Triggered - The True Crime Podcast

What happens when a bad night between friends spirals into a 250-page murder manifesto? This week on Triggered, we dive into the most meticulously planned crimes we've ever covered: the case of Adrian Loya, a U.S. Coast Guard petty officer who spent over a year plotting the murder of his former colleague Lisa Berlanga.

From a friendship forged in the frozen tundra of Kodiak, Alaska to a premeditated attack on Cape Cod complete with fake bombs, a boombox blasting the Star Wars theme, and a GoPro strapped to his chest — this case is as bizarre as it is devastating. We're talking surveillance runs, a 250-page manifesto called "Loya Wars," a near-death ambush of a police officer, and a trial where three forensic experts couldn't agree on a single diagnosis.

But at the center of all of it is Lisa Berlanga — a woman who deserved so much more than what she got.

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Content warning: this episode contains detailed discussion of premeditated murder, stalking, obsessive behavior, and gun violence.
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Kayla Rose Huff was 16 years old. She loved track, basketball, her church youth group, and playing Roblox with her little brother. Her family called her Kayla Bug. On the morning of May 6, 2026, she went missing from Moberly, Missouri, and the community turned itself inside out searching for her. One week later, her body was found in a wooded stretch of the Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area. She had been beaten, placed in the trunk of a car, driven to a remote location, and shot.

What makes this case so disturbing isn't just the violence, it's the deliberate planning. Court documents allege that suspects disabled Kayla's car the night before by pouring motor oil into the gas tank. That it may have involved the person she trusted most. And that multiple people, some of whom called police after the fact, allegedly knew what had happened and said nothing.

Five adults and a 17-year-old now face charges in connection with her kidnapping and murder. The motive remains 'officially unknown', but there are rumours swirling online.

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Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence against a minor.
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Netflix's The Crash has everyone talking about Mackenzie Shirilla. But what did it leave out?

We watched the body cam footage. We dug into the evidence that never made it to your screen. GPS data placing Shirilla at the crash site days before. No skid marks. A black box showing full acceleration. And a coded request to her mother that prosecutors say tells you everything.

Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan deserved better than a Netflix narrative. We're giving it to them.

Chantal and Ashley cover the full story: the relationship, the secret language, the warm milk?

This one's not for the faint of heart.

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Before Jack the Ripper ever stepped foot in London's East End, a killer was already prowling the unpaved streets of Austin, Texas — and no one knew what to call him, because the concept of a serial killer hadn't been invented yet.

Between December 1884 and Christmas Eve 1885, eight people were murdered in their beds, dragged outside, and mutilated in what would become America's most chilling unsolved cold case. The victims — Mollie Smith, Eliza Shelley, Irene Cross, Mary Ramey, Orange Washington, Gracie Vance, Susan Hancock, and Eula Phillips — were mostly young Black women employed as domestic servants, their lives violently cut short while a panicked city demanded answers that never came.

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Four babies. One mother. Twenty years in prison. And not a single piece of physical evidence linking her to any of it.

Kathleen Folbigg was called Australia's worst female serial killer. Her diary was handed to police by her own husband. A jury convicted her in 2003 based on the theory that lightning simply couldn't strike four times in the same family.

Except... it can. And it did.

In 2020, geneticists discovered rare mutations in her children's DNA that explained every single death. Over 100 scientists signed a petition demanding her release. In 2023, after 20 years behind bars, she walked free. Her convictions were fully quashed months later.

The justice system called her a monster. Science called her innocent.

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