The Murder Blog

The Mysterious Death of Cindy James: A Decade of Fear Ends in Tragedy On June 8, 1989, a disturbing discovery was made in the backyard of an abandoned house in Richmond, Canada. Cindy James was found hogtied, drugged, and strangled with a black nyl…

A Quiet Romance: The Love Story of Teri Helfrich and Charles Brandt In 1986, Teri Helfrich found what many spend a lifetime searching for—a love that felt like home. Teri was the kind of person who lit up every room she entered. A free spirit…

A Killer’s Beginnings: The Early Life of Peter Sutcliffe “Bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. I was just cleaning up the place a bit.” Those were the words of a man whose reign of terror gripped the UK for five yea…

The Curious Transformation of Manuela Bartel: From Model Student to Chaos Incarnate Manuela Bartel was the kind of kid who made parents breathe a sigh of relief—polite, hardworking, and bright. Growing up in 1980s and 1990s Germany, her life …

Augusta Gein: Tyrant, Preacher, and Queen of Condemnation Augusta Wilhelmine Gein ruled her household like a fire-and-brimstone despot, her reign extending over a remote Plainfield, Wisconsin farm where she kept a firm grip on her two sons, Henry a…

A Killer’s Checklist: Errands with a Dark Purpose “Get killing knives, get sledgehammer, bring food grinder, get bleach…” Sounds like the twisted to-do list of a Hollywood villain, right? Except this isn’t fiction. T…

Henry Lee Lucas: A Grim Beginning in Blacksburg, Virginia “I killed ’em every way there is except poison. Strangulations, knifings, shootings, hit-and-runs… I had no feelings for the people themselves… It was just, like I …

Bloodlines of Chaos: The Troubled Origin of Richard Chase When it comes to true crime, some cases read like poorly thought-out fiction—implausible, grotesque, and baffling. Then there’s Richard Chase, whose life was a parade of warning …

The Making of a Monster: Daniel LaPlante’s Early Years A loner. A creep. A childhood soaked in neglect and streaked with a steady parade of run-ins with the law. Some stories seem almost engineered to remind us why certain stereotypes exist. …

The Disappearance of Maura Murray: True Crime’s Most Baffling Mystery What would drive a seemingly normal college student to pack up her belongings, crash her car on a remote and snowy New Hampshire road, and vanish into thin air? That’…