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7 Gripping True Crime Cases That Would Make Great Documentaries
With the surplus of true crime content offered by streaming networks — three separate documentaries about the Idaho student murders premiered just after Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty — it's difficult to choose which other cases should get the documentary treatment. But each of the following true crime stories has unpredictable, unique and unfathomable twists — the kind that make you grab the remote and select 'play next episode' so you don't have to wait another second to find out what happens next. Some of these documentary-worthy cases are still unfolding, with a promise of more twists and turns to come. They include baffling mysteries, unsettling events, diabolical details and brazen villains — and victims' loved ones seeking justice. The Au Pair, The Affair, 2 Killings and 3 Murder Weapons A twisted plot involving an au pair, her married boyfriend, his wife and a mysterious stranger. On the weekday morning of Feb. 24, 2023, police received an emergency call from a three-story colonial house in an affluent Washington, D.C., suburb. When they arrived, they found Brendan Banfield's wife, Christine, mortally wounded in their upstairs bedroom. She was nude, and had been stabbed numerous times. Nearby lay the body of a fully clothed man, a stranger to the family. Authorities said he had been shot twice — by different guns. The family's live-in au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, cared for the Banfields' 4-year-old daughter (who was in the basement at the time of the killings). Peres Magalhaes told police she saw the man stabbing Christine. In response, Brendan, a criminal special agent for the IRS, told dispatchers he used his service weapon to shoot the man — later identified as Joseph Nathan Ryan, 39 — in the forehead. Peres Magalhaes allegedly told police that Banfield instructed her to retrieve another gun. While Ryan was on the ground, she allegedly said, she shot him in the chest — the fatal wound. The case then took increasingly bizarre turns. Police discovered that Christine Banfield's laptop had been used to message Ryan through a sexual fetish website to arrange a date at the house. Authorities have alleged that Ryan and Peres Magalhaes were having an affair, a relationship that continued after his wife's death, and created the account themselves to lure him to the house. Peres Magalhaes was charged on October 19, 2023, with second-degree murder and has remained in jail since her arrest. Banfield remained free until September 16, 2024, when a grand jury indicted Banfield on four counts of aggravated murder. In a deal with prosecutors a month later, Peres Magalhaes, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for shooting and killing Ryan. She faces up to 10 years in prison, while Banfield, who was denied bond, faces a life sentence if convicted on the aggravated murder charges. She is scheduled to be sentenced in December after Banfield's trial, which is currently scheduled for October. The Strange Disappearance Of 9-Year-Old Asha Degree The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a 9-year-old North Carolina girl are uniquely peculiar. Although police believe that the fourth grader voluntarily left her home of her own accord, evidence uncovered later indicates that something more sinister took place. Asha Degree left her home sometime after 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2000, walking alone in the cold and rainy darkness. Despite the weather, she ventured out coatless, carrying only her backpack and a Tweety Bird purse. Inside the backpack, authorities said, she had packed blue jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of overalls. Investigators cleared her family of any wrongdoing and said there is no evidence that she was abducted from the house. Two different motorists reported seeing her walking along a highway, about a mile from her house, at around 4 a.m. When one driver turned around to check on her, he said she ran into the woods. The next day, some of her belongings were found in a shed near that spot, including a wallet-sized picture of a young girl that no one recognized; she still hasn't been identified despite widespread news coverage. More than a year after her disappearance, on Aug. 3, 2001, a construction worker made a disturbing find. More than 25 miles from Asha's home, he unearthed a backpack that authorities later confirmed belonged to Asha. It had been wrapped in two sealed black plastic garbage bags, according to court documents. It contained a Dr. Seuss book from Asha's school library and a New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt that her mother said didn't belong to her. According to information from a tipster, authorities in 2016 said someone matching Asha's description might have been seen being ' pulled into ' a 'distinctive' 1970s-model green car the morning she disappeared. According to search warrants released in October 2024 and this February, sheriff's officials said they believed Asha was a victim of homicide and found evidence connecting her to another local family. Authorities alleged that one daughter in the family drunkenly confessed to killing Asha at a party 20 years ago. They said they recovered DNA on Asha's undershirt that was linked to another daughter, as well as that of another man, now dead, with previous ties to the family. Officials also seized a car from the family's property that they said matched the description of the green car provided by the witness who said they saw Asha being pulled into. The family has denied having any involvement in Asha's disappearance, and police have not made any arrests in the case. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina governor are offering a combined reward of $75,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for Asha's disappearance. When Cara Knott didn't return as expected on the night of Dec. 27, 1986, her parents became increasingly anxious. They were worried that the always-prompt 20-year-old college junior might have been in a car accident. They called the police — four different law enforcement agencies — who they claim all failed to make a missing person report or investigate. Next, her mother called local hospitals, who told her that no one resembling her daughter had been admitted. Frantic, her family members headed out to search for her themselves. Just before dawn, they spotted her white Volkswagen Beetle parked on a deserted cul-de-sac at a freeway exit. The driver's side window was open, and they could see the keys in the ignition and her belongings in the back. This time, the police responded to their call and after a search, confirmed the family's worst fears: Knott's body was lying in a nearby ravine below a 65-foot bridge. She was fully dressed, still wearing the purple sweatsuit and white leather boots her boyfriend had last seen her wearing. Her death was ruled a homicide. In response to San Diegans' fear about the murder, a local news station enlisted a Highway Patrol officer, Craig Peyer, to offer 'safety tips' during a police ride-along. He drove them along his usual route — the I-15 corridor that Cara Knott would have followed two nights earlier. In the segment, viewers spotted something strange: Peyer had noticeable scratches on his face. Then police began receiving calls from women reporting their own eerie encounters with Peyer. They said he had also stopped them, directing them to park at the bottom of a secluded, unlit off-ramp — the same place where Knott's car was found. Many resembled Knott, were about her age and drove similar cars — including seven who drove Volkswagen Beetles. Despite his sterling reputation, Peyer was investigated by police, who said blood and fiber evidence, and a rope found in the trunk of his cruiser, implicated him in the murder. In June 1988, Peyer was finally convicted of Knott's killing, in his second trial after jurors deadlocked in the first. At his sentencing hearing, Cara's father, Sam Knott said that Peyer had been 'hiding behind his badge and breaking his sacred trust to society.' Sam Knott had a fatal heart attack in November 2000 at the age of 63 while tending to a memorial garden he had created to honor his daughter and other crime victims. In an ironic twist of fate, he died within sight of the freeway off-ramp where his daughter was killed. The Chipmunk-Chasing Colorado Man Who Implicated A Mountain Lion And Other Wildlife Before He Was Charged (Twice) With Killing His Wife Suzanne Morphew, a 49-year-old Colorado mother of two, disappeared on Mother's Day weekend in 2020. Since then, the case has seen a number of legal twists and turns that ultimately led to her husband's arrest on murder charges. The charges were subsequently dropped…but Barry Morphew was taken into custody again on June 20 after a grand jury returned an indictment for first-degree murder in the death of his wife. This time, authorities had Suzanne's remains — and shocking new evidence in an already jaw-dropping case. Barry was the prime suspect almost from the start of the investigation five years ago. During interviews documented in a 129-page arrest affidavit, police said Barry told them numerous and often conflicting stories when they asked him about the weekend she disappeared. Even though her body had not been found, he was charged in May 2021 with Suzanne's murder. Barry blamed a menagerie of wild animals — including 85 chipmunks, a bull elk, deer with horns and others — on his unusual behavior when police questioned him after Suzanne disappeared. He first suggested that she'd been attacked by a mountain lion during a Mother's Day bike ride, although by then she was already likely dead. Although he described his marriage as 'perfect,' texts from Suzanne to him, her friends and their daughters told a different story. So did recordings obtained from a 'spy pen' investigators later found in her bedroom closet, as well as their confirmation later that she had been having a secret affair with another man. During a search warrant of the Morphews' home, police found a tranquilizer dart cap in the dryer along with some clean bedsheets. Barry explained that he shot deer in his yard with tranquilizers to cut off their horns. In another interview, investigators said he told them that he only used the darts to tranquilize bucks in a hunting business back in Indiana. In April 2022, days before Barry's trial was scheduled to start, the district attorney, who was accused of misconduct in the case and later disbarred, asked that all charges against him be dropped. Barry later filed a $15 million lawsuit accusing prosecutors and local, state and federal investigators of violating his civil rights. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge. Then in September 2023, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced that Suzanne's body had been found during an unrelated search in a remote area 40 miles south of her home. An autopsy report released publicly in April 2024, which ruled Suzanne's death a homicide, included the stunning revelation that animal tranquilizers had also been found in her bone marrow — specifically a combination of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine, or 'BAM,' used to immobilize wildlife. According to the indictment released after Barry's arrest, records show that he was the 'only private citizen living in that entire area of the state [who] had access to BAM' when his wife disappeared At his arraignment on June 30, 2025, Barry pleaded not guilty. He is being held on a $3 million cash-only bail in Alamosa County, where Suzanne's body was found, and will be tried by a different prosecutor. A trial date has not been set. Man Accused Of Killing Wife With Eye Drops Allegedly Poisoned Daughter While Awaiting Trial Only a documentary could do justice to the twisted saga of a former paramedic accused of fatally poisoning his wife with eye drops, setting a fire aboard a medical helicopter midair and then — while he was free on bond — staging his own kidnapping and poisoning his oldest daughter, also with eye drops, in an attempt to frame his in-laws, who had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him. The death of North Carolina mother Stacy Robinson Hunsucker at age 32 was originally attributed to natural causes — until authorities made a bombshell announcement a year later that her husband of eight years had been arrested for first-degree murder. Despite her young age, Stacy had a heart condition that required a pacemaker, which was implanted in 2015. When she died in September 2018, it was believed she had suffered a fatal heart attack. Her own parents were the first to alert authorities that their daughter's death was suspicious. A criminal investigation wasn't launched until Stacy's mother, Suzanne Robinson, contacted the North Carolina Department of Insurance and accused him of insurance fraud, authorities said. Just two days after his wife's death, Joshua attempted to collect on his wife's life insurance benefits, worth $250,000. The murder investigation was hampered by the fact that Joshua had directed that his wife be immediately cremated without an autopsy, according to an arrest affidavit first obtained by ABC News. According to the affidavit, Joshua barred the autopsy because he did not want his wife "to be cut up" — even though she had registered as an organ donor. Investigators caught a break when they learned that because of Stacy's status as an organ donor, a blood sample had been preserved, according to court documents. A lab that studied the sample provided by investigators reported that it contained 30 to 40 times the therapeutic level of tetrahydrozoline, a drug found in over-the-counter eye drops and nasal sprays. (Swallowing eye drops can dangerously slow heart rate and cause life-threatening heart rhythm abnormalities and breathing problems in adults. Young children who consume even small amounts of eye drops can develop sleepiness and difficulty breathing.) It is unclear why Joshua set fire to medical equipment inside a helicopter while it was airborne in November 2019, a month before his arrest on the murder charge. He was working as a flight paramedic at the time, and the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing. No one was injured and there were no medical patients aboard, the hospital system that operated the medical flights said in a statement. In March 2021, Joshua was arrested and charged with arson in connection to the helicopter fire, but was released on $50,000 bond, The Charlotte Observer reported. He was rearrested after a jury indicted him in August 2024 for witness intimidation and obstructing justice for harassing and stalking Stacy's parents. His bond was revoked in November 2024, and he is currently being held in the Gaston County Jail. No trial date has been set. The Baffling 'Goldilocks' Killings Of A Japanese Family Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Yasuko and Mikio Miyazawa with their daughter, Niina, and their son, Rei The horrific murder of the Miyazawa family on Dec. 30, 2000, is one of Japan's most baffling crimes. Despite a considerable amount of evidence left behind by their killer and a nationwide search, the case remains unsolved nearly 25 years later. Sometime after 11 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2000, a man broke into a house in a suburb of Tokyo, where a couple lived with their two young children. He viciously stabbed Mikio Miyazawa, 44; his wife, Yasuko, 41; and their 8-year-old daughter, Niina. While the killer was stabbing Mikio, his knife broke, leaving its blade in his head — so he used one of the family's kitchen knives to kill Yasuko and Niina. Yasuko, whose body was covering her daughter, had been stabbed so forcefully in her chest and head that her bones were visible, authorities said. He used a different method to kill their 6-year-old son, Rei, using his bare hands to strangle the kindergartner on his bunk bed. Police believe Rei was the first victim. Despite the ferocity of the murders, a massive investigation, a litany of clues and DNA evidence, police have never been able to identify the killer or determine his motive. While some of the money Yasuko made as a tutor was missing, the killer did not take the cash totaling about 250,000 yen (nearly $2,000 then) that police found at the scene. The crime is known as the 'Setagaya family murders' after the west Tokyo residential neighborhood where they lived. It has also been dubbed the 'Goldilocks' killings, based on the fairy tale in which a little girl walked into the house owned by three bears while they were away and shamelessly made herself at home. Evidence showed that the killer stayed at the Miyazawa family's house for hours, not leaving until dawn on Dec. 31, police said. He used the family's computer to surf the internet, might have taken a nap on their sofa, ate four small containers of ice cream, drank several bottles of barley tea that he found in their kitchen, and defecated in their toilet without flushing. He also left behind his clothes (stained with his own blood in addition to his victims'), and his fingerprints and shoe prints. Authorities distributed a flyer throughout the country with pictures showing how the killer was probably dressed when he arrived at the Miyazawas' house and the type of clothes he discarded there. Even with an unprecedented reward of 20 million yen (more than $150,000), no one has come forward with credible information about the killings. Authorities believe that could be because the killer likely is not a Japanese citizen: The shoe size of the brand he wore was not sold in Japan; investigators have not found a match for his fingerprints on any Japanese driver's licenses, passports, or other government documents; DNA indicates his ancestry is Asian via his father and European from his mother, and it has a marker much more common in Koreans and Chinese people than in Japanese people; and grains of sand found in his fanny pack are believed to have originated in the Southwestern US. Currently, DNA information obtained from crime scenes in Japan is only being is limited to individual identification, such as matching the DNA type of the criminal or victim with the DNA type left at the scene. Frank Lloyd Wright Massacre Frank Lloyd Wright and Martha Borthwick Frank Lloyd Wright might be the most famous architect in modern history, but most people might be unaware of the brutal massacre and destruction of his Wisconsin house on Aug. 15, 1914. Seven people, including three children, were killed by a 30-year-old man who worked with his wife at Taliesin (pronounced Tally-ESS-in). Wright had built the Prairie-style house to share with the woman he loved — the first person to die in the bloodbath. In a scandal that rocked Chicago, Wright had left his wife and six children to live with Martha 'Mamah' Borthwick. The two were having an affair before she and her husband divorced, but Wright's wife refused to grant him one. He and Borthwick were essentially ostracized by Chicago society, so they moved 200 miles north to Spring Green, Wisconsin, to live openly as a couple. Wright's original base was in Chicago, and he was working there the day of the tragedy at Taliesin. Borthwick's husband was also away on business, so their two children, who lived full-time with their father, were staying at Taliesin. The siblings, 8-year-old Martha and 11-year-old John, were lunching with their mother on the terrace when the killer struck. Five of Wright's employees were eating in the inside dining room with one of the men's 13-year-old son, Ernest. None of the men heard the screams when Julian Carlton stood behind Borthwick and fatally struck her in the head with a hand ax. He reportedly killed her son, John, next, in the same way. They both died instantly, but Borthwick's daughter, Martha, ran away. Carlton chased after her and sank the blade three times in the back of the head. Carlton then went inside, poured gasoline outside the dining room door and lit a match. As fire engulfed the room, one man managed to escape through a window and rolled down a hill to safety. The others followed, but by this time Carlton had run outside and was waiting for them with his ax. He struck them one at a time as they emerged from the window, killing all but one. He then returned to the terrace and poured gasoline on Borthwick and John's bodies, and on Martha, who was still alive, before setting them on fire. Carlton's motive remains unknown. After the murders, he swallowed acid. It ravaged his esophagus, but he lived another six weeks without sharing why he had committed such horrific crimes. Carlton was Black, and retaliation for a racist confrontation is one of several popular theories suggested by historians to explain his murderous rampage. Several days before the massacre, Carlton was reportedly humiliated after Carlton refused his order to saddle his horse. According to an oral history cited by a Wright biographer, one of the survivors identified him using the n-word. Even so, most scholars believe that although the racism Carlton experienced might have been a precipitating factor in the murders, he was more likely suffering from some kind of mental illness or breakdown. Taliesin was destroyed by the fire, but Wright rebuilt it — and did so again after a second fire a decade later. This one was likely caused by faulty wiring, and no one was injured.
The Independent
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Channel 5 viewers blast ‘confusing' name rebrand
The major UK television network Channel 5 has rebranded – again – simply as '5'. This will mark the third rebrand since the channel's launch in 1997, beginning as Channel 5, then changing to Five, then returning to Channel 5. The channel is now stripping back its title simply to the numerical form across linear TV and its streaming service (previously known as My5) in an attempt to unify the two platforms. The new logo, which sees a yellow number five on a blue background, will be used by the channel from Wednesday (12th March). The decision to change its name was initially announced in August last year, with Channel 5 boss Ben Frow saying: 'We know from the success that so many of our Channel 5 shows have had on Netflix that there's a huge appetite for our content in the streaming world.' Frow continued: 'As we relaunch as 5, our streaming service will be a much bigger and broader offer than My5 with a significantly expanded range of content including new series and box sets in reality, drama, factual and kids from across the Paramount family.' However, viewers have been left perplexed by yet another name change to a linear TV channel, following the rebrand of Dave to U&Dave in July 2024. TV writer Scott Bryan posted on X/Twitter: 'Is everyone OK?' before pointing out how ITV has gone between the titles ITV and ITV1, and that UK Gold has gone from UKTV GOLD, to G.O.L.D, back to Gold and to U&GOLD since it was launched in 1992. 'I genuinely endeavour to understand what possible difference this could make to anything?' said one person on X/Twitter. One person joked: 'Disappointed they never tried Chnnl5 really missed an opportunity there!' 'Let's face it, we'll still call it Channel 5,' added another person. 'A bit like still calling this platform Twitter, or "X (formally Twitter)" because single alphanumeric names just don't make sense!' A third viewer bemoaned: 'All their streaming thing is now 5. Which is s*** and confusing to explain to others.' Another person remarked that Channel 4 has also gone several rebrands in recent years, since it has repeatedly switched the name of its on-demand service from 4oD to All4 to simply Channel 4. 'Channel 4 now meaning both the channel and the website which everyone still just calls All4 or 4OD deserves a place on the list,' they said. Channel 5 – or should we say 5 – airs shows including Eggheads, All Creatures Great and Small, The Au Pair, Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun and it is the UK home for the Australian soap Home and Away. Neighbours was previously aired on Channel 5 until it was cancelled in 2022 and revived by Amazon.
Telegraph
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Au Pair, Channel 5 review: the sort of schlocky mindless fun that makes you binge the lot
If you're in the mood for some enjoyably schlocky nonsense, Channel 5's The Au Pair fits the bill. It's the kind of mile-a-minute, OTT thriller in which 25 outlandish things happen in the first episode. You know the sort of thing. As in a cartoon, everyone who gets a bash to the head is knocked out cold. Villains administer potentially lethal injections to their enemies on a regular basis. Someone gets tied up in the boot of a car. All of this happens in the Cotswolds. Well, the caption tells us this is taking place in the Cotswolds, but there isn't a Cotswold stone in sight and it appears to have been filmed somewhere else for budgetary reasons. Never mind, it looks very pretty. Into the idyllic life of Zoe (Sally Bretton), who lives in a beautiful house with her family, comes a French au pair. You can never trust the French. Particularly this one, because she is on a dastardly mission to ruin Zoe and her family. But why? All will be revealed, in increasingly fraught instalments. There are strong echoes of the 1990s thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Sandrine (Ludmilla Makowski) arrives at the home of Zoe and Chris (Kenny Doughty) in response to an advert for an au pair. The couple have been married for three years and Zoe is stepmother to Chris's two children, while going through her own fertility struggles and grieving the loss of a baby. Zoe's dad (a lovely turn from David Suchet) lives in the annexe. Sandrine soon makes herself indispensable while also trying to bump everyone off. Every second scene seems to involve her eavesdropping behind a door. There is attention to detail in places – the costume designer has got it spot on, particularly with Suchet's wardrobe of retired doctor smart casualwear – but you could drive a luxury SUV through the plotholes, and don't get me started on the stepdaughter's schoolfriend who is eight months pregnant and hiding it from her parents yet doesn't seem to be all that worried about it. And why does Sandrine need to have one of those evidence walls from crime shows, covered in photographs and Post-it notes? Still, it's mindless fun, and I rushed to watch the second episode straight after the first. Plus, it's elevated by a classy performance from Makowski, who exudes Gallic cool.
Telegraph
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
David Suchet: I can't watch anyone else play Poirot
Sir David Suchet has said that he cannot watch anyone else play the part of the Belgian detective. The actor, 78, played Agatha Christie's most famous character – Hercule Poirot – for a quarter of a century on ITV. Speaking to Radio Times, he admitted that he has never watched other portrayals, but for a good reason. Sir David, who was nominated for a Bafta for the part of Poirot in 1991, explained that by not watching anyone else play the finicky detective, he is 'able to say I have no opinion'. He added: 'I get asked the same question in every interview, and most people are looking for me to say I don't like them. 'I sincerely wish everybody who plays that wonderful character the best.' Sir David's Poirot is the longest-standing, beginning in 1989 and eventually spanning 70 episodes across 13 series. The character of Poirot has been depicted widely since the late 1920s, with the fictional detective reimagined on screen, stage, radio and games by more than 40 actors. Poirot made his debut in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and his last in Curtain, published in 1975. The author described the distinctive character's famous 'upward-curled mustache' and 'pink-tipped nose', adding that he is 'hardly more than 5ft 4in' tall. Sir David has previously credited the popularity of his portrayal of Poirot, which ended in 2013, to the attention to detail he paid to Christie's work and description of the detective. For example, the British actor previously admitted he had 'searched and searched' through Christie's books to find her description of Poirot's distinctive walk before finally adopting it by borrowing Laurence Olivier's trick of clenching a penny between his buttocks. After filming his final episode as Poirot, he described the shooting of the last scene as 'the hardest day's filming of my career' and said he would miss the character 'as my dear, dear friend'. The Telegraph said Sir David's 'swansong 'proved that the show has been one of TV's greatest achievements'. Elsewhere in the interview, the actor gave his thoughts on getting older and reflected on his childhood. Sir David, who will star in upcoming Channel 5 series The Au Pair, explained: 'I'm coming up to 79, I'm attending more funerals, and I'm aware of a certain ageism in our society, but I think that's in all societies. 'People are living longer, but the NHS suffers. What do we do with our increasingly aged population? Generally speaking, I think we're very well looked after.' Speaking about why he chose to return to his first series role in six years in The Au Pair, Sir David said that it was 'a real page-turner'. 'Other roles I was offered were nice, but repetitious and not quite challenging enough,' he added. The veteran screen and stage actor also said that he wouldn't wish boarding school on anybody when discussing his childhood. 'It was very tough and you grow up very quickly,' he explained, adding: 'It just didn't suit me because I was a homeboy.'
