Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 71 i Crime Monthly

The prime suspect in the Long Island serial killings has been charged with a seventh murder. Architect Rex Heuermann, 61, replied, ‘Your honour, I am not guilty of any of these charges’ when he was accused of the second-degree murder of Valerie Mack, whose skeletal remains were found in 2000 and 2011. The married father was arrested in July 2023, after multiple women were found on or near Gilgo Beach. An indictment alleged hairs found on Valerie’s body match Heuermann’s wife and daughter, indicating she had been inside the family home at Massapequa Park. Prosecutors have alleged all the murders were carried out in the basement there. Heuermann has denied all charges. Valerie’s parents were in court as Heuermann was charged, and Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney said they were…

As the school bell rang for my next lesson, I stuffed my notebook and pens into my bag and got to my feet. Heart racing, I hurried past the classroom and bolted out of the school gates. Aged 14, I was fed up with being picked on by some of the other girls, so I’d decided to skip class. Life at home wasn’t much better, either. After my parents’ divorce, I’d struggled to adjust to living with my dad and his new partner, and my mum was distant. But just as I thought I’d escaped the school grounds unnoticed, Tom the security guard spotted me and asked why I was trying to get out of school. Blinking back tears, I told him I was being bullied and, to my surprise,…

On 1992, Anna Young was a fugitive – wanted by the authorities for a child abuse charge relating to 12-year-old Nikki Nicholson. Nikki, who was a member of religious collective United House Of Prayer For All People, had suffered severe burns after Young told her followers that Nikki ‘smelt bad’ and that the only remedy was bathing her in bleach. This would, she said, ‘burn the evil out of her’. Young would remain on the run for eight years, until she was finally apprehended while hiding in the loft of a relative’s home. In 2001, she was convicted of the abhorrent abuse, but would only serve six months behind bars. After her release, she attempted a reinvention of sorts, and spent the next 15 years moving from city to city,…

In the UK today, there are approximately 97,000 people in prison. A round 65 of those are serving whole life sentences and will never get out, but the vast majority will one day face release. Many will serve their allotted sentences and walk straight out of the gates, but for around 10-12,000 prisoners a year, whether or not they go free is up to the Parole Board. An independent body made up of judges, psychologists, probation officers and other professionals, its job is to assess whether a prisoner can be safely released back into the community. And they are often dealing with the most dangerous offenders, from murderers to armed robbers. Rob McKeon has been on the Board for over a decade, and has written a book on his experiences.…

Written by Drew Goddard (The Good Place), starring Kaitlin Olson (Hacks), and based on the French series Haute Potential, this new drama series follows single mother-of-three Morgan (Olson), who works as a cleaner in the LA Police Department and who just so happens to have a knack for solving crimes. So, she forms a partnership with a seasoned detective (Daniel Sunjata, Rescue Me). There’s also a subplot involving Morgan’s missing first boyfriend, and the supporting cast includes Judy Reyes (Scrubs).…

On 31 July 2021, Benjamin Williams convinced his estranged girlfriend to meet him at a cemetery in Florida, so he could finally see the son they shared together. It was a call that Joana Peca was pleased to receive, as she hoped Williams might at last want to be involved in his infant son’s life. And as the cemetery in St Petersburg was the final resting place of Williams’ sister, Joana felt sure he was attempting to make amends in a safe place that had meaning for him. But she was wrong. Williams had no intention of smoothing over relations between the once-happy couple. Instead, it’s alleged that he went to the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery armed with a pistol. GUNFIRE At 5.30pm, Joana parked her van by the cemetery, cradling…

Madison Schemitz and Spencer Pearson seemed like the epitome of American high-school sweethearts. Pearson, 18, was the star football player at Ponte Vedra High School in Florida. Madison, 17, was also a gifted athlete, who played for her school’s celebrated softball team. But like most teen love affairs, it wasn’t to last and after eight months together, Madison called time on their union in April 2023. While she looked forward to her future, picking colleges and graduating from high school, the break-up hit Pearson hard. Beneath the surface, Pearson was a deeply troubled young man. The couple hadn’t been dating long when Pearson’s darker side began to reveal itself and, despite Madison’s efforts to help her boyfriend, his mental health issues would eventually become too much for her to handle.…

Dominique Pélicot has been given 20 years in prison for allowing 72 men to rape his wife Gisèle while she was drugged. The grandfather – who was dubbed the ‘Devil of Avignon’, after the quiet village where the crimes occurred – wept in the dock as his sentence was handed down. He was also found guilty of making and distributing images of a sexual nature of Gisèle, their daughter Caroline, and the wives of their two sons. Pélicot, 72, had been on trial with 51 other men, but while all were found guilty of either aggravated rape, attempted rape or sexual assault, their sentences varied, and it’s believed all were lower than prosecutors had hoped for. Some of the men received suspended sentences, allowing them to walk free, while one…

Gloria Williams was sentenced to 50 years behind bars in November for her son’s death. The mum of four, 38, pleaded guilty to two charges of injury to a child, seven months after her partner Brian Coulter, 34, was given life without parole for punching and kicking Kendrick Lee, eight, to death at the family’s Houston flat in 2020. Kendrick’s brothers – then aged seven, 10 and 15 – reported his death after being left to live alongside their sibling’s decomposing body for a year in squalid conditions, while Williams and Coulter moved out to another apartment. They left the kids to fend for themselves, only returning every few weeks with food. Williams’ 15-year-old son called police on 24 October 2021 to report that his younger brother had been dead…

On 17 December 1998, police were called to do a welfare check at a home in West University Place, Texas. George Benton and his twin daughters had been away overnight, visiting family in Arizona. But George’s wife Claudia, 39, who worked as a geneticist and researcher at the Texas Children’s Hospital, had stayed home as she was giving an important presentation the next day. When she didn’t turn up that morning, her co-workers contacted her husband. It was completely out of character for Claudia not to be in touch, so he immediately called police. It was eight days before Christmas, and the home was decorated for the holiday season. But police entered to disarray, with the carefully-wrapped presents ripped open and other belongings tossed around. It was clear someone had…

When police found the bodies of teenager Arica Lynn Schneider and her 27-year-old boyfriend Samuel Holley in the apartment they shared in Troy, New York, in 2002, both showed signs of torture. They had been badly beaten, burned with a cigarette lighter, and stabbed 62 times with a kitchen knife. Holley was a known member of the Bloods gang as well as a crack-cocaine dealer, but despite his criminal background, investigators initially drew a blank in their hunt for the killer. Eight years after the double slaying, however, they matched a blood sample found at the crime scene to a local man called Michael Mosley. Officers knew the 41 year old had previously sold drugs for Holley and, having established it was his DNA in the apartment, he was charged…

MURDER DOWN UNDER North Shore ITVX, AVAILABLE NOW Six-part murder mystery starring Joanne Froggatt (Liar, Downton Abbey) as a British politician whose life falls apart when her daughter is murdered in Sydney, Australia. What starts off as a relatively simple homicide investigation soon spirals into anything but. LAST-EVER EPISODES Vera ITVX, AVAILABLE NOW In this epic two-part goodbye, DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) investigates the murder of a young man found on the banks of the Tyne. A blow the victim received to the head rules out accidental drowning, so Vera investigates his complex past. HISTORICAL CRIMES Jack The Ripper: Lucy Worsley Investigates BBC IPLAYER, AVAILABLE NOW Interesting documentary in which historian Lucy looks into how the Ripper case influenced the way we cover true crime today. It also looks…

The first run of this action-thriller series was an enjoyably exciting affair. It centred on FBI agent Peter Sutherland, who worked the night shift as a telephone operator at the White House. After picking up a call from former cyber-security CEO Rose Larkin, he was plunged into a high-level conspiracy that reached right to the very heart of the government. This new run features the same mix of twists and action that made the first series such a fun watch.…

NEW SEASON GANGS OF LONDON One of Sky’s best original dramas is back soon for a third season, in which chaos erupts when a spiked shipment of cocaine kills hundreds of people. Massive conflicts between the rival families and crime groups ensue, and one-time undercover cop-turned-actual gangster Elliot (Sope Dirisu) has to navigate his new role as a top-level crime lord. Expect dazzling action and thrills. (Sky Atlantic/NOW, 2025) Paradise This new 10-part drama stars the great Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) as a US Secret Service agent who gets embroiled in the murder investigation of a man in a privileged American upper-class community. Soon, he’s dragged into a dark and twisty conspiracy where the stakes are incredibly high. Also starring James Marsden (X-Men), the first three episodes drop…

Richard Allen has been sentenced to a total of 130 years in prison for the murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams. Allen was convicted in November 2024, and it was reported he refused to address relatives of the victims and ‘rolled his eyes’ during the sentencing last month, where he was handed 65 years for each murder – the maximum possible for killing the teenagers in Delphi, Indiana. The girls went missing while hiking along the Monon High Bridge on 13 February 2017, and were found dead the next day. The case went unsolved for five years, before Allen was identified as a suspect after being linked to a bullet found at the scene. During the sentencing, Judge Frances Gull told Allen, ‘I’ve spent 27 years as a judge,…

The man accused of shooting the CEO of a healthcare company could face the death penalty if he is convicted of a federal charge of murder. Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in an ‘act of terror’, and has been charged at both state and federal levels. He also faces additional charges of weapon possession and forgery. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the 4 December shooting was designed to ‘provoke terror,’ adding, ‘This was a well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock, attention and intimidation.’ University graduate Mangione – who was reportedly in possession of an anti-corporation manifesto when arrested – was extradited from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, but after the high-profile and very public move, his law yer said, ‘I am…

While most toddlers should be thriving, Abiyah Yasharahyalah never had that opportunity. The three-year-old boy suffered severe cruelty and ‘wilful neglect’ throughout the years leading up to his death. His parents Tai and Naiyahmi were jailed for 24-and -a-half years and 19-and-a-half years respectively in December 2024, as a judge ruled they showed ‘breathtaking arrogance and cruelty’ in their severe neglect of their son, who died between December 2019 and January 2020. Music producer Tai, 42, and 43-year-old Naiyamhi, a graphic designer, lived an off-grid existence after they were evicted from the home in Handsworth, West Midlands, in March 2022. Their grim history came to light when a social worker grew suspicious of the couple, who were living in wretched conditions in a caravan in Somerset with a young child.…

Leilani Simon was sentenced to life for the murder of her son in November 2024. Twentymonth-old Quinton was reported missing by his mother on 5 October 2022, after disappearing from his indoor playpen at the family’s Georgia home. She told 911 he must have been abducted, but after a search of their home and the neighbourhood, he was believed dead, with Simon named as the prime suspect. Despite mounting suspicion, the mother of two, 22, maintained her innocence, saying she hoped that her son would be found ‘happy and alive’ in a televised press conference. ‘I want my baby home. We want him back in our arms, holding us,’ she said. Sadly, this turned out not to be the case when Quinton’s bones were found in a landfill site nearby…

With her execution date looming, it seemed almost certain that Melissa Lucio would lose her life on April 2022 at Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas. Convicted of the murder of her daughter Mariah Alvarez in 2007, Melissa maintained her innocence throughout the years she spent on Death Row. Then, with just 48 hours until her sentence was to be carried out, a Texas court ruled that her execution should be halted. The move followed a petition by over 100 Texas lawmakers, who urged the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency. With her stay in place, Melissa’s lawyers immediately sought to demonstrate that key evidence had been withheld from Melissa’s defence team and the court. That evidence, they argued, could have exonerated her. This included the ruling…

Sunday 10 August would have felt like any other day for the three men who’d decided to take a diving trip in Coniston Water in the Lake District. The amateur frogmen might have been hoping to find an old boat motor or other treasure submerged in the deep and soon the water had swallowed them up, becoming darker as they descended. At around 15 metres down, they found themselves on a natural shelf just before a steep drop. It was on this ledge that they saw an object in the beams of their torches. It was a large, heavy bag, and the men didn’t have the resources to bring it to the surface, so they made plans to go back. A few days later, they did just that – and…

Get ready for the UK’s first high-end Gaelic drama series, An t-Eilean (The Island ), a murder mystery set on the atmospheric island of Lewis and Harris, Scotland, that combines Gaelic dialogue with English. Sorcha Groundsell (His Dark Materials) is Kat Crichton, a young Family Liaison Officer, investigating the brutal murder of the wife of a local tycoon at a remote island mansion, alongside her boss DCI A hmed Halim (Sagar Radia, Industry). Iain Macrae (Bannan) plays Sir Douglas, the head of the wealthy but very dysfunctional Maclean family. W hen Sir Douglas is wounded during the attack that killed his wife Lady Mary (Elspeth Turner), talk turns to whether the self-made millionaire could somehow be implicated in her demise. Joining the cast as the four grown Maclean children are…