Murder: True Crime Stories

In the late 1970s, a charming amateur photographer named Rodney Alcala appeared on the popular TV show The Dating Game, flashing a quick smile and winning a date with the bachelorette. What the audience didn't know was that the contestant lighting up their screens was already a serial killer. For years, Alcala had used his camera to lure women and children, charming them with compliments and the promise of a modeling shoot before turning violent. He slipped through the system again and again, serving short sentences and talking his way past parole boards while leaving a trail of victims across California and New York. In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, host Carter Roy traces the chilling double life of the Dating Game Killer, the manipulation and missed chances that let him keep killing for years, and the disturbing collection of photographs he left behind. Please note, this episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and child abuse and may not be suitable for all audiences.
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If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder: True Crime Stories to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped at once ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.
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In Part 2 of Murder: True Crime Stories, host Carter Roy follows the decades-long hunt for the killer behind the Colonial Parkway Murders. For years, the four cases went nowhere, plagued by jurisdictional turf wars, false leads, and a string of suspects who turned out to be dead ends, including two men who inserted themselves into the families' grief only to exploit it. Refusing to let the case die, the victims' families applied relentless public pressure on the FBI and Virginia State Police. Then the same genetic genealogy breakthrough that caught the Golden State Killer gave investigators a new path forward, leading at last to a name. But the answers came late and incomplete, with some families finally learning who killed their loved ones and others still waiting, decades later, for any resolution at all.
Head over to our YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios
If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder: True Crime Stories to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped at once ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.
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Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of Reddit, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts!
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Between 1986 and 1989, four young couples were murdered or vanished along the same 23-mile stretch of road in Virginia known as the Colonial Parkway. A scenic route through the state's Historic Triangle by day, the parkway became a place of terror by night, drawing couples seeking privacy and a killer who seemed to know exactly where to find them. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 27, and the cases shared eerie similarities: abandoned cars, isolated locations, and signs that the attacker may have posed as law enforcement to get close. But the differences left investigators wondering whether they were chasing one serial killer or several. In Part 1 of Murder: True Crime Stories, host Carter Roy introduces the eight young victims, the dark and lonely road that connected their deaths, and the chilling pattern that left an entire region afraid to pull off the highway after dark.
Head over to our YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios
If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder: True Crime Stories to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped at once ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.
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Reddit is an endless archive of humanity’s most disturbing, bizarre, and deeply human stories. If you love Murder True Crime Stories, you are going to love CRIMES OF REDDIT with Alexis Linkletter and Sabrina Deana-Roga.
Every Tuesday, one host brings a set of true-crime stories while the other reacts in real time with no prep, no spoilers asking the questions on everyone’s mind. They pull at every thread until the whole twisted picture comes into view. It’s dark, it’s messy, and the scariest part is simple: THESE ARE STORIES POSTED BY REAL PEOPLE.
Follow CRIMES OF REDDIT for a new episode every Tuesday. https://pod.link/1838511303
CRIMES OF REDDIT is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios.

In 2005, 46-year-old Thomas Montgomery logged onto an online gaming site, pretended to be an 18-year-old Marine, and fell into an intense romance with a young woman who called herself Jessi. What started as a fantasy quickly curdled into obsession. When Jessi began talking to one of Thomas's younger coworkers, jealousy consumed him, and in September 2006, that obsession turned deadly. But the murder was only the beginning of the story, because almost nothing about this online love triangle was real, and the truth about who Jessi actually was would stun everyone involved. In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, host Carter Roy is joined by Sabrina Deana-Roga, host of Crimes of Reddit, to trace one of the earliest and most infamous catfishing cases in American history, the layers of deception that fueled it, and the innocent man who paid the price for a fantasy built entirely on lies. Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicidal ideation and may not be suitable for all audiences.
Head over to our YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios
If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder: True Crime Stories to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped at once ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.
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Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of Reddit, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts!
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