The WORST episodes of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered
Every episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered!
For more than 25 years, ``Dateline'' has brought viewers investigations into some of biggest mysteries in America. This entry in the franchise takes a second look at some of the most mysterious cases of recent history. Hosted by Emmy-winning journalist Craig Melvin, the show explores the stories through firsthand accounts told by people who are close to the crime, including investigators who dedicated their time to the cases and family members who are still trying to confront the tragedies that befell their loved ones.
#1 - The Road Trip
Season 14 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/26/2025
When Dr. Teresa Sievers is found murdered in her kitchen, detectives struggle to find any leads until an unexpected tip changes everything; the woman who helped investigators speaks out.
#2 - Far from Spider Lake
Season 13 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/10/2024
A 40 year old Minnesota woman is shot to death in her bed while her husband and teenage daughter are home, leaving investigators to wonder who would want her dead.
#3 - Something Sweet
Season 10 - Episode 57 - Aired 6/8/2022
On a warm August day, Ray Kotomski quenched his thirst with a cool drink. Kotomski was dead within hours. Investigators had to figure out what killed the happily retired Pennsylvania man, and also whether this was even a crime at all.
#4 - Down the Basement Stairs
Season 14 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/27/2024
When young mother and paramedic Annamarie Cochrane Rintala is found dead at the bottom of her basement stairs, it takes four trials and 13 years before justice is served. Dennis Murphy reports.
#5 - What Lies Beneath
Season 10 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/29/2021
Investigators go to unexpected depths to solve the mystery of missing Lynn Friend, a devoted mother who had wedding plans when she vanished.
#6 - Under a Halloween Moon
Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/13/2019
It is just before Halloween; Joel Lovelien and his fiancé head to a local bar packed with people in costume; Joel steps outside and walks into a troubling mystery.
#7 - A Shot in the Dark
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/28/2019
#8 - A Family's Story
Season 11 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/24/2023
Two years after the disappearance of his wife, Josh Powell kills his two sons and himself. Watch Josh's last in-depth TV interview. Plus, a 911 dispatcher discusses the emergency call placed by a social worker.
#9 - Shattered Bonds
Season 12 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/10/2024
A car belonging to a missing man erupts in a blaze, leading to clues regarding his whereabouts.
#10 - Deadly Liaisons
Season 11 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/31/2023
She was a small-town girl from rural Wisconsin; he was a Chicago superstar, a hometown hero with the legendary Bears; together, they were expecting their first child, but no one was expecting their tale to end in the deadly way that it did.
#11 - Someone Was Watching
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/1/2018
In a plot straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock film, a woman peers into a neighbor's yard and catches a glimpse of something unsettling; she sets into motion a chain of events that will divide a family and a jury.
#12 - Deadly Secret
Season 11 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/4/2023
Before the Menendez brothers, the Bobbitts or even O.J., Pamela Smart was television's first true-crime fascination; Smart's husband was found murdered and when police began to investigate, they discovered that she was keeping a big secret.
#13 - Return to Manitowoc County
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/5/2018
In Wisconsin, Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, are convicted of killing Teresa Halbach in a case that defies easy answers.
#14 - The Halloween Party
Season 10 - Episode 55 - Aired 5/25/2022
Chelsea had her costume ready; she was dressed as Poison Ivy, but she never imagined she would encounter evil that night.
#15 - The Face of Evil
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/9/2018
As detectives struggle to find leads in the murder of a college student, the perpetrator strikes again.
#16 - The Killing in Cobb County
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/29/2019
It is a story of obsession that boiled over into a brutal crime. Right away, one woman said she knew what happened. Yet, it took years to bring the alleged killer to trial and the verdict was far from the end of this case.
#17 - Deadly detour
Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/10/2020
Diane McIver was a successful businesswoman who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle with her husband. Then she was gone. It was a mystery riddled with privilege and power, but investigators needed to answer a crucial question: was this an accident or murder?
#18 - Recipe for Murder
Season 12 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/24/2024
Keith Morrison reports on a dramatic undercover operation in Palm Beach, Fla., to save a wife and mother who has no idea she is in danger.
#19 - Robert Durst: The Lost Years
Season 12 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/14/2024
Friends of accused murderer Robert Durst talk about his arrest in New Orleans and his previous whereabouts over 30 years.
#20 - The Call
Season 12 - Episode 16 - Aired 4/24/2024
A dancer is murdered in her Virginia home; after interviewing a series of suspects, detectives realize the case is much more complicated than previously thought.
#21 - Murder in Kitchen one
Season 13 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/3/2024
Detectives in Portland, Oregon, discover a puzzling connection between the 2018 murder of chef Dan Brophy and a blog post written years earlier, titled How to Murder Your Husband.
#22 - The People v. OJ Simpson: What the Jury Never Heard
Season 12 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/17/2024
It was called the trial of the century and, decades after the polarizing case, questions remain; hear answers and insights through interviews done over the years, rare footage and revealing conversations with key players who offer new details.
#23 - Devil's Bargain
Season 13 - Episode 7 - Aired 7/17/2024
Lead investigators and family members speak about the murder of Colorado mother Kelsey Berreth, whose disappearance made national headlines after she was last seen grocery shopping on Thanksgiving in 2018.
#24 - The Last Mile
Season 14 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/18/2024
A month after Mollie Tibbetts' disappearance in Iowa, investigators discover surveillance video that captures a blurred image of Mollie jogging while being followed by a mysterious black car.
#25 - The Note
Season 15 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/11/2025
When high school student Megan Nichols vanishes from her Illinois home, her mother finds a note saying that she ran away; a grisly discovery made three years later changes the course of the investigation.