When family and friends suddenly couldn’t get ahold of two doctoral students attending the University of South Florida, alarm bells immediately started going off. This is the story of 27-year-old Zamil Limon and 27-year-old Nahida Bristy. Listen now to hear the full details.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale).

When University of Iowa student Alexander Jackson dialed 911 to report a home invasion in the early morning hours, first responders arrived to a scene that didn’t make sense — everyone inside the home had been shot and killed. Everyone except Alex.

He claimed he had struggled with an intruder, suffering a gunshot wound to his foot before the attacker fled from the house without a trace. But as investigators began to examine the evidence, cracks in Alex’s story quickly surfaced.

Within hours, police reached a chilling conclusion: there was no intruder. They believed the real danger had never even left the house — and that Alexander Jackson had murdered his entire family.

Listen now to hear the full story.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale).

Maple Batalia was beautiful, talented, and on the verge of something bigger. But as the college student and aspiring actress began gaining attention for her modeling and television work, not everyone in her life was happy to see her star rise.

When Maple was shot and killed in a parking lot on the campus of Simon Fraser University in Surrey, British Columbia, investigators uncovered a case fueled by jealousy, obsession, and betrayal.

Listen now to hear the full story.

This is a case that, for days, had family members, friends, classmates, and an entire university community desperately hoping for a different ending. This is the story of 20-year-old University of Alabama student James “Jimmy” Gracey.

Picture this: A fight breaks out on the campus of Kentucky State University. One particular college student is in danger, so his father shows up to protect him. But what begins as protection quickly escalates into gunfire. By the end of the night, one student is dead, and another is critically injured.

Then, in a twist of fate that defies almost every expectation of justice, the man who pulled the trigger walks free – while the father of the deceased student is the one who ends up behind bars.

This is a case that forces us to ask uncomfortable questions about self-defense, accountability, and how the justice system decides who is allowed to claim fear – and who pays the ultimate price for it. Listen now to hear the full story.

This episode is rated a 4 (on my Serious Crime Scale).

On April 1, 2008, 21-year-old Skye Budnick — a junior at Central Connecticut State University — boarded a one-way flight to Japan. She traveled alone. She packed lightly. And after she landed, she seemingly vanished without a trace. Her family searched desperately. They made two separate trips across the world, navigating a country they didn’t know, chasing leads, holding onto the hope that someone, somewhere, had seen Skye. But years later, Skye has never been seen again. She never came home. She never returned to American soil. Listen now to hear the full story.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale).

After Labor Day weekend in 2005, 17-year-old Taylor Behl returned to the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University eager to resume her freshman year. Away from home for the first time, Taylor was embracing the independence and excitement of college life. But when more than 24 hours passed without anyone hearing from her, concern quickly turned to alarm – and those closest to her knew something was terribly wrong.

Listen now to hear the full story.

This episode is rated a 5 (on my Serious Crime Scale).

When a beloved college student and aspiring beauty queen was found dead inside her apartment in a quiet Arkansas town, investigators quickly locked in to one single suspect – a person who insisted that the police had it all wrong. And when a jury agreed, delivering a stunning acquittal, police were forced back to square one in the hunt for her killer. Listen now to hear the full story.