TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

BRATTERSTEIN
  • 4.8 (43)
  • TRUE CRIME
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

As someone who has been personally effected by homicide, I approach every True Crime case I cover with the goal of balancing facts with empathy—giving victims a voice while exploring the larger cultural and societal implications of the cases. I want you to leave my episodes not only knowing that the people who I talk about are real.. what happened to them is real but also acknowledging that they are much more than just their deaths. Each audio file from this podcast is taken from my videos on YouTube. If you want to see me in action, you can search "Bratterstein" there.

  1. Did a Viral Video lead to her Death? The Muhlaysia Booker Case

    1D AGO

    Did a Viral Video lead to her Death? The Muhlaysia Booker Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Muhlaysia Booker with me today. In 2019, 22‑year‑old Muhlaysia Booker, a Black transgender woman in Dallas, briefly survived one act of shocking public violence only to be killed weeks later in another. In April, after a minor traffic accident at an apartment complex, a crowd gathered as men dragged her across a parking lot and brutally beat her while bystanders filmed; the video went viral, and Booker later described how they hurled anti‑LGBTQ slurs as they punched and kicked her, turning her into a symbol of the dangers faced by Black trans women in the US. Just a month later, in May 2019, police found her lying face down in a Dallas street near Tenison Park, dead from gunshot wounds, and investigators eventually linked her killing to 37‑year‑old Kendrell Lyles, who was also suspected in other murders around the same time. Prosecutors said phone records and witness accounts placed Booker in Lyles’s car shortly before her death, and although authorities did not publicly label the murder as a hate crime, her family and advocates saw it as part of a wider pattern of lethal anti‑trans hostility. In 2023, on the eve of trial, Lyles pleaded guilty to murdering Booker and was sentenced to 48 years in prison, as her relatives faced him in court and described how she had been trying to rebuild her life after the filmed beating when she was killed.

    1h 1m

  2. 4D AGO

    4 Hours of the Worst True Crime Cases I've Covered...

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Serena McKay, Janette Tovar, Sandee Rozzo, Holly Guess, Rylee Elizabeth Allen, Michael James Mayo, Tiffany Dore Guess, Ivy Webster, and Brittany Brewer with me today.

    3h 56m
  3. She Tried to Get Help… But Her Daughter Killed Her

    6D AGO

    She Tried to Get Help… But Her Daughter Killed Her

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Yun-Mi Hoy with me today. In August 2013, 18‑year‑old Isabella Yun‑Mi Guzman killed her mother, 47‑year‑old Yun‑Mi Hoy, in the bathroom of their home in Aurora, Colorado, after a long period of escalating conflict between them. Investigators later described how Guzman ambushed her mother in the upstairs bathroom and stabbed her dozens of times in the face, neck, and torso, leaving a scene so brutal that responding officers immediately treated the case as premeditated murder. Neighbors and court records pointed to a deteriorating relationship in the weeks before the attack, with troubling incidents and explicit threats that suggested Hoy had grown increasingly afraid of her daughter and had tried to seek help. The case quickly drew national attention, not only because of the victim’s vulnerability and the ferocity of the attack, but also because of Guzman’s demeanor in court, where her blank, almost detached expression in early appearances spread widely online and became part of the public’s image of the case. As the legal process unfolded, doctors diagnosed her with serious mental illness, and the court ultimately found that she was legally insane at the time of the killing. Rather than receiving a traditional prison sentence, she was committed to a secure state psychiatric hospital, where her confinement and any possible future release depend on ongoing evaluations of her mental state and the risk she might pose to others.

    48 min
  4. Brian Peck Stomped His Mother to Death over Jimi Hendrix

    MAY 18

    Brian Peck Stomped His Mother to Death over Jimi Hendrix

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Gail Peck with me today. In October 2017, 76‑year‑old Gail Peck vanished from the Chicago‑area home she shared with her son, 55‑year‑old Brian Peck, after yet another argument over how loudly he was blasting his Jimi Hendrix records. Brian later admitted that when Gail confronted him about the deafening music, the fight escalated until he knocked her to the floor and stomped on her head and neck, killing her in their Elgin, Illinois house. Instead of calling for help, Brian dismembered Gail’s body in the bathtub, packed her remains into bags, a suitcase, and a duffel, and dumped them in Lake Michigan and Chicago’s Lincoln Park lagoon while pretending she had simply gone out for a walk and never returned. Days later, a fisherman found a duffel bag full of body parts, and forensic work led back to Gail and to Brian’s story about a “Jimi Hendrix” argument turned deadly. A jury convicted Brian of first‑degree murder, dismembering a human body, and concealing a homicidal death, and he was sentenced to 62 years in prison, effectively ensuring he will die behind bars.

    40 min
  5. Brandy's Infamous Car Crash

    MAY 15

    Brandy's Infamous Car Crash

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Awatef Aboudihaj with me today. On December 30, 2006, singer and actress Brandy Norwood was driving her SUV northbound on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles when she failed to notice that traffic ahead had slowed. Her Land Rover rear‑ended a 2005 Toyota driven by 38‑year‑old Awatef Aboudihaj, pushing that car into another vehicle, the center divider, and then into the path of a fourth car in a chain‑reaction crash. Awatef, a married mother, was critically injured and died in hospital the following day, while Brandy and others involved escaped serious physical harm. Investigators found no evidence that Brandy was impaired, and after a lengthy review prosecutors ultimately declined to file criminal charges, concluding the fatal pile‑up was a traffic accident rather than a crime. Awatef’s family pursued civil lawsuits that were later settled out of court, but Brandy has said she carried “unimaginable grief” and deep survivor’s guilt for years afterward, even as official investigations cleared her of criminal responsibility.

    23 min
  6. She Blocked Him… Then He Came to Kill Her

    MAY 13

    She Blocked Him… Then He Came to Kill Her

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Ava Grace Majury with me today. In 2021, 15‑year‑old TikTok creator Ava Majury blocked a follower whose comments had turned from fan messages into creepy, persistent demands for photos, only to have him reappear under new accounts, then finally at her front door. In the early hours of July 10, 2021, 18‑year‑old Eric Rohan Justin traveled from Maryland to Ava’s home in Naples, Florida, and fired a shotgun through the family’s front door, intent on getting to the girl who had cut him off online. Ava’s father, retired police lieutenant Rob Majury, grabbed his own handgun, confronted Eric outside, and shot him after the teen returned to the property, killing him and ending the attack. Investigators later said Rob’s actions were justified under Florida’s self‑defense and “stand your ground” laws, and he has not been charged, but the case has become a chilling example of how a blocked online obsession can turn into a real‑world attempt to kill.

    41 min
  7. "What to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant?": The Jennifer Rothwell Case

    MAY 11

    "What to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant?": The Jennifer Rothwell Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jennifer Rothwell and her baby with me today. In November 2019, 28‑year‑old chemical engineer Jennifer Rothwell vanished after leaving her home in Creve Coeur, Missouri, and her husband, Beau Rothwell, tearfully reported her missing and joined public search efforts. Within days, investigators found bleach‑soaked, blood‑stained carpet in the couple’s basement and learned that, shortly before she disappeared, Jennifer had googled “what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant,” while Beau had secretly made a “pros and cons” list about leaving his six‑weeks‑pregnant wife for another woman. Confronted with the evidence, Beau admitted that he had struck Jennifer from behind with a mallet during an argument over his affair, then disposed of her naked body in woods about 45 miles from their home before staging her car to make it look like she’d broken down on the way to work. A jury rejected his claim that the killing was a heat‑of‑the‑moment outburst and, in 2022, convicted him of first‑degree murder, tampering with evidence, and abandoning a corpse; Beau was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus additional years for the other charges.

    47 min
  8. Poisoned By Cheesecake, Hunted By Her Own Lookalike

    MAY 8

    Poisoned By Cheesecake, Hunted By Her Own Lookalike

    In August 2016, Russian-born Viktoria Nasyrova went to the Queens apartment of her lookalike, 35‑year‑old eyelash stylist Olga Tsvyk, carrying a gift: a slice of cheesecake. Prosecutors said Viktoria had laced the dessert with phenazepam, a powerful sedative, then waited as Olga grew violently ill and lost consciousness, before staging the scene to look like a suicide and stealing her passport, cash, and other valuables in an apparent attempt to assume her identity. Olga survived and later tests found phenazepam on the cheesecake container and in pills scattered around her, with Viktoria’s DNA also on the box, tying her directly to the poisoning. In February 2023, a New York jury convicted Viktoria of attempted murder, assault, unlawful imprisonment, and petit larceny; that April, she was sentenced to 21 years in prison plus five years of post‑release supervision and faces possible deportation to Russia, where she is also wanted on a separate murder charge.

    31 min
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4.8
out of 5
43 Ratings

About

As someone who has been personally effected by homicide, I approach every True Crime case I cover with the goal of balancing facts with empathy—giving victims a voice while exploring the larger cultural and societal implications of the cases. I want you to leave my episodes not only knowing that the people who I talk about are real.. what happened to them is real but also acknowledging that they are much more than just their deaths. Each audio file from this podcast is taken from my videos on YouTube. If you want to see me in action, you can search "Bratterstein" there.

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