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 - Held Captive
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/28/2023
A 14-year-old girl finds herself lost and unloved following her parents' divorce and a move to a new town, providing a perfect opportunity for someone to lure her away. For 10 years she's held captive, until she makes her escape.
#2 - Who Killed Our Girls?
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/21/2023
Four teenage girls are brutally murdered in a yogurt shop in North Austin, Texas, in 1991, in what becomes the biggest mass murder in Austin history. The investigation that follows drags on for years, and even when police make an arrest, justice is not guaranteed.
#4 - Where is Kristin Smart?
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/18/2024
In 1996, a college co-ed vanishes over Memorial Day weekend and is presumed dead. The Sheriffs have their sights on a prime suspect but lack the evidence to prove it. Decades later, a discovery found six feet under turns this case upside down.
#5 - Manhunt
Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/25/2023
In 2003, a bank heist escalates into a robbery-homicide shattering the lives of those left behind. Federal and local law enforcement have his picture and DNA, but they still can't find the cold-blooded killer until they learn he hides in plain sight.
#6 - The Serial Killer's Playbook
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/25/2024
Dallas Police discover a serial killer targeting vulnerable retirees.
#8 - The Sound of Silence
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/11/2019
Gallaudet University is the premier college for the deaf in the United States, but this haven of higher learning is turned upside down after two students are murdered in their dormitory rooms.
#9 - Who Killed Jane Doe 59?
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/25/2019
In 1969, a woman is found murdered in Los Angeles, but her identity is a mystery; for decades, police investigate hoping to put a name to the face and find her killer; the one lead that comes up over and over leads them to Charles Manson.
#10 - 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.
#11 - Murder on Newberry St.
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/14/2019
In York, Pa., race riots claim the lives of an African-American mother and a young, white police officer; their deaths are largely forgotten until 30 years later when their cold cases are reopened, revealing the city's dark past.
#12 - Dead in Bed
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/4/2023
When a 19-year-old girl is found murdered in her boyfriend's bed in a small Texas town, everyone is a suspect. The case goes cold until a new sheriff comes to town who sheds fresh light on some old evidence, but will it be enough to bring her killer to justice?
#13 - Brighton Ax Murder
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/14/2023
In 1982, in an upscale suburb of Rochester, New York, a Kodak executive returns home and finds his wife dead with an ax in her head. People believed a mad man was on the loose, so 40 years later when police make an arrest, everyone is stunned at who stands trial for the murder.
#14 - 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.
#15 - The Strange Disappearance of Karlie Gusé
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 8/7/2023
In 2018, a 16-year-old girl vanishes into thin air the morning after attending a high school party in an isolated California mountain town. The bizarre mystery leads to speculation by internet sleuths that her parents are somehow involved due to inconsistencies in their story. But now exclusive new details have been provided to PEOPLE MAGAZINE INVESTIGATES in an effort to dispel rumors and redirect everyone's attention to what is important, finding the right lead that will bring the teen home, hopefully alive.
#17 - 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.
#18 - Teenage Assassins
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/9/2024
In 2020, Baron Li, is shot nine times in front of his home. Detectives scramble to figure out who could want this loving husband and father dead. When they hone in on two teenage suspects, police struggle to identify their motives and connection to Li.
#19 - The Soccer Mom Murder
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/11/2024
In 2001, a mother of five is found shot in the head in her own minivan. Investigators have little physical evidence and struggle to make an arrest. As the children grow up, the family becomes divided over who killed the beloved soccer mom.
#20 - Star Crossed Killers
Season 7 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/11/2023
When a single mom tells her 14-year-old daughter to break off a relationship with a 19-year-old man, the young lovers murder the girl's mom, setting off a manhunt and culminating in a trial replete with finger-pointing and betrayal.
#21 - Where is Mark Himebaugh?
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/24/2023
In 1991, a young boy leaves home to check out a local brush fire that was capturing his neighborhood's attention and never returns home. Decades have passed and police continue to look for his abductor(s), while his mother is still waiting for him to find his way home.
#22 - The Times Square Killer
Season 7 - Episode 11 - Aired 9/18/2023
In the '60s and '70s, a serial killer stalks young women in New Jersey; at the same time, three women in New York City are sadistically murdered; no one expects that one man is causing the mayhem, let alone a seemingly ordinary father of three.
#23 - Terror in Philadelphia
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/12/2018
In 1998, a gifted Philadelphia graduate student is found murdered in her bed, triggering a hunt for her killer.
#24 - 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.
#25 - My Father Was a Mass Murderer
Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/23/2024
Retired drama teacher Kathy Gillcrist embarks on a journey to find her biological parents. Her worst fears come to fruition when she discovers police want her father for one of the most infamous mass murders in Maryland state history.