Domestic violence fatalities
The archive centers victims whose deaths are tied to intimate partner violence, coercive control, stalking, separation, or documented domestic abuse patterns.
From the case files
Latest reporting
Our purpose
Remember the Victim.
Follow the Justice.
Reveal the Pattern.
A documentary archive of domestic violence fatalities built through memorial storytelling, verified records, timelines, and prevention context.
The work is designed to preserve who victims were, document what the public record supports, and help readers understand warning signs, courtroom developments, and system failures without turning violence into spectacle.
About Real Crime Stories
What we document
Fatality case files built from memorial storytelling and the record trail left behind
Warning signs and escalation
Each case can show how threats, prior police contact, protection orders, stalking, or isolation appeared before the fatal incident.
Court and public records
Court filings, police reports, dispatch logs, body-camera records, and other public documents help separate what is confirmed from what is still unresolved.
Timelines and aftermath
We track what happened before, during, and after the homicide so families and readers can see the documented sequence more clearly.
Memorial storytelling
The reporting aims to preserve the victim’s life, voice, and significance rather than reducing the case to a headline or spectacle.
Why it matters
Education, warning signs, system failures, and remembrance belong in the same frame
What readers can learn
These case files are meant to help readers recognize how violence escalates, how institutions respond, and what the public record reveals after a life is lost.
Where systems failed
Many cases raise difficult questions about prior reports, missed interventions, protection order enforcement, charging decisions, or gaps in emergency response.
Why remembrance matters
A memorial-centered archive helps keep victims visible as people with families, histories, and communities, not just subjects of a crime brief.
Case watch
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Trials we're watching now
State of Florida v. Shanna Gardner-Fernandez
Pre-trial custody; severed trial from co-defendant Mario Fernandez Saldana. · Post-separation violence, custody-dispute murder-for-hire, and financial/communication coordination.
Jared Bridegan, a Microsoft executive, was shot and killed in a targeted ambush on February 16, 2022, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. He stopped to move a tire left in the middle of a dark road while his toddler daughter was in the car. Investigation revealed a highly orchestrated murder-for-hire plot masterminded by his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, and her new husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, following a highly contentious divorce and custody battle.
Open sourceCommonwealth of Virginia v. Naresh Bhatt
Pre-trial custody; held without bond. · Intimate partner homicide prosecution without a recovered body, forensic digital footprinting, and domestic control dynamics.
Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a 28-year-old pediatric nurse and mother, disappeared in late July 2024. Her husband, Naresh Bhatt, initially gave contradictory statements about her disappearance. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after forensic investigators discovered extensive pooled blood and cleaning efforts in the family home, combined with search history regarding body disposal and the purchase of heavy-duty knives. Her remains have not been recovered.
Open sourceUnited States v. Matthew Farwell
Federal custody; held without bail. · Grooming, institutional coercive control, color-of-law exploitation, and staged-suicide forensic pathology.
Sandra Birchmore, 23, was found dead in her apartment in February 2021, which local authorities originally ruled a suicide. A federal investigation later revealed that Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton police officer, had groomed and sexually abused Birchmore since she was 15 years old through a police youth academy. When she became pregnant with his child and threatened to expose the years of abuse, Farwell allegedly strangled her to death and meticulously staged her apartment to look like a suicide.
Open source
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Listen to the reporting in longform audio
Real Crime Stories podcast
The podcast extends the archive into documentary-style episodes built from memorial context, verified facts, and public-record reporting.
S3E2 Four Minutes | The Murder of Mariah Rosanna Samuels
In August 2025, 34-year-old mother and small business owner Mariah Rosanna Samuels took critical steps to secure her safety by ending her relationship with David Eugene Wright and obtaining an Order for Protection. But...
Listen nowS3E1: She Thought It Was Over | The Murders of Spencer & Monique Tepe
Season 3 of Real Crime Stories examines domestic violence homicides through the lives of the victims, the warning signs that preceded the violence, and the investigations that followed.Monique Tepe's marriage to Michael...
Listen nowS2E5: The Playbook | Part V: The Jurisdictional Chess Match (Season Finale)
In the multi-state aftermath of an execution, the legal system is forced to confront its darkest technicalities. In the season finale of "The Playbook," Real Crime Stories pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary...
Listen now
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Follow Real Crime Stories on Facebook for case updates, memorial reporting, and new episode notices. If you have information that could help document a case, you can also submit it directly to the editorial team.
Editorial mission
Every victim deserves to be remembered with dignity, and every documented warning sign matters.
Real Crime Stories exists to preserve lives, document the public record carefully, and give families, readers, and communities a place to understand what happened without reducing victims to entertainment.