Child Murders True Crime

On a quiet October night in 1993, 12‑year‑old Polly Klaas was snatched from her bedroom in Petaluma, California while attending a sleepover and mere steps from her sleeping mother. What began as a seemingly ordinary evening turned into one of the most chilling stranger abductions in U.S. history. Suddenly, the nation was gripped by tragedy and terror as authorities launched one of the largest man‑hunts ever seen, scouring every inch of Northern California and piecing together a complex trail of evidence. America’s Lost Child delves deep beyond headlines and speculation. Through ...

Police found the body of 16-year-old Calyx on her bed under a white blanket. They found her 13-year-old brother Beau in the family car covered up the same way. Both had two gunshots to the head. Both had been dead for hours. The only other person who had been in the home was their mother, Julie Schenecker. She told law enforcement that she could no longer tolerate her kids talking back to her. Was this a case of premeditated murder? Or a horrible tragedy fueled by a mental illness that had spun out of control?

A gripping journey of a mother's relentless pursuit through danger and deceit to reclaim her missing son. In a gripping tale of courage and desperation, Annabelle's world spirals when her son Fergus is abducted. Teaming up with her husband Benny and best friend Barb, she embarks on a relentless quest for clues. Facing uncooperative local police, they turn to the FBI, uncovering chilling ties to Annabelle's past and a kidnapper driven by vengeance. With time against them, Annabelle forms an unlikely alliance with a mob boss, both united in a single mission. This intense story captures the ...

A mother's desperate search for her abducted twins leads her into the heart of a shocking family conspiracy. When twins Emily and Erica vanish from their family's farm, their mother, Susan, is shattered. Defying police skepticism, she courageously tracks their estranged aunt, Paula, uncovering a chilling plot. In a race against time, Susan's relentless pursuit leads to a dramatic rescue from an underground trap. Facing Paula's twisted revenge, Susan's strength prevails, uniting her family in healing and hope.

In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy's home. The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa's friends and peers. With a fresh perspective and painstaking research, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents.

In July 1965, teenagers Sylvia and Jenny Likens were left in the temporary care of Gertrude Baniszewski, a middle-aged single mother, and her seven children. The Baniszewski household was overrun with children. There were few rules and ample freedom. Sadly, the environment created a dangerous hierarchy of social Darwinism where the strong preyed on the weak. What transpired in the following three months was both riveting and chilling.

Sharon Marshall was a brilliant and beautiful student whose future was filled with promise—until her murderous, fugitive father drew her into a lifetime of deception that became one of the most baffling cases in the annals of American true crime.

A blonde beauty queen, missing children, six suspicious deaths, and the twisted Mormon doomsday writings of her fifth husband are only the beginning of a tragic crime saga that gripped Americans and instigated frantic searches all over the country. It all started when Lori Vallow met Chad Daybell at a doomsday prepper event. Their story grew like a wildfire that creates its own weather, and what happened next will shock even the most experienced true crime listener.

Eight true crime stories of murder and mayhem. In my first audiobook as a true crime author I've started with a few of the stories that have haunted me for some time. Some of these stories are unbelievable in their brutality while others are astounding in the stupidity of the killers. This collection of stories are from all around the globe and have no common thread between them other than that they are both thought provoking and disturbing. The stories included in this anthology are dark and creepy and will leave you with a new understanding of just how fragile the human mind can be.

One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert—after running through the oceanfront community of Oak Beach screaming for her life—went missing. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to the twenty-four-year-old: she was a Craigslist escort who had been fleeing a scene—of what, no one could be sure. The Suffolk County police, too, seemed to have paid little attention—until seven months later, when an unexpected discovery in a bramble alongside a nearby highway turned up four bodies, all evenly spaced, all wrapped in burlap. But none of them Shannan’s.

In the quiet, close-knit town of Lake Redding, a sudden abduction shatters the community's calm. When seven-year-old Lacy Peters vanishes, her teenage cousin Blakely is left haunted by secrets that everyone in town seems to be hiding. As Blakely digs deeper into the mystery, she uncovers a web of lies that could unravel the town’s reputation and bring a long-buried truth to light. In a race against time, Blakely must piece together the clues before Lacy’s fate is sealed forever.

On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings—a stranger abduction from the home—triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. New York Times bestselling author Kim Cross has written the first comprehensive account of what happened on that fateful night in October, as well as how the case forever transformed the Bureau’s approach to solving crimes.

Fred and Rose West are virtually unique in British criminal history: a husband and wife who loved and killed together. During their long relationship, the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their daughter. What was left of Fred West's eight-year-old stepdaughter was dug up from under the Wests' previous Gloucester home; his first wife and nanny were buried in open country.

When Sasha’s son Simon vanishes, she teams up with Beth, a former FBI agent, to find him. Their investigation leads them to Tyler, a mysterious newcomer whose guarded behavior only deepens their suspicions. As they uncover a chilling pattern of boys aged 7 to 9 disappearing every December within a 100-mile radius, they also unravel the town’s tangled web of secrets and deception. In this tight-knit community, friends and neighbors harbor hidden motives and dark pasts, where trust becomes a luxury Sasha can't afford.

Perhaps the most compelling murder case of our day, the death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey galvanized the nation - and years after it occurred, the mystery still endures. Who killed the young beauty queen and why? Who is covering up for whom, and who is simply lying? In JonBenet, the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail.

From the summer of 1979 through the spring of 1981, Atlanta, Georgia, was held under siege by a serial killer, and dozens of victims started to appear. The series of murders, which became known as the “Atlanta Child Murders case”, gripped the city of Atlanta with fear and shocked the nation because most of the victims were children. In this true-crime audiobook, you will hear about how the Atlanta Child Murders case put a city under siege and how a task force of law-enforcement officers from several different agencies eventually captured the killer.

Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, Walking the Bowl immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities.

When Phillip is abducted, his family's hidden secrets and the town's dark mysteries come to light. Josie must confront the prejudices of their small community and uncover the sinister truth to bring her son home. A tale of courage and resilience, this story dives deep into family bonds and the shadows lurking in a seemingly peaceful town.

In 1981, just nine years old, Jennifer Cardy was abducted and murdered, her bicycle found standing where she had left it. There followed dark days for the Cardy family, days of searching for their missing daughter, grieving her death, wrestling with the questions. It would be thirty years before they would find any answers; thirty years before her killer, Robert Black, would face any kind of justice.

Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, Alex is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as Alex reviews old tapes—the moment they hear him speak of his crimes—they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, Alex digs deeper and deeper into the case.