Death Sentence: The Murder of Ruth Pelke & the Punishment of Paula Cooper

Just after midnight on Christmas Eve 1945, Jennie Sodder woke up to the smell of smoke. The home she shared with her husband, George, and nine of their children, was going up in flames. It would be over seven hours before the fire department arrived. By then, the two-story house had burned to the ground […] The post The Missing Sodder Children appeared first on Tiegrabber.

As fraternal twins, Betty and Peggy were together from the very beginning. As adults, they were very different people but remained best friends.  Then, in 1992, they either conspired together to have Betty’s husband killed or fought together to prove their innocence. Join us at the quiet end for Split Decision. After Betty’s husband, Dr. […] The post Split Decision: The Murder of Dr. Jack Wilson appeared first on Tiegrabber.

17-year-old Karla Homolka met 23-year-old Paul Bernardo in 1987. Some saw their meeting as love at first sight, but the two had a dangerous attraction which would drive them to commit abductions, sexual assaults, and even murder. This good-looking couple became obsessed with each other. And Paul was very controlling of Karla. But Paul Bernardo’s […] The post Killer Couple: Karla Homolka & Paul Bernardo appeared first on Tiegrabber.

On a weekday afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, fifteen-year-old Paula Cooper stabbed 78-year-old Ruth Pelke to death. In a city with a history of racism, Ruth was a white, beloved bible teacher who refused to move out of her overwhelmingly black neighborhood. When Paula and her friends showed up at Ruth’s door that day […] The post Death Sentence: The Murder of Ruth Pelke & the Punishment of Paula Cooper appeared first on Tiegrabber.

April Kauffman didn’t have an easy life growing up.  When she was just seventeen, she gave birth to her daughter Kim and set out to make a better life for them both. April raised her daughter in a loving home despite an early split from Kim’s father. She earned her cosmetology license and worked as […] The post The Dr. & Mrs. Kauffman appeared first on Tiegrabber.

The Halderson family appeared to be living a happy middle-class life. Parents Krista and Bart had everything they had wished for and worked for, including a comfortable suburban home and two loving sons. Mitchell, 24, was working in the tech industry and Chandler, 23, was a college student living at home. But all was not […] The post Parent Trap appeared first on Tiegrabber.

Karla Brown was 22-years-old in 1978. After five-years of an off and on relationship, she and her fiancé, Mark, bought their first home together.  That June, the couple were focused on moving and decorating their new home.  They had friends over to help with the move on June 20th, followed by an evening of food […] The post Finding Karla Brown’s Killer appeared first on Tiegrabber.

Elana Steinberg’s husband, Steve Steinberg, was a well-liked restaurant manager with a gambling problem. Elana struggled to keep their finances afloat, but it wasn’t easy. Then, on an otherwise normal night in 1981, Elana was stabbed 26 times in their bed. Steve called 911 and told the dispatcher that two bearded men had robbed them […] The post Victim on Trial: Elana Steinberg appeared first on Tiegrabber.

On March 18, 1990, 15-year-old fraternal twins Dannette and Jeanette Millbrook disappeared while out walking from a convenience store to their home in Augusta, Georgia. Earlier that day, the girls told their mother that a man in a white van had been following them. Nothing more is known about this man and he would not […] The post The Missing Millbrook Twins appeared first on Tiegrabber.

At 6:00 a.m. on August 28, 1965, Carl and Carmela Coppolino’s physician, Dr. Juliette Karow, was awakened by a phone call. Carl Coppolino tearfully described to her how he had just found his 32-year-old wife dead, seemingly from a heart attack. Dr. Karow was concerned when she arrived at the house—young women in their 30s […] The post The Love Triangle Murders appeared first on Tiegrabber.