Adam Janos is a New York City-based writer and reporter. In addition to his work for A&E's Real Crime blog, he has reported for The Wall Street Journal and The Budapest Times, amongst others.
After the 2005 disappearance of Teresa Halbach, 16-year-old Brendan Dassey confessed to police that he and his uncle, Steven Avery, raped and murdered her. But Dassey later recanted his confession, suggesting that he'd been coerced into telling the police what they wanted to hear. The jury didn't buy it and sentenced him to life in prison.
With the national homicide-clearance rate below 60 percent, the odds are good that eventually a detective—even an excellent one—will run into a dead end: The case that goes cold, that leaves a family grieving without justice and a detective grasping for answers, even after retirement.
A&E True Crime looks at some of the most famous cases of abused people fighting back, sometimes with deadly results.
For over a century, electricity has been used as the ultimate punishment on criminals who've gone violently astray of the law. Soon, it may be used to rehabilitate them. In July 2018, a new study was released suggesting that running electrical currents through people's brains reduces their desire to commit acts of aggression.
In 1991, Miguel Angel Martinez,17, Manuel 'Milo' Flores,17, and Miguel Angel Venegas, Jr.,16, each played a role in a triple axe-and-knife murder that rocked the small city of Laredo, Texas. The motivation behind the crime remains a mystery. Martinez and Venegas tell their stories in 'I Am a Killer,' available on Netflix.
Move over fingerprints—an exciting new field of forensics has emerged: DNA phenotyping, where investigators interpret DNA left behind at a crime scene to make predictions about what the perpetrator might look like. We spoke with Ellen Greytak, a bioinformatics expert, to learn more about the use and limitations of this new science.
A&E True Crime spoke with forensic podiatrist Dr. Michael Nirenberg to learn about the differences between footprints and fingerprints and why foot evidence can be so valuable to law enforcement.
After the recent high-profile murder of Bronx teen Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, the spotlight is on the gang cops say is responsible, the Trinitarios, and the unique reaction to the violence from the community.
