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Crime House 24/7
Serial Killer Already Serving Life Sentences Now Faces Death Penalty for a Third Murder
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Hi listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick, before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring. Each week, Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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This is Crime House.
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Good morning everyone. We have multiple breaking true crime cases this morning that you need to know about. And we're starting with the biggest one. A man already serving multiple life sentences for murder is now on trial for killing another woman. And this time, prosecutors want the death penalty. This is crime house 24 7, your non stop source for the biggest crime cases developing right now. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Vanessa Richardson and we have quite a lineup for you today. Here's what you need to know. On this show, we dig deeper, we look closer, because understanding comes from paying attention. And when you travel solo, you're doing the same thing. Choosing to see the world for yourself. You're stepping outside your routine, following your curiosity and experiencing places on your own terms. But going solo doesn't mean doing everything alone. 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On April 6, opening statements are underway in the murder trial of Demoris Hunter, a 59 year old man already serving time for killings in California who now faces the possibility of a death sentence in Florida for a 2002 cold case that took more than 20 years to reach a courtroom. The case centers on the death of 38 year old Teresa Ann Green, a nurse from the College park neighborhood of Orlando. On the night of May 26, 2002, Green and Hunter were both attending a party at an apartment building where they both lived, hosted by their neighbors, Joyce and Joseph Butler. Witnesses told police they saw both Green and Hunter fall down the stairs together as they were leaving the party that night, and that the two got up and went into Green's apartment. Several hours later, Hunter returned to the Butler's apartment and asked Joseph Butler for a favor. According to police, Hunter handed Butler the keys to a white van and asked him to follow behind as Hunter drove Green's car. Green was reported missing the following day, May 27th. That same evening, her body was found in the trunk of her car, which had been abandoned in a parking lot in Sanford, Florida. She had been strangled to death. One detail from that night stands out. After Hunter allegedly drove Green's car away from the apartment complex, Joseph Butler never once saw Teresa Green. Hunter parked a car at a Walgreens, got into the van with Butler, and that was that. What Butler made of that night and what he told investigators is among the testimony jurors will hear as this trial gets underway. Investigators quickly identified Hunter as their primary suspect. By that point, he had already left Florida. But that wasn't all. When police interviewed the owner of that white van, Henry Fields, Fields told them something chilling. Hunter had come to Orlando from Oakland, California, and had confided in Fields that he had committed a murder there before making his way to Florida. It's also worth noting that at the time, Hunter wasn't going by his own name. He'd been living in the apartment complex under the alias Michael Barry. The victim in that California killing was described as a longtime friend of Hunter's girlfriend. And that murder had occurred just months before green's death in 2002. In 2004, Hunter was arrested in Texas and extradited back to California to face charges in that Oakland case. He was convicted and sentenced to a combined 110 years and by other accounts, four life sentences. Sentences in California prison. And that was not his first conviction. Hunter had also been convicted of a separate murder in California dating back to 1985, making the Florida case his third known killing. All told, prosecutors have tied him to three murders in California alone. For years, the Florida case sat in limbo. Then, in 2014, an Orange county grand jury indicted Hunter for Greene's murder. In 2015, he was extradited to Florida to face the charge and prosecuted, wasted no time filing a notice of intent to seek the death penalty if he was convicted. What followed was more than a decade of extraordinary delays. Hunter has cycled through at least six different public defenders since arriving at the Orange County Jail. The case was postponed repeatedly for a range of reasons, including complications tied to the COVID 19 pandemic and at one point a heart attack Hunter suffered. All told, he's been incarcerated for roughly 25 years across both states. More than 11 of those years spent sitting in the Orange County Jail waiting for his trial to begin. Jury selection got underway on March 30 and concluded April 2, with opening statements now beginning Monday, April 6. Hunter is charged with first degree murder and theft in connection with Greene's death. The theft charge is a reflection of the fact that Green's car was taken and used in the commission of the crime as prosecutors alleged that Hunter drove her car from the apartment complex that night in Even though he's already serving multiple life sentences in California, he faces a potential death sentence if convicted. His defense team has filed motions to take the death penalty off the table, but so far those efforts have been unsuccessful. Now a jury is finally seated and opening statements are underway. Whether this trial ultimately delivers the justice prosecutors are seeking remains to be seen. But after more than two decades and the case against Damoris Hunter is finally being heard from Florida, we head next to Australia where a man was grabbed at the airport just moments before he could board an international flight and the story of what police believe he was trying to leave behind is deeply disturbing. Authorities in Victoria, Australia made a dramatic arrest on April 3, stopping a 67 year old man at Melbourne airport just before he boarded an international flight out of the country. That man, Alan Keys, is now charged with murder in connection with the death of his estranged former partner, 53 year old Ava Lasserini, whose body was discovered the following day on April 4th. Reports have noted that Keys and Laerini had a turbulent history, one that involved repeatedly separating and reuniting over the years. The timeline here starts on April 2. Laerini, a mother who lived in the suburb of Dandenong, was last seen around noon that day. Her phone was later switched off and she stopped responding to calls and messages from her family, behavior that, according to her family, was highly out of character. She'd been planning to board a flight to Bali to visit her daughters who live there, and when she never arrived and couldn't be reached, her family raised the alarm with police on Thursday, April 3. Victoria Police quickly deemed the circumstances suspicious and detectives from the Missing Person Squad launched an investigation. Investigators moved fast. Keys, who's from the suburb of Patterson Lakes, was intercepted at Melbourne International Airport on the afternoon of April 3rd, the very same day police received the missing persons report as he was in the process of boarding an overseas bound plane, reportedly to Bali as well. Police arrested him before he could step onto that flight and charged him with one count of murder. His social media activity in the days leading up to La Serini's disappearance painted a troubling picture more broadly. According to reporting by seven News Australia, Keys had recently posted a photo of himself with another woman on social media with the caption new girl, new life. A post that appeared to show him already in Indonesia surfaced on April 3, but police believe it was staged. Laerini's daughter also wrote on social media that her mother had told her she was meeting her ex husband before she disappeared. In addition to this, posts on Keys accounts included comments belittling Western women while praising relationships with Asian women. In one public post, Keys wrote that in his words, quote, western girls see an old perv while while Asian girls see opportunity, end quote. It's the kind of language that in hindsight offers a window into how he saw the women in his Life. On Saturday, April 4, detectives located a body in the vicinity of Little River Road and the Prince's Freeway in the town of Little River, a small community roughly 44 km southwest of Melbourne. Major Crime officers spent much of the night examining the scene. While the body had not yet been formally identified at the time of reporting, police said they believed it was Laerini. Keys was remanded in custody and appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court. He's next due in court. On August 10, one of Lacerini's daughters told the Sydney Morning Herald that her mother had such a beautiful, innocent heart. A friend of Lasserini's, Galley Porter, has since launched a FundRaiser to support Eva's two daughters, Evendra and Vanya, who remain in Indonesia. Porter described Lasserini as someone who had shown incredible strength in leaving her relationship with Keys and said she'd been looking forward to spending time with her girls. This case is still developing and the body has not yet been officially identified as of this recording. We'll continue to monitor it. As more information becomes available from Australia, we stay with a story that is equally devastating but much closer to home. A Colorado community is in shock after a double homicide and connected suicide left three members of the same family dead in the early hours of Saturday morning.
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A tragedy is unfolding in Pueblo, Colorado this morning where investigators believe a 19 year old man shot and killed both of his parents the morning of April 4th before taking his own life at a separate location nearby. It started around 1:01am on April 4 when Pueblo Police Department officers were dispatched to the 1200 block of East Fourth street near North Joplin Avenue after ShotSpotter technology detected multiple gunshots in the area followed by a 911 call. When officers arrived, they found two people dead, one in the roadway and one inside a vehicle. Both had died from gunshot wounds. While officers were still processing that scene and gathering information about a potential suspect, the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office was alerted to a separate incident in Pueblo west where a man had had died from a self inflicted gunshot wound. Based on early information, police said that man appeared to be the suspect in the double homicide. The Pueblo County Coroner's office later identified all three individuals. The two victims were 40 year old Glenn Allen Beaman Jr. And 41 year old Amanda Lee Manion. The man who died by suicide was identified as 19 year old Glenn Allen Bean III, the son of both victims. Amanda's brother Eric Manian, publicly confirmed the of his sister, her estranged ex husband and his oldest nephew, writing that he was deeply sorry for those learning of the news and describing the situation as a horrific tragedy. Two months before her death. Amanda Manion had shared a tribute to her son on Facebook to celebrate his 19th birthday, writing that she hoped he knew she loved him always and forever. She called herself a boy mom and said she was praying for an amazing year full of blessings for him. And it's the kind of post that, in the wake of what happened, is almost impossible to read. A mother publicly celebrating her child, expressing nothing but love and hope for his future. And two months later, both of them are gone, along with his father in a single devastating night. The investigation into all three deaths remains ongoing. Pueblo police noted that this incident marks the city's fourth and fifth homicides of 2026, compared to just two homicides at this point in 2025. Motive has not yet been established, and police have asked anyone with information to contact the Pueblo Police Department or Crime Stoppers. A GoFundMe has been organized to support Amanda Manion's surviving children, with organizers describing the situation as a heartbreaking loss that has left her kids, quote, facing unimaginable loss and uncertainty, end quote. It's a devastating case with no easy answers, and the community is just beginning to grapple with what happened. And for our next story, we're heading to Long Beach, California, where an Easter egg hunt led to an unsettling discovery. Easter Sunday took a disturbing turn in long beach on April 5, when a family out for an Easter egg hunt near DeForest park and Wetlands stumbled upon what appeared to be human remains, including what multiple outlets are reporting looked like the skull and bones of a child. The Long Beach Police Department received a PM near the intersection of East 59th street and DeForest Avenue. Aerial footage from CBS News showed brightly colored plastic Easter eggs scattered near what appeared to be a partially unearthed skull along a path in the park. Police have not officially confirmed the age or identity of the remains, but the size of what was found has raised serious concern among investigators and reporters on the scene. A man named Mark Saldana was out walking nearby when he encountered the family in the moments after the discovery. He told CBS Los Angeles he saw them freaking out and said he could only imagine what it must have been like for the children, finding what may have been another kid. It's a haunting image. Easter baskets, plastic eggs and something no family should ever come across. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's office responded to the scene and officers placed a canopy over the partially exposed remains. Long beach police on the scene as late as 10pm Sunday night awaiting the forensic anthropologist team from the medical examiner's Office. As of April 6, the investigation is ongoing. Police have not said how long the remains may have been there, and no arrests have been announced. De Forest park runs along the Los Angeles river near the 710 freeway and is a popular destination for families, particularly on a holiday weekend. However, this Easter, it became a crime scene.
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Lastly, let me tell you about what else is happening at Crime House this week. On Tuesday, Murder True Crime Stories began a two part series on one of the most uncomfortable intersections of entertainment and real world violence in television history. The 1995. Jenny Jones show taping that preceded the murder of Scott Amadour It's a case that raises a question the television industry has never fully answered. What happens when a format built on manufactured emotional volatility meets a person who can't leave that volatility at the studio door? It turns out the Jenny Jones case was not an isolated incident. Television, particularly the kind of television built on real people in charged situations, has a longer history with real world consequence than the industry has ever been comfortable acknowledging. Formats that engineered confrontation shows that handed platforms to dangerous people, and cameras that were present at moments nobody fully understood until much later. Here are five times television and real crime ended up in the same frame and what happened when the broadcast ended. Number 1 Rodney Alala In 1978, Rodney Alcala appeared as Bachelor Number 1 on the Dating Game, the popular television program in which a bachelorette asked questions of three unseen contestants and chose one for a date. Alcala was charming, quick witted and funny on camera. The bachelorette chose him. Then she met him in person and changed her mind. She later described him as creepy and said she felt immediately uncomfortable. The date never happened. Alala went home and the episode aired, and for most viewers it was simply another forgettable segment of a light entertainment show. What those viewers couldn't have known was that Alalo Paola was in the middle of an active killing spree. He had already been convicted of a violent attack on an eight year old girl in 1968, served time and been released. By the time he sat down on the Dating Game set, he'd killed at least two women. He would go on to kill at least three more before his arrest in 1979. He was ultimately convicted of five murders in California, though investigators believe his total victim count may be significantly higher. He was known to photograph his victims and authorities spent years, years attempting to identify women in photos recovered from a storage unit, he maintained. The Dating Game appearance has become one of the most cited examples of the gap between a person's presented self and their actual nature. The format was designed to surface charm and wit. It had no mechanism for surfacing anything else. A production team vetted him, a bachelorette found him appealing enough to choose, and a national audience watched without any of them knowing what they were actually looking at. The episode is a document of a series serial killer performing normalcy and performing it successfully. Number two Rodney King and the Brawl that Changed Talk Television on November 3, 1988, the Geraldo Rivera show broadcast a live episode titled Teen Hate Mongers featuring members of White Supremacist and neo Nazi organizations alongside black and Jewish civil rights activists. Within minutes of the broadcast beginning, a full scale brawl erupted in the studio. Chairs were thrown throne. Geraldo Rivera was struck by a thrown object and suffered a broken nose. On camera, security staff struggled to contain the chaos as the audience scattered. The footage was extraordinary and the ratings that followed were significant. But the more lasting consequence was what the broadcast demonstrated about the confrontation talk show format at its most extreme. That placing ideologically opposed, emotionally charged individuals in a room together and providing no meaningful structure beyond let them talk was not just irresponsible, it was physically dangerous. Rivera himself later expressed regret about the format of the episode and the decision to stage direct confrontations of that kind. But the regret came after the broken nose and the national coverage, not before. The episode is frequently cited as the moment that made visible what the confrontation format was actually doing. And notably, it did not stop the format. The ratings were too good.
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Good.
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The next several years of daytime talk television would push further in the same direction, not away from it. Number three, Nancy Campbell Panitz. Nancy Campbell Panitz appeared on the Jerry Springer show in an episode about her ex husband, Ralph Panitz, and the woman he had left her for. The episode followed the show's standard format. Confrontation, revelation, audience reaction. Nancy and Ralph's new partner were brought face to face. The conflict played out for the camera cameras. The taping ended hours later. Ralph Panitz murdered Nancy Campbell Panitz at her home in Florida. The episode aired after her death. Viewers watched Nancy alive, emotional, present, without knowing she was already gone. The broadcast became retroactively one of the most disturbing artifacts in daytime television history. A woman's final public appearance, packaged as entertainment, aired after her killer had already been arrested. The case raised pointed questions about the show's culpability. Prosecutors in Florida considered whether the production itself bore any responsibility for the circumstances that preceded the murder. Whether staging a highly charged confrontation between estranged former partners and then sending them home constituted a foreseeable risk. Ultimately, the show was not found legally liable. Ralph Panitz was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. And. But the question the case raised about what a production owes to the people it places in emotional extremity for the purposes of entertainment did not go away. It had been raised four years earlier by the Jenny Jones case, and it would continue to be raised long after both cases faded from the headlines. Number four, Rebecca Schaefer. Rebecca Schaefer was 21 years old and a rising actress, best known for her role on the television sitcom My Sister. Sam when she was shot and killed at the door of her Los Angeles apartment on July 18, 1989. Her killer was Robert John Bardo, a 19 year old from Tucson, Arizona, who had been obsessively fixated on her for years. Bardo had written her letters. He had attempted to gain access to her on a film set. He had, by most accounts, constructed an elaborate parasocial relationship with her in his own mind, one in which her television presence felt like a real connection. When he saw her in a film role that he perceived as inconsistent with her image, something shifted. He hired a private investigator who obtained her home address from California Department of Motor Vehicles records, a process that was at the time entirely legal. He traveled to Los Angeles and knocked on her door. Schaefer's murder produced one of the most significant pieces of victim protection legislation in American history. California passed the nation's first anti stalking law in 1990 directly in response to her case. Federal legislation followed, restricting public access to DMV records that had enabled Bardo to find her. The Driver's Privacy Protection act, passed in 1994, exists in significant part because a private investigator was able to legally purchase a celebrity's home address from a government database for a nominal fee. Her case is not simply a story about a crime. It's a story about how a parasocial relationship, the one sided intimacy that television creates between a performer and an audience, can, in rare but devastating cases, produce a person who cannot distinguish between the screen and the world. The format that made Schaefer visible also made her findable. Her death changed the law. Number five, Lewis Conrad. To Catch a Predator was a recurring segment within NBC's Dateline news magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. The format involved adults posing as minors in online chat rooms to attract men, soliciting sexual conversations, then arranging meetings at a staged house where the men were confronted on camera by host Chris Hansen before being arrested by waiting law enforcement officers. The segment was enormously popular. It was also, from its earliest iterations, the subject of serious ethical debate about whether it constituted entrapment, whether the line between journalism and law enforcement had been irrevocably blurred, and whether the public humiliation component served any legitimate investigative purpose or was simply designed for ratings. In November 2006, those questions collided with a fatal outcome. A Kaufman County, Texas prosecutor named Lois Conrad had been communicating online with a decoy. He did not show up at the staged house. Instead, law enforcement officers and an NBC camera crew went to his home. When police announced their presence at his door, Conrad shot himself. He died from the self inflicted wound. His sister filed a wrongful death lawsuit against NBC alleging that the network had crossed a fundamental line that pursuing a subject who had not come to the sting location, bringing cameras to his private residence, and doing so in a way that left him with no route to any kind of dignified response was not journalism. It was ambush with a camera. NBC settled the lawsuit. To Catch a Predator was cancelled the following year. The segment had always occupied uncomfortable territory, but the death of Lewis Conrad made the discomfort impossible to bracket. Whatever the legal and moral complexity of his situation, a man was dead in part because a television production had decided his story was worth pursuing. Each of these cases is different in its details, but they share something in common. In every one of them, the camera was present at a moment that became part of a crime story, sometimes as a passive way witness, sometimes as an active ingredient. Television has always known that real people in charged situations make compelling viewing. What these cases suggest is that the industry has been slower to reckon with what it owes those people once the broadcast ends. For the full story behind the Jenny Jones show and the murder of Scott Amador, head over to our Crime House feed for the latest episode of Murder True Crime Stories stories you've been listening to Crime House 247 bringing you breaking crime news. I'm Vanessa Richardson. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more developing stories. Stay safe and thanks for listening.
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Thanks for listening to today's episode. Not sure what to listen to now. Next, check out America's Most Infamous Crimes hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to Unsolved Mysteries and game changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes now wherever you listen to podcasts Lifelock how can I help?
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