The Trial: USA

The life that Chris and Shannan Watts had was slipping away. The doting wife and mom fought to keep her family together. The couple was expecting another child — a son, Nico — and they had two happy and energetic little girls already. As Shannan tried to keep her family together, her anxiety and fears intensified. Her husband had been acting strangely. She suspected an affair but he denied it as he went through the motions of his life as a suburban husband and father.In actuality, Chris Watts had become a stranger.This installment of The Trial: USA’s special series on Chris Watts explores his life of cheating, dating app activity and fabrications leading up to the point where he murdered his entire family on Aug. 13, 2018 — nearly eight years ago.The couple’s children, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, became victims in one of the most heartbreaking and inexplicable domestic crimes in recent memory. Along with their mother, the girls were callously killed by Chris Watts, who by all accounts has exhibited no remorse since it happened. Their remains were dumped in industrial oil tanks at a site belonging to Watts’s company. Shannan was discarded in a surrounding field. You’ll hear from our interview with Amanda McMahon, who said she met Watts on Tinder and carried on a casual relationship with him for months beginning the spring of 2017. We also explore his steamy romance with Nichol Kessinger, a co-worker who Watts was enamored with in the lead up to the killings. The Trial: USA’s Kayla Brantley dives deep into Chris Watts’s sordid hidden life before he annihilated his family, joined by Crime Desk reporters Luke Kenton, Steve Helling and Rachel Sharp.The entire Chris Watts Unmasked series is available right now, ad free, to crime desk subscribers. Subscribe today for ad-free listening, early access to new shows, exclusive bonus episodes and complete access to our true-crime podcast collection. Visit plus.thecrimedesk.com/the-trial-usa for more information.Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter. It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.Follow us on TikTok: @DailyMailCrimeEmail us: thetrial@dailymail.comWhatsApp us: +44 7796 657512 Start your message with TrialPresenter: Kayla BrantleyProducers: Shayna Jacobs and Sam MorrisCreative Director: Caroline CheethamExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melissa Barthelemy went missing in 2009 when her doting kid sister Amanda Funderburg was just 15.Amid a desperate search, Amanda began getting calls from Melissa's phone. The teen hoped it was good sign — that Melissa resurfaced or that someone had information. Instead, it was the first of a series of calls from a deranged stranger who bragged about killing and sexually assaulting the 24-year-old Buffalo native.The caller refused Amanda's pleas to share her sister's location. Amanda spent years dreading the possibility that the "repulsive monster" would reemerge. Seventeen years after the first call, Amanda got to face Rex Heuermann in court. He was finally in custody and no longer a threat to Melissa’s family or anyone else. Heuermann is serving more than three life sentences after pleading guilty in connection to eight murders. Investigators are trying to determine if he’s responsible for additional killings. On this week’s The Trial: USA, Funderburg speaks to Daily Mail reporters Ruth Bashinsky and Rachel Sharp about her sister, her family’s struggle and what Heuermann deserves.

Rex Heuermann’s victims got a measure of justice last month, but the pain and the questions linger for their families. The deranged former architect spent decades murdering sex workers and callously dumping their brutalized remains around Gilgo Beach, Long Island.Heuermann, 62, was sentenced last month to more than three life sentences in prison for eight murders. He was captured in 2023 by investigators who stealthily captured him on a midtown Manhattan street after collecting DNA evidence and tracking his activities. Anguished relatives of the young women he killed finally had the chance to address Heuermann at his June 17 sentencing. They shared with the world the torment of living without answers for years.This week on The Trial: USA, we bring you a special interview from Daily Mail reporters Rachel Sharp and Ruth Bashinsky with the family of Gilgo Beach victim Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old Maine resident who was killed in 2010.Elizabeth Meserve was among a group of victim relatives who doggedly pushed law enforcement to solve the Gilgo Beach case. She’s joined today by her niece, Liliana Waterman. Liliana is Megan’s daughter who was just 3 years old when her mom disappeared.In this episode, you’ll hear their story of pain and perseverance — and what it was like to finally see Heuermann face consequences.

It’s another chance for Alex Murdaugh to try to prove he did not callously gun down his wife and youngest son.Murdaugh was previously convicted of fatally shooting Maggie and Paul Murdaugh in a desolate area of his family’s sprawling South Carolina property.The wealthy Lowcountry lawyer got a reprieve in May when the state’s top court found an elected clerk who managed the trial had inappropriate dealings with jurors. Murdaugh was in court last week for the first time since that ruling.On this episode, the Daily Mail’s Rachel Sharp joins The Trial: USA host Kayla Brantley to break down what happened in court and what may be next.

They were materials that prosecutors say were procured for a sole purpose: murder.In this episode, we’re joined by the Daily Mail’s West Coast News Editor Marjorie Hernandez to discuss the upcoming preliminary hearing in the Los Angeles district attorney’s case against singer D4VD, or David Anthony Burke.Hernandez details what prosecutors have revealed so far, including that the young music artist made online purchases for the alleged purpose of mutilating 14-year-old Celeste Rivas and concealing the grisly crime. D4Vd has pleaded not guilty.Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter. It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world. Email us: thetrial@dailymail.com WhatsApp us: +44 7796 657512 Start your message with TrialPresenter: Kayla BrantleyProducers: Shayna Jacobs and Lucy RobsonEditor: Chelsey MooreCreative Director: Caroline CheethamExecutive Producer: Jamie East

“A demon that walks among us.”That’s what former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said about Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heurmann during an announcement of the elusive suspect’s arrest in 2023.Harrison worked on numerous headline-grabbing investigations over a 30-year career in the NYPD as an investigator and top executive but he may best be known for orchestrating the law enforcement task force that finally led to Heurmann’s capture.In a Long Island courtroom last week, Heurmann received multiple life sentences without the option of parole after pleading guilty in April. There was no apology to offer the still-shaken family members who finally had a chance to share their accounts of devastation and torment with Heurmann.Harrison joins The Trial: USA this week with a behind-the-scenes account of the effort to close one of New York’s most memorable crime investigations. He recently authored “The Commissioner: From Street Cop to Top Cop in the NYPD, and the Inside Story of the Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.” Email us: thetrial@dailymail.com WhatsApp us: +44 7796 657512 Start your message with Trial USAPresenter: Kayla BrantleyProducers: Shayna Jacobs and Lucy RobsonEditor: Chelsey MooreCreative Director: Caroline CheethamExecutive Producer: Jamie EastClick here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter. It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world. 

Karmelo Anthony’s lethal force against Austin Metcalf during a 2025 teenage track meet scuffle was not justified.  That was the finding of the Texas jury in Anthony’s case last week. The same panel sentenced the 19-year-old to 35 years in prison for murder.Yet the conviction remains a topic of intense interest and controversy. It has been framed as a racial injustice by Anthony’s supporters despite testimony from a number of witnesses that he was not in danger. Metcalf, 17, another local athlete, died for nothing and the verdict was deserved, others say.In this episode, James Stainton, a district attorney from another county in the greater Dallas area, breaks down the law and how it applies.   Stainton explains to The Trial: USA’s Kayla Brantley that the jury followed the law. Tune in for this in-depth analysis on Anthony’s case. 

Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial happened in Texas but the case has triggered strong reactions from observers around the country. The 19-year-old’s legal team argued self-defense but witnesses told the jury that Anthony was never in danger. He was simply being asked to leave a private area belonging to a rival high school’s track squad.Daily Mail’s Texas Bureau Chief MaryAnn Martinez joins us this week to break down the evidence and dispel misinformation that has been amplified on social media. Unsubstantiated theories have circulated since April 2025, when 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was killed. He died in the arms of his twin brother.Anthony was found guilty of murder at his trial last week and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The verdict has renewed accusations of racism from his supporters even as the jury rejected his justification defense. Tune into Martinez’s conversation with Kayla Brantley to learn what the evidence at trial revealed and what claims are not supported by fact.

Cartisha Morgan came to CrimeCon in the hopes of bringing attention to the case of her missing daughter and young grandchild, a toddler when she vanished. Morgan believes her daughter Ma’Kayla Wickerson bought into the teachings of a group that police have called a cult before disappearing with the tot from their Missouri home. Another family was at the event to ask to promote their campaign for answers. Christopher Abeyta, a 7-month-old, was stolen from his crib in Colorado Springs nearly 40 years ago. His family, including a niece he never met, wants police to focus on a woman who they believe may have gotten away with the crime. They hope that person can explain what happened to baby Christopher. The episode this week brings you a roundup of these stories and others from the Crime Desk team at CrimeCon 2026 in Las Vegas. Email us: thetrial@dailymail.com WhatsApp us: +44 7796 657512 Start your message with TrialPresenter: Kayla BrantleyProducers: Shayna Jacobs and Lucy RobsonEditor: Chelsey RanoreCreative Director: Caroline CheethamExecutive Producer: Jamie East