There’s something tantalizing about true-crime documentaries, especially ones featuring seemingly ordinary people. It’s chilling and terrifying to think any random person you pull off the street could be capable of committing these crimes against humanity.
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American Murder: Laci Peterson
Watch American Murder: Laci Peterson on Netflix
Laci Peterson and Scott Peterson seemed like the perfect, loving couple. She was so sure Scott was “the one,” she told her mother she’d be marrying him shortly after she gave Scott her number. That kind of love for someone is powerful, but American Murder: Laci Peterson doesn’t have a happy ending, nor is Laci the only victim in this story.
As a husband myself, I could never imagine being so uninterested if my pregnant wife went missing. What kept me up at night was learning how much of a facade Scott put up, while gaining mountains of sympathy from others, and knowing full well he had just murdered his doting wife and unborn child. What kind of person is capable of keeping up appearances after committing murder?
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Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults
Watch Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults on HBO Max
The Heaven’s Gate cult was active long before I was born, but wouldn’t become well-known until the mid-90s due to their leader guiding them on an act of mass suicide. The victims were brainwashed into believing they were aliens trapped in a human body, but could shed their physical form and reach heaven. Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults not only covers this gruesome event, but it also features interviews with former members of the cult.
What I found most gripping and sinister about the Heaven’s Gate cult in particular is just how bought in so many people were. This wasn’t a trio or even a dozen people. Thirty-nine people were duped by Applewhite and lost their lives because of it, including their leader. What’s also astonishing is the fact the Heaven’s Gate website is still running and actively maintained by surviving members of the cult.
3
What Jennifer Did
Watch What Jennifer Did on Netflix
Imagine a group of thugs breaks into your home, ties up your child, and then drags you and your significant other into the basement to be executed. You die, thinking of your family as you fade into nonexistence. And maybe it’s for the best, because you died without the knowledge that your own child orchestrated your death. This isn’t a hypothetical—that is exactly what Jennifer Pan did to her mother and father, and it only gets worse from there.
Strict, overbearing parents are one thing, but to go to such extremes that you stage a hostage situation and put a hit out on your mom and dad is seriously messed up. And all that over some inheritance money and a lover. It’s only made worse and more devastating knowing Jennifer’s mother survived, blinded for life.
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Evil Lives Here
Watch Evil Lives Here on Disney+ and HBO Max
I might be cheating with this entry since it isn’t about any single crime, but multiple ones. Evil Lives Here is a series, with each 60-minute episode covering a specific case, but these tend to be ones you likely never heard of. The Ted Bundys of the world get all the attention, but Evil Lives Here sheds light on crimes that fly under the radar.
However, I will share a couple of episodes that disturbed me the most. Thirty Years In Hell chronicles the life of Roxie, who spent 30 years being abused by her husband, and He Haunts Me Everyday covers a psychopath attempting to murder his girlfriend, which left me so heartbroken, I had to give the series a break for the day.
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Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
Watch Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter on Netflix
Giving your child up for adoption has to come with mountains of anxiety (and guilt). Will they be taken care of? Will they have food, clothes, and more importantly, a family that will love them? Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is about the dark side of adoption, about people who take advantage of a system that’s meant to find loving homes for children. And this story spans the 30-year disappearance of Aundria Bowman and her biological mother’s quest to find her killer.
On the one hand, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter chronicles the gruesome nature of Aundria Bowman’s death, but it also reveals how persistent Cathy was in finding answers. And the fact that her daughter’s killer was supposed to be a trusted guardian only made the story that much more appalling.
To be fair, the common thread among all of these unsettling true-crime documentaries is the abuse of trust and, more often than not, the justice system failing to prevent these crimes from happening. These heinous acts of violence weigh heavily on the mind, so if you’d like to balance out those negative feelings, try a cozy crime show that’s all smoke and mirrors.
