Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Nine months after Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona, home, where are the answers? The 84-year-old mother of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie was reported missing on February 1, 2026. Despite blood found outside her front door, video of an armed, masked man, and purported ransom notes demanding millions in Bitcoin, her disappearance remains unsolved. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield speaks with retired homicide detective Chris McDonough, host of The Interview Room and director of law enforcement relations at the Cold Case Foundation. Chris shares what he and his wife, journalist Karen McDonough, encountered during their trips to Tucson. Ashleigh and Chris debate the ransom notes, whether investigators are putting too much faith in unidentified male DNA, and Chris’s theory that more than one person may have been involved.

She said she was dying of cancer, her family raised thousands to save her, and her little nephew even emptied his piggy bank... But according to the journalists behind “The Lexi Con,” Alexandra “Lexi” Thomas, who goes by Lexi Hannon, built her story on years of lies. Investigative producers Nancy Moscatiello and Scott Eldridge say they traced $220,000 in donations, contacted a doctor who said he had never treated her, and found cancer survivors who were very much alive despite Lexi posting tributes announcing their deaths. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield sits down with Scamanda producer and journalist Nancy Moscatiello and her fellow producer and co-host Scott Eldridge to unpack their three-year investigation for The Slippery’s “The LexiCon.” 
Listen to LexiCon on The Slippery
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-slippery/id1891413273
Watch LexiCon on The Slippery
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSlippery
The Slippery Website:
https://www.theslippery.com/

I went into “You Can See Everything” thinking I had Elizabeth Holmes figured out. Then I watched her boyfriend, Billy Evans, strip naked on camera, negotiate a cut of the documentary, and shut down interviews when he didn’t like the questions. And somehow, the movie left me questioning whether I’d gotten Elizabeth wrong. We need to talk about that shower scene, Billy posting as Elizabeth on her social media, and the fact that after the entire Theranos fraud scandal, these two are planning another blood-testing venture. Would you give them your money? 
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh’s husband, Chris Haynor, joins Drop Dead Serious for a very different take. They watched the same movie, sitting right next to each other, and came away with very different opinions about Elizabeth, Billy, filmmaker Nathan Fielder, and what the cameras actually captured. Spoiler warning: This episode discusses scenes throughout “You Can See Everything.”

A bitter engagement-ring fight aired on “The People’s Court,” and that same day, Michelle Parker vanished. Nearly 15 years later, her ex-fiancé, Dale Smith Jr., is charged with second-degree murder. Michelle Parker disappeared on November 17, 2011, after dropping off their 3-year-old twins at his Orlando home. Her Hummer was found abandoned with its business decals removed, her iPhone was recovered from a lake, and her body has never been found. What happened after Michelle dropped off her children, and what evidence finally moved this case forward? Smith has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent.
Note: This episode was recorded before the 46-page arrest affidavit for Dale Smith Jr. was unsealed. We’ll break down the newly released evidence in an upcoming episode.

Dirty cat litter dumped in their beds, dog poop on their belongings, and forced to run barefoot on a gravel driveway. That’s what three kids say they endured inside their West Virginia home, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. Erica Lynn Sayre, 45, and her husband, Clifford “Gale” Sayre, 46, are now facing a combined 12 felony charges after the children described years of alleged abuse. One child told investigators, “I can’t go back to that home.” Another said she “just wants a normal life.”