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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...

Trust account expert Lazaro Cardenas explained something to jurors this week that changes everything about the Colts Neck murders: Keith Caneiro's $3 million life insurance policy was structured so that Paul would only benefit if Keith, Jennifer, AND both children were all dead. Not just Keith. All four of them. According to prosecutors, this is why 11-year-old Jesse and 8-year-old Sophia weren't spared. They weren't collateral damage. They were allegedly necessary casualties. A detective testified that Sophia had a stab wound to her left eye. The final recorded phone call between Keith and his brother Paul captures a man demanding...

Monique Tepe left the Big Ten Championship game at halftime, upset about "something involving her ex-husband." She was 200 miles away in Indianapolis when surveillance allegedly captured Michael McKee at her Columbus home on December 6th, 2025. According to the Columbus Dispatch, video showed him going into the home and leaving "a few hours later." Twenty-four days later, Monique and her husband Dr. Spencer Tepe were found shot to death in their second-floor bedroom. Their two young children—ages 1 and 4—were asleep in the house, unharmed. A newly unsealed affidavit details eight years of alleged threats. Witnesses told investigators McKee said he c...

The Arkansas Supreme Court removed Judge Barbara Elmore from Aaron Spencer's murder case 48 hours before trial was set to begin. This is the same judge who released Michael Fosler on bond after he was charged with 43 felonies including alleged rape of a minor. The same judge whose gag order the Supreme Court already struck down as a "plain, manifest, clear, and gross abuse of discretion." The same judge who ignored their warning and restricted public access again. Now 14 state legislators have filed a formal complaint with the Judicial Discipline Commission. The Supreme Court granted a Writ of Certiorari to...

The choice of attorney tells you everything about how a case is going to be fought. Michael McKee just hired Diane Menashe—the defense attorney who walked Dr. William Husel out of a Columbus courtroom after fourteen murder charges. Every single count. Not guilty. She called one witness. She also kept cop-killer Quentin Smith off death row. Now she's defending the vascular surgeon accused of murdering Monique Tepe and Dr. Spencer Tepe in their Columbus home on December 30th. McKee pleaded not guilty Friday to four counts of aggravated murder. The evidence police have described is substantial: ballistics allegedly li...

Most people battling addiction never get a second chance. Nick Reiner got eighteen of them. Eighteen trips to rehab facilities reportedly costing $60,000 a month. Private yoga instructors. Family therapists. A guesthouse on a $13.5 million Brentwood estate where he could land softly every time he fell. Rob and Michele Reiner never stopped showing up for their son. On December 14, 2025, they were found stabbed to death in their home. Nick was arrested that night and now faces two counts of first-degree murder. But this story isn't just about entitlement, enabling, and what happens when love without boundaries meets zero accountability. It's...

Idaho has become America's true crime epicenter—and the state's lawmakers are finally waking up to a disturbing reality. A judge in Bryan Kohberger's case confirmed in November 2025 that under current law, Kohberger could potentially profit from book deals, streaming rights, and paid interviews within just five years of conviction. The judge stated the statute "leaves open the potential for Defendant to receive money from media contracts in the future." For the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, that's a nightmare scenario they never should have had to contemplate. This week, State Senator Tammy Ni...

LAPD Robbery-Homicide arrested Neo Langston—D4VD's close friend known online as NeoTheAsian—at his mother's home in Montana for failure to appear before the grand jury investigating the death of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. He's now in an LA jail on $60,000 bail. He's not the first witness prosecutors have had to chase down. A female witness went into hiding in December and faced a body attachment order. Manager Robert Morgenroth admitted under oath his priority was keeping D4VD's tour going, not calling police. The grand jury continues hearing witnesses through February 2026, and sources say prosecutor Beth Silverman is b...

For eleven days after Monique Tepe and her husband Dr. Spencer Tepe were found shot to death in their Columbus home, the man charged with their murders was still working as a vascular surgeon in Illinois. Michael McKee, 39, pleaded not guilty on January 23rd to four counts of aggravated murder. Prosecutors say ballistic evidence links a firearm from McKee's Rockford property to shell casings recovered at the crime scene. Surveillance footage allegedly captured his vehicle arriving just before the December 30th killings and leaving shortly after. Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant called it a "targeted" and "domestic violence related...

Harvey Levin at TMZ says sources describe the crime scene where Rob and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death as "incredibly brutal"—disturbing even to seasoned medical examiner staff. He said publicly it had "all the markings of a meth murder." Their son Nick was arrested near Exposition Park, an area known for drug activity. His documented history includes violent outbursts while "spun out on uppers," cocaine binges described on the Dopey podcast, heroin addiction, and destroying his parents' guest house while high on stimulants. He estimated eighteen rehab stints by his teenage years. The family says his me...

How do prosecutors prove premeditation when there are no eyewitnesses? When there's an eight-year gap between a divorce and a double homicide? When the defendant is a board-certified vascular surgeon with no criminal history who doesn't look like a killer? Michael McKee allegedly drove 300 miles from Chicago to Columbus to execute his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Dr. Spencer Tepe while their young children slept nearby. The evidence police have described is substantial—ballistic matches linking a firearm from McKee's property to shell casings at the scene, vehicle surveillance, a confirmed ID in alley footage, and a firearm su...

Breaking details in the Nick Reiner case. A man who shared a room with Nick in a luxury Malibu rehab at age 15 is now speaking out — and his account could shatter the expected insanity defense.Danny Spilar told the Daily Mail that the moment he saw the news about Rob and Michele Reiner's murders, he knew exactly who did it. Not suspected. Knew. Because he'd heard Nick rant about hating his parents night after night in that rehab facility nearly two decades ago.This wasn't after years of hard drug abuse. Nick was only using ma...

Ruby Franke's twelve-year-old son escaped through a window with duct tape on his wrists. Elleshia Seymour's eight-year-old told a stranger in Croatia to Google his name. Two Utah kids. Two different families. Both figured out how to rescue themselves.Their fathers? Kevin Franke hadn't seen his children in over a year. He told police his only job was paying bills. Kendall Seymour was in Utah while his kids sat in a Croatian orphanage after his ex-wife allegedly fled the country on TikTok doomsday prophecies.Both women were raised LDS. Both became apocalyptic extremists. Both fathers...

Former prosecutor turned defense attorney Eric Faddis delivers dual-perspective analysis on two murder cases making national headlines: Michael McKee in Ohio and Kouri Richins in Utah.The McKee case looks strong on paper. Surveillance footage allegedly places him at Monique and Spencer Tepe's property weeks before the murders. Witnesses describe death threats going back years. Stolen license plates. A phone that went dark. Vehicle tracking data. Eric breaks down which evidence is most damaging from a prosecution standpoint—then switches sides to reveal the defense's playbook: motions to exclude prior abuse allegations, hearsay fights over statements from th...

New testimony in the Paul Caneiro murder trial has revealed what may be the most haunting detail yet in this seven-year-old case. Detective Joseph Cordoma testified that blood stain patterns inside Keith Caneiro's Colts Neck kitchen indicate eleven-year-old Jesse Caneiro was a "mobile blood source" - moving around the kitchen island, leaving blood on surfaces, tracking toward the foyer and the front door. Jesse's body was found at the base of that island. Jennifer Caneiro's family left the courtroom before the detective explained his conclusions.Cordoma also testified the mansion fire was intentionally set in a basement...

Kouri Richins goes to trial in two weeks on aggravated murder charges for allegedly poisoning her husband Eric Richins with fentanyl. But the prosecution's case is taking serious damage heading into opening statements.Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis breaks down the chaos on True Crime Today.The defense just filed a motion alleging witness intimidation. Detective Jeff O'Driscoll allegedly threatened a witness with arrest and "a catch pole for the dog" if they didn't cooperate with prep calls. Investigator Travis Hopper allegedly told another witness their immunity could be revoked if they declined...

Bryan Kohberger studied crime for a living. Michael McKee allegedly studied his ex-wife's home for hours before he came back to kill her. Both believed preparation was protection. Both were wrong.Kohberger—the criminology doctoral student who pled guilty to the Idaho student murders—turned his phone off during the killings but created a traceable return route when it came back online. McKee allegedly achieved a 17-hour phone blackout by leaving his device at the hospital where he worked. On paper, that's smarter. In practice, police tracked his vehicle arriving in Columbus before the murders and leaving afte...

John Carroll, Defense Counsel for Brendan Banfield, presented closing arguments today in the murder trial of 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 F...

Jenna Sands, Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney for Fairfax County, presented closing arguments in the murder trial of 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 i...

The prosecution's case against Michael McKee looks strong on paper. But every case has weaknesses. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis reveals the defense playbook in the Monique Tepe and Spencer Tepe murder case.McKee waived his bail hearing—a strategic choice Eric explains in detail. The real battle happens before trial, in the motions that will determine what evidence the jury ever sees.The affidavit alleges McKee strangled Monique and forced sex on her during their marriage. That was never reported to police. Never prosecuted. Eric breaks down the defense motion to exclude th...