General True Crime Shows

[One Tough Cookie]

God help me.  I've become so jaded  and inured  to murder that when I turned on a show the other night all I could think was  "boy, was she a slob",  So I''m taking a break to retrieve my humanity.

please don't judge me. I'm being honest and ashamed.

[auntjess]

12 hours ago, One Tough Cookie said:

God help me.  I've become so jaded  and inured  to murder that when I turned on a show the other night all I could think was  "boy, was she a slob",  So I''m taking a break to retrieve my humanity.

please don't judge me. I'm being honest and ashamed.

Hey, when I was a kid, this is why mothers told us to wear clean underwear, so as not to bring them shame if we got hit by a car.

 

[LuvMyShows]

Absolutely criminal negligence on the part of the police.  On the second episode of the new ID series Man With a Van, it was a story I had seen depicted elsewhere about a high school girl named Casey, who had an Internet relationship with a guy named Scott and a guy named Dave.  The previous franchise that showed it, created a mystery as to whether the bad guy was Dave or Scott.  This one focused pretty quickly on Dave.  Fairly soon after Casey disappeared, the police tracked Dave (real name David) to a storage unit. 

The police approached the storage unit and heard a car running inside the unit.  So they started to open the door to the unit and heard a gun shot.  The police and SWAT team stopped in their tracks and drew their guns and did the whole "Come out with your hands up" thing, but there was no motion.  So THREE HOURS LATER they went in to the storage unit.  WTAF?  They are damn 'lucky' that the girl was already dead, and that the gunshot was David, because if she had bled out while they literally sat there doing nothing, five to ten feet away, for three hours, I cannot imagine the outrage that would have occurred. 

[Annber03]

Yeah, I think it was "Web of Lies" that covered that story, too. This one might've gone into a little more detail that the other show didn't cover-at least, it seemed like there were elements that were new to me, anyway.

I feel so bad for her poor friends, hearing about her death on the news as they did. What an awful way to find out what happened. 

It's incredibly chilling to think of how many young girls that creep was targeting. On the one hand, it's frustrating that he killed himself and didn't have to answer for his crimes, but on the other hand, you know, good riddance. 

[Razzberry]

On 2/19/2020 at 4:22 PM, One Tough Cookie said:

God help me.  I've become so jaded  and inured  to murder that when I turned on a show the other night all I could think was  "boy, was she a slob",  So I''m taking a break to retrieve my humanity.

please don't judge me. I'm being honest and ashamed.

I've been there, and occasional breaks can be good. I'm not liking a lot of ID shows right now, and the rebranding of the same old cases needs to stop.  Let's play a game called -

You've been watching too much ID when:

All police sketches start looking suspiciously like your neighbor or husband.
You start carrying a loaded gun in your purse.
John Walsh's tip line is on your speed-dial.
When you meet someone who lights up a room, you feel dread and put their name on your count-down calendar.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Razzberry

[LexieLily]

ALL-NEW Forensic Files premieres tonight on HLN!!

[smittykins]

Watching it now(forgot to DVR it last night).  Still weird not hearing Peter Thomas’s voice.

[Tdoc72]

8 hours ago, LexieLily said:

ALL-NEW Forensic Files premieres tonight on HLN!!

I was excited. I love the quick 1/2 hour format. 

Hometown Homicide remains messed up.  Again this week, the description doesn’t match the show.  It was supposed to be the Tara Grinstead case, and it was something else entirely.  Get it together, show!

 

[LexieLily]

3 hours ago, smittykins said:

Watching it now(forgot to DVR it last night).  Still weird not hearing Peter Thomas’s voice.

I didn't realize how tied Forensic Files is in my head to his voice until I didn't hear it 😞 The new narrator isn't cutting it, so far. He's making it all sound like a run-of-the-mill Dateline episode.

[Annber03]

I didn't mind the narrator, myself. He captured the general ominous tone that the show's narration tended to have. I did like the little memorial card to Thomas at the end of the first episode, though.

The stories themselves were really sad, too. The guy in the first one-it amazed me how he'd done those robberies and still was able to get out. He stole women's intimate clothing during these robberies. That is always, ALWAYS a massive red flag regarding potential future violent behavior. 

I love how his inability to shut up about his crimes was what ultimately led to him being arrested and sent to jail in the end, though. Dumbass. 

Also, I don't know what they pay people who have to exhume bodies and examine them and whatnot, but whatever it is, I imagine it isn't nearly enough, because my god, what a hell of a messy, gross job that would be. I happened to be eating right when that part came up. Yeah :/. 

[Esmeralda]

12 hours ago, LexieLily said:

I didn't realize how tied Forensic Files is in my head to his voice until I didn't hear it 😞 The new narrator isn't cutting it, so far. He's making it all sound like a run-of-the-mill Dateline episode.

I was disappointed with the whole show.  It felt like a regular ID show with nothing much about forensics, which is what made the classic show so good.  I loved Peter saying all of those fancy words - nothing like this in this one.  I wish they'd use the beginning and middle stuff for the Classic one - they were the best part of this and the only parts that seemed like Forensic Files.  I'll watch it again next week and hope it's better.  If not, I won't.

[Supagirl]

Quote

3 hours ago, Esmeralda said:

I was disappointed with the whole show.  It felt like a regular ID show with nothing much about forensics, which is what made the classic show so good.  I loved Peter saying all of those fancy words - nothing like this in this one.  I wish they'd use the beginning and middle stuff for the Classic one - they were the best part of this and the only parts that seemed like Forensic Files.  I'll watch it again next week and hope it's better.  If not, I won't.

 

I agree. Man, this show is dull. I was thinking they’d be exploring all the new technology that’s been introduced in the 15 years or so that this show’s been off the air — it was so cutting edge at the time.  These first two episodes just feel stale. And Peter Thomas, this narrator is not.

[LexieLily]

3 hours ago, Esmeralda said:

I was disappointed with the whole show.  It felt like a regular ID show with nothing much about forensics, which is what made the classic show so good.  I loved Peter saying all of those fancy words - nothing like this in this one.  I wish they'd use the beginning and middle stuff for the Classic one - they were the best part of this and the only parts that seemed like Forensic Files.  I'll watch it again next week and hope it's better.  If not, I won't.

Forensic Files was where I learned what blood spatter analysis was and that it was an actual job. It taught me what different shapes of blood droplets meant!

I was glad that they kept the general tone of the theme music, though. That was nice.

[Annber03]

Holy crap, tonight's "Twisted Love" episode. What a creepy, disturbing story. "I can't help who I love"-really? That's your defense? I'm glad that that one reporter called out the initial narrative of people seeing Mariah as some kind of seductive temptress, when really she was just as much a victim of David. 

I don't blame the brother one bit for struggling to forgive his nephew. I think most people would have a very hard time forgiving something like that. 

(It wasn't mentioned in the episode, but looking up the case afterward, I found this news story about him being connected to a series of sexual assaults in the Phoenix area fifteen or so years ago, too:

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/man-convicted-of-murdering-his-mother-pleads-guilty-to-raping-women-in-phoenix/463506340

Not one bit surprised.)

[geekgirl921]

8 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Holy crap, tonight's "Twisted Love" episode. What a creepy, disturbing story. "I can't help who I love"-really? That's your defense? I'm glad that that one reporter called out the initial narrative of people seeing Mariah as some kind of seductive temptress, when really she was just as much a victim of David. 

I don't blame the brother one bit for struggling to forgive his nephew. I think most people would have a very hard time forgiving something like that. 

(It wasn't mentioned in the episode, but looking up the case afterward, I found this news story about him being connected to a series of sexual assaults in the Phoenix area fifteen or so years ago, too:

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/man-convicted-of-murdering-his-mother-pleads-guilty-to-raping-women-in-phoenix/463506340

Not one bit surprised.)

Yeah, I was pretty disgusted by the "I can't help who I love" excuse. Yes you can! She's a child, stay away from her. Or if it bothers you so much that your mother objects to the relationship, maybe move out of mom's house instead of killing your own mother!!

[LuvMyShows]

17 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Holy crap, tonight's "Twisted Love" episode. What a creepy, disturbing story.

I am by no means blaming the mom, but why can't parents see that doting on a child, and spoiling them, and moving heaven and earth for them, and putting them above all else, may not be good for the child...especially when this persists even while the 'child' is an adult?

[Annber03]

Yeah, I kinda get the feeling she started trying to lay down the law the older David got, but by then, it was too late. He already had that "I'm the golden kid, I can do whatever I want" attitude. 

I don't doubt it'd be tough for any parent to call the police on their child, even when they know it'd be the right thing to do, but I'm surprised she didn't report his relationship with his stepsister to law enforcement, especially given Mariah was underage for much of it. And even if Mariah hadn't shown back up in his life, if he could do that to his own stepsister, as that story about the Phoenix assaults proves, he's certainly capable of doing it to other people he's not at all related to. 

Just a sad, awful story all around. 

[LuvMyShows]

So I just assumed that the Forensic Files II episodes would be available on-demand on the HLN site, but they don't appear to be.  Has anybody found them?

[SunnyBeBe]

Anyone recall the show Reasonable Doubt? A former detective and attorney look into possibly wrongfully convicted inmates at the bequest of their families, to see if things were done properly. I just saw a rerun and they had an update caption that KC Grondin was granted a new trial. It’s a very perplexing case where the guy looks innocent, but there is a piece of physical evidence that can’t be explained.  I’d like to watch that trial if possible.

Edited March 1, 2020 by SunnyBeBe

[LuvMyShows]

On 2/25/2020 at 9:56 PM, LuvMyShows said:

So I just assumed that the Forensic Files II episodes would be available on-demand on the HLN site, but they don't appear to be.  Has anybody found them?

Replying to my own post since I found out the answer!  The repeats are on go.cnn.com and they are commercial free, so each episode is only 20 minutes.

[LuvMyShows]

On 2/24/2020 at 9:31 PM, Esmeralda said:

I was disappointed with the whole show.  It felt like a regular ID show with nothing much about forensics, which is what made the classic show so good. 

I finally got to watch Forensic Files II today and the show was very very very disappointing for the lack of forensics.  Plus at 20 minutes, there isn't enough time for the story to get fleshed out so the viewer can make theories about what happened.  But I'll probably keep watching anyway because, well, I'm hooked on these shows!

[Razzberry]

On the latest "Evil Lives Here" a woman's husband had raped and killed a friend of hers many years ago but she never put 2 + 2 together until he was busted by cold case detectives.  But there had been signs......

Like always rooting for the killer in true crime shows which he watched constantly, calling the victim a bitch who "probably did something to provoke him." or "had it coming".

 

[Annber03]

36 minutes ago, Razzberry said:

Like always rooting for the killer in true crime shows which he watched constantly, calling the victim a bitch who "probably did something to provoke him." or "had it coming".

And that moment when he and his (then) girlfriend were out in public and he made a lewd comment about a woman's breasts (of course, he didn't use that term)...and then called that woman a slut for daring to dress the way she did, because "that's how all women are". 

How his girlfriend didn't immediately dump his ass after that exchange, I don't know. 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Annber03

[Vivigirl10]

I don't mind Forensic Files II!  I loved Peter Thomas but I think the new narrator is fine too.  I guess what I like best is that to me, it still has the same feel as the old show.  I could see them having tried to make it all flashy and modern, but it's not.  

[LuvMyShows]

1 hour ago, Kiki620 said:

 I guess what I like best is that to me, it still has the same feel as the old show. 

And to me, that's what's missing from the new show.  I liked that science-y feel of the old show, and there just hasn't been much of that with the new show.  For example, the third episode (The Green Pen) covered a murder I had seen on other franchises (Annie Le, killed in her lab, body hidden in the wall in the bathroom), and science/forensics was such a minor part of solving the case.  I did like that episode two (On the Rocks) discussed the M-Vac technology, which was able to get DNA material from a rock, and wish they would feature more murders where the forensics was integral or was used in a novel way.

[geekgirl921]

7 hours ago, Annber03 said:

And that moment when he and his (then) girlfriend were out in public and he made a lewd comment about a woman's breasts (of course, he didn't use that term)...and then called that woman a slut for daring to dress the way she did, because "that's how all women are". 

How his girlfriend didn't immediately dump his ass after that exchange, I don't know. 

Yeah, I had a real problem with this one. I realize she was young and people tend to ignore signs a lot but geez, there were so many red flags that she just closed her eyes to!

[Annber03]

9 hours ago, geekgirl921 said:

Yeah, I had a real problem with this one. I realize she was young and people tend to ignore signs a lot but geez, there were so many red flags that she just closed her eyes to!

And some of them she noticed early on, too. It wasn't like he presented himself as some perfect guy right off the bat, he showed his true colors pretty early on when they were dating. But given how controlling and abusive he was, well...:/. 

Just watched tonight's "Stranger Among Us". Holy crap, talk about a clusterfuck of a story.  

[geekgirl921]

7 hours ago, Annber03 said:

And some of them she noticed early on, too. It wasn't like he presented himself as some perfect guy right off the bat, he showed his true colors pretty early on when they were dating. But given how controlling and abusive he was, well...:/. 

Just watched tonight's "Stranger Among Us". Holy crap, talk about a clusterfuck of a story.  

Yes, I was wondering if others had watched that "Stranger Among Us" episode. That was so messed up. Honestly people, just leave your spouse! The marriage is obviously over!

[Annber03]

1 minute ago, geekgirl921 said:

Yes, I was wondering if others had watched that "Stranger Among Us" episode. That was so messed up. Honestly people, just leave your spouse! The marriage is obviously over!

This! I mean, I can easily see where her behavior would drive anyone nuts, because she was behaving pretty damn shitty, for sure. But shooting her and her lover right in front of your kids, I mean...come on, really? He had kind of wild-looking eyes in his mugshot, too, and between that and the intense fights they started having later on, I dunno, I honestly could see where he wasn't quite the innocent victim some of his loved ones tried to make him out to be, too. 

That whole thing with the made up story about Missy and her twins, though. Using random photos of a woman and a baby found online, and buying two of a whole bunch of baby items that you know full well you don't need to push the ruse. That's just fucking creepy. 

[SunnyBeBe]

I'm always amazed at how much life insurance some of these victims have on themselves.  I get it, if you have a corporate job, professional, and your annual income would be a big deficit for your spouse and kids, but, a handy man, who has a $500,000. life insurance policy?  I don't get it. How do they get it so easy?  And some have multiple policies?  It seems like it's pretty common. 

[Razzberry]

Yeah, you never want to be worth more dead than alive.  Best insurance policy is NO insurance policy, imo.

 "The DNA of Murder" is back on Oxygen in a couple weeks, March 21, I think.  Hoping for some updates.

[LuvMyShows]

On 3/3/2020 at 11:30 AM, geekgirl921 said:

Yes, I was wondering if others had watched that "Stranger Among Us" episode. That was so messed up. Honestly people, just leave your spouse! The marriage is obviously over!

WTAF was wrong with him?  His wife had been seriously cuckolding him for a long time, she basically abandoned their young kids for the week while he was in jail, and she maxed out their credit cards and saddled him with debt buying stuff for her and her teen-age lover... yet this is the person he is so desperate to stay married to and have continue as the mother to his children?!. 

On 3/3/2020 at 11:39 AM, Annber03 said:

I dunno, I honestly could see where he wasn't quite the innocent victim some of his loved ones tried to make him out to be, too. 

I also was very confused about why he wanted the kids to go over to the mom's house, when he knew that he was going to go over there and shoot her.  Seems like that's not something you'd want you kids to see, to say nothing of the fact that things can go wrong with gunshots and the kids could (and did) get hurt. 

[renatae]

On 2/24/2020 at 8:31 PM, Esmeralda said:

I was disappointed with the whole show.  It felt like a regular ID show with nothing much about forensics, which is what made the classic show so good.  I loved Peter saying all of those fancy words - nothing like this in this one.  I wish they'd use the beginning and middle stuff for the Classic one - they were the best part of this and the only parts that seemed like Forensic Files.  I'll watch it again next week and hope it's better.  If not, I won't.

After a couple more watchings, I'm disappointed as well. I miss Peter Thomas' voice and style. I'm really not a fan of "City Confidential" style of narration, and that's what these sound like to me. I was never a fan of CC, probably for that reason. I'll give it a couple more tries, but I'm not optimistic.

[SunnyBeBe]

On 3/4/2020 at 6:45 PM, Razzberry said:

Yeah, you never want to be worth more dead than alive.  Best insurance policy is NO insurance policy, imo.

 "The DNA of Murder" is back on Oxygen in a couple weeks, March 21, I think.  Hoping for some updates.

I just saw a story where wife and boyfriend murdered her soldier husband. They said due to him being in the military he had $450,000.  in life insurance! Do all military personnel have that?

[CrazyInAlabama]

I believe the standard policy is for $500k.    It used to be much less, but that left families without enough to get a permanent place to live, and survive without the military service member.     The limit might be for death in a combat zone, or something, I don't know the details.  

Edited March 8, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[One Tough Cookie]

Anyone watching the new season of Reasonable Doubt?  Tuesday nite is the investigation of Celeste (dammit I forgot the last name).  The woman in Fla. who got her gay lover to shoot her older husband.  I think this show is my favorite.

[Annber03]

I saw the episode last week with the guy whose wife had been shot to death, and he was convicted of her murder, even though he claimed he didn't do it. That was an interesting one. I think he was responsible, but I also agreed that the way the investigation was handled was beyond appalling. 

[auntjess]

I really wish they'd bring ATL Homicide back, but I don't see any indication of it.  

 

[Annber03]

Man, this episode of "Diabolical" is creepy. What a strange, strange woman this Dayna is. 

"Is Bill dead in that house?"

"Not that I'm aware of..."

WTF kind of answer is that? 

Also, no way would I do the whole thing of giving my own dad the whole massage therapy treatment, with the table and him with nothing but a sheet while I'm rubbing oils all over his body and whatnot. That's just way too squicky. If he really needed something like that, I'd have another professional do it. 

[Razzberry]

On 3/8/2020 at 4:47 PM, One Tough Cookie said:

Anyone watching the new season of Reasonable Doubt?  Tuesday nite is the investigation of Celeste (dammit I forgot the last name).  The woman in Fla. who got her gay lover to shoot her older husband.  I think this show is my favorite.

I like it too, mainly because the family members are almost always delusional and the detectives are unbiased.  A couple weeks ago,  this killer's mother and sister were trying to get him out, claiming he was innocent and never violent.  Turns out he was strangling cats and setting fires since the age of five, and had been diagnosed a psychopath.

Celeste's mother and new husband were so lame, trying to say that Stephen didn't die from the gunshot.  I feel bad for the daughters. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Razzberry

[ridethemaverick]

Rant: what do some officers have against the word "rape"? 

At least three times over the past week or so, officers on various shows have said the perpetrator tied her up or stabbed her or whatever it was, "and then had sex with her." One was even referring to an underage girl.

It's RAPE!!! R-a-p-e. I'm sorry but that really bugs me.

[Annber03]

YES! I've thought the exact same thing when I've seen some of these shows. I can't tell sometimes if it's because they're trying to be delicate in describing the situation (which seems weird considering how graphic some of the descriptions of these crime scenes can get as it is) or if they genuinely don't see it as rape, but I agree, call it what it actually is. 

[Andyourlittledog2]

I just came here to say that in the recent Evil Lives Here (He Told Me There Were More of Them) I simply fell in love with the daughter telling the tale.  Everything about her, from her accent to her way of speaking, to her honesty and genuine emotion --- I think she was my favorite 'teller' of all the shows so far.  She just seemed like a sweet sweet woman who loved her father but was able to face the truth about him being a serial killer all along. And I really felt for her, knowing all those people who disappeared at her father's hands. in hindsight it's so easy to say you should have seen it but no one wants to see that their father is a killer, the mind just rebels against that explanation and you wave it all away.  Anyway, I love her.

[andromeda331]

How bad was the original coroner in the first Forensic Files II episode? Did he/she even bother to look at the body? It seems like no if the coroner didn't notice the large rope going around the body or the rope around her neck didn't have the V shape it should have been?

Also, how weird is it that her husband who killed her went onto be a burglar and stole women's panties from the houses he robbed? They didn't mention anything else on it. Was he just a murderer, burglar and pervert? Serious question is it common for someone to do steal panties and not end up escalating to molesting, assault and/or rape?  

I wonder why his wife wasn't arrested for the arson since it seemed obvious base on the slip on the phone call he made. She knew of the plan to torch the house for insurance. 

Edited March 15, 2020 by andromeda331

[nokat]

23 hours ago, Andyourlittledog2 said:

I just came here to say that in the recent Evil Lives Here (He Told Me There Were More of Them) I simply fell in love with the daughter telling the tale

Wow, not me. The more she talked the more I hated her. All of my friends disappearing, didn't notice at all. Then at the end, after knowing all her father had done "I still love him." Yeah, I know she was a victim too, but geez. (He murdered and probably raped children)

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by nokat

[renatae]

On 3/11/2020 at 12:56 AM, Annber03 said:

Man, this episode of "Diabolical" is creepy. What a strange, strange woman this Dayna is. 

"Is Bill dead in that house?"

"Not that I'm aware of..."

WTF kind of answer is that? 

Also, no way would I do the whole thing of giving my own dad the whole massage therapy treatment, with the table and him with nothing but a sheet while I'm rubbing oils all over his body and whatnot. That's just way too squicky. If he really needed something like that, I'd have another professional do it. 

This was really strange. My husband doesn't believe the friend who said Dayna proposed to "service" her husband and then drugged her and ran off with her husband and child. I'd sure like to learn more about that. Dayna was something else! They definitely put her on the right show.

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, renatae said:

This was really strange. My husband doesn't believe the friend who said Dayna proposed to "service" her husband and then drugged her and ran off with her husband and child. I'd sure like to learn more about that. Dayna was something else! They definitely put her on the right show.

Right? That part of the story just seemed to kind of end rather abruptly and weirdly. One minute they were talking about how people would describe the guy as "creepy" when he was hanging around Dayna, and he had his weird history with his ex, but she never made mention of him being creepy, and then the next minute, all of a sudden, boom, he and Dayna aren't together anymore and he's ready to make it up to his ex-wife by paying her back. I definitely agree there was more to that story that we didn't hear, 'cause that's just freaking bizarre. 

[LuvMyShows]

On 3/11/2020 at 2:15 PM, Razzberry said:

Celeste's mother and new husband were so lame, trying to say that Stephen didn't die from the gunshot.  I feel bad for the daughters. 

Celeste's mother got so very very angry and animated that the daughters were saying they saw Celeste in bed with Tracy but had no pictures of that.  What the what?  I think the girls said that it happened once, so how the hell were they supposed to get pictures?!  The new husband (Tracy's FIFTH?) said there was no financial gain to Celeste from the murder, but surprise surprise, there was a sh*tload of financial gain.  And boy oh boy Celeste could sure spend money like a champ....$450K in six months?!  I've never seen so many of the leads be proved false, and I can only remember one other time where they really, really tried to convince the family members to come to peace with realizing that the loved one did do it.  That fifth husband has been so duped by Celeste, and is giving up everything in his life for her. I hope he has his eyes opened from this...the mom damn sure never will.

[Razzberry]

Diabolical was pretty good the other night, or at least I never saw the story done.  In 1980 this sleazy couple were going around the country finding new mothers with babies and lured them in by a phoney baby contest, taking their picture and everything.  Then they'd kill the mother and sell the babies to a 3rd party baby broker.  One baby they discovered had a club foot so they just left in a field one night.  By some miracle it was found and survived.  This was how they made a living.  God I hate people sometimes.

[Annber03]

That story was so disturbing. Those poor children. The five year old having to witness her mom's murder and the kidnapping of her brother like that... 

The other woman reading one of the letters her mom had written for her while pregnant with her at the end of the episode got me all choked up. Especially the part where her mom was talking about how she'd fight like hell to protect her daughter if they ever found themselves in danger. What an eerie comment to make.