In the spring of 1971, 13-year-old Carol Spinks left her Washington, D.C., neighborhood to make a quick trip to the store.

She never came home.

Six days later, Carol’s body was discovered near Interstate 295. She had been assaulted and strangled. Her murder would become the first in a terrifying series of killings that haunted Washington, D.C., and neighboring Maryland for the next seventeen months.

The victims were Carol Spinks, Darlenia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Nenomoshia Yates, Brenda Woodard, and Diane Williams—six Black girls and young women ranging in age from 10 to 18. They disappeared while doing ordinary things: going to the store, traveling to work, returning from school, or heading home. Their bodies were later found along highways and roadsides throughout the D.C. area.

The unidentified killer became known as the Freeway Phantom.

Then, after the murder of 18-year-old Brenda Woodard, investigators found something chilling inside her coat pocket: a handwritten note believed to have been dictated by her killer. In it, the writer taunted police and signed himself “Free-way Phantom.”

The note made one thing horrifyingly clear.

Someone wanted police to know the murders were connected—and believed he could get away with them.

A massive investigation followed involving D.C. police, Maryland authorities, and the FBI. Yet important evidence and portions of the original case files were later lost or destroyed, severely limiting the ability of future investigators to use modern forensic technology to solve the crimes.

Over the decades, investigators examined numerous suspects, including convicted predator Robert Askins, but no evidence was ever strong enough to charge anyone with the six murders.

And the families were left waiting.

More than fifty years later, the identity of the Freeway Phantom remains unknown, and the murders of Carol, Darlenia, Brenda Crockett, Nenomoshia, Brenda Woodard, and Diane remain among the most haunting unsolved serial killings in Washington, D.C., history. The Metropolitan Police Department still lists the cases as unsolved and continues to seek information.

If you have information that could assist the police or FBI in this case call: 202-727-9099

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On November 28, 2009, James “Kraig” Kahler walked into the Burlingame, Kansas, home of his estranged wife’s grandmother and opened fire on his own family.

His estranged wife, Karen Kahler, was shot and killed. So were their teenage daughters, 18-year-old Emily and 16-year-old Lauren, and Karen’s 89-year-old grandmother, Dorothy Wight. Kahler’s 10-year-old son, Sean, witnessed part of the attack and escaped unharmed.

The murders came after the collapse of Kraig and Karen’s marriage. Their relationship had deteriorated amid separation, divorce proceedings, job loss, and intense conflict over Karen’s relationship with another woman. During his trial, Kahler’s defense argued that he had mentally unraveled under the pressure and suffered from serious psychological problems. Prosecutors argued that the killings were deliberate and premeditated.

In 2011, an Osage County jury convicted Kahler of capital murder, and he was sentenced to death for killing Karen, Emily, Lauren, and Dorothy.

But the case did not end in the Kansas courtroom.

Kahler challenged his conviction all the way to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that Kansas law had effectively eliminated the traditional insanity defense by limiting how mental illness could be used to excuse criminal responsibility. In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected that argument and upheld Kansas’s approach in Kahler v. Kansas, making the case significant not only as a horrific family massacre, but as a major constitutional battle over mental illness and criminal responsibility.

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To the outside world, Dorothea Puente looked like a sweet, grandmotherly woman running a respectable boarding house in downtown Sacramento, California.

She took in people who were elderly, disabled, homeless, or struggling with mental illness. She cooked for them, helped manage their money, and presented herself as a caregiver.

Then her tenants started disappearing.

In 1988, a social worker became concerned when one of Puente’s residents, Alvaro “Bert” Montoya, suddenly vanished. Police came to the boarding house on F Street to investigate, and when they began digging in the yard, they uncovered something horrifying.

Seven bodies were buried on the property.

Investigators alleged that Puente had been drugging and killing vulnerable tenants, then continuing to collect and cash their Social Security and government benefit checks after they were dead. What appeared to be an act of charity had become, prosecutors argued, a calculated system of exploitation and murder for money.

And while police were still excavating her backyard, Dorothea Puente simply walked away.

She fled Sacramento and remained on the run for several days before being recognized and arrested in Los Angeles. In 1993, Puente stood trial for nine murders. The jury convicted her of three killings, and she was sentenced to life in prison.

Puente maintained her innocence until her death in prison in 2011.

The case became one of California’s most infamous serial murder stories, earning Puente nicknames including the Death House Landlady and the Killer Landlady. Her crimes were later featured in Netflix’s Worst Roommate Ever, and in 2026 HBO was reported to be developing another true-crime series based on the case.

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In November 2011, 37-year-old Yvette Peña, a mother of six, was found brutally murdered inside a motel room in Bakersfield, California.

The man eventually held responsible was Jaime Osuna—a heavily tattooed self-described sadist whose disturbing appearance, courtroom behavior, and fascination with violence would make him one of California’s most notorious killers.

Osuna was accused of torturing Peña before killing her. After years of legal proceedings, he pleaded guilty in 2017 to murder and other charges in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But prison did not end the violence.

On March 9, 2019, correctional officers at California State Prison, Corcoran entered the cell Osuna shared with 44-year-old inmate Luis Romero and discovered Romero dead. Authorities identified Osuna as the suspect.

The details of Romero’s death were almost incomprehensibly brutal. Prosecutors accused Osuna of torturing, decapitating, and mutilating his cellmate during the night. Osuna was subsequently charged with Romero’s murder, adding another horrifying chapter to a case already infamous for extreme violence.

The killing also raised serious questions about the California prison system.

Why was a man already serving life without parole for a torture-murder placed in a cell with another inmate? And how could such an extensive attack occur inside a maximum-security prison without officers intervening until it was over?

Behind the shocking photographs, facial tattoos, and sensational headlines were two real victims: Yvette Peña and Luis Romero—people whose deaths became forever connected to the man who seemed to revel in the notoriety surrounding his crimes.

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Between 1935 and 1938, Cleveland, Ohio, was terrorized by an unidentified killer who left a series of decapitated and dismembered bodies in and around the impoverished Kingsbury Run neighborhood.

The murderer became known as the Cleveland Torso Killer—or, more chillingly, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.

At least 12 victims were officially linked to the series, although some investigators and historians believe there may have been more. Most were never identified. Many appeared to have been homeless, transient, or otherwise living on the margins of Depression-era Cleveland, making their disappearances easier to overlook and their identities extraordinarily difficult to establish.

The killer’s signature was unmistakable.

Victims were decapitated, many were dismembered with disturbing precision, and their remains were dumped in ravines, beneath bridges, along railroad tracks, and in the waters surrounding Cleveland. In some cases, the victims’ heads were never recovered, making identification nearly impossible.

The murders became one of the greatest challenges faced by Eliot Ness, the legendary lawman who had helped bring down Al Capone and was then serving as Cleveland’s public safety director. But even Ness could not catch the Mad Butcher.

In August 1938, two more victims were discovered near the Cleveland lakefront—within sight of City Hall, where Ness worked. Whether the location was deliberately chosen to taunt him has never been proven, but it only added to the legend surrounding the unidentified killer.

Ness eventually ordered the destruction of the Kingsbury Run shantytown, hoping to drive out suspects and eliminate the killer’s hunting ground. The murders soon stopped.

But the killer was never identified.

Several suspects emerged over the years, including Dr. Francis Sweeney, a physician whom Ness reportedly considered particularly compelling. Yet no one was ever charged, and the Cleveland Torso Murders remain officially unsolved.

And nearly ninety years later, investigators are still trying to restore names to the dead. Modern efforts have included exhuming unidentified victims and using DNA and investigative genetic genealogy in hopes of finally learning who some of them were.

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For years, Dennis Nilsen lived an outwardly ordinary life in North London.

He worked as a civil servant, drank in local pubs, and blended quietly into the city around him. But inside his homes in Cricklewood and Muswell Hill, Nilsen was hiding one of Britain’s most horrifying serial murder cases.

Between 1978 and 1983, Nilsen lured vulnerable young men and boys back to his residences, often offering them alcohol, food, or a place to stay. Once inside, he strangled many of them and sometimes drowned them before keeping their bodies inside his home for extended periods.

He later dismembered the bodies and attempted to dispose of the remains by burning them or flushing pieces down the toilet.

And that is ultimately how his secret began to unravel.

In February 1983, a plumber investigating blocked drains at Nilsen’s apartment building on Cranley Gardens discovered human remains inside the pipes. Police were called, and when officers entered Nilsen’s flat, they found additional human remains hidden inside.

Nilsen was arrested and calmly began confessing.

He initially told police he had killed approximately 15 men, although the exact number remains uncertain. Investigators established at least 12 victims, while Nilsen was ultimately convicted at the Old Bailey of six murders and two attempted murders.

He received a life sentence and later a whole-life tariff, ensuring he would never be released.

Dennis Nilsen died in prison in 2018 at the age of 72.

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In 1984, women across the Tampa Bay area of Florida were disappearing.

Their killer was Bobby Joe Long, a predator whose crimes had already begun years earlier with a terrifying pattern of sexual assaults. Long became known as the Classified Ad Rapist because he targeted women who advertised household items for sale in newspaper classified ads, using those listings to gain access to their homes.

Then his violence escalated to murder.

During an eight-month killing spree in 1984, Long abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at least ten women in the Tampa area. Their bodies were dumped in fields, wooded areas, and along roadsides as police raced to identify the man responsible.

But one victim survived.

On November 3, 1984, Long abducted 17-year-old Lisa McVey as she rode her bicycle home from work. He held her captive for approximately 26 hours, sexually assaulted her, and kept her blindfolded.

Lisa refused to surrender.

She deliberately memorized details about her surroundings, listened for sounds that could help identify where she was being held, and intentionally left fingerprints behind. She also talked to Long, convincing him to see her as a person rather than simply another victim.

And somehow, she convinced him to let her go.

Once free, Lisa gave investigators crucial details about Long, his vehicle, and the location where she had been held. Her information helped police identify many things including the red fibers from the floor of his car. Within weeks, Bobby Joe Long was arrested, ending a killing spree that had terrorized Tampa Bay.

Long was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to death. On May 23, 2019, after spending more than three decades on Florida’s death row, Bobby Joe Long was executed by lethal injection.

Watching from the witness room was the teenager who had survived him. Lisa McVey.

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*WARNING. THIS EPISODE CONTAINS INFORMATION ON THE SEX TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN. LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Sara Kruzan was only a child when an older man entered her life, groomed her, abused her, and eventually trafficked her for sex.

That man was George Gilbert Howard, known as “G.G.” Kruzan has said Howard began grooming her when she was 11 and trafficking her by the time she was 13. For years, she endured sexual violence, exploitation, and control while still a child.

Then, in March 1994, everything changed.

At 16, Sara shot and killed Howard in a Riverside, California, motel room. She was prosecuted as an adult and convicted the following year of first-degree murder with special circumstances. At just 17 years old, Sara Kruzan was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But as the years passed, the circumstances surrounding Sara’s life and the crime began receiving national attention.

Advocates argued that her original trial and sentence had failed to fully account for the severe abuse and trafficking she had endured as a child. In 2011, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted her life-without-parole sentence. Further legal proceedings eventually made her eligible for parole, and in 2013, after nearly two decades behind bars, Sara Kruzan walked out of prison.

Her story did not end with freedom.

Sara became an advocate for survivors of human trafficking and for changes in the criminal justice system that recognize how abuse, coercion, and exploitation can shape the actions of victims. In 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom granted her a full pardon, completing an extraordinary legal journey from condemned teenager to nationally recognized survivor and reform advocate.

This is the true crime story of Sara Kruzan—a child exploited by an adult, a teenager condemned to die in prison, and a survivor whose case forced difficult questions about trauma, justice, punishment, and what happens when the legal system treats an abused child only as a criminal.

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In September 2004, police in Mobile County, Alabama, arrested Jeremy Bryan Jones for the murder of 44-year-old Lisa Marie Nichols.

Nichols had been shot, and her home had been set on fire. Investigators found evidence linking Jones to the crime, including blood on his clothing that matched Nichols. He would ultimately be convicted of her murder and sentenced to death.

But after his arrest, Jones began talking.

And talking.

He claimed responsibility for more than 20 murders across several states, describing killings in Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kansas, and elsewhere. Some of those confessions included details investigators considered compelling. Others quickly began falling apart under scrutiny.

Jones implicated himself in the deaths and disappearances of multiple women, including cases investigators had struggled to solve for years. But DNA evidence, alibis, geographic inconsistencies, and later arrests in some of those crimes raised serious doubts about whether Jones was telling the truth—or simply enjoying the attention and privileges his confessions brought him.

He later recanted many of those statements, claiming he had lied about being a serial killer to receive better treatment while incarcerated.

That leaves one of the strangest questions surrounding Jeremy Bryan Jones:

Was he truly a prolific serial killer—or a convicted murderer who falsely confessed to other people’s crimes?

What is certain is that Jones was convicted of murdering Lisa Nichols and sentenced to death in Alabama. What remains uncertain is how many other victims, if any, can definitively be attributed to him.

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In the mid-1970s, San Francisco was becoming a haven for gay men seeking freedom and community. But along the beaches, parks, bars, and late-night gathering places of the city, someone was hunting them.

The unidentified killer became known as the Doodler.

According to investigators, he would meet men in gay bars, restaurants, and clubs, sometimes sketching them or telling them he was a cartoonist. After gaining their trust, he allegedly convinced them to accompany him somewhere more private.

Then he attacked.

Between 1974 and 1975, San Francisco police believe the Doodler murdered six gay men, primarily in the Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park areas. The first known victim, Gerald Cavanaugh, was discovered near Ocean Beach in January 1974. Investigators now also believe Warren Andrews, who was attacked at Land’s End and died weeks later, may have been the sixth victim.

Several men survived attacks believed to be connected to the same killer.

One survivor described meeting a young man who was drawing on napkins at a late-night restaurant. After the two went back to the survivor’s apartment, the visitor suddenly attacked him with a knife. That survivor’s description helped police develop the composite sketch that would become one of the most recognizable images connected to the case.

Police identified a person of interest decades ago, but there was never enough evidence to make an arrest.

And that may still change.

More than fifty years after the murders, the San Francisco Police Department continues actively investigating the Doodler case. In June 2026, the detective leading the cold-case investigation said the longtime person of interest is believed to still be alive, now in his seventies and living in the East Bay. Investigators continue searching for the evidence necessary to finally identify and charge the killer. A $250,000 reward remains available for information leading to his identification, apprehension, and conviction.

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