True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Four days into the search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, the investigation has reportedly turned toward those closest to her.According to a law enforcement source speaking to journalist Ashley Banfield, a vehicle belonging to Annie Guthrie — Nancy's daughter, Savannah's sister, and the last person to see Nancy alive — has been towed, impounded, and placed into evidence. FBI agents reportedly spent approximately two hours at Annie's home on Tuesday.Banfield was careful to frame this development. She emphasized that investigators always look at family first. It's standard procedure. She...

The verdict is in. Brendan Banfield, the former IRS criminal investigator, has been convicted of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife Christine and Ryan Banfield. The jury deliberated nine hours and came back with guilty on everything. No lesser charges, no compromises. Life without parole.Today on True Crime Today, defense attorney Bob Motta breaks down what happened in that Virginia courtroom and why the defense strategy failed. At the center of this case was Juliana, the au pair who admitted involvement but cut a deal that dropped her murder charge to manslaughter. She walked...

Forget what you think you know about this case. This is the deep dive that puts it all together — and what it reveals is a pattern of alleged predatory behavior that spans thirty years, two generations, and at least two suspicious deaths.John-Paul Miller built his reputation as a man of God. He stood at the pulpit every Sunday preaching salvation. But according to court documents, sworn affidavits, police reports, and a federal indictment, the man behind the cross was allegedly running a different kind of operation entirely.His first wife alleges he confessed to se...

Three cases. Three stages. One expert who's spent thirty years reading dangerous people. Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and head of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, breaks down the behavioral evidence in the McKee, Greenberg, and Banfield cases. Michael McKee allegedly threatened his ex-wife Monique Tepe for eight years before the December 30th killings — Robin explains what the language of ownership reveals and why the reconnaissance trip matters. Ellen Greenberg was found with 20 stab wounds and ruled a suicide — now federal investigators are reportedly probing whether officials committed crimes. Robin explains how corruption cases get built. Brendan Banfield call...

Federal prosecutors have reportedly issued subpoenas to multiple Philadelphia agencies in the Ellen Greenberg case—and they're not looking at whether Ellen was murdered. They're looking at whether the officials who handled her case broke federal law.Ellen Greenberg died in 2011 with twenty stab wounds, including ten to the back of her neck. The medical examiner ruled it homicide. Police pushed back. The ruling changed to suicide. For fifteen years, her parents have fought every agency in Pennsylvania to get answers. Every agency told them the same thing: their daughter killed herself by stabbing herself in the ba...

Three weeks of testimony. Two days of the defendant on the stand. Brendan Banfield testified that he heard "moaning" from the bedroom, went upstairs with his gun, and shot Joseph Ryan after finding him kneeling over his naked wife with a knife. He called the murder accusation "absolutely crazy." But his own IRS supervisor came forward to say there was no important meeting scheduled that morning — contradicting his alibi. Prosecutors showed jail letters where Banfield professed love to Juliana and discussed baby names. They showed a framed photo of him and the au pair on his nightstand months after Ch...

The Nick Reiner case has sparked a national conversation about mental health, addiction, and what happens when families run out of options. But lost in the debate about system failures is a harder question: What do you do when someone refuses to be saved?Today we examine Nick Reiner's documented history — not through tabloid speculation, but through his own words in interviews spanning nearly a decade. From telling NPR he was a "spoiled, white, rich kid" to choosing homelessness over rehab rules to admitting on a podcast that he destroyed his parents' guest house while high on up...

Fifteen years after Ellen Greenberg was found with 20 stab wounds and ruled a suicide, the federal government is asking questions — not about how she died, but about who decided to call it suicide and why. Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and behavioral analysis expert, explains the federal methodology: how investigators build corruption cases against institutions, what makes people in the orbit of an investigation decide to cooperate, and what the medical examiner's sworn recantation of his own ruling means for everyone else who touched this case. The crime scene was professionally cleaned before homicide detectives could return. Electronic de...

The probable cause affidavit in the Michael McKee case has been unsealed, and the details are damning. According to court documents filed in Franklin County, McKee allegedly stalked his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Spencer for weeks before their December 30th murders—and drove 900 miles round trip in just 17 hours to carry out the killings.Here's what we now know from the affidavit:McKee allegedly entered the Tepe property on December 6th while the couple was at the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis. Surveillance video captured him on the property for several hours. Mo...

Eight years after their divorce, Michael McKee allegedly told Monique Tepe he could kill her at any time. Now he's charged with her murder — and the murder of her husband Spencer. Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and behavioral analysis expert, breaks down the unsealed affidavit in the case against the Illinois vascular surgeon accused of driving 900 miles to execute the couple in their Weinland Park home on December 30th. The documents reveal alleged strangulation and sexual assault during the marriage, years of threatening statements reported by witnesses, and a surveillance trip to their property while they were at a...

When Kouri Richins was arrested in May 2023 for allegedly poisoning her husband Eric with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule, the case against her seemed overwhelming. Financial desperation. Life insurance policies. A housekeeper who said she sold Kouri the drugs. A drug dealer who confirmed the fentanyl. Nearly three years later, as jury selection approaches for her February 2026 trial, the prosecution's case has been carved up by defense wins and judicial rulings. The drug dealer, Robert Crozier, has recanted — now claiming under oath he sold OxyContin, not fentanyl. Judge Mrazik severed 26 financial felony charges from the murder trial, meaning the jury wo...

Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer joins True Crime Today to analyze two cases defined by alleged institutional failure.The McKee investigation: surveillance footage, ballistics databases, and the eleven-day forensic trail that led to a surgeon's arrest for allegedly murdering his ex-wife and her husband. Plus the behavioral red flags — death threats, strangulation allegations, pre-offense stalking — that allegedly went unaddressed for eight years.The WSU lawsuit: the families of the Idaho Four have taken Washington State University to federal court, alleging 13 formal complaints about Bryan Kohberger were ignored while he kept his position, housing, and acce...

The Slayer Statute is supposed to be simple. You kill someone, you don't inherit from them. But California law has language that creates an exception — and a 1979 case proves it works.Estate of Ladd involved a mother who killed her two sons. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Her ex-husband argued she should be barred from inheriting under the Slayer Statute. The California Court of Appeal disagreed. The ruling: an NGRI verdict does not constitute a conviction, and insanity negates the "intentional" requirement in Probate Code Section 250. She inherited from the children she killed....

The verdict is in. Brendan Banfield has been found guilty of aggravated murder in Fairfax County, Virginia. The former IRS special agent was convicted Monday in the February 2023 deaths of his wife Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39 — a man prosecutors say was catfished on a fetish website and lured to the family home as part of an elaborate murder plot.The jury of five men and seven women deliberated nearly nine hours over two days. They heard from 34 witnesses across three weeks of testimony, including the most damning account of all: Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family's au...

Washington State University allegedly received 13 formal complaints about Bryan Kohberger in one semester. Stalking. Harassment. Predatory behavior toward female students. A professor who reportedly predicted he would become dangerous. Female students who developed their own warning systems because the institution wouldn't protect them.The families of the four murdered Idaho students have taken their lawsuit to federal court, alleging WSU had threat assessment protocols and didn't use them — allowing Kohberger to keep his teaching position, university housing, and access to students right up until the killings.Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down the Ti...

The GUILTY Verdict was handed down to Brendan Banfield, the former IRS agent charged with four counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. Prosecutors allege Banfield and the family's au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, lured Ryan to their Herndon home through a fetish website and staged the killings as a home invasion.The defense argues digital forensics contradict the catfishing theory and that investigators who disagreed were reassigned. Banfield faces life without parole if convicted. The four-week trial continues in Fairfax County.#TrueCrimeToday #BrendanBanfield #AuPairAffair #MurderTrial #ChristineBanfield #J...

Unsealed forensic filings from the Bryan Kohberger case reveal devastating new details about what happened inside the King Road house on November 13, 2022 — including evidence that one victim's fight for survival may have been what brought down her killer.Xana Kernodle was stabbed 67 times. That number alone is staggering, but the context makes it more significant. Kaylee Goncalves sustained 38 wounds, Madison Mogen 28, and Ethan Chapin 17. Xana's wound count exceeds the other three combined. And unlike her roommates, Xana had blood on the bottoms of her bare feet — the only victim who moved after the attack began.Bloo...

Strangulation allegations. Death threats. Statements that she would "always be his wife." Surveillance footage allegedly showing him at her home three weeks before her murder. Michael McKee is a board-certified surgeon who maintained medical licenses across multiple states while allegedly fixating on his ex-wife for eight years after their divorce.Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer analyzes the behavioral profile — what possessive language reveals about ownership mentality, why strangulation is the number one predictor of future lethality, and how someone with McKee's professional success allegedly hid this level of obsession.We examine why threats like th...

New court documents in the Spencer and Monique Tepe murder case reveal disturbing allegations about what Monique may have known before December 30th. According to the unsealed affidavit, witnesses told detectives that Michael McKee — Monique's ex-husband — allegedly threatened to kill her, told her she'd "always be his wife," and was captured on surveillance at her Columbus home while she was out of town. Friends say she left the Big Ten Championship game at halftime, upset about something involving McKee. Three weeks later, both she and Spencer were dead. Today we're asking the hard question: If she knew — why didn't she re...

The Michael McKee case presents a masterclass in forensic investigation. A suspect who allegedly created an 18-hour digital blackout. Stolen license plates from two states. A vehicle tracked through neighborhood surveillance footage. A firearm allegedly matched through a national database. And an arrest across state lines in just eleven days.Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer walks us through how investigators pieced together a case spanning Columbus, Chicago, and Rockford without a single eyewitness. She explains NIBIN ballistics methodology, how multi-jurisdictional investigations function in practice, and why the indictment's firearm suppressor allegation may be the most damning...