When police discovered an emaciated boy covered in wounds and duct tape, they learned he and his sister were being kept in the basement of Jodi Hildebrandt. She had built an online following by promoting harsh approaches to marriage advice and rigid child‑rearing strategies. The imprisoned children belonged to Ruby Franke, who abandoned her well‑known mommy vlog to collaborate with Hildebrandt on YouTube. As investigators dug into the case, they uncovered more about their methods…marked by domination, seclusion, and uncompromising demands for responsibility.

The Netflix documentary “Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story” examines the notorious child abuse case through the lens of Franke’s partner, accomplice, and enabler. It explores Hildebrandt’s backstory, her controversial counseling techniques, as well as the ways she influenced the influencer…and its horrific consequences.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "EVIL INFLUENCER" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: slipping the leash.

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In 1999, billionaire Edmond Safra died in his fortified Monaco penthouse after a chaotic sequence of events. His nurse, Ted Maher, was stabbed by intruders, and the fire he set to summon help consumed the penthouse, killing Safra who was hiding in the safe room. The paranoid Safra had made enemies of the Russian mafia, and his widow had already inherited a fortune from the death of another husband under suspicious circumstances. But authorities accused Maher of staging the break-in to look like a hero, an accusation that follows him to this day. 

Netflix’s “Murder in Monaco” looks into the circumstances around the death of one of the world’s richest men. It catalogues the many players and their possible motives to see Safra eliminated. It also puts Maher under the microscope, as new events force a re-consideration of his role in the tragedy.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "MURDER IN MONACO" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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In the 1980s, America was told Satanism was on the rise. Devil worshipers were responsible for kidnappings and blood sacrifices, and were coming for your children. Soon, police, teachers, and social workers were seeing Satanists everywhere. But why did the “satanic panic" take off in the first place? Were we really afraid of the devil? Or was it a way to explain the rising prevalence of societal ills and cultural shifts some saw as just as corrupting as Lucifer himself? 

In CBC’s “The Devil You Know,” host Sarah Marshall hunts for the origins of the 80s satanic panic and why it took hold. She finds that mass media tropes and religious dogma - combined with the public’s growing awareness of sexual abuse, queer-phobia, and changing mores - helped fuel a hysteria in which it was easier to blame the devil for our problems than ourselves.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: rail fail.

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In 2010, when Anastasio Hernández-Rojas died after his arrest at a checkpoint, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was from a medical emergency. Even though video surfaced showing 20 officers beating and tasing him, none of the men were held accountable for his death. An investigative journalist and a former CBP agent noted a passing reference to the Critical Incident Team, an organization neither had heard of. They learn this secretive unit isn’t tasked with investigating lethal force incidents - their purpose is to prevent or short-circuit them.

“Critical Incident: Death at the Border” from HBO Documentary Films looks into a shadow unit buried within U.S. Customs and Border Protection working to shield officers from lethal force investigations. It follows a reporter’s quest to uncover the Critical Incident Team and learn its true purpose, and tells the story of the family’s fight to get some measure of justice for Hernández-Rojas.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "CRITICAL INCIDENT: DEATH AT THE BORDER" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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After New Zealander Greg Wards married an American, she convinced him to open a cafe in a resort town. He’d learn that Lezlie Manukian forged bank documents, stole money, and made off with his parents’ life savings. Years later, Kiwi journalist Ollie Wards examined his family’s efforts to locate Lezlie. Wards picked up the search and discovered a trail of more fraud, cover stories, and victims. 

“Snowball” is from the Unravel Podcast team at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is being redistributed in the feed for Pushkin’s “Deep Cover” series. Part family profile, part shoe-leather investigation, “Snowball” follows Wards’ attempt to reconstruct how his family was brought to financial ruin and what happened to the woman who caused it all.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "SNOWBALL" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: We can work it out.

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In 1997, armored car driver David Ghantt teamed with Kelly Campbell - a pretty former co-worker - and Steve Chambers - a small-time criminal - to steal from the Loomis Fargo vault in Charlotte, North Carolina. The well-planned heist netted $17.5 million, but things started to unravel once they got away. While Ghantt laid low in Mexico to avoid attention, Chambers couldn’t stop making high-profile purchases in stolen $20 bills. Soon Ghantt was dodging both the FBI and a hit man, all while his conspirators were flashing cash and making some pretty dumb moves.

From SmartLess Media, Campside Media, Big Money Players and iHeart Podcasts comes “CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist.” Johnny Knoxville narrates the story of the second-largest bank robbery in US history, while regular show hosts Rory Scovel and Josh Dean provide commentary. Listeners hear from many of the key players in a story stranger than fiction, but just right for the big screen.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "CRIMELESS: HILLBILLY HEIST' BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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After being transferred to a new church, Father Jud Duplenticy meets the mercurial Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a domineering priest whose parish is filled with secrets. But when Wicks is murdered while alone in a closet in front of his most ardent parishioners, authorities bring in noted private detective Benoit Blanc to solve the case. Blanc and Father Jud dig into Wicks’s past and his relationships with his followers to solve a quintessential closed-door mystery. The detective and the priest discover the murder is only part of a larger puzzle of deceit, wealth, and power.

Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor lead an all-star cast in “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” now on Netflix. The sequel forces the renowned private eye and the earnest priest to join forces and sift through a bevy of suspects that includes the church secretary, a drunk doctor, a failed politician, a high-strung lawyer, and a struggling novelist. The film covers themes of morality, faith, and greed, wrapped in a classic whodunnit throwback the Knives Out series is known for.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "WAKE UP DEAD MAN" BEING IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: The future's so bright.

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After her neighborhood is rocked by a gas leak explosion, Sarah Trafford discovers a young survivor has been erased from press coverage and stashed away by authorities. Sarah enlists a pair of private eyes to get to the bottom of what’s happened to the child. Zoë Boehm digs into how the effort to keep Dinah out of sight is connected to her own personal tragedy. But as she and Sarah get closer to the truth, they find themselves stalked by assassins linked to a mysterious operation run out of the Ministry of Defence.

Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson star in the Apple TV thriller series “Down Cemetery Road.”  The mismatched pair find themselves in a web of cover-ups and chaos. What is the government hiding? How does the child fit into their plans? And who are the figures they encounter trying to kill them and each other?

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "DOWN CEMETERY ROAD" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 9 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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In the 2010s, “Totally Laime” wrote the blueprint for podcasts with hot takes, humorous advice, and an engaged audience. Among Elizabeth Laime and Andy Rosen’s colorful group of listeners was one woman struggling with a relationship affected by her past stint as a model. A subset of listeners grew increasingly reliant on Laime’s attention, and when tragedy struck, the hosts questioned what went wrong. But as they dug deeper into what happened, Laime and Rosen feared something more sinister was at play.

The podcast “Beth’s Dead” looks into the dangers of parasocial relationships and the mystery behind why Laime and Rosen ended their trailblazing show. "Armchair Expert"’s Monica Padman holds extended chats with the couple to recount their story and help them confront the unsettled questions of what really happened.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "BETH'S DEAD" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 14 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: Penny for your thoughts.

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In 2004, Dateline NBC rolled out a new segment. “To Catch a Predator" was a bait-and-switch operation where producers chatted online with men looking for sex with a minor, then lured them to a home where reporter Chris Hansen would confront them on camera. The undercover segments were billed as helpful to both police and victims, as America watched the would-be predators squirm in shame before getting arrested. But its legacy is complicated, as the show faced scrutiny for aggressive tactics, murky ethics, and entertainment masquerading as justice.

Now airing on Paramount+, “Predators” looks at “To Catch a Predator"'s impact on due process, actual benefits to deterrence, and effect on those ensnared. It also looks at the new generation of vigilantes who entrap suspected pedophiles. Director David Osit questions whether the TV show’s goal was - as host Chris Hansen would claim - to understand why the men did what they did…or whether the goal was to humiliate them on national television.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "PREDATORS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. 

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In 2016, Truman State University was rocked when two fraternity members died by suicide within weeks of each other. But officials were troubled that both students had close ties to Brandon Grossheim, the person who found each of their bodies. Grossheim called himself “The Peacemaker,” someone students could turn to in times of crisis. But as more deaths occurred, and his behavior grew more peculiar, those around him wondered if Grossheim had been steering his classmates away from self-harm…or encouraging it.

The podcast “The Peacemaker” from Coolfire Studios and iHeartPodcasts explores a tragic suicide cluster and the one man connected to all the deaths. Host Ben Westhoff and producer Ryan Krull drill down into the unanswered circumstances around each incident, as well as Grossheim’s proximity and preoccupation with death. It seeks to answer whether his actions were unsuccessful attempts to counsel people already in crisis or whether he nudged them along a path to self-harm.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE PEACEMAKER" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: Whoville are you?

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