TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

BRATTERSTEIN
  • 4.8 (45)
  • 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. Shaylyn Moran and Jack Doherty : The Psychotic Pawtucket Couple

    2d ago

    Shaylyn Moran and Jack Doherty : The Psychotic Pawtucket Couple

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Cheryl Smith with me today. On New Year’s Day 2020 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 18‑year‑old Shaylyn Moran and her new fiancé, 23‑year‑old Jack Doherty, turned a petty grudge into a murder plot when they targeted the mother of Moran’s ex‑boyfriend. Prosecutors said the couple got engaged on New Year’s Eve, then spent the night in a hotel planning revenge, deciding that Doherty would go to the Baxter Street home where Moran’s ex lived and shoot whoever answered the door with a handgun police believe was at least partly 3D‑printed. Around 8 p.m. on January 1, 54‑year‑old Cheryl Smith opened her front door and was shot multiple times in the chest; she later died at the hospital, while a man in dark clothing was seen running from the scene. Detectives quickly traced the plot back to Moran and Doherty, who were found hours later at a nearby Hampton Inn with the gun and arrested on murder and conspiracy charges. Moran ultimately pleaded guilty in 2021 to first‑degree murder, conspiracy, and firearms charges and was sentenced to life in prison plus additional years, while Doherty took his case to trial, claiming mental illness. A jury rejected his insanity defense in 2022 and found him guilty of murder, conspiracy, using a firearm in a violent crime, and carrying a pistol without a permit; in 2023 he was given two consecutive life sentences, ensuring that both he and Moran will likely die in prison for the New Year’s Day execution of Cheryl Smith.

    43 min
  2. Horrific Crimes and Somehow NOT GUILTY

    5d ago

    Horrific Crimes and Somehow NOT GUILTY

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tim McClean, Ronald Reagan, Erin DeVeau, Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis with me today.

    3h 52m
  3. 11-Year-Old Girl Was Abducted on Camera… She Never Made It Home

    6d ago

    11-Year-Old Girl Was Abducted on Camera… She Never Made It Home

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Carlie Jane Brucia with me today. In February 2004, 11-year-old Carlie Brucia was abducted in Sarasota, Florida, in a case that shocked the nation after surveillance footage captured her being approached and led away by convicted sex offender Joseph Smith. The chilling video sparked a massive search and quickly became one of the most widely publicized child abduction cases in the United States. Just days later, Carlie's body was discovered, and investigators charged Joseph Smith with kidnapping, sexual battery, and first-degree murder. He was convicted in 2005 after a high-profile trial and initially sentenced to death.

    49 min
  4. A Match Made in Hell : Shayna Hubers and Ryan Poston

    Jun 8

    A Match Made in Hell : Shayna Hubers and Ryan Poston

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Ryan Poston with me today. In October 2012, 21‑year‑old grad student Shayna Hubers called 911 from her boyfriend Ryan Poston’s condo in Highland Heights, Kentucky, calmly telling dispatchers she had shot the 29‑year‑old lawyer in self‑defense after he supposedly became violent. When police arrived, they found Ryan slumped dead at his dining table, shot six times, once in the back, twice in the head, and three times in the chest, an execution‑style pattern that immediately clashed with Shayna’s story of a chaotic struggle. Down at the station, her behavior raised even more alarms: in a videotaped interview, she laughed, sang, did high‑kicks, and joked that she had “given him the nose job he always wanted” by shooting him in the face. Prosecutors later argued that Shayna was obsessed with Ryan, terrified he was about to leave her and go on a date with another woman, and that she shot him in cold blood rather than lose control of the relationship, pointing to numerous texts, prior breakups, and her own words in the interrogation room. Shayna and her lawyers claimed Ryan was emotionally and physically abusive and that she fired in self‑defense, but two different juries didn’t believe her. Her first 2015 murder conviction was overturned when it emerged that a juror was a convicted felon, yet at her 2018 retrial she was again found guilty of murder and this time received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years, meaning she will spend at least two decades behind bars for killing Ryan Poston.

    1h 13m
  5. 'Selfie Killer' Stabbed her Father-in-Law and Does Not Regret It

    Jun 5

    'Selfie Killer' Stabbed her Father-in-Law and Does Not Regret It

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Charles Taylor with me today. In April 2015, 24‑year‑old Amanda Taylor drove with her friend Sean Ball to the Montgomery County, Virginia home of her late husband’s father, 59‑year‑old Charles Taylor, carrying a bayonet‑style knife she had bought for what she called “revenge.” Once Charles sat down on his couch, Amanda suddenly attacked, stabbing him 31 times while Ball helped, later telling investigators she chose a knife so Charles would know it was her killing him and describing the murder as feeling like her first roller‑coaster ride. After Charles lay dead, Amanda posed over his body holding the bloody knife and smirking for a photo, which was then shared online and earned her the nickname “Selfie Killer,” a label she later had tattooed on her arm. She and Ball stole Charles’s car and fled across states before being caught in North Carolina, and prosecutors argued that Amanda had long blamed Charles for her husband Rex’s drug addiction and suicide and had planned the killing in advance. Amanda ultimately pleaded guilty to first‑degree murder and grand larceny and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, while Ball, who cooperated with investigators, received 41 years, leaving the case notorious for its mix of grief, revenge, and chilling social‑media performance.

    1h 34m
  6. 7-Year-Old Girl Murdered in Casino Bathroom… While the “Bad Samaritan” Watched

    Jun 3

    7-Year-Old Girl Murdered in Casino Bathroom… While the “Bad Samaritan” Watched

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Sherrice Marsha Renee Iversonwith me today. The murder of Sherrice Iverson is one of the most disturbing and controversial child murder cases in American true crime history. In May 1997, 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson was inside a casino outside Las Vegas with her father when she wandered into a restroom alone and was brutally assaulted and murdered by 18-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer. The case shocked the nation not only because of the horrific crime itself, but because another teenager, David Cash Jr., later admitted he witnessed part of the attack and walked away without helping or calling police, earning the nickname “The Bad Samaritan.” This infamous Las Vegas casino murder case sparked nationwide outrage, debates over Good Samaritan laws, and remains one of the most heartbreaking child murder cases ever covered in true crime.

    1h 1m
  7. Missing in Moose Lake : The Katie Poirier Case

    Jun 1

    Missing in Moose Lake : The Katie Poirier Case

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Katie Poirier with me today. In May 1999, 19‑year‑old college student Katie Poirier disappeared from the D.J.’s Expressway Conoco convenience store in Moose Lake, Minnesota, where she was working alone on the night shift. A grainy black‑and‑white surveillance tape showed a man gripping the back of her neck and forcing her out of the store at closing time, and when customers arrived later they found the shop empty, the lights still on, and Katie gone. The abduction triggered a massive search and investigation that eventually focused on 55‑year‑old local man Donald Blom, a repeat offender with a long history of kidnapping and sexual assaults. Forensic experts matched a partial, distorted imprint of a missing dental bridge from Blom to a bite mark left in a piece of duct tape used in the kidnapping, a key piece of scientific evidence that helped secure his conviction even though Katie’s remains were never definitively identified. Blom was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Katie and sentenced to life in prison, and her case became nationally known both for the terrifying surveillance footage of her being taken and for the innovative forensic work that finally tied her killer to the crime.

    1h 4m
  8. Adult Film Actor Attacked by MMA War Machine : The Survival Story of Christy Mack

    May 29

    Adult Film Actor Attacked by MMA War Machine : The Survival Story of Christy Mack

    As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Christine Mackinday with me today. In August 2014, adult film actor Christine Mackinday, known professionally as Christy Mack, was brutally attacked in her Las Vegas home by her ex‑boyfriend, former MMA fighter Jonathan Paul “War Machine” Koppenhaver. He arrived unexpectedly and found her there with a male friend, Corey Thomas, then launched into a sustained assault: first beating Thomas, and after Thomas left, turning on Mack in a two‑hour attack that left her with a fractured eye socket and nose, broken ribs, missing teeth, a lacerated liver, and extensive bruising. The case drew national attention when photos of Mack’s injuries and her account of the assault circulated online, and police issued a nationwide search for Koppenhaver before U.S. Marshals arrested him days later in California. In 2017, a Nevada jury convicted him on 29 felony and misdemeanor counts, including kidnapping, sexual assault, and battery, and a judge sentenced him to 36 years to life in prison, meaning he will be in his seventies before he is even eligible for parole.

    33 min
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4.8
out of 5
45 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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