The BEST episodes of 48 Hours season 25
Every episode of 48 Hours season 25, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of 48 Hours season 25!
Television's most popular true-crime series, investigating shocking cases and compelling real-life dramas with journalistic integrity and cutting-edge style.
#1 - Mystery on Twin Peaks Drive
Season 25 - Episode 23 - Aired 4/21/2012
On the morning of Dec. 16, 1998, Ron Reynolds discovered the lifeless body of his wife, Ronda Reynolds, who had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities quickly ruled Ronda’s death a suicide. There had been trouble in the marriage, including reported difficulties with Ron’s son, Jonathan. But Ronda was planning to move on and was looking forward to the next phase of her life. Refusing to accept her daughter killed herself, Ronda’s mother, Barb Thompson, launched her own investigation, firmly believing that “someone in that house killed my daughter.” Thompson enlisted the help of world-famous true crime author, Ann Rule, to help find out what really happened. 48 HOURS MYSTERY correspondent Peter Van Sant talks with Thompson and Rule about their lengthy quest for justice. Rule – who has more than 30 million books in print worldwide – wrote a bestseller titled In the Still of the Night about Ronda’s case. The broadcast features interviews with Ron and Jonathan Reynolds, who have both endured public scrutiny over their alleged involvement in Ronda’s death. Additionally, several law enforcement officials express their opposing views on the cause of Ronda’s death. Peter Van Sant reports.
Watch Now:Amazon#2 - Family Affair
Season 25 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/7/2012
In a small Southern town, an extramarital affair turns into a fatal family affair. Susan Spencer reports.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - The Killing Fields
Season 25 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/22/2011
Can a Hollywood movie help solve the most notorious killing spree in Texas? Erin Moriarty reports.
Watch Now:Amazon#4 - Death Wish
Season 25 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/28/2012
After Jeffrey Locker's family reported him missing, New York City Police discovered the body of the Long Island businessman and motivational speaker slumped over the steering wheel of his car in Harlem. Initially, it appeared that Locker had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time; however, when authorities tracked Locker's ATM card to Kenneth Minor and questioned him, Minor made a startling allegation to the motive behind the murder: Locker had begged Minor to kill him.
#5 - A Family's Honor
Season 25 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/7/2012
The story of 20-year-old Noor Almaleki, a woman who was struck and killed by her own father's accelerating SUV while she was crossing a parking lot in suburban Phoenix, and how this was the first case in the U.S. prosecuted as an "honor killing".Troy Roberts reports.
#6 - Dark Side of Paradise
Season 25 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/4/2012
When an American goes missing from his sailboat in the Caribbean, his nephew follows the trail with the help of a journalist-turned-manhunter. Peter Van Sant reports.
#7 - Amanda Knox: The Untold Story
Season 25 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/8/2011
Following the acquittal of Amanda Knox this week, "48 Hours Mystery" will broadcast "Amanda Knox: The Untold Story". 48 Hours reveals Knox's personal accounts of cruel manipulation and sexual intimidation while in prison. Plus, never-before-seen video diaries from Amanda's best friend, Madison Paxton, collected over 10 months. Paxton moved to Italy to support Amanda and help fight for her freedom.
#8 - Soccer Moms Confidential
Season 25 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/18/2012
48 HOURS MYSTERY takes an in-depth look at this dark and twisted tale. Maureen Maher’s report, “Soccer Moms Confidential,” uncovers the story behind the P.I. Moms, and investigates the man that started it all, Chris Butler. It’s a story allegedly fueled by fame, money, drugs and corruption. Interviews with key players, including the reporter who broke the story and the whistleblower who helped the DOJ bring Butler down, paint a disturbing portrait of an aggressive promoter, an alleged master manipulator. In a special appearance, Dr. Phil tells 48 HOURS what motivates a con man and how easily people are drawn in.
#9 - Redemption Song
Season 25 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/15/2011
After a murder rocks the Austin, Texas, music scene, a call to police from an angry wife blows the 26-year-old cold case wide open. Tracy Smith reports.
#10 - Murder at the Manor
Season 25 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/26/2011
Richard Schlesinger reports the rags-to-riches fairytale that would have a gruesome ending when H’s wife Lucy Landry was found dead, violently stabbed more than 20 times. 48 HOURS MYSTERY unwinds the complicated past of a man known for his big bucks – and an even bigger personality – including an exclusive interview with H, and James McAllister, Lucy’s son. Schlesinger investigates the marriage that was far from perfect, and a violent incident in H’s past. Who really was H, and what may have pushed him to take the life of his own wife? We hear not only from H himself, but Lucy’s son James – only on 48 HOURS MYSTERY.
#11 - Showdown in the Bedroom
Season 25 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/21/2012
A 25-year marriage comes to a violent end. Now, a jury must to decide -- did a wife have the right to kill? Richard Schlesinger reports.
#12 - The Stranger Beside Me
Season 25 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/14/2012
The story of Jamie Laiaddee, a woman who vanished from her home in March of 2010, and how her live-in boyfriend told everyone that she moved to Denver for a new job, but detectives would soon discover that the boyfriend was a con man. Erin Moriarty reports.
#13 - Grave Injustice - Updated
Season 25 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/17/2012
On April 23, 2011, 48 HOURS MYSTERY correspondent Richard Schlesinger reported the story, "Grave Injustice," of Anthony Graves, a Texas man who walked free in October 2010 when it was proven that he had been wrongfully convicted in 1994 on six counts of capital murder. Formerly known as Inmate #999127, Graves was on death row when a group of journalism students from the University of St. Thomas in Houston began looking at his case. After four years of investigating, they uncovered the truth: Anthony Graves was an innocent man. Now correspondent Richard Schlesinger details this complicated miscarriage of justice. He speaks with Graves, his family and two former prosecutors who battle over the truthfulness of the evidence. Schlesinger also talks with the former journalism students and members of the media who helped shed light on this injustice.
#14 - Murder in the O.C.
Season 25 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/29/2011
Multi-millionaire entrepreneur Bill McLaughlin was living the good life in Newport Beach, California, when he was shot dead in his home. 48 HOURS MYSTERY explores the deadly love triangle that may have led to the death of McLaughlin, a murder that rocked this wealthy and glamorous community more than 15 years ago. The broadcast will investigate the story behind McLaughlin’s death, including the suspected roles played by his fiancée Nanette Johnston, and former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki, who speaks to 48 HOURS MYSTERY in his first on-camera interview.
#15 - Screenplay for Murder: The Diary of a “Dexter” Wannabe
Season 25 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/11/2012
When Gilles Tetreault arranged to meet a woman he met on an online dating site, he had no idea of the horror that would unfold. Tetreault says he came face-to-face with a madman who had set a trap to kill him. Tetreault was attacked and barely escaped with his life. Johnny Altinger answered a similar online dating ad and disappeared without a trace. Was there really a crime, or was this an elaborate setup for a screenplay for murder? Troy Roberts reports.
#16 - A Fatal Attraction
Season 25 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/28/2012
Was a teenage girl involved in stabbing her own mother to death... and was it all over a boy? Forbidden young love ends with a mother's violent murder. Richard Schlesinger reports.
#17 - The Boy Next Door - Updated
Season 25 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/10/2012
"48 Hours Mystery" helps solve a 20-year-old cold case... Three women brutally murdered from Chicago to Los Angeles and an alleged serial killer on the run. Maureen Maher has the dramatic developments. Last spring, "48 Hours Mystery" reported on the 1993 murder of a young woman named Tricia Pacaccio. Now, because of that broadcast, we can report that there is finally a breakthrough for a family that has been waiting nearly two decades for justice.
#18 - Ransom
Season 25 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/12/2012
It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. On April 3, 2008, millionaire business owner and family man Tom Wiles opened an e-mail. His life would never be the same. “We have Robert. If you hope to see him alive again, you must follow our instructions without deviation!” The ransom note demanded $750,000 for the safe return of his 26-year-old son. The note was signed, “Group X.” “Remember we are watching everything, and if you think you can outsmart us, it will cost your son his life.” 18 months after Robert Wiles had vanished, the combined forces of the FBI and local law enforcement honed in on a remarkable discovery. Matching cell phone records with video surveillance, they determined someone was using Robert Wiles’ cell phone, days after he disappeared. They concluded it was Toby Holt, the one-time trusted employee Tom Wiles had hand-picked as his point man for the FBI. In December 2009, Toby Holt was charged with murder, kidnapping and extortion. 48 HOURS MYSTERY correspondent Peter Van Sant interviews Robert Wiles’ entire family, as well as the key investigators. Van Sant speaks with Toby Holt, in his only interview about the case. Holt still maintains his innocence telling van Sant, “I absolutely had nothing to do with Robert Wiles disappearance.”
#19 - Private Needham's War
Season 25 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/12/2011
A decorated soldier who was medievac-ed from Iraq and later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remembers little of the beating that he gave his 19-year-old girlfriend who died from his hands.
#20 - The Country Club Murders
Season 25 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/3/2012
A smooth-talking professional poker player and family man is under suspicion for the brutal murder of his parents. Did skyrocketing debt push this former high roller to savagely kill? No immediate arrests were made after the Scherers’ vicious murder in their upscale Castlewood Country Club home. When their son, Ernie Scherer, disappeared following his parents’ death, authorities enlisted his wife Robyn to help catch the man she married. With her help, investigators ultimately unraveled his double life. Now, both Robyn and Ernie’s sister, Catherine share their nightmare, discussing their betrayal by the husband and brother they thought they both knew. Peter Van Sant reports.
#21 - Arturo Gattis Last Fight
Season 25 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/24/2011
To look at them together it's clear: Amanda Gatti lives for her 3-year-old boy, Arturo Jr. "He's everything I asked God for," Amanda told "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty in her first American television interview. "Junior makes me complete." In no small part, she says, because he's the spitting image of his father... a man they're both learning to live without. "The smile is the same...just like his daddy," she said. "I miss my husband very much. I miss him when I go to sleep...I miss him when I wake up..." It's a loss made all the more difficult by the shadow of suspicion that surrounds Amanda. In July 2009, Amanda was arrested for murder and held before investigators shocked the world with their findings: Arturo Gatti, world class fighter who never gave up in the ring, had committed suicide. "I knew. I knew. I knew," Amanda said in broken English. "My husband kill himself. Oh my God, my husband killed himself." But even today, more than two years after Arturo's death, many of his friends, family and fans refuse to believe he took his own life.
#22 - The Long Island Serial Killer
Season 25 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/17/2011
A major break in the Long Island Serial Killer case. The 18-month search for a missing New Jersey woman finally came to an end this week when police on Long Island, New York, announced the discovery remains believed to be 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert. On Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, the remains were positively identified as Gilbert. As "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports, the search for Gilbert uncovered a greater mystery. Erin Moriarty has the latest developments.
#23 - Secrets of a Marriage
Season 25 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/3/2011
The 2007 shooting death of Jocelyn Earnest, who was found in her Virginia home with a gun and a suicide note, is investigated. Her husband, Wesley, an assistant high-school principal, is a chief suspect in the case.
#24 - The Writing on the Wall
Season 25 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/5/2012
On the morning of May 5, 2009, Christopher Coleman called his neighbor, police detective Justin Barlow, and asked him to check on his wife, Sheri, and their two young sons, Gavin and Garett, after his own calls had gone unanswered. For months, Coleman, head of security for well-known televangelist Joyce Meyer, had been receiving explicit death threats regarding his involvement in Meyer’s ministry. What Barlow discovered upon entering the Coleman home through an unlocked basement would send shockwaves through the small town of Columbia, Ill. Inside the home police found spray-painted messages on the walls, with the phrases “You have paid” and “Punished.” Upstairs police discovered the bodies of Sheri, 31, Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. Police thought the threats and the writing on the wall would be key in discovering who killed Coleman’s family. Two weeks after the murders police had enough evidence to charge Coleman. Coleman insisted the murders were committed by whoever had sent him the threats. Jurors on the case tell Maher about a crucial piece of evidence they discovered during deliberations, which they say solidified for them any question of who the killer was. Maureen Maher reports,
#25 - One of Their Own - Updated
Season 25 - Episode 27 - Aired 5/26/2012
A cold case turns white hot as police finally charge one of their own in a 1986 murder case. Maureen Maher has an update.