True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

When violent cases break, attention locks onto motive and emotion. But behavioral analysts look somewhere else — at what happens after the act, at patterns that build over years, at the gap between words and behavior. True Crime Today brings you that analysis from retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke.
Nick Reiner reportedly admits to killing his parents — then describes incarceration as a "conspiracy." Robin examines decades of instability, repeated treatment stays that ended before sustained intervention, and why short-term compliance can function as system management rather than real change. Most revealing: the reported post-offense behavior. There was calm movement, time, decision-making — not immediate collapse. Robin explains why that matters.
Brendan Banfield was an IRS criminal investigator. Prosecutors say he planned an elaborate double murder. But Robin asks whether his behavior actually supports that theory. Banfield was a federal agent who understood evidence. If he planned this, why leave a framed photo of his mistress for police to find? Why give a detailed 911 statement? Robin breaks down what deception looks like in real time — and whether Banfield fits the profile.
The prosecution portrays Juliana Peres Magalhaes as manipulated. The defense says she's a liar who flipped to save herself. Robin — who built a career analyzing trust and manipulation — examines the behavioral evidence. Her jailhouse letter said she was "heartbroken" for what she was doing to Brendan. What does that reveal?
Two cases. Behavior that tells the real story.
#TrueCrimeToday #RobinDreeke #NickReiner #BrendanBanfield #FBI #BehavioralAnalysis #CriminalPsychology #Deception #ChristineBanfield #JulianaPeresMagalhaes
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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.

Two high-profile cases. Two men with no prior criminal records. Two alleged murder plots that shocked the people who thought they knew them.
Brendan Banfield was an IRS Criminal Investigation agent — trained in interrogation, evidence analysis, and how criminals get caught. Prosecutors say he used that training to build a months-long plot to kill his wife Christine and frame a stranger for it. The au pair, Juliana Magalhães, is the prosecution's star witness. She's also a woman who lied for a year, wrote jail letters promising to protect Banfield, and is now negotiating a Netflix deal. The defense says she's compromised. The prosecution says the blood will back her up.
Dr. Michael McKee was a vascular surgeon with a successful career. According to police, he allegedly drove from Illinois to Ohio in the middle of the night and killed his ex-wife Monique and her husband Spencer — eight years after their divorce. Their children were asleep down the hall. No documented threats. No protection orders. Nothing on paper.
Robin Dreeke, former FBI Special Agent and head of the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, joins True Crime Today to analyze both cases through a behavioral lens. What does the alleged planning in the Banfield case reveal about arrogance and control? How do you evaluate a witness as compromised as Magalhães? What is a "wound collector" and how does someone carry a grudge for eight years before acting? And are there warning signs that could help identify these personalities before the next tragedy?
Both defendants maintain their innocence.
#TrueCrimeToday #RobinDreeke #FBI #BrendanBanfield #MichaelMcKee #TeepeMurders #AuPairAffair #WoundCollector #BehavioralAnalysis #MurderTrial
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The Gilgo Beach serial killer case is fracturing. Rex Heuermann's defense just filed a 178-page motion demanding one murder charge be dismissed and suggesting another convicted killer may be responsible for some of the deaths attributed to their client.
Judge Timothy Mazzei set a September 2026 trial date on January 13th — "come hell or high water" — but the defense isn't going quietly. They're challenging twenty search warrants, arguing the pizza crust DNA collection violated Fourth Amendment rights, and asking the court to throw out the Sandra Costilla murder charge. The evidence linking Heuermann to her 1993 death? A single hair on her outer shirt.
The defense is demanding discovery from the John Bittrolff prosecution — a convicted killer already serving time for two Long Island murders with the same victim profile. Defense attorney Michael Brown noted that a former prosecutor previously said Bittrolff's "handiwork" was probably responsible for Costilla's death.
Adding to the chaos: Andrew Dykes, a 66-year-old Army veteran, was just arrested in December for the murder of "Peaches" — Tanya Denise Jackson — long assumed to be a Gilgo Beach victim. Different killer. Same dumping ground.
DA Ray Tierney remains confident with whole genome sequencing evidence, nine hairs across six victims, and a computer planning document allegedly detailing Heuermann's methods. But the single-killer narrative? That's officially dead. The question now is how many predators were hunting the same territory.
#RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #LongIslandSerialKiller #JohnBittrolff #SandraCostilla #AndrewDykes #TrueCrimeToday #SerialKiller #DNAEvidence #ColdCase
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Columbus police confirmed this week that the Tepe murders were a targeted domestic violence attack. Dr. Michael McKee, a vascular surgeon with no criminal history, allegedly killed his ex-wife Monique and her husband Spencer eight years after their divorce was finalized.
No documented threats. No protection orders. Nothing on paper. Just a man who, according to behavioral experts, may have spent nearly a decade collecting wounds and assigning blame — waiting for the moment to act.
Robin Dreeke is a former FBI Special Agent who ran the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. He's an expert on identifying dangerous personalities before they become dangerous. Today he joins us to analyze the McKee case through a behavioral lens.
We cover: What defines a "wound collector" versus someone who simply holds a grudge. How professional success can mask violent resentment. The psychology of blame — how wound collectors convince themselves they're the victim. What role the June 2025 court activity might have played as a trigger. Why watching an ex-spouse's public happiness can accelerate the spiral. McKee's courtroom demeanor — what confidence and apparent satisfaction might indicate. And whether there are behavioral red flags that could have been spotted earlier.
McKee maintains his innocence and plans to plead not guilty to two counts of premeditated aggravated murder — death penalty eligible in Ohio.
Two children are now orphans. Understanding why this happened won't change that. But it might save someone else.
#TrueCrimeToday #WoundCollector #MichaelMcKee #TeepeMurders #RobinDreeke #FBIAnalysis #BehavioralPsychology #SpencerTepe #MoniqueTepe #TrueCrimeNews
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Here's something most people don't know: In California, families cannot start an involuntary psychiatric conservatorship. Only hospital staff can initiate that process — and only if the patient is "gravely disabled," meaning unable to provide food, clothing, or shelter for themselves.
Being violent doesn't count. Being delusional doesn't count. Terrorizing your family doesn't count. If you can tell a psychiatrist where you're going to sleep tonight, you walk out the door.
Nick Reiner reportedly lived in his parents' guest house. He allegedly had food, clothing, shelter — provided by Rob and Michele. Under California law, that meant he wasn't "gravely disabled." So even if he was psychotic, even if his medication had been changed and he was spiraling, even if his father told friends he was afraid for his life — there was nothing the family could legally do to force long-term treatment.
This episode explores the 1967 law that created this reality. The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act was supposed to end the abuses of indefinite commitment. It succeeded. But it also stripped families of any meaningful ability to intervene before tragedy strikes. California went from 37,000 patients in state hospitals to fewer than 1,500 on conservatorships today.
Where did everyone go? Nursing homes. Family homes. The streets. And increasingly, jails and prisons — which now function as America's largest psychiatric facilities.
The Reiners did everything the system told them to do. They paid for treatment. They kept Nick close. They tried to help. And the system that was supposed to protect them had been dismantled decades before Nick was born.
#TrueCrimeToday #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleReiner #MentalHealthLaw #GravelyDisabled #5150 #LPSAct #SystemFailure #TrueCrime2026
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