Killer Cases

New Year's Eve and a seemingly random murder, in the small town of Benton Harbor, on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Police body cam video captured the heartbroken cries of young Army Sergeant Kemia Hassel as she cradled her handsome, dying young husband in her arms, as he was loaded into an ambulance. But despite the happy outward appearance of the attractive young military couple, investigators soon accused Kemia of directing a murder-for-hire plot with the help of a lover she met while deployed in Korea. Her boyfriend quickly confessed and in a dramatic, videotaped jail house phone call, laid out the murder plot to the victim's father.

The Amatos were a close-knit, middle-class family with three professional sons, who enjoyed Florida Gators football games together. So, it was a shock when Margaret and Chad Amato and their youngest son Cody were found dead, shot execution-style in their suburban Seminole Florida home. Suspicion quickly turned to middle son Grant, a trained nurse, who had quarreled with his family over money he had stolen from them to pay for the attention of a Bulgarian sex model on a pay-per-view website.

When Victoria Prokopovitz went missing in 2013, her three grown children were beside themselves with worry. Her husband, James, seemed oddly unconcerned, telling police she often wandered off and had twice tried to commit suicide. Despite a massive search, Victoria was never found. But a private detective who saw news reports of the missing woman offered his help. Conducting his own investigation, the detective learned James had been carrying on a secret affair and both he and his mistress had lied to police about their relationship. Now armed with a motive, eight years after her disappearance police charged Victoria's husband with first degree murder. But without a body, what detectives call a "no body case," the jury would have to decide.

25-year-old Ashley Biggs, a single mom and pizza delivery driver, was murdered on a late-night run for Dominos. Police arrested her former boyfriend Chad Cobb. For eight years, Cobb refused to tell police who had helped him lure Ashley to her death, protecting his then-wife, Erica Stefanko. But once he learned that Erica had become romantically involved with his best friend and that she was allegedly abusing his daughter, Cobb revealed Erica's role in the murder, and she was now facing a criminal charge for murder. Erica's defense lawyer argued it was a case of revenge, with no forensic evidence to tie her to the scene. But in a surprising twist, Chad produced damning new evidence to back up his story.

When Brandi Peters and her three children were found murdered in Tallahassee in 2010, prosecutors pointed the finger at her ex-boyfriend, Henry Segura, who owed her more than $20,000 in child support. But as the trial got underway, an imprisoned drug dealer came forward, saying he had ordered the murders from prison, that Peters had worked as a drug mule and helped herself to more than $90,000 worth of drugs and cash. It sounded like an outlandish claim, but DNA evidence found in her bedroom came back as a possible match to a Colombian cocaine trafficker.

Popular South Carolina University college senior Samantha Josephson was the pride and joy of her family as she prepared to head off to Drexel Law School with a full scholarship. So, it was unusual when Samantha went missing after a night of socializing at the Five Points bar area in Columbia. Tragically her body was found 24 hours later, with more than a hundred stab wounds. When surveillance footage showed her getting into an Uber in Five Points, police put out an all-points bulletin, and quickly arrested Uber driver Nathaniel Rowlands during a routine traffic stop of a lookalike vehicle. But the case was far from over, as Rowlands claimed someone had stolen his car and he was not the driver in the grainy surveillance photo.

Popular Dallas dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher was in a deep romance with fellow doctor Ricardo Paniagua when she was brutally murdered in the garage of her apt building in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong. Police arrested drug dealer Kristopher Love and his friend Crystal Cortes for the horrific crime which shocked the upscale community. But facing murder charges, the couple revealed a more sinister and stunning murder plot saying they had been hired by Paniagua's jealous and obsessed ex-girlfriend Brenda Delgado who police discovered had been secretly stalking him since their breakup. Delgado's arrest shocked her family and friends who knew her only as an upstanding, hardworking young woman from a blue-collar family on a path to professional success.

When 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts went missing during her regular evening jog, her disappearance was headline news. Police had few clues until a local resident shared his garage surveillance camera, which had captured a brief glimpse of Mollie running down the street and later a black car driving by. Following the lead, police moved quickly to arrest undocumented immigrant Cristhian Bahena Rivera who worked at a nearby dairy farm and charged him with murder. Under intense questioning, Rivera appeared to confess, although his story had strange gaps. But when it came time for trial, he pled not guilty, and his lawyers mounted a vigorous defense--accusing police of badgering him into a confession, casting suspicion on Mollie's boyfriend and presenting alternate theories of the crime.

Thirteen-year-old Dylan wasn't eager to fly to Colorado for the court-ordered long-distance visit with his dad, Mark, who tried to placate his son with a visit to McDonald's and shopping at Walmart straight from the airport. But when the boy didn't show up for a playdate the next morning, he was reported missing, setting off a manhunt in the rough Colorado wilderness terrain. Mark Redwine and his ex-wife took to the airwaves to plead for their son's return, but to no avail. Then in a stunning twist in a national television interview, Dylan's brother, Cory, accused Mark of being responsible for his brother's disappearance, a charge the father vigorously denied. But, three years later when Dylan's badly decomposed remains were found by hikers, prosecutors did indeed charge Mark Redwine with his son's murder.

The quiet community of Crestview, Florida was shaken following the vicious murder of beautiful 33-year-old nurse Melissa Howard, described as a caring angel, found with her throat slashed in her own living room.