Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

The crime scene at Nancy Guthrie's Arizona home tells a story investigators are still trying to piece together. Blood at the front door. The back door left wide open. Multiple cameras smashed. And an 84-year-old woman who can't walk 50 yards on her own, gone without a trace.Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing Sunday after she failed to show up for church. According to a law enforcement source speaking to journalist Ashley Banfield, the back door of her Catalina Foothills home was found wide open. When Banfield asked Sheriff Chris Nanos...

Nine hours. That's all it took for twelve jurors to decide Brendan Banfield murdered his wife Christine and her lover Ryan. No compromises on the charges. No sympathy for the former federal agent who swore he didn't do it. They believed the au pair — the woman who got murder dropped to manslaughter and walked out of jail the day she testified against him.Defense attorney Bob Motta is here to explain why. He breaks down the fundamental flaw in Banfield's defense strategy: they spent the entire trial telling jurors what didn't happen, but never gave them an al...

You've seen the clips. The bizarre pulpit announcement. The eulogy where he said he tried to raise her from the dead. The protests outside his church. But you haven't heard the full story — until now.This episode goes back to the beginning. To a ten-year-old girl walking into Solid Rock Church and meeting a twenty-five-year-old married pastor who, according to her own police report, would spend years grooming her before making her his second wife. To a first wife who alleges JP confessed to hiring prostitutes and being sexually inappropriate with underage girls in his congregation. To a...

Robin Dreeke spent thirty years in the FBI reading behavior, building cases, and getting people to reveal themselves. Today he tackles three major cases in one comprehensive interview. The Michael McKee case: the surgeon allegedly told his ex-wife Monique Tepe he could kill her "at any time" — eight years after their divorce. Robin explains the behavioral profile of possessive obsession and what the reconnaissance trip to her home signals. The Ellen Greenberg case: the feds are reportedly investigating whether people who handled her death committed crimes. Robin breaks down how corruption cases unfold and what makes people flip. The Br...

This is the episode we've been waiting fifteen years to make. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has reportedly issued subpoenas to the Philadelphia Police Department, the Medical Examiner's Office, and other agencies—including the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office that Josh Shapiro ran when the case sat on his desk for four years.Sources tell the Philadelphia Inquirer this isn't about how Ellen Greenberg died. It's about whether the people who handled her case committed federal crimes.Ellen was found with twenty stab wounds, ten to the back of her ne...

Brendan Banfield called the murder accusation "absolutely crazy." Then his alibi collapsed. Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and behavioral analysis expert, breaks down the au pair affair murder case — what Banfield's testimony revealed, why his word choices matter, and what the full behavioral picture tells us. Banfield testified for two days, describing how he burst into the bedroom with his gun after hearing sounds that "changed." But prosecutors showed jail letters where he professed love to Juliana and picked out baby names for their future children. They showed a framed photo of him and the au pair on hi...

Rob and Michele Reiner did everything right. Every treatment program. Every therapy session. They made a movie together as a family trying to heal. They publicly apologized for listening to professionals instead of their son. They let him live in their guest house even after he destroyed it in a drug-fueled rage.And according to prosecutors, Nick Reiner allegedly stabbed them both to death.This episode isn't about what failed Nick Reiner. It's about what Nick Reiner refused to let work. Through his own documented words — interviews with NPR, People Magazine, and multiple podcast appearances — we t...

Subpoenas are going out. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is reportedly investigating whether people who handled Ellen Greenberg's case committed crimes — not whether she was murdered, but whether the investigation itself was corrupted. Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and behavioral analysis expert, explains the federal playbook: what simultaneous subpoenas to multiple agencies signal, how investigators identify who's likely to flip first, and what behavioral patterns emerge when institutions are hiding something. The crime scene was cleaned before detectives could execute a warrant. A politically connected family member removed electronic devices. The medical ex...

For eight years after their divorce, Michael McKee allegedly refused to let go. According to witnesses cited in court documents, he told Monique Tepe he could "kill her at any time." That he would "find her and buy the house right next to her." That she would always be his wife. She told friends. She moved on. She remarried. She had children. And according to investigators, he was watching the entire time.The unsealed affidavit in the Spencer and Monique Tepe murder case reveals a pattern of alleged stalking, threats, and obsession that preceded the December 30th...

Michael McKee allegedly told his ex-wife Monique Tepe he could "kill her at any time" and that "she will always be his wife" — eight years after their divorce. Now the vascular surgeon is charged with four counts of aggravated murder in the December 30th killings of Monique and her husband Spencer in their Columbus, Ohio home. Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and head of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, joins us to analyze the behavioral red flags in the unsealed affidavit — the language of ownership, the reconnaissance trip to their property while they were at a football game, and...

The Kouri Richins murder trial begins February 23rd, 2026, and the prosecution's case looks nothing like it did when she was arrested nearly three years ago. Robert Crozier — the man who allegedly sold fentanyl to Kouri's housekeeper Carmen Lauber — has signed a sworn affidavit saying he never sold fentanyl at all. He now claims it was OxyContin, and that he was detoxing and "out of it" during his original police interview. The defense says this throws a grenade into the state's entire theory. Without Crozier confirming fentanyl, the chain connecting Kouri to the drug that killed her husband is broken. But...

Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down two cases where the warning signs were allegedly clear — and no one acted.The Michael McKee case: how investigators tracked a surgeon across state lines in eleven days using surveillance footage, ballistics databases, and digital forensics. Then the behavioral profile — eight years of alleged death threats, strangulation allegations, and pre-offense surveillance before Monique and Spencer Tepe were murdered.The WSU lawsuit: 13 formal complaints about Bryan Kohberger's stalking behavior in one semester. A professor's warning that he would become a predator. Female students creating their own protection systems. And...

In 1975, a woman named Gloria Ladd killed her two teenage sons. Drugged them. Smothered them. She was charged with murder, pled insanity, and was committed to a state hospital. Then she inherited their money.The California Court of Appeal ruled that an insanity verdict does not trigger the Slayer Statute — the law designed to prevent killers from profiting off their crimes. The statute requires proof of "intentional" killing. Insanity negates intent. Gloria Ladd inherited from the sons she murdered. That case, Estate of Ladd, is from 1979. It's still good law. It's never been overruled.Now ap...

Brendan Banfield will die in prison. A Fairfax County jury convicted the former IRS special agent of aggravated murder Monday in one of the most disturbing domestic murder plots in recent memory. The 40-year-old federal law enforcement officer now faces mandatory life without parole for the February 2023 killings of his wife Christine and Joseph Ryan — a stranger prosecutors say was lured to the family home and set up to take the fall.                    The prosecution's case hinged on testimony from Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family's 25-year-old Brazilian au pair who was having an affair with Banfield. She told jurors Ba...

A professor warned colleagues that Bryan Kohberger would become a predator. Female students created informal warning systems to avoid being alone with him. At least 13 formal complaints were filed about his stalking, harassment, and predatory behavior in a single semester. And Washington State University allegedly did nothing.The families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin have taken their lawsuit against WSU to federal court. The allegation: the university had threat assessment protocols in place, received documented warnings from faculty and students, and allowed Kohberger to keep his position, housing, and salary until four...

The Verdict was handed down today in Fairfax County, Virginia. Banfield, a former IRS agent, is charged with four counts of aggravated murder in the February 2023 deaths of his wife Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at their Herndon, Virginia home.Prosecutors allege Banfield plotted the killings with the family's Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, with whom he was having an affair. Magalhães has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is expected to testify against Banfield. The defense maintains digital evidence does not support the state's catfishing theory.#BrendanBanfield #AuPairAffair #MurderTrial #TrueCrime #Testimony #ChristineBanfield #JosephRyan #Fa...

The forensic details from the Idaho student murders are finally public — and what they reveal about Xana Kernodle's final moments is both heartbreaking and remarkable.New court filings show the wound counts for all four victims: Kaylee Goncalves sustained 38 sharp-force wounds, Madison Mogen 28, Ethan Chapin 17, and Xana Kernodle 67. Xana took more wounds than the other three combined. But the autopsy findings go further. Kaylee, Maddie, and Ethan had no blood on their feet — they never stood up. Xana did. Blood on the bottoms of her bare feet proves she moved during the attack.Investigators found bloo...

Michael McKee allegedly told Monique he could "kill her at any time." Witnesses described death threats spanning years. Court documents allege strangulation during their marriage — one of the strongest predictors of future lethality. Three weeks before the murders, surveillance footage allegedly captured him in her backyard while she was out of state.The divorce was 2017. The murders were 2025. No criminal charges. No restraining orders. No intervention.Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down the behavioral warning signs that went unaddressed for eight years. She analyzes what phrases like "she will always be his wife" re...

Court documents allege Michael McKee told Monique he could "kill her at any time." That he'd "find her and buy the house right next to her." That she would "always be his wife." Witnesses say he allegedly strangled her during their marriage. And according to the unsealed affidavit, surveillance cameras captured him at her property weeks before the murders — while she was 180 miles away at a football game. She left at halftime. Upset. Three weeks later, she and her husband Spencer were shot to death in their Weinland Park home. So why didn't she call police? Why didn't she ge...

Michael McKee allegedly drove 350 miles from Chicago to Columbus, executed his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Spencer, and drove back — all while his cell phone showed zero activity for 18 hours. Investigators say he used stolen license plates from Ohio and Arizona. He allegedly kept the murder weapon in his condo for eleven days. And police still caught him.Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down how investigators built this case from surveillance footage, digital forensics, and a national ballistics database match. We examine the multi-jurisdictional coordination between four law enforcement agencies and why this case mo...