True Crime

Mackenzie Shirilla wanted to testify in her murder trial, and she planned to tell the jury she was the third victim in a car crash that killed her then-boyfriend and their pal ... at least that's what she told her mom in a phone call from jail.

In undated audio PEOPLE obtained from a jail conversation between Mackenzie and her mother, Natalie, the teenager questions her defense team's decision to keep her off the stand.

Mackenzie tells her mom ... "I was asking him if I could just testify to show them that like, I have nothing to hide, and he was like 'I don't know if that's a good idea at this point.'"

She goes on to say ... "If they see the truth, then they'll know that this was nothing but a car accident. They'll just see that there's a third victim, and it's me, and I lost the love of my life and a good friend, and now I have to deal with this grief the rest of my life."

Mackenzie Shirilla can kiss her dreams of having kids goodbye ... at least that's what she told her mom from behind bars.

In undated audio PEOPLE obtained from a phone call -- recorded while she was held at the Cuyahoga County Jail -- with her mom, Natalie, you can hear Mackenzie complain about being locked up ... saying she's going to be too old to have children if she ever gets released.

She told her mom ... "I'm thinking about like how I'm just gonna be like old when I get out of jail and like, I don't know, like I'm not gonna be able to have kids or like a family and s*** like that."

Newly resurfaced body cam footage shows the tense moments after the infamous crash involving Mackenzie Shirilla -- capturing police officers arriving at the scene and trying to piece together what happened.

The video begins with officers pulling up to the deadly crash site in Strongsville, Ohio ... where the heavily damaged vehicle is seen destroyed near a building.

Watch the clip ... officers quickly move toward the wreckage while surveying debris scattered across the area. As police secure the scene, officers can be heard communicating with dispatch and coordinating with other first responders arriving moments later.

Parents of a 1-day-old son who died have been charged with criminal homicide in connection with the infant's death.

Prosecutors say the newborn’s parents – Kevin Canaan and Yeniffer Tavarez-Cepeda – physically abused their son while still in the maternity ward of a Pennsylvania hospital, which resulted in the baby's death.

According to a press release, the West Reading Police Department was called to Tower Health Reading Hospital earlier this month for suspected child abuse, and learned Kevin and Yeniffer’s brand-new baby was found in medical distress in their private room.

The health turn apparently came out of nowhere … because prosecutors say the baby had been “seemingly healthy.” The newborn was rushed to Penn State Hershey Medical Center but later died from his injuries.

Netflix viewers met a remorseful Mackenzie Shirilla in Netflix's "The Crash" ... but a former inmate says the real person -- behind bars -- is far different.

Mary Katherine Crowder -- who spent over six months locked up with Shirilla at the Ohio Reformatory for Women -- has been blowing up TikTok with claims that the convicted killer acted more like the "queen bee" of prison than someone haunted by the deadly 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and friend, Davion Flanagan.

Crowder told the NY Post that Mackenzie walked around prison like she was famous ... always glammed up and treating the facility "like a high school popularity contest."

Luigi Mangione just got a major ruling in his state murder case, with a judge deciding Monday several pieces of evidence will not be used -- including an ammunition magazine -- but prosecutors still won on the major items found in his backpack.

The Monday ruling comes after Luigi’s attorneys argued cops illegally searched his backpack when he was arrested at a McDonald's back in December 2024 ... just days after Brian Thompson was gunned down in NYC.

The judge agreed the search at the McDonald’s was “unreasonable” and said there were no emergency circumstances to justify it ... meaning several of the items found during that search will now be inadmissible in the case.

Six-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez went missing in Texas four years ago ... but now investigators have learned the little boy is dead and have finally found his remains.

The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office announced Friday that Noel's corpse was discovered the day before in Everman, a small city near Fort Worth, and dental records were used to confirm his identity.

During a press conference, Tarrant DA Phil Sorrells said the child's mom, Cindy Rodriguez Singh, has been indicted for capital murder and will stand trial in the case.  

Alex Murdaugh could be staring down an even darker outcome during his retrial for murder -- because prosecutors say everything’s back on the table ... including the death penalty.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Friday the state could seek the maximum punishment if Murdaugh is tried again following the shocking overturning of his murder convictions.

The bombshell ruling came after the South Carolina Supreme Court decided Murdaugh didn’t get a fair trial due to alleged jury tampering tied to former court clerk Becky Hill.

Kouri Richins, the Utah mother and children's book author convicted of killing her husband with a poisoned cocktail, had some chilling advice for their three children before being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a Utah courtroom, Kouri stood up and told the three sons, had with her husband she has been convicted of killing ... "Be like your dad."

During the sentencing hearing, the boys' paternal grandfather told the judge Kouri deserved a life sentence without parole so his grandsons would "never have to live with the fear that the person responsible for taking their father could ever harm them again."

Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who wrote a children's book about grief following the death of her husband, was just sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole ... after being convicted of murdering him.

Kouri was convicted of aggravated murder in her husband's March 2022 death ... for lacing his drink with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl.

A Utah jury also found her guilty of attempted aggravated murder for trying to kill her husband on Valentine's Day 2022 with a fentanyl-laced sandwich ... plus insurance fraud and forgery related to his life insurance policy.

Nancy Guthrie is Khloé Kardashian's latest true crime obsession ... and doesn't understand how there are so few leads about her tragic disappearance.

On Wednesday's episode of her "Khloé In Wonder Land" podcast, the reality star sat down with true-crime podcaster Ashley Flowers to talk about Savannah Guthrie's missing mother.

Khloé said it's "mind-blowing" that police don't have any info about what happened, explaining that she was fascinated by the since-debunked theory that Nancy's son-in-law could have been involved in her abduction.

A registered nurse was savagely murdered by her boyfriend in Illinois ... and the suspect recorded more than 7 hours of her being tortured, sexually assaulted and strangled, according to police.

The grisly recording was discovered on April 30 when police took Kevin Motykie into custody in the garage of the suburban Chicago home he shared with former longtime partner, Katherine Torbick, who was found dead at the scene.

Schaumburg Police detectives reportedly discovered an audio recording device in Motykie's pocket as he was being arrested -- which allegedly holds evidence of the murder.

Investigators searching for Kristin Smart’s remains wrapped up operations Saturday at a California property connected to the family of the man convicted in her killing -- but officials say the evidence of human remains recovered did not belong to Kristin.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office confirmed deputies completed their search at a home belonging to Susan Flores in Arroyo Grande -- a Central Coast community located northwest of Los Angeles -- her son, Paul Flores, was found guilty in 2022 of murdering Smart. Her body has never been located.

Authorities have not released many additional details about the search, though officials previously said evidence led investigators to believe human remains may once have been present on the property.

Betty Broderick -- the woman who fatally shot her ex-husband and his new wife back in 1989 -- died in the ICU Friday following a number of health issues, TMZ has learned.

Betty's son, Daniel Broderick, tells TMZ ... she had a number of septic infections -- including one infection that she had years ago and came back. Plus, she had a serious fall at the Californian Institute for Women where she was locked away about 3 weeks ago ... which resulted in broken ribs.

Daniel says Betty ended up in the ICU at a hospital off the prison grounds. She was on life support at the end of her life and unable to communicate.

Investigators looking into the 1996 disappearance of California college student Kristin Smart say they've found evidence of human remains on a property linked to her convicted killer.

This is a potentially huge deal ... because Kristin's body was never found.

She was declared legally dead in 2002, and Paul Flores -- who went to school with her and was the last person to see her alive -- was found guilty of first-degree murder 20 years later.

Investigators have been running soil tests on the home of Paul's mom, Susan Flores, for the past couple days ... and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson told reporters they found compounds related to a human, decomposing body.

A tiny dog's nightmare played out in full view of surveillance cameras ... and what Florida deputies say happened next is hard to watch.

According to a Hillsborough County arrest affidavit, obtained by TMZ, 33-year-old Imania Davis was seen carrying a small Maltese -- weighing roughly 5 pounds -- by the scruff of its neck before things turned violent.

You can see the video for yourself ... the woman throws the dog onto the asphalt multiple times before kicking the defenseless pup on the ground.