True Crime with Elli Mac

On the evening of the 26th of January 2018, Georgia Hooper aged just 14, was sitting in the car just inches away from her mother Cheryl Hooper.

Suddenly a familiar ominous presence filled with jealousy and rage appeared out of nowhere and shot Cheryl twice through the windscreen at point-blank with a double-barrelled shotgun.

With her daughter being the prime witness and there during the gruesome attack, they knew exactly who had murdered Cheryl Hooper, but why had he done it?

When Carol Jarvis, a loving mother of 4 disappeared, her concerned children questioned their father Harry, about her whereabouts.

After telling his children that she was in Dundee and would be back soon, they knew he was lying and hiding something.

They reported Carol missing to the police, and after getting a search warrant to gain access to the family home, the police made a disturbing discovery decomposing under the floorboards of the house.

They had found Carol, their mother, but now their father, Harry was missing and on the run.

Was he responsible for their mother's death? How had Carol died? Had it been an accident or cold-blooded murder?

In 2009 on Valentine's day, Tiana Notice’s life was brutally taken away from her by her ex-boyfriend James Carter.

In the months leading up to her murder, Tiana went to the police station over 33 times to report multiple violations of the restraining order she had against him, only to be sent away and told by the officers “it was a long weekend and they were short-staffed.”

When James Carter left a handwritten letter on her door, she went directly to the police with the evidence she needed that he had been close to her home and for protection.

They finally took some interest in her claims and told her they would look into it.

But the police did not arrest him. Instead, they called him and asked him for a sample of his handwriting.

Having been tipped off as to Tiana going to the police to seek protection, an angry James Carter, went to her apartment and lay in wait until she returned home. 

This is the tragic story of Tiana Notice’s death and how her it could have been prevented.

On March 13th, 1964, while walking back to her apartment in the Kew Gardens district of Queens, New York, Kitty Genovese was brutally attacked and killed.  

"For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law‐abiding cit­izens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens"

  These were the words the New York Times would release about the attack.

Kitty’s murder became a staple of psychological textbooks when discussing “the bystander effect” because it was publicized at the time that there were 38 witnesses to her murder, but no one called the police or did anything.

Was this true, or was the story exaggerated by the media? 

How could 38 people witness a woman being killed and refrain from getting involved?

On Monday, August 2nd, 1993, in the quaint village of Savona, New York, four-year-old Derrick Robie was found dead in a small patch of woods just half a block away from his home. An entire week would pass before his parents, Doreen and Dale Robie, and the rest of the village would get any answers.

Derrick was only four years old. He had been lured away from the path he was walking and brutally beaten, choked and killed.

Everyone in the community struggled to understand how anyone could impose such violence on an innocent child.

The true identity of the killer would shock the community.

When 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake was shot dead outside a store in May 2010, the police found themselves with a suspect, Chauncey Owens.

In a raid to arrest their suspected killer, the police stormed a house at Lillibridge, and a gunshot was heard; They would then discover that an innocent young girl had been shot.

Her killer would try to justify his actions, claiming it was a mistake triggered by Aiyana’s grandmother's actions.

The shooter insisted he had lost control of his gun for a few seconds.

What had really happened to Aiyana Jones? Who had shot and killed her? Was she the intended target? Was this shooting racially charged?

This is the story of how an innocent 7-year-old child's life was taken away from her by those who were supposed to protect her.

When Devi Unmathallegadoo split from her husband, Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, it was not long before she found love again.

After marrying her new husband, Imtiaz Muhammed, Devi would become Sana Muhammed and would have high hopes of moving on, ready to start a new life filled with love and happiness...

Her ex-husband, Ramanodge, however, would be filled with anger and jealousy, and he would do anything in his power to stop this from happening, quickly becoming a dangerous stalker in her life.

How far would Ramanodge take it? Would he try and harm Sana and her new husband? Would he try and attack her whilst she was pregnant?

Sadly, Ramanodge would do anything in his power in the hopes of destroying Sana’s dreams of forever with her newfound love. He would resort to a harrowing crime of passion plagued by hatred, jealousy, and deadly obsession.

On Christmas morning in 2002, a policeman entered the Wholaver household to find all three Wholaver women dead. Jean Wholaver and her two daughters, Victoria and Elizabeth.

All the phone lines had been cut, and the only survivor found inside was 9-months-old baby Madison, who was left in the arms of her deceased mother, Victoria Wholaver.

Law enforcement immediately knew that the murders had been premeditated and extremely personal.

Who would commit such a heinous crime and pull apart and break a whole family on Christmas day?

This is the tragic tale of the Wholaver family Christmas massacre.

Just five days after Christmas in 2017, at 10:19pm, Suffolk police received what they later described as one of the most bizarre 999 calls they had ever received.

Stephen Searle calmly explained to police that he had killed his wife in their suburban house in the sleepy Suffolk town of Stowmarket.

When paramedics arrived, 62 year old Anne Searle was found unresponsive and despite their best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anne had been strangled by her husband of 45 years, before suffering from a fatal cardiac arrest.

When police arrived, he joked that he had ‘been a very naughty boy’, and ‘sometimes you’ve just had enough’.  Stephen claimed it to be self-defence, and that Anne had come at him with a steak knife.

But how could someone who had accidentally killed their wife of 45 years, and the mother of their children, joke so casually after her traffic death?

It was a cold and gloomy Sunday afternoon in Beckton, East London, on the 2nd of October, 1994.  Daniel Handley, a helpful nine-year-old, had returned home after earning a few coins at the local supermarket, where he often helped out customers to load their cars with their shopping.

As he always did in his free time, he had then asked his mother, Maxine, if he was allowed to go to play at Alan's house, his best friend.  Unknown to the dangers lurking around, Maxine had agreed to his request with strict instructions to be back at 6 o'clock.

However, by the time 6 o'clock had rolled around, Daniel still needed to come home. Four hours more passed and there was still no sign of him.

Maxine Handley, immediately knew something was wrong and started looking for him. She went door to door, searching, going to all the neighbours with whom she knew to be Daniel's playmates, yet, there was no sign of her son anywhere.

Soon hours turned into days, and then weeks, and there was still no Daniel. Witnesses would come forward saying they had seen him riding his silver saddle-less bike that night, but all the conflicting information and signs of Daniel did not help find him.

Where was Daniel Handley? Had he run away? Had he been hurt by his mother’s boyfriend?? Or worse, has he been abducted? Law enforcement would look into every possible scenario, each leading to a dead end.