The worst episodes of Killer Cases
Ranked by viewer rating, lows first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
A New Year's Eve shooting in the small town of Benton Harbor, MI, and police body cam captures the heartbroken cries of Army Sgt. Kemia Hassel as she cradles her dying husband, Army Sgt. Tyrone Hassel III, who was on leave during the Thanksgiving holiday; he died from multiple gunshots. Despite the happy outward appearance of the attractive young military couple, investigators soon uncover a murder plot.
- 02
In March 1993, two newspaper carriers driving down a rural road spotted what they thought was a doll but which turned out to be, in fact, a newborn baby's body. The coroner determined that the baby boy had been born alive; but his origin was a mystery. Despite dozens of leads and even a hidden camera placed at the cemetery in hopes that the child's mother would show up, no arrests were made for 25 years. Then, with modern DNA and familial genealogy techniques, the cold case was solved.
- 03
In May 2018 in Westfield, MA, detective Brian Fanion, 30-year police veteran, frantically called 911 for an ambulance, saying his wife Amy had shot herself and lay dying. But when Fanion's fellow officers arrived at the house, the crime scene posed more questions than answers.
- 04
Outwardly, Mark Jensen seemed to be a mild-mannered, loving husband -- grieving over the early December 1998 suicide death of his wife, Julie, who was found by their two young sons. But when Wisconsin police found traces of antifreeze in her autopsy, they started to question what was really going on at home. They soon discover that Mark moved another woman in a month after his wife's death.
- 05
Jamaican immigrants Andreen McDonald and her husband Andre, an Air Force Reserve Major, have an autistic daughter, Alayna, and a beautiful home and successful business they built together in San Antonio, TX. When Andreen went missing, detectives uncovered turmoil within the marriage and realized this was much more than a missing persons case.
- 06
James Ray III, a prominent attorney, former NYC police officer, and former U.S. Marine, lived in an upscale Upper Montclair, NJ home with his girlfriend Angela Bledsoe, a successful businesswoman, and their young daughter. After a weekend away, Angela didn't show up for an appointment; Ray dropped their daughter off with his brother who found a note in her suitcase and promptly called 911. The police are dispatched to their house and find Angela dead on the kitchen floor; Ray and his BMW are nowhere to be found.
- 07
The murder trial of prominent lawyer Tex McIver transfixed Atlanta. McIver claimed his gun accidentally went off, unintentionally shooting his wife in the back as they drove home. But, did McIver have a secret motive to want his wife dead?
- 08
After trying for 20 years to solve the mystery of a 6-year-old boy found dead in the woods, an artist's age progression portrait of the child posted on social media leads detectives to find new clues.
- 09
Rap musician Martell DeRouen, known as "Kardone," was found shot to death in his luxury apartment, the door locked from the inside. Detectives faced a challenging mystery as they investigated the puzzling murder.
- 10
A masked intruder stormed into a house party, murdering three young members of Detroit's LGBTQ community. As detectives worked to track down the killer, they uncovered a surprising and troubling motive.
- 11
Las Vegas investigative reporter Jeff German was shot and killed execution style in his own driveway in broad daylight in a murder that shocked the town. Security camera footage showed a mysterious person in a big hat running away.
- 12
When Richard Smith failed to show up for work, police discovered the murdered bodies of Smith, his mother and brother in their home in Pensacola, FL. Sheriff's deputies told the media they were investigating possible ritual links to the Wiccan religion and the timing of the killings with the "blue moon sky."
- 13
Firefighters made a desperate effort to save the Huggins family of seven, 2 adults and 5 children, from a blazing fire in Akron, OH, but rescuers were too late. Police declared the fire was no accident and began an arson investigation, which included another unexplained fire a year earlier on the same block that killed a beloved elderly couple, Gloria Hart and Lindell Lewis.
- 14
A camper gathering firewood in Arizona's scenic Sunset Crater National Park was shocked to discover the body of 27-year-old Sasha Krause in a traditional long dress, wearing black shoes. Her Mennonite family and friends in New Mexico were stunned--she had no known enemies and was a beloved, studious young woman, who loved books. How did she end up dead so far from home? [also shown as S3:E3]
- 15
Mengqi Ji, a Chinese exchange student, found a career and a love match with Joe Elledge in the idyllic Missouri university town of Columbia; they married and started a family. It was a shock to her loved ones when she disappeared in October 2019 apparently to be with another man, leaving both her child Anna and her cell phone behind. Her remains were eventually found by a hiker in February 2020. [also shown as S3:E2]
- 16
When Joleen Cummings, a hairstylist at Tangles Hair Salon in Yulee, FL, failed to pick up her children for a planned celebration, and was reported missing by her ex-husband. Investigators discovered a bloody scene at the salon, but the hairstylist and her SUV were gone. [also shown as S3:E5]
- 17
Ten days after Memphis NBA player Lorenzen Wright went missing in 2010, the player's body was found in a swamp, shot 11 times. He called 911 but never spoke; gunshots are heard in the background. Police search for clues to identify the killer but the case stalled for 3 years until an inmate confessed but was found unproven; it stalled again for 4 more years until a deeper investigation uncovering a murder plot. [also shown as S3:E4]
- 18
An heir to the Halliburton oil dynasty fortune, Jill Halliburton Su was found dead in her bathtub by her son Justin at her upscale home in a Davie, FL, gated community in 2014. The security cameras weren't working, a glass door had been shattered, and at least one room of the house had been ransacked. Police quickly focused on Justin as the prime suspect, grilling him intensely for hours. A few days later, when crime scene DNA forensic tests were finally processed, Justin was cleared; and investigators were after a new suspect.
- 19
Makeva Jenkins, a successful businesswoman and pregnant mother of three, boasted on Facebook that she had grown her business to six figures from being homeless. But just hours later, she was shot dead with a bullet to the head. Her husband Euri Jenkins, her brother Quay, and Euri's friend Dametri all relayed to police that a masked intruder had shot and killed her. Police soon uncover a murder-for-hire plot.
- 20
Todd Kendhammer called 911 in a panic, describing a freak accident that occurred while he was driving with his wife, Barbara, in the passenger seat. He said a metal pipe had fallen from a passing flatbed truck, piercing the windshield and fatally injuring his wife. But Wisconsin police were suspicious of Todd's responses in the interrogation room, when his story continued to change, and his alibi didn't check out. Forensic details from the autopsy report cast further doubt on his story.
- 21
In Florida 2015, 36-year-old mother of two Amanda Colley was starting her life over after a contentious divorce and an ongoing custody battle with her ex-husband, James. One summer night, she returned to a ransacked house; her boyfriend Lamar and two of her girlfriends, Lindy and Rachel, arrived to join her as police were called. Then, gunshots rang out, glass shattered, and after 911 was called from inside the house, more shots were fired; Amanda and Lindy, a mother of three, were both dead, and Rachel was injured. (Lamar had run before the shooting as he knew he was the target.) The gunman took off before police arrived.
- 22
Jazz trumpet player Scott Sessions, from Greeley, CO, fails to show up for a gig. A few days later, his body is found wrapped in plastic and duct tape, partially burned, and hidden in a forest in Pingree Park, CO. Detectives soon discover a relationship that Scott didn't tell his loved ones about.
- 23
When Ohio State senior Reagan Tokes fails to respond to messages from her parents, they fear the worst. Their nightmare becomes a reality when a 911 caller reports the discovery of a female body in the local park, shot execution style. Knowing a brutal killer is on the loose, detectives race to solve the crime and soon discover CCTV footage.
- 24
Kay Baker, a 3rd grade school teacher and divorced mom of two in Lithia, FL, was found lying in her neighbor's yard bleeding to death with her throat slashed. Soon after police arrive and search her house, they find a trail of blood outside and use a K-9 and then helicopter infrared leading to a suspenseful search. They spot a wounded man in the woods, and arrest him as a possible suspect.
- 25
In 2021, Alexander 'Alex' Jackson, an Eagle Scout, called 911 to report a mysterious intruder killed both his parents, Jan and Melissa, and his younger sister, Sabrina, and shot him in the foot. But as they interviewed Alex in the hospital, detectives began to suspect Jackson wasn't telling the whole truth.
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