True Crime

Bryan Kohberger is spending Christmas behind bars -- and the murderous Grinch of 4 college students is getting a much-deserved lump of coal this year instead of the average holiday prison perks, except for some cookies.

Here's the scoop ... Idaho's most infamous mass killer is incarcerated in long-term restrictive housing at Idaho Maximum Security Institution, so he has very little access to any activities, according to Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic, a spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

Kuzeta-Cerimagic said Kohberger and his fellow inmates in the restrictive unit are shuffled around in shackles, making it harder for correction officers to move them about the prison for special Xmas activities.

The Austin Police Department has closed the book on Brianna Aguilera's death, ruling it a suicide ... but the family still doesn't believe law enforcement.

Tony Buzbee, the attorney for Aguilera's family, tells TMZ they still think Brianna's death was more nefarious ... adding, "The Austin Police screwed things up royally."

Buzbee says there's no credible evidence to back APD's suicide claim, full stop.

Brian Walshe -- the Massachusetts man on trial for allegedly murdering his wife Ana --- is a narcissistic sociopath who reveled in watching cheating wife porn after he suspected his spouse of stepping out on him ... according to Dr. Phil.

TMZ caught up with the famous doc amid Walshe's murder trial ... and Phil walked us through Walshe's penchant for browsing Pornhub looking for smut films depicting a cheating spouse, which Walshe suspected Ana of being before she disappeared in 2023.

Luigi Mangione stuck out like a sore thumb at the Pennsylvania McDonald's where he got arrested for murder ... because other customers quickly recognized him as the alleged "CEO shooter" ... at least according to the 911 call.

TMZ obtained audio from the call that led to Luigi's 2024 arrest, and you hear a McDonald's employee saying she's been told by multiple customers that Luigi looked suspiciously like the guy wanted for gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Johnson in New York.

Luigi's good looks gave him away ... the woman on the phone with 911 says his eyebrows are his most distinguishing feature. Police ultimately showed up and arrested Luigi.

Brian Walshe and his wife Ana fought just days before her death because she missed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with her family to spend time with her lover ... this according to the lover himself.

William Fastow took the stand in Massachusetts Thursday ... pulling back the curtain on his relationship with Ana ... with whom he says he was regularly intimate in the months leading up to her disappearance.

Fastow says the two even spent Christmas Eve with his friends in Annapolis, Maryland ... after which she stayed with William at his home in the Washington, D.C. area. Ana's flight the next day was canceled due to snow -- but she ultimately decided to drive back to Massachusetts that day.

Brianna Aguilera -- a 19-year-old student at Texas A&M University -- was found dead near campus hours after a college football game ... and now her mother is searching for answers.

According to San Antonio's KSAT-TV, Brianna was at Texas A&M's football game against the University of Texas in Austin Friday night ... hours later, a bystander found her body outside a campus apartment complex.

Brianna's mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, told KSAT she's not satisfied with answers she's gotten from the Austin Police Department. She said her daughter stopped answering her phone after the game, though she could see it pinging in Austin. Brianna was found about 1 AM Saturday ... Rodriguez was informed by police at 4 PM her daughter's body was in the morgue.

Luigi Mangione is getting a respite from the federal detention center he currently calls home ... because he's back in a courthouse ... at least for a little bit.

Luigi was back in court Monday for a pretrial hearing in his New York state case ... where he's accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 last year.

Luigi bypassed most of the crowd on his way into court Monday morning, arriving through a side door in the courtroom -- but we caught a couple photographs of him … here he is wearing a gray suit with a white checkered shirt. He showed up in handcuffs, but a guard uncuffed him before he sat down.

Anna Kepner's aunt says the family is in "turmoil" as they are left with more questions than answers regarding the 18-year-old's murder aboard a Carnival cruise ship earlier this month.

Her aunt, Krystal Wright, told Fox 35 Orlando this week the family is "just sitting here waiting" for an update from authorities and described their frustration that further action against her stepbrother -- who is allegedly under investigation regarding her death -- has not been taken.

She implored ... "We don’t understand why, if the boy is a suspect, why has he not been charged yet? What’s happening there?"

The mother of Anna Kepner -- the 18-year-old who was murdered on a Carnival Cruise ship -- is questioning the sleeping arrangements her daughter was placed in leading up to her tragic death.

Heather Wright told Fox News she's been villainized in the situation, but it's Anna's dad, Christopher Kepner, who could be partly to blame.

Anna was reportedly sharing a cabin with two other teenagers -- one of whom is her stepbrother, who's now suspected in her death. Anna's grandmother told ABC News the teenagers chose the arrangement themselves ... but Anna's biological mom seems to think an adult should have vetoed it.

A California man ripped a page out of Jeffrey Dahmer's necrophilia handbook ... he was just found guilty of murdering his estranged wife, then digging up and raping her corpse.

Zarbab Ali was found guilty last Friday by a jury of fatally stabbing Rachel Castillo with a knife as the two were on the verge of finalizing their divorce in Simi Valley in November 2022. He faces a life sentence without parole and is slated to be sentenced January 12.

Before the trial, Ali told investigators he hid in Rachel’s apartment, ambushed her and butchered her body. Then he drove her corpse to a spot in a remote desert in Antelope Valley and buried her in a shallow grave. He returned the next morning and sexually assaulted her before burying her body again.

LAPD has come out officially to dispute TMZ's story -- that the body of Celeste Rivas was partially frozen when it was examined -- but one source has doubled down.

A source connected to the L.A. County Medical Examiner insists Celeste's body was partially frozen when it was discovered inside a car registered to singer D4vd. This is in square contradiction to what LAPD is saying on the record.

It's interesting ... in one document from the Medical Examiner, it reads, "The decedent was not live scanned due to waterlogged fingers." Translation ... the M.E. was unable to fingerprint Celeste's body.

9:23 AM PT -- TMZ has obtained bodycam footage showing the arrest of Geyser and Mecca in Posen, Illinois.

The "Slender Man" stabber escape has taken another turn ... Morgan Geyser -- the internet horror character-inspired killer -- ran away from a group home because she was reportedly going to be barred from seeing her transgender friend.

As you know, Geyser cut off her ankle bracelet Saturday night and slipped away from the group home in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was living under the authority of the Department of Corrections. Police launched a nationwide manhunt and recaptured Geyser the very next day ... and it's now reported Geyser was found with her transgender friend, Chad "Charly" Mecca, at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, near Chicago.

Geyser, 23, was not hit with any local charges because it would only serve to prolong her extradition back to Wisconsin, police said. An extradition hearing is slated for today in Cook County.

"Golden State Killer" Joseph DeAngelo reportedly tried to blame his gruesome murders on having a split personality named Jerry, who "made" him commit crimes against his will ... the problem is that actually hurts your case in California.

This is according to a new book -- "The People vs. the Golden State Killer" -- by Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho.

Ho writes DeAngelo muttered to himself in interrogations, saying things like, “I did all that ... I didn’t have the strength to push him out. He made me. He went with me. It was like, in my head, I mean, he’s a part of me. I didn’t want to do those things. I pushed Jerry out and had a happy life. I did all those things. I’ve destroyed all their lives ... I raped. So now I gotta pay the price."

Jake Haro -- the man sentenced Monday to 25 years to life for murdering his 7-month-old son, Emmanuel -- just had his first state prison mug shot snapped, showing him looking as cold as the killer he is.

The 32-year-old is now locked up at California’s Wasco State Prison -- and he won’t see a parole board until December 2044.

Jake’s sentencing comes after he pled guilty to second-degree murder, child endangerment and filing a false police report.

Anna Kepner’s grandparents are shutting down any talk she was scared of her stepbrother -- the teen reportedly under investigation in her cruise-ship death -- making it clear they have faith in his innocence.

In an ABC News sit-down interview, Barbara and Jeffrey Kepner said 18-year-old Anna and her 16-year-old stepbrother were "two peas in a pod," and cared for each other "in the right way" -- a far cry from what Joshua Tew, Anna’s first love, claimed ... saying her other brother told him about a nasty blowout the pair allegedly had inside the cabin they were all sharing.

The grandparents say authorities told them the stepbrother is considered a suspect in the case. They admit they’ve got no clue what actually went down inside that cabin -- they’re waiting on answers just like everyone else -- but pointing the finger at the stepbrother? They’re nowhere near ready to go there.

The woman known as the notorious "Slender Man" stabber is back in custody after she led police on a frantic nationwide manhunt, police said Sunday.

A rep for the Madison PD confirmed Morgan Geyser was captured in Illinois Sunday evening after she sliced off her ankle monitor bracelet and hightailed it out of a group home, where she was living under the authority of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

It's unclear how cops tracked her down or where she's currently being held.