Soldier and young father Layne Schmidtke is brutally beaten to death by a mob of teenagers. Kenda must reconstruct the chaotic scene through forensic evidence and witness testimonies, which reveals an unlikely suspect as the murderous ringleader. -Slaughterhouse Six, Homicide Hunter (S2, E5)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Housewife Elsie Jennes is found dead in the basement of her burning home. Lt Joe Kenda has no leads until Elsie’s son, William, turns up in a police station over 50 miles away, equipped with a suitcase, a pet yellow labrador, and a bizarre story to tell. -The Spy Who Killed Me, Homicide Hunter (S2, E4)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Teen runaway Maggie Fetty is found strangled to death on a mountain road. An anonymous tipster blames Maggie’s best friend, but she accuses a mental patient with multiple personalities. Kenda must turn the suspects against each other to learn the truth. -A Gathering of Evil, Homicide Hunter (S2, E2)
“When the time came to handle funeral arrangements for Maggie Fetty, no one was there to do it so Lt. Joe Kenda and his fellow officers did it themselves. They chipped in and bought her a head stone to assist with the evidence of her passing. The headstone is a reminder for Joe Kenda of why he chose a life in law enforcement. Joe said he can’t stop a murderer or undue the murder once it’s been done but he can certainly find the person responsible and make sure they don’t do it again. Society has a way of forgetting about the most vulnerable but when it comes to Joe Kenda, nobody slips through the cracks, not a culprit, not a co-conspirator, and certainly not Maggie Fetty.” -A Gathering of Evil, Homicide Hunter
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Mother of three Dianne Hood is shot to death by a masked gunman on her way home from a Lupus support meeting. Police initially assume it’s a robbery, but Lt. Joe Kenda uncovers a sordid web of lust and greed, revealing a killer no one ever expected. -I Now Pronounce You Dead, Homicide Hunter (S2, E1)
Update:
Reali shot and killed her lover’s wife in 1990. -CBS Denver (April 6, 2018)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
In 2002, Erika and BJ Sifrit’s vacation in Ocean City, MD ended with them in the back of a squad car arrested for armed robbery. When two dismembered bodies were later unearthed, the connection between the two crimes would reveal a grisly murder. -Ocean City, Sins and Secrets (S2,E8)
A seemingly perfect young couple is concealing a sinful life of crime and sexual depravity. Then later, a threesome of lovers ends in a bizarre homicide and cover-up. -Killers on the Run, Deadly Sins (S3,E9)
Forensic Files:
Full Episode: The couple spent Memorial Day weekend at the beach, and then they simply vanished. Their clothes and personal items were still in the rented condo, their car was parked outside, and there were no signs of forced entry or foul play. A week later, police would get an unexpected lead from a robbery in progress, and the evidence they found helped them to solve a crime of unparalleled violence and brutality. -Dirty Little Seacret, Forensic Files (S13, E46)
Oxygen:
A young woman’s scrapbook offers insight into a shocking crime. -Erika Sifrit, Snapped (S8,E11)
A vacationing couple’s disappearance exposes the horrific crimes of a murderous husband and wife. -Erika and BJ Sifrit, Killer Couples (S11,E2)
Podcast:
Once Upon A Crime – Episode 112: Listener Suggestions: Erika and Benjamin Sifrit – Killer Couple (December 22, 2018)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
In 2000, Michelle Theer was an Air Force wife in the military town of Fayetteville until a fatal shooting made her a widow. The investigation into her husband’s death led police to the door of an Army Ranger – taking orders from very unlikely accomplices. -Fayetteville, Sins and Secrets (S2,E3)
Sexy psychologist and doting Air Force wife Michelle begins a swinging affair with Army Sgt. Diamond while her husband, Captain Marty Theer, is away. But all’s fair in love and war, and Marty’s return will remind them that love is a battlefield. -Sergeant Swinger, Scorned: Love Kills (S4,E1)
Oxygen:
A frantic, distraught woman runs into a video rental store screaming that her husband has been shot. -Michelle Theer & John Diamond, Killer Couples
Killer Couples: S8 E5 Preview – Michelle Theer and John Diamond | Oxygen
Killer Couples: S8 E5 After the Verdict – Michelle Theer and John Diamond | Oxygen
Psychologist Debbie Layton-Tholl talks about her experience meeting with Michelle Theer. -Michelle Theer & John Diamond, Killer Couples
A lonely military wife and psychologist go searching for sex on the Internet with deadly results. -Michelle Theer & John Diamond, Killer Couples (S8,E5)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Paramedics respond to a horrific crime scene – a woman is found tied to a bed with slashes across her body. Next to her on the floor, a man with three gunshot wounds. Detectives spend the next several years unraveling this bizarre mystery. -Last Man Standing, Solved (S2,E10)
Navy Petty Officer Elise Makdessi worked as an Air Traffic Controller at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. Elise was married to Eddie Makdessi for five years and they lived off base in Virginia Beach. Elise unknowingly helped plan, organize, and carry out her own murder and it is unclear if she was a willing participant in the original plot with Eddie to scam the government out of money or if she was controlled by Eddie. Eddie Makdessi murdered Elise Makdessi and Navy Petty Officer Quincy Brown on May 14, 1996 as part of an elaborate scam. The whole thing was a set up. Elise thought she was part of an arrangement where she would invite Quincy Brown to the house, have sex with him, then accuse him of rape. She also manufactured evidence to make it look like she was documenting sexual abuse in an effort to sue the Navy and make millions. She had journals and created what looked like a rehearsed video outlining what four Navy men, including Quincy Brown, did to her on the job.
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch all of the Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. Download the ID Go app and binge away. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $2.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict.
Dark Secrets are the stock-in-trad of Deadly Women. -Dark Secrets, Deadly Women (S2, E4)
Judy Buenoano
1. Judy Buenoano
Date: June 25, 1983 (the date of the explosion that was her downfall) Victims: John Goodyear (husband), Michael Buenoano (son), and John Gentry (fiancé, survived) Location: Pensacola, Florida Circumstances: John Gentry found out his wife Judy was pregnant and he was excited about their future; then John left the house, got into his car, and the car blew up; someone blew the car up with dynamite and it got the attention of investigators; John survived the blast but the discovery of dynamite residue meant this was no accident; four days later, detectives asked John who would profit from his death; they learned his mother and his fiancé Judy did; although John never imagined Judy had anything to do with it because he thought the policy was cancelled; a reporter recognized Judy from the nail salon she went to; news of the explosion was on at the nail salon; Judy didn’t say a word and just quietly kept working on her nails; the reporter noticed she had a darkness about her; the reporter took notice of the feelings she had about her; investigators learned that Judy told John she was pregnant with his child but she was lying because she had been surgically sterilized five years earlier; investigators found an insurance policy that showed she took out $500,000 on John; John thought the policy was cancelled but it was not; John was in denial initially but began to realize this may not have been Judy’s first attempt to kill him; Judy pushed John to take vitamins and after he took them he would get sick and throw up; he went to the hospital and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong; he stopped taking them but hid it from Judy; they were Judy’s poison pills; John was shocked to learn she had a secret life insurance policy on him for half a million dollars; investigators believe Judy may have killed before; 12 years earlier, Judy was married to James Goodyear; James was an Air Force sergeant who served in Vietnam; he was home on leave enjoying some R&R with his new wife but what he got was arsenic poisoning; it had no odor and dissolved easily; Judy served up tiny amounts so it went unnoticed; it progressively damages the liver and the heart; chronic arsenic poisoning is hard to detect; within 3 months, James was dead and Judy collected a large insurance settlement; this first murder set the stage for Judy’s career as a serial killer because she killed for profit; a decade later, James spoke from the grave when he was exhumed and they found arsenic in his system; Judy got away with murder for 12 years; investigators also learned when her son Michael turned 18, he wanted to join the military; on his way to a post in Georgia, he visited with his mom at which time Judy fed him arsenic because she had several life insurance policies on her son too; sociopaths don’t feel love and lack empathy; to Judy, her son was just another check waiting to get in her bank account; Michael didn’t die but he became crippled from the arsenic and was discharged from the Army as a result; he wore braces on both his arms and legs because he was paralyzed from the elbow down and the knee down; he was back in Judy’s care at it wasn’t long before Judy took Michael on a canoeing trip; he had 15 lbs of weighted braces on his arms and legs and could barely walk, let alone swim; she took him out of site of the landing and public view and the canoe some how capsized; one of her stories was they hit a log and the canoe overturned; she also said a snake fell in the boat; Michael, weighted down by the braces, could not swim and sunk to the bottom of the lake; Judy never attempted to save her son and he drowned; most parents would do whatever they could to save their child; later Judy hailed a passing fisherman, told him about the accident and drank a cold beer; she collected from two life insurance policies; she knew the braces would render Michael helpless; the police finally pieced together Judy’s secrets; she went too far when she used the dynamite because she wanted too much, too soon; the prosecutor said he never witnessed the sense of evil he did with Judy in his 30 years of prosecuting cases; Judy insisted she was innocent to her grave but those who knew her had no question about her guilt Motive: Greed (life insurance money) Disposition: Judy Buenoano was found guilty of first degree murder and first degree grand theft and sentenced to death; Judy was executed on March 30, 1998 by the State of Florida
Date: September 28, 1917 Victim: Annie Burkett (wife) Location: Australia Circumstances: Harry Crawford was barely scraping by in life; he had a lot of different jobs and moved often; if people asked too many questions, he would move again; Annie Burkett was married to Harry and he was a stepfather to her son; they were a typical family and Annie didn’t know Harry was living a lie; his name really wasn’t Harry Crawford because he wasn’t even a man; his name was Eugenia Falleni, and she wasn’t a Scotsman, she was an Italian woman; it was a secret he would kill to protect; he deceived everyone for decades; Eugenia was a woman living as a man at a time transsexuals were not accepted; she could be discovered at any time and jailed for living as a deviant; what she was doing was actually quite dangerous in those times because she would experience a lot of hostility; the marriage to Annie was actually null and void because she entered into a marriage as a man under false pretenses; Annie had no idea her husband was a woman because Eugenia hid it from her in the bedroom too; but after 4 years of marriage, Annie realized she’d been duped and she was devastated; she discovered the true gender of her life partner and threatened to expose Harry; he was afraid he would go to prison; Harry lured Annie to a secluded park for a picnic and smashed Annie over the head with a bottle, then she panicked; while Annie was still alive, Eugenia set her body on fire in a campfire because she believed she could burn the body beyond recognition; but Eugenia’s body was found yet not identified right away; Eugenia’s motivation for killing was to save herself and her standing in the community, she wanted to protect her identity; now her biggest concern was Annie’s son Harry; with Annie out of the way, there was only one other obstacle so she took Harry to a notorious suicide spot and tried to lure him to the edge; Harry hung back and it literally saved his life because she couldn’t convince him to go to the edge; the fear and panic was not enough to drive her to kill Harry; Eugenia kept this dark secret hidden for another 3 years; she went on to marry another woman and after 12 months, she was arrested by the police and charged with the murder of Annie Burkett whose body was finally identified; after the arrest, she became a freak show and even the media referred to her as a “freak,” “monster,” and “pervert” Motive: Wife Annie threatened to reveal the true identity of Eugenia; she did not want to go to prison or lose standing in the community Disposition: On July 5, 1920, Eugenia Falleni was charged with the murder of Annie Burkett; on October 6, 1920, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to death; although in the end, she was spared execution and released after 11 years in prison; she lived the rest of her life as a woman
Date: 1977-1982 Victims:Chelsea McClellan (Genene is suspected of killing up to 60 infants) Location: Bexar County, Texas (San Antonio and Kerrville) Circumstances: Babies were dying without cause at a medical center in San Antonio, Texas; they saw an increase in pulmonary arrests in the children’s ward; the death rate went from one a week to 3-5 a week; staff knew they had a murderer inside the hospital and the prime suspect was nurse Genene Jones, a 31 year old vocational nurse who had a hero complex; she liked the idea that she could save lives in an emergency; when someone has a strong need to be seen as a hero or savior, this is the hero complex; when someone creates a scenario where they can rush in and save the person, that’s dangerous; Genene used a variety of drugs to stress her patients like blood thinners and cardiac arrest agents; she didn’t necessarily want to kill her victims, just make them sick enough so she can rescue them; this was her way of getting attention; she would call a code red and people would rush to the scene; she would resuscitate them and bring them back to life when she could but all too often Genene miscalculated her poison; she was searching for respect; she felt important and powerful when she was tending to defenseless children; perhaps Genene was overcompensating for previous losses; soon after birth, Genene was abandoned by her natural parents and given up for adoption; at 16, her closest brother died in a car accident; another brother succumbed to cancer 8 years later; cancer also took her father at age 56; if someone feels unloved, they may spend the rest of their adult life trying to acquire the attention they did not get as a child and engage in various behavior including criminal behavior to gain the attention; in one two week period at the San Antonio medical center, 7 children died; but co-workers started to connect the dots and asked questions; they discovered all of the deaths were on the same shift and were taken care of by Genene; they thought it was suspicious and reported it to administrators; but administrators failed to report the information to the medical examiner’s office and didn’t instantly remove Nurse Jones; she was left on the ward even after they knew what was going on; they finally did something when staff insisted but they were fearful of getting sued more than saving the lives of the children; according to the medical examiner at the time, Genene was the worse serial murderer in the history of Texas; and what’s worse is that a nurse could murder and it was covered up; no one is sure how many children died because a lot of the records disappeared and the deaths were not reported or autopsied; eventually the hospital raised the qualifications for nurses in the ward and Genene no longer qualified so they let her go but gave her an excellent letter of recommendation; she was free to kill again; soon she was working in a pediatric facility in Kerrville, Texas; her new boss had no idea about Genene’s past; Genene was asked to look after a child with a cold and suddenly Chelsea stopped breathing; she saved her and was hailed a hero; the need to do this is a bottomless pit that is never filled; one month later, Chelsea is once again in respiratory arrest after another routine check up by Nurse Jones; she was rushed to the ER but didn’t survive this time; death was incidental to all the excitement Genene got from trying to save a child; Chelsea’s death was initially ruled Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) but upon closer inspection, Genene’s secret was discovered; the death was suspicious and Genene was once again investigated; the autopsy revealed that the baby suffocated to death from Succinylcholine poisoning; and after Chelsea’s death, Genene visited Chelsea’s grave and appeared genuinely remorseful; Chelsea’s mother happened to visit at the same time and she was curious why this nurse was at the gravesite, so distraught; more evidence was discovered; hospital staff noticed pinholes in the agent used to kill little Chelsea; she replaced what she took with saline solution; Chelsea’s body revealed traces of Succinylcholine (anectine); Genene’s colleagues at her last job confirmed that she was a suspected killer long before she arrived at the Kerrville clinic; Chelsea’s murder was the one that finally put her way for good but no one was ever charged for the several deaths at the medical center in San Antonio; to this day, Genene insists that she’s innocent; professionals acknowledge this is a common form of denial that comes with who have the hero complex; they need to be incarcerated for the rest of their lives because there is no way to know if they won’t kill again Motive: Attention, hero complex Disposition: Genene Jones was found guilty of first degree murder and causing injury to seven other children; she was sentenced to 99 years in prison
Dark Secrets are the stock-in-trade of Deadly Women (S2,E4)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
HISTORY – Twisted Philly – Episode 14: PART 1 – Ms. Rambo
To recap part one, Sylvia Seegrist was a resident of Springfield, Pennsylvania, a suburb about 10 miles outside the city… -Ms. Rambo, Twisted Philly
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 