True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History

On May 21, 2002, twenty-three-year-old Raleigh, North Carolina resident Stephanie Bennett was found murdered in her apartment. Despite ample DNA evidence at the scene, investigators could find no matches in their criminal databases.Two years into the investigation, Detective Ken Copeland-known as "the garbage man" for leaving no stone unturned in his search for evidence-and his partner, Jackie Taylor, joined the case. After culling through the entire file with fresh eyes and re-interviewing witnesses, they re-released a description of a suspect neighbors had seen nearby, a man who'd once lived just next door to the murder scene. But the suspect refused to hand over a DNA sample, wiping down anything he touched, and even planting decoy samples. This is the gripping story of how a team of aggressive detectives doggedly tracked down a killer (under suspicion for a killing spree that investigators believe might have spanned years and crossed state lines)and brought closure to an innocent young woman's grieving family. EVIL NEXT DOOR-THE UNTOLD STORY OF A KILLER UNDONE BY DNA-AMANDA LAMB Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

6 Jan 20111h 1min

It's Christmas time and the perfect opportunity to recap the first year almost of True Murder and great interviews with great authors discussing their fine books. I'll be speaking about a few things of interest, the latest update on the Sidney Teerhuis appeal and the very best books and interviews I've had the pleasure to do. A big thank you for all the listeners-over 75,000 in the last 3 months alone. I'll open the lines for anyone to call in and comment-and help you usher in the holidays with some recommendations for books you really should check out and read. And-stay tuned for news of exciting new authors and their books for the new year. Thanks for listening! Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

23 Dec 20101h 2min

The affluent suburb of Cheshire, Connecticut, seemed like the perfect place for Dr. William Petit and his wife Jennifer-Hawke-Petit to raise their two lovely daughters...Until July 23, 2007, when according to police, two ex-cons invaded the Petit home hoping to embark on a routine robbery-one that would ultimately prove deadly.What unfolded at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive was a tragic and horrifying sequence of events that shocked a community and made headlines across the nation. Before the morning was over, Mrs. Hawke Petit and one of her daughters would be sexually assaulted, the entire house would go up in flames, and only Dr. Petit-his head bloodied, his legs bound-would manage to escape with his life. With the help of neighbors and local police, the two suspects were soon captured. Now Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes await trial for murder. IN THE NIDDLE OF THE NIGHT-Brian McDonald Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

9 Dec 20101h 17min

In 1990, a young woman was strangled on a jogging path near the home of Pat Brown and her family. Brown suspected the young man who was renting a room in her house and quickly uncovered strong evidence that pointed to him-but the police dismissed her as merely a housewife with an overactive imagination. It would be six years before her former boarder would be brought in for questioning but the night Brown took action to solve the murder was the beginning of her life's work. Pat Brown is now of the nation's few female criminal profilers-a sleuth who assists police departments and victim's families by analyzing both physical and behavioral evidence to make the most scientific determination possible about who committed a crime. Brown has analyzed many dozens of seemingly hopeless cases and brought new investigative avenues to light. In THE PROFILER, Brown opens up her case files to take listeners behind the scenes of bizarre sex crimes, domestic murders, and mysterious deaths, going face-to-face with killers, rapists, and brutalized victims. A rare, first-person account of the real world of police and profilers as they investigate crimes-the good and bad, the cover-ups and the successes. THE PROFILER-MY LIFE HUNTING SERIAL KILLERS AND PSYCHOPATHS-PAT BROWN Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

4 Dec 20101h 20min

When the urge took hold, serial killer Larry Bright brought women back to his home. After raping and murdering his victims, he brutally disposed of their bodies. Sometimes he built a white-hot fire and burned them in his backyard. Other times he dumped them along nearby roads and fields. For years, Bright had trolled the roads and back streets of Illinois for the most helpless, desperate women he could find. Then one woman escaped, and suddenly police were looking for bodies everywhere-trying to find out how many women Bright had really killed and what he'd done with their remains. Step by step, an all-out investigation would shock hardened detectives. From interviews with women who survived their encounters with him to the forensic search for bone fragments and pieces of burned, buried flesh, the case against Larry Bright finally closed like a vise-on the man who turned his victims into ashes. BONE CRUSHER-Linda Rosencrance Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

25 Nov 20101h 2min

On Aug. 17, 1992, 11 year-old Holly Staker was baby-sitting a 5-year-old boy and his 2 1/2-year-old sister. After eating pizza, the boy went out to play. At 8 p.m., when a neighbor noticed he was still outside, the boy said he was locked out. The neighbor took the boy to his mother at her job at a nearby tavern. The mother, Dawn Engelbrecht contacted Holly's mother, and the two of them went to the apartment, where they found the 2 1/2-year-old girl unharmed but Holly was dead in a bedroom. She had been stabbed 27 times and brutally raped.In the days after the crime, Juan Rivera was jailed on an unrelated burglary charge. Another inmate told authorities that Rivera told him he knew who had killed Holly. Police focused on Rivera, then just a few days short of his 20th birthday. Ultimately, Rivera signed two confessions to the crimes. He later testified at a pretrial hearing that he was coerced into confessing and had nothing to do with the rape and murder. Engelbrecht, whose children Holly was baby-sitting, had initially told police after Rivera was arrested that he had approached her outside her apartment on the night of the crime and asked, "What's happening?" She later recanted that identification, however, and said she believed Rivera was not Holly's killer. In 1993 Rivera was sentenced to life in prison.That sentence and the conviction were set aside in 1996 by the Illinois Appellate Court, which ruled the judge in the case had made errors.In 2005 new DNA testing excluded Juan Rivera as the killer rapist prompting a third trial with Juan, his family, defense attorneys and supporters believing in his innocence, confident that Juan would finally be released.On May 8, 2009 Juan was convicted of Holly Staker's rape and murder yet again, even though DNA excluded him. Prosecutors cited Juan's confession as proof of his guilt. FREE JUAN RIVERA- Rob Warden of the Center on Wrongful Convictions. Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

18 Nov 20101h 3min

In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king...and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the local high school who was so warm and popular her colleagues called her "The Sunshine Girl."The fairy tale ended savagely on January 11, 1999, when Belinda's lifeless body was discovered in a closet. Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range. She was eight months pregnant.There was no damning evidence directly linking the brutal murder to husband David, who stood by emotionless and dry-eyed as police searched the crime scene. But a dogged eight-year investigation would expose a shocking history of domination, infidelity and rage, ultimately resulting in an epic courtroom battle for the ages, as the scandalous truth was revealed about love betrayed and innocent lives...SHATTERED: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder-KATHRYN CASEY Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

11 Nov 20101h 2min

Cho Oyu Mountain lies 19 miles east of Mount Everest on the border between Tibet and Nepal. To the elite mountaineering community, it's known as the sixth highest mountain in the world. To Tibetans, Cho Oyu represents a gateway to freedom through a secret glacial path: the Nangpa La. On September 30, 2006, gunfire echoed through the thin air near Advance Base Camp on Cho Oyu and climbers preparing to summit watched in horror as Chinese border guards fired at a group of Tibetans fleeing to India, via Nepal.Murder in the High Himalaya is the unforgettable account of the brutal killing of Kelsang Namtso, a seventeen-year-old Tibetan nun fleeing with the group to Dharamsala to escape religious persecution. Kelsang's death is a painful example of Tibet's oppression by China, but this time a human rights atrocity was witnessed and documented by dozens of Western climbers. Their moral dilemma was plain-would they tell the world what they had seen? The center of the story is an American climber, struck with a crisis of conscience, who gambled with his career to speak out and a young, Tibetan girl who sacrificed her rights to ever return to Tibet by telling the Western media about the murder of her best friend. Both risked their futures to expose the abuses of China in Tibet and paid a terrible price. MURDER IN THE HIGH HIMALAYA-Jonathan Green Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

4 Nov 20101h 7min