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It’s summertime, and we’re thirsty: Thirsty for true crime podcasts. But in such a popular genre, it can be hard to stand out. However, these five podcasts truly deliver the goods when it comes to the hair-rising true crime tales you crave. Whether it’s disturbing missing persons cases, possible Mafia connections to various murders, mishandled evidence and shocking confessions, or a modern-day serial killer and the algorithm that could stop him before he strikes again, these shows dive deep into the details and leave no stone unturned in their quest for the truth. If you love shows that uncover new evidence after decades, discover the future of murder investigations, and everything in between, your perfect podcast awaits. How refreshing.
Lauren Bright Pacheco, a trusted name in true crime, takes on the case of the Vaughn family, a tragic murder 14 years ago when a mother and her three children were gunned down in their SUV on the way to a waterpark. The lone survivor, Christopher Vaughn, was convicted with the murders and handcuffed at his children’s funeral – but recent forensic evidence has come to light that may change everything. In the face of a shoddy defense and mishandled evidence, the question remains: Who killed the Vaughn family? Follow along as Murder In Illinois tries to find out.
On the first season of Paper Ghosts, investigative journalist and best-selling author M. William Phelps chased down four missing girls from the 1970s. This season, he’s looking for a killer. On the weekend of July 4, 1981, the massive farmhouse of a wealthy family in Ohio burned to the ground, and all four residents perished – but not from the fire or smoke. Phelps’ investigation unearths never-before-heard audio tapes and other evidence that sheds a new light on this cold case. “This investigation took me to places I never saw coming,” Phelps says – join him to find out the dark truth behind this decades-old murder.
One small town in Ohio was turned upside down in 2016 when eight members of the Rhoden family were brutally gunned down in their homes, leaving behind four crime scenes, thirty-two gunshot wounds, and a lot of questions. Two years later, four members of the Wagner family were charged with the killings – and right in the middle of this podcast’s production, the youngest son pled guilty, implicating his brother, his father, and his mother in the crimes as well. What happened between these two families? What will it mean for the community? Find out in the second season of The Piketon Massacre.
During the tragic events of September 11, 2001, thousands of people died or disappeared – but Dr. Sneha Anne Philip’s case is different. She disappeared the night before, on September 10, only one block from the World Trade Center; cameras caught her doing some shopping and then exiting into a rainy evening, never to be seen again. Was she murdered? Did she run off? Was her disappearance somehow connected with the events of the next day? Her family considers everything, but answers are frustratingly out of reach. Join the search for Sneha on Missing On 9/11.
In 2010, reporter Thomas Hargrove looked at “line after line” of murder statistics and wondered if a computer could be taught to recognize connected cases. He gave it a whirl – and the algorithm flagged Gary, Indiana as having an unusual number of strangulations. Gary police ignored Thomas’s efforts to reach out, but after seven women were murdered in a few days, it became obvious that a serial killer truly was on the loose. Find out more about this modern serial killer, the women who should still be alive today, and how this technology has the potential to change murder investigations forever on Algorithm.
If you want to be sure you're listening to the podcasts everyone else is checking out, iHeartRadio has you covered. Every Monday, iHeartRadio releases a chart showing the most popular podcasts of the week. Stay up to date on what's trending by checking out the chart here. There's even a chart just for radio podcasts here, featuring all your favorite iHeartRadio personalities like Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, Steve Harvey and dozens of others.