TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

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  Nothing Good Happens After Midnight : The Sarah Ludemann and Rachel Wade case 18.09.2026 52dk

  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 knife with her, and during the argument she stabbed Ludemann once in the chest. The blade penetrated Ludemann’s heart, and she bled to death in the street shortly afterward.Wade said she had acted in self-defense because she feared being attacked by Ludemann and her friends. Her defense maintained that she produced the knife to frighten them, not intending to kill anyone. Prosecutors argued that bringing the knife and waiting for the confrontation showed Wade had prepared for violence; they also presented evidence of the long-running conflict and communications between the people involved.In July 2010, a jury convicted Wade of second-degree murder after deliberating for less than three hours. In September, Judge Joseph Bulone sentenced her to 27 years in Florida state prison rather than treating her as a youthful offender. Her appeal was unsuccessful, and Florida corrections records cited in recent reporting list a projected release date in March 2032.
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  Three Naval Academy Graduates, Two Murders, One Obsession 16.09.2026 47dk

  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 asked Grizzard, a fellow Naval Academy graduate and Navy colleague, to come to her quarters because she was worried about Smith’s behavior. Grizzard was not romantically involved with O’Neill; he was there as a friend. Smith came to the building three times that night. On his final visit, at about 1:30–1:45 a.m., Grizzard answered the door.Smith entered carrying a 9 mm Ruger pistol and shot Grizzard multiple times. O’Neill tried to hide behind a chair, but Smith walked to her and shot her at close range. He then turned the weapon on himself. Grizzard and O’Neill died at the scene; Smith died later while being transported to a hospital.The case later became part of a legal dispute over whether the Navy had failed to respond adequately to signs that Smith was unstable and stalking O’Neill. O’Neill’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the United States, alleging that Navy psychologists and officials had ignored warning signs. The federal government’s account acknowledged that O’Neill had asked Grizzard to stay with her out of concern about Smith on the night of the murders.
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  Failed at 4-Years-Old: The Samiah Downing Horrifying Case 14.09.2026 43dk

  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 water for two or three days, was malnourished and significantly underweight, and was locked alone in her bedroom while Greer and Stanch left the home. An autopsy determined that she died from dehydration, with extensive injuries across her body consistent with being whipped and abused.After finding Samiah dead, Greer decided to conceal the death. He and Bianca Stanch, with assistance from Stanch’s brother Rayshawn, wrapped Samiah’s body in a sleeping bag, drove it to a remote desert area near Baker, California, and buried her in a shallow grave. Authorities located her body in late December 2012 after receiving a tip and interviewing Greer and Stanch.A jury convicted Greer and Stanch in October 2020 of first-degree murder, torture, and child abuse causing death. On March 12, 2021, each received a sentence of 32 years to life in state prison, 25 years to life for murder plus a consecutive seven-years-to-life term for torture. The California Court of Appeal later upheld the convictions and sentences.
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  True Story of a Family Annihilator : The Christian Longo Case 11.09.2026 24dk

  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 had killed the two older children, Zachery and Sadie, before he killed her in retaliation, but prosecutors argued and the jury found, that Longo alone murdered all four members of his family.After the killings, Longo fled to Mexico, where he assumed the identity of New York Times journalist Michael Finkel and attempted to start a new life. He was arrested in Mexico in January 2002 and returned to Oregon to face prosecution.At his 2003 trial, Longo pleaded guilty to murdering MaryJane and Madison, but a jury convicted him of aggravated murder in the deaths of Zachery and Sadie. The jury then sentenced him to death for all four killings; Oregon’s Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentence in 2006. In December 2022, Governor Kate Brown commuted Oregon’s 17 death sentences, including Longo’s, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
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  Alison Botha Survived the Impossible : Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger are Worms 09.09.2026 47dk

  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 cut repeatedly. Believing she had died, the attackers left her there. Despite catastrophic injuries, Botha managed to get to a road and obtain help; her detailed evidence was central to identifying and prosecuting both men.Du Toit and Kruger were convicted of kidnapping, rape, attempted murder, and related offenses in the Port Elizabeth High Court in August 1995. Du Toit received three life sentences, while Kruger received life imprisonment plus 25 years. The sentencing judge, Chris Jansen, said their crimes showed “inherent evil” and recommended that neither man be released on parole.The two men were released on parole in July 2023 after serving about 28 years, a decision Botha said had occurred without adequate victim consultation. In February 2025, Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald cancelled their parole following legal review and consultation, and both were returned to custody, where the department said they would remain.
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  Home is Where the Murder is : 3 Hours of True Crime 07.09.2026 2sa 19dk

  As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Aliza Parsy, Rachel Pernosky, and Mary Ann Murphy with me today.
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  Local Hero Executed a Man on Christmas Night: The Ernst Brothers Murder Case 04.09.2026 49dk

  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, Streeter approached to investigate. According to later accounts and the brothers’ confessions, Ted Ernst shot Streeter six times at close range with a .22-caliber pistol. As Streeter lay wounded in the snow, Ted fired a final shot from a .357-caliber handgun, killing him.The brothers attempted to remove evidence and conceal their involvement, but an investigation eventually led police to them. Both were arrested on May 18, 1998, and faced deliberate-homicide and burglary charges. Because they confessed and pleaded guilty, the case did not proceed to a conventional trial.Ted Ernst received a 100-year prison sentence without parole. Jesse Ernst was initially sentenced to 100 years, but his conviction was later overturned; a 2001 proceeding found him not guilty after his defense argued that he had Klinefelter syndrome and had acted under coercion and fear of Ted. He was released after roughly two years in custody.
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  2 Teen Girls were Taken, Only 1 Survived 02.09.2026 51dk

  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. When the girls became concerned and told him to get out, he pulled a gun and ordered Hicks to drive to a secluded area. He bound Hicks to the steering wheel with her shoelaces, then forced Reiser into a nearby field. There, he stabbed Reiser repeatedly and cut her throat, killing her.Vaca then returned to Hicks, made her see Reiser’s body, and drove her to a railroad trestle over the Tuscarawas River. He attempted to sexually assault and strangle her. Hicks lost consciousness but survived; when Vaca pushed her from the trestle into the river, she pretended to be dead and floated downstream until she was confident he had gone. She reached the riverbank and eventually flagged down help. Her survival and account were crucial to the investigation.Vaca was arrested after investigators developed evidence from Hicks and from a friend he had reportedly confessed to. He pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape, aggravated robbery, and forgery. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, partly to spare the families a prolonged capital-case appeals process. He received a total sentence of 96½ years in prison; reporting described him as not eligible for parole until 2096.
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  Brutalized on a City Bus : The Tim McLean Case 31.08.2026 42dk

  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 hours, he decapitated and mutilated McLean’s body and consumed parts of it. When he attempted to climb through a bus window, officers arrested him.Li was charged with second-degree murder, but a Manitoba judge found him not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder in March 2009. Psychiatric evidence established that Li had schizophrenia and was in a severe psychotic state during the killing; he had believed he was following what he perceived as divine instructions and that McLean posed a threat. He was confined in a secure psychiatric hospital rather than given a prison sentence.After years of psychiatric treatment and supervised reintegration, review-board decisions concluded that Li, who later changed his name to Will Bakern, no longer posed a significant threat to public safety. He received an absolute discharge in February 2017, ending the Review Board’s supervision; McLean’s family strongly criticized the outcome.
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  14-Year-Old Kills His Sleeping Father... But Says He Had No Choice 28.08.2026 37dk

  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 games. When school officials contacted authorities about his truancy, he reportedly told them his father was dead; deputies then went to the house and found Edwin’s body. Terry was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with 10 years initially suspended, a sentence later adjusted to 40 years with 16 years suspended. He was paroled in 2009 but returned to prison by late 2010 after violating his release conditions, including an assault on a girlfriend and alcohol use.
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  Solved After 47 Years: Her Killer was Hiding in Plain Sight 26.08.2026 1sa 3dk

  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 arrest shocked the community, as Sinopoli had lived a seemingly normal life for years, married with children and grandchildren.David Sinopoli was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and burglary. Although justice was finally served, the motive behind Lindy's murder remains a mystery. The case highlights the power of modern forensic technology and genetic genealogy in solving cold cases, offering hope to other unsolved crimes. Lindy’s husband and family finally received closure, proving that, even decades later, justice can still be achieved. This case serves as a chilling reminder that killers can hide in plain sight, living among us undetected for years.
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  Egging Prank Gone Wrong or Execution? 24.08.2026 20dk

  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,” then taking a gun belonging to 18-year-old Jeremy Munson and firing twice at Tyler as he approached the vehicle. The group fled, leaving him in the road; Maughon and Munson then went to her parents’ home, handed over the gun, and later went to work, while a third person, McKenzie Davenport, ran for help and called 911.Maughon pleaded guilty to malice murder in November 2024 and was sentenced to life with parole eligibility only after serving at least 30 years. Davenport pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors tied to the events before the shooting. Munson’s case had not yet been resolved in the reporting available from December 2024, despite earlier reports that he was charged with murder and firearm offenses because the group allegedly acted together.
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  When Obsession Leads to Bloodshed : The Kendra Hatcher Case 21.08.2026 55dk

  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 ultimately recruited Kristopher Love as the gunman and Crystal Cortes as the getaway driver; Cortes was paid $500, while Love received cash and drugs. Love was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, Cortes pleaded guilty and received 35 years, and Delgado was arrested in Mexico after fleeing the country. In 2019, a jury deliberated for less than 20 minutes before finding Delgado guilty of capital murder; she received mandatory life without parole.
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  Deanna Cook Called 911 While Being Murdered… But Help Never Came 19.08.2026 52dk

  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 strangled and drowned. In 2015, a jury convicted Patrick of murder and sentenced him to 85 years in prison, with parole eligibility after 30 years. Deanna’s murder became a national example of the devastating consequences of a failed emergency response, prompting major reforms to Dallas’s 911 system and renewed attention to domestic-violence intervention.
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  LOVE TRIANGLE turns "Misguided, Wicked, and Evil" 17.08.2026 41dk

  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 Kayla Armstrong, the ex-girlfriend of Keiona’s boyfriend and the mother of his child. The two women had a documented history of conflict, Armstrong had previously attacked and stabbed Keiona, and prosecutors alleged jealousy over their shared connection to Kenneth Lee drove the killing. Armstrong fled after her indictment but was arrested in 2012, then pleaded under Alford to voluntary manslaughter in Keiona’s death. While jailed, she also attempted to arrange Lee’s murder; she received 10 years for Keiona’s killing and another 20 years for the attempted-murder plot, for an effective 30-year prison sentence.
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  Teenage Love Turns to Unhealthy Obsession : The Emma Walker Case 14.08.2026 48dk

  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 stole a gun from his grandfather, stalked her home, and recruited friends to help dispose of the weapon in the Tennessee River after the shooting. In 2018, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, stalking, theft, reckless endangerment, and evidence-tampering charges. He received a life sentence with parole eligibility only after 51 years; later efforts to overturn the conviction were denied.
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  Her Husband Paid a Killer... He Chose the Wrong Victim 12.08.2026 1sa 3dk

  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 Michael, who pleaded guilty to soliciting aggravated murder and received a 10-year prison sentence; he died in custody in 2014 before his planned release. Susan later won more than $1 million in a civil suit against him. What Michael intended as a murder-for-hire became a story of survival: the hitman did not leave Susan’s home alive, while the husband who arranged the attack died behind bars.
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  4 Hours of Horrifying Family Murders 10.08.2026 3sa 50dk

  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.
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  15-Year-Old Hunted Through a Cemetery : The Jessica Keen Case 06.08.2026 59dk

  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.
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  Horribly Betrayed in British Columbia : The Rachel Pernosky Case 03.08.2026 44dk

  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 steep terrain before trying to cover his tracks by sending texts from her phone and disposing of her belongings. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to second‑degree murder and indignity to a body and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 13 years, meaning he will spend at least that long behind bars before he can even apply for release.