True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

How Did a Routine Stolen Plate Check at 1:34 AM in Pensacola End the Hunt for Ted Bundy?

The Tallahassee Police Department responded to the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University in the early hours of January 15, 1978. What they found inside — Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy killed, Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler severely injured — was unlike anything the department had investigated. Nita Neary, the only eyewitness, described a man in a stocking mask on the stairs carrying an oak log. The investigators photographed a bite mark on Lisa Levy's body. It was the only physical evidence the man left behind. Tallahassee did not know it was hunting Ted Bundy. Florida had no file on him. He had arrived in the state nine days earlier under an alias, after escaping from a Colorado jail on December 30, 1977. In the weeks that followed, he moved around Tallahassee under stolen identities. On February 8 in Jacksonville, he approached a fourteen-year-old girl outside a school. Her brother wrote the plate number on his hand and called police. The plate came back stolen. On February 9, twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach was seen walking toward a white van at Lake City Junior High. Her body was recovered fifty-seven days later. The investigation broke on February 15 when Pensacola Officer David Lee ran a stolen plate on an orange Volkswagen at 1:34 in the morning. The driver fought, ran, and was caught. He gave a stolen student ID. Two days later he identified himself as Ted Bundy, and three state investigations converged on one Florida holding cell. This is the fourth of five conversations in Ted Bundy: History's Hidden Killers. The investigation that started with a bite mark and ended with a stolen plate — and the three weeks in between that had names attached to every one of them. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ [https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/] Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1] Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod [https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod] X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod [https://x.com/TrueCrimePod] This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #TedBundy #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #ChiOmega #FSU #Tallahassee #Florida #KimberlyLeach #NitaNeary #TrueCrimePodcast

What Does a Three-Hour Verdict Say About Kouri Richins?

Zero defense witnesses. A waived right to testify. Three weeks of silence from a woman whose entire psychological operating system runs on narrative production. And a juror who watched the transformation from "trapped" to "like a statue."This episode tracks what sustained silence does to a mind like Kouri Richins'. Not the legal strategy behind the defense's decision — the psychological experience of it. What it's like to sit in a chair while people from your own life deconstruct the person you built yourself into. Your housekeeper describing the fentanyl sale. Your boyfriend weeping while your love messages are displayed for strangers. A forensic accountant proving your success was a $4.5 million fiction.The reflex that produces stories under threat was firing constantly. But the attorneys had closed the valve. Three weeks of narrative pressure building behind a closed door. And then a three-hour verdict that said she wasn't even close to reasonable doubt. Part four of five. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want [https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want] to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram] https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook [https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook] https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok [https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok] https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX [https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX] Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod [https://x.com/TrueCrimePod] This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #KouriRichinsTrial #Psychology #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #FentanylPoisoning #SummitCounty #TrueCrimeCommunity #Justice

The Crash: Did the Prosecution Misread Mackenzie Shirilla's Relationship Entirely?

Two weeks before the crash that killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, there was an incident on I-71. The prosecution's version: a friend overheard Mackenzie Shirilla say "I will crash this car right now" during a fight with Dominic. That testimony became evidence of prior calculation — proof she'd rehearsed the act before she carried it out. But text messages tell a different story. Mackenzie told Dominic's mother it was Dom who grabbed the steering wheel, not her. Two versions of the same violent moment, and only one was presented at trial. That contradiction sits at the center of a much bigger question about the Mackenzie Shirilla case — did the prosecution actually understand the relationship it was using as a motive? The couple broke up constantly. Fights were explosive on both sides. Mackenzie sent messages saying she wanted to hurt herself during arguments. The dynamic was volatile, destructive, and far more mutual than the one-sided narrative the trial presented. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott has spent decades working in domestic violence, forensic mental health, and crisis intervention. She examines the relationship dynamics the trial treated as evidence but never clinically analyzed — the attachment patterns that keep two young people trapped in a destructive cycle, what a breakup represents to someone with Mackenzie's psychology, and why the competing accounts of that I-71 incident tell a clinician something very different from what they told a prosecutor. The crash happened inside a relationship. If you misread the relationship, you misread everything that followed. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ [https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/] Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1] Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod [https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod] X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod [https://x.com/TrueCrimePod] This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MackenzieShirilla #TheCrash #TheCrashNetflix #DominicRusso #DavionFlanagan #ShavaunScott #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #Netflix #CriminalPsychology

The Crash: Why Everything You Think About Mackenzie Shirilla's Personality Is Probably Wrong

Ninety-three thousand text messages were reviewed in the Mackenzie Shirilla case. The prosecution selected the most threatening ones and presented them to a judge as proof of a mind capable of premeditated murder. "My way or the highway." "Watch your back, your house, your car, your life." A TikTok persona that screamed narcissism. An arrest where she asked cops to protect her bracelets. The personality profile wrote itself — cold, controlling, dangerous. But psychotherapist Shavaun Scott has spent three decades treating people with exactly this kind of presentation, and she says the clinical read is almost always the opposite of what the public assumes. The narcissism isn't confidence — it's a collapsing sense of self held together by image. The controlling behavior isn't strategic — it's panic. The ultimatums aren't the language of someone planning a murder — they're the language of someone terrified of being left. Shirilla was seventeen when the Strongsville, Ohio crash killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. She was convicted of four counts of murder. Netflix's The Crash put the case in front of millions. And the question that almost nobody is asking is the one that might matter most: is the personality profile that convicted her actually evidence of premeditated intent — or is it evidence of a teenager in psychological free fall? Shavaun Scott examines the clinical reality behind the behavior — what the texts actually reveal, what the self-obsession masks, and whether any of it crosses the line from emotional volatility into the kind of cold-blooded planning the prosecution described. The answer might change how you see the entire case. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ [https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/] Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1] Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod [https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod] X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod [https://x.com/TrueCrimePod] This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MackenzieShirilla #TheCrash #TheCrashNetflix #DominicRusso #DavionFlanagan #ShavaunScott #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #Netflix #CriminalPsychology

Why Did Rebecca Haro Have A Baby With A Man Already Convicted Of Child Cruelty?

Rebecca Haro knew exactly who Jake Haro was when she had a baby with him. She knew about the 2023 child cruelty conviction in Riverside County. She knew about the 2024 illegal possession of a loaded firearm and the probation violations. She knew about the ex-wife who had gone into court and asked a judge for a domestic violence restraining order, specifically requesting protection for a child she shared with him. None of it stopped her. She brought seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro into that home anyway. And the documented danger Rebecca knew about did exactly what every prior court record said it would do. In this episode, Tony lays out the warning signs everyone could see in public records and the choices Rebecca Haro made anyway. The forensic pediatric specialist's findings on injuries spanning the months of Emmanuel's short life. The eight days Rebecca and Jake Haro sustained a fake kidnapping in front of television cameras, candlelight vigils outside their Cabazon home, and a national news cycle after their son's death. The black eye Rebecca somehow conveniently acquired before her first on-camera interview. The single scripted word, Hola, that planted a phantom stranger in the public imagination. The begging on camera for strangers to bring back a baby whose body she had helped hide. The Riverside County District Attorney's Office called Rebecca Haro's plea a reflection of her sins of parental omission. Twelve years and eight months in state prison. The murder charge dropped. The false police report charge dropped. Jake Haro is doing thirty-two years to life and will likely die in prison. The full story of what happens when a parent watches their child be killed and helps lie about it. Hear every piece of it. END LINKS Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ [https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/] Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1] Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ [https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/] Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod [https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod] X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod [https://x.com/TrueCrimePod] This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. HASHTAGS (10) #RebeccaHaro #JakeHaro #EmmanuelHaro #BabyEmmanuel #Yucaipa #TrueCrime #FakeKidnapping #RiversideCounty #PleaDeal #HiddenKillers