Murders and urban legends, traded turn by turn, jokes included.
Kaitlin and Brandon take turns telling each other true crime stories, from the Villisca axe murders to a man who vanished after his friends assumed he had walked home. Jokes and news from home run through the cases, including a new puppy and a test that has to be retaken.
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Crime Couple is built on taking turns: one partner brings the case, the other listens and asks questions, and then the roles swap. The two voices are Kaitlin and Brandon, and the show's title puts their relationship up front. The material ranges widely. The recent run includes the Villisca axe murders, the Yogurt Shop murders, the Annecy shootings, the disappearance of Brian Shaffer, an episode of urban legends, and follow-up news on the Idaho 4 murders. Cases with open questions sit next to courtroom follow-ups, with a folklore episode among them. The show is at its most distinctive when the pair measure a case against ordinary life. On Shaffer's disappearance, they picture grad students in 2006, maybe short on money and without phones, assuming a friend had simply walked home, and they refuse to blame those friends. Then they compare that night with today, when apps like Life360 track where people are. The Villisca conversation gets physical. They recall a tour guide, the axe marks on the walls and a photo of one of them reaching back as if to swing, which they use to estimate how tall the killer could have been. The Yogurt Shop discussion is just as concrete, turning to Roper versus Simmons and to trying a suspect at the age they were when the crime happened. On Annecy, they lay out competing theories, including a professional hit linked to aerospace work and the possibility that a cyclist found near the family car was the real target. They admit the limits, noting that no direct evidence surfaced and that local police would struggle to get access to a professional hit. The Idaho 4 follow-up comes in 'Episode 53 - Brandon Surprises Kaitlin with a Story', where they explain that they will no longer say the convicted killer's name and will call him BK instead. Humor runs through all of it. One of them mishears life sentence as license. There is a joke about a defendant named Michael Scott being sentenced to life working in an office, and a height dispute that ends with one partner claiming to be five foot twelve. There is also a mock-serious debate over what the Bunny Man's laugh would sound like. Cold opens are all life updates: a puppy adopted by accident, a test that has to be retaken, a broken laptop that forced a recording on a phone, and a wish that the show could sometimes be a ranting podcast, starting with the cost of college. They joke about boring their listeners, all three of them. The mood doesn't always stay light, and after the Annecy case one of them signs off saying they feel depressed. Several episodes end with an attempt to get their dog, Lucy, to say something into the microphone. The result is less a polished documentary than two people working a case out loud, with their own lives in the room.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes true crime as a relaxed back-and-forth between two people, with jokes, news from home and small arguments over details mixed into the cases.
What sets it apart: There is no scripted narration: one partner tells the case to the other, who reacts on the spot. The pair test details against their own lives, like comparing 2006 phones with location-sharing apps, or using a photo of one of them reaching back to match axe marks.
Kaitlin and Brandon, a couple from the Midwest, unravel and discuss unsolved mysteries, heinous murders, and other crimes.
An axe mark becomes a height debate, and suddenly you're measuring the ceiling with Kaitlin and Brandon.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A 2006 disappearance turns on ordinary assumptions, a ringing phone, and the limits of early cell phones.
Brian Schaefer's 2006 disappearance is strongest when the hosts stay close to the everyday assumptions around it. Friends may have believed he walked home, his phone kept ringing, and the habits of the Nokia era make the timeline feel especially hard to pin down.
The Bunny Man's reported 1970 roots get a loose, October-night retelling.
This Bunny Man episode treats the Virginia legend as a story with one foot in record and the other in campfire retelling. The hosts work through the familiar images, from the white bunny suit and hatchet to cars near a bridge and a laugh in the trees, before returning to the…
A candid, conversational look at the Yogurt Shop Murders case and the legal questions around Michael Scott's life sentence.
The Yogurt Shop Murders episode starts with the four victims, Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison, and Sarah Harbison, then turns toward the legal fallout around the case.
Two possible target theories keep the shootings centered on motive, uncertainty, and the cost of speculation.
Crime Couple frames the shootings around the question that still gives the case its uneasy pull: who was the intended target? One theory looks at whether a victim's aerospace connection could have made knowledge or contacts dangerous, while staying clear that direct evidence did…
The axe marks, ceiling height, and room layout give the Villisca case a clear physical shape.
The Villisca Axe Murder House gives this episode a useful anchor: a real set of rooms, marks, angles, and sightlines for the hosts to work through.
Measured true crime with uneasy questions.
["Brian Schaefer, a 27-year-old Ohio State medical student, vanished after a March 31, 2006 night at Columbus's Ugly Tuna Saloon.", "Security footage places him in an elevator with William Florence at 1:15 a.m.
["Crime Couple uses October's spooky-season setup to compare three urban legends with the real cases underneath them.", "Caitlin and her co-host record on a phone after laptop trouble, joke about dog farts and Halloween decorations, and then promise stories about Cropsey, Bunny Man, and Goat Man.", "The Cropsey section moves from Staten Island campfire warnings to Willowbrook State School, Andre Rand, and the disappearances of Alice, Holly, Tia Heese, Henry, and Jennifer.", "The later stories cover Bunny Man Bridge in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Old Alton Bridge in Denton County, Texas, where the hosts trace documented 1970 threats and the Oscar Washburn legend."]
Crime Couple's episode on the Yogurt Shop Murders centers on the September 26, 2025 DNA identification that pointed investigators to Robert Eugene Brashers.
Crime Couple covers the Annecy shootings, where a British-Iraqi family and a French cyclist were shot near Lake Annecy in the French Alps on September 5, 2012.
["Crime Couple covers the Villisca Axe Murders in Villisca, Iowa, where eight people tied to the Moore family were killed after a Sunday church program in June 1912.", "Brandon and Caitlin also describe their visit to the Villisca Axe Murder House, including the tight upstairs layout, the attic, and the lack of central air.", "The episode walks through the Moore family, the Stillinger sisters, the morning discovery by neighbor Mary Peckham, and the police problem of 100 people inside a tiny house.", "Suspects include Frank Jones, William \"Blackie\" Mansfield, Reverend George Kelly, and Henry Lee Moore, but the hosts keep returning to the same problem: the scene was contaminated before investigators could control it."]
Crime Couple's Episode 57 recounts the 1993 disappearance of nine-year-old Angie Housman in St.
Crime Couple’s episode on Asha Degree traces her disappearance from Shelby, North Carolina, on Valentine’s Day 2000.
Crime Couple examines the June 1992 disappearance of Susie Streeter, Stacy McCall, and Susie's mother, Cheryl Lovett, in Springfield, Missouri.
The hosts discuss updates on the Idaho 4 murders, including the trial and sentencing, and share a story about the inmate's behavior in prison.
A couple engages in casual banter before introducing their true crime podcast about unsolved mysteries and murders.
The hosts discuss the case of serial killer couple Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, covering their crimes and conviction.