Rex Heuermann’s guilty plea ended the criminal case. It may have opened a new front entirely. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack names Asa Ellerup and their daughter Victoria as defendants, alleging the family profited from a documentary and showed disregard for the victims. Read more…
Prosecutors have reportedly said David Anthony Burke did not act alone in disposing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s remains. That statement, combined with the pattern of resistance from his inner circle, raises a question this look back puts directly to former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis: who else is legally exposed, and Read more…
Months after Rob and Michele Reiner were found stabbed in their own home, their son Nick’s case still hadn’t reached a preliminary hearing — and the reason is striking. The autopsy reports weren’t finished, terabytes of discovery were still changing hands, and the whole proceeding got pushed to the fall. Read more…
The most dangerous moment in a controlling relationship isn’t the worst fight — it’s the exit. According to prosecutors, Eric Richins had quietly begun consulting divorce attorneys and restructuring his finances before he died, and the prosecution’s theory holds that his moves toward the door are when the danger spiked. Read more…
The connection between David Anthony Burke and Celeste Rivas Hernandez wasn’t hidden. It was visible — on livestreams, in photos near her home, backstage at concerts, in matching tattoos. A thirteen-year-old girl who had been reported missing three times kept appearing in the orbit of a twenty-one-year-old musician with millions Read more…
For five weeks after Melissa Barthelemy vanished, someone used her phone to call her fifteen-year-old sister Amanda. Always from crowded Manhattan locations. Always under three minutes. Always targeting the teenager, never the mother. The calls described what had happened in terms designed to terrorize a child. Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty Read more…
The Kouri Richins jury didn’t want to convict her. The foreperson said the panel came in sympathetic, even hoping she was innocent. They returned a unanimous guilty verdict in about three hours anyway. This look back, with retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, examines the evidence strong enough to defeat Read more…
Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the stabbing deaths of his parents. He’s held without bail, the harshest penalty remains on the table — and his siblings, Jake and Romy, are done. Sources close to the family put it bluntly: Nick’s Read more…
Every door closed. The DNA challenge failed. The motion for separate trials was denied. The 178-page omnibus motion was rejected. And then Rex Heuermann, who had spent nearly three years insisting through tears that he didn’t do this, stood up and pleaded guilty to seven murders — and admitted to Read more…
Burke’s defense team — led by one of the most high-profile criminal defense attorneys in Los Angeles — drew a line before charges were even filed: he “did not cause her death.” That is not a vague denial. That’s a defense theory announced in public. This look back, with criminal Read more…