Crime Stories

- Season 6

(2008)

When the body of a local beauty queen, Anita Cobby, is found in a farmer's field near Sydney, Australia, the entire country is riveted. Eyewitness accounts lead to John Travers, an out of control kid leading a notorious gang that terrorized the area. Police work tirelessly on the case, wrapping up their investigation with multiple raids to bring in the loathsome crew.

Gerald Gallego, son of a convicted killer, and Charlene Gallego, honour student and musical prodigy, were a match made in hell. Preying mostly on young women, they raped and murdered ten people in counties across the western States between 1978 and 1980. The Gallegos earned the odious title of the first husband and wife serial murderers.

In 1974, a man identifying himself as the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) Strangler started a killing spree in Kansas spanning the next two decades. He managed to kill ten people while eluding an intense manhunt by police. After a 13-year lull, he reemerged in 2004 through a disturbing letter to the media that ultimately lead to his capture a year later.

A week-long search for a missing 10-yr-old Indiana girl ends sadly with her body being discovered in a nearby stream. The ensuing investigation puts police through the wringer as they are misled by false confessions and stories of secret meth labs. DNA evidence eventually pins the crime on Anthony Stockelman and the community is finally able to achieve justice.

Six days into 2004, an unidentified man is found stabbed to death just outside of the booming oil city of Calgary, Alberta. A witness comes forward when he sees an article about the murder just when the police appear to have no leads. The victim is identified as Evan Chu,* a local DJ and security guard who has a penchant for helping wayward youth. School rumors and wiretaps lead police to three guilty teenagers.

US Coastguardsman Ricky Dale Hemphill and companion Charla Toma set out for a picnic along a river near Brookings, Oregon in the fall of 1979. A day later Ricky is found murdered and Charla is missing. A tip from a local hunter leads police to Edward Delen Warren, a former convict in the area trying to set up a religious retreat. What police uncover is a bizarre plot that will soon spiral out of control.

In November 1986, a snowstorm rips through Connecticut, leaving wife and mother Helle Crafts missing. Her husband, airline pilot Richard Crafts, evades suspicion for weeks by claiming that Helle had run off with another man. Groundbreaking forensic work and an eyewitness to a gruesome scene involving an industrial-sized woodchipper, result in a conviction that shocks a community.

Three separate women, unrelated to one another, went missing from the Kansas City area in the 1980s and 90s. They all disappeared shortly after meeting a man online and coming to Missouri to meet him. Police suspected one man was behind the disappearances, and their surveillance of conman John Edward Robinson led them to gruesome evidence of the women's fate.

American Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family vanished in August 1995, leaving behind an ominous note claiming a family emergency. When the IRS started looking for some of the organization's missing money, they found a former employee with the motive to commit murder instead. Fellow Atheist David Waters was convicted and the complex case was finally put to rest.

On Valentine's Day weekend 1999, three Yosemite National Park tourists disappeared and were found tragically murdered a month later. At the time, handyman Cary Stayner was questioned but released due to lack of evidence. Later that summer, when another woman turned up dead, Stayner would not be so lucky. Authorities were able to pin Stayner with all four murders.