Thank you for joining us for the first season of True Crime Reports. We are gearing up for a thrilling second season! After a groundbreaking first run exploring global crime stories, we’re excited to bring you new mysteries, fresh investigations, and more shocking revelations. Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, catch up on all 20 episodes and share your thoughts with us. We enjoy reading your comments. See you soon!

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A shocking murder rocks South Korea when a young woman, obsessed with true crime stories, kills a random stranger to satisfy her darkest curiosity. But how can fascination with real-life murder cases spiral into deadly actions?

Are true crime podcasts and shows fueling dangerous fantasies? Can constant exposure to violence blur the line between entertainment and reality? We investigate the chilling case, examine the media's responsibility, and ask: Does true crime content do more harm than good?

True Crime Reports is nominated for the Signal Awards for Most Innovative Video Podcast and Best True Crime Podcast. While we wait for the judges' decisions, you can help us win the listeners' vote. Vote True Crime Reports for Best True Crime Podcast.

In this episode:

• Dr Alex Taek-Gwang Lee (@Worldless), Professor of cultural studies at Kyong Hee University
• Craig Wainwright, Victim of false accusations

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez

Production Manager: Bronte Baskin

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak and Catherine Nouhan

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman, Catherine Nouhan, and Rached El-Moctar

Audio editing by Alan Leer

Music composition by Tom Biddle

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez

Connect with us:

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Esmond Bradley Martin spent decades going undercover in the dangerous world of ivory and rhino horn trafficking, risking his life to expose shadowy smuggling rings and the powerful figures protecting them.

But just as he was preparing to reveal his most explosive findings yet, Esmond was found murdered in his grand Nairobi home.

Was this the revenge of an illegal wildlife syndicate he’d finally crossed, or is there more to Esmond’s death? Was it because of his work - or was it a different reason altogether?

True Crime Reports is nominated for the Signal Awards for Most Innovative Video Podcast and Best True Crime Podcast. While we wait for the judges' decisions, you can help us win the listeners' vote. Vote True Crime Reports for Best True Crime Podcast.

In this episode:

• Dr Paula Kahumbu, (@paulakahumbu), conservationist and campaigner
• Dan Stiles, (@Kenyadan10), Wildlife Trade Investigator

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez

Production Manager: Bronte Baskin

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak and Catherine Nouhan

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman, Catherine Nouhan, and Rached El-Moctar

Audio editing by Alan Leer

Music composition by Tom Biddle

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez

Connect with us:

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After her son was kidnapped in 1988, a mother spent 32 years looking for him. Never giving up, she put up over 100,000 flyers and travelled across the country. But little did she know, she wasn’t alone in this nightmare.

As many as 200,000 children go missing in China every year, a number that links back to the 1970s, the One Child Policy and a dangerous industry of child trafficking.

What’s happening to China’s children?

True Crime Reports is nominated for the Signal Awards for Most Innovative Video Podcast and Best True Crime Podcast. While we wait for the judges' decisions, you can help us win the listeners' vote. Vote True Crime Reports for Best True Crime Podcast.

In this episode:

• Nikwi Hoogland, (@mynameislifang), Founder, Adoptiepedia
• Jingxian Wang, (@notts_jingxian), Child Trafficking Expert

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez

Production Manager: Bronte Baskin

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak and Catherine Nouhan

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman and Catherine Nouhan

Audio editing by Alan Leer

Music composition by Tom Biddle

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Ross Ulbricht built an empire in the shadows—a sprawling digital bazaar called The Silk Road, hidden on the dark web. There, drugs, weapons, and stolen secrets flowed freely, all paid for in untraceable cryptocurrency. To his global clientele, he was a legend: the Dread Pirate Roberts. But after a dramatic arrest and a staggering double life sentence, Ulbricht’s fate took another twist. Just days into his second term, President Trump pardoned him, sparking outrage and debate.

So, did he deserve his punishment? Did justice prevail, or was power at play? And how did a digital outlaw become the ultimate wild card in America’s justice system?

True Crime Reports is nominated for the Signal Awards for Most Innovative Video Podcast and Best True Crime Podcast. While we wait for the judges' decisions, you can help us win the listeners' vote. Vote True Crime Reports for Best True Crime Podcast.

In this episode:

Nicholas Cristin (@nc2y), Online Crime Professor at Carnegie Mellon University

David Yaffe-Bellany (@yaffebellany), Technology Reporter for the New York Times

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez

Production Manager: Bronte Baskin

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak and Catherine Nouhan

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman and Catherine Nouhan

Audio editing by Alan Leer

Music composition by Tom Biddle

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube

Far out in the Pacific, Pitcairn Island was once seen as an untouched paradise.

But beneath the tranquil surface, police uncovered years of devastating abuse—crimes against women and girls that everyone knew about, but no one stopped. When the truth finally emerged, it exploded into a global scandal that shattered lives and exposed a legacy of silence and betrayal. In a place so isolated, can justice ever truly reach the people who need it most?

In this episode:

• Dennis McGookin, Former Detective Superintendent
• Sue Farran, Law Professor at Newcastle University

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez.

Production Manager: Bronte Baskin.

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf and Bronte Baskin..

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak and Catherine Nouhan.

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman and Rached El-Moctar.

Audio editing by Alan Leer.

Music composition by Tom Biddle.

Translation by Diana Larrea Maccise and Ney Alvarez.

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik.

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio.

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube

Karen Rodríguez was kidnapped and murdered by one of Mexico’s most feared cartels in 2014. Most families would have been forced into silence, but not hers.

Refusing to give up, her mum, Miriam Rodríguez, launched her own relentless quest for justice. In a country where cartels operate with impunity, kidnappings are commonplace, and speaking out can get you killed, Miriam’s fearless pursuit turned her into an unlikely hero—and a target.

This is an extraordinary story of a mother’s determination to bring her daughter’s killers to justice and the high price she paid for defying the power of the cartels.

In this episode:

• Ricardo Ravelo (@RRavelo27), journalist
• María Jaramillo Alanís, journalist

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez.

Production Managers: Bronte Baskin.

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf and Bronte Baskin.

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak, Sophie McNulty, and Catherine Nouhan.

Fact-checking by Catherine Nouhan

Audio editing by Alan Leer.

Music composition by Tom Biddle.

Translation by Diana Larrea Maccise and Ney Alvarez.

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik.

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio.

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube

In the late 1990s, the quiet of a small Russian town was shattered when Irina Ganyushkina stumbled into a police station—an escapee from a living nightmare. Irina revealed to authorities that she was one of five women kidnapped and held captive in a secret underground bunker by a notorious serial killer: Aleksandr Komin, chillingly nicknamed ‘the maniac.’ For Irina and the other survivors, freedom was only the beginning. In a country where women’s stories of violence are too often dismissed, they now faced a new challenge: rebuilding their lives after unimaginable horror.

In this episode:

• Dariana Gryaznova, human rights lawyer

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.

Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez.

Production Managers: Bronte Baskin.

Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf and Bronte Baskin.

Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak, Sophie McNulty, and Catherine Nouhan.

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman, Catherine Nouhan, and Rached El-Moctar.

Audio editing by Alan Leer.

Music composition by Tom Biddle.

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik.

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio.

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube