Going West: True Crime

On Thanksgiving Day, 2012, the small town of Little Falls, Minnesota was quiet and calm, with most people home enjoying the holiday and staying out of the snowstorm that was descending upon them. But inside one modest home on Elm Street, something unimaginable was about to unfold when a break-in turned into one of the most puzzling double murders in state history. What investigators later uncovered would blur the lines between self...

In late 1998, a 21-year-old mother vanished from Atlanta after a phone call home on Thanksgiving Day. Months later, her remains were found scattered between multiple garbage bags near her home, but it wasn’t until years later that the remains were linked to a local missing woman. When her cold case was reopened as a homicide investigation, police were shocked to discover that her father was a serial killer, and even more perplexed ...

In October of 2009, a family of three set out for the Oklahoma mountains in search of a fresh start. Days later, their pickup truck was found abandoned on a remote dirt road, containing their wallets, IDs, cell phones, and even their dog...but the family was nowhere to be found. Theories swirled of cult ties, paranormal activity, and marital troubles, all bolstered by unsettling recordings from the family’s own home security camera...

In November of 1981, a 25-year-old graduate student at Harvard vanished after arriving at Boston’s Logan Airport after being with family for Thanksgiving. For years, investigators chased down connections to an alleged serial killer, and yet no answers emerged. When her remains were discovered nearly a decade later in a secluded Massachusetts wood, the mystery only deepened, with two completely different disturbing ideas as to what ...

In October of 1982, a rising young actress from a prominent Hollywood family was preparing for her next big role, fresh off a breakout performance in one of the year’s biggest horror films. But just months after the movie’s release, her promising future was cut short in a shocking act of violence outside her West Hollywood home. Strangely, it was the first event linked to a string of tragedies connected to the very blockbuster she ...

In October of 2011, a 44-year-old mother of four vanished after returning home from a Halloween party in Tennessee. Her abandoned vehicle was discovered near her house with a flat tire, but Karen herself was nowhere to be found. But only weeks later, her body was recovered near a cemetery, hidden beneath invasive vines, confirming the darkest fears of her family and community… This is the murder of Karen Swift.

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In September of 1977, a 30-year-old woman vanished after a break-up with her eccentric, famous boyfriend. Over a year passed before her decomposing body was found stuffed inside a trunk. So; what drove this once-celebrated socialite to her violent end, and how did her killer manage to hide her in plain sight? This is the murder of Holly Maddux.

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In November of 1996, two parents were brutally murdered inside their home - but the killers weren’t total strangers, and more intriguingly, they were a group of teenagers from Kentucky who called themselves vampires, heading for New Orleans. This cult traveled across state lines, leaving behind a scene of ritualistic violence that shocked the nation. These are the murders of Naoma and Richard Wendorf, also known as The Teen Vampire...

The day before Halloween, 1966, an 18-year-old college student spent the afternoon at her campus library in Riverside, California, but she never made it home. The next morning, her body was discovered in a nearby alley, brutally stabbed and beaten, with her car found disabled just steps away. Who killed Cheri Jo Bates that night, and could her murder be the first known strike of the Zodiac Killer? Or, was it unrelated like Riversid...

In September of 2019, a phone was stolen from an Anchorage, Alaska man, and found to contain videos and images of the brutal murder of an Indigenous woman in a hotel room. As police zeroed in on their suspect, one question remained: did he have more victims? This is the case of Homicide at Midtown Marriott, also known as The Memory Card Murders... The murders of Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk.

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On a quiet September morning in 1922, two bodies; one, a respected minister, the other, a singer in his choir, were found beneath a crabapple tree in New Jersey. Both had been thoughtfully posed under that tree, surrounded by carefully placed items, igniting rumors of romance, betrayal, and scandal throughout the town, and begging questions that still remain today. These are the murders of Eleanor Mills and Edward Hall, otherwise k...

On Halloween, 2010, the quiet English village of Ascot was shaken when a bloody scene was found in the charming home of a local, 46-year-old bed and breakfast owner. At first, the brutal scene raised questions of a home invasion gone wrong. But upon finding her body in a garden box, and receiving a strange call into emergency services, a far darker scheme unraveled… This is the murder of Joanna Simpson.

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In October of 1986, a 15-year-old girl attended a friend’s house party in the coastal town of Kingston, Massachusetts after babysitting. After dark, she left the party on foot, heading to pick up cigarettes from the store. But the following day, she was nowhere to be found… For weeks, her disappearance gripped the tight-knit community, until her body was discovered in the woods nearby. With another missing girl, a depraved, suspici...

In the summer of 1997, the quiet Adirondack town of Lake Placid was shattered when a 39-year-old woman went missing. Later that day, her SUV was discovered submerged at the bottom of a nearby lake, her body in the passenger seat. What seemed at first like a tragic accident became horrifyingly clear: this was a homicide. Investigators would come to uncover a dark tale of betrayal, planning, and multiple people with chilling motives…...

In September of 2025, the body of a 14-year-old girl was found in the car of an impounded vehicle at a Hollywood tow yard. When the car was linked to a touring music artist, D4vd, a disturbing narrative unfolded about his potentially inappropriate relationship with her. But what happened to her? And is he involved? This is the death of Celeste Rivas.

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During the summer of 1974, four girls between the ages of 10 and 19  vanished from the same small Wyoming community while the rodeo was in town. Two of the girls were found dead, and two remain missing, all these years later. Were these abductions committed by the same depraved killer who is thought to have a dozen or more victims? These are the Rawlins Rodeo Murders.

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In September of 2003, a 17-year-old girl vanished from her family’s home in Placer County, California. Her truck was missing from the driveway, but her purse and belongings were still inside the house - as if she had simply stepped out and disappeared into the night. As days turned to weeks, suspicion began to circle closer inwards, and when the truth emerged, it would shock and devastate everyone who knew her. Especially when they...

In August of 2017, a 35-year-old woman was found dead outside her Michigan home, discovered by her daughter near an open second story window. When police arrived to their affluent neighborhood, a crime originally didn’t appear to have taken place. It looked like she had simply and tragically fallen while cleaning an upstairs window. But when they reviewed footage from the homes surveillance cameras, police would make a bombshell re...

In the late 1970s, suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania lived in the fear as an apparent strangling serial killer hunted young women - walking to school, leaving work. With so many other murders occurring in the area at the time, police originally didn’t know if any of these cases were connected. But soon, DNA would pin at least two of them together, and a consistent MO would help pool a collection of these horrific murders under the ...