The Biggest True Crime Stories Making Headlines In 2023 (2024)

The Investigation Of The 'Moscow Murders' At The University Of Idaho

In November 2022, a student at the University of Idaho called 911 to report an “unconscious individual.” When authorities arrived at the scene, an off-campus house near the university, the door was open, and they ultimately found not one unconscious person, but four deceased individuals inside. An Idaho coroner ruled all four deaths homicides by stabbing.

The victims were identified as Kaylee Goncalves (21), Madison Mogen (21), Ethan Chapin (20), and Xana Kernodle (20). Three of the four students rented the home together, and all were reportedly close friends; the day of the murders, Goncalves posted a picture of herself and the three others on her Instagram. Police also identified two other students who lived in the home and who survived the attack unharmed; authorities didn’t name these students, and Aaron Snell, communications director for the Idaho State Police, only revealed, “Potentially they are witnesses, potentially they are victims.”

In the weeks following the murders, police failed to identify a suspect but cleared all four victims of any suspicion. They also announced they found no murder weapon at the scene.

TikTok swarmed the case soon after news of the murders went public, and theories began cropping up rapidly. Some online sleuths cast suspicion on the two roommates who survived the attack, while others blamed a local food truck driver who spoke to the victims the night of the murders; police have ruled out all of these individuals. This speculation reportedly resulted in “harassment, defamation,and doxxing,” and one professor even filed a lawsuit after a TikTok user alleged she “planned” the murders.

On December 30, police arrested 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D. candidate studying criminology at nearby Washington State University. Kohberger had reportedly been following the quadruple homicide in the news and was “shocked” to be arrested. Kohberger became a suspect after authorities matched DNA collected from the crime scene with genetic information one of his family members submitted to a genealogy website. Though Kohberger is reportedly the sole suspect in the case, he has not been convicted of any wrongdoing.

The Trial Of Alex Murdaugh Began

As of February 2023, Alex Murdaugh is on trial for the murders of his wife (Margaret) and son (Paul), though he maintains he had nothing to do with their deaths (which occurred on June 7, 2021). However, Murdaugh is also facing more than 100 charges related to various financial crimes.

Murdaugh is the scion of a wealthy and prestigious South Carolina family, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all served as high-ranking prosecutors in the state. Despite his wealth and status, Murdaugh has been linked to an increasingly bizarre web of intrigue and wrongdoing, which began in 2021.

On September 4, 2021, Murdaugh was injured in a seemingly random roadside shooting. Two days later, he resigned from his family's law firm to undergo treatment for opioid addiction. Soon, authorities would learn that Murdaugh's roadside incident was arranged by Murdaugh himself; his plan was to hire someone to kill him so his older son could collect his $10 million life insurance policy. State investigators also announced that they were opening an investigation in the death of Murdaugh's housekeeper, who perished at the family home in 2018.

In addition to these allegations, over the next two years Murdaugh would face charges including but not limited to money laundering, computer crimes, forgery, fraud, criminal conspiracy, tax evasion, and narcotics offenses. On July 14, 2022, Murdaugh was indicted for the double murder of his wife and son. In December, state prosecutors argued that "Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and 'escape the accountability' for his string of financial crimes."

Before he was killed, Murdaugh's youngest son, Paul, was indicted for boating under the influence, after a boating accident led to the death of Mallory Beach, one of Paul's friends. Murdaugh was accused of trying to cover up his son's transgressions.

After delving further into the deaths of Murdaugh's son and wife, police also reopened the investigation into the 2015 death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith. According to the Netflix docuseries, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, investigators received many tips that Murdaugh's older son, Buster, may have been involved in Smith's demise.

On January 23, 2023, jury selection for the deaths of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh began.

The Remains Of A Jane Doe Were Identified As A Woman Missing Since 1987

In November 2008, skeletal human remains were discovered on remote land off-limits to non-tribal citizens within the Yakima Reservation in Washington, and the individual remained a Jane Doe for almost 15 years.

In early January 2023, Yakima County coroner Jim Curtice confirmed the remains as those of Daisy Mae Heath, also known as Daisy Tallman. While investigators did attempt a traditional DNA test in 2008, they were unable to develop a useful DNA profile, and the case went cold. In 2002, however, Curtice's office worked with Othram, a private forensic genealogy service devoted to closing long-unsolved cases and identifying unidentified remains. By comparing a comprehensive DNA profile to a DNA reference provided by her family, they were able to confirm that the Jane Doe is, in fact, Heath-Tallman.

Daisy Mae Heath was last seen in October 1987 and was reported missing two months later. It was not unusual for her to spend time unaccounted for, as she often hunted and fished for extended periods, and also regularly visited friends and family at the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. She was mourning the loss of both her infant daughter and grandmother in 1986, and at the time of her disappearance, the 29-year-old had been living with her sister. A backpack belonging to Heath-Tallman was found near the remains in 2008, along with her keys and a turquoise ring.

The cause of death will remain mysterious until more information comes to light. The FBI is treating the case as suspected homicide, according to Curtice. “I am hopeful that this may help with the healing process for family and friends,” he said.

Her identification drew attention to the unsolved murders or suspicious deaths of at least 14 Native women in Yakima and nearby Klickitat County throughout the 1980s and '90s.

More Than 31 Years After Disappearing, A Pittsburgh Woman Was Found In A Puerto Rican Nursing Home

In 1992, Patricia Kopta of Ross Township near Pittsburgh, PA, disappeared. At the time 52 years old, she was known as a “street preacher” nicknamed “The Sparrow," because of her small build, and had a history of mental illness, according to officials and her family. Her family believed she had died, but in 2023, she was found alive, at age 83, at a nursing home in Puerto Rico.

At a news conference, Ross Township Police Chief Brian Kohlhepp said Kopta had been found wandering around northern Puerto Rico before she was taken to an adult day care home in 1999, hinting that she had arrived via cruise ship. Eventually, Kopta, who has dementia, shared information with employees of the nursing home that led to details about her past. In 2022, the employees contacted police in Ross Township, and sent officials a DNA sample from Kopta. It was a match to two of her relatives.

Patricia and her husband, Bob Kopta, 86, had been married for 20 years when she went missing. He and her family said she was worried at the time that she might be put in a home because of her mental struggles. They don't know how she ended up in Puerto Rico, but said she liked to vacation there.

She had been a model, dance instructor, and worked in finance and as an elevator operator before she began showing signs of what was possibly schizophrenia, and walked through the streets talking about the end of the world. Then, “I come home one night, and she’s just gone,” Bob Kopta told The Associated Press.

Bob, who never remarried, said he doesn't plan to visit his wife, but is happy that she is in a safe, caring place.

“She could have come home at any time,” he said. “She always said she wanted to go to a warm climate.”

Patricia's twin sister died before knowing that her sister had been found.

An Unknown Woman Found In A Sack In Arizona Was Identified 52 Years Later

On January 23, 1971, 2 miles easy of Highway 93 in Arizona, an unidentified woman was found dead in a canvas sack printed with the words “Deer-Pak Ames Harris Neville Co.” She was about 35 to 40 years old, with curly brown hair, and wore a blouse, black cardigan, “and burnt-orange stretch pants with the following tab inside: ‘Symphony, it’s what’s happening…’” She also wore black leather boots “and bobby sox, possibly white at one time.”

In January 2023, 52 years later, she was finally identified as Colleen Audrey Rice after the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigation Unit set up a fund to raise $6,500 from the public to test her DNA.

In October 2021, the SIU asked for the public’s help identifying her, and released a sketch of what she might have looked like. Investigators then wanted to see if advanced DNA testing would help, and in 2022 set up the public fund, which reached its goal in just five days.

Forensic genetic genealogy helped identify her as Colleen Audrey Rice, who was born in 1931 in Portsmouth, OH. She got married in 1946 but did not get along with her family, so they are not sure why she ended up in Arizona. Investigators are still seeking the public’s help in finding out more about her life in Arizona, and searching for who killed her.

Viktoria Nasyrova Was Sentenced To 21 Years In Prison For Attempting To Kill Her Lookalike With Poisoned Cheesecake

On April 20, 2023, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder sentenced Viktoria Nasyrova of Brooklyn to 21 years in prison for an identity-theft plot in which she attempted to murder her beautician, who looked like her, by poisoning her cheesecake. A jury found her guilty of the 2016 attempted poisoning and other charges in February 2023. Her friend, eyelash stylist Olga Tsvyk, survived, and spoke at the sentencing.

Holder called Nasyrova "an extremely dangerous woman” and said her crimes were “diabolical.”

According to the New York Post, Nasyrova's response to the judge in court after he announced her sentencing was “F**k you.”

Prosecutors said Nasyrova, who is from Russia, used a poison available only in Russia. She brought the cheesecake to Tsvyk's house for an eyelash touch-up appointment and ate two poison-free slices while offering a slice to Tsvyk.

Twenty minutes later, Tsvyk started to feel sick and went to lie down. Her friend found her unconscious the following day with pills scattered around her, as Nasyrova had reportedly tried to make it look like Tsvyk had taken her own life. She did not succeed, but did steal Tsvyk's passport, work permit, jewelry, and $4,000 cash.

Nasyrova was convicted of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree attempted assault, second-degree assault, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, and petit larceny.