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Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, there's a new Crime House original you should check out. It's called the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah's an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller who's seen firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, examining the moments just before a person disappears. The routines, the timelines, the small details that often get overlooked because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal until it doesn't. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday. Foreign. This is Crime House. 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. Two Florida teenagers accused of plotting a murder walked into custody and instead of fear or remorse, cameras caught them laughing. Now a judge has seen the video and they're not going anywhere. 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.
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As of March 16, two Florida teenagers accused of plotting to murder a classmate remain in custody after A judge denied bond Prosecutors pointed to several factors during the hearing, including a newly surfaced video now widely circulating online, that shows the girls laughing shortly after their arrest on January 23. The footage, captured in the back of a police vehicle as 15 year old Isabelle Valdez and 14 year old Lois Lippert were being transported to jail, shows the teens giggling about their situation. Seminole county students Valdez and Lippert were arrested after authorities learned of an alleged plan to kill another student at Lake Brantley High School. Prosecutors presented that video during a court hearing, arguing that the behavior reflected a troubling lack of concern about the seriousness of the allegations. The judge ultimately denied bond for both girls, according to law enforcement. The plan involved attacking a fellow student inside a school bathroom. Authorities say the girls allegedly intended to stab or cut the victim's throat, and investigators later recovered a knife and other items linked to the plan. Prosecutors say the plot was driven largely by Valdez, who investigators believe had developed an obsession with the perpetrator of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. Court filings alleged the intended victim was chosen because he resembled that gunman, and Valdez believed committing the killing would create a blood bond that could somehow resurrect him. Authorities say Valdez recruited Lippert to help carry out the plan. Investigators allege Lippert helped sharpen the knife the pair intended to use, brought items including gloves, flowers and cigarettes to school for the attack, and participated in planning how the victim would be lured into a bathroom stall where the stabbing was supposed to take place. The alleged plan never reached the point of violence. On January 22, an anonymous tip was submitted through the Fortify FL Safety Portal warning that a student planned to kill someone at La Brantley High School the next day. Police and school officials investigated the report immediately and searched Valdez's backpack the following day, finding the items linked to the planned attack. But it was the video, recorded after their January 23rd arrests, that quickly became a central focus of the case. Footage released by prosecutors shows the two teens sitting together in the back of a police vehicle. At one point, one of the girls talks about wanting to look good for her mug shot. In another moment, the teens ask the officer whether they'll be taken to the same jail. When he confirms they likely will be. The two laugh and celebrate the news, describing the arrest as something of a bonding experience. In other parts of the recording, Valdez can be heard saying she does not feel guilty for her actions, adding that the only person she feels bad for is her mother. Prosecutors played the video during a bond hearing arguing that the teen's demeanor demonstrated a potential danger to the community. The state contended that the apparent lack of remorse and the casual tone of the conversation raised serious concerns about releasing them while the case proceeds. After reviewing the footage and hearing arguments from both sides, the judge agreed bond was denied for both girls, meaning they will remain in custody as the case moves forward through the legal system. Defense attorneys presented a different interpretation of the video, suggesting the behavior could reflect immaturity or underlying mental health concerns rather than a clear indicator of danger. Lawyers also noted that one of the teens has been held in solitary confinement, arguing that the conditions of detention could worsen existing mental health issues. During the hearing, Lippert's parents also testified, telling the court they were willing to supervise their daughter at home under strict conditions if she were released. The judge ultimately concluded that the risk was too high. Both Valdez and Lippert have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. The case has drawn widespread attention online, in part because of the disturbing allegations surrounding the plot and in part because of the video itself itself. From a legal standpoint, however, demeanor evidence like this is not unusual in pre trial proceedings. Judges often consider behavior statements and other contextual factors when determining whether a defendant should be released pending trial. The question in those hearings is not whether someone is guilty or innocent, but whether they pose a potential risk to public safety or are likely to appear in court. In this case, prosecutors argued the footage suggested the teens did not grasp the gravity of what they were accused of planning. The investigation remains ongoing and no trial date has been publicly announced. And while that case continues to move through the courts here in the United States, authorities in Mexico are dealing with the fallout from one of the most significant cartel operations in years, including the arrest of a key suspect tied to the deadly attempt to capture the Jalisco New Generation cartel leader known as el Mencho. On March 15, Mexican authorities arrested a suspect in a case we've been closely following, one investigators say played a key role in the chain of events that led to the death of notorious cartel leader Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, better known as El Mencho. Oseguera, the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, known as cjng, spent years as one of the most powerful and most wanted drug traffickers in the world. He now Investigators say this latest arrest is connected to the intelligence trail that ultimately led authorities to the cartel boss earlier this year. In February 2026, Mexican authorities finally closed in on him during a major military operation in the western STATE OF JALISCO the mission was originally intended to capture him alive. Instead, it turned into a deadly confrontation. Oseguera was wounded during a firefight with Mexican forces and later died while being transported by helicopter for medical treatment. His death marked one of the most significant blows against organized crime in Mexico in more than a decade. But the operation that ended his life did not come without consequences. The confrontation sparked widespread violence across parts of Mexico. Cartel gunmen clashed with security forces, vehicles were set on fire, and roads were blocked in several states as CJNG members responded to the military assault. The violence surrounding the operation and its aftermath left dozens of people dead, including soldiers, suspected cartel members and others caught in the conflict. And now, according to reporting from CBS News, Mexican officials have taken a suspect into custody who's believed to have played a role in leading investigators to Oera's hiding place. The individual is described as a key logistical contact tied to a woman who was romantically involved with the cartel leader. Investigators say tracking that network helped authorities pinpoint the remote location where OSA was staying before the military operation began. Officials say the suspect was arrested on March 15 while in possession of weapons, drugs and a vehicle and was turned over to federal prosecutors as the investigation continues. The arrest highlights how complex and layered major cartel investigations can be. Operations targeting high ranking figures rarely depend on a single breakthrough. Instead, they often involve years of intelligence gathering that eventually reveal where a target may be hiding. That appears to be exactly what happened here. Authorities say surveillance of individuals close to Oceguera ultimately helped them locate the property in Talpa Jalisco, where the cartel leader was staying with a relatively small group of bodyguards. From there, Mexican security forces launched the large scale operation that ended with his death. Even with Oseguera gone, the CJNG cartel is still considered one of the most powerful criminal organizations operating in Mexico. And like many cartel organizations, its structure is designed to survive the loss of individual leaders. Analysts who study organized crime have long cautioned that removing a single figure, even one as powerful as El Mencho, does not automatically dismantle the larger network. Still, his death represents a major moment in the long fight against cartel violence in Mexico. For families affected by CJNG's crimes and communities impacted by the drugs and the cartel traffic, the operation that ended Oera's decades long run as one of the world's most powerful traffickers carried enormous symbolic weight. The latest arrest connected to that operation shows the investigation is still unfolding, and authorities are continuing to pursue anyone they believe played a role in the events surrounding one of the most consequential cartel takedowns in recent years. Speaking of investigations that have taken years to reach a turning point, our next story takes us to California, where a long dormant cold case has just been reopened. End these days I'm really focused on quality over quantity. 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As of March 16, a North California man is being held without bail after being arrested Friday, March 13 and charged in connection with the disappearance of a teenage girl whose case has haunted investigators for years. Authorities say 28 year old Joshua Martinez now faces a murder charge in the death of 16 year old Victoria Marquina, who vanished from Sutter Creek, California in October 2019. Markina disappeared just days before her 17th birthday. The teenager had graduated high school early and was taking college classes in Sacramento while also working part time at her family's restaurant, Daqueria A. The last confirmed sighting of Marquina was on October 8, 2019, when she attended one of her classes. Investigators believe she was with her then boyfriend, Joshua Martinez, around that time. Authorities say Martinez cell phone last pinged from a tower in San Joaquin county on October 9th, and five days later her vehicle was found abandoned in Escalon. When she failed to return home or respond to calls and messages, her family reported her missing, according to authorities. Martinez investigators he was one of the last people to see Marina alive. He claimed that on October 6, 2019, he dropped the teen off in Sutter Creek and had not seen her afterward. But investigators continued to examine the timeline and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Authorities later determined that Martinez left the United States and traveled to Mexico shortly after Marina vanished, a development that intensified scrutiny around his role in the case of over the years, investigators revisited evidence, interviewed witnesses and continued to build the case. At one point, Martinez had already come under investigation and had even been arrested in connection with Marquinez disappearance. But prosecutors said the evidence available at the time was largely circumstantial and insufficient to sustain a murder charge in court. Without stronger proof, the case remained unresolved. For Marquina's family, the years that followed were defined by uncertainty. Missing person cases often moved slowly as detectives work to assemble the evidence necessary to support a prosecution. Now, authorities say, investigators have reached that threshold. Martinez was arrested on March 13 and has now been formally charged with murder in connection with Martinez disappearance. Officials have not publicly disclosed the full scope of the evidence behind the charge, which is common as a case prepares to move through the court system. Even with the arrest, significant questions remain about what happened to Markina after she disappeared in 2019. But for Marquina's family, the filing of a murder charge represents a long awaited development in a case that has lingered for years without resolution. The case now moves into the court system where Martinez is expected to face arraignment in the coming weeks as prosecutors begin presenting their evidence from one investigation finally reaching a turning point. We move now to a case that is only just beginning, and what police discovered when they arrived is deeply troubling. As of March 16, a West Virginia man is in custody after authorities say a welfare check led deputies to a disturbing discovery outside his home. A woman found dead on the porch while a 2 year old child remained inside the residence. Investigators say 35 year old Leroy Hunt now faces charges in connection with the death of his wife, 26 year old Christina Hunt at the couple's home in Mingo County, West Virginia. Authorities say the investigation began began on March 13 when a neighbor contacted police and requested a welfare check at the residence. When deputies with the Mingo County Sheriff's Office arrived, they found Christina Hunt lying on the front porch, her body covered with a blanket. Inside the home. Deputies also located the couple's two year old child, who authorities say was unharmed. As investigators began securing the scene, they encountered Leroy Hunt at the residence, according to authorities. The situation briefly escalated into a standoff while deputies worked to ensure the safety of the child and secure the property. Officials say Hunt eventually surrendered to deputies without further incident and was taken into custody. Investigators allege that leroy Hunt shot Christina Hunt as she was entering the home. Authorities also say he fired a weapon toward a nearby hillside during the incident, actions investigators say, placed the young child inside the house at risk. Hunt has since been charged with first degree murder and child neglect, creating risk of injury, according to law enforcement officials. The child was safely removed from the home following the incident. Investigators are continuing to work to establish the full sequence of events leading up to Christina Hunt's death as the case moves forward through the court system. For now, the case shifts from investigation to prosecution while a community grapples with the loss of a life and the shock of violence unfolding at a family home.
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My name is Sarah Turney. I spent years fighting for justice for my missing sister, Alyssa Turney, before an arrest was finally made in her case after nearly 20 years. I know what it's like to fight for media attention, for answers, and for justice. Justice. On my podcast, Voices for Justice, I provide unique insight into these tragic cases because I know what it's like to not just listen to these stories, but to live them. Listen to Voices for Justice in your favorite podcast player today.
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Before you go, let me tell you what else is happening at Crime House. This week on the Final Hours, we examined one of the most haunting clues in a missing person's investigation a photograph discovered far from where a young woman vanished in the years after Tara Lee Calico disappeared during a bike ride in New Mexico in 1988, a Polaroid photograph surfaced in a Florida parking lot. The image showed a young woman and a boy bound with tape in the back of a van. For decades, investigators and Calico's family debated whether the woman in the photo could be Tara. The photograph raised terrifying possibilities but offered few clear answers. It was a single frozen moment with no confirmed location, no known photographer, and no definitive identification of the people inside it. And yet that image became one of the most discussed pieces of evidence in the entire case. Photographs have a strange power in criminal investigations. They can capture details witnesses miss and preserve moments that investigators later analyze frame by frame. But sometimes they also introduce new mysteries, raising questions no one can easily answer. Here are five cases where a single photograph became one of the most important clues in an unsolved mystery. The Dyatlov Pass Expedition Photos In February 1959, nine experienced hikers died under mysterious circumstances in the Ural Mountains of Russia. When rescuers finally located the group's abandoned tent and the bodies scattered across the snowy landscape, investigators recovered several cameras belonging to the hikers. Inside those cameras were photographs taken during the group's final days in the mountains. The images showed the hikers smiling, building camp and trekking through de deep snow shortly before everything went wrong. But the final frames raised new questions. One photograph appeared to capture an unidentified glowing object in the night sky. Another showed blurred shapes in the darkness, possibly taken during a moment of panic. Over the years, researchers have studied these photographs repeatedly, hoping they might reveal what forced the hikers to flee their tent in the middle of the night. While modern theories point to a rare avalanche event, the photographs remain some of the most haunting artifacts from the expedition. Visual fragments from the last moments of a mystery that continues to fascinate investigators and historians. The Babes in the woods photo in 1985, a photograph discovered among the belongings of a murder suspect would eventually help unlock one of the most complex cold cases in American history. The image showed an unidentified woman standing beside a young girl near a wooded area. For years, investigators did not know who either person in the photograph was. The image resurfaced decades later during renewed efforts to identify victims discovered in barrels in Bear Brook State park in New Hampshire. Through advanced genetic genealogy and renewed investigation, authorities eventually identified the woman in the photo as Denise Beaudin and the girl as her daughter Dawn. The photograph helped confirm a critical connection between the victims and the suspect responsible for the killings. What had once been a puzzling image tucked among old belongings ultimately became a key piece of evidence link identities to one of the most infamous cold cases in the country. The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Photograph when three lighthouse keepers vanished from the remote Flannan Isles in December 1900, investigators found no clear explanation for their disappearance. The lamps had been tended, yet the men were gone. Among the items left behind were photographs taken during the lighthouse's construction and operation. One image in particular has drawn attention from historians and mystery enthusiasts. A photograph showing the lighthouse keepers standing together outside the structure shortly before their disappearance. The photograph itself does not explain what happened, but it preserved a moment of normalcy before the unexplained event. Over time, the image became a symbolic piece of the mystery, the last visual record of the men before they vanished from one of the most isolated outposts in the North Atlantic. The Hinterkaifeck Family Photograph the Hinterkaifeck murders remain one of Germany's most baffling unsolved crimes. Times In March 1922, six members of a rural farming family were murdered at their isolated homestead in Bavaria. Investigators believe the killer may have lived on the property for days before and after the murders. Among the items preserved from the case was a family photograph showing several of the victims together before the crime. The image itself did not identify the killer, but it later became part of the evidence studied by investigators and historians trying to understand the dynamics of the household. Because the case occurred long before modern forensic techniques existed, photographs of the family and the farm became some of the only surviving records of life at Hinterkaifeck before the murders. The images continue to be analyzed by researchers hoping they might reveal overlooked clues about relationships, routines, or potential suspects. The Yuba County Five Photograph when five young men vanished after attending a basketball game In California in 1978, investigators eventually discovered their abandoned car in a remote mountain area. Months later, the body of one of the men was found inside a Forest Service trailer high in the mountains. Among the items recovered during the investigation were photographs taken earlier that evening at the basketball game. The pictures showed the group laughing and celebrating their team's victory shortly before they began the drive that would end in disappearance. The images offered investigators a final glimpse into the men's movements and state of mind before their journey took a mysterious turn. Although the photographs themselves did not reveal what happened after the group left the game, they remain a poignant record of the final known moments before the case became one of California's most enduring mysteries. Why Photographs Can Become Crucial Evidence A photograph freezes a moment in time, capturing details that might otherwise disappear. Investigators can examine backgrounds, shadows, objects and expressions that might have seemed insignificant when the picture was taken. But photographs can also complicate investigations. Investigations A single image may raise more questions than it who took the photo? When exactly was it captured? What happened before or after the moment preserved on film without context, an image becomes a puzzle, one that investigators and the public may spend decades trying to solve. The photograph connected to Tara Leigh Calico's disappearance remains one of the most unsettling clues in a missing person's case. It captured a moment that might have revealed detective truth, but only if investigators could determine where, when and why it was taken. For the full story behind the Polaroid mystery and the investigation that followed Tara Leigh Calico's disappearance, listen to today's episode of the Final Hours. Because sometimes a single photograph can keep a mystery alive for generations, you've been listening to Crime House 24. 7, 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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Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, check out the new Crime House original the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Listen to and follow the Final Hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.
Crime House 24/7
Episode: Teens Accused of Plotting School Bathroom Killing in ‘Blood Ritual’
Host: Vanessa Richardson
Date: March 17, 2026
Overview
This episode brings you the latest breaking true-crime news, with a focus on a disturbing case out of Florida where two teenage girls are accused of plotting a violent ritualistic killing at their high school. The host, Vanessa Richardson, provides an in-depth breakdown of the case’s chilling details, the evidence, and courtroom developments, then briefly covers high-profile updates involving Mexican cartel operations, a reopened California cold case, and a domestic homicide in West Virginia. The episode closes with an exploration of how a single photograph can become a central clue in unsolved mysteries.
Key Segment 1: Florida Teens Accused of Plotting School ‘Blood Ritual’ Killing
[02:59 – 12:55]
Main Story Line
Evidence and Courtroom Developments
Legal Context
Social and Cultural Impact
Key Segment 2: Updates on Major Cartel Takedown in Mexico
[12:55 – 14:14]
Key Segment 3: California Cold Case Arrest
[14:14 – 16:50]
Key Segment 4: West Virginia Domestic Homicide
[16:50 – 19:35]
Feature: The Power of Photographic Evidence in Crime Investigations
[21:06 – 28:48]
Highlighted Cases:
Why Photos Matter:
Notable Quotes
Further Listening
Summary
This episode delivers a powerful and concise overview of four major breaking crime stories, with the in-depth account of the foiled school murder plot in Florida standing out for its unsettling insight into teenage psychology, legal process, and the role of digital evidence. Vanessa Richardson provides clear and measured narration, drawing attention to how ordinary moments—captured on video or in photographs—can become pivotal in the pursuit of justice or the unraveling of a mystery. The case against the Florida teens serves as a particularly stark reminder of the ongoing challenges facing schools, families, and courts in identifying danger before tragedy strikes.