Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty to two federal stalking charges resulting in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, admitting under oath that he traveled to New York intending to shoot Brian Thompson and then carried out the killing on a Manhattan sidewalk. In a stunning courtroom statement, Luigi Mangione described his grievances with the healthcare industry but offered no apology to Brian Thompson’s family, who watched from the front row.  But Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea could also become his most powerful weapon against the separate New York state murder case. His attorneys immediately moved to dismiss the state charges under New York’s double-jeopardy protections, raising the extraordinary possibility that his federal admission could help him avoid a murder trial. Federal prosecutors are expected to seek life in prison, although the advisory sentencing guidelines call for roughly 24 to 30 years behind bars. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by NewsNation field producer Tommy Christaldi, who was inside the packed federal courtroom, to reveal what happened during the bombshell plea hearing, how Brian Thompson’s family reacted and whether Luigi Mangione may have just gamed the system.

Six months after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson-area home, investigators still have not identified the masked person captured on her doorbell camera, determined who sent the alleged ransom notes or revealed what happened to the mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie. Now, FBI agents have returned to the area behind Nancy’s home as a stunning mistake by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department exposes a previously secret message apparently sent through the ransom note’s Bitcoin address: “We are ready to pay. Contact us.” In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield speaks with former Pima County Chief Deputy Rick Kastigar, who supervised Sheriff Chris Nanos for decades, about what may be going wrong inside the Nancy Guthrie investigation.

After weeks of testimony about Lindsay Clancy's mental health treatment, 13 psychiatric medications, conflicting medical records, and disturbing internet searches, did prosecutors prove Lindsay was criminally responsible, or did their own witnesses leave the jury with reasonable doubt? In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by veteran Boston 25 investigative reporter Bob Ward, who has been inside the courtroom throughout the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. He reveals what jurors are seeing, how they reacted to the graphic autopsy testimony and Patrick Clancy’s devastating 911 call, and what happened when Lindsay sobbed uncontrollably and cried out during court.

Lindsay Clancy’s doctors testified that they never saw signs of psychosis or mania before she strangled her three children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan, inside their Duxbury, Massachusetts home. But their testimony also revealed a deeply troubled postpartum mother. Did her doctors miss the warning signs of a psychiatric crisis, or did Lindsay remain rational enough to conceal what was really happening?
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by double board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Stacy Cohen to examine whether telehealth appointments, fragmented treatment and constant medication changes may have allowed critical symptoms to go unnoticed. They also confront the question at the center of Lindsay’s insanity defense: Could she have been psychotic when she killed her children even though none of the medical professionals treating her believed she was?

Brian Hooker has officially been spotted for the first time since leaving the Bahamas after his wife, Lynette Hooker, vanished. An exclusive photo obtained by Drop Dead Serious shows Brian at his mother’s home in Sacramento as the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service continues its federal murder investigation into Lynette’s disappearance. Do the feds finally have enough evidence to make their move, and if so, why hasn’t Brian Hooker been arrested?
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani joins Ashleigh Banfield to explain how federal murder investigations work, why prosecutors often build nearly their entire case before making an arrest, and what the delay could mean for Brian. Brian Hooker has not been charged with a crime and denies any wrongdoing.