Intimate killings, reconstructed from 911 calls and interrogation tapes.
Law & Crime's Crimes of Passion follows killings where suspicion falls on the person closest to the victim, tracing how investigators got there. Recorded audio carries most of the weight: an emergency call that goes dead after a gunshot, detectives pressing a suspect's story until it bends, families addressing a judge.
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Crimes of Passion is a Law & Crime true-crime series organized around one kind of case: the suspect is a spouse, a partner, an ex or a relative. Within that frame, the recent cases vary widely. A Minnesota mother disappears after dropping her children at daycare, and 1,800 people search southeastern Minnesota for her. A Wisconsin wife vanishes, her body has not been found, and her husband is charged six years later. A TikToker goes live in a manic state while his wife is on the phone with police in the next room. A husband insists an intruder shot them both. Titles nearby extend the pattern, among them 'Teen Cheerleader’s Breakup Turns Deadly: The Emma Walker Case', 'Date Night Ends in Murder Mystery' and 'College Student Vanishes After Night with Sketchy Fiancé'. What gives the show its texture is how much of it is primary audio. Emergency calls, interview-room recordings, a hallway camera that catches sound but not what happens inside, a recorded confrontation that a man's second wife later handed to investigators, and statements from grieving relatives in court all carry the story. The narration, signed off by Sierra Gillespie, stitches them together with clipped sentences and pointed questions. The interview-room material is the strongest of it. Detectives let a suspect talk, then hold the account against the evidence: an investigator who is also a firearms instructor dismantles a claim about a jammed gun, and a neatly made bed piled with porcelain dolls fails to fit a husband's timeline. Procedure gets plain explanation too, from a roll of tape matched to a victim's own garage to what a John Doe hearing is for. Motive is the throughline. Money trouble, jealousy and control keep surfacing, whether as debt kept from a spouse or an app installed to listen in on an estranged wife. Recent episodes open on a teaser montage of the recordings ahead and close on where the case landed, such as a life sentence, a conviction upheld by a state supreme court, or a body still missing. The 2022 entries in the list look different. They include multi-part stories, among them 'Susan Polk Pt. 3: Recovered Memories' and 'Susan Polk Pt. 4: Slaying the Monster', along with two-part treatments of Laci Peterson, Brenda Delgado, Thomas Gilbert Jr. and Joy Davis Aylor. A Thanksgiving special from that stretch surveys arsenic's long career as beauty fad, household product, medicine and murder weapon. Another episode reaches back to the early twentieth century for the case of Blanca Errázuriz.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants true crime grounded in the actual emergency calls, interview-room recordings and courtroom statements rather than in commentary, and who is drawn to cases where the suspect was a spouse, partner, ex or relative.
What sets it apart: Crimes of Passion lets primary audio do most of the telling, with narration kept to quick connective beats between recordings. Its frame is narrow and consistent: the cases turn on a relationship, whether a marriage, a breakup or a teenage romance.
What begins in the heart ends in handcuffs. Whether it's a lover’s embrace or a family bond, we track the descent from intimacy to the ultimate betrayal. Join Law&Crime’s Sierra Gillespie as she strips away the masks to reveal the twisted psychology behind Crimes of Passion. Watch free, only on Spotify.
A made bed turns suspicious when you want the detail that unsettles a disappearance story.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A police call, a livestream, and a killing reveal the danger behind a polished online image.
Crimes of Passion follows a relationship that looked like an American dream from the outside and became something much darker inside. The episode centers on Ali Aboulaban's fixation on alleged infidelity, abuse claims involving Anna, and the September 8, 2021 crisis that…
A routine daycare drop-off leads into a disappearance, a murder ruling, and a life-without-parole sentence.
Madeline Kingsbury's disappearance starts in the plain rhythm of a weekday: a young mother of two drops her children at daycare, then does not come home.
An alleged home invasion gives way to marital strain, financial collapse, and a conviction upheld by Minnesota's Supreme Court.
Heidi Furcus's killing begins with a 911 call that cuts off 38 seconds after a sound like a gunshot, then expands into a case built around an alleged intruder and a husband whose account keeps slipping.
A relationship case where a self-defense account is tested hard, and the damage reaches far beyond the couple.
Crimes of Passion follows a young relationship as it darkens into jealousy, aggression, stalking, and a deadly confrontation. The episode is at its sharpest when investigators press Deandre on the shooting, setting his self-defense account against the texts, the questions around…
A vanished wife, an immaculate bed, and a husband's uneven story leave the case quietly unsettled.
Victoria Prokopovitz's disappearance gives this episode its quietest and most troubling image: a bed left in immaculate order. Crimes of Passion centers the case on the gap between Jim's account of her being gone, his statement that she was not in bed when he got up at 4 a.m.,…
Crime, chaos, and rabbit holes.
Emergency audio, casework, and sharp true-crime scrutiny.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
This episode begins a four-part series on the notorious relationship and crimes of Felix and Susan Polk, exploring the psychology behind their descent into violence.
A true crime podcast exploring violent crimes driven by extreme emotions in intimate relationships, starting with a case of domestic violence and potential murder.
This episode explores a catfishing case where a professional basketball player's online romance with a model leads to blackmail, fraud, and public humiliation.
A deep dive into the disappearance of Caitlin Markham, exploring the twisted psychology behind a crime of passion.
Crimes of Passion follows Ali Aboulaban and Anna Maria Quito Macedonio, a TikTok couple whose home videos, police calls, and courtroom testimony trace a San Diego domestic-violence case.
Madeline Kingsbury drops her children at daycare in Winona, Minnesota, on March 31, 2023, then disappears before work, leaving her phone, jacket, wallet, and ID at home.
["Crimes of Passion by Law and Crime centers on the April 24, 2010 shooting of Heidi Furcus in St.
["Crimes of Passion by Law and Crime centers on Alicia Jackson Skaggs, a 20-year-old from Burton, Michigan, whose breakup with DeAndre McLilley escalates into a PPO, stalking claims, and a fight over house keys.", "Sierra Gillespie uses police interrogation audio and text messages like 'We ain't together' to show Alicia trying to keep DeAndre away while he keeps contacting her.", "The confrontation moves from Southfield and Walmart to Culver's and Golden Corral, where DeAndre says he and his mother are chasing Alicia's car because he needs his only set of keys.", "Detectives later say cameras, bullet paths, and the physical evidence do not match DeAndre's first self-defense story, turning the interview into a pressure test."]
Victoria "Vicki" Prokopovitz vanishes from her Pittsfield, Wisconsin home on April 26, 2013, and Jim says he searched the basement, garage, and roads before calling police after work.
The episode investigates the disappearance and murder of Caitlin Helene Markham, focusing on the prime suspect and circumstantial evidence.