Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

The verdict number got the headlines. What happened inside that Santa Monica courtroom tells the fuller story.

On March 23, 2026, a California civil jury found Bill Cosby liable for drugging and sexually assaulting Donna Motsinger in 1972, awarding her $59.25 million — $19.25 million in compensatory damages and $40 million in punitive damages after determining he acted with malice, oppression, or fraud under California law. It is the largest civil judgment Cosby has faced. His legal team has announced an appeal.

Motsinger, 84, alleged that Cosby cultivated her trust over multiple visits to The Trident restaurant in Sausalito while recording a stand-up album nearby, then invited her to his show, gave her wine and pills she believed to be aspirin, and assaulted her while she was incapacitated. She woke up at home with her clothes removed. She came forward anonymously as Jane Doe Number 8 in the 2005 Constand civil case. She waited another eighteen years before filing her own lawsuit — made possible only by California's 2022 law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations for older sexual assault claims.

At trial, the jury heard pattern testimony from Andrea Constand, Victoria Valentino, and Janice Baker Kinney — three additional accusers whose accounts of being given pills and losing consciousness closely mirrored Motsinger's allegations. Perhaps the most damaging evidence was Cosby's own videotaped deposition, in which he acknowledged obtaining Quaalude prescriptions, renewing them seven times, intending to offer the sedatives to women he was pursuing sexually, and stating he did not know whether a woman given a Quaalude from him could meaningfully consent.

Cosby, 88, did not testify. His attorney argued the assault allegations rested on speculation given Motsinger's acknowledged lack of direct memory. The jury disagreed. Whether Motsinger will collect on the judgment remains an open question as Cosby disputes estimates of his net worth and litigation continues.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#BillCosby #DonnaMotsinger #CosbyCivilTrial #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #SexualAssaultVerdict #MeToo #JaneDoePlaintiff #CaliforniaLaw #PunitiveDamages

Strip away the politics. Set aside the board meetings and the no-confidence votes. What is happening on the ground in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance — right now?

That's the harder question. And it's the one this episode addresses directly.

The facts as they stand: Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing from her Catalina Foothills home since early February. Blood confirmed as hers was recovered at the scene. The FBI has been co-leading the investigation from the outset. Multiple ransom notes sent to media outlets have been evaluated and could not be authenticated. DNA from gloves recovered near the scene produced no matches in the national CODIS database. Investigators have been specifically requesting footage from January 11 — weeks before the abduction — suggesting something potentially significant occurred on that date. Sheriff Nanos has stated publicly that he believes the home was targeted and the attack was planned. No arrest has been made. No suspect has been identified by name.

Meanwhile, the sheriff co-leading that investigation is managing a unanimous no-confidence vote from his deputies union, a Board of Supervisors compliance order requiring sworn reporting, and an active recall effort.

Retired FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke addresses directly what this institutional disruption means for investigators on the ground who simply want to find Nancy. Whether FBI involvement can insulate the case from command-level chaos. Whether the investigation is at risk of losing critical momentum. And what would realistically need to happen for this case to break open.

No false comfort. No optimism that isn't earned. Just an honest look at where this stands.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#NancyGuthrie #ChrisNanos #PimaCounty #FBI #MissingPersons #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #SavannahGuthrie #CriminalInvestigation #AbductionCase

The case was always complicated. An 84-year-old woman abducted from her home in Catalina Foothills, her blood on the porch, ransom notes distributed to media, a backpack-wearing suspect captured on doorbell footage — and a multi-agency investigation under the national microscope from day one. What nobody anticipated was that the man running the investigation would become a story unto himself.

Sheriff Chris Nanos has maintained from the start that his department is handling this case properly. But over the past several weeks, a different picture has emerged. Documentation from his time with the El Paso Police Department reveals a history of suspensions and insubordination — a record he never disclosed to Pima County across 42 years. Under sworn testimony, he denied being suspended. When records contradicted him, his explanation shifted: he was only thinking about his Pima County tenure.

The deputies union, representing over 300 officers, voted unanimously no confidence and called for his immediate resignation. Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz stated publicly that Nanos' entire tenure with Pima County "seems to be based on fraud." The Board of Supervisors has directed legal counsel to draft language requiring Nanos to report under oath. A recall effort is now underway, requiring more than 122,000 signatures by July 10.

And Nancy Guthrie is still missing.

Former FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke analyzes what Nanos' behavior — the selective memory under oath, the denial, the rapid compliance once removal became legally actionable, the silence following his deputies' rejection — actually signals in the context of an authority figure managing a constructed professional identity. This is evidentiary analysis, not speculation.

For listeners who have been tracking this case from the beginning, this episode addresses the question nobody at those press conferences is asking.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#NancyGuthrie #ChrisNanos #PimaCounty #SheriffNanos #TrueCrime #MissingPersons #HiddenKillers #FBIAnalysis #RobinDreeke #Abduction

Hidden Killers presents Part Four of The Shape of Him — the episode that asks what it costs to fit the Kohberger profile and never do a single thing wrong.

After every case like this, the profile gets built more carefully. More characteristics get added. And the population of people living inside that description — people who are odd, intense, isolated, fascinated by dark subject matter, socially misaligned — grows larger and carries more weight. Without being acknowledged. Without anyone stopping to say: this description also belongs to people who are living harmless lives and are now carrying something that was never theirs to carry.

Tony Brueski examines the experience of being the person others quietly monitor. The impossibility of disproving a feeling-based concern. The exhaustion of performing normalcy for people who have already made a decision. And the documented reality that the false positive rate in behavioral profiling is not a small inefficiency — it is the defining feature of the problem.

This episode also speaks directly to the true crime audience — overwhelmingly women — about their engagement with this content, and what it actually reflects about them. Not a warning sign. Something else entirely, and worth naming.

For the people carrying this description quietly. They don't get acknowledged in the aftermath. This episode acknowledges them. Part four of five.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#BryanKohberger #TrueCrimePsychology #IdahoMurders #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #ProfileBurden #TheShapeOfHim #WomenAndTrueCrime #MoscowIdaho #CriminalPsychology

The arrests are only part of the story. Understanding what's happening with the Duggar family — and why it keeps happening — requires understanding the organization that shaped them, the psychology of the men at the center of it, and what recovery from a system like this actually looks like.

Hidden Killers hosts Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke sit down with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott for a three-part interview series that goes deeper than any crime report can. Scott is a thirty-year licensed clinician who has worked across forensic mental health, trauma recovery, domestic violence, and criminal psychology — and who grew up inside a fundamentalist religious system herself, documented in her memoir Nightbird.

Part 1 examines IBLP — the doctrine of absolute paternal authority, the homeschool curriculum that deliberately excluded sex education, and the control mechanisms that kept millions of families inside a closed loop.

Part 2 examines Josh Duggar, Joseph Duggar, and Jim Bob Duggar through a forensic clinical lens — what their patterns reveal, what the research says about faith-based handling of offenders, and what the complete absence of accountability produces over time.

Part 3 examines healing — what it takes, what it looks like when it works, and what the specific people at the center of this week's story need right now. The victim. The children. The hundreds of thousands of former IBLP members watching this become national news.

Three parts. Everything underneath the headlines.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#DuggarFamily #IBLP #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #ReligiousAbuse #DuggarFamilySecrets #ForensicPsychology #TraumaRecovery #19KidsAndCounting

The arrests of Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez did not happen because the system operated efficiently. They happened because a cooperating witness came forward — and because this case stayed alive, in public attention and investigative priority, long enough for that to matter.

The reason it stayed alive has a name. Kirsten Bridegan.

Part 4 of One Mile From Home examines the psychology of what Kirsten did and what it cost her to do it. Tony Brueski breaks down institutional betrayal — the research-documented finding that being failed by a system that was supposed to protect you is its own category of trauma, separate from the original loss. Jared had tried to communicate danger through available channels. The system processed his concerns and continued the arrangement.

Kirsten came into the aftermath of those failures and made an accurate assessment: this case goes as far as I push it. And then she pushed. For years. While grieving. While parenting alone. While navigating the specific moral complexity of advocating against people who were also the parents of Jared's other children.

This episode is about the interior cost of that — and the damning observation that she should not have had to pay it.

She made herself visible so the system would move. He had already tried to make himself heard before it was too late.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#KirstenBridegan #JaredBridegan #OneMileFromHome #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #InstitutionalBetrayal #TrueCrimePsychology #JusticeForJared #ShannaGardner #MurderForHire

Jill Duggar Dillard was abused by her brother as a child, told the country on national television that her parents handled it correctly, and is now publicly condemning abuse and supporting victims. Something significant happened between those two moments. Understanding what that is matters for every person who came out of a system like IBLP.

In Part 3 of Hidden Killers' three-part interview series, hosts Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke sit down with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott for a conversation about what recovery from a closed fundamentalist system actually requires. Scott is a thirty-year licensed clinician who specializes in trauma recovery and left a fundamentalist religious system herself — she brings both the clinical framework and the lived experience.

This conversation covers what has to happen before someone raised in a closed system can begin to see it clearly, what the clinical work of rebuilding an identity that was never allowed to form actually looks like, and whether healing requires repairing a relationship with parents who were the enablers — or whether it can look like something else entirely.

It also addresses the people who need the most right now: a 14-year-old girl in the middle of an active criminal investigation, four children ages 3 to 7 whose parents are both facing criminal charges, and hundreds of thousands of former IBLP members watching their story finally become national news.

This is Part 3 of 3.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#JillDuggar #DuggarFamily #IBLP #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #TraumaRecovery #ReligiousAbuse #DuggarFamilySecrets #19KidsAndCounting #ShavaunScott

Judge Jeffrey Karp renders his verdict in the Kelsey Fitzsimmons trial.

Kelsey Fitzsimmons, a 29-year-old North Andover police officer, stands accused of assault with a dangerous weapon — charged with pointing her service weapon at a fellow officer inside her own home. What prosecutors describe as a calculated attempt to shoot Officer Patrick Noonan, the defense calls a mental health crisis: a woman suffering from severe postpartum depression who turned the gun on herself, not on him.

This is gavel-to-gavel coverage of one of the most polarizing trials in Massachusetts in recent memory. A police officer. A restraining order served by colleagues. A four-month-old baby in the home. And two completely opposite stories about what happened in that upstairs bedroom — with only a failed trigger pull standing between the truth and a tragedy far worse.

Hidden Killers brings you complete trial coverage with expert analysis — no sensationalism, just the facts as they unfold.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ 

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ 

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod 

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#KelseyFitzsimmons #KelseyFitzsimmonsTrial #NorthAndoverPolice #MassachusettsTrial #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #CopOnCopShooting #BenchTrial #TrueCrimeCommunity #Justice

On January 7th, 2021, Maya Millete called a divorce attorney, came home to Chula Vista, and was never seen again. Her husband Larry sent his last email to a spell caster two minutes before she drove up. A neighbor's camera recorded loud banging sounds from the house that night. Maya's phone went dark around 1:25 AM. No camera ever captured her leaving.

What investigators found when they started pulling this marriage apart is unlike almost anything in recent true crime. Larry Millete allegedly paid over $1,100 to people he believed could cast magic spells — starting with love spells, escalating to requests that Maya be injured, made dependent, given nightmares, or given cancer. He placed subliminal audio devices throughout the house — his internet search history included the phrase "subliminal wife training." He Googled Rohypnol and date rape drugs. He allegedly built a physical shrine to the marriage with what appeared to be red wax or blood. Maya's own diary entries suggested she believed he was poisoning her vitamins. A friend told investigators he had choked her until she passed out. A police officer testified in open court that he once punched through drywall to get to her when she locked herself in the bathroom in fear.

The morning after Maya disappeared, Larry drove the family Lexus for over eleven hours with his phone turned off and no alibi that has ever held up under questioning. He later asked a neighbor to detail — clean — the vehicle. Every text between him and Maya had been deleted from his phone.

Five years later, Larry Millete still hasn't faced a jury. The latest delay came January 28th, 2026, just two weeks before a trial date attorneys had publicly described as final. Defense attorneys cited personal family losses. Maya's sister Maricris stood in court and begged the judge not to grant it — telling him their aging parents wake up every morning still waiting for justice for their daughter. The judge granted it anyway. Trial is now set for May 11th, 2026.

Larry Millete has pleaded not guilty. His defense has argued Maya had her own reasons to disappear — a professional situation that could have cost her everything, and an alleged plan to make Larry look responsible. Tony Brueski gives that theory the fair hearing it deserves. Then he lays out everything the prosecution has spent five years building.

Maya Millete told her sister, her brother, and a stranger at a law firm: if anything happens to me, it was Larry. Her parents are still waiting for the trial that will decide if she was right.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#LarryMillete #MayaMillete #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime2026 #MissingMom #MurderTrial #ChulaVistaMurder #CoerciveControl #NoBodyCase #TrueCrimePodcast

The Commonwealth and Defense deliver closing arguments in the Kelsey Fitzsimmons trial.

Kelsey Fitzsimmons, a 29-year-old North Andover police officer, stands accused of assault with a dangerous weapon — charged with pointing her service weapon at a fellow officer inside her own home. What prosecutors describe as a calculated attempt to shoot Officer Patrick Noonan, the defense calls a mental health crisis: a woman suffering from severe postpartum depression who turned the gun on herself, not on him.

This is gavel-to-gavel coverage of one of the most polarizing trials in Massachusetts in recent memory. A police officer. A restraining order served by colleagues. A four-month-old baby in the home. And two completely opposite stories about what happened in that upstairs bedroom — with only a failed trigger pull standing between the truth and a tragedy far worse.

Hidden Killers brings you complete trial coverage with expert analysis — no sensationalism, just the facts as they unfold.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ 

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ 

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod 

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#KelseyFitzsimmons #KelseyFitzsimmonsTrial #NorthAndoverPolice #MassachusettsTrial #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #CopOnCopShooting #BenchTrial #TrueCrimeCommunity #Justice