One case per episode, with a producer asking questions.
Alina Trujillo tells one case per episode, usually opening on a dated scene such as a body on a creek bank or a car ticketed as abandoned. Producer Jose Fernandez reacts as it unfolds, voicing disbelief and stopping her to sort out who saw what.
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True Crime Weekly Podcast takes one case per episode and tells it in order, with Alina Trujillo narrating and producer Jose Fernandez reacting as the story unfolds. The show is based in San Diego. Most episodes in this run open with a date, a place and a moment that sets the case in motion, and only then does Alina name whose story it is. A grave digger at Cedar Ridge Cemetery comes across a body on the bank of a creek. An Illinois state trooper tickets a car with New Jersey plates as abandoned. A family of Jehovah's Witnesses, heading home from a religious convention, stops at a rest area on Interstate 81 in Tennessee. The range is broad. It runs from Pittsburgh on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, to a 17-year-old found in a shallow grave in the woods, to a woman abducted in Hong Kong over a debt. Unsolved cases are part of the mix, and one title reads The Unsolved Murder of Tammy Zywicki. Others turn on a victim with no name, like the young woman known as Princess Doe, whom witnesses were certain they had seen, going by her distinctive clothing. Jose's role is what gives the format its shape. He reacts openly, with plain disbelief when a case turns cruel. He also slows the narration down to get the facts right. In the Tammy Zywicki story he asks whether a roadside account was a witness report, and Alina explains that it came from a man police interviewed. In the Gary Lauwers story he notices that only five of the ten stolen bags of angel dust came back. The pair also step back to comment on process, noting how manual the search to identify Princess Doe was and how it crossed jurisdictions. When a case is especially grim, Alina says so first. Before the Hong Kong story she warns Jose and the listeners, whom she calls crew members, that this one is worse than most. At least one episode adds a third voice. For The Capture of Leonard Rayne Moses, Alina brings in Marissa Monelli, a colleague from her day job in pharmacy, because the story touches on that line of work. When a visual detail matters, such as Princess Doe's clothing, Alina points to material posted on the show's website and Instagram. The register throughout is conversational, with quick asides and reactions breaking up the dates and names. It suits a listener who wants the facts of a case laid out in sequence, with a second voice asking the questions they would have asked.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants each case laid out in sequence, dates and witnesses included, and who likes a second voice reacting and asking the obvious questions along the way.
What sets it apart: Producer Jose Fernandez acts as an on-air check on the narration. He reacts openly, and he also stops Alina Trujillo to confirm where a report came from or to catch a number that does not add up.
This is a podcast where I will bring you stories of true crime on murders, infamous cases and unsolved mysteries. True Crime weekly covers a new case each week bringing you real life horror stories. We will dig into murders, massacres, infamous cases, serial killers and unsolved mysteries. Stories of the most disturbing, controversial, and heartbreaking true crime cases told by your host Alina Trujillo. The storytelling is straightforward and to the point with no confusing sidebars.
Princess Doe tips wander from Long Island to Florida; your imaginary corkboard needs a bigger wall.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured cold-case review of Princess Doe, built around clothing clues, motel sightings, and the long search for identity.
True Crime Weekly follows Princess Doe from the grim 1982 discovery near Cedar Ridge Cemetery, where grave digger George Christ found a young woman's body, into the painstaking effort to recover a name from fragments.
A $50 drug debt, jelly donuts, and a brutal trip into the woods shape this grim true crime case.
True Crime Weekly Podcast frames the case of Ricky Casso and Gary Lowers around a $50 drug debt that turns a frayed friendship into a fatal trip to the woods.
Measured true crime with uneasy questions.
True Crime Weekly Podcast covers the July 15, 1982 discovery of an unidentified young woman behind Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown, New Jersey, where George Christ found a body face up by a creek bed with a gold cross tangled in her hair.
True Crime Weekly Podcast covers the 1984 Northport, New York killing of 17-year-old Gary Lowers, who was found in Astakia Woods with 17 stab wounds.
True Crime Weekly Podcast examines Fan Man-yee's 1999 abduction and death in Hong Kong after a 13-year-old girl reported the crime to police.
True Crime Weekly Podcast, hosted by Alina Trujillo and producer Jose Fernandez, examines the 1997 Lillelid family murders after Vidar Lillelid asked teenagers at a Tennessee Interstate 81 rest area whether they believed in God.
True Crime Weekly Podcast examines the 1992 disappearance and murder of 21-year-old Grinnell College student Tammy Jo Zwicky after her Pontiac was found abandoned along Interstate 80 in Illinois.
The episode covers the capture of Leonard Rain Moses, a true crime story set in 1968 Pittsburgh, with a special guest who relates the case to their pharmacy work.
The episode covers the case of Byron David Smith, who shot two teens breaking into his home on Thanksgiving 2012, sparking debate over the Castle Doctrine.
The episode covers the disturbing story of serial killer Ed Kemper, who murdered and decapitated his mother.
The episode recounts the mysterious death of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student who disappeared at the Cecil Hotel.