5 True Crime Podcasts Worth Listening To

#1

COLD

Dave Cawley (research, writing, hosting, audio production); KSL executive producer Sheryl Worsley8/10

On 4 July 1975, Nancy Perry Baird, who was 23, disappeared from the gas station where she worked in East Layton, Utah. According to KSL, Ted Bundy was arrested six weeks later, 30 miles to the south, in an unrelated case, and police later pinned her disappearance on him "despite no evidence connecting Bundy to the case". KSL says the case has been "wrongly attributed" to him, and the new season, Blamed on Bundy, sets out to look at it again from the start. What stayed with me is how small the opening is. The show's description of Episode 1, Everyone Knew Everyone, says her purse, keys and car were left behind, and so was her four-year-old son, Brant, who speaks publicly for the first time. That's where Dave Cawley begins: not with a famous killer but with a family and a town, and with what the show calls a "tiny, untrained police department" that "fumbled the case". That is the show's characterisation, and it's worth hearing it as an argument rather than a finding. KSL says the season grew out of Cawley's 2023 reporting, when a former officer on the case was interviewed and the officer's own daughter heard that interview. Episodes 1 and 2 arrived together on 23 September, and Episode 3, The Book of Regrets, followed on 30 September. Its description says Bundy denied knowing anything about Baird's disappearance in the days before his execution. COLD has covered Susan Powell, Joyce Yost and Sheree Warren in earlier seasons, and it has always rewarded patience. I'd suggest it for anyone who likes to follow one case slowly, in order, and who is interested in how a well-known name can close a file that should have stayed open. It won't suit anyone who wants a resolution: this is still an unsolved disappearance. Three episodes are out, so it's easy to catch up, and new episodes come on Wednesdays. If that holds, Episode 4 is due on 7 October. Format: One case per season · listen in order within the season · long episodes, about 69–76 min · new episodes on Wednesdays LTC's published verdict: Must listen · published binge score 7/10 Content warnings: Disappearance and suspected death of a young mother; a young child left behind; child sex offences discussed in later episodes (Episodes 2–3 descriptions); serial-killer context. The show notes include sexual-abuse helpline information. Legal note: Nancy Baird's disappearance is unsolved. We do not say or imply that Ted Bundy was responsible; the "wrongly attributed" framing is KSL's. Nobody has been charged over her disappearance. The show discusses other people in connection with the case. We don't name them, and any link they may have to her disappearance is the show's line of enquiry, not a finding. Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cold/id1441595858 · Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5PcJoYb8bWBIbFGzDPuwlt · Official site: https://thecoldpodcast.com/ LTC review: COLD: https://www.listentruecrime.com/podcasts/cold

#2In Her Defence: Breach of Trust

Jana G. Pruden. Made by Kasia Mychajlowycz and Jana G. Pruden; sound mixing Dave Crosbie8/10

This is the one I'd most like more people to find. Breach of Trust is the third season of The Globe and Mail's In Her Defence, and it's about former Regina Police Service sergeant Robert Semenchuck, who used police databases to find women he then contacted under false names. The Globe describes him as an officer "who preyed on hundreds of vulnerable women"; that's the show's wording and the show's figure. According to agreed facts reported by CBC, he targeted 33 women for intimate relationships between 2015 and 2023, often starting with a "wrong-number" text. The case has been through the courts. CBC reports that Semenchuck pleaded guilty in November 2025 to breach of trust and unlawful use of a computer, and that in February 2026 he received a two-year conditional sentence, the first six months as house arrest, followed by three years' probation. So the question the series asks isn't really what he did. In the Globe's words, it's "would the system punish one of its own?" Jana G. Pruden is a Globe feature writer and a former crime bureau chief of the Edmonton Journal, and she previously worked at the Regina Leader-Post, so she's reporting on a city she knows. The Globe says the series draws on more than 50 hours of interviews with women, police officers, lawyers and legal experts. Episode 1, Steve Wrong Number Boy, starts with the woman whose suspicion set the case in motion. Episode 2 follows the internal investigation, which the description says was helped by a notebook "filled with names and cryptic notations". Episode 3 describes dozens of women being phoned by police and told they had been witnesses to a crime, and Episode 4, Eyes on IEIS, looks at the database itself. What I keep coming back to is how much of this is about ordinary systems: a login, a search, a phone call. The team's previous season, 50th Street, won the Canadian Journalism Foundation's Landsberg Award and a Digital Publishing Award, and that care shows. It suits listeners interested in police accountability, privacy and how institutions respond when the harm comes from inside, and the shorter episodes make it easy to fit into a week. It's mid-run, with four of seven episodes out. If the Tuesday pattern holds, Episode 5 would arrive on 6 October, though that date isn't confirmed. Format: Seven-part serial · listen in order · episodes about 29–41 min · four of seven out, weekly on Tuesdays so far LTC's published verdict: No LTC review yet Content warnings: Abuse of police power; deception and intimate exploitation of women, some of whom had already been victims of crime or domestic violence (per agreed facts reported by CBC); re-traumatisation and mental-health impacts described by the women affected. Apple marks the feed Explicit. Legal note: Robert Semenchuck pleaded guilty to breach of trust and unlawful use of a computer and was sentenced in February 2026. He was not convicted of any sexual offence. "Hundreds" and "preyed on" are the show's words; the agreed facts refer to 33 women. CBC reports that many of the women's names are protected by a publication ban, so we do not name any of them. CBC reports that at least two women have filed civil claims against him; those allegations have not been proved in court. We are not aware of any appeal of the criminal sentence. Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-her-defence-breach-of-trust/id1707875517 · Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2rJh45aOiBAGpzKW8FrG1B · The Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/inherdefence/

#3

Crime Analyst

Laura Richards8/10

Thirteen women were murdered and seven others survived attempts on their lives. In 1981 Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of those offences; he died in 2020 while serving a whole-life term. The case is usually remembered by his name and a nickname. The Forgotten Victims, the first case series Laura Richards ever made for Crime Analyst, was built to turn that around, and on 1 October she began a remastered version of it. Richards describes herself as a criminal behavioural analyst who spent a decade at New Scotland Yard. According to her website, her roles included Head of the Homicide Prevention Unit and Head of the Sexual Offences Section, and she was later Violence Adviser to the National Police Chiefs' Council and the Home Office. The show's description says the series "puts the women back at the centre of the story" and looks at his pattern of offending, escalating risk and the missed opportunities along the way. It also says the failures in this case "were instrumental" in why her specialist unit at New Scotland Yard was later created. That's the show's account, and it gives the series a personal edge. I'd start here rather than anywhere else in a back catalogue of more than 370 episodes, because this is where the show's whole approach comes from. Its own tagline is about "how and why victims become footnotes in their own murders", and you can hear that conviction in how she frames each woman's life. BBC News has noted that the original inquiry was hampered by a paperwork backlog and misdirected by the "Wearside Jack" hoax, which is useful context to have before you start. It suits listeners who want analysis rather than narration, and anyone in the UK who has heard the case told many times but rarely from the women's side. It's this week's UK pick. The remastered series started on 1 October, so you can join it at Part 1. Format: Weekly analysis podcast built mostly around multi-part case series (listen in order within a case), plus standalone interviews · Part 1 runs 49 min LTC's published verdict: "Good if you want real behavioural-analysis expertise, not just narration" · published binge score 8/10 Content warnings: Serial murder and attempted murder of women; violence against women, including sex workers; victim-blaming in historical policing; bereaved families. Legal note: Peter Sutcliffe was convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others, and died in 2020. The show's description says Richards examines additional attacks "she believes" are linked to him. That's her theory, not an established finding, and no further offences have been proved in court. We're pointing only to The Forgotten Victims, not to other current series in the feed. Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crime-analyst/id1545830333 · Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6JKhoAAXEiGiTNJMTal94T · Official site: https://www.crime-analyst.com/ (search for The Forgotten Victims, Part 1, released 1 October) LTC review: Crime Analyst: https://www.listentruecrime.com/podcasts/crime-analyst-laura-richards

#4

Betrayal

Andrea Gunning, head of podcast production and development at Glass Podcasts7/10

Each season of Betrayal follows one person's discovery that someone close to them was not who they seemed. Seasons 1 to 5 centred on marriages and relationships. Season 6 moves somewhere new: the show's description calls it "a brand-new type of betrayal – not one between a husband and wife, but within a tight-knit community of friends and family". According to the show, after a break-up, "a campaign of terror" began in which "technology was used to shatter an entire circle's sense of reality". In Episode 1, Phantom Menace, Carl has come out and is starting to build a new life, "but someone is preparing to tear it all apart". In Episode 2, The Scapegoat, the disturbing messages begin to arrive and Carl tries to work out who could be sending them. The trailer promises "threatening messages, a shocking confession, and the year of chaos in between". What drew me to this season is the shift in scale. A harassment campaign aimed at one man spreads through a whole circle of people who start to doubt each other, and the show tells it from the inside, through the people who lived it, not through detectives. That kind of first-person storytelling can be hard to sit with, but it's honest about how disorientating this is for the people targeted and how often they aren't believed. The host has said there will be ten episodes, and only two are out, so this is an easy point to join without a backlog. Glass Podcasts says the series won the iHeartPodcast Award for Best True Crime Series in 2024 and has a Hulu adaptation (ABC News Studios). I'd give it 7 for now and come back to it as the season develops. Two of ten episodes are out. Episode 3 is expected on Thursday 8 October, and iHeart True Crime+ subscribers on Apple get episodes a week early and ad-free. Format: Seasonal docuseries · listen in order from Season 6 Episode 1 · episodes about 45–48 min · new episodes on Thursdays LTC's published verdict: Must listen · published binge score 7/10 Content warnings: Stalking and a sustained harassment campaign; threatening messages; exploitation of someone's sexuality and private life; mental-health crisis resources in the episode notes (US services). Apple marks the feed Explicit. Legal note: This is a real US case and its legal outcome is unknown. We do not name anyone the show or press coverage may identify as responsible, and we don't speculate about who was. Questions the episodes raise about particular people are part of the storytelling, not findings. Any wrongdoing described is alleged. Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/betrayal-season-6/id1615637724 · Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2q2dQ19YSuGe5v0EeeeJGq · iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-betrayal-the-perfect-husb-95632727/ · Episode 1 on Omny: https://omny.fm/shows/betrayal-the-perfect-husband/phantom-menace-ep-1-season-6 LTC review: Betrayal: https://www.listentruecrime.com/podcasts/betrayal

#5

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore8/10

I wanted to end with something quieter. Dark Histories is an independent UK podcast made by Ben Cutmore, who lives in Brighton and calls himself a "team of one". He writes every script himself and says he tries to go "past the noise, into original and legitimate sources" rather than copying from blogs and encyclopaedias. He has a university background in history and sociology, and it shows in how carefully he builds a period around a case. The episode I'd start with is from 8 September: The Willie Starchfield Murder Mystery. In January 1914 the body of a five-year-old boy was found under a third-class seat on a North London Railway train. British Transport Police's history pages record that the pathologist Bernard Spilsbury examined the body and that the boy's father was tried at the Old Bailey and acquitted on the judge's direction. Nobody has ever been convicted, and the killing remains unsolved. What stays with me about episodes like this is the distance. More than a century on, nobody in the story can be hurt by a careless retelling, so the care has to come from the storyteller, and Cutmore takes it seriously. It suits history-minded listeners, people drawn to early 20th-century London and anyone who wants one self-contained hour rather than a serial. The show calls itself a podcast about "the unsolved and the unexplained", so not every episode is about crime. The most recent, Philip: The Ghost That Never Was (22 September), is about a 1970s Toronto experiment to "create" a ghost. If you prefer crime, earlier episodes cover the Harpe brothers on the post-Revolution American frontier and Chicago's 1946 William Heirens case. A low-key, standalone UK history episode to balance four current serials. The show is fortnightly, so a new episode may arrive this week. Format: Standalone episodes, any order (some multi-part stories) · fortnightly · this episode runs 60 min LTC's published verdict: "Excellent for serious history and true crime students" · published binge score 8/10 Content warnings: The murder of a young child (historical, described in the episode); a witness's suicide attempt. Other episodes include serial murder, frontier violence and paranormal themes. If any of this affects you, Samaritans are available day or night on 116 123 (free) or at samaritans.org: https://www.samaritans.org/. Legal note: No one was convicted of this killing. An inquest jury named the boy's father, but at the Old Bailey he was tried and acquitted on the judge's direction. According to British Transport Police's history pages, he died in 1916 and always protested his innocence. We do not suggest he was responsible. The case is officially unsolved. Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dark-histories/id1279731673 · Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HCs3hT2txXyBbSo0FPyx8 · Official site: https://www.darkhistories.com/ LTC review: Dark Histories: https://www.listentruecrime.com/podcasts/dark-histories