Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

She lied for a year. She promised to protect Brendan Banfield. Then she flipped, took a plea deal, and testified against him in open court. Now she's negotiating with Netflix and media producers are paying her jail expenses.

Juliana Peres Magalhães is the prosecution's star witness — and the defense is trying to destroy her credibility. Former FBI special agent Robin Dreeke joins me to break down what her behavior reveals. How do you evaluate a witness who changed her story after a year? Does financial incentive undermine testimony? And what does her relationship with Banfield tell us about manipulation and control?

Banfield has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues in Fairfax County.

#BrendanBanfield #JulianaMagalhaes #RobinDreeke #FBI #AuPairAffair #Credibility #MurderTrial #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #ChristineBanfield

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For eight years, Monique Tepe never said her ex-husband's name. She called him "her ex-husband." Like saying it would summon him. Her family called him a monster. Said she talked about emotional abuse, threatening behavior, that she was "willing to do anything to get out." She was always worried. But nobody thought he'd actually do it. On December 30th, 2025, Monique and her husband Spencer were found shot dead in their Columbus home. Their two children — ages 4 and 1 — were alive in separate rooms. No forced entry. Nothing stolen. Eleven days later, police arrested Michael McKee, a vascular surgeon, at a Chick-fil-A in Illinois. The murder weapon was allegedly found in his Chicago penthouse. 

NIBIN matched shell casings from the scene to a firearm seized from his residence. According to reports, McKee gave police an alibi that didn't hold up. He only went silent after the cuffs went on. At a press conference, Columbus police called this a "targeted domestic violence attack." A reporter asked if neighbors had seen McKee near the Tepe home days before the murders. Police didn't deny it. They're holding cards. The divorce was eight years ago. Seven-month marriage. No kids together. On paper, it looked amicable. But he wanted the rings back. She paid him reimbursement with an interest clause. She didn't know his finances. He controlled the money. Two counts aggravated murder. Prior calculation and design. Death penalty eligible. Court date January 23rd. The family finally exhaled when he was arrested — hours before Spencer and Monique's funeral.

#HiddenKillers #TepeMurders #MichaelMcKee #SpencerTepe #MoniqueTepe #DomesticViolenceAwareness #ExHusbandCharged #ColumbusOhio #TrueCrimePodcast #JusticeForTepe

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Brendan Banfield was a trained federal agent. Prosecutors say he used that training to build a months-long murder plot — complete with a fake fetish profile, a groomed patsy, and a staged home invasion. If true, this was a law enforcement officer who believed he could outsmart the system.

Robin Dreeke, former FBI special agent and head of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, joins me to analyze Banfield's alleged behavior — from the planning to the 911 call to the evidence left behind. What does this level of alleged premeditation tell us? And where did it start to unravel?

Banfield has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues in Fairfax County.

#BrendanBanfield #RobinDreeke #FBI #AuPairAffair #BehavioralAnalysis #MurderTrial #TrueCrime #ChristineBanfield #HiddenKillers #JosephRyan

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Nick Reiner reportedly admits to killing his parents. That alone should end the conversation. But it doesn't — because what he says next reframes the entire case. Instead of focusing on the act, he reportedly describes his incarceration as a "conspiracy." And that single shift raises questions that can't be ignored.

Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke — who ran the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program — breaks down the behavioral patterns emerging from publicly reported information in this case. This isn't about diagnosing mental illness or debating sympathy. It's about how people behave when consequences arrive.

A critical focus is what reportedly happened after the killings. According to reports, there was calm movement, time, decision-making, and navigation — not immediate collapse. Nick reportedly checked into a hotel and moved through LA for 24 hours. Robin explains why analysts pay close attention to this phase, and why serious mental illness does not automatically eliminate awareness, planning, or accountability.

The defense will likely invoke the M'Naghten rule — the same standard that freed David Carmichael, a father who planned his son's murder but was found not criminally responsible because a psychotic delusion changed what he believed he was doing. Carmichael's medication triggered his break. Nick's medication was changed one month before the killings.

But Carmichael had no history of manipulation. Nick Reiner has 30 years of it. Experts repeatedly told the Reiner family he was "lying or manipulating them." More than 18 treatment facilities cashed checks and released him after 30 days.

Robin explains how families don't ignore warning signs — they adapt to them. When instability lasts for years, chaos becomes routine. Intervention fatigue sets in. Boundaries soften. And that adaptation can quietly become dangerous.

This episode doesn't ask for sympathy. It asks harder questions — about behavior, responsibility, and why words that redirect blame deserve scrutiny.

#NickReiner #RobinDreeke #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #FBI #BehaviorAnalysis #InsanityDefense #DavidCarmichael #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime

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Robin Dreeke ran the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. He's spent his career studying manipulation, deception, and how predators operate. When he looks at the JP Miller case, he sees a textbook pattern of coercive control — and an indictment that only scratches the surface.

According to federal charges, Miller tracked his estranged wife Mica with GPS devices, contacted her more than 50 times in a single day, posted intimate photos of her online without consent, and sabotaged her car — then lied to FBI investigators about it. Mica Miller died on April 27, 2024, just 48 hours after serving him divorce papers.

But the indictment doesn't capture the years that came before.

Sworn affidavits describe isolation, financial manipulation, threats, and constant surveillance. Mica told police JP had "groomed" her since she was ten years old. His first wife Alison filed an affidavit alleging he confessed to affairs, hiring prostitutes, and being "sexually inappropriate" with underage church members. She says she went to police in 2015. They told her no one would believe her.

Two civil lawsuits now accuse Miller of sexually assaulting minors in the late 1990s. Both name his father as a co-defendant and allege their churches enabled abuse for decades.

And then there's Chris Skinner — a quadriplegic Army veteran who drowned in a Myrtle Beach pool on Labor Day 2021. His widow Suzie is now JP Miller's third wife. According to Alison's affidavit, Chris confronted JP about an alleged affair with Suzie just two weeks before he died. JP officiated Chris's funeral.

Miller pleaded not guilty in federal court, then slipped out a back door while seventy people waited. Robin Dreeke analyzes what the behavioral patterns reveal — and what it takes to stop someone like this.

#JPMiller #MicaMiller #RobinDreeke #FBI #JusticeForMica #CoerciveControl #ChrisSkinner #HiddenKillers #BehavioralAnalysis #TrueCrime

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California's insanity standard is different from what most people assume. You don't have to prove the defendant didn't know right from wrong. You only have to prove he didn't understand the "nature and quality" of his actions. TMZ's documentary cited the David Carmichael case — a father who methodically planned his son's killing but was found not criminally responsible because he was operating under a psychotic delusion. Could that same legal standard apply to Nick Reiner? Defense attorney Bob Motta joins Hidden Killers to map out the road ahead. 

Nick is reportedly not competent to stand trial. His medication for schizoaffective disorder was changed approximately one month before the murders because he complained about weight gain. Sources say the medication still isn't working properly in jail. But here's the part that should stop everyone cold: Nick reportedly admits to killing his parents Rob and Michele Reiner. He's telling people he did it. But he allegedly doesn't understand why he's in jail. He believes his incarceration is part of a conspiracy against him.

For 32 years, every system Nick touched conspired to protect him from consequences. More than 18 rehab facilities cashed checks and released him after 30 days. His family spent a fortune trying to save him. A family associate told the New York Times that the Reiners had "grown used to" his behavior.

Now the conspiracy has flipped. Prosecutor Habib Balian — the man who handled the Menendez brothers and Robert Durst — is on the case. A new DA campaigned on being tough on crime. Nick's siblings reportedly oppose the death penalty, but that may not matter.

Bob Motta breaks down the critical distinction between competency and legal insanity, what Alan Jackson's withdrawal signals, and whether Nick Reiner can beat the system one more time.

#NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #InsanityDefense #BobMotta #HiddenKillers #CaliforniaLaw #Schizoaffective #TrueCrime #ReinerCase

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From a jail cell, Juliana Peres Magalhaes wrote to her mother that she was "heartbroken" for what she was doing to Brendan Banfield. She said she still loved him. But she wanted to go home.

Now she's the prosecution's star witness — and on Day 1 of Banfield's murder trial, she delivered. Magalhaes described in graphic detail how Banfield allegedly shot Joseph Ryan in the head, then stabbed his wife Christine repeatedly in the neck while their 4-year-old daughter waited in the basement.

Prosecutors allege Banfield and Magalhaes created a fake fetish website profile using Christine's identity to lure Ryan to the home for what he believed was a consensual sexual encounter. Instead, they say, he walked into an ambush.

But Magalhaes spent a year in jail facing murder charges before she changed her story. Her plea deal gives her time served and a return to Brazil — but her sentencing is scheduled after Banfield's trial. That timing is deliberate. Her freedom depends on conviction.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has worked with cooperating witnesses throughout her career. She knows how to evaluate credibility — and she knows how prosecutors prepare a witness whose motivation is obvious. In this coverage, she examines what corroborating evidence prosecutors need, how defense attorneys will attack Juliana's credibility, and what jurors should watch for when testimony comes from someone with everything to gain.

The defense argues digital forensics show Christine — not Brendan — was communicating with Ryan. They say investigators who contradicted the catfishing theory were removed from the case.

Banfield faces four counts of aggravated murder. If convicted, he faces life without parole plus 13 years. The trial continues.

#BrendanBanfield #JulianaPeresMagalhaes #ChristineBanfield #JosephRyan #AuPairMurder #JenniferCoffindaffer #HiddenKillers #MurderTrial #CooperatingWitness #TrueCrime

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Women on the Washington State University campus built survival systems to avoid Bryan Kohberger. A tally board tracking his comments. Emails with "911" in the subject line. Security escorts to their cars. A door strategy so no one would be trapped alone with him.

According to a 126-page lawsuit filed by the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, at least 13 formal complaints were filed against Kohberger in just three months during fall 2022. A professor who worked with predators urged colleagues to cut his funding. She told them directly: "If we give him a Ph.D., that's the guy we will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing his students."

The university didn't act. Five days before four students were murdered, WSU held mandatory discrimination training for Kohberger's cohort — because of him. Less than two weeks before the killings, faculty met with him about his behavior. No decisive action was taken.

Meanwhile, Bryan's sister Mel Kohberger has broken three years of silence in a New York Times interview. She describes Christmas 2022 — warning her brother about the "psycho killer on the loose" near his apartment, never imagining he was the suspect. She talks about his heroin addiction, his recovery, the childhood bullying that shaped him, and the heart she drew for him that tabloids called a "creepy drawing."

The lawsuit alleges WSU calculated that a potential discrimination lawsuit from Kohberger was a bigger risk than the violence he might commit. The families of four murdered students are now demanding transparency, accountability, and reform.

This wasn't a case of warning signs being missed. According to the lawsuit, they were documented and ignored.

#BryanKohberger #WSULawsuit #IdahoMurders #KayleeGoncalves #MadisonMogen #XanaKernodle #EthanChapin #MelKohberger #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime

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Officer Brendan Miller analyzed 60 devices. His conclusion contradicted the prosecution's entire theory. Then he was transferred out of digital forensics and told he'd never work another case in the unit.

Miller's finding was straightforward: Christine Banfield — not her husband Brendan — appeared to control the FetLife account prosecutors claim was used to lure Joseph Ryan to the Banfield home on February 24, 2023. The University of Alabama peer-reviewed his analysis and confirmed it. The lead homicide detective who also disagreed with command staff was reassigned. The original prosecutor was removed after being cited for drinking at 8 a.m.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has seen investigations go wrong before. She's not holding back on this one.

Christine Banfield, 37, was stabbed to death in her Herndon, Virginia home. Joseph Ryan, 39, was shot twice by two different guns. The Banfields' 4-year-old daughter was in the basement. Prosecutors allege Brendan Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes were having an affair and conspired to stage the murders as self-defense.

But the timeline raises questions. Nineteen months to charge Banfield. Eight months before a key piece of evidence was collected. Twenty-four competing theories existed before the au pair changed her story. Juliana faced murder charges for a year before flipping. Her plea deal lets her walk free if she testifies against Banfield.

Judge Penney Azcarate ordered prosecutors to turn over all communications related to Miller's transfer. The defense calls this case "a theory in search of facts."

Coffindaffer examines what the FBI would have done differently from day one — and why the problems in this investigation were apparent long before a single witness took the stand.

#BrendanBanfield #ChristineBanfield #BrendanMiller #JulianaPeresMagalhaes #FetLife #JenniferCoffindaffer #HiddenKillers #MurderTrial #DigitalForensics #TrueCrime

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Monique Tepe bought her own engagement ring. She bought her own wedding ring. She listed both as "Separate Property" in her divorce from Michael McKee, writing "I paid" as the explanation. She never took his name. Seven months after they married in August 2015, she was done with him.

Eight years later, she was dead. And her family says they saw it coming.

Dr. Michael David McKee, a 39-year-old vascular surgeon, is charged with murdering Monique and her husband Spencer Tepe in their Columbus, Ohio home on December 30, 2025. Both were shot — Spencer had multiple gunshot wounds, Monique at least one to the chest. Their children, ages 4 and 1, were found unharmed in another room.

The divorce paperwork required Monique to reimburse McKee $1,281.59 with a 23% interest penalty if she didn't pay on time. That petty financial arrangement was apparently not the end of his interest in her. Court records show contact between McKee and Monique in June 2025. Experts believe it may have been legal stalking — a way to force response after years of silence.

The timeline builds from there. June 2025: court contact and his Nevada medical license expires. September 2025: he buys a Chicago condo. October 2025: a colleague tells a process server McKee has "disappeared." December 30, 2025, 3:52 AM: Spencer and Monique are shot dead in the home where they'd married in 2020.

Retired FBI agent Maureen O'Connell identifies McKee as a "grievance collector." Therapist Darby Fox believes the planning began when Monique filed for divorce. McKee had no criminal history beyond traffic tickets. His neighbor used to chat with him by the pool.

He maintains his innocence. The charges are death penalty-eligible in Ohio.

#TeepeMurders #MichaelMcKee #MoniqueTepe #SpencerTepe #HiddenKillers #ColumbusOhio #TrueCrime #GrievanceCollector #DomesticViolence #WeekInReview

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