The WORST episodes of People Magazine Investigates
Every episode of People Magazine Investigates ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of People Magazine Investigates!
Investigation Discovery and People magazine partner to re-examine some of the most high profile crime cases in recent history. The one-hour series brings viewers tales of betrayal, buried secrets and unsung heroes, ripped from the pages of one of the nation's top weekly magazines. These stories transcended news and became part of pop culture, revealing shocking twists, new evidence, and unexpected resolutions. Interlaced within every episode are exclusive interviews with People's journalists, archival footage, re-creations, and firsthand accounts by those closest to the investigations.
#1 - Bible Belt Massacre
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/7/2021
Two days before the new millennium in the rural town of Welch, Oklahoma, Danny and Kathy Freeman are found dead after a neighbor spots the family trailer engulfed in flames. Police soon determine their cause of death was not the fire, but a gunshot. The case adds another layer when it is discovered that the Freeman's daughter Ashley and her best friend Lauria Bible are nowhere to be found. Nearly two decades later, police finally discover what happened to them, the truth is almost too dark for words.
#2 - Girl Scout Murders
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/10/2023
PEOPLE MAGAZINE INVESTIGATES delves into the 1977 brutal assault and murder of three Oklahoma Girl Scouts away at summer camp: Lori Lee Farmer, Doris Denise Milner and Michele Heather Guse. The case dominated national headlines for more than a year as law enforcement scrambled to find answers. PEOPLE's reporting team takes viewers through the twists and turns of this case, from how local authorities zeroed in on a suspect (a prison escapee with a dangerous past), the all encompassing manhunt to track him down and the subsequent trial that led to heartbreak for the victims' families and many unanswered questions. Featuring an exclusive emotional, new interview with Lori Lee Farmer's parents and siblings, as well as testimony from jurors on the trial and experts close to the case.
#3 - Candy and Betty
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/5/2022
When neighbors find a young teacher axed to death on Friday the 13th, a sleepy suburb fears a psychopath is loose; the bloody crime scene leads police to a most unlikely suspect, unfolding a story people still have to see to believe 40 years later.
#4 - Infamous Pam Hupp
Season 6 - Episode 12 - Aired 8/29/2022
In 2011, a husband returns home to find his wife dead on the living room floor; he tells first responders she committed suicide, but it was murder; police zero in on the husband and what unfolds is one of the most outrageous tales in recent history.
#5 - Natural Born Killers
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 8/22/2022
In May 2002, a couple goes missing in Ocean City, Maryland, almost as if they vanished into thin air, until a random, late-night burglary leads police to discover a tale of deception, brutality and savagery.
#6 - Darkness in the Desert
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 8/15/2022
A 19-year-old coed leaves her apartment and never returns; when her body is found in a desert river basin, police and internet sleuths wonder if she was a victim of an alleged killer known as the Zombie Hunter.
#7 - Gone in the Night
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 8/8/2022
When a young woman goes missing, a rookie police officer's intuition leads to an intense investigation, as they race against the clock to find her.
#8 - The Grudge
Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/1/2022
In January 2020, a Mennonite woman goes missing from her small religious community. They find her body, but forensic evidence leads them to a dead end, stymieing law enforcement. Detectives get creative in an effort to find their suspect.
#9 - Evil Comes to Jasper
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/18/2022
The murder of James Byrd, Jr. throws his family into turmoil as law enforcement investigates one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history.
#10 - The Colorado Hammer Killer
Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/11/2022
In 1984, a slew of brutal hammer attacks left a Colorado community in fear. It takes nearly 40 years before a serial killer is brought to justice.
#11 - Alibi
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/20/2022
During an armed robbery, a father of three is fatally shot, but for 23 years, another family questions if the wrong man is behind bars.
#12 - Valley of Death
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/27/2022
Five young people disappear over a span of four years in the rural area of Lewis-Clark Valley, along the Idaho-Washington border. Investigators search for links to the mysterious cases.
#13 - Mother's Orders
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/13/2022
A mother's bond to her daughter is put to the ultimate test when one of them shoots a man dead.
#14 - The I-70 Killer
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/17/2023
An unknown shooter unleashes carnage from Indianapolis to Wichita, Kansas, killing six in the spring of 1992 at various retail stores near 1-70, a major east-west highway that runs through the very heart of the Midwest. A sketch of the suspect is developed from various eyewitness accounts, but police are at a loss ... until one victim survives.
#15 - Red Christmas
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/31/2021
On December 10, 2003, police receive a mysterious 911 call at a home in the tony Walnut Estates in Mansfield, Texas. Police are dispatched to investigate and when they enter the home they encounter a horrific scene: the bloodied bodies of homeowners Rick and Suzy Wamsley. The couple was highly regarded around the neighborhood and thought to have the perfect family life so detectives are left with a big question mark: Who and why would anyone want to kill the Wamsleys? When detectives launch an investigation to find out, the myth of the Wamsleys' perfect life begins to unravel. It turns out underneath the polished exterior, there are deep, dark secrets.
#16 - Is Rodney Reed Innocent?
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/24/2021
19-year-old Stacey Stites is found raped and murdered in a small Texas town. After a year-long investigation police match DNA from the scene to a man named Rodney Reed. Reed is convicted and sentenced to death, but in the coming years as Reed proclaims his innocence, certain evidence comes to light that might prove he's telling the truth.
#17 - A Crimson End
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/17/2021
When a woman is found dead in her historic house on Horseshoe Lake, police chase her killer to the water where he drowns. But when the body is recovered, people are shocked to realize this story started 25 years earlier when two other family members were found murdered by the same man.
#18 - The Price of Fame
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/10/2021
In the spring of 2001, former child actor and Baretta star Robert Blake just married Bonny Lee Bakely, the mother of his new baby girl. The couple are out to dinner in Los Angeles when Bakely is murdered in the passenger seat of the couple's car, execution style. Blake seems devastated, but as police investigate, they uncover a tale of a troubled marriage of convenience and a fight for custody that may have led to one of Hollywood's most infamous murders.
#19 - Little Girl Gone
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/3/2021
In the summer of 2003, the Iron Range of northern Minnesota is a peaceful community where parents let their kids play outside on their own without a second thought. But when five-year-old LeeAnna Warner vanishes without a trace, investigators do a deep dive into the quaint community and realize that some of the familiar faces in the neighborhood may be hiding some disturbing secrets that may never fully be uncovered.
Watch Now:Apple TV#20 - The Hollywood Ripper
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/26/2021
When Ashley Ellerin is found murdered in her Hollywood bungalow, police zero in on the Hollywood heartthrob she was supposed to have a date with the night she was killed. The case takes a shocking turn as detectives realize Ashley is not the only victim, and discover they are on the hunt for a serial killer. The assailant's victim count grows until one woman manages to fight back so fiercely that he leaves behind critical blood evidence. But will they be able to finally catch him?
Watch Now:Apple TV#21 - Blood Ties
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/19/2021
On a snowy night in January 1980, college student Helene Pruszynski disappears after reaching her final bus stop. When her body turns up in a snowy field, police launch a long and frustrating investigation that pushes family and detectives to the brink of hopelessness. Their hope is revived when they discover that cutting edge forensic genealogy may hold the key to finding Helene's murderer.
Watch Now:Apple TV#22 - The Delphi Killer
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/12/2021
A quiet rural town is rocked when two middle-school girls go on a hike and are later found murdered. But when police discover one of the girls may have recorded her killer with her cellphone, the race is on to find the mysterious man.
#23 - Flight Risk
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/5/2021
Kelsey Berreth, a young mother and pilot, was last heard from on the morning of Thanksgiving 2018. Her fiancé is worried she may have harmed herself after a stressful year. But when police discover blood in an unusual place, they begin to unravel a bizarre story of love, jealousy, and a murder that goes far beyond what anyone in law enforcement could have imagined.
#24 - Jenner Beach Murders
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/29/2021
In the summer of 2004, Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen are working as councilors at an outdoor Christian adventure camp in Northern California They decide to head down the coast for a weekend getaway, but when they fail to return to camp Sunday evening, the camp staff become very concerned. A search ensues and police discover the couples' bodies at Fish Head Beach, in Jenner, California. As police begin investigating the double homicide, they discover the killer has left no clues and little evidence. Over the succeeding days, weeks and years, Sonoma County Detectives investigate a group of suspects as they relentlessly search for the killer.
#25 - Highway of Horrors
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/22/2021
College student Tammy Zywicki vanishes in 1992 after her car breaks down on the highway. Family and friends scramble to find her, but when her body is found 500 miles from where she vanished there are very few clues pointing to her killer. Police struggle with dead-end leads and suspects who don't pan out. New DNA technology promises to finally crack the case decades later. As her family clings to the last of their hope, the fear is that it may be too little too late for justice.