Crime Incident

Catch Me Before I Kill More: The Lipstick Killer Case A message scrawled in red lipstick on a dead woman's wall. A six-year-old girl taken from her bed. And a seventeen-year-old college student who confessed, then spent sixty-five years insisting he never killed anyone. Did William Heirens really murder three people in postwar Chicago? Why did another man confess to the Degnan murder and simply walk away? And what happens to the truth when a confession is extracted with a drug, a spinal tap, and six days without a lawyer? In this episode, we follow the Lipstick Killer case twice: first as Chicago lived it in 1946, then under a modern forensic audit. We move from the murders of Josephine Ross and Frances Brown to the abduction of little Suzanne Degnan, through the largest manhunt in the city's history, to the arrest of a brilliant student burglar and the six days of interrogation that produced the most disputed confession in Chicago history. Person: William George Heirens, "The Lipstick Killer" Date: June 1945 to January 1946; arrested June 26, 1946 Location: Chicago, Illinois, North Side (Edgewater and Uptown) Case: Murders of Josephine Ross (43), Frances Brown (early 30s), and Suzanne Degnan (6) Legal status: Convicted by guilty plea in 1946; three consecutive life terms; never exonerated; died in custody March 5, 2012, after 65 years, the longest-serving prisoner in Illinois - The lipstick message on the wall: "For heaven's sake catch me before I kill more," and the allegation a reporter may have written it - Sodium pentothal, a spinal tap without anesthesia, and a vanished transcript: the interrogation methods no court would allow today - The Chicago Tribune's invented front-page confession, published before Heirens ever confessed - A fingerprint announced to the press, a handwriting match later experts rejected, and a prosecutor who admitted how thin the case was - Richard Russell Thomas: the drifter who confessed to killing Suzanne Degnan and was released The Lipstick Killer case never got a trial, and that is exactly why it never ended. Press play and judge the Lipstick Killer confession for yourself.

The Banging Inside the Container: The Todd Kohlhepp Case On November 3, 2016, deputies searching a fenced 96 acre property near Woodruff, South Carolina, heard banging from inside a locked metal shipping container. They cut five padlocks and found Kala Brown, chained by the neck, alive after 65 days. The land belonged to a successful real estate broker named Todd Kohlhepp. How did a registered sex offender build a brokerage, buy nearly a hundred acres, and kill seven people across 13 years without anyone noticing? And how did the woman he chained in that box end up solving Spartanburg County's most infamous cold case? In this episode, we tell the Todd Kohlhepp story in reverse: from the rescue of Kala Brown back through the murder of Charlie Carver, the killings of Johnny and Meagan Coxie, the chilling Amazon reviews he posted while their bodies lay buried on his land, the unsolved 2003 Superbike Motorsports massacre in Chesnee that he confessed to with details only the killer would know, and all the way back to Arizona in 1986, when a 15 year old Kohlhepp kidnapped and raped a 14 year old neighbor and served 14 years in prison. Person: Todd Christopher Kohlhepp; seven confirmed victims across 2003 and 2015 to 2016 Date: November 6, 2003 and December 2015 to November 3, 2016 Location: Chesnee and Woodruff, Spartanburg County, South Carolina Case: Serial murder, kidnapping, and criminal sexual conduct; survivor rescued from a shipping container Legal status: Pleaded guilty May 26, 2017 to seven murders and related charges; seven consecutive life terms plus 60 years, no parole, appeal rights waived; a 2025 investigation exposed his attempts to sell merchandise and autographs from prison - The rescue: cellphone pings, five padlocks, and a survivor who started solving murders - The Superbike massacre: four victims and 13 years without answers - The Amazon reviews: a confession hiding in plain sight - Why prosecutors took the death penalty off the table - Kala Brown's agency: the survivor a victim's widow called "the real hero" The Todd Kohlhepp case shows how a serial killer hid behind success, and how one survivor ended it.

He Told Tourists He Was a New York Times Reporter: The Christian Longo Case In nine days of December 2001, divers on the Oregon coast recovered four bodies from the water: MaryJane Longo, 34, and her children Zachery, 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2. While they searched, husband and father Christian Longo was in a cabana in Tulum, Mexico, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, introducing himself to strangers as Michael Finkel of The New York Times, a real journalist who had just been fired for fabricating a story. How does a Starbucks employee drowning in fraud end up impersonating a disgraced reporter on a Mexican beach? In this episode, we follow the counterfeit life of Christian Longo from a Kingdom Hall parking lot in Michigan to an upscale condo on Yaquina Bay he could never afford: the forged checks and stolen trailers, the congregation that shunned him, the pawned wedding ring, the twelve-hundred-dollar rent that equaled his entire monthly pay, and the mid-December night when the performance ran out of money. Then the strangest chapter in modern true crime: the real Michael Finkel writing to the man who stole his name, a correspondence that became the book and film True Story, and a trial where Longo tried to hand his own crime to his murdered wife. Person: MaryJane Longo, 34; Zachery, 4; Sadie, 3; Madison, 2 Date: Mid-December 2001, bodies recovered December 19 to 27, 2001 Location: Newport and Waldport, Lincoln County, Oregon Case: Family murder; suitcases in Yaquina Bay, children in Lint Slough Legal status: Longo pleaded guilty to two murders and was convicted of the other two in April 2003 and sentenced to death; in December 2022 Oregon commuted all 17 death row sentences, and he now serves life without the possibility of parole - The fraud spiral that funded a picture-perfect image - Nine days of divers during Christmas week in a small coastal town - The Tulum arrest, 80 miles south of Cancun, in January 2002 - The Finkel letters: two fabricators studying each other - The 2022 commutation and a family's second wound The Christian Longo case is the story of an impostor whose last stolen identity made him famous, and of the four real people he erased.

He Wrote the Threats Himself: The Chris Coleman Case On May 5, 2009, the chief of security for Joyce Meyer Ministries called his next-door neighbor, a police detective, and asked him to check on his family in Columbia, Illinois. Inside the house, Sheri Coleman, 31, and her sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, had been strangled in their beds, with messages spray-painted on the walls. For six months, threatening emails and letters had warned that the Coleman family would pay. Then investigators traced the threats to Chris Coleman's own laptop. In this episode, we follow the Chris Coleman case from the first threatening email in November 2008 through the countdown of letters and notes that put a police surveillance camera on the family's own house, to the morning Detective Justin Barlow climbed through a window and found the scene his neighbor had asked him to discover. We unpack the secret affair with Tara Lintz, the divorce papers promised for the exact date of the murders, Dr. Michael Baden's time-of-death testimony that destroyed the gym alibi, the handwriting that matched the walls, and the photographs in the jury room that convinced four holdout jurors. Person: Sheri Coleman, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9 Date: May 5, 2009 Location: Columbia, Illinois Case: Triple murder by ligature strangulation; staged stalker threat campaign Legal status: Chris Coleman convicted on May 5, 2011, the second anniversary of the murders, and sentenced to three life terms without parole; appeals rejected in 2015, 2020, and 2023; he is imprisoned at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin - The six-month threat campaign traced to the killer's own computer - A $100,000 job, a morality expectation, and murder as an accounting decision - The neighbor-detective chosen as his own first responder - The cellphone route, the I-255 search, and the missing weapon - The October 2008 photos that ended the jury's deliberation - The 2012 exhumation that moved Sheri and her boys away from the Coleman name The Chris Coleman case remains one of the clearest documented examples of a staged threat campaign preceding family homicide, and the warning signs Sheri voiced to her friends still echo.

The Killer's Name Was on the Collar: The David Camm Case On September 28, 2000, former Indiana state trooper David Camm came home from a church basketball game and found his wife Kim, 35, and their children Bradley, 7, and Jill, 5, shot to death in the garage of their Georgetown, Indiana home. Three days later, the police he had called for help arrested him. Why did investigators decide in 72 hours that the grieving father was the killer? How did an unqualified "expert" with no bloodstain training put an innocent man in handcuffs? And how did a gray prison sweatshirt, lying under a murdered child with the real killer's nickname written on the collar, sit ignored in the evidence system for more than four years? In this episode, we tell the Camm case twice: first as the State of Indiana built it, through two convictions, a parade of affair testimony, and a molestation theory the Indiana Supreme Court found had no competent evidence behind it; then as the evidence dismantled it, from the eight pinhead-sized bloodstains that were transfer, not spatter, to the phone record broken by a time zone error, to the DNA that finally matched paroled predator Charles Boney, whose signature of stolen shoes was staged on the roof of the family Bronco all along. Person: Kim Camm, 35; Bradley Camm, 7; Jill Camm, 5 Date: September 28, 2000 Location: Georgetown, Indiana Case: Triple murder; wrongful prosecution of David Camm Legal status: Camm acquitted of all counts on October 24, 2013 after 13 years and three trials; Charles Boney convicted in 2006 and serving 225 years; the State of Indiana paid Camm a $4.6 million settlement in 2022 - The 72-hour rush to arrest and the "expert" who was really a photographer - Eleven alibi witnesses, a shifting time of death, and four rotating motive theories - The BACKBONE sweatshirt, the palm print, and the touch DNA on the victims' clothes - The prosecutor who had once represented the real killer - What tunnel vision cost: 13 years, two families, and millions paid twice The David Camm case is now a national warning about bloodstain-pattern analysis, and about what happens when the decision comes before the evidence.

The DNA That Waited Nine Years: The Faith Hedgepeth Case On September 7, 2012, Faith Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill student and member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, was found beaten to death in her apartment bedroom near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The killer left semen, a palm print, fingerprints, and a handwritten note on a fast food bag reading "I'M NOT STUPID BITCH. JEALOUS." So why did a case with a full DNA profile take nine years to produce an arrest? Who sent the texts from Faith's phone at 3:40 a.m.? And why will the jury never hear how police first found the man they accuse? In this episode, we follow the Faith Hedgepeth case from her last night, traced hour by hour through Davis Library, the nightclub The Thrill, and the 2:06 a.m. security footage, to the 911 call reporting "blood everywhere." We unpack the evidence that should have solved it in a week, the roughly 750 DNA swabs that all came back negative, the Parabon DNA composite face, and the genetic genealogy work through more than 200 distant relatives that led, prosecutors allege, to Miguel Salguero-Olivares, arrested in 2021 after a covert DNA collection during a DWI stop. Then the case turns on the police themselves: a blood sample lost without any record, a judge calling the loss "absurd," and a ruling that keeps the genealogy method out of the courtroom. Person: Faith Danielle Hedgepeth, 19, UNC junior, first-generation college student, Haliwa-Saponi Date: September 7, 2012 Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina Case: Beating death and alleged sexual assault; unsolved for nine years Legal status: Miguel Salguero-Olivares arrested September 16, 2021; he has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is presumed innocent; trial set for September 28, 2026 in Durham County; the DA is not seeking the death penalty - The note, the pen, and the DNA that matched no one - The disputed 1:23 a.m. voicemail and the unexplained texts - Family trees, 200 relatives, and a traffic stop - The lost blood swab and the judge's rebuke The Faith Hedgepeth case goes to trial at last, and the DNA that waited nine years will finally be tested in court.

She Missed One Bus: The Yingying Zhang Case On June 9, 2017, Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old visiting scholar from China, missed a bus transfer in Urbana, Illinois, because she was standing on the wrong side of the street. Minutes later, surveillance cameras recorded a black Saturn Astra circling the block and stopping beside her. She got in, and she was never seen again. How did the FBI narrow a blurry hatchback down to one of only 18 cars in the county? Why did the killer attend the candlelight vigil held in her honor? And how did a hidden microphone at that vigil become the evidence that decided a federal death penalty trial? In this episode, we follow the Yingying Zhang case from Nanping, China, where a driver's daughter climbed to the top of Peking University, to the University of Illinois campus corner where a stranger posing as an undercover cop was hunting that afternoon. We unpack the 21-day investigation of Brendt Christensen: the scrubbed passenger door, the Abduction 101 forum on his phone, the near-miss witness who said no, and the girlfriend who wore an FBI wire while he described his crimes at the memorial walk for his victim. Then the trial: a defense that conceded guilt in its opening, a jury that convicted in 90 minutes, and a deadlocked penalty phase that produced a mandatory life sentence. We also examine what was never resolved: a disposal account that comes solely from Christensen under an immunity deal, never physically verified, and remains that have never been recovered. Person: Yingying Zhang, 26, visiting scholar in agricultural sciences Date: June 9, 2017 Location: Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Case: Kidnapping resulting in death; federal prosecution Legal status: Brendt Christensen convicted June 2019; sentenced July 18, 2019 to life without parole after the jury deadlocked on death; serving his sentence in a federal penitentiary - The wrong-side-of-the-street bus policy that left her stranded - 18 Saturn Astras, one cracked hubcap, one over-cleaned door - The FBI wire at the June 29 vigil and the recorded confession - The immunity agreement, the landfill account, and why it rests on his word alone - The memorial garden where a box of her clothes was buried in place of remains The Yingying Zhang case closed with a life sentence, but her family's vow to bring Yingying home remains unfulfilled.

Three Women, One Bar Strip, 24 Years: The Claremont Serial Killings Between January 1996 and March 1997, three young women vanished from the same few blocks of nightlife in Claremont, the safest suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Sarah Spiers, 18, called a taxi at 2 a.m. and was gone before it arrived. Jane Rimmer, 23, was last seen on security footage outside the Continental Hotel. Ciara Glennon, 27, was seen leaning toward the window of a stopped car. How did the biggest and most expensive investigation in the state's history chase the wrong man for a decade while the killer's DNA sat in an evidence store? And why, after 24 years, did the verdict give one of the three families no answer at all? In this episode, we follow the Claremont serial killings from the nightclub strip to the Macro Taskforce: more than 100 officers, thousands of DNA tests, 11 internal reviews, and the decade-long fixation on Lance Williams, an innocent man surveilled for years and cleared in 2008. Then the chain that broke the case: DNA under Ciara Glennon's fingernails matched in 2009 to a 1995 cemetery rape, matched in 2016 to a silk kimono left at a 1988 burglary, leading to Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards. Victims: Sarah Spiers, 18; Jane Rimmer, 23; Ciara Glennon, 27 Dates: January 1996 to March 1997 Location: Claremont, Perth, Western Australia Case: The Claremont serial killings; arrest December 2016 Legal status: Edwards convicted in 2020 of murdering Rimmer and Glennon, acquitted of Spiers; life sentence, 40-year minimum; no appeals filed, convictions stand - The taxi, the phone box, and the disappearance that started it all - The wrong suspect: a decade lost to tunnel vision - The kimono, the fingernails, and a DNA chain across three decades - The 7-month judge-alone trial and the contamination defence - "More likely than not": the acquittal the Spiers family lives inside Sarah Spiers has never been found. The Claremont serial killings case is closed in law, but one question is still buried somewhere only Bradley Edwards can name.

He Quoted Scripture in the Taxi: The Bible John Murders Between February 1968 and October 1969, Patricia Docker, Jemima MacDonald and Helen Puttock each left Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom after a night of dancing and were found within yards of their own homes. The man believed responsible was seen properly only once: for twenty minutes, in a taxi, where he quoted the Bible, condemned adulterous wives and told a witness what happens to nosey folk. Who was the polite, well-dressed stranger the press named Bible John? And how can the most detailed portrait ever taken of an uncaught killer still have no name attached? In this episode, we build that portrait feature by feature, from the reddish-haired silhouette who danced with Patricia Docker in 1968 to the tall, well-spoken man seen with Jemima MacDonald, to the full description Helen Puttock's sister Jean gave police: the Reid and Taylor suit, the military watch strap, the overlapping front teeth. We follow the largest manhunt in Glasgow's history, the undercover dance duty officers, Jean's three hundred identity parades, and the theories that keep the case alive, from the 1996 exhumation of John McInnes to the Peter Tobin and John Templeton hypotheses. Persons: Patricia Docker, 25; Jemima MacDonald, 31; Helen Puttock, 29 Dates: February 22, 1968 to October 31, 1969 Location: Glasgow, Scotland; Barrowland Ballroom Case: Serial murders attributed to the unidentified "Bible John" Legal status: Unsolved; no one ever charged; McInnes exhumed and cleared in 1996; the Tobin theory discounted by police; the 2024 Templeton claim remains an author's hypothesis under assessment - The over-25s Thursday nights and the anonymity of the Barrowland - The taxi ride that produced the only true witness account - Scotland's first police composite and first photofit - The preserved stain that cleared suspects but degraded before it could convict - One killer or a press creation: the question that still splits the case The Bible John murders remain Scotland's most haunting unsolved case, and the portrait is still waiting for its name.

He Picked His Handcuffs in a Hospital Bathroom: The Monster of the Miramichi On May 3, 1989, convicted murderer Allan Legere was escorted from a New Brunswick prison to a Moncton hospital for an ear infection. He asked to use the bathroom, unlocked his handcuffs with a sharpened piece of metal he had hidden, and vanished. For 201 days he hid in the woods around the Miramichi River towns that raised him, and a region that had never locked its doors learned to live under siege: guns bought, seniors moved in with relatives, Halloween cancelled. In this episode, we follow the Allan Legere case day by day: the murder of shopkeeper Annie Flam and the survival of her sister-in-law Nina, who never saw her masked attacker's face; the killings of sisters Donna and Linda Daughney in Newcastle; the beating death of Father James Smith in his own rectory; the train to Montreal that carried the fugitive past a police officer's instinct; and the final 48 hours of hijackings and hostages that ended on Route 118, ten kilometres from where it began. Then the courtroom, where a discarded tissue and a 19 day fight over novel science made this one of the first DNA convictions in Canadian history. Person: Annie Flam, 75; Donna and Linda Daughney; Father James Smith, 69; John Glendenning (1986) Date: May 3 to November 24, 1989, the 201 days at large Location: Miramichi region, New Brunswick, Canada Case: Escape from custody; four murders committed as a fugitive; serial arson Legal status: Convicted on all four counts of first degree murder in November 1991, upheld on appeal in 1994; parole denied in January 2021 and again in December 2025; Legere died in custody at the Edmonton Institution in March 2026, aged 78 - The hospital escort failure and the homemade handcuff key - A community under self imposed curfew for seven months - Nina Flam, the survivor who testified without ever seeing a face - The discarded tissue and the 19 day DNA voir dire - The Parole Board's final verdict: untreated, unrepentant, never released The Allan Legere case changed how Canada moves its most dangerous prisoners, and the Miramichi never unlocked its doors again.