Did Mackenzie Shirilla and Her Mom Use a Secret Code to Fool Police?
Prosecutors hired a team to decode phone calls between Mackenzie Shirilla and her mother Natalie — calls where the two spoke in a private language built to hide what they were saying on monitored lines. What they found became evidence at trial. The coded communication is one piece of a larger pattern now laid bare by recorded prison calls and institutional records released in the wake of the N...
37m Jun 06
37m
What Mackenzie Shirilla's Prison Record Could Cost Her at Parole
Two cases raising different questions about how the system processes evidence — one institutional, one forensic. Mackenzie Shirilla's family is generating a growing record on monitored prison calls that defense attorney Eric Faddis says the parole board will scrutinize. In the Anna Kepner cruise ship case, a federal judge stated the prosecution's evidence is not as strong as it appears, despite...
56m Jun 05
56m
Why Was Elijah Vue’s DNA Found in a Suitcase Jesse Vang Dropped at a Thrift Store?
The night before Jesse Vang called 911 to report three-year-old Elijah Vue missing, surveillance cameras in Two Rivers, Wisconsin captured him driving a borrowed Nissan Altima through town. His phone was sitting at his apartment, playing a Netflix movie — building what prosecutors allege was a false alibi. On camera, Vang pulled up to the donation door at a St. Vincent de Paul store and dropped...
22m Jun 05
22m
What the Unsealed Transcript Revealed in the Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Case
A hundred and forty-five pages of unsealed transcript from a February detention hearing in the Anna Kepner cruise ship case placed the prosecution's complete theory on the public record. The transcript detailed CCTV footage, phone records, DNA evidence with match odds of 120 sextillion to one, and an FBI agent's admission that he cannot directly connect that DNA to cause of death. Defense attor...
18m Jun 05
18m
Why Did the Judge Who Sentenced Ted Bundy to Death Call Him a Bright Young Man?
The investigation of Ted Bundy did not end with his arrest. It continued through three trials, nine years on death row, and a final week of confessions that produced more questions than answers. The Chi Omega trial, Miami, June 1979: the first American criminal trial broadcast nationally, gavel to gavel. Over two hundred and fifty reporters. Forensic dentist Dr. Richard Souviron walked a jury ...
15m Jun 05
15m
What Was Kouri Richins Really Doing During Those 45 Minutes at the Podium?
Kouri Richins rolled her eyes while her children's statements described being locked in basements and denied food. She mouthed "What?" when Eric's sister spoke. Then her own family called her the glue of the family — and the tears appeared. For the first time all day.That split — contempt for suffering, emotion for validation — frames everything she said in the forty-five minutes that followed....
17m Jun 05
17m
How Far Have Mackenzie Shirilla's Parents Gone to Protect Her?
Steve Shirilla's teaching contract at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland was not renewed following his appearance in the Netflix documentary The Crash. The Diocese of Cleveland confirmed he will not be returning. Natalie Shirilla was captured on a recorded prison call referring to the family of Dominic Russo — the man their daughter was convicted of killing — as "evil people." Defense atto...
18m Jun 05
18m
How Could Mackenzie Shirilla's Conduct Record Affect Her Parole?
Mackenzie Shirilla has accumulated thirty-six conduct violations at the Ohio Reformatory for Women since her August 2023 conviction — guilty findings on thirty-two. Her institutional file includes unauthorized medication, contraband, altered clothing, refusal of work assignments, and more than a hundred video visits with an unapproved released former inmate conducted under a false identity. Def...
21m Jun 05
21m
What Makes Josh Duggar Think He Deserves Another Chance After Four Courts Said No?
Four courts. Four refusals. And Josh Duggar filed every single one of them expecting a different answer. His first appeal came in 2022 — denied. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in August 2023. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear his case in June 2024. And on June 1 of this year, Judge Timothy Brooks denied Josh’s final motion to vacate — a Section 2255 fi...
28m Jun 05
28m
The Crash: Why a Psychotherapist Thinks the Mackenzie Shirilla Trial Asked the Wrong Question
Was it murder? That's the question the trial asked. A judge said yes. Netflix's The Crash put the evidence on screen and the public argued about the answer. But psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, who has spent thirty years studying violence and treating people on both sides of it, says the trial was asking the wrong question — and the answer to the right one is something far more complicated and fa...
59m Jun 04
59m
Did Prosecutors Underestimate The Witness Who Knew The Murdaugh House Best?
Prosecutors spent twelve and a half hours on Alex Murdaugh's financial crimes at the first trial. They gave Blanca Simpson three hours. The Supreme Court said the financial evidence went too far. Nobody said Blanca went far enough.That imbalance is the story of the retrial before it's even started. Because if round two can't rely on a parade of financial devastation to paint Alex as a monster, ...
59m Jun 04
59m
The Crash: What If the Mackenzie Shirilla Case Was Never About Murder At All?
There's a question that hangs over the Mackenzie Shirilla case that almost nobody is willing to ask directly. What if this wasn't premeditated murder? What if it wasn't even reckless homicide in the way most people understand it? What if a seventeen-year-old in psychological free fall, in a volatile relationship she couldn't escape, with substances in her system and a diagnosed medical conditio...
23m Jun 04
23m
How Did a Routine Stolen Plate Check at 1:34 AM in Pensacola End the Hunt for Ted Bundy?
The Tallahassee Police Department responded to the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University in the early hours of January 15, 1978. What they found inside — Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy killed, Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler severely injured — was unlike anything the department had investigated. Nita Neary, the only eyewitness, described a man in a stocking mask on the stairs ca...
15m Jun 04
15m
What Does a Three-Hour Verdict Say About Kouri Richins?
Zero defense witnesses. A waived right to testify. Three weeks of silence from a woman whose entire psychological operating system runs on narrative production. And a juror who watched the transformation from "trapped" to "like a statue."This episode tracks what sustained silence does to a mind like Kouri Richins'. Not the legal strategy behind the defense's decision — the psychological experie...
18m Jun 04
18m
The Crash: Did the Prosecution Misread Mackenzie Shirilla's Relationship Entirely?
Two weeks before the crash that killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, there was an incident on I-71. The prosecution's version: a friend overheard Mackenzie Shirilla say "I will crash this car right now" during a fight with Dominic. That testimony became evidence of prior calculation — proof she'd rehearsed the act before she carried it out. But text messages tell a different story. Mackenz...
15m Jun 04
15m
The Crash: Why Everything You Think About Mackenzie Shirilla's Personality Is Probably Wrong
Ninety-three thousand text messages were reviewed in the Mackenzie Shirilla case. The prosecution selected the most threatening ones and presented them to a judge as proof of a mind capable of premeditated murder. "My way or the highway." "Watch your back, your house, your car, your life." A TikTok persona that screamed narcissism. An arrest where she asked cops to protect her bracelets. The pe...
21m Jun 04
21m
Why Did Rebecca Haro Have A Baby With A Man Already Convicted Of Child Cruelty?
Rebecca Haro knew exactly who Jake Haro was when she had a baby with him. She knew about the 2023 child cruelty conviction in Riverside County. She knew about the 2024 illegal possession of a loaded firearm and the probation violations. She knew about the ex-wife who had gone into court and asked a judge for a domestic violence restraining order, specifically requesting protection for a child s...
17m Jun 04
17m
The Crash: Why a Defense Attorney Says the Mackenzie Shirilla Case Is a Failure at Every Level
Defense failure. Prosecutorial overreach. Systemic rigidity. And a defendant making post-conviction choices that may be sealing her own fate. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta says the Mackenzie Shirilla case isn't just one thing that went wrong — it's a cascade of failures that compounded at every stage. Shirilla was seventeen when the crash in Strongsville, Ohio killed Dominic Russo and Da...
59m Jun 03
59m
Why Does Murdaugh's Housekeeper Think Alex Had A Plan A And A Plan B?
Alex Murdaugh never worked alone. Not when he was stealing from clients. Not when he was running pills through Curtis Eddie Smith. Not when he staged his own shooting on the side of a Hampton County road. Every major scheme in his life had other hands on it. Other people carrying the weight. Other names on the checks.So why would the murders be different?That's the question Blanca Simpson keeps...
19m Jun 03
19m
The Crash: Is Public Opinion Going to Keep Mackenzie Shirilla in Prison?
Dominic Russo's sister started a podcast. His parents appear in the Netflix documentary. The families are visible, vocal, and firmly opposed to any leniency for Mackenzie Shirilla. On the other side, Mackenzie agreed to speak from prison in The Crash — and a fellow inmate immediately told the public that the remorseful, soft-spoken woman on camera isn't the person she saw behind bars. The court...
16m Jun 03
16m
How Did Ted Bundy Starve Himself Down Twenty Pounds and Crawl Through a Jail Ceiling?
Ted Bundy was convicted of aggravated kidnapping in Utah in 1976. Bench trial. Judge Stewart Hanson. Sentenced to one to fifteen years. In October 1976, Colorado charged him with the murder of Caryn Campbell. He was extradited to Aspen in January 1977. As his own attorney, he received the legal courtesies the Sixth Amendment requires. Library access. No shackles. No handcuffs in the building. ...
15m Jun 03
15m
The 'Walk the Dog' Letter Tells You Everything About How Kouri Richins' Brain Works
"Walk the Dog!!" written across the top of a six-page letter found hidden in Kouri Richins' jail cell. Inside: instructions for coaching her brother's testimony. The defense she should never have scripted.But the letter itself isn't the most revealing piece. The "fictional novel" defense is. Because when Kouri was confronted on a recorded jail call, she didn't pause. She didn't stumble. She pro...
15m Jun 03
15m
The Crash: What a Defense Attorney Sees When He Looks at the Mackenzie Shirilla Prosecution
A prosecutor called it a "mission of death." A judge agreed. But a criminal defense attorney who has spent his career on the other side of cases like this says the Mackenzie Shirilla prosecution has vulnerabilities that should have been exposed at trial — and weren't, because the defense never mounted the challenge the evidence demanded. Shirilla was convicted of four counts of murder for the ...
15m Jun 03
15m
The Crash: Every Way Mackenzie Shirilla's Defense Team Let Her Down
The defense raised a medical condition. Never proved it. Had competing evidence that contradicted the prosecution's key witness. Never introduced it. Filed the post-conviction petition with the one expert who might have changed everything. Filed it one day late. At every critical moment in the Mackenzie Shirilla case, the defense failed — and a seventeen-year-old is serving fifteen years to lif...
29m Jun 03
29m
What Happens Inside Nancy Guthrie's 41 Missing Minutes?
Between 1:47 a.m. and 2:28 a.m. on the morning of February 1, somebody walked up to an 84-year-old woman's house in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, got inside, and got her out. Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47. Her pacemaker app disconnected at 2:28. Forty-one minutes. That is the entire window. Four months later, nobody outside the investigation can fill it in. This True...
21m Jun 03
21m
The Crash: Is the Mackenzie Shirilla Case Really as Clear as Everyone Thinks?
Everyone who watches Netflix's The Crash picks a side. Guilty or railroaded. Monster or misunderstood teenager. Premeditated killer or reckless kid in over her head. The documentary gives you enough to feel certain either way — and that's exactly the problem, because the evidence doesn't support certainty in either direction. Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of four counts of murder for drivin...
1hr 1m Jun 02
1hr 1m
Why Wasn't Murdaugh's Housekeeper Asked About Everything She Saw That Morning?
You want to know what went wrong in the first Murdaugh trial? Forget the jury tampering for a second. Forget Becky Hill. Look at the allocation of time. The state spent twelve and a half hours on financial crimes. They gave Blanca Simpson three hours.Blanca is the person who knew that household's daily patterns better than anyone. She knew how Maggie left her things. She knew where the towels w...
25m Jun 02
25m
The Crash: Did Grief Decide What Happened to Mackenzie Shirilla?
The judge who convicted Mackenzie Shirilla of four counts of murder also denied her post-conviction petition — the one containing a neurologist's expert opinion that the crash may have been caused by a medical episode. Same judge. Same defendant. Same case. The petition was denied on procedural grounds — filed one day late — not on the merits. But the question lingers: when the same person make...
19m Jun 02
19m
Why Did It Take Nineteen Months for Three States to Realize They Were Hunting Ted Bundy?
The investigation into Ted Bundy's second year of killing began with a traffic stop nobody planned. Sergeant Bob Hayward, a twenty-two-year veteran of the Utah Highway Patrol, was sitting in his cruiser outside his own home in Granger, Utah, at 2:30 in the morning when a tan VW Beetle passed with its headlights off. He chased it. He searched it. What he found inside — a ski mask, a pantyhose ma...
20m Jun 02
20m
Was Kouri Richins Lying on Television or Living Inside Her Own Story?
Fourteen months between Eric Richins' death and Kouri's arrest. During that window, she closed a real estate deal the day after finding him dead, hosted a gathering at the home where EMTs had pronounced him, Googled luxury prisons and insurance timelines, published a children's grief book, and went on television to promote it.Most analysis focuses on whether the grief was real or performed. Thi...
16m Jun 02
16m
The Crash: Did the Narrative Against Mackenzie Shirilla Get Ahead of the Evidence?
No confession. No manifesto. No search history about staging a crash. No suicide note. No witnesses to intent. The prosecution's case against Mackenzie Shirilla was built on surveillance footage, black box data, text messages, and a prior threat — and then charged as four counts of premeditated murder. In most cases with that charge, there's a trail. In this one, there wasn't. Shirilla was sev...
21m Jun 02
21m
The Crash: Is Mackenzie Shirilla's Worst Behavior Actually Evidence of Murder?
Ninety-three thousand text messages. That's how many were reviewed in the Mackenzie Shirilla case. Prosecutors pulled the most threatening ones and presented them to a judge as evidence of premeditated intent. "My way or the highway." "Watch your back." Messages that made Shirilla look controlling, volatile, and dangerous. But the texts closest to the crash — the ones sent in the final hours — ...
22m Jun 02
22m
Why Did Investigators Test Another Man in Anna Kepner’s Cruise Ship Case?
Why would investigators test a second man in the death of Anna Kepner? That’s one of the threads we pull on in this episode — and the answer opens a door the rest of the evidence can’t walk you through. Anna was eighteen, aboard the Carnival Horizon on a family trip, when she was found dead in her cabin. A recently unsealed court transcript lays out what prosecutors say they have against her s...
23m Jun 02
23m
Did The Courts Get It Right In Guthrie, Kepner And Murdaugh?
Three cases, three very different points in the legal process — and one question worth asking across all of them: did the system get it right? Tony Brueski sits down with former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer for a precise, procedure-focused look at the Nancy Guthrie investigation, the Anna Kepner prosecution, and the overturned Alex Murdaugh murder convictions. The Guthrie case raise...
56m Jun 01
56m
What Does Murdaugh's Housekeeper Really Think About The Overturned Verdict?
Everyone has an opinion about Alex Murdaugh's overturned conviction. Legal analysts are breaking down the ruling. Defense attorneys are celebrating on morning shows. Prosecutors are promising a retrial. But nobody is asking the question that matters most to the people closest to Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson isn't a legal analyst. She's the woman who cooked Maggie's last me...
19m Jun 01
19m
Why Was Alex Murdaugh's Murder Conviction Thrown Out?
The Alex Murdaugh murder case has been reset to zero, and the reason is a lesson in how fragile a conviction can be. On a unanimous vote, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Murdaugh's double-murder convictions and ordered a new trial, finding that the Colleton County clerk of court improperly influenced the jury — in the court's words, placing her fingers on the scales of justice. Murd...
16m Jun 01
16m
Why Did a Computer Program Flag Ted Bundy as a Top Suspect and Then Filter Him Out?
Bob Keppel was one of the King County detectives who could see the pattern forming in the spring of 1974. Same age range. Same appearance. Same young man on crutches or in a sling. The Seattle papers started using the word pattern. The Task Force opened a tip line. The phone did not stop ringing. By summer, the Ted Task Force had a composite, a first name, and a car description from witnesses ...
18m Jun 01
18m
Kouri Richins Failed on Valentine's Day — Her Next 17 Days Explain Everything
When Kouri Richins' Valentine's Day attempt on her husband's life failed, something happened that a psychotherapist would flag as the most important behavioral data in the case: she didn't panic. She recalibrated. She acquired more fentanyl. She adjusted the method. She increased the dose. And seventeen days later, Eric Richins was dead.This episode opens a five-part psychological series examin...
21m Jun 01
21m
Why Is Anna Kepner's Case Being Tried In Federal Court?
The Anna Kepner case is unfolding in a courtroom most people will never see the inside of: federal court, where a 16-year-old is being prosecuted as an adult — something that almost never happens. The reason is jurisdictional. Anna, 18, died aboard the Carnival Horizon while the ship was in international waters, en route to Miami. Because she was a U.S. citizen and the death occurred on the hig...
18m Jun 01
18m
Why Did The Sheriff Stop Talking To Nancy Guthrie's Family?
The procedural story inside the Nancy Guthrie investigation has become almost as troubling as the disappearance itself. Months after the 84-year-old vanished from her Tucson home, the Pima County sheriff confirmed his office is no longer communicating directly with the family — the FBI has taken over all contact. Reporting has also raised questions about whether less-experienced investigators m...
23m Jun 01
23m
What Does The Developmental Profile Behind D4VD Tell Us About The Celeste Rivas Hernandez Case?
Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, with more than thirty years of forensic mental health experience, provides a developmental analysis of David Anthony Burke's trajectory from a restrictive Houston household to a globally touring recording artist signed to Darkroom and Interscope Records — and the systemic failures she identifies at every stage. Burke was homeschooled. His mother served as his tea...
42m Jun 01
42m
Does Richard Allen's Delphi Conviction Survive The Confession And Warrant Challenges?
The appellate challenge to Richard Allen's conviction in the Delphi murders rests on two primary grounds: the reliability of over sixty custodial confessions made during a period of diagnosed psychosis, and the validity of the probable cause affidavit that authorized the search warrant initiating the entire prosecution. On the confession issue, the defense filings document the following timeli...
42m May 31
42m
What Is A Wrench Attack And Could It Explain The Nancy Guthrie Disappearance?
In FBI and digital forensic terminology, a wrench attack is an organized crypto-extortion operation in which networks recruit disposable operatives to physically coerce targets into surrendering cryptocurrency holdings. These operations employ encrypted handler communications, layered payment channels designed to resist tracing, and deliberate separation between the operatives who execute the p...
45m May 31
45m
How Did The Kouri Richins Case Go From Stalled To Conviction?
The criminal investigation into Eric Richins' death had effectively stalled by fall 2022. Deputy Jayme Woody acknowledged the investigative lapse under oath at trial. The break came not from law enforcement but from a private investigator retained by the victim's family on a civil matter. Todd Gabler, a 34-year veteran investigator who had worked exclusively for the defense throughout his care...
43m May 31
43m
How Does The Defense Fight The Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Murder When Identity Isn't The Issue?
Timothy Hudson is reportedly captured on surveillance footage as the only individual entering and exiting the stateroom aboard the Carnival Horizon where Anna Kepner's body was found concealed on November 7, 2025. The body was positioned under a bed, wrapped in a blanket, and covered with life preservers. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation and ruled...
38m May 31
38m
Does Richard Allen's Conviction Survive The Appellate Challenge On The Search Warrant?
The search warrant that initiated the prosecution of Richard Allen in the Delphi murders rested on a probable cause affidavit authored by Detective Tony Liggett. According to the appellant's brief, that affidavit allegedly contained material misrepresentations of witness testimony and strategic omissions of details that would have undermined the connection between Allen and Bridge Guy. The def...
39m May 31
39m
How Did The Kouri Richins Case Go From Stalled To Conviction?
The criminal investigation into Eric Richins' death had effectively stalled by fall 2022. Deputy Jayme Woody acknowledged the investigative lapse under oath at trial. The break came not from law enforcement but from a private investigator retained by the victim's family on a civil matter. Todd Gabler, a 34-year veteran investigator who had worked exclusively for the defense throughout his care...
57m May 30
57m
Can A Prosecution Survive The Investigative Failures In The Nancy Guthrie Case?
The Nancy Guthrie investigation has accumulated a documented record of procedural and operational failures that raise a forward-looking legal question: if a suspect is identified and charged, can the prosecution withstand defense challenges rooted in the investigation's own conduct? The crime scene was allegedly released prematurely. A thermal imaging aircraft was reportedly grounded due to a ...
39m May 30
39m
Can The Nancy Guthrie Investigation Be Taken From The Sheriff Entirely?
 The Pima County Sheriff has confirmed he is no longer in direct communication with Nancy Guthrie's family. The FBI has assumed the role of sole point of contact. In a case where an 84-year-old woman has been missing for over three months — allegedly taken against her will from her Tucson-area home — the transfer of family communication away from the lead local agency raises significant procedu...
33m May 30
33m
How Did A Private Investigator Break The Kouri Richins Case Wide Open?
Todd Gabler spent 34 years as a private investigator working exclusively for the defense. He had never taken a prosecution-side case. Eric Richins' family retained him on a civil matter — and the phone records he obtained in the initial weeks altered the trajectory of the entire criminal investigation. The billing records documented sustained contact between Kouri Richins and a housekeeper wit...
46m May 30
46m