Asa Ellerup’s Civil Defense After the Guilty Plea
When Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to eight murders in Suffolk County Court, the criminal case reached its conclusion. But for his ex-wife Asa Ellerup, a different legal fight is just beginning. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack alleges that Ellerup and her daughter Victoria either knew about, concealed, or deliberately avoided learning of the murders. The complai...
16m Apr 17
16m
Jesse Butler: The Clock Nobody Wanted To Stop
Fifteen minutes. That's how long a teenage girl had to understand that the boy she accused of nearly killing her was about to walk out of a Stillwater courtroom without a single day in prison. Fifteen minutes to process "no contest." Fifteen minutes to process "youthful offender." Fifteen minutes to realize the August birthday coming in four months would legally erase the whole thing. Jesse B...
24m Apr 17
24m
Anna Kepner: Can a Medication Defense Work Here
The physical evidence in the Anna Kepner case presents a compressed, specific set of facts that prosecutors believe can be tried in approximately one week. Ship surveillance showing no one else entering or exiting the cabin. A body allegedly concealed under a bed with deliberate covering. A cause of death — mechanical asphyxiation — that implies sustained physical contact. Defense attorney and...
17m Apr 17
17m
Anna Kepner Case: The Defense Gamble That Changes Everything
Unsealed federal court records in the Anna Kepner case have revealed a defense move that experienced criminal attorneys are calling highly unusual. The accused — a sixteen-year-old facing charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of his eighteen-year-old stepsister — signed a written waiver requesting to be prosecuted as an adult. His defense counsel co-signed the ...
16m Apr 17
16m
LIVE: Full Panel — FBI Expert & Psychotherapist on the Bateman Netflix Doc
The full panel, live and uncut. Former FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott are sitting down with Tony for a complete breakdown of the Samuel Bateman case and Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet — from how he built the cult, to what it did to the people inside, to whether Short Creek will ever stop producing predators who call themselves prophets. Robi...
1hr 3m Apr 16
1hr 3m
LIVE: Is the FLDS Cycle Finally Breaking? | Part 3
The final segment of our live three-part panel on the Bateman case and Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet. Parts 1 and 2 covered how he built it and what it did to the people inside. Now we're talking about what happens next — and whether "next" means healing or repetition. Former FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott are back with Tony for the convers...
20m Apr 16
20m
LIVE: The Psychological Damage Inside Bateman's FLDS Cult | Part 2
Going live for Part 2 of our panel on the Samuel Bateman case and Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet. If Part 1 was about how Bateman built his cult, this one is about what it did to the people inside it — and the damage that's still unfolding. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott and former FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke are back with Tony for the conversation about the invisible wrec...
24m Apr 16
24m
LIVE: FBI Expert & Psychotherapist on How Bateman Built His Cult | Part 1
We're going live with a conversation you're not going to want to pause. Former FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott are sitting down with Tony to break apart the Samuel Bateman case in real time — starting with the question everyone who watched the Netflix doc Trust Me: The False Prophet keeps asking: how did a broke, homeless man get fifty people to hand...
20m Apr 16
20m
Gilgo Beach Plea, Ellerup Suit, Anna Kepner Case: Deep Dive
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta and retired FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke join Tony Brueski for a wide-ranging conversation that covers Rex Heuermann's guilty plea, the civil lawsuit against his family, and the federal adult indictment in the Anna Kepner case — bringing both legal strategy and behavioral expertise to bear on each story. Motta opens ...
56m Apr 15
56m
Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Murder: Defense Challenges Examined
A defense attorney breaks down the federal indictment against Anna Kepner's sixteen-year-old stepbrother — and examines the significant challenges facing both the prosecution and the defense in a case that involves a minor charged as an adult, contradictory early reporting, and a family splintering across multiple courtrooms. The conversation begins with the most striking element of the indict...
19m Apr 15
19m
Rex Heuermann: Why He Pleaded Guilty and What He Avoided
A defense attorney walks through the strategic calculus behind Rex Heuermann's guilty plea — and explains why the timing, the terms, and the inclusion of an uncharged victim all point to a defendant managing his exposure rather than accepting responsibility. Heuermann spent nearly three years maintaining his innocence while his legal team filed motion after motion, each one denied. When the jud...
18m Apr 15
18m
Gilgo Beach: Asa Ellerup Lawsuit Defense Breakdown
A defense attorney examines the civil lawsuit filed against Rex Heuermann's ex-wife and daughter — and explains why the complaint may not survive its first legal challenge. Benjamin Torres, the adult son of Gilgo Beach victim Valerie Mack, has sued Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann alongside the now-convicted killer, alleging they knew about the murders, concealed evidence, and collected over ...
19m Apr 15
19m
Nancy Guthrie and the Duggars: FBI Connects the Pattern
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer brings her bureau expertise to both of the stories dominating the national conversation — and draws the investigative line between them. In the Nancy Guthrie case, Coffindaffer maps every documented failure from crime scene handling to evidence disputes to the structural problems that predate Nancy's disappearance, and explains why the cumulative...
1hr Apr 14
1hr
Duggar Investigation: Family System Under FBI-Level Scrutiny
The criminal case against Joseph Duggar has expanded beyond a single allegation into a multi-state investigation that's raising questions about systemic patterns of alleged abuse and concealment inside one of America's most publicly visible families. Joseph faces two life felony charges in Florida. He and his wife Kendra face eight combined misdemeanor charges in Arkansas. Investigators report...
26m Apr 14
26m
Nancy Guthrie Case: The Calculation Keeping Nanos in Power
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer brings her experience investigating law enforcement leaders who clung to power under pressure to the Pima County crisis — where Sheriff Chris Nanos faces a unanimous no-confidence vote, a board threatening removal under oath, multiple federal lawsuits, and a recall effort, and still refuses to resign while overseeing the Nancy Guthrie investigatio...
16m Apr 14
16m
Nancy Guthrie: FBI Exposed What the Sheriff Missed
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer brings her bureau expertise to the documented investigative failures in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance — a case where the lead agency's own deputies have unanimously voted no confidence in their sheriff. Coffindaffer examines what it means when local law enforcement declares evidence unrecoverable and the FBI produces it days later. She analyzes...
18m Apr 14
18m
FBI Behavioral Expert: Duggars, FLDS Cults, and Chosen Silence
Robin Dreeke, retired chief of the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, provides extended expert analysis across three interconnected investigations — applying decades of behavioral expertise to the Duggar family's private crisis communications, the family system that produced two sons facing charges or convictions involving children, and the psychological control mechanisms o...
1hr 3m Apr 13
1hr 3m
FBI Behavioral Expert Analyzes FLDS Cult Leader Samuel Bateman
From a behavioral analysis perspective, the Samuel Bateman case presents a concentrated example of cult control mechanics operating at their most extreme — a man with no institutional backing, no financial resources, and no prior following who constructed a system of total psychological dominance within a few years. Robin Dreeke, retired chief of the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysi...
19m Apr 13
19m
FBI Expert: The Duggar Family System That Produced Repeated Harm
Robin Dreeke, retired chief of the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, applies decades of behavioral expertise to the structural question at the center of the Duggar family's unraveling: how does one household, operating under one parenting philosophy, produce two sons facing charges or convictions involving the abuse of children — and what does that pattern reveal about the ...
13m Apr 13
13m
FBI Behavioral Expert Decodes Duggar Family Crisis Communications
When the private communications of a family in crisis become public, a trained behavioral analyst sees what casual observers miss — the word choices, the omissions, the gap between private reality and public performance. Robin Dreeke, retired chief of the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, applies decades of expertise in reading human behavior under pressure to the Duggar fa...
31m Apr 13
31m
Heuermann's Guilty Plea and the Victim Who Changed the Timeline
Rex Heuermann pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of intentional murder in Suffolk County Court and admitted to killing Karen Vergata as an eighth victim. He has agreed to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit. The sentence: life without parole. Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer provides the investigative analysis. She examines what a pl...
32m Apr 13
32m
Defense Attorney and Psychotherapist Examine Kendra's Charges and Michelle's Pattern
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta assesses the legal exposure radiating outward from Joseph Duggar's arrest. Kendra Duggar faces eight misdemeanor counts in Arkansas — four for second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and four for second-degree false imprisonment — stemming from a home investigation that reportedly discovered locks on the exterior of children's bedroom doors. She reta...
38m Apr 12
38m
Heuermann Guilty Plea — The Psychology of Denial and the Failed Defense
Rex Heuermann pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of intentional murder in Suffolk County Court. He also admitted to killing Karen Vergata — an eighth victim not formally charged — as part of the plea agreement. Sentenced to life without parole. He has agreed to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta provides the le...
42m Apr 12
42m
Defense Attorney and Psychotherapist Examine the Duggar Case From Both Sides
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta provides a practitioner's assessment of the legal landscape facing Joseph Duggar. According to investigators, Joseph allegedly admitted to the abuse twice before counsel was present — once when confronted by the victim's father, and again during a phone call monitored by Tontitown detectives. Motta examines what a defense strategy looks like when the prosecut...
51m Apr 12
51m
FBI Behavioral Chief Decodes Duggar Jail Calls and Caldwell Evidence
Retired FBI Counterintelligence Chief Robin Dreeke — former head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program — provides behavioral analysis of the later calls between Joseph and Kendra Duggar from Washington County. Joseph has reframed solitary confinement as a prayer closet. He reports a breakthrough in Bible study. He reads Kendra a devotional about boundaries — Moses, Aaron, and Pharaoh and the...
45m Apr 12
45m
FBI Behavioral Chief Decodes the Duggar Jail Call — And the Doctrine Behind It
Retired FBI Counterintelligence Chief Robin Dreeke — former head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program — applies his analytical framework to the first extended call between Joseph and Kendra Duggar from the Washington County Detention Center. Joseph is in solitary confinement, reading Psalms, doing push-ups, comparing himself to the Biblical Joseph. Kendra has stopped eating, can barely walk...
56m Apr 12
56m
FBI Behavioral Expert Decodes Jim Bob Duggar's Email to Joseph in Jail
Jim Bob Duggar emailed his son Joseph in the Washington County Detention Center. The email — obtained through public records — compares Joseph to King David and the Biblical Joseph, frames prison as potential ministry, acknowledges "terrible decisions," and tells him God isn't finished with his life. He calls the charges against Kendra "ridiculous." The alleged victim — the child at the center ...
50m Apr 11
50m
FBI Agent Breaks Down the Nancy Guthrie Investigation Failures
Nancy Guthrie remains missing. The 84-year-old mother of NBC's Savannah Guthrie was taken from her Catalina Foothills home near Tucson in February. Blood confirmed as hers on the porch. An armed, masked figure captured on doorbell camera footage. No suspect publicly named. No arrest. The investigation is in its third month under a sheriff whose own deputies have voted unanimously that they have...
38m Apr 11
38m
Inside the Duggar Case — Charges, Failed Systems, and Who's Talking
Joseph Duggar faces charges in two states. In Florida, the charges are classified as a life felony — mandatory minimum of 25 years if convicted. According to the Bay County arrest affidavit, a now-fourteen-year-old girl reported that Joseph allegedly harmed her during a family vacation when she was nine. The affidavit states he allegedly admitted to the conduct twice — once when confronted by t...
38m Apr 11
38m
Former Prosecutor Breaks Down Rex Heuermann's Path to a Guilty Plea
Rex Heuermann pled guilty to the murders of seven women and admitted to killing an eighth — Karen Vergata — after nearly three years of maintaining his innocence. The sentence: life without parole. But what actually drives a defendant from adamant denial to a guilty plea when the evidence becomes insurmountable? Eric Faddis — defense attorney and former felony prosecutor who has both prosecute...
37m Apr 11
37m
Rex Heuermann’s Plea and the Duggar Pattern: A Panel Breakdown
Retired FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke and defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis bring fundamentally different professional frameworks to the same set of facts — and what they see doesn’t always overlap. That’s what makes this panel work. Rex Heuermann’s guilty plea in the Gilgo Beach case — admitting to eight killings over seventeen years w...
56m Apr 10
56m
Duggar Family’s Legal and Behavioral Crisis Fully Examined
Eric Faddis has prosecuted cases and defended clients. Robin Dreeke spent over two decades at the FBI studying how institutions, families, and individuals protect harmful behavior through structures of authority and silence. The Duggar family presents one of the most publicly documented examples of that dynamic playing out across multiple cases and multiple generations of harm. Joseph Duggar f...
23m Apr 10
23m
Rex Heuermann’s Family Fallout: Psychology and Legal Exposure Examined
Robin Dreeke has studied the behavioral profiles of people who maintain double lives at the highest levels of deception — from foreign intelligence operatives to serial offenders. Eric Faddis has sat on both sides of the courtroom and knows what a guilty plea sets in motion legally. Together, they’re examining what comes after Rex Heuermann’s admission. Heuermann’s guilty plea confirmed what t...
13m Apr 10
13m
Rex Heuermann’s Guilty Plea: What the Admission Really Means
Retired FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke and defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis bring two fundamentally different professional lenses to the same courtroom moment — and what they see in Rex Heuermann’s guilty plea doesn’t entirely overlap. Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and admitted to killing an eighth victim, Karen Ver...
20m Apr 10
20m
Heuermann and Duggars: Expert Breakdown of Family Denial
Rex Heuermann is charged with seven murders. Joseph Duggar is charged with molesting a child. Michelle Duggar reportedly knew about abuse in her own home for over two decades. And at the center of all three situations — a woman who either couldn't see, wouldn't see, or wasn't given the tools to see what was happening around her. Heuermann, 62, is reportedly expected to enter a guilty plea in t...
1hr 1m Apr 09
1hr 1m
Michelle Duggar: Expert Examines Decades of Maternal Denial
Michelle Duggar reportedly knew about Josh's abuse of her own daughters as early as 2002. She and Jim Bob reportedly sent him to manual labor for a family friend rather than professional treatment. Weeks later, she wrote a national parenting magazine article about how well her family functioned. She went on to star in a television show selling the image of a faithful, harmonious household. Afte...
15m Apr 09
15m
Kendra Duggar: Psychotherapist Analyzes a Conditioned Wife
Joseph Duggar, 31, is charged in Florida with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under twelve — prosecutors allege he abused a nine-year-old girl during a 2020 family vacation and allegedly admitted to it twice, once to the victim's father and once on a detective-monitored call. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on a six-hundred-thousand-dollar bond. Kendra Duggar, 27, faces e...
24m Apr 09
24m
Rex Heuermann: Psychotherapist Unpacks Asa Ellerup's Denial
Rex Heuermann is charged with murdering seven women over a span stretching from 1993 to 2010 — and is reportedly expected to enter a guilty plea. But the question that haunts this case isn't just about what he allegedly did. It's about who was standing right next to him while he allegedly did it. Asa Ellerup, Heuermann's ex-wife, has maintained she would have known if something was happening. ...
23m Apr 09
23m
Bob Motta on Duggar's Confessions and Heuermann's Expected Plea
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries, provides expert legal analysis on two of the most significant cases moving right now. In the Duggar case, Motta examines the defense challenges created by Joseph's alleged pre-counsel admissions, Kendra's separate charges and independent representation in Arkansas, recorded jailhouse communications in prosecutors' hands, and the fam...
1hr 7m Apr 08
1hr 7m
Inside Rex Heuermann's Expected Guilty Plea Decision
After nearly three years of maintaining innocence and a defense strategy that challenged everything from DNA admissibility to case consolidation, Rex Heuermann is reportedly expected to change his plea in the Gilgo Beach serial killing case. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries, provides expert analysis of what drives that decision and what it means for every party invol...
18m Apr 08
18m
The Duggar Family's Expanding Legal Crisis Explained
The Duggar case isn't one defendant's problem anymore — it's a family-wide legal exposure event. Kendra Duggar faces her own misdemeanor charges in Arkansas. Recorded jailhouse communications are in prosecutors' possession. Family members are issuing public statements from every direction. And criminal defense attorney Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries, questions whether anyone in this family'...
23m Apr 08
23m
Joseph Duggar's Defense Strategy Under the Microscope
Joseph Duggar reportedly admitted to child molestation twice before a defense attorney was in the room — once to the victim's father, and again on a call monitored by law enforcement. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta, a veteran trial lawyer and host of Defense Diaries, breaks down what any defense team faces when the prosecution reportedly holds your client's own admissions as their stronges...
27m Apr 08
27m
FBI Expert Joins Tony to Break Down Every Duggar Jail Recording Live
Ret. FBI Behavioral Unit Chief Robin Dreeke and Tony Brueski go through all of it live — Jim Bob's letter, the first jail call, the later calls. Every email. Every moment. Every silence where the alleged victim should have been mentioned and wasn't. Robin reads these recordings the way he spent a career reading people. Tony brings the editorial. You bring the questions. Three parts. One stream...
59m Apr 07
59m
FBI Expert Reacts Live: Joseph Reads About Boundaries in His Prayer Closet
We're playing back the later calls between Joseph and Kendra Duggar with Ret. FBI Behavioral Unit Chief Robin Dreeke breaking it down live. Kendra says don't trust anyone. She's boarding up the hatches. She tells Joseph she hasn't died yet. Joseph calls his cell a prayer closet, says he had a really good time, and walks Kendra through a devotional about boundaries like he's reviewing a podcast....
14m Apr 07
14m
FBI Expert Reacts Live to Joseph and Kendra's First Jail Call
We're playing back the first extended call between Joseph and Kendra Duggar from Washington County with Ret. FBI Behavioral Unit Chief Robin Dreeke reacting in real time. He's reading Psalms and working out. She can't eat and has lost her laugh. He confuses his charges with a newspaper. They pivot to tax research and power of attorney. Robin hears things in these moments that change how you un...
23m Apr 07
23m
FBI Expert and Tony Brueski Read Jim Bob's Letter to Joseph Live
Jim Bob Duggar emailed his son Joseph in jail. The full text is now public. Ret. FBI Behavioral Unit Chief Robin Dreeke joins Tony Brueski to read the letter live, break it apart in real time, and decode what every word reveals. Jim Bob compared Joseph to King David. He compared him to the Biblical Joseph making lemonade in prison. He called Kendra's arrest "ridiculous." He told his son God wa...
23m Apr 07
23m
FBI Veterans Coffindaffer and Dreeke on Guthrie, Duggar, and Gilgo Beach
Two retired FBI veterans — Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer and Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke — sit down for one of the most wide-ranging episodes in Hidden Killers Live history, covering three active investigations that each expose a different kind of systemic failure. Nancy Guthrie, 84, remains missing from her home near Tucson, Arizona. Authorities believe sh...
1hr 1m Apr 06
1hr 1m
Gilgo Beach: FBI Agent on What a Plea Means for the Families
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has spent her career building cases against violent offenders — and she knows what happens to families when a case that was supposed to go to trial suddenly doesn't. Rex Heuermann, 62, has been held without bail since his July 2023 arrest in connection with the murders of seven women linked to the Gilgo Beach investigation on Long Island. Accordi...
15m Apr 06
15m
Duggar Case: FBI Experts on What Investigators Find Next
Two retired FBI veterans — Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer and Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke — sit down to examine the Duggar investigation from the inside out. Joseph Duggar, 31, was arrested after allegedly admitting to molesting a nine-year-old girl during a 2020 family trip to Panama City Beach, Florida. According to the arrest affidavit, he admitted to the...
27m Apr 06
27m
Nancy Guthrie: FBI Agent Exposes Response Failures
Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has spent a career evaluating how agencies respond to high-stakes investigations — and what she sees in the Nancy Guthrie case concerns her. Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing from her Catalina Foothills home near Tucson, Arizona, since February 1st. Blood confirmed as hers was found on the front porch. Her back door was propped open. Her phone ...
21m Apr 06
21m