True Crime With Suruthi & Hannah Podcasts

This week, Richard Allen’s defence team dropped a 136-page document challenging the warrant that police used to search his house. But it’s not as boring as it sounds – because the bulk of this filing consists of claims that Abby and Libby were in fact killed by an Odinite, white-suprematist cult. And in doing so the defence team has revealed a lot …

If Seth Rich had had any other job – or if it had been any other year – his tragic death would likely have joined the 65 other unsolved murders in his part of Washington DC that year. But Seth worked for the Democratic Party – and this was the summer of 2016. And while his family tried to grieve, Seth’s story was co-opted by every side. Through soc…

Did one man’s friendship with a dolphin go way – way – too far? It’s 1987 and the British seaside town of Amble has seen much better days. So when a wild bottlenose dolphin nicknamed Freddie appears in the harbour, it feels like a miracle. Everyone wants to swim with him. But Freddie chooses one person above all others: Alan Cooper, a dedicated ani…

In 1994, in the back garden of a house on Lorain Road, San Marino, California – workers accidentally unearthed a shallow grave containing dismembered human remains. Investigators were convinced that the discovery had something to do with a charming British man who’d lived at the property a decade before. Not only had he been a member of the British…

On 13 July 2023 - after decades of corruption and inaction - police arrested 59-year-old New York architect Rex Heuermann, on suspicion of being the LISK. In this episode, we’ll look at Heuermann’s family life, his background - and delve into the 33-page bail document that offers us an in-depth look at how investigators finally caught this notoriou…

In 2010, Shannan Gilbert made a series of frantic 911 calls as she ran through the streets of Oak Beach, Long Island, screaming: “They’re trying to kill me”. Then she vanished. A few months later a body was found near where Shannan, vanished - but it wasn’t her. And neither were the next 9 sets of human remains they found along Ocean Parkway. Now, …

On 21 August 2023, 33-year-old nurse Lucy Letby was handed a whole-of-life order for the murder of seven babies, and the attempted murder of six more. She is only the fourth woman in British history to receive the sentence. And now this seemingly young, meek, slightly goofy, “vanilla” girl – whose bedroom was filled with stuffed animals – is now Br…

In July 1981, the 40 residents of Antelope, Oregon watched on in bemusement as their rural village was descended upon by an Indian guru and thousands of his followers. Little did they know at the time, that these maroon-robed chanting hippies and their money-loving spiritual leader would go on to overthrow the local government, attempt wide-scale v…

School shootings are now tragically commonplace in the US. But in 1979, when Brenda Spencer opened fire on Cleveland Elementary School, it took everyone by surprise. Killing two adults and injuring nine children – allegedly just because she didn’t like Mondays – Brenda has lived on in infamy as one of America’s first school shooters, immortalised b…

At 2am, on the 3rd of May last year – inmates at Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were woken up by an explosion. Word spread that Thabo Bester, the infamous “Facebook Rapist”, had set himself and his cell on fire. And all that remained after the dramatic blaze were a lighter, and a body, burnt beyond recognition. But that’s far from t…

Graphic Sonic fanfiction, a botched DIY sex change, incest and relentless psychosexual trolling are just some of the hallmarks of Christine Weston Chandler's story. As one of the most documented people in history – with 2,500 Wiki articles covering everything from school reports to her parents’ friends – her almost biblical tale leaves little to th…

Last week, we looked at the formation of the ultra-obedient, bigamist Mormon cult, the FLDS – in which plural marriage to pregnant preteen girls is just the tip of the fundamentalist iceberg. In this second part, we look at how its new prophet, Warren Jeffs, took his so-called religion to ever stricter and more terrifying depths. With followers so …

According to Warren Jeffs’ thousands of followers, he was the leader of a secretive but devoted religion – their prophet, and the representative of God on Earth. But according to US law, he was a dangerous, totalitarian, child-molesting horror with over 80 wives – some married off as young as 12. Still, according to the church, Earthly laws are no …

In 2009, the horror film ‘Orphan’ told the tale of a couple who unwittingly adopted a 9-year-old girl, who (spoilers) turned out to be a murderous, adult woman. Sometimes though, reality is stranger than fiction. A year after the film’s release, the Barnetts, a wealthy picture-perfect American family, adopted 6-year-old Natalia Grace from Ukraine. …

Violently stabbed to death in their own home, the bodies of Debra and Marc Richardson showed the signs of an almighty struggle. The body of their eight-year-old son Tyler Jacob was upstairs, and their twelve-year-old daughter Jasmine was missing. It all suggested a brutal home invasion, with Jasmine’s abduction as the motive. Yet the narrative the …

How did an orphan from Bogotá, Colombia, become one of the most audacious white-collar criminals in the US during early 2000s? Starting his con career in Michigan at the age of just 12, Anthony Gignac transformed himself into a Saudi prince and spent three decades conning society’s elite out of millions – until one day his royal façade cracked, whe…

On 14th June 2017, a fire engulfed Grenfell Tower, a high-rise residential building in West London. 74 people died, and the tragedy became one of the darkest days in recent British history. But worst of all, the incident was completely avoidable. This is the story of how decades of government corruption and unbelievable corporate greed killed so ma…

In our second instalment, Hannah & Suruthi turn to Christopher George Latore Wallace – better known as the Notorious B.I.G. – and his side of the Biggie/Tupac saga. Lyrically gifted, privately educated and no stranger to a little crack dealing, Biggie became the face the East Coast rap scene in one of the genre's most volatile and dangerous eras. S…

With the news that Kathleen Folbigg has finally been pardoned, we wanted to help you revisit this case, and Kathleen's incredibly tragic story by re-uploading our episode from August 2022. “One sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder”; this theory has pervaded criminal investigations for decades. So when Kathleen Fol…

Stories of death, drugs, and gang violence were inextricably linked, in the 90s media, to the nation’s biggest rap stars. Tupac Shakur was one of the decade’s biggest and most admired music icons – until his life was cut tragically short in 1996. By the time he died, he’d been involved in three high-profile shootings, done time for sexual assault, …

When five members of the cheery, churchgoing Dupont de Ligonnès family were found dead at their home in Nantes – buried in the garden with small Catholic relics – a million questions erupted from neighbours, family and friends. But for the police, only one question mattered: where was the sixth? Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was nowhere to be found. An…

To make sure that none of you miss out we've updated our episode on Lori Vallow to include an update on her trial! Listen to this episode and this week's episode of ShortHand for the full scoop. 47-year-old mum of 3, Lori Vallow was convinced of two things; she was a god and the world was ending. Her job was to prepare her people for the second com…

What kind of leader would say of his own people that they are “meant to suffer”? Well, maybe a savage despot who claimed to be the master of the dead – a powerful sorcerer who could use vodou to raise murderous zombies at will, read minds, and even assassinate a US president… Francois Duvalier, known as ‘Papa Doc’, is one of the most ruthless dicta…

On Halloween morning, 1975, in one of the most exclusive gated communities in the USA, the bludgeoned body of 15-year-old Martha Moxley was discovered on her own front lawn. The shattered pieces of the murder weapon, a six-iron golf club, were found nearby. The police had the body, they had the weapon, and they had a strong indication of who took h…

When delivery driver Brian Wells wound up with a bomb strapped to his neck after trying to fulfill a seemingly normal order of 2 pepperoni pizzas, local police thought their strange day had come to a dramatic end. In reality, it was the start… By the end of their investigation they’d have to solve a scavenger hunt, track down a woman known as “craz…