True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Jodi Hildebrandt was a licensed therapist who built a life coaching business called ConneXions. Former clients describe it as a cult. Seven told NBC News she "methodically separated spouses" and destroyed marriages through isolation, shame, and constant surveillance.
Her niece reported abuse in 2009 — tied up, duct taped, forced to sleep in snow. Nothing happened.
Fourteen years later, Ruby Franke's children were found bound and starving in Jodi's house. Both women are serving four to thirty years for aggravated child abuse.
Part 2 of "The Good Mother" examines how Jodi gained total control over the Franke family — and what the case reveals about coercive control psychology.
Ruby met Jodi around 2019 while seeking help with her eldest son. Jodi offered validation: a framework that justified Ruby's strict parenting as righteous, and labeled anyone who questioned her as "living in deception."
By 2021, Jodi had moved into the Franke home. Kevin was pushed out. Ruby's siblings, parents, extended family — all tried to intervene. All were cut off.
This is the mechanics of coercive control. Isolation. Dependency. A framework that makes the victim believe everyone else is the enemy.
In a jail call after her arrest, Ruby reflected on being separated from Jodi for the first time in years: "Being gone and not hearing her has cleared a lot of things up for me."
Jodi showed no reflection. She reportedly still recruits vulnerable people from prison.
A federal lawsuit now accuses both women of fraud and racketeering through ConneXions — claiming "thousands" had their lives destroyed.
This episode examines how helpers become captors, what coercive control looks like, and why families often can't stop what they see happening.
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
#JodiHildebrandt #RubyFranke #CoerciveControl #ConneXions #CultTactics #ToxicTherapist #8Passengers #CultPsychology #TrueCrime #EvilInfluencer

True Crime Today brings you the complete listener Q&A session on the Nancy Guthrie disappearance and the Kouri Richins murder trial — examining the legal and procedural dimensions of both cases with former FBI behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke and host Tony Brueski.
The Guthrie legal questions center on evidentiary foundations that haven't been publicly addressed with any precision. What evidentiary weight does a pacemaker sync timestamp carry in a criminal prosecution? Medical device data is an emerging category of digital evidence — and in a case this short on hard timeline anchors, its legal value is worth examining closely. The DNA mixture raises its own prosecutorial question: how does a mixed profile affect the strength of an identification, and what are the evidentiary challenges of building a case around a sample that may include more than one contributor? And if no remains are ever recovered in a case with this evidence profile — what does that mean for the legal path forward? Prosecutors have successfully tried homicide cases without a body, but the threshold is demanding and the defense opportunities are significant.
The public statements from law enforcement also carry legal considerations. When a sheriff repeatedly declares on camera that he "personally believes" a victim is alive, that position creates expectations — and potential complications — if the investigation takes a different turn.
The Richins legal questions are equally substantive. The immunity witness dynamic is one of the most consequential in the trial: two witnesses who changed their accounts under prosecutorial pressure, both carrying deals. How does that affect jury perception of prosecutorial credibility? What does defense cross-examination look like when a witness's original account contradicted their trial testimony? The defense's optical illusion framework — a perceptual ambiguity argument sustained across five weeks of specific evidentiary testimony — is examined for its legal coherence and jury impact. And the question of what legal mechanisms, if any, were available to protect Eric Richins given what was known before his death is one that carries implications beyond this verdict.
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

PRE-ORDER Robin's NEW Book! - https://a.co/d/0iR9U8U0

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
#TrueCrimeToday #NancyGuthrie #KouriRichins #CriminalLaw #KouriRichinsTrial #MissingPersonsLaw #RobinDreeke #HiddenKillers #DNAEvidence #TrueCrimePodcast

Before the death sentence. Before the backyard graves. Before the "zombie" doctrine.
Chad Daybell was a gravedigger in Idaho who claimed the dead spoke to him.
This is Part 2 of "The Chosen Ones," our psychological examination of spiritual abuse and religious trauma through the Vallow-Daybell case. Today we analyze Chad Daybell — not just what he did, but how he built the authority to make others believe he spoke for God.
Chad Daybell couldn't find significance through normal channels. He wasn't a prophet in the mainstream LDS church. So he built a space where he could be one — through self-published apocalyptic novels, fringe conferences, and online communities like AVOW.
He charged for books, charged for speaking appearances, charged for "readings" where he'd tell followers their light ratings and past lives. The more people paid for access to his "visions," the more power he accumulated.
Then the beliefs became operational.
According to testimony, Chad Daybell taught that some people had been possessed by demons — that they were "zombies" who could only be destroyed, not saved. He kept spreadsheets rating people as light or dark. Everyone rated dark ended up dead.
If you've experienced religious narcissism or spiritual abuse from a charismatic leader — you'll recognize how this authority gets built.
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
#ChadDaybell #LoriVallow #TrueCrimeToday #CultLeader #HighControlReligion #SpiritualAbuse #ReligiousTrauma #ZombieDoctrine #ReligiousNarcissism #Deconstruction

A federal judge has rejected former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell's bid to have murder charges dismissed in the death of 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore. The October 2026 trial will proceed — and the full story of what allegedly happened to Birchmore is one of the most chilling law enforcement abuse cases in the country.
Birchmore was found dead in her Canton, Massachusetts apartment in February 2021, three months pregnant. Her death was initially ruled self-inflicted by state medical examiners. Local prosecutors declined to act. It took a federal investigation to bring charges.
Prosecutors allege that Farwell first encountered Birchmore through the Stoughton Police Department's Explorer Program — a youth outreach initiative she joined at age 12. By the time she was 15, according to federal charging documents, Farwell had allegedly begun a criminal sexual relationship with her that would continue for nearly a decade. He allegedly met with her for sex while on duty and fraudulently logged those hours as police work.
Two additional law enforcement figures connected to the same program have faced accountability: former Deputy Chief Robert Devine was decertified by a state oversight board, and Farwell's twin brother William lost his law enforcement certification in Massachusetts.
Prosecutors believe Farwell was tipped off through department channels about a friend's report regarding the relationship — and that Sandra was dead within two weeks. Surveillance footage places him at her apartment the night she was last seen alive.
The defense argued the indictment lacked the specificity required for federal jurisdiction. The judge disagreed. Trial is on.
True Crime Today has the full breakdown.
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
#SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #TrueCrimeToday #FarwellTrial2026 #StoughtonPolice #JusticeForSandraBirchmore #TrueCrimeNews #PoliceMisconduct #FederalMurderCase #ColdCaseJustice

The legal mechanics of the Kouri Richins murder trial raised questions that go beyond the headline details — questions about witness reliability, prosecutorial strategy, and how a defense team constructs a viable theory against five weeks of damaging testimony. True Crime Today examines the trial's legal architecture in this listener Q&A with former FBI behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke and host Tony Brueski.
The immunity witnesses are a significant focal point. Carmen Lauber and Robert Crozier both changed their accounts after receiving immunity deals from prosecutors. In legal terms, a witness who required immunity to testify — and who revised their story in the process — is a double-edged asset. True Crime Today addresses how defense attorneys exploit that dynamic, what prosecutors risk by depending on such witnesses, and whether their testimony ultimately held up under cross-examination based on what observers reported from the courtroom.
The prosecution's text message evidence — particularly the word "relieved," sent to Josh Grossman after Eric Richins died — represents a classic case of what attorneys call consciousness of guilt evidence. What is the legal weight of a single word in a text message? How do prosecutors frame it, how do defense attorneys contextualize it, and how much does a jury typically rely on it?
The defense's opening framing — the optical illusion argument, the idea that the same facts can yield two completely different conclusions depending on perspective — is an unusual and strategically ambitious approach. Tony and Robin assess whether that theoretical framework is sustainable across a lengthy trial and how the jury ultimately appeared to receive it.
And the question of what failed Eric Richins, legally speaking — his own precautions and the system's response — carries implications beyond this verdict.
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

PRE-ORDER Robin's NEW Book! - https://a.co/d/0iR9U8U0

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
#KouriRichins #TrueCrimeToday #KouriRichinsTrial #ImmunityDeals #WitnessCredibility #EricRichins #MurderTrial #DefenseStrategy #RobinDreeke #TrueCrimePodcast