Killer Cases

The sheriff's office responds to a 911 call from a distraught husband, who said his wife had killed herself with a gun. Once on the scene, detectives uncover chilling evidence that turned the case into a murder investigation.

When school teacher Catherine Edwards missed a family outing, her worried parents went to her apartment to check on her. There, they made the horrifying discovery: Catherine had been restrained with law enforcement style handcuffs and murdered. Investigators followed dozens of leads as the alarmed community worried about a killer on the loose. Given the handcuffs, investigators even looked at fellow police officers but the case remained a mystery. Nearly three decades later, a team of dedicated detectives, a Texas Ranger, and forensic genealogists teamed up to catch an unlikely killer, finally bringing justice to the Edwards family and the city of Beaumont.

After trying for 20 years to solve the mystery of a 6-year-old boy found dead in the woods, an artist's age progression portrait of the child posted on social media leads detectives to find new clues.

The murder trial of prominent lawyer Tex McIver transfixed Atlanta. McIver claimed his gun accidentally went off, unintentionally shooting his wife in the back as they drove home. But, did McIver have a secret motive to want his wife dead?

When Ilene Gowan, a popular waitress at a local bar in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was found dead by the side of the road, her family called in famous forensic examiner Dr. Michael Baden to help solve the case.

James Ray III, a prominent attorney, former NYC police officer, and former U.S. Marine, lived in an upscale Upper Montclair, NJ home with his girlfriend Angela Bledsoe, a successful businesswoman, and their young daughter. After a weekend away, Angela didn't show up for an appointment; Ray dropped their daughter off with his brother who found a note in her suitcase and promptly called 911. The police are dispatched to their house and find Angela dead on the kitchen floor; Ray and his BMW are nowhere to be found.

Disbarred attorney Richard Merritt prepared for a last home-cooked meal with his mother before he was set to report to jail for embezzlement. But he didn't show up on time and his ankle monitor had been cut. The next day, relatives found his mother stabbed to death in the basement of her home. Eight months later, Merritt was found in Nashville, TN, under an assumed name. When the murder trial started four years later, Merritt claimed an intruder had attacked them both and he had fled for his life.

When interior designer Jade Janks discovered her beloved stepfather, butterfly conservationist Thomas Merriman, had secretly downloaded nude photos of her onto his computer, she set out to put an end to the abuse. A 911 call was received from Jade's friend, which prompted a welfare check; Tom was missing.

Jamaican immigrants Andreen McDonald and her husband Andre, an Air Force Reserve Major, have an autistic daughter, Alayna, and a beautiful home and successful business they built together in San Antonio, TX. When Andreen went missing, detectives uncovered turmoil within the marriage and realized this was much more than a missing persons case.

Outwardly, Mark Jensen seemed to be a mild-mannered, loving husband -- grieving over the early December 1998 suicide death of his wife, Julie, who was found by their two young sons. But when Wisconsin police found traces of antifreeze in her autopsy, they started to question what was really going on at home. They soon discover that Mark moved another woman in a month after his wife's death.

In May 2018 in Westfield, MA, detective Brian Fanion, 30-year police veteran, frantically called 911 for an ambulance, saying his wife Amy had shot herself and lay dying. But when Fanion's fellow officers arrived at the house, the crime scene posed more questions than answers.

In 2021, Alexander 'Alex' Jackson, an Eagle Scout, called 911 to report a mysterious intruder killed both his parents, Jan and Melissa, and his younger sister, Sabrina, and shot him in the foot. But as they interviewed Alex in the hospital, detectives began to suspect Jackson wasn't telling the whole truth.

Kay Baker, a 3rd grade school teacher and divorced mom of two in Lithia, FL, was found lying in her neighbor's yard bleeding to death with her throat slashed. Soon after police arrive and search her house, they find a trail of blood outside and use a K-9 and then helicopter infrared leading to a suspenseful search. They spot a wounded man in the woods, and arrest him as a possible suspect.

In March 1993, two newspaper carriers driving down a rural road spotted what they thought was a doll but which turned out to be, in fact, a newborn baby's body. The coroner determined that the baby boy had been born alive; but his origin was a mystery. Despite dozens of leads and even a hidden camera placed at the cemetery in hopes that the child's mother would show up, no arrests were made for 25 years. Then, with modern DNA and familial genealogy techniques, the cold case was solved.

Makeva Jenkins, a successful businesswoman and pregnant mother of three, boasted on Facebook that she had grown her business to six figures from being homeless. But just hours later, she was shot dead with a bullet to the head. Her husband Euri Jenkins, her brother Quay, and Euri's friend Dametri all relayed to police that a masked intruder had shot and killed her. Police soon uncover a murder-for-hire plot.

An heir to the Halliburton oil dynasty fortune, Jill Halliburton Su was found dead in her bathtub by her son Justin at her upscale home in a Davie, FL, gated community in 2014. The security cameras weren't working, a glass door had been shattered, and at least one room of the house had been ransacked. Police quickly focused on Justin as the prime suspect, grilling him intensely for hours. A few days later, when crime scene DNA forensic tests were finally processed, Justin was cleared; and investigators were after a new suspect.

Ten days after Memphis NBA player Lorenzen Wright went missing in 2010, the player's body was found in a swamp, shot 11 times. He called 911 but never spoke; gunshots are heard in the background. Police search for clues to identify the killer but the case stalled for 3 years until an inmate confessed but was found unproven; it stalled again for 4 more years until a deeper investigation uncovering a murder plot. [also shown as S3:E4]

When Joleen Cummings, a hairstylist at Tangles Hair Salon in Yulee, FL, failed to pick up her children for a planned celebration, and was reported missing by her ex-husband. Investigators discovered a bloody scene at the salon, but the hairstylist and her SUV were gone. [also shown as S3:E5]

Mengqi Ji, a Chinese exchange student, found a career and a love match with Joe Elledge in the idyllic Missouri university town of Columbia; they married and started a family. It was a shock to her loved ones when she disappeared in October 2019 apparently to be with another man, leaving both her child Anna and her cell phone behind. Her remains were eventually found by a hiker in February 2020. [also shown as S3:E2]

A camper gathering firewood in Arizona's scenic Sunset Crater National Park was shocked to discover the body of 27-year-old Sasha Krause in a traditional long dress, wearing black shoes. Her Mennonite family and friends in New Mexico were stunned--she had no known enemies and was a beloved, studious young woman, who loved books. How did she end up dead so far from home? [also shown as S3:E3]

Firefighters made a desperate effort to save the Huggins family of seven, 2 adults and 5 children, from a blazing fire in Akron, OH, but rescuers were too late. Police declared the fire was no accident and began an arson investigation, which included another unexplained fire a year earlier on the same block that killed a beloved elderly couple, Gloria Hart and Lindell Lewis.

Popular 21-year-old South Carolina University college senior Samantha Josephson prepared to head off to Drexel Law School with a full scholarship. After a night of celebrating with her friends at the Five Points bar area in Columbia, she got into an Uber and disappeared. Tragically, her body was found 24 hours later, with more than a hundred stab wounds. Police discover that the car she got into was not her Uber.

When Brandi Peters and her three children were found murdered in Tallahassee in 2010, prosecutors pointed the finger at her ex-boyfriend, Henry Segura, who owed her more than $20,000 in child support. But as the trial got underway, an imprisoned drug dealer came forward, saying he had ordered the murders from prison.

25-year-old Army veteran Ashley Biggs, a single mom and pizza delivery driver, was murdered on a late-night delivery for Dominos in New Franklin, OH. Police arrested her former boyfriend Chad Cobb, who had been in a custody battle with Ashley for their daughter. For eight years, Cobb refused to tell police who had helped him lure Ashley to her death until he felt betrayed.

When 63-year-old Wisconsin wife and mom Victoria Prokopovitz went missing in 2013, her three grown children were beside themselves with worry. Her husband of 24 years, Jim, seemed oddly unconcerned, telling police she often wandered off and had tried to commit suicide twice. Despite a massive search, Victoria was never found. A private detective was brought in by her daughters; conducting his own investigation, he learned of a secret affair.

The Amatos were a close-knit, middle-class family with three professional sons. So, it was a shock when Margaret and Chad Amato and their youngest son Cody were found dead, shot execution-style in their suburban Seminole, FL home. Suspicion quickly turned to middle son Grant, a trained nurse, who had quarreled with his family over money he had stolen from them.

A New Year's Eve shooting in the small town of Benton Harbor, MI, and police body cam captures the heartbroken cries of Army Sgt. Kemia Hassel as she cradles her dying husband, Army Sgt. Tyrone Hassel III, who was on leave during the Thanksgiving holiday; he died from multiple gunshots. Despite the happy outward appearance of the attractive young military couple, investigators soon uncover a murder plot.

An investigation into the murder of Clauddine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard, who is found face down in the bedroom of her house just outside Springfield, MO, in June of 2015.

When single mom Nicole 'Nikki' Vanderheyden is found naked, beaten and strangled in a Green Bay, WI, farm field, police immediately arrest her live-in boyfriend, Doug Detrie, who waited 18 hours to report her missing and has a history of domestic violence. However, as the investigation unfolded, a man she met at a bar became a prime suspect.

When the body of single mom and former policewoman Taylor Wright was discovered buried on a remote Pensacola, FL, farm, detectives had a lineup of suspects to investigate including her ex-husband, her new girlfriend, and her best friend.

Shayna Hubers called 911 to report she had killed her boyfriend, Ryan Post on, in self-defense after he attacked her. However, investigators soon learned he was planning a date with another woman and suspected Shayna killed him in a jealous rage.

When Richard Smith failed to show up for work, police discovered the murdered bodies of Smith, his mother and brother in their home in Pensacola, FL. Sheriff's deputies told the media they were investigating possible ritual links to the Wiccan religion and the timing of the killings with the "blue moon sky."

Dr. Teresa Sievers was a rising social media star when she was found bludgeoned to death in her kitchen in Bonita Springs, FL. Detectives quickly came to focus on her husband Mark, who had taken out a large life insurance policy on his successful wife, in a murder for hire scheme.