In March 1999, Cynthia Vigil was abducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and taken to a remote trailer in Elephant Butte equipped with a horrific torture chamber. Through unbelievable bravery and presence of mind, she managed to seize a split-second opportunity, grab a key while her captor was distracted, and flee to safety. Her escape directly led to the arrest of David Parker Ray the notorious "Toy Box Killer" and his accomplices, bringing an end to a long-running reign of terror. In this episod...

In October 1976, Jane Carson-Sandler became one of the earliest targeted survivors of the East Area Rapist—the violent predator who would later be exposed as the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo. When a masked intruder broke into her home with a butcher knife while she was with her three-year-old son, Jane faced sheer terror yet held onto the quiet determination that she and her child would survive. In this episode, we examine Jane Carson-Sandler's survival, her decades-long wait for ...

Delia Balmer survived an axe attack by serial killer John Sweeney , the "Scalphunter", but her hardest fight was against a system that refused to listen. Before John Sweeney made headlines as the dismemberment killer responsible for the murders of Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields, Delia Balmer handed law enforcement his murder confession, his bloody sketchbooks, and a blueprint of his violence. Despite surviving a four-day hostage ordeal in her Camden flat, institutional failures left Sweeney f...

In 1992, 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson faced a night of unthinkable horror when she accepted a ride in Palm Springs, California, from a man who would turn out to be serial killer Andrew Urdiales. Ambushed, bound, and locked inside the trunk of a moving car, Jennifer knew her survival depended on taking action. Through extraordinary quick thinking and instinct, Jennifer managed to unlatch the trunk from the inside and leap to safety on the highway. Her miraculous escape didn't just save her life...

In 1977, college students Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman set out on a cross-country bicycle trip that ended in a nightmare at Cline Falls State Park, Oregon. While sleeping in their tent, an unidentified attacker ran over them with a pickup truck and brutalized them with an axe. Both women survived the horrific assault, but the local investigation quickly stalled, leaving the case cold and no suspect officially charged. Decades later, Terri returned to Central Oregon to investigate her own attemp...

In 1994, Alison Botha was abducted outside her home in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, by Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger. After a horrific attack, Alison was left for dead in an isolated area. But somehow, she was still alive. Alone and catastrophically injured, Alison made a decision: if she was going to die, she would die trying to live. Using one hand to hold her body together and the other to support her severely injured neck, Alison began dragging herself toward the road. Before she left,...

Holly Dunn was the only known survivor of Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, the serial killer who became known as the Railroad Killer. In 1997, 20-year-old Holly and her boyfriend, Christopher Maier, were attacked near railroad tracks in Lexington, Kentucky. Christopher was murdered. Holly was beaten, sexually assaulted, and left for dead, but she survived. Her survival would become an important part of the case against Reséndiz, a transient serial killer connected to murders across multiple states and...

On January 15, 1978, serial killer Ted Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, murdered Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, and brutally attacked Kathy Kleiner Rubin and Karen Chandler. Kathy survived but Ted Bundy was far from the first thing she had survived. This week on When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom takes a deep dive into Kathy's remarkable story and her memoir, A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy. We examine the increasingly reckless Bun...

In 1974, 21-year-old pharmacy student Rhonda Stapley accepted a ride from a polite law student named Ted. What followed was a nightmare in Big Cottonwood Canyon and an extraordinary escape into a roaring mountain river. In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, host Brittany Ransom deconstructs the "charming genius" myth surrounding Ted Bundy through the eyes of a woman who outsmarted him. We trace Rhonda’s terrifying encounter, her 20-foot leap to freedom, and the 40 years of silent surviv...

At just 17 years old, Lisa McVey was kidnapped by one of America's most dangerous serial killers. But instead of giving in to fear, she did something extraordinary, she observed, she remembered, and she survived. In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom tells the incredible true story of how one teenager's courage, quick thinking, and determination not only saved her own life but helped investigators identify and capture a serial killer before he could claim more victims. ...

"How many lives could have been saved if the warning signs had been connected sooner?" In the mid-1980s, a wave of unprecedented terror gripped Southern California. Windows were nailed shut, lights were on throughout the night, and ordinary communities found themselves at the mercy of a predatory phantom. The media gave him a moniker that froze the blood of millions: "The Night Stalker." But away from the sensational headlines, a devastating reality was unfolding; one marked by fragmented police...

When ballroom icon Dorian Corey died in 1993, friends packing her closet made a horrifying discovery: a mummified body hidden inside a vintage trunk. For 25 years, a secret had been sitting just feet from where she slept. Who was the man in the dark? This week on When Killers Get Caught, host Brittany Ransom pulls back the heavy layers of sequins, fabric, and history to dissect one of the strangest and most claustrophobic hidden-body cases in modern true-crime history. When investigators opened ...

How does a child genius who enters Harvard at sixteen end up becoming one of the most notorious domestic terrorists in American history? In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom examines the life of Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber. From his childhood as a gifted student in Chicago to his years at Harvard, his isolation in a remote Montana cabin, and the anti-technology ideology that fueled a seventeen-year bombing campaign, we explore the events that shaped one...

In 1991, a suburban Texas mother was arrested for allegedly trying to hire a hitman over a middle school cheerleading competition. This week on When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom examines the shocking case of Wanda Holloway, better known as the "Texas Cheerleader Mom." What began as a disappointing cheerleading tryout in Channelview, Texas spiraled into one of the most bizarre murder-for-hire plots in American true crime history. Through recorded wiretap conversations, courtroom dram...

In 1971, a quiet suburban home in Westfield became the center of one of the most chilling family annihilation cases in American history. This is the story of John List, a deeply religious, seemingly respectable accountant, husband, and father who methodically murdered his entire family inside their mansion, then disappeared without a trace. For nearly 18 years, he lived under a new identity while authorities had no clear idea what he looked like, where he went, or how he managed to evade capture...

In May 2005, eighteen-year-old Natalee Holloway vanished during a graduation trip to Aruba — a disappearance that would become one of the most infamous true crime cases in modern history. What began as a carefree senior trip quickly spiraled into an international media frenzy involving shifting stories, failed investigations, public obsession, and nearly two decades of unanswered questions surrounding Joran van der Sloot. But beneath the headlines and speculation was a real young woman who...

In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom revisits one of the most infamous figures in New Orleans history Delphine LaLaurie, also known as The Beast of Royal Street. Long before the fire that exposed her mansion in 1834, Madame LaLaurie was a wealthy Creole socialite living at the center of elite New Orleans society. But behind the elegance, dinner parties, and political connections, neighbors whispered about missing servants, unexplained injuries, and a house that felt inc...

In this landmark 100th episode of When Killers Get Caught, we step beyond the moment of arrest and into something deeper: a reckoning. The case of Gisèle Pelicot shocked the world. For nearly a decade, her husband, Dominique Pelicot, drugged her into unconsciousness and invited dozens of men into their home meticulously documenting the abuse along the way. What began as a seemingly minor incident in a French supermarket unraveled into one of the most disturbing cases of systemic betrayal in rece...

In 1981, a man was shot in broad daylight on Main Street in Skidmore, Missouri in front of dozens of witnesses. Yet, no one was ever arrested. This is the story of Ken Rex McElroy, a man accused of violence, intimidation, and terrorizing a small town for years… and the moment that town stopped waiting for the system to act. This episode of When Killers Get Caught explores what happens when justice fails, fear takes over, and silence becomes a community decision. When everyone knows w...

In 2006, Susan Kuhnhausen came home after a long shift as an emergency room nurse and walked straight into a violent ambush inside her own home. A man was waiting for her with a hammer. He had a job to do and she was the target. What he didn’t know was that Susan wasn’t just a victim. She was a veteran ER nurse trained to assess crisis in seconds, make decisions under pressure, and survive moments most people never prepare for. By the end of the night, the intruder, Ed Haffey, was dead....

She was married to one of America’s most feared mob bosses, Vito Genovese, but Anna Genovese lived by her own rules inside the heart of the New York Mafia. Anna built a parallel world in Greenwich Village, creating safe havens for a queer community the city tried to erase, all while navigating a violent marriage inside the Genovese crime family. When she finally broke the Mafia’s code of silence, she didn’t just risk her life, she reshaped the power structure around her. Anna Genovese broke omer...

In 2014, the quiet suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, was shattered by a crime that defied logic. Two 12-year-old girls lured their best friend into the woods for a birthday game of hide-and-seek only to leave her for dead as a "sacrifice" to a fictional internet character known as Slender Man. In Episode 96, Brittany Ransom dives deep into the haunting psychology behind Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier. We trace the trail from the dark corners of Creepypasta forums to the chilling police interroga...

Dennis Rader looked like the last person you would ever suspect. A church leader. A husband. A father. A man trusted by his community. But behind that ordinary life was something far more calculated. Known as BTK, Bind, Torture, Kill, Rader terrorized Wichita, Kansas in the 1970s before disappearing for decades. He didn’t get caught because he slipped up during a crime. He got caught because he needed to be seen. In this episode, Brittany Ransom breaks down the psychology behind one of Ame...

On March 16, 1984, inside a Baton Rouge airport, a man stepped forward, raised a gun, and shot another man in the head, on live television. That man was Gary Plauché. The victim? The man accused of kidnapping and abusing his 11-year-old son. But this case is more than a shocking moment caught on camera. It’s a story about trust, grooming, trauma, and the devastating reality of what happens when the system moves slower than a parent’s pain. In this episode, we break down how a trusted...