True Crime Recaps

• The Skelton Brothers Case: Father Long Suspected Is Now Charged With Murder of His 3 Kids

  On Thanksgiving weekend in 2010, three brothers Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton vanished during a court ordered holiday visit with their father, John Skelton. What was supposed to be a routine custody exchange became one of the most haunting child disappearance cases in the Midwest.John claimed he handed the boys to a woman named Joann Taylor to keep them safe while he attempted suicide. Investigators later proved Joann Taylor did not exist. Neither did the underground foster network John insisted had taken his sons. With no bodies, no witnesses, and no clear timeline, the case stalled while John served time for unrelated charges.Now, fifteen years later, everything has changed. In 2025, prosecutors officially charged John Skelton with the murders of all three boys just weeks before his expected release from prison. Investigators believe new evidence finally supports what many feared from the beginning.As the case moves back into court, one question still hangs over everything. Will these charges finally reveal what happened to the Skelton brothers, or will the truth remain buried forever?

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• She Vanished Overnight and the Person of Interest Was Found in a Car Trunk

  Jamie Fraley was just twenty-two when she stepped out for a late-night hospital trip and vanished without a trace. Her purse, wallet, keys, and dog were left untouched in her locked apartment, but her phone was later found abandoned a mile away.Detectives quickly focused on one man Ricky Simonds Sr, Jamie’s neighbor and future father-in-law. A convicted strangler fresh out of prison, he was the last person known to have seen her. But before investigators could question him further, Ricky was found dead in the trunk of his girlfriend’s car. The case collapsed instantly. No suspect. No confession. No Jamie.Sixteen years later, the mystery still grips North Carolina. Did Jamie’s neighbor kill her and take the truth to the grave, or is someone else responsible for her disappearance

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• A Murderer Claimed He Was Sleepwalking and the Jury Believed Him

  Kenneth Parks committed one of the strangest and most controversial crimes in modern history. In 1987, he drove fourteen miles in the middle of the night to his in-laws home and attacked them, leaving his mother-in-law dead and his father-in-law severely injured. Then, covered in blood, he walked into a police station and confessed.But Parks insisted he had been asleep the entire time. Doctors found no signs of psychosis, only a lifelong pattern of sleepwalking and night terrors. His defense argued that he experienced a violent sleepwalking episode and never woke up during the attack.In a shocking outcome, the jury agreed. Parks was acquitted of murder and walked free, creating one of the most debated legal precedents in Canadian history. He has lived quietly ever since, with no further violence.So what do you think happened that night? A tragic medical mystery or the perfect excuse for murder?

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• The Slavemaster Killer: The Businessman Who Hunted Women Online

  John Robinson was the last person anyone expected to become one of America's most disturbing killers. A churchgoing father, Scoutmaster, and respected Kansas City businessman, he hid a second life built on manipulation, fraud, and murder. Under his online persona, the Slavemaster, Robinson lured vulnerable women with promises of work, housing, and love, only for them to disappear without a trace.When investigators finally closed in on him in 2000, they uncovered a nightmare across two states. Barrels filled with bodies. Forged letters to families. Stolen identities. And one devastating truth: baby Heather Robinson, raised by Robinson's brother, was actually the daughter of one of his victims, Lisa Stasi.Robinson's crimes earned him the title of America's first internet serial killer. Now on death row, he has never fully revealed how many women he targeted or how far his violence went. Was he a con man who escalated into murder, or was he always a predator waiting for the internet to give him cover?

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• The 1958 Killing Spree That Put an Entire State on Lockdown.

  In January 1958, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather and his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, launched one of the most terrifying killing sprees in American history. Over eight days across Nebraska and Wyoming, ten people were murdered in shootings, stabbings, and home invasions that blindsided communities and left entire towns sheltering indoors.Their victims ranged from Caril’s family to strangers who simply crossed their path. As police scrambled to make sense of the violence, Starkweather embraced the fear he created. Fugate told investigators a very different story, claiming she had been taken hostage and believed her family was still alive. Starkweather supported her version, then reversed himself, pointing the blame back at her.Captured after a high-speed chase in Wyoming, Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed in 1959. Fugate, only fifteen at the time of the crimes, was convicted of murder and served seventeen years before being released. More than sixty years later, questions about her true role have never been fully resolved.Was Caril Ann Fugate a prisoner, a participant, or something in between?Follow True Crime Recaps for more cases that changed the course of American true crime history.

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