"Three people walked into a Brooklyn apartment on July 13, 2018. Only one walked out." The day after her 32nd birthday, aspiring influencer Lauren Hugelmaier told police a masked intruder broke into her apartment, sprayed her in the face with mace, and fatally stabbed her 33-year-old husband, Michael, and childhood friend, 26-year-old Dennis Ceglia .
But the evidence told a different story. Hours before the killings, Lauren and her husband had a "weird argument" . She posted an 8-minute rant on Instagram calling Michael "psychologically abusive" . Investigators found no sign of forced entry, no usable DNA from an intruder, and surveillance footage showing no one entering the building at the time of the murder .
The final nail? Lauren's bracelet was found in the laundry room of her building—where she claimed she had run to hide from the intruder. But the blood spatter pattern on her clothing placed her at the scene when the stabbings occurred, not hiding. And a search of her cell phone revealed she had researched "How to avoid police interrogation" and "How to hide a body" in the weeks prior .
Prosecutors argued this was a premeditated contract killing: Lauren paid an accomplice $5,000 to carry out the murders while she played the victim . Facing life in prison, Lauren pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree manslaughter in 2024, agreeing to testify against the accomplice . She will be sentenced in January 2025 and faces 10-23 years . A 911 dispatcher will never forget the call: "I can still hear her telling me her name, and it just felt wrong" .
Listener discretion advised.


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

"She was supposed to be a protector. Instead, she became a monster." In 2017, 2-year-old Brooklyn March was placed in the care of Angela Diaz while the toddler's parents were in Georgia [citation:10]. Four months later, police responded to Diaz's Lancaster County, Pennsylvania home and found Brooklyn unresponsive. She never woke up [citation:10].
An examination revealed horrors no child should endure. The toddler had suffered not only from severe malnutrition but from catastrophic brain trauma caused by a "severe impact" while in Diaz's custody [citation:10]. The evidence was damning: on the day of her death, after Brooklyn vomited an egg and olive sandwich, Diaz responded by kicking and body-slamming her tiny victim against a firm surface. The impact was so forceful it separated the child's retinas and caused fatal bleeding in her brain [citation:10].
Diaz originally claimed the child had fallen off a bed and hit her head. But a postmortem examination uncovered injuries to Brooklyn's cheeks, ears, neck, abdomen, back, and buttocks—evidence of "repeated physical abuse" and "nutritional neglect" [citation:7]. Facing the prospect of first-degree murder charges and the death penalty, Diaz pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in September 2020 [citation:7][citation:10]. She was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison [citation:10].
This is the darkness within: the story of a woman entrusted with a child's life—and the tiny victim who never had a chance to tell her own story. Listener discretion absolutely required.


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

"He reviewed padlocks on Amazon with a chilling joke: 'Solid locks... have 5 on a shipping container... won't stop them... but sure will slow them down.'" Investigators didn't know that review was a confession—written while a woman was chained inside that very container on his property.
In this disturbing true crime episode, we investigate Todd Kohlhepp, a South Carolina real estate agent who hid in plain sight for over a decade. From 2003 to 2016, Kohlhepp murdered at least seven people—including four employees at a motorcycle shop executed over a grudge, a young couple buried on his land, and a 32-year-old man shot in front of his girlfriend [citation:3][citation:8].
The case broke on November 3, 2016, when deputies found Kala Brown chained inside a metal shipping container on Kohlhepp's 100-acre property. She had been held captive for 65 days, witnessing her boyfriend Charlie Carver being shot dead [citation:1]. What shocked investigators most? Kohlhepp's Amazon account left "cryptic" product reviews that eerily foreshadowed his crimes [citation:1][citation:2]. One shovel review read like a killer's diary.
Kohlhepp, who had served 14 years for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint as a teen, received seven consecutive life sentences [citation:3][citation:5]. He claimed to have killed more—telling his mother she didn't "have enough fingers" to count them all [citation:6].
Listener discretion absolutely required. Press play for the case where online shopping reviews became a killer's journal.


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

"He didn't just murder women. He fed them to his pigs—and served their flesh to unsuspecting neighbors."
In this chilling true crime episode, we investigate Robert "Willie" Pickton, Canada's most prolific serial killer. A wealthy pig farmer from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Pickton lured vulnerable women—mostly sex workers and drug users from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside—to his sprawling farm with promises of money, drugs, and parties [citation:6][citation:7]. Behind the slaughterhouse doors, he strangled his victims and disposed of their remains by feeding them to his hogs [citation:1].
Between 1997 and 2002, the remains or DNA of 33 women were found on the property [citation:1]. Pickton was charged with 26 murders, though he once bragged to an undercover officer that he killed 49 women and was aiming for an "even 50" [citation:1][citation:6]. He was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years [citation:1][citation:4].
On May 19, 2024, Pickton was violently assaulted by a fellow inmate at Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec. He died from his injuries on May 31, 2024, at age 74 [citation:1][citation:5]. His death brought some closure to victims' families, though many still wonder if he acted alone [citation:6]. Listener discretion absolutely required.


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

"He didn't confess. He didn't break. He walked out of the courtroom a free man—but New Zealand will never agree on whether justice was served."
In June 2009, after a three-month retrial and less than six hours of deliberation, the jury returned verdicts of not guilty on all five counts of murder. David Bain—the only surviving member of the family—walked free.
But the controversy didn't end there.
The Crown's case at retrial mirrored 1995: David was the killer who staged the scene to frame his father. But new evidence—ballistics, pathology, computer analysis—cast doubt on the original conviction. The Privy Council had quashed the verdicts in 2007, citing fresh evidence that was "not available at trial" and ordering a retrial over the Crown's objections.
At the retrial, the defence painted Robin Bain as a depressed, disintegrating man—estranged from his wife, living in a caravan, facing imminent exposure of an alleged incestuous relationship with his daughter Laniet [citation:3]. His classroom was "a shambles," his hygiene neglected, his behavior erratic. On the Friday before the murders, Laniet told a friend she was "going home to tell the family everything."
The Crown countered that there was "not the slightest shred of forensic evidence" linking Robin to the killings [citation:9]. The bloody fingerprints on the rifle were David's. Stephen's blood was on David's shirt. The "suicide note"—"Sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay"—was more about David than Robin [citation:1].
Forensic experts clashed over the fatal wound. One UK pathologist said Robin's injury was "consistent with suicide" [citation:7]; Crown experts said the angle and distance made it impossible.
In 2012, Joe Karam—Bain's champion—published Trial By Ambush, arguing "more than 95%" of familicides are committed by fathers, not sons, and that David's psychological profile showed "no psychopathic tendencies" [citation:3]. But some commentators remain convinced the jury got it wrong.
To this day, the question haunts New Zealand: Robin, or David? Two suspects. Five victims. Zero witnesses. A nation divided—forever.
Listener discretion advised. Press play for Part 2 of the case that refuses to be solved.


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

"He called it love. The world called it the most grotesque obsession in Florida history." For seven years, a German-born radiologist named Carl Tanzler lived with the corpse of a young tuberculosis patient he believed was his soulmate, preserving her remains in his bed.
Tanzler, who styled himself Count Carl von Cosel, first met Elena "Helen" Milagro de Hoyos in 1930 when the 21-year-old Cuban-American woman visited the Marine Hospital in Key West [citation:1]. Despite her diagnosis with incurable tuberculosis—and the fact that she was married and felt no romantic connection to him—Tanzler became convinced she was the dark-haired beauty revealed to him in childhood visions of his reincarnated true love [citation:1][citation:4].
When Elena died on October 25, 1931, Tanzler paid for her funeral and mausoleum, visiting almost every night for nearly two years, serenading her corpse with a Spanish song he claimed she sang to him [citation:1][citation:8]. In April 1933, he crept through the cemetery with a toy wagon, removed her decaying body, and transported it to his home [citation:1][citation:5].
Over the next seven years, Tanzler performed unspeakable preservation rituals: inserting glass eyes, stringing bones together with piano wire, replacing rotting skin with wax-soaked silk, fashioning a wig from her real hair, and filling her chest cavity with rags to maintain her form [citation:1][citation:4]. He dressed her in stockings, jewelry, and gloves—and slept beside her every night [citation:7]. Two physicians who examined the corpse in 1940 later revealed a vaginal tube had been inserted, suggesting necrophilia [citation:1][citation:2].
The macabre secret ended when Elena's sister, alerted by rumors, discovered Tanzler dancing with the corpse [citation:1][citation:10]. He was arrested for grave robbery but released when the statute of limitations had expired [citation:1][citation:9]. Over 6,800 people came to view Elena's remains at a funeral home before she was buried in an unmarked grave [citation:1][citation:4]. Tanzler died in 1952, reportedly found in the arms of a life-sized effigy of his obsession [citation:1][citation:7].
Listener discretion absolutely required—this episode deals with necrophilia and extreme psychological disturbance.


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

"Two women and a teenage girl were found shot to death and hidden in a shed on a rural Idaho property. The man they both loved—and one of them was married to—had vanished into the wilderness. Eight years later, police believe he's dead. But they've never found the body."
In June 2017, a welfare check at a home on KCID Road in Caldwell, Idaho, uncovered three decomposing bodies in a shed[citation:1]. Each victim—Cheryl Baker (56), Nadja Medley (48), and her 14-year-old daughter Payton—had suffered a single gunshot wound and had been partially covered[citation:4][citation:8]. The owner of the property, 60-year-old Gerald "Mike" Bullinger, had disappeared[citation:5].
Bullinger was living a double life: married to Baker for over a decade while simultaneously dating Medley, whose daughter called him "dad"[citation:9]. All three had moved into the same property in May 2017[citation:4][citation:9]. The last confirmed sighting of Bullinger was June 11 in Ogden, Utah[citation:5]. His car was later found abandoned in Wyoming's remote Bridger-Teton National Forest[citation:6].
The Canyon County Sheriff said in 2018 he was "99 percent" convinced Bullinger died by suicide or exposure in the wilderness[citation:1]. But Bullinger—a pilot, survivalist, and outfitter who led backcountry trips with mules—has never been found[citation:4][citation:8]. The case remains technically open. Murder warrants were requested, but Bullinger's fate is still officially unknown.
Listener discretion advised. Press play for the story of the Idaho farmhouse murders—where the prime suspect vanished into thin air.


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

"On the night of March 4, 2008, 18-year-old Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk left her boyfriend's dorm to study at the library. She never made it. Within an hour, she was found naked on a rural highway—shot once in the back. Her car was discovered burning in a campus parking lot. The killer had vanished into the night."
In this gripping true crime episode, we unravel the tragic and horrifying case of Lauren Ashley Burk, an 18-year-old graphic design student from Marietta, Georgia, and member of the Delta Gamma sorority [citation:2]. On that fateful evening, Lauren was ambushed in a campus parking lot by Courtney Lockhart, a 23-year-old dishonorably discharged Iraq War veteran [citation:1][citation:3]. Wielding a Rohm RG revolver, Lockhart forced Lauren into her own black Honda Civic, robbed her of $200, and ordered her to strip naked—later claiming he did so only to prevent her escape [citation:2].
What followed was a 30-minute nightmare drive. Lockhart drove Lauren around Auburn, ranting about his unemployment and misfortunes. Incredibly, Lauren tried to reason with him, offering to help him find a job [citation:2]. The conversation ended when she desperately jumped from the moving car. As she fled, Lockhart shot her at close range; the bullet pierced both of her lungs [citation:2]. Naked and bleeding, she collapsed on Alabama State Route 147 and died en route to the hospital [citation:7].
Lockhart set Lauren's car on fire in a failed attempt to destroy evidence before fleeing to Atlanta. He was captured three days later after a high-speed chase in Phenix City [citation:8]. Prior to this, he had been on a violent crime spree, having robbed several other women [citation:5]. Lockhart was convicted of capital murder in 2010. Though the jury unanimously recommended life in prison, the judge overrode the decision, citing Lockhart's criminal history and military weapons training, and sentenced him to death [citation:2][citation:6]. He remains on Alabama's death row. Listener discretion advised.


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

"They're all dead." That's what 22-year-old David Bain told the 111 operator on June 20, 1994. What he'd just found at his family's Dunedin home would become New Zealand's most infamous murder mystery—one that still divides the nation 30 years later.
Inside 65 Every Street lay five bodies: Robin Bain (58), Margaret Bain (50), and their children Arawa (19), Laniet (18), and Stephen (14). All shot with a .22 caliber rifle. The only survivor was David, who had been out delivering newspapers[citation:2][citation:5]. What happened next is a legal saga like no other.
Initially, police believed Robin—the school principal patriarch—had committed murder-suicide. He had been living in a caravan in the garden, and Laniet had allegedly told a friend about a long-term incestuous relationship with her father[citation:5][citation:6]. Then a suicide note was found on the family computer: "Sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay"[citation:2].
But forensic evidence shifted suspicion. David's bloody fingerprints appeared on the rifle. His palm print was smudged on the washing machine. A lens from his glasses was found under Stephen's bed—where experts said a vicious struggle had occurred[citation:2][citation:3]. Four days after the massacre, David was charged with five counts of murder.
The case became a cultural obsession. Former All Black Joe Karam championed David's cause, visiting him over 200 times in prison[citation:6]. The 1995 trial ended in conviction: life in prison, minimum 16 years.
But David fought. In 2007, the Privy Council quashed his convictions, ruling a "substantial miscarriage of justice" had occurred[citation:5][citation:7]. A 2009 retrial lasted three months. The jury deliberated less than six hours. Verdict: not guilty on all counts[citation:5].
The family home was burned to the ground at relatives' request[citation:7]. David changed his name to William Davies, married, had children—one named Arawa, after his murdered sister[citation:2][citation:5]. He received an ex gratia payment of $925,000 but was denied full compensation because he couldn't prove "innocence on the balance of probabilities"[citation:2][citation:7].
Thirty years later, New Zealand remains split. Robin or David? Father or son? Two suspects. Five victims. Zero witnesses. And a secret that died in a ramshackle house on Every Street.
Listener discretion advised. Press play for the case that haunts a nation.


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

"A devout Baptist who refused to believe in divorce. A best friend who sold him a million-dollar life insurance policy. And a cold December morning on a lake known for alligators. For 17 years, the official story was drowning—until a kidnapping, a confession, and a body buried five miles from his childhood home exposed one of Florida's most twisted murder plots."
In this gripping true crime episode, we unravel the 2000 disappearance of 31-year-old Mike Williams, a Tallahassee real estate appraiser who vanished during a duck hunting trip on Lake Seminole. His boat was found adrift, but no body—and investigators concluded alligators had consumed the remains. His mother, Cheryl Williams, never believed it, spending nearly two decades writing daily letters to the governor demanding answers.
The case cracked open in 2016 when Brian Winchester—Mike's best friend and the man who sold him the insurance policy—kidnapped his estranged wife, Denise, at gunpoint. Facing a 20-year sentence for kidnapping, Winchester made a deal: full immunity for Mike's murder in exchange for a complete confession and leading police to the body. He admitted that his affair with Denise began three years before Mike's death, that they discussed "options" for being together without divorce, and that he pushed Mike from their boat, then shot him when he didn't drown. Denise, now convicted of first-degree murder, was sentenced to life in prison—though an appellate court later overturned the murder conviction, leaving her 30-year sentence for conspiracy intact.
Listener discretion advised. Press play for the case where love, greed, and alligators collided—and a mother refused to let her son be forgotten.


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