Anne Marie Fahey was a beautiful, ambitious secretary to the Governor of Delaware when she disappeared in 1996. Anne Marie had been having an affair with a married man—an affair she had ended. But her ex-lover, Thomas Capano, was not a man who took no for an answer. In fact, he had been stalking Anne Marie for weeks. Thomas Capano, a powerful attorney and father of four, denied knowing anything about Anne Marie's disappearance. But when the truth came to the surface, Anne Marie’s loved ones...

Michelle and Jason Young lived in a suburb outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. They had a two-year-old daughter named Cassidy and Michelle was five months pregnant with their second child. By all accounts, theirs was not a happy marriage. Jason had several affairs and spent a lot of time on the road for business. On the morning of November 3, 2006, Jason was out of town. He had checked into a Hampton Inn in Huntsville, Virginia 170 miles from Raleigh the night before. At nine that morning,...

Jassi Kaur Sidhu was born into a family where women are second class citizens, men are in charge of family honor, and women are blamed if they do anything to tarnish it. Her birth wasn’t officially registered by her parents until she was over a year old because her parents were much more focused on her brother. Jassi’s mother, Malkiat Kaur, and father, Bakhtaur Singh, were part of a group who moved from the Punjab’s Doaba region of India to the Canadian West Coast. They settled in the Fraser...

When 19-year old Jessica O’Grady stopped answering her phone on May 11, 2006, her friends and family worried.  She had left to see her boyfriend late the night before and hadn’t been seen since. Jessica had recently found out that she was pregnant.  Her boyfriend, Chris Edwards, had another girlfriend, Michelle, who was also pregnant.  Still, Jessica was optimistic.  She loved Chris and wanted to have a family with him.  What she didn’t know was that, to Chris, Jessica was just a fling.  He...

Kristin Rossum and Greg de Villers were newlyweds who seemed to have a bright future ahead of them. But sometimes things are not what they seem. Beneath the surface, their relationship was poisoned by lies, addiction and betrayal. Kristin was a toxicologist at the medical examiner’s office.  She may have appeared to be professional and loyal, but she was, in truth, a methamphetamine addict involved in a long-term sexual affair with her boss. She was also in a position with unlimited access...

John David Smith married his second wife, Fran, in 1990. While confined to her home recovering from a broken hip, Fran disappeared from her New Jersey home in 1991. Fran’s daughter DeDe and sister Sherrie called the house, frantically trying to reach Fran, but there was no answer.  Then DeDe called John at work. He claimed that Fran had packed her bags and left him, but how could she have done that when she couldn’t even walk? John had been lying to everyone.  Fran’s family members found all...

Suspicions turned to college student Christopher Porco soon after his parents, Peter and Joan Porco, were attacked with an ax in the middle of the night back in 2004. It seemed unimaginable.  Christopher came from a stable, middle-class family.  He did well in high school, scoring 1400 on his SATs.  But Christopher had dark secrets. Once Christopher was in college, he created a false image of himself as a trust fund kid, buying rounds of drinks for his friends, designer clothes, and a...

Child molester and killer Westley Allan Dodd is remembered as one of the most evil men in modern history.  What I find interesting about this case is how early in his life Dodd began to have his sick urges and how his behavior progressed from exposing himself to murder- virtually unchecked. After his murder convictions, Dodd revealed that he had been molesting young children since the age of 13.  In his final interviews, he admitted that there was no treatment for him and, if set free, he...

When he was 19, Chuck Riley met 15-year-old Marlene Olive while dealing drugs at her high school. He developed a crush on her and they eventually became boyfriend and girlfriend. Marlene controlled their relationship and Chuck did anything to please her. Marlene had a deeply troubled home life.  Her mother, Naomi, suffered from alcoholism and mental illness. Marlene and Naomi fought constantly.  Marlene rebelled at an early age with heavy drug use, delinquency, self-harming behaviors,...

Peter Bergna picked up his wife Rinette from the airport and drove up Slide Mountain near their home to talk about their marital problems. According to Peter, the brakes on his truck malfunctioned, causing the truck to crash through a guardrail and nosedive off an 800-foot cliff.  Peter was lucky. He had somehow been expelled from the driver’s side window and landed without serious injury on the upper slope of the mountain. Rinette was not so lucky. Her broken body was found inside the...

The murder of Andrew Bagby was an event of terrible shock and grief for the loved ones he left behind, especially his mother and father.  Andrew was David and Kate Bagby’s only child.  He was well-liked with a promising future as a family physician.  In 1999, Andrew began dating medical intern Shirley Turner.  When he tried to end things with Shirley, she responded badly.  Andrew believed he had ended the relationship for good in November, 2001.  But Shirley phoned him obsessively and drove...

Jack Unterweger’s lust for violence was insatiable. His first known murder victim was Margret Schafer, an 18-year-old German girl. Unterweger would tell a jury that, at the moment of her killing, he had seen his mother reflected in her face and he acted out of a lifetime of rage. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. But in jail, Unterweger read voraciously and he began to write poetry, short stories, plays, and an autobiography.  After over 15 years in prison, Unterweger was released based...

Apparently hard-working and intelligent mother of two and registered nurse, Kristen Gilbert, was living the life of a middle-class soccer mom. She had a good job, a loving husband, and two children. She seemed a lot like the other Massachusetts suburbanites in her neighborhood, but she held sinister secrets that eventually bubbled to the surface. Beneath the façade of an ordinary working mother, Kristen lived a life of duplicity. Before her 30th birthday, she was arrested on suspicion of...

After suffering for years in an abusive marriage, Helle Crafts filed for divorce in the summer of 1986. Soon afterward, she disappeared. Her friends filed a missing person’s report, but her husband, Richard Crafts, gave various stories that Helle was off visiting relatives or that she just needed some time alone. Police suspected foul play, but with no body, it was impossible to prove that a homicide had even occurred. Police did learn, however, that Richard Crafts had purchased several...

Middle-aged mother of two Susan Fassett was an unlikely victim in a love triangle that ended in her murder.  Married to a cop and a member of the church choir, Susan had a reputation as an honest, upstanding person.  After her death, the secrets revealed about her life came as a shock to most. The biggest shock of all was that Susan was involved with a man commonly referred to as the scum of the earth. Fred Andros, a mean, homely, and amoral man, extorted money, frequented prostitutes, and...

A Florida woman saw the state patrol car's lights flashing behind her and wondered why she was being stopped. She didn't think she was speeding, she later told investigators, but she pulled her car onto the southbound shoulder of Interstate 95 and waited as Trooper Tim Harris approached her car. Trooper Harris asked her to get out of her car.  Then he saw that she was obviously pregnant. He gave her a warning ticket for driving 6 miles over the speed limit and let her go. Police would later...

To say that Stella Nickell had a rough upbringing would be an understatement. She had a childhood of poverty, neglect, and abuse. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. In the next 12 years, she had numerous failed relationships, a failed marriage, and spent time in jail. In early 1974, when she was 32, she met Bruce Nickell and they married. One summer day in 1986, Bruce came home with a headache and took four Excedrin capsules. Stella said that her husband walked out on the back...

In 2012, Harold and Toni Henthorn celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary with a hiking trip in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Toni plummeted off of a 100-foot cliff and died a horrible death. Harold told police that his wife was busy taking photos and must have slipped. He didn't see exactly what had happened because he was using his cell phone at the time. It could have been a tragic accident. After all, Harold was a respected member of the community, a loving husband, and a...

The case of physician Michael Swango not only exposed the dark side of a man who had taken an oath to do no harm, it also opened our eyes to a professional environment where doctors accepted the word of fellow physicians over that of nurses and patients—even as evidence of gross misbehavior piled up. Michael grew up in Quincy, Illinois and graduated as valedictorian at the Quincy Catholic Boys High School. He served in the Marine Corps, receiving an honorable discharge in 1980. He then...

Baptist minister Matt Baker presented himself to the world as a man of God, a family man who set an example for his faithful parishioners.  But when his wife Kari was found dead in their bed of an apparent suicide, questions about who he really was emerged.  Kari Baker’s mother and aunts would become the catalysts to investigate Matt Baker’s deceptions and lies, working with police to expose him as a narcissistic bully and a lifelong sexual predator. What they uncovered would open up...

Between the ages of 17 and 24, Keli Lane had two abortions and gave birth to three babies, all without the knowledge of her mother Sandra or her police officer father Robert. Not only that, but her five pregnancies occurred while Keli was playing water polo at a national level and spent most of her time in a swim suit. Keli’s 4th child, Tegan Lane, born in 1996, went home with Keli two days after her birth.  Keli was at a friend’s wedding that evening and not a word was spoken about her...

In 1971, 13-year old Charlie Brandt shot his pregnant mother to death before turning the gun on his father and sister.  In the years that followed, he seemed to move forward and live a normal life with college, marriage, and a career.  Charlie and his wife Teri were a close, fun-loving couple--the kind of couple others envy. Then, in 2004, a hidden life was revealed. Charlie was not who he appeared to be.  There was a darkness no one had seen. But there had been signs. Charlie loved to fish...

The case we’re talking about today, more than any in recent history, illustrates that we don’t always know the people close to us as well as we think we do.  We’re talking about the case of a family annihilator: Chris Watts. In August of 2018, Chris murdered his pregnant wife and his two preschool-aged daughters.  Then he loaded their lifeless bodies into his truck and dumped them at a work site.  He was seen later that morning by co-workers and all of them would report that Chris acted...

Julie Miller met Dennis Bulloch through a newspaper ad and fell hard for him. He seemed like the answer to all of her problems. As a successful executive approaching her 30th birthday, Julie was ready to get married. Dennis seemed like the all-American guy—good-looking and described as soft-hearted and sensitive by former girlfriends. Just four months into their marriage, emergency responders were called out to a fire at the Bulloch’s home. Amid the charred debris, they found a body...

Mick Philpott lived off of welfare benefits.  He had been unfaithful and violent towards women throughout his adult life. His reckless and selfish plan to frame an ex-girlfriend for leaving him would result in the death of six innocent children. A father of 17 children, Philpott lived with two women and once appeared on a daytime talk show to demand a bigger government house for his oversized family. But beyond the caricature of a welfare parasite, Philpott exposed a much more dangerous...