Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’re taking a closer look at 5 true crime stories from the last few years that have captured the attention of news outlets and true crime enthusiasts everywhere.
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00:00 Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're taking a closer look at five true crime stories from
00:11 the last few years that have captured the attention of news outlets and true crime enthusiasts
00:15 everywhere.
00:19 The murders of teenagers Abby Williams and Libby German happened back in 2017, in the
00:24 city of Delphi.
00:26 The bodies were found stabbed on a trail not far from the now infamous Monan High Bridge.
00:31 For a time, there wasn't much evidence to go off, except for a grainy video found on
00:35 Libby's phone.
00:36 "Bridge Guy", as the man in the video came to be known, can be seen walking towards the
00:40 girls and saying "Bridge Guy".
00:44 And these words would long ring in the ears of investigators, the victims' families
00:48 and crime enthusiasts everywhere.
00:53 In October 2022, a man named Richard Allen was arrested and charged.
00:57 He was found to be in the vicinity of the Monan High Bridge trail the day of their murders,
01:01 while an unspent bullet belonging to one of his guns was found near the girls' bodies.
01:12 Despite the fatal stab wounds, it's believed the perpetrator may have used a gun to threaten
01:17 them, which ties in with the aforementioned "Guys Down the Hill".
01:21 The 51-year-old Richard Allen currently faces four counts of murder and two felony counts
01:25 of kidnapping.
01:26 Allen's trial was set to take place early 2024, but due to some drama involving his
01:31 lawyers quitting the case and then being reinstated, the trial date has been moved to late 2024.
01:43 This case may not be as well-known in the US as it is in the UK, but it's certainly
01:46 one of the most shocking and polarising true crime stories of the past decade.
01:51 In August of 2023, a former neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the
01:56 UK, Lucy Letby, was sentenced to a whole life order after being found guilty of murdering
02:00 seven little ones and attempting to murder six others between 2015 and 2016.
02:06 Letby is said to have purposely injected the young victims with insulin and air and overfed
02:10 them in order to harm them.
02:20 Her insistence on working on the intensive care unit and the unexplained decline of patients'
02:25 health while she was on shift made staff suspicious on Letby.
02:36 Letby's motives are widely speculated, with some saying the 34-year-old was trying to
02:40 involve herself more deeply with a married doctor at the time.
02:43 Letby was also determined to have been motivated by a factitious disorder imposed on another,
02:48 also known as "Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy".
02:51 In other words, she would make young patients sick and then swoop in to save them, satisfying
02:55 her hero complex.
03:05 After Letby's arrest, handwritten post-it notes in her possession seemed to act as a
03:09 confession, with them stating "I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough
03:13 to care for them".
03:14 Letby denied this confession, and while she pleaded not guilty to the murder accusations,
03:18 she was ultimately found guilty.
03:31 In November 2022, four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in an off-campus
03:37 residence.
03:38 Just over a month later, PhD criminology student Brian Koberger was arrested and charged with
03:43 four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary.
03:46 Detectives managed to match the DNA found on a knife sheath left at the scene to Koberger's
03:50 father via genetic genealogy, and a swab taken from Brian Koberger was found to be an exact
03:56 match.
04:03 A roommate at the location also said they spotted Koberger on the night of the murders,
04:07 as he allegedly walked right past them, clad in black and wearing a mask.
04:11 Cell phone reports were also said to place Koberger at the scene.
04:15 Koberger's defence claimed that there is no connection between him and the victims,
04:18 and therefore no motive.
04:19 But there have been various speculations from true crime enthusiasts as to what his motives
04:23 might have been.
04:25 Some said he wanted to get back at popular students due to being a victim of harassment,
04:29 while others claimed he wanted to prove his intelligence as a criminology student by committing
04:33 the perfect crime.
04:34 The trial of Brian Koberger was initially planned for October 2023, but since he denied
04:39 the right to a speedy trial, it looks likely to happen in summer 2024.
04:52 This story has more threads, lies and dizzying deception than perhaps all of the other stories
04:56 on this list combined, and it all centres around Alec Murdoch and the affluent Murdoch
05:00 family.
05:01 We could talk about the boat crash and subsequent death of Mallory Beach, of which Alec's
05:05 son Paul was charged, or the countless insurance fraud accusations, the murder investigation
05:09 into the Murdoch's housekeeper, and substance use disorder of Alec himself.
05:13 But the real headline grabber is that Alec Murdoch has been sentenced to two life sentences
05:17 for the murder of his wife Margaret and his son Paul.
05:27 Alec, Margaret and Paul were shot on the Murdoch hunting estate in June 2021, and it's thought
05:32 that Alec Murdoch committed the murders as a way to distract from the various embezzlement
05:36 accusations being made towards him.
05:38 He killed so people would take pity on him.
05:40 That's what the media headlines read anyway.
05:42 Labelled as South Carolina's "trial of the century", the trial saw various shocking
05:47 twists and turns, including the fact that Alec Murdoch hired a hitman to kill him, so
05:51 his other son Buster could collect on a life insurance policy.
06:01 Very recently, Alec Murdoch's team made accusations of jury tampering, and they requested
06:05 a retrial, although it was denied.
06:08 Alec Murdoch is still in prison, but we think this case might still carry some surprises.
06:18 Although this case dates back to a period between 1996 and 2011, which saw a series
06:42 of murders along the coastline of Gilgo Beach in New York, it's very much current, and
06:46 at the forefront of true crime fans' minds right now.
06:49 And that's because after almost 30 years, it looks like they've finally caught the
06:53 infamous Long Island Serial Killer.
06:56 These murders came to light after various remains of 11 different victims were found
07:00 along Gilgo Beach in Bairlap, Sax, of which included multiple female sex workers, a man
07:05 and a minor.
07:06 It's still contested whether one of the victims died of accidental drowning, but it's
07:10 thought that at least 10 of them were victims of one serial killer.
07:21 As of 2024, the perpetrator is believed to be 59-year-old architect Rekt Heumann.
07:26 Heumann was arrested and charged in July 2023, and since then he's been hit with multiple
07:31 first-degree murder charges.
07:41 Various pieces of evidence point towards Heumann being guilty.
07:44 This includes his use of burner phones and their corresponding phone records that link
07:47 him to some of the victims, and his Chevrolet Avalanche, which had been identified by various
07:52 people of interest.
07:53 His DNA was also matched to a hair found in one of the Bairlap sacks containing one of
07:58 the victims' remains.
07:59 Heumann is currently accused of the murder of four women, who have come to be known as
08:03 the Gilgo Four.
08:04 As of early 2024, the trial is yet to take place.
08:15 So that's our list!
08:17 What do you think is the most fascinating true crime story of the last few years?
08:21 Let us know in the comments below!
08:30 Thanks for watching!
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