True crime with a human pulse.
The Murder Diaries moves between missing-person cases, murders, suspicious deaths, and documentary-led conversations. Natalie and Paige keep the tone conversational but serious, reacting to the facts as they trace how systems, families, fame, and power can fail people.
PRESS PLAY
The Murder Diaries is a true crime and documentary-reaction show built around close, conversational storytelling. Natalie and Paige move through cases with a victim-first lens, but the episodes do not feel stiff or distant. They react. They question. They pause on the details that make a case feel preventable, mishandled, or morally unbearable. Recent episodes range from the disappearance of Zelig Williams to the murder of Kristen Galvan, where trafficking, threats, and institutional response become central parts of the story. Other installments use documentaries as a shared text. DocuFiles episodes look at Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, & Scandal, Shiny Happy People, The Perfect Neighbor, and The Man with 1,000 Kids, treating each one as a way to talk about secrecy, coercion, family control, technology, legal gaps, and public harm. The show also has a Tragic Hollywood lane. Those episodes frame Brittany Murphy and the Titanic through fame, memory, relationships, and the way pop culture can flatten real loss into a familiar image. The tone is brisk, personal, and often openly unsettled. That gives the show a watch-it-with-me quality without turning serious subjects into casual spectacle. It is comfortable saying when something sounds predatory, reckless, manipulative, or avoidable. It also circles back to the plain facts so the listener does not get lost in the reaction. The best moments come when a detail from a documentary or case file opens into a bigger question: who was believed, who was dismissed, who benefited, and what warning signs were treated as background noise. The Murder Diaries suits true crime listeners who want empathy and judgment in the same room. It is not just about what happened. It is about how everyone around the story responded before and after the damage was done.
Made for: For true crime listeners who prefer victim-centered storytelling, documentary reactions, and conversational analysis over detached case summaries. It especially suits people drawn to missing persons, suspicious deaths, Hollywood tragedy, and ethically complicated media stories.
What sets it apart: The show blends case narration with immediate moral processing, so documentary episodes and standalone cases both feel grounded in reaction, context, and consequence. Its strongest lane is the space between recap and reckoning.
The Murder Diaries is a victim-focused true crime podcast. Hosts Natalie and Paige use straightforward storytelling to spotlight cold cases, missing persons, and suspicious deaths— often incorporating original audio from the victim’s friends and family. The podcast also includes monthly interviews about the true crime genre as a whole, whether that’s discussions on ethics, survivors sharing their stories, or other relevant topics. Connect with us at themurderdiariespodcast.com or on socials @themurderdiariespod
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Natalie and Paige connect unresolved cases to the institutional failures, difficult relationships, and overlooked warnings surrounding them.
Natalie and Paige move between case narration and conversation, treating crime stories as accounts of people, institutions, and the pressures around them.
A documentary's 911 calls become the detail you keep turning over with Natalie and Paige.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A cautious look at compromised accounts, suspect help sites, and the risk behind a single click.
The Murder Diaries sits with the unease that follows a compromised account list, especially the awkward possibility that an email address can surface even when someone says they never belonged there.
Brittany Murphy's tragedy is framed as a story of vulnerability, isolation, and an intervention that could not break through.
The Murder Diaries' "Tragic Hollywood: Brittany Murphy" traces the sad shift from Brittany Murphy's bright, funny public presence into a story marked by vulnerability, secrecy, and sudden loss.
A measured account of Zellig Williams's disappearance and the extensive search that found no trace of him around the Palmetto Trail.
Zellig Williams leaves his mother's home in Columbia, South Carolina, to print headshots. His phone later pings 87 miles away, and his car turns up at a trailhead.
A grave account of coercion, a survivor's statement, and the arrests that followed.
Kristen Galvan's story unfolds through coercion: threats against her mother and brothers, repeated sales between traffickers, and demands backed by fear. The episode keeps her experience in view and plainly connects her age with what traffickers demanded of her.
A wrenching crime discussion about escalating hostility, institutional inaction, and warning signs that went underestimated.
The episode follows the killing of Ajika A.J. Owens through police footage and 911 calls, treating the tragedy as the result of repeated complaints, rising hostility, and a system that kept resetting instead of stepping in.
A case discussion finds its sharpest questions in the routines of a 1,000-unit apartment complex.
The episode centers on a 1,000-unit apartment complex and the hard-to-shake question of how a smell could go unnoticed for two months with neighbors on both sides.
A close, unsettling account of the complaints and escalation before Ajika A.J. Owens's killing.
The Perfect Neighbor revisits the killing of Ajika A.J. Owens through police footage and 911 calls, building its force from complaints, rising hostility, and the repeated sense of a system returning to neutral when it needed to act.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
The hosts and a guest discuss the enduring fascination with the Kardashian family, their rise to fame, and Kris Jenner's success in turning her children into brands.
This episode of The Murder Diaries recounts the 1999 disappearance and murder of Hae Min Lee, a high school student from Baltimore, Maryland.
Natalie and Paige discuss the documentary 'The Perfect Neighbor,' which reconstructs the 2023 killing of AJ Owens by her neighbor Susan Lawrence in Ocala, Florida.
Investigative journalist Stephanie Tinsley joins The Murder Diaries to discuss the 2007 murder of Danny Harris in Memphis.
Natalie and Paige cover Ashley Madison, the site’s slogan “life is short, have an affair,” and the 2015 hack that exposed names, credit card data, home addresses, and sexual preferences.
The Murder Diaries covers Brittany Murphy’s rise from The Torkelsons and Clueless to the pressures the hosts say changed her appearance and career.
The Murder Diaries covers the disappearance of 28-year-old Broadway dancer Zellig Williams, who left his mother's house in Columbia, South Carolina, on October 3rd, 2024 with headshots and never came back.
Paige and Natalie introduce a discussion about the Amazon documentary 'Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets', covering the Duggar family's reality TV history and the IBLP cult.
The hosts discuss the Titanic disaster as a lens into human relationships under pressure, covering facts, missed warnings, and cultural impact on millennials.
The Murder Diaries episode on Kristen Marie Galvan follows the 15-year-old's January 2020 disappearance from Spring, Texas, after a November 2019 runaway period and a hospital rescue from Bissonnette Street.
Susan Lawrence shot through a door after less than two minutes of knocking, not after the long standoff she described.
The hosts discuss Netflix's documentary 'The Man with a Thousand Kids' about a sperm donor who fathered hundreds of children globally through fertility system loopholes.
Paige and Natalie host a crossover episode with Jami Rice, reminiscing about their early podcasting days and discussing the challenges of monetizing a podcast.
The hosts introduce a documentary about Diane Shuler's fatal wrong-way crash and the unanswered questions surrounding it.