barfield case was a tragic 2018 incident in Lansing, Michigan, in which 28-year-old Donovan Barfield was found in his apartment after what investigators described as a targeted act rather than a random event.

Police later connected Neal Prince to the case, and in 2019 he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole; reports also said another person was charged in connection with it. The case drew attention because investigators used witness accounts and surveillance evidence to piece together what happened.

On July 18, 2008, Genai Coleman, a 40-year-old schoolteacher and Navy reservist, was waiting in her car near Gwinnett Place Mall in Georgia to pick up her daughter. A man approached her vehicle, demanded she exit, and during the confrontation, she was fatally shot. The assailant then drove away in her car, which was later found abandoned about 40 miles away.

Investigation and Arrest Investigators collected a cigarette butt from the recovered vehicle, which contained DNA matching Donald Smith, a man with a prior criminal record. Surveillance footage also showed a man purchasing the same brand of cigarettes near the...