Crime Junkie

When 20-year-old Ashley Loring HeavyRunner goes missing on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, her older sister Kimberly is forced to pick up the slack of a system that’s designed to fail those it’s supposed to protect.

When a fire destroys the Krentel home, family and friends are devastated to learn that one member, Nanette, didn’t make it out.

Brian Wehrle vanished without a trace during a trip to his hometown of Carrollton, Georgia.

When a friend is MIA after a night out, loved ones worry that she didn’t make it home safely.

When firefighters responded to 33-year-old Joey Lynn Offutt’s burning house in Sykesville, Pennsylvania, on July 12, 2007, they were shocked to discover the remains of her infant son, Alexis Brolin III. Joey was nowhere to be found and at the time, investigators didn’t know if she was a victim of the crime - or the perpetrator. But her family is convinced she was set up, and their only hope is that someone will come forward with the information they’ve been desperately seeking for 15 years.

When Amber Hagerman was abducted in 1996, there was a witness who saw a man and a distinctive car near where she was taken. But there was no way to get this information out to the mass public in time, and to this day, the mystery of what happened to Amber still remains. But her story changed the way the country handles child abductions and a precedent to issue an Amber Alert in situations like hers was made.

When police and federal agents descended on the home of the Todt family, they never expected to discover the gruesome scene waiting for them inside. While investigators had been able to piece together bits and pieces of what may have happened, questions still remained about who instigated everything... and why.

On a Friday afternoon in 1986, 18-year-old Denise Pflum leaves her home in Connersville, Indiana, to go searching for a purse she had left at a party the night before. When she doesn’t return home, it’s just the beginning of a nightmare that will haunt her parents for over 30 years.

When Shawn O’Brien is found unconscious in his Cranston, RI, apartment and dies days later in the hospital, the unusual circumstances spark suspicions of foul play. But the investigation quickly stalls out, leaving a grieving family searching for answers on their own.

SERIAL KILLER: The Honolulu Strangler When young women start disappearing from the streets of Honolulu only to soon be found brutally murdered, investigators at first dismiss any connection between the cases. But as the disappearances continue and the similarities pile up, they’re forced to confront a brutal truth... there’s a serial killer in paradise.

When 36-year-old Maribel Ramos doesn’t show up to her weekly softball game, her friends and family immediately know something is wrong. And that sense of dread only increases when they go to her house, only to discover there’s no trace of her—despite her car still being in the garage. As investigators dig into the case, the signs quickly begin to point to one of the people closest to Maribel.

When a successful career woman goes missing in Washington, D.C., her family immediately knows something is wrong. And when the investigation’s winding path eventually leads detectives right back to the place they started, her family’s long fight for justice produces a stunning result.

On July 26, 2021, we covered the case of MISSING: Alicia Navarro. On July 26, 2023, exactly two years after the release of our episode, 18-year-old Alicia Navarro showed up at a small police station in Montana and stated she was the person who vanished almost three years ago from Glendale, Arizona.

The update episode you all have been waiting for! On July 13th, 2023, Suffolk County ended the search for their Gilgo murder suspect and charged 59-year-old Rex Heuermann for the murders of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, and Megan Waterman.

When a promising young woman fails to show up for a Father’s Day celebration in 2013, her dad knows immediately that something is very wrong. And as investigators work to unravel the chaotic timeline of the night she went missing, they find no lack of viable persons of interest. But when her case goes ice cold, they’re forced to ask if they’ve been overlooking a monster in their midst.

When a young woman vanishes, police think she left willingly. That changes when her body is discovered months later and it’s clear she was brutally murdered. Small town secrets keep this case a mystery for decades…. until a cold case team is finally able to get people talking.

When a young woman goes missing under mysterious circumstances, questions swirl around a local businessman. But throughout the next 15 years, authorities figure out he may be involved in much more.

If you’ve been following Alissa Turney’s case, you’ll know that her stepfather, Michael Turney, has been acquitted of her murder, which has left us all with too many questions. What does all this mean? What exactly happened in court? And what’s next? Well Alissa’s biggest advocate, Sarah Turney, is here to give us the answers.

When the body of a man is found in the burned remains of the Roberts home, the family assumes it’s 52-year-old Clarence. But the question surrounding his identity remains for years… until another fire 10 years later leaves everyone with more questions than answers.

In 1843, Daniel M’Naghten gunned down another man in broad daylight. But when he was taken to trial things got complicated. His defense argued that he shouldn’t be held fully responsible because he wasn’t in his right mind. However, the courts didn’t know what to do with that because there was no precedent for this kind of thing. So his defense team got to work putting in place a defense strategy that is still used, almost in the exact same way, almost 200 years later.

When a local news anchor vanishes in the pre-dawn hours, the entire community is struck by the irony. The person who typically broke stories in their small town was now the focus of the biggest missing persons case in the Midwest. Leads and suspects are plentiful, but somehow, almost three decades have passed without a shred of evidence pointing to anyone in particular.

When Morgan Patten is killed in a mysterious auto crash while visiting her fiancé in North Carolina, police are quick to call it a tragic accident. But her loved ones believe she was the victim of foul play, and they won’t rest until they learn the truth.

When Pherbia Tinsley is found shot to death inside her car miles from her apartment in Central Virginia, authorities work fast to try and find her killer. Detectives uncover a handful of wild secrets in the lives of those around Pherbia which only deepen the mystery. Suspects are developed but the questions still plague cold case investigators. Who wanted Pherbia dead? And why?

When 32-year-old Deanna Cook is found murdered in her home, her family automatically suspects her ex-husband. But despite a swift arrest, the investigation into her homicide reveals appalling gaps in the Dallas 911 system and the people who failed Deanna when she needed them most.

When 18-year-old Jade Winston is found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in her Carrier Mills, Illinois, apartment in August 2007, the entire community is stunned, and investigators are split on whether she was murdered or if she took her own life. As rumors fly, a Coroner's Jury rules Jade's death a homicide. But 16 years later, the case is on the shelf, and her family is still desperate to know what happened… and praying that someone will give it the attention it deserves.

In May 2021, Crime Junkie covered the 1981 murder of Father Patrick Ryan and the subsequent conviction of James Reyos. Now almost 40 years since James' arrest, officials discovered that there is untested evidence that has been sitting idle...which proved James was innocent and was only uncovered because two Crime Junkies listening to our episode decided to make a little noise.

When a young mother vanishes from her small town, alarm bells sound immediately. Local police are on the case, but just a few days into the investigation, the woman’s family discovers that she had been having a secret affair with a married police officer. When that officer turns out to be the lead investigator on the case, speculation runs rampant. Her family is sure she was murdered by this officer, and the motive seems clear. So, why after twenty years does her case remain ice cold?

On March 24th, 2012, Molly Young rushed to her on-again, off-again boyfriend Richie Minton's aid, only to be found dead hours later in his Carbondale, Illinois apartment with a gunshot wound to the head. Did she take her own life, or was she the victim of foul play? With lingering doubts about the investigation's integrity, the search for answers continues.