Bölümler
-
On April 5th, 1986, Howard and Connie Clery returned home from a vacation in Bermuda to find a police car waiting in their driveway. Their 19-year-old daughter Jeanne had been found murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University.
What the Clerys discovered in the aftermath was as infuriating as it was devastating. In the three years before Jeanne's murder, there had been 38 violent crimes at Lehigh including rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults. Campus security had received over 2,000 reports of propped-open dorm doors in the year she was killed. 188 of those came from her building. None of this information had been available to them when they chose the school. Nobody was required to share it.
The man who killed Jeanne - fellow student, Josoph Henry - had walked through a propped door and found her room unlocked because her roommate didn't have her key. He was convicted of first-degree murder. But Howard and Connie Clery were not finished.
In 1990, the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act was signed into law -- later renamed the Jeanne Clery Act. It requires every college and university receiving federal funding to publicly disclose campus crimes, issue timely warnings, and give students and families the safety information they need before choosing a school. Four decades later, it is still one of the most important pieces of campus safety legislation in the country.
-
Alaskan Sophie Sergie came from a remote Yupik village of 70 people. She was going to be the first in her family to graduate college. The last thing she told her family was a promise to bring her little brother a brand new kite. She never came home.
On April 25th, 1993, Sophie Sergie was found violently murdered in a University of Alaska Fairbanks dorm bathroom. Her case went cold, and it stayed that way for more than a quarter century, until a woman uploaded her DNA to an ancestry site and unknowingly pointed investigators straight at her nephew, Steven Downs, who had been quietly living as a nurse in Maine the entire time.
Ed covers Sophie's emotional story, the 28-year cold case, and the genetic genealogy breakthrough that finally brought justice.
Ep. 107 | Collegiate Crimes Block | Murder Unscripted | June 2026
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
-
Eksik bölüm mü var?
-
Yeardley Love was 22 years old and ten weeks from graduating from the University of Virginia. She was a D1 lacrosse player, a political science major with plans for law school in New York, and by every account, the kind of person who made every room warmer just by being in it.
She was also in an abusive relationship with a men's lacrosse player, George Huguely V, that had been escalating for years. Obsessive contact. Jealousy. Physical violence.
In February 2010, just weeks before her death, he had her pinned to a bed with his hands around her throat. Witnesses pulled him off. Yeardley told her mother. She even wrote a letter ending the relationship.
Yeardley locked her door...but he kicked it in.
In the early hours of May 3rd, 2010, Yeardley's roommate came home to find her unresponsive on her bed. She was gone. That's when police find an email from George in her inbox that read: 'I should have killed you.'
In this episode, Melissa walks through the full story of Yeardley's life and death, including: the escalation pattern that followed every textbook sign of a dangerous relationship, the trial that convicted George Huguely of second-degree murder and sentenced him to 23 years, the 2022 civil verdict of $15 million in damages, and the most important thing to come out of all of it: the One Love Foundation, built by Yeardley's mother Sharon and sister Lexie, dedicated to teaching young people to recognize the warning signs of unhealthy relationships before they become fatal.
This one is heavy, but it matters. If this episode makes you think of someone in your life, please take that seriously.
One Love Foundation: https://www.joinonelove.org
Written by Sue Grice | Hosted by Melissa Spivey
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership
[email protected] | @murderunscripted
-
If you haven't listened to our DC Sniper episode yet (E104), start there first. This is the conversation that follows it.
Dr. Mildred Muhammad was married to John Allen Muhammad for 12 years. She knew him as a soldier, a father, a man she loved. What she didn't know was that after their separation, he had begun stalking her, that he had kidnapped their three children and taken them to Antigua for 18 months using forged documents, that she had been living under a restraining order that still permitted visitation, and that during October of 2002...while the DC metropolitan area was being terrorized by a sniper...she was living in that same region with no idea the man behind it was her ex-husband.
And then she found out she was allegedly the intended target all along.
In this episode, Dr. Muhammad walks us through her entire story. Growing up in Baton Rouge. Meeting John. What the marriage looked like from the inside. The kidnapping of her children and the 18 months she spent fighting to bring them home. The moment she learned his name. The aftermath. Being treated as a potential accessory. The court refusing to allow domestic violence evidence at trial. And what she has built since as an author, advocate, speaker, podcaster, and appointed member of the Maryland State Board of Victim Services.
Oh and listen until the end. We play a fun little game at the end testing Mildred's knowledge of all things Louisiana. She's from Baton Rouge. Melissa is not. It went about as well as you'd expect. 😂
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
💛 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership
📬 [email protected] | @murderunscripted
-
In October 2002, the Washington DC area woke up to something it had never felt before. People were being shot at gas stations, in parking lots, at bus stops, at a school...apparently at random, by someone nobody could see, in a car nobody could find. Police were sprinting between active scenes. Schools canceled outdoor activities. People crouched at gas pumps trying to make themselves smaller targets. Senators got police escorts to the Capitol.
Ten people would be killed in three weeks. Three more wounded. And almost none of it was random.
In today's spine-chilling episode, Ed walks through the case of the DC Sniper, including: the months of seemingly disconnected shootings across six states before the DC attacks began, the investigation that kept missing the blue Caprice that was hiding in plain sight, the tarot card left at a middle school, and the motive reveal that reframes everything.
Ed also shares something personal: in October 2002, he was a first-day intern at Forensic Files... and the DC Sniper case was his very first assignment. He watched it unfold, frame by frame, on two hours of raw news tape. It's what drew him into the true crime industry.
-
In post-Soviet Siberia, women were disappearing from the streets of Angarsk. Their bodies turned up in forests and industrial wastelands, mutilated beyond recognition. The weapons changed every time, but the tire tracks at the scenes were always from the same vehicle: a Lada Niva, the standard-issue Soviet police truck.
The man driving it was Mikhail Popkov: junior police lieutenant, champion biathlete, beloved neighbor, husband and father. His wife Elena, a fellow officer in the same department, called him a 'perfect husband and father.' His colleagues said he was the soul of every party. When women were attacked on his city's streets, he was often first on scene.
Because he was the one who had attacked them.
Popkov used his badge, his uniform, and the trust people place in law enforcement to lure women into his patrol vehicle on freezing Siberian nights. He killed them with weapons stolen from his own department's evidence room, varying the method each time to prevent investigators from finding a pattern. He then returned to work, attended briefings on his own murders, and offered his observations to his colleagues.
When a 15-year-old survivor picked him out of a photo lineup, his wife gave him an alibi. When biological evidence linked him to a victim, his wife gave him an alibi again. Investigators shelved the case. Popkov kept killing.
By the time a 3,500-officer DNA sweep finally caught him in 2012, Popkov had confessed to 87 murders, making him the most prolific serial killer in Russian recorded history. Some investigators believe the true number may be closer to 200. When a judge asked how many total murders he had committed, Popkov shrugged and said: 'I can't say exactly. I didn't write them down.'
Ed walks through the full story for the Who the Bleep Did I Marry block: the victims, the system failures, the jaw-dropping confession, and the impossible question Popkov's own daughter asked aloud while pregnant: would her child grow up to be a monster like him? She said she still didn't fully understand what her father was. And that she still loved him.
Researched & written by Sue Grice | Hosted by Ed Hydock | A Darkcast Network Production
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership
[email protected] | @murderunscripted
-
His 13-year-old son found a skull in the backyard. Herb Baumeister said it was from his father's medical collection. His wife believed him.
Over ten thousand human bone fragments were eventually recovered from Fox Hollow Farm — the 18-acre Indiana estate where Herb hosted family pool parties, ran a thrift store empire, and murdered at least eleven men, possibly twenty-five, while his wife and kids had no idea.
Melissa walks through one of the most disturbing cases in our "Who the Bleep Did I Marry?" block cases MU has ever covered — including the I-70 Strangler theory, the missing tapes, and the DNA work that is still identifying victims in 2026.
-
⚠️ Content warning: domestic violence, child abandonment, shooting.
She was abandoned by both parents before she was 17. She spent her life searching for a man who would finally take care of her. She found a 73-year-old millionaire who led her on for seven years — and then tried to walk away with a restraining order.
He didn't make it out of the parking lot.
Episode 101 is the finale of MU's "Rules of Murder" block — and one of the most psychologically complex cases Melissa has ever covered. Based on Ann Rule's "Old Man's Darling" from Crime Files Vol. 10: "Worth More Dead."
Ep. 101 | Rules of Murder Block Finale | Murder Unscripted | April 2026
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
-
At age 14, her mother introduced her to Ted Bundy, and by 17, she was photographing killers in courtrooms.
For our special 100th episode, Murder Unscripted welcomes the incredible Leslie Rule - author, paranormal investigator, and daughter of true crime legend, Ann Rule! In a wide-ranging conversation, Leslie takes us inside her extraordinary childhood living in a haunted house, her decades of ghost hunting, and what she thought of America's most notorious serial killer. We talk about what it was like to grow up in Ann Rule's shadow, and how Leslie has carried the torch with her book: A Tangled Web, which details the murder of Nebraska mother Cari Farver.
Milestone episode. Legendary guest. Don't miss it!
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
❤️ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership
📧 [email protected] | @murderunscripted
#MurderUnscripted #LeslieRule #AnnRule
-
In this Murder Unscripted bonus episode, Ed and Melissa take you through a brief but essential overview of the murder of Cari Farver—a case that spirals far beyond a simple missing persons story.
What begins as a sudden disappearance quickly unravels into a disturbing web of obsession, manipulation, and deception that went on for years before the truth came to light.
This case is the subject of Leslie Rule’s book, A Tangled Web, and we highly recommend listening to this episode before diving into our upcoming interview with Leslie for the full experience.
Consider this your primer… because once you hear what really happened, everything changes.
-
⚠️ Content warning: domestic violence, murder, child endangerment.
If you haven't listened to Part 1 (Ep. 98) yet — start there. This is the conclusion of one of the most devastating cases MU has ever covered.
Sheila Bellush had done everything right. She got out of the marriage, fled across the country in the middle of the night, and built a new life in Sarasota, Florida with her husband Jamie and six children - including the quadruplets who made her a local celebrity known as "The Quad Mom." She was safe,,..or so she thought.
Allen Blackthorne had spent years manipulating a golf buddy named Danny Rocha.... feeding him lies about Sheila being an abusive mother, escalating his rage, and eventually putting a $50,000 contract on her life. The man who took the job, Joey Del Torro, drove from Texas to Florida and hid inside Sheila's home while she played with her babies and did laundry, completely unaware.
In Part 2, Ed walks through the murder, the investigation that unraveled the conspiracy piece by piece, and the trial that finally brought Allen Blackthorne to justice — two life sentences without the possibility of parole. And the aftermath: what happened to Jamie, to Stevie, to Daryl, to the quads, and to Sheila's heartbroken mother Jean, who lost her third child in the month of November.
Based on Ann Rule's "Every Breath You Take" (2001) | Researched & written by Sue Grice | Hosted by Ed Hydock | A Money Beet Media Production, in association with The Darkcast Network
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH
💛 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership
📬 [email protected] | @murderunscripted
-
⚠️ Content warning: domestic violence, sexual assault, animal abuse
On November 7th, 1997, Sheila Bellush was murdered inside her own home in Sarasota, Florida. It was a murder-for-hire... planned at a distance, carried out by strangers. And it would never have happened if the man she'd married had faced even one consequence for any of the things he had done before.
This is Part 1 of MU's two-part deep dive into one of Ann Rule's most chilling books — "Every Breath You Take." But before we get to the crime, Ed takes us inside the mind and the history of the man behind it: Allen Blackthorne.
Allen was a liar, a manipulator, a predator, and a con artist from childhood. He destroyed two marriages before Sheila, drove his in-laws into bankruptcy, killed two people on a highway and walked free, and told his sister-in-law, point blank, that if Sheila ever left him, he would kill her.
Part 1 is the origin story. The red flags nobody acted on. The system that failed at every turn. And the moment the crow should have been cued...long before it was.
Part 2 drops next week. Subscribe and don't miss it.
Based on Ann Rule's "Every Breath You Take" (2001) | Researched & written by Sue Grice | Hosted by Ed Hydock | A Money Beet Media Production in association with the Darkcast Network
-
Crime scene cleaner Anthony Vogel has walked into homicides, suicides, and unattended deaths. He's found things nobody expected and carried the weight of other people's worst days home with him.
In the finale of our 2026 Spring Cleaning block, Ed and Melissa sit down with Anthony for one of the most fascinating conversations we've ever had — covering the training, the tools, the humor, the haunting scenes, and what crime TV gets completely wrong about his job.
This is the side of true crime nobody talks about.
-
The night before Irene Izak left Cleveland, she woke up screaming. She had dreamed of a faceless figure beating her over the head with rocks. Her family calmed her down. It was just a dream.
Two nights later, on June 10th, 1968, Irene's body was found at the bottom of a wooded ravine on Wellesley Island, New York — just one mile from the Canadian border. She had been bludgeoned with rocks. Killed exactly as she had dreamed.
Irene Juliana Izak was 25 years old. A child of Ukrainian war refugees, she had survived bombings, displacement, and poverty to become a beloved French teacher fluent in six languages — a woman who radiated warmth, chased adventure, and trusted the goodness in people. She was on her way to a job interview in Quebec City but never made it.
The only real suspect was the state trooper who pulled her over that night — and then, just 30 minutes later, found her body. He had blood on his uniform. He gave three different stories for how it got there. He refused to meet with Irene's heartbroken father. He lawyered up mid-interview and was never questioned again. He died in 2009, taking any secrets to his grave.
No one has ever been arrested. No one has ever been charged.
Ed and Melissa bring you this episode with a heavy heart, and with personal connection. This case is dedicated MU listener and longtime friend of the pod, Cassandra, whose family has spent decades seeking justice for her great-aunt Irene. Cassandra's mother, Lisa, shares her family's story in her own words throughout this episode.
If you have any information about the murder of Irene Izak, please contact the New York State Police Cold Case Unit. This case remains open.
This one is for Irene. 🖤
-
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode covers the deaths of infants. Ed and Melissa handle it with care, but please listen accordingly.
In 2015 and 2016, the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the UK recorded a disturbing spike in unexplained infant deaths. The investigation — codenamed Operation Hummingbird — eventually zeroed in on one suspect: a quiet, introverted nurse named Lucy Letby.
After a 10-month trial, Lucy was convicted of murdering 7 babies and attempting to murder 6 more. She received 15 whole life terms — the longest sentence possible in the UK. The case rocked Britain.
But not everyone is convinced justice was served.
A panel of 14 elite international neonatal physicians — assembled voluntarily by the Canadian doctor whose research was used to convict her — reviewed all 17 cases and unanimously concluded: no crimes were committed. The medical evidence, they say, was misunderstood.
Add to that: a lead prosecution expert witness with a documented pattern of tailoring testimony to whichever side hires him. A defense team that called zero medical experts. And a handwritten note that reads 'I AM EVIL, I DID THIS' — which prosecutors called a confession and the defense called the journal of a gaslit, scapegoated nurse.
Ed and Melissa break down every angle of one of the UK's most divisive cases, from Lucy's unusually quiet childhood and rocky nursing school days, to the questionable testimony, the missing evidence, and the international doctors who may have just blown the case wide open.
This one will make you question everything. 🖤
Submitted by listener Kate M. | Written by Sue Grice | Hosted by Ed Hydock & Melissa Spivey
-
On Thanksgiving Day 2018, 29-year-old flight instructor and mother Kelsey Berreth vanished from her Woodland Park, Colorado condo. She'd been at the grocery store that morning. She'd texted her mom about Thanksgiving dinner recipes. She'd left cinnamon rolls on the stove for her baby daughter. Then she was gone.
What followed was one of the most gripping murder investigations in Colorado history... a missing person case that turned into a homicide investigation when a single blood smear on a toilet changed everything. And a critical break that came not from physical evidence, but from a nurse in Idaho with a secret she could no longer keep.
In this episode, Ed covers the full Kelsey Berreth case, including:
How Patrick Frazee (her fiancé and the father of her daughter) planned and carried out a premeditated murder.How he enlisted his secret girlfriend Krystal Lee Kenney to clean up the evidence and help disappear Kelsey's body.How an extraordinary web of phone records, surveillance footage, and one woman's devastating testimony put a killer in prison for the rest of his life.This is a case about domestic violence, manipulation, and coercive control. It is also a case about a woman who deserved better, and a little girl growing up knowing who her mother really was.
Case suggested by listener Tiange678. Thank you!!!
-
On New Year's Eve 2013, 23-year-old Ashley Kline left her Robesonia, PA home to meet a friend — and never came home. While her best friend waited at a party and her father held onto hope, Ashley had vanished without a trace. What followed was a chilling investigation: scattered belongings in a snow-covered field, a Tinkerbell keychain pulled from a drained water tank, and a body found burned in a wildlife preserve 16 miles away.
Ed and Melissa walk through every haunting detail... from the obsessive prison pen pal writing letters from behind bars, to the surveillance footage that cracked the case wide open.
This case was submitted by listener Amy F., who grew up near Robesonia. Thank you, Amy.
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains descriptions of murder, sexual assault, and violence.
Subscribe, rate & review — and join us on Patreon for behind-the-scenes content and bonus episodes!
-
30 Years Fighting for Murder Victims: An Interview with Andy Kahan
Andy Kahan has dedicated over three decades to victims' advocacy at Crime Stoppers Houston. He's the expert families call when they need someone to fight for them, whether it's navigating the parole system, keeping cold cases in the public eye, or understanding why the justice system doesn't always deliver what they expect. He leads meetings for Parents of Murdered Children that can draw 30-40 attendees, and he's personally helped keep serial killers behind bars through publicity campaigns he calls the 'horsefly effect.'
In this interview, Ed and Melissa sit down with Andy to discuss his work with grieving families, the Texas mandatory release law that has allowed violent offenders to walk free, the Coral Eugene Watts and Genene Anne Jones cases where last-minute interventions changed everything, and what meaningful criminal justice reform could look like.
Plus, a special mini-game that tests Andy's encyclopedic knowledge of the cases that have shaped victims' rights.
-
In June 1996, twenty-two-year-old Aimee Willard — a two-sport All-American athlete at George Mason University and a beloved daughter of the Philadelphia suburbs — vanished on her drive home from a night out with friends. Her car was found running on an Interstate 476 off-ramp in the early morning hours, door open, radio still playing. She was nowhere.
What followed was a sprawling, shocking investigation: a police impersonator who showed up at the crime scene, an off-duty state trooper with a suspicious story, an actual officer who lied to investigators, and ultimately, a convicted murderer who never should have been free.
In this episode, Ed and Melissa walk through the case that haunted a region, examine the catastrophic failures of the interstate parole system, and reveal how Aimee's mother, Gail Willard, channeled unimaginable grief into action — fighting all the way to Washington D.C. for a federal law that now carries her daughter's name.
Aimee's Law, signed by President Clinton in 2000, allows states to be financially penalized when they release violent offenders who go on to commit the same crimes elsewhere. It was born from one community's worst nightmare and one mother's refusal to let her daughter's story end with tragedy.
This episode is part of Murder Unscripted's February theme: Short Sentences — stories about violent offenders released early, and the devastating consequences that followed.
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of violence, sexual assault, and homicide. Listener discretion is advised.
-
On March 5, 1984, a Houston father discovered both of his daughters murdered in their Heights-area home. Yleen Kennedy, 33, had been sexually assaulted, stabbed four times in the throat, and shot. Her younger sister Lillie, 23, was executed with a single bullet to the back of the head. A neighbor spoke directly to the killer that morning, and police released a composite sketch within 48 hours. Tips flooded in by the hundreds. But one by one, every suspect was eliminated, and the case went ice cold.
For over 30 years, the girls' mother Rose called the Houston media every year on the anniversary of their deaths, begging them to remember her daughters. Then DNA technology caught up, and an informant's tip from Indiana changed everything. In this episode, Ed and Melissa explore the brutal crime, the decades of dead ends, the DNA breakthrough that identified the killer, and the Texas sentencing law that delivered a bitter lesson in imperfect justice.
- Daha fazla göster
