Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski
@hiddenkillerswithtonybrueski · Podcast
Latest segments
- Murdaugh retrial hearing, 2026-10-24
Recaps the polygraph claims from the hearing
Recaps the polygraph exchange from the October 15 hearing, adding that Harpootlian and Griffin claimed on camera in August that Murdaugh passed with flying colors. Faddis walks through the duty of candor and possible ethics consequences; the substance stays inside the hearing's record. - Murdaugh retrial hearing, 2026-10-24
Debates the DNA testing ruling and odds
Weighs the ruling letting the defense test the unknown male DNA under both of Maggie Murdaugh's hands and on her phone. Faddis says a match would support an alternative-suspect defense; Drake argues the odds favor a benign source like a nail salon worker and doubts any tie to the killer. - Murdaugh retrial hearing, 2026-10-24
Adds the sample running out after testing
Opens on the October pre-trial hearing itself: Murdaugh in a dark suit, a two-hour session, and the DNA testing win. Adds that the testing will consume the last of the sample, a constraint not yet on the record. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Lays out Birchmore's forward-looking day
Lays out Birchmore's forward-looking day - over 600 texts, a planned baby shower, paid nursing school tuition, no note - as a hurdle for the suicide defense, then floats a defense theory that Farwell admitted the encounter and ended it on his way to his child's birth. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Debates motive behind the deleted messages
Recaps the indictment's claim that Farwell wiped every message with Birchmore before reaching home, then debates motive: Faddis says it looks like consciousness of guilt, Drake says rage rather than shame. Stays inside the deletion fact already on the record. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Reads the surveillance timeline as premeditation
Recaps the building footage - hoodie, mask, 29 minutes inside, phone dead three minutes before he leaves - and works through two defense readings of the mask before arguing the timeline reads as premeditation. Stays inside the surveillance facts already on the record. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Weighs a consensual-choking defense for the strap
Legal-analysis segment on the DNA on the duffel bag strap: whether the defense can recast it as consensual choking rather than a weapon, and whether Farwell could still take the stand with an accident theory. Stays inside facts already on the record. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Sets up the trial and the suicide ruling
Opens the episode with the case's frame: a suicide ruling that stood for over three years until the federal indictment, the grooming in the Explorers program, and the pregnancy motive. Sets up the trial and the department's infrastructure without adding anything new. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Recaps the prosecution's account of February 1
Recaps the prosecution's account of February 1, 2021 - the strangling, the staged suicide scene, the drive to the hospital where his wife was in labor - and lets a psychologist attribute the compartmentalization to a cluster B personality disorder. Retelling, with jokes about fast food stops. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Adds the psychologist's two readings of Farwell
Psychologist Shavaun Scott frames Birchmore as developmentally stuck in her teens and offers two explanations for Farwell - arrested emotional maturity or a paraphilia built on control - while the hosts recap his texts and his clumsy searches. Analysis and retelling, no new development. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Recaps the pregnancy testimony and age gap
Recaps the pregnancy announcement testimony and the age gap, with Shavaun Scott's own story of a coercive older man as a parallel. Stays inside the trial record already covered. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Reads the unsent text as a bid for leverage
Psychologist Shavaun Scott reads the unsent text to Farwell's wife as a bid for leverage: a fear of losing him and a fantasy of eventual unconditional love kept Birchmore from sending it. Speculation, not new record. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Frames the department and recaps the grooming
Opens the episode by framing the Stoughton department as a deep network of predators and introducing the two guests. Recaps the grooming from age 12 and the passing of Birchmore to Farwell's twin and other officers, all ground already on the record. - Pastor Miller's Federal Cyberstalking Indictment, 2026-10-23
Tracks Miller's flock down to a storage locker
Tracks the congregation's arc from the affair through the NewsNation interview to the present: Miller now preaches to about fifteen people in a storage locker, and the hosts puzzle over who still shows up. - Pastor Miller's Federal Cyberstalking Indictment, 2026-10-23
Plays sermon clips as gaslighting evidence
Plays sermon clips and argues the preaching was a gaslighting tactic that pre-excused Miller's conduct. The segment stays inside the established saga, adding commentary and background rather than a development in the federal case. - Pastor Miller's Federal Cyberstalking Indictment, 2026-10-23
Walks through the coercive-control theory
Opens the episode by framing Miller as a narcissistic pastor and walking through the coercive-control theory of the case. It retells the federal indictment and the Netflix allegations while repeatedly noting he was never charged in Mica's death, staying inside ground the earlier coverage already laid. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Adds the lawyer's account of a third employee
Picks up the McNamara dispute and adds her lawyer's account that the second internal investigation turned up damaging information about another unnamed former police employee, beyond Matthew and William Farwell and Devine. The rest is speculation about other victims. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-23
Adds why McNamara ordered the second probe
Adds the reason behind McNamara's leave: she ordered a second internal investigation into how the department handled a phone call about Farwell, and alleges the town manager called the resulting report a hit piece and demanded she destroy it. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-22
Weighs an immature offender against a control-driven paraphilia
Psychologist Shavaun Scott and the host speculate on Farwell's maturity, weighing an immature offender who seeks childlike partners against a control-driven paraphilia. It retells the texts about starting sooner and the deleted-message searches already in the record. - Birchmore murder trial, 2026-10-22
Frames the grooming as developmental disruption
Psychologist Shavaun Scott frames the grooming as developmental disruption, arguing Birchmore was still thinking like a teenager in her 20s, and draws on her own time at a school for pregnant girls to explain trauma bonds. Analysis and opinion, no new development in the case.