True Crime Brewery

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 […]

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 […]

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 sick urges and how his behavior progressed from exposing himself to murder virtually unchecked. After his murder convictions, Dodd […]

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 of an 800-foot cliff. Peter was lucky. He had somehow been […]

The murder of Andrew Bagby was a crime that shocked and brought terrible grief to the loved ones he left behind, especially his mother and father. Andrew was David and Kate Bagby’s only child. He was very well-liked with a promising future as a family physician. In 1999, Andrew began dating medical intern Shirley Turner. […]

Jack Unterweger was an evil man whose 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 […]

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 would eventually bubbled to the […]

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, […]

Middle-aged mother of two Susan Fassett was an unlikely victim in the love triangle that ended in her murder. Married to a policeman and an active 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. The biggest […]

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 […]

To say that Stella Nickell had a rough upbringing would be a huge understatement. She had a childhood of poverty, neglect, and abuse. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter. In the years that followed, she had numerous failed relationships, a failed marriage, and spent time in jail. In early 1974, when she was […]

In 2012, Harold and Toni Henthorn celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary with a hiking trip in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Toni fell 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, he […]

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 […]

Baptist minister Matt Baker presented himself to the world as a man of God. 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 for the investigation into Matt Baker’s deceptions and lies, working […]

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 spending most of 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 […]

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. […]

Julie Miller met Dennis Bulloch through a newspaper ad. 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. She thought he could be the one. But just four months into their marriage, emergency responders […]

Mick Philpott lived off of welfare benefits for most of his adult life. He had been unfaithful and violent towards women but he enjoyed impregnating them. Mick could love them and leave them, but he would never accept it when a woman wanted to leave him. His reckless and selfish plan to frame an ex-girlfriend […]

On February 14, 2007, stay at home dad Stephen Grant called the Macomb County Sheriff’s office in Michigan to report that his wife, Tara Lynn Grant, had been missing for five days. In his story to the police, Stephen claimed that this was not the first time Tara had taken off, which was why he […]