A private investigator. An axe in a pub car park. And a corruption scandal that reached the highest levels of Scotland Yard. Thirty-seven years later, Britain's most investigated unsolved murder still has no killer.

On March 10, 1987, Daniel Morgan was found dead outside the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south London. An axe was embedded in his skull [citation:3]. The 37-year-old father of two had just finished a drink with his business partner, Jonathan Rees [citation:5]. What happened next would expose one of the darkest chapters in British policing history.

The first detective assigned to the case, DS Sid Fillery, had been secretly working for Morgan's own agency [citation:1]. Over the next three decades, six police inquiries would come and go. Suspects were arrested. A trial began. Then everything collapsed. A 2021 independent panel found the Metropolitan Police had engaged in "a form of institutional corruption," prioritizing its reputation over finding the truth [citation:5]. In 2023, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley issued an unprecedented apology [citation:5].

No one has ever been convicted of killing Daniel Morgan.

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the axe was only the beginning.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A Thanksgiving visit. A financial ultimatum. And a son who responded with a level of violence so extreme that even veteran detectives called it "pure evil overkill."

In this episode, I uncover the horrific case of Lisa and Joel Guy — a devoted couple in Knoxville, Tennessee, who were brutally murdered by their own son over Thanksgiving weekend in 2016 [citation:1]. Joel Guy Jr., a 28-year-old college dropout who had never held a job, learned that his parents planned to cut off his financial support [citation:6]. His response was not anger. It was a meticulously planned execution.

He stabbed his father 42 times, his mother 31 times [citation:8]. He dismembered their bodies, placed their torsos in blue plastic tubs filled with a corrosive acid solution, and boiled his mother's head in a pot on the stove [citation:4]. A handwritten notebook found at the scene detailed his entire plan — from the murders to the disposal to collecting the $500,000 life insurance payout [citation:6].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because some monsters don't hide in the dark. They come home for the holidays.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A nurse. A loving mother. And a secret lover who worked in the same fertility clinic. When Bill McGuire vanished in April 2004, his wife Melanie cried for the cameras. But the Chesapeake Bay had other plans.

Fishermen found the first suitcase floating in the water. Inside: human legs. Two more suitcases washed ashore over the next week, each containing dismembered body parts [citation:1]. The victim was Bill McGuire, shot three times and cut into pieces. The evidence against Melanie piled up: she purchased a .38-caliber revolver days before the murder, searched "how to commit murder" on her home computer, and forged a prescription for a powerful sedative [citation:5]. She was having a two-year affair with a married doctor [citation:1]. A medical blanket found in one of the suitcases was traced to her clinic [citation:5].

Melanie McGuire was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison, where she remains today at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in New Jersey [citation:2]. She has maintained her innocence for over two decades. But the suitcases told a story she could not wash away.

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the perfect wife was hiding a perfect crime.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

He reported on the murders. He consoled the families. He even coined the killer's nickname. Then police discovered he was writing about his own crimes.

Vlado Taneski was a respected journalist in the sleepy Macedonian town of Kičevo. Between 2005 and 2008, elderly women began disappearing. They were cleaners, poor and uneducated — just like Taneski's own mother. Their bodies were found wrapped in plastic, tied with telephone cords, raped, tortured, and strangled [citation:1][citation:3].

Taneski's news articles contained details never released to the public. He knew the killer used a telephone cord. He knew how the bodies were bound. Police grew suspicious of the journalist who was always first on the scene. When DNA matched Taneski to semen found on the victims, the reporter became the story [citation:5][citation:7].

Arrested on June 22, 2008, Taneski was found dead in his cell the next day — head submerged in a bucket of water. Suicide, officials ruled. But many believe he was silenced before he could reveal more [citation:1][citation:3].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the Kicevo Monster was hiding in plain sight, writing his own headlines.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A psychopath who made his victims call him "Master." Bodies dissolved in acid barrels inside a bank vault. A killing spree that lasted seven years while police unknowingly surveilled the killer.

In this episode, I uncover Australia's most terrifying serial killer — John Bunting, the ringleader of the Snowtown murders. Between 1992 and 1999, Bunting and his accomplices tortured and murdered at least 12 people, stuffing their dismembered bodies into plastic barrels filled with acid. The barrels were discovered in an abandoned bank vault in Snowtown, South Australia, in May 1999 [citation:1][citation:7].

Bunting targeted those he considered "weak" — homosexuals, pedophiles, the disabled, and anyone who annoyed him. He crushed victims' toes with pliers, burned them with cigarettes, and shocked them with jumper cables before killing them [citation:1]. He fraudulently collected their welfare payments after death [citation:7]. Convicted of 11 murders, Bunting received 11 consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole [citation:1].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the Snowtown barrels held more than bodies. They held Australia's darkest secret.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A barking dog. A barrage of gunfire. A wife hiding in a closet, listening to her husband take his last breath. And then, three months later, she opened her home to the man who planned it all.

In March 2018, wealthy Austin jeweler Ted Shaughnessy was shot dead in his own hallway [citation:1]. His wife Corey survived by retreating to a closet after exchanging fire with the intruders [citation:10]. The killers entered through a window, the alarm deactivated remotely [citation:3].

Then the couple's adopted son, Nicolas, and his secret wife Jaclyn Edison moved in with Corey [citation:1]. Nicolas took over the family jewelry business. He hugged his mother. He slept in his old room. And all along, he was the mastermind.

The newlyweds were broke — less than $2 in their bank accounts [citation:1]. Nicolas owed his mother $30,000. But if his parents died, he would inherit $8 million [citation:7]. He hired two hitmen, paid them $100,000, and watched from College Station as his father was executed [citation:10].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the son they adopted from Russia was the monster hiding in plain sight.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A bath. A locked bag. A naked body. And a genius spy who vanished from work for eight days before anyone noticed.

In this episode, I uncover the baffling case of Gareth Williams, the 31-year-old MI6 codebreaker found dead inside a padlocked North Face bag in his London flat in August 2010 [citation:1]. His hands were folded on his chest. The key was beneath his body. And the heating was turned on full blast in the height of summer [citation:5].

The coroner ruled his death "unnatural and likely criminally mediated" — concluding on balance of probabilities he was unlawfully killed [citation:6]. Yet the Metropolitan Police insist he "probably died alone in a tragic accident" [citation:7]. Forensic expert Peter Faulding tried over 300 times to lock himself inside an identical bag. He failed every time. "Even Harry Houdini wouldn't have managed it," he says [citation:2].

To complicate matters, police found £20,000 of unworn women's designer clothing, a wig, and semen from Williams and an unidentified man [citation:3]. Faulding claims officers asked him to rewrite his statement — a request he refused [citation:5]. A 2024 forensic review found no new DNA evidence [citation:4][citation:8].

Was Gareth murdered by Russian intelligence? Was it a sex game gone wrong? Or did MI6 clean up the scene?

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the spy in the bag took his secrets with him.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A millionaire's wife. A teenage lover hidden in the rafters. A murder that went unsolved for eight years while the killer slept above the crime scene.

In this episode, I uncover one of the most bizarre true crime stories of the 20th century — the case of Walburga "Dolly" Oesterreich and her secret lover Otto Sanhuber. For ten years, Dolly kept Otto hidden in the attic of the home she shared with her wealthy husband Fred. The teenager lived like a ghost, emerging only when Fred left for work to perform household chores and satisfy Dolly's desires [citation:7]. He even published pulp fiction stories from his hidden room. Then, on August 22, 1922, a violent argument erupted. Otto rushed down with two pistols and shot Fred three times. Dolly staged a burglary, locked herself in a closet, and screamed for help [citation:1]. The police never searched the attic. When the truth finally emerged through jilted lovers and a diamond watch, the statute of limitations had expired. Otto walked free. Dolly lived another 30 years [citation:6]. Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the deadliest secrets are often hiding right above your head.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A family vanishes from their home. Eggs left on the counter. Popcorn bowls on the sofa. Two dogs in the backyard. And a surveillance camera that captured nothing but the bottom of their SUV.

In February 2010, Joseph and Summer McStay and their two young sons, Gianni and Joseph Jr., disappeared from their Fallbrook, California home without a trace [citation:3]. For nearly four years, speculation ran wild: voluntary departure? Foul play? A new life in Mexico? Video showed a family resembling them crossing the border, and computer searches for passports fueled the mystery [citation:6]. Then, in November 2013, a motorcyclist found skeletal remains in shallow graves near Victorville, along with a three-pound sledgehammer [citation:3]. All four had died from blunt force trauma [citation:6].

The trail led to Charles "Chase" Merritt, Joseph's business partner and the last person to speak with him. His DNA was found in the family's SUV. His cell phone pinged near the graves. Within days of the murders, he forged checks from Joseph's account and went on a gambling spree [citation:3]. After a five-month trial, Merritt was convicted and sentenced to death [citation:10].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the family who seemed to vanish into thin air was buried in the desert all along.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.

A pregnant mother. A two-year-old hiding under the covers. And a husband who claims he was 169 miles away when his wife was beaten to death.

On November 3, 2006, Michelle Young was found face-down in her Raleigh bedroom — bludgeoned more than 30 times, her teeth knocked out, her body surrounded by blood [citation:3][citation:4]. Upstairs, her daughter Cassidy was unharmed, her tiny bloody footprints tracked throughout the house. She had been left alone with her mother's corpse for hours [citation:2][citation:9].

Jason Young, Michelle's husband, was on a business trip in Virginia. Or so he said. Prosecutors painted a different picture: a man who left his hotel, disabled security cameras, drove three hours home, killed his pregnant wife, and drove back before dawn [citation:2][citation:8]. Shoe prints matching his missing Hush Puppies were found on blood-soaked pillows. Internet searches on "anatomy of a knockout" were traced to his computer [citation:3][citation:6].

After two trials, Jason Young was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But the case still haunts those who heard Cassidy's words at daycare: "Mommy has red stuff all over" [citation:9].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the only witness was a two-year-old who couldn't speak in court.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/red-tree-crime--6847553/support.