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True Crime

TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

BRATTERSTEIN

As someone who has been personally effected by homicide, I approach every True Crime case I cover with the goal of balancing facts with empathy—giving victims a voice while exploring the larger cultural and societal implications of the cases.

I want you to leave my episodes not only knowing that the people who I talk about are real.. what happened to them is real but also acknowledging that they are much more than just their deaths.

Each audio file from this podcast is taken from my videos on YouTube. If you want to see me in action, you can search "Bratterstein" there.

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  • 27 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 1 hr
  • English

Episodes 27

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  • Friday · 37 min

    14-Year-Old Kills His Sleeping Father... But Says He Had No Choice

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Edwin John Olson Jr. with me today. In May 1998, 14-year-old Terry Charles Olson shot and killed his father, Edwin John Olson Jr., inside their home in Ferndale, Montana. Terry later testified that he had endured severe abuse, saying his father withheld food and beat him and that he believed killing him was the only way to make it stop. After shooting his father in the head, Terry checked for a pulse, showered, took money from his father’s wallet, and drove to a mall to play arcade games. When school officials contacted authorities about his truancy, he reportedly told them his father was dead; deputies then went to the house and found Edwin’s body. Terry was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with 10 years initially suspended, a sentence later adjusted to 40 years with 16 years suspended. He was paroled in 2009 but returned to prison by late 2010 after violating his release conditions, including an assault on a girlfriend and alcohol use.

  • Wednesday · 1 hr 3 min

    Solved After 47 Years: Her Killer was Hiding in Plain Sight

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lindy Sue Biechler with me today. Lindy Sue Biechler’s 1975 murder in Lancaster County went unsolved for nearly five decades, becoming the county's oldest cold case. The 19-year-old was brutally stabbed in her apartment while putting away groceries, and despite exhaustive investigations, including theories involving serial killers, psychics, and a mysterious letter, the case went cold. In 2022, advances in forensic genealogy finally identified her killer: David Sinopoli, a former neighbor. Using DNA from the crime scene and advanced genetic tracing, police matched Sinopoli's discarded coffee cup to the evidence. The arrest shocked the community, as Sinopoli had lived a seemingly normal life for years, married with children and grandchildren.David Sinopoli was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and burglary. Although justice was finally served, the motive behind Lindy's murder remains a mystery. The case highlights the power of modern forensic technology and genetic genealogy in solving cold cases, offering hope to other unsolved crimes. Lindy’s husband and family finally received closure, proving that, even decades later, justice can still be achieved. This case serves as a chilling reminder that killers can hide in plain sight, living among us undetected for years.

  • August 24 · 20 min

    Egging Prank Gone Wrong or Execution?

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jonathan Gilbert aka Tyler Lane with me today. In July 2023, 22-year-old Johnathan Gilbert, known as Tyler Lane, was outside a home on Dobbins Mill Road in Spalding County, Georgia, when three teenagers arrived to egg the property amid an ongoing “lover’s quarrel.” Tyler was visiting another woman whom his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Sydney Maughon, reportedly wanted to confront and fight. When Tyler, who was unarmed, came outside to confront the group, they ran back toward their car. Video and prosecutors’ evidence showed Maughon urging someone to “shoot him,” then taking a gun belonging to 18-year-old Jeremy Munson and firing twice at Tyler as he approached the vehicle. The group fled, leaving him in the road; Maughon and Munson then went to her parents’ home, handed over the gun, and later went to work, while a third person, McKenzie Davenport, ran for help and called 911. Maughon pleaded guilty to malice murder in November 2024 and was sentenced to life with parole eligibility only after serving at least 30 years. Davenport pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors tied to the events before the shooting. Munson’s case had not yet been resolved in the reporting available from December 2024, despite earlier reports that he was charged with murder and firearm offenses because the group allegedly acted together.

  • August 21 · 55 min

    When Obsession Leads to Bloodshed : The Kendra Hatcher Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Kendra Hatcher with me today. In September 2015, 35-year-old Dallas pediatric dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher was shot in the head as she stepped out of her car in the parking garage of her Uptown apartment building—the day before she was due to fly to Cancún with her boyfriend. What police initially considered a robbery quickly unraveled into a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Brenda Delgado, the jealous ex-girlfriend of Kendra’s boyfriend, Dr. Ricardo “Ricky” Paniagua. Prosecutors said Delgado stalked Kendra, asked several people to kill her, and ultimately recruited Kristopher Love as the gunman and Crystal Cortes as the getaway driver; Cortes was paid $500, while Love received cash and drugs. Love was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, Cortes pleaded guilty and received 35 years, and Delgado was arrested in Mexico after fleeing the country. In 2019, a jury deliberated for less than 20 minutes before finding Delgado guilty of capital murder; she received mandatory life without parole.

  • August 19 · 52 min

    Deanna Cook Called 911 While Being Murdered… But Help Never Came

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Deanna Antoinette Cook with me today. In August 2012, 32-year-old Deanna Cook called 911 from her Dallas home while being attacked by her ex-husband, Delvecchio Patrick. The dispatcher heard her struggling, screaming, and calling Patrick by his nickname, “Red,” but failed to obtain her address or classify the call as an emergency; officers did not reach the home for roughly 50 minutes and left after receiving no answer. Two days later, Deanna’s family forced their way inside and found her face down in a bathtub, where she had been strangled and drowned. In 2015, a jury convicted Patrick of murder and sentenced him to 85 years in prison, with parole eligibility after 30 years. Deanna’s murder became a national example of the devastating consequences of a failed emergency response, prompting major reforms to Dallas’s 911 system and renewed attention to domestic-violence intervention.

  • August 17 · 41 min

    LOVE TRIANGLE turns "Misguided, Wicked, and Evil"

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Keiona Cecilia Braxton with me today. In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 2008, firefighters responding to smoke at an apartment in Henrico County, Virginia, found 26-year-old Keiona Cecilia Braxton dying inside. She was three months pregnant, and the fire had been staged to mask the attack: Keiona had been beaten in the head, stabbed 43 times in the abdomen, and shot, while gas had been left on and aerosol cans placed in the oven in an apparent attempt to cause an explosion.publications. Investigators focused on Kayla Armstrong, the ex-girlfriend of Keiona’s boyfriend and the mother of his child. The two women had a documented history of conflict, Armstrong had previously attacked and stabbed Keiona, and prosecutors alleged jealousy over their shared connection to Kenneth Lee drove the killing. Armstrong fled after her indictment but was arrested in 2012, then pleaded under Alford to voluntary manslaughter in Keiona’s death. While jailed, she also attempted to arrange Lee’s murder; she received 10 years for Keiona’s killing and another 20 years for the attempted-murder plot, for an effective 30-year prison sentence.

  • August 14 · 48 min

    Teenage Love Turns to Unhealthy Obsession : The Emma Walker Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Emma Walker with me today. In November 2016, 16-year-old Emma Walker, an honor student and cheerleader from Knoxville, Tennessee, was asleep in her bedroom when her ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old William Riley Gaul, fired two shots through the outside wall of her family’s house. One bullet struck Emma behind her left ear and killed her; the other lodged in her pillow. Emma had ended the relationship after Gaul’s behavior became controlling and aggressive, and friends later testified that she had grown afraid he would kill her. Prosecutors said Gaul stole a gun from his grandfather, stalked her home, and recruited friends to help dispose of the weapon in the Tennessee River after the shooting. In 2018, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, stalking, theft, reckless endangerment, and evidence-tampering charges. He received a life sentence with parole eligibility only after 51 years; later efforts to overturn the conviction were denied.

  • August 12 · 1 hr 3 min

    Her Husband Paid a Killer... He Chose the Wrong Victim

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Susan Walters with me today. In September 2006, 51-year-old Portland emergency-room nurse Susan Kuhnhausen came home after work and walked into an ambush planned by the man she was divorcing. Hiding inside was Edward Dalton Haffey, a man Susan’s estranged husband, Michael Kuhnhausen, had allegedly promised $50,000 to kill her and make it look like a burglary. Haffey attacked Susan with a claw hammer, but she fought back, disarmed him, and strangled him during the struggle, a killing authorities ruled self-defense. The evidence left behind tied the plot to Michael, who pleaded guilty to soliciting aggravated murder and received a 10-year prison sentence; he died in custody in 2014 before his planned release. Susan later won more than $1 million in a civil suit against him. What Michael intended as a murder-for-hire became a story of survival: the hitman did not leave Susan’s home alive, while the husband who arranged the attack died behind bars.

  • August 10 · 3 hr 50 min

    4 Hours of Horrifying Family Murders

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Linda Kologi, Steve Kologi, Brittany Kologi, Mary Schulz, Shirley Severance, Charles Severance, Chad Amato, Margaret Amato, Cody Amato, Alan Johnson, and Diane Johnson with me today.

  • August 6 · 59 min

    15-Year-Old Hunted Through a Cemetery : The Jessica Keen Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jessica Lyn Keen with me today. In 1991, 15-year-old Jessica Keen disappeared from a youth counseling program in Oregon just one day before she was scheduled to return home. Her disappearance became a haunting cold case until advances in DNA technology identified Marvin Lee Smith, Jr. as her murderer nearly two decades later. In this true crime video, we examine the Jessica Keen murder case, the investigation, the evidence that finally solved the mystery, and the devastating impact her death had on her family.

  • August 3 · 44 min

    Horribly Betrayed in British Columbia : The Rachel Pernosky Case

    In March 2013, 18‑year‑old Rachel Pernosky disappeared from her home in Mission, British Columbia, leaving behind her purse and cellphone, and three days later her body was found down a steep embankment in Chilliwack. The case shocked her family and community because Rachel was a young mother with a one‑year‑old child, and investigators quickly determined that her disappearance was not random. Years later, police charged her estranged half‑brother, Mathew Pernosky, after a lengthy investigation and a “Mr. Big” sting operation led to a confession. Prosecutors said he suffocated Rachel, then moved her body and dumped it in steep terrain before trying to cover his tracks by sending texts from her phone and disposing of her belongings. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to second‑degree murder and indignity to a body and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 13 years, meaning he will spend at least that long behind bars before he can even apply for release.

  • July 31 · 47 min

    Stalking Leads to Severing : The Lauren Giddings Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lauren Giddings with me today. In June 2011, 27‑year‑old Mercer Law graduate Lauren Giddings vanished from her apartment in Macon, Georgia, just as she was studying for the bar exam. Her next‑door neighbor, Stephen McDaniel, had access to the building with a master key, and investigators later said he used it to enter Lauren’s apartment, strangle her in her bedroom, then dismember her body with a hacksaw and dump most of the remains in a campus trash bin. The case grew even darker when Lauren’s torso was found in a trash can outside the apartment complex, while the rest of her remains were never recovered, and McDaniel’s own internet searches and behavior helped police narrow in on him. In 2014, McDaniel pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, later reported as parole eligibility in 2041, ending a case that horrified Macon because a promising young law student was killed by the man living next door.

  • July 29 · 57 min

    She Was Stopped by a Police Officer… Then Vanished

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sarah Rosemary Everard with me today. The murder of Sarah Everard became one of the most high-profile true crime cases in modern British history. In March 2021, the 33-year-old disappeared while walking home through South London, sparking a nationwide search that ended in tragedy. As investigators uncovered the truth, they discovered that Sarah's killer was a serving Metropolitan Police officer, a revelation that shocked the United Kingdom and ignited worldwide conversations about women's safety, police accountability, and public trust. In this true crime documentary, we examine the timeline of Sarah Everard's disappearance, the investigation that led to her killer, the trial, and the lasting impact this heartbreaking case continues to have on England and beyond.

  • July 27 · 33 min

    The Thing About Pam is.. She’s a Killer

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Betsy Faria, Shirley Neumann, and Louis Gumpenberger with me today. In December 2011, 42‑year‑old Betsy Faria was found stabbed more than 50 times in her Missouri home, and suspicion quickly fell on her husband Russ even though he had a solid alibi. Pam Hupp, Betsy’s close friend and the last person known to see her alive, had recently become the sole beneficiary of a $150,000 life‑insurance policy, and prosecutors later said she used that advantage to frame Russ and divert attention from herself. Russ was wrongly convicted at first, but after new evidence emerged he was acquitted at retrial, turning the case into one of the most notorious wrongful convictions in recent memory. The investigation then widened when Hupp killed another man, Louis Gumpenberger, in 2016 and claimed self‑defense; prosecutors said she staged a fake kidnapping scenario to make him look dangerous and to support her version of events. She ultimately pleaded guilty in 2019 and received life in prison without parole, and in 2021 she was separately charged with Betsy Faria’s murder, a case the state says was carried out for money and covered up with a deliberate frame‑job. The whole story became the basis for The Thing About Pam and remains infamous for its blend of murder, deceit, and a wrongful conviction that sent an innocent man to prison.

  • July 24 · 44 min

    High Hopes Dashed : The Defeo Family Destruction

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering the Defeo family with me today. In November 1974, 23‑year‑old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family in their Amityville, New York home as they slept: his parents, two brothers, and two sisters. DeFeo later admitted he was the killer, but his story shifted over time as he blamed the mob, then claimed the house itself and “voices” pushed him into it, while investigators found all six victims face down in their beds with no signs of a struggle. The crime became infamous because it was later turned into the Amityville Horror myth, but the real case was a brutal familicide, not a haunting. After trial, DeFeo was convicted of six counts of second‑degree murder and sentenced to six consecutive terms of 25 years to life, meaning he would spend the rest of his life in prison. He died in 2021 while still incarcerated, and the house at 112 Ocean Avenue remains one of the most notorious addresses in American true crime.

  • July 22 · 46 min

    He Called 911 Begging for Help… But He Had Already Killed Her

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Maria Lizette Nemeth with me today. In this true crime documentary, we examine the brutal 2015 murder of Maria Nemeth in Sunrise, Florida. What began as a frantic 911 call from her boyfriend, Fidel Lopez, claiming she wasn't breathing quickly turned into one of Florida's most shocking homicide investigations. Detectives uncovered a horrific crime scene that contradicted Lopez's story, leading to his arrest, guilty plea, and life sentence without parole. This video explores the full timeline of the Maria Nemeth murder case, the police investigation, interrogation, forensic evidence, and the disturbing events that led to her tragic death.

  • July 17 · 33 min

    Teenager Murdered AT WORK by Obsessed Coworker

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Riley Whitelaw with me today. In June 2022, 17‑year‑old Colorado Springs high‑school student Riley Whitelaw went to her part‑time job at a Walgreens and never came home. When she didn’t return from a 15‑minute break, her manager went looking for her and found Riley dead on the floor of the store’s break room, with blood pooled around her and dozens of wounds to her neck and body. Detectives soon focused on 28‑year‑old coworker Joshua Johnson. Riley had already complained that Johnson made her uncomfortable and asked to be scheduled away from him, but when her hours increased their shifts overlapped again. Surveillance footage showed Johnson stacking plastic bins to block the camera’s view of the break room, and an autopsy later revealed 42 sharp‑force injuries and defensive wounds to Riley’s hands, along with “asphyxial wounding” from a lack of oxygen, consistent with a combination of stabbing and strangling. Johnson was arrested the next day walking along I‑25; prosecutors argued he’d become fixated on Riley and killed her over an unreturned crush, pointing to a multi‑tool with both their DNA that they said was used in the attack. In October 2023, a jury needed barely an hour of deliberation to find Johnson guilty of first‑degree murder, and the judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Riley’s name now lives on through an art scholarship and, in Colorado law, through “Riley’s Law,” which was signed by the governor to better protect the identities of underage crime victims and witnesses in public records.

  • July 15 · 1 hr 13 min

    A Mother’s Car Was Found in Flames… But Paige Birgfeld Was Nowhere to Be Found

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Paige Meredith Birgfeld with me today. In June 2007, 34-year-old Paige Birgfeld disappeared from Grand Junction, Colorado, leaving behind her three young children and a mystery that would grip the community for years. When Paige's car was discovered burned and abandoned in a parking lot, what began as a missing persons case quickly transformed into one of Colorado's most shocking true crime investigations. As detectives searched for the missing mother of three, they uncovered a secret life hidden beneath the surface, opening the door to a growing list of suspects and countless unanswered questions. The investigation into Paige Birgfeld's disappearance and murder would span years, leading to multiple trials, a convicted killer, and a case that continues to fascinate true crime audiences today. In this video, we break down the complete timeline of the Paige Birgfeld case, the investigation, the evidence against Lester Jones, and the heartbreaking story behind one of Colorado's most notorious unsolved mysteries turned murder convictions.

  • July 13 · 51 min

    A Horrifying Display of Hate : The Gwen Araujo Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Gwen Amber Rose Araujo with me today. In October 2002, 17‑year‑old Gwen Amber Rose Araujo, a transgender girl from Newark, California, was attacked at a house party by a group of young men she knew after they forced a “sex check” and discovered she was trans. What started as taunting turned into hours of violence: they beat and choked her, struck her with household objects, strangled her, then hog‑tied her body, drove it into the Sierra foothills, and buried her in a shallow grave. Four men were charged; one cooperated and led police to Gwen’s body, while two, Michael Magidson and Jose Merel were ultimately convicted of second‑degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life, and another accepted a manslaughter plea. The defense’s attempt to use a “gay/trans panic” argument sparked national outrage and helped prompt California’s Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, which tells juries not to let bias about a victim’s gender identity or sexuality excuse violence. Gwen’s mother, Sylvia Guerrero, became a prominent advocate for trans rights, and Gwen’s name is now invoked every year in conversations about anti‑trans hate crimes and remembrance.

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