Cory Martin's murder of Brandy Odom is one of the most calculated true crime cases we've covered. He spent a year planning—taking out $200,000 in life insurance and studying Dexter daily to learn how to kill.
Built from 2,977 pages of federal court documents and trial testimony, this episode reveals how digital forensics and a co-conspirator's confession finally brought justice after the case went cold for two years.
Martin is now serving life in federal prison. Court documents are sent exclusively to subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe now at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe so you don't miss future case files.
True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard investigates the double life of Randy Constant, a Missouri farmer who committed the largest organic fraud in American history—$142 million.
He packed bags for hungry children. He led church mission trips. He also spent $360,000 on Las Vegas escorts and hid three secret relationships from his wife of 39 years. She learned everything when prosecutors read his bank statements in open court.
Three days after sentencing, he was dead.
All details from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony.
Subscribers get the actual case files—court documents, sentencing transcripts, and source materials—delivered as each episode drops. Subscribe free at TrueCrimeUnheard.com/subscribe
The prosecutor reviewed everything and said something haunting: "I don't think Sasser knows why she wanted her dead either."
In 2023, Melody Sasser—a 47-year-old environmental compliance specialist from Knoxville, Tennessee—paid nearly $10,000 in Bitcoin to have a woman murdered. The target wasn't an ex-lover. Wasn't a rival. She was the fiancée of a man Sasser had hiked with a few times.
This episode traces how a Match.com connection turned into a dark web murder plot, the digital trail that led federal agents to her door, and the question that still has no answer: what turns a hiking friend into someone capable of ordering a hit?
True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard examines the psychology, the evidence, and the 100-month sentence that followed.
Subscribe at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe to get the case files for this episode—federal complaints, court documents, and source materials delivered to your inbox.
All details in this episode come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony. Full source links at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
Eli Weinstein defrauded investors of $275 million across three separate Ponzi schemes spanning two decades. He went to federal prison. He received presidential clemency. Within months, he was running another scheme.
This episode goes deep inside the mechanics of serial financial fraud—how these criminals build trust, move money, hide assets, and exploit the very systems designed to stop them. From Weinstein's origins as a used car salesman in New Jersey to his prosecution in 2025, this is a case study in how Ponzi schemes actually work—and why the same people keep getting away with it.
Subscribe to the email list at TrueCrimeUnheard.com to get exclusive access to the court documents and case files for each episode.
All details come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony.
Between September and December 2022, a murder-for-hire conspiracy in Mobile, Alabama produced one of the most spectacular criminal failures in recent memory. John McCarroll recruited shooters, provided illegal weapons including machineguns, and directed attack after attack against his target: Milton Carter.
The result? Two innocent people murdered. One permanently paralyzed. Six others wounded. Nine victims who had nothing to do with McCarroll's vendetta.
Milton Carter? Never got a scratch.
Even more damning: the defendants documented their own crimes on Instagram and Facebook—bragging about shootings, mocking failed attempts, and continuing to obstruct justice on recorded jail phone lines.
This is True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. I'm Steve Rhode. This case comes directly from federal court documents, FBI evidence, trial testimony, and jury verdicts.
All details in this episode come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony.
To stay updated with the latest episodes, join my exclusive email notification list at https://TrueCrimeUnheard.com and get access to the behind the scenes case files.
It was about 2 AM when I realized the Lobster Trap Murder case wasn't what I thought it was. I'd been reading court documents for hours—the victim, the violence, the assumptions. But then I got to the transcripts about the accomplice who got dragged in. She wasn't a criminal. She was trying to help someone she thought cared about her. Bad choices in a moment of misplaced loyalty destroyed her life.
That's what you don't hear on Wednesday mornings.
This week, instead of a case, I'm pulling back the curtain on True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. How my background as a police dispatcher, morgue technician, 30-year investigative journalist, surveillance photographer, and search-and-rescue pilot (callsign: FIRE DEMON 1) shapes every episode. Why I obsess over court documents instead of trusting summaries. What 20-60 hours of research actually looks like. Why listeners tell me they sat in their driveway because they couldn't stop listening until they knew what happened.
Plus: what's coming next, including cases about emergency response failures and institutional protection of predators.
No AI narration. No sensationalism. Just documentary storytelling with the receipts to prove it.
This episode: 25 minutes of what really goes into the work.
After 14 brutal months in a Colombian maximum-security prison, 71-year-old fashion designer Nancy Gonzalez stood before a federal judge in Miami for sentencing. Her crime? Smuggling handbag samples made from exotic leather to meet Fashion Week deadlines.
In this conclusion to Nancy's story, prosecutors compared her to a "cocaine kingpin" and argued she deserved years in federal prison. Her defense attorneys called it selective prosecution—pointing out that the luxury retailers who sold her bags for thousands of dollars faced no charges, no investigations, and no accountability.
What happened in that courtroom divided everyone who heard it.
Judge Robert N. Scola sentenced Nancy to 18 months—below federal guidelines but still devastating for a woman who'd already lost her son, her business, and her freedom. Meanwhile, 300 Colombian women who depended on her for employment lost their jobs. The couriers she recruited now carry federal convictions. And the retailers? Business as usual.
This episode explores the sentencing hearing, the character letters, the personal tragedy, and the three competing truths that all exist simultaneously: Nancy broke the law. The fashion industry created impossible conditions. And selective prosecution is real.
Was justice served? Or did the wrong people pay the highest price?
📁 Download complete court transcripts, sentencing memoranda, and character reference letters at TrueCrimeUnheard.com
🔍 Research Opportunity: Help investigate luxury retailers' exotic leather sourcing policies at tapyournews.com/tc-research
All facts verified through federal court documents and official records.
Host: Steve Rhode - 30-year investigative journalist, former police dispatcher, SAR pilot
New episodes every Wednesday. Case updates Tuesday & Saturday.
July 2022. Colombian federal agents arrest Nancy Gonzalez—a luxury fashion designer whose handbags were sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, and Neiman Marcus. The charge: wildlife smuggling. But here's what makes this case unforgettable: Nancy went to federal prison while the retailers who sold her bags faced zero consequences. This is True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard—and Part 1 reveals how an empire was built on endangered reptile skins, who knew what was happening, and why only one person paid the price.
🔍 RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY: Want to be part of the show? This episode includes an investigative assignment. Go to TrueCrimeUnheard.com and click Submit Research—you could be featured in Part 2.
All details in this episode come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony. Full source links at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
Ashley Grayson Murder-for-Hire Case Summary:
Social media influencer Ashley Grayson was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in commission of murder-for-hire. The 2022 case involved three targets: business rival Derricka Harwell, ex-boyfriend Patrick Tate, and TikTok critic Sherell Hodge. Olivia Johnson recorded the plot on FaceTime, leading to Grayson's arrest and conviction in Memphis federal court.
Key Facts:
Resources: 📄 Download official source docs on the episode page or sign up for episode alerts at TrueCrimeUnheard.com 💬 Have feedback or questions? Use the comment form at TrueCrimeUnheard.com
When Adult Victim 1 punched through a metal door with her bare hands and climbed a fence to freedom, she set in motion a reckoning that would expose a decade-long pattern of violence.
In this final episode of our three-part series on Negasi Zuberi, we take you inside the federal courtroom where justice was finally delivered. But what the jury never heard during trial—and what prosecutors revealed at sentencing—changed everything.
Court documents show that Zuberi's 2023 kidnappings in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, were not isolated incidents. In 2017, at age 23, he was convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl. Four years later, in 2021, he was convicted in California of assault for soliciting sex from another 16-year-old and beating her in a remote area of Alameda County.
At that 2021 sentencing, a California judge warned Zuberi directly. According to court records, the judge expressed concern about the pattern of behavior and feared something "really, really bad" might happen if Zuberi didn't change course. He was sentenced to probation.
Two years later, Adult Victim 2 reported her kidnapping to Klamath Falls police. Officers struggled to make contact. Evidence wasn't collected. That two-month delay gave Zuberi time to finish building the concrete cell that would imprison Adult Victim 1.
This episode explores the courtroom testimony, the victim impact statements that brought federal marshals to tears, and the life sentences that ensure Zuberi will never walk free again. We examine what happens when systemic failures are finally confronted—and when survivors' voices are finally heard.
This is the story of how justice catches up.
🎧 **This is Episode 3 of 3** in "The Cell" series. If you haven't heard Episodes 1 and 2, start there for the complete story.
📄 All details in this episode come from federal court documents, trial transcripts, and official records. Full source links and case files available at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
💬 Have questions or feedback? Use the comment form at TrueCrimeUnheard.com/contact—your question might be featured in a future episode.
✉️ Sign up for episode alerts at TrueCrimeUnheard.com (sent 2x weekly)
On May 11, 2023, Adult Victim 2 walked into the Klamath Falls Police Department with bloodied clothes and a detailed account of her assault by Negasi Zuberi. Officers were reluctant to follow up. They didn't collect the evidence.
For the next two months, Zuberi made documented trips to Home Depot, purchasing concrete blocks, lumber, insulation, and deadbolts. His own security cameras captured him building. Amazon records show leg irons and handcuffs. GPS data placed him surveilling potential victims. By July 15, when he drove 450 miles to Seattle to kidnap Adult Victim 1, the concrete cell was ready.
This is the story of what happened between those two kidnappings—the construction phase, the digital trail, and the system failure that gave a predator exactly the time he needed.
In the final episode: The trial, the verdict, two jail escape attempts, and the haunting question—what happened to Quinn and June, the women on his targets list?
This is True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard—storytelling-first true crime about overlooked cases with deep institutional and legal dimensions.
All details in this episode come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony. Full source links at TrueCrimeUnheard.com. https://truecrimeunheard.com
On July 15, 2023, a woman escaped from a five-ton concrete cell in Klamath Falls, Oregon—punching through metal doors until her hands were bloody.
This is Episode 1: The Escape. All details from court documents and official records. Full case files at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
In May 2024, Graceland was 24 hours from foreclosure—all because of a forged signature from a woman who'd been dead for 18 months.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, a 54-year-old con artist from Missouri, nearly stole Elvis Presley's mansion using fake companies, burner phones, and Microsoft Word in a $2.85M extortion attempt that shocked Memphis.
Host Steve Rhode shares his personal connection to Elvis's death, then unravels how Findley impersonated three different people in panicked emails to CBS News, created companies 6 years after they supposedly made loans, and was still shredding evidence when the FBI knocked on her door.
From fake cancer diagnoses to claiming Nigerian scammers framed her, this case reveals what happens when decades of small cons escalate into one massive delusion.
Because this isn't fiction. It's True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard.
Features exclusive analysis from the series' criminologist on the psychology of fraud, plus a bonus conversation exploring how someone convinces themselves they can steal an American icon.
Episode highlights:
All details from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony.
You can download case files on the show episode page at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
In this gripping episode of our True Crime podcast, we delve into the untold true crime story of federal agent Alberico Crespo, who knelt at a Santería altar—was he seeking spiritual guidance or protecting a drug empire?
This shocking true crime case reveals how a decorated fraud investigator used his badge to shield the very crimes he swore to stop, including connections to drug trafficker Jorge Diaz.
Based on court records, FBI wiretaps, and sworn testimony from his 2023 trial, we explore the missed 2018 tip that could have prevented 240,000 pills from hitting the street, and uncover the tragic deaths of four elderly victims found in seized trafficking files.
Discover the details behind why Crespo received a sentence of 97 months—longer than the dealer he protected.
Join me as we honor the victims and investigate the failings of justice in this riveting episode. Full source links available at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
He confessed to killing 48 women, but the real story is darker. In this episode, we strip away the myths and expose the realities of Gary Ridgway — the so-called Green River Killer. Discover why he wasn’t caught for nearly 20 years, how he hid in plain sight as a father and factory worker, and the systemic failures that allowed him to keep killing. Built entirely from court records, sworn testimony, and prosecutorial files, this episode reveals lessons law enforcement — and society — still struggle to learn.
In this episode of True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard, explore the untold true crime story of a woman who became a victim after trying to help during a Detroit carjacking. Hours later, the very man she assisted, Cortez Blake, led her abduction, mistakenly convinced she had set him up. This episode recounts how one night of bad decisions, arrogance, and ignorance turned suspicion into violence, destroying lives on all sides. Join us as we analyze true crime through court documents, sworn testimony, and official records. Full source links available at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
In this episode of True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard, we dive into an untold true crime story about the infamous hospice fraud scam that occurred in Los Angeles but it's happening elsewhere as well.
Nita Palma was convicted of health-care fraud and illegal kickbacks as she manipulated the hospice care system, enrolling patients who were not at the end of their lives.
Families and physicians reveal the shocking truth about how Medicare's end-of-life policies were exploited, often prioritizing financial gain over the compassionate care of dying patients. This compelling documentary episode is constructed from court records, sworn testimony, and official filings that shed light on the dark side of healthcare.
To access source documents and episode notes, visit TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
In this true crime podcast episode, we delve into the untold true crime story of Michael Geilenfeld — a man from Iowa once celebrated as a missionary savior in Haiti who was ultimately convicted in U.S. federal court for child sexual abuse. This episode uncovers a decades-long timeline filled with survivor testimony, overlooked red flags, and the closure of a Haiti orphanage due to corruption and betrayal. From whispers in the 1990s to a 2024 decision, we reveal how predators operate in the shadows and the devastating impact on vulnerable children who were repeatedly failed. This investigation is based entirely on court records, sworn testimony, and public documents — not speculation.
Full source documents and case details are available on the episode page at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
Explore the harrowing true crime case of the Lobster Trap Murder, where James Dao became a victim of betrayal at sea. Five miles off the Southern California coast, James Dao was not just out on another late-night lobster run; he was pulled into a harrowing true crime story. Instead of catching lobsters, he became the victim of the Lobster Trap Murder, shot, bound, and dragged into the Pacific Ocean by individuals he considered friends.
In this episode of True Crime Cases You Haven’t Heard, we delve deep into the chilling case of the Lobster Trap Murder. From Dana Point Harbor to the federal courtroom, we explore how prosecutors unraveled a narrative of debt, suspicion, and betrayal at sea. Utilizing official records, testimony, and forensic evidence, this documentary account reveals a dark crime that the ocean tried to keep hidden. Tune in for an unforgettable investigation into this untold true crime case.
Visit TrueCrimeUnheard.com to sign up for email notifications when new episodes drop.
For more than two decades, the true crime case of Kansas prosecutor Linus Thuston revealed shocking allegations of misconduct that went largely unchecked. This episode of True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard traces the untold true crime stories surrounding early financial improprieties and allegations of sexual exploitation involving around 50 women, examining how each missed intervention point allowed the abuse to escalate.
This episode traces three critical failures in oversight—built entirely from court records, sworn testimony, and verified reporting. You’ll hear how a redemption narrative replaced accountability, how law enforcement tried to act, and how a judge’s rare decision changed the outcome.
Subscribe for new episode notifications at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.
All details in this episode come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony. Full source links can be found on the episode page at TrueCrimeUnheard.com.