Crime Scene: True crime stories and investigations

Scanner traffic on the day of two-year-old Gabriella's death reveals how police responded to the initial call, finding the toddler unresponsive and dealing with threats against their lives. Listen in on the latest Crime Scene podcast, with host and reporter Jordan Fenster.

Movies and television shows have been lying to us about criminal justice. Historical criminologist Fritz Umbach details the five top criminal justice misconceptions. From drugs to court to jail, there's a lot we think we know, that we actually don't. Listen to the latest Crime Scene podcast, written, hosted and edited by Jordan Fenster, to learn more.

The connection between animal cruelty and murder is now a commonly accepted fact. The FBI began tracking animal cruelty cases in 2016, but that might never had happened if not for one tiny dog, a shih tzu named Polo, and his devoted, doting owner.

What is the cost of a life spent in law enforcement? Not the salary and benefits, but the physical and mental toll being a cop takes on members of the force. That question is harder to answer than you might think. suicide and PTSD rates are difficult if not impossible to track, but one academic has spent decades looking at the relationships between police work, PTSD and the health of officers. This is the latest Crime Scene podcast.

Three cops, all friends, and all survivors of devastating injuries. But it's not the physical pain but the emotional challenges they have to overcome. On this episode of Crime Scene we talk to three former police officers, all of whom have dealt with on-the-job injury and life after the force.

In 1979, Albert Fentress abducted, abused, mutilated, murdered and then ate parts of an 18-year-old boy. But before he did all that he wrote a movie script. In the latest episode of Crime Scene, we look at how fantasy becomes murder, through the lens of a cannibal middle school teacher.

A quick update on last week's episode - I asked developmental psychologist Sasha Reid to talk a bit about why there are so few female serial killers, at least when compared to the number of men. She gives us her professional opinion.

Could you create a serial killer? Or, perhaps more importantly, could you "fix" a potential serial killer before he becomes the monster? In this episode of Crime Scene, Sasha Reid, an etiologist examining the details of serial killers' lives, attempts to share the recipe for a serial killer, the bits and pieces that go into making the monsters we fear the most.

In this short update, we hear how former NYPD homicide detective Jim Davis got Sunset Bay Jr. to confess to the rape and murder of Roberta Fort. If you'd like to read the transcript, sign up for the Crime Scene newsletter at lohud.us/crimescene or head over to lohud.com and search for the word "transcript."

In 1975, the body of Roberta Fort was found in a pool of blood. Follow along with the original lead detective on the case as he walks through the investigatory process. These were the days before DNA. Seven years later, the killer went to trial.

This is Crime Scene, the award-winning true crime podcast.