USA Today True Crime

TRUE CRIME OWES MUCH OF ITS APPEAL AS A GENRE to the dogged work of local journalists. Their efforts to report the truth—no matter how heinous the circumstances—illuminate and inform while capturing our attention. Their efforts also can strengthen their communities, even in dark times. The stories, of course, are fascinating. They can propel us into the mind of a madman, highlight clues to long-unsolved mysteries and reassure us that sometimes courage and perseverance can overcome the horrors of what some people do. Behind every story that shocks a community or grips a nation are the countless days, weeks and months that local journalists commit to examining what happened. They fight to gain access to public records. They set aside their own revulsion to conduct fair and objective interviews. They strive…

THEY MET BEFORE THE GUNSHOTS, before the wounds and before their hopes of becoming professional basketball players died on the New Jersey Turnpike. By 1998, Danny Reyes, Rayshawn Brown, Jarmaine Grant and Keshon Moore were at their physical peak and full of ambition. They shared similar upbringings in similar New York neighborhoods, with aspirations of moving their families out of crowded apartment buildings and away from loud streets. Reyes was one of four kids raised by a single mom. At 13, he was 6 foot 3 and a key player on his team in Puerto Rico. As a kid, he moved to Staten Island and later Spanish Harlem, where his outgoing personality helped him make friends and his skills on the court would draw the attention of college recruiters. Brown was…

IN THE SUMMER AND FALL OF 2016, A serial killer stalked the streets of urban New Jersey. He attacked four women in 84 days, killing three. One of his weapons of choice: his cell phone. He used it to hunt women. To learn ways to kill people. When a murder was complete, he asked his phone for directions home. After most violent crimes, victims and their loved ones must wait and hope that police and prosecutors can bring the criminal to justice. For a group of women also affected by these New Jersey crimes, merely hoping and waiting wasn’t good enough. Police didn’t crack this case. This group of women did. They outsmarted the killer. They found him. And they stopped him. A Friendship Turns to Obsession Tifany Taylor, who…

You Have Rights They include: • The right to be notified of all related court proceedings• The right to be reasonably protected from the offender• The right to give input at sentencing• The right to information about the conviction, sentencing, imprisonment and release of the offender• The right to an order of restitution from the convicted offender• The right to be notified of these rights You can find out about your rights through a local victim/witness assistance program (usually in your local prosecutor’s office), your state attorney general’s office or your U.S. attorney’s office. You Can Get Help Many government agencies, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, charities and other groups provide services to U.S. crime victims. Two general types of services—compensation and assistance—are available for victims of crimes such as homicide, rape,…

“HIS PLAN,” SARA PITCHER RECALLED, “was to kill me. He was going to cut me up into pieces and put me into a suitcase, and he was going to go kill my mom.” Weeks before, in August 2018, Pitcher had left her soon-to-be ex-husband. She had packed up her belongings in Indiana and moved to the Phoenix area for a fresh start. At the time, Pitcher and Shawn Terry Spink, 47, were going through a divorce, and because of correspondence between their lawyers, he managed to figure out where she had gone. He also knew where her mother lived. “I moved here to be with my mom and my family because there’s nothing like blood family,” Pitcher, an Arizona native, said. Three weeks after she moved, she received a text message.…

EIGHT WOMEN AND GIRLS WERE SLAIN between 1967 and 1969, striking fear into the hearts of Michiganders. Police believed the killings were committed by one man, a handsome and well-liked college student named John Norman Collins. But Collins was convicted of only one killing, and years later, DNA evidence would reveal a startling discovery: One of the unsolved cases was tied to another man. That revelation called into question the entire list of Collins’ supposed victims and further fueled the determination of a pair of detectives who were looking at the cases with renewed vigor. Among the victims during that span of time were Mary Fleszar, 19, of Willis; Joan Schell, 20, of Plymouth; Jane Mixer, 23, of Muskegon; Maralynn Skelton, 16, of Romulus; Dawn Basom, 13, of Ypsilanti; Alice Kalom,…