Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Bombshell new evidence in the Lynette Hooker investigation suggests Brian Hooker’s story about what happened the night his wife vanished in the Bahamas was a lie. According to Lynette Hooker’s family, she did not fall off the back of the dinghy as Brian claimed. Instead, sources with knowledge of the investigation say evidence shows Lynette made it back to the couple’s sailboat, Soulmate, where there were signs of a fight, evidence of foul play, and evidence that Lynette was dead on board.

Just days after Nancy Guthrie vanished, a fake Bitcoin ransom scammer tried to exploit her family’s worst nightmare. Five months later, on July 2, Derrick Callella, a 42-year-old man from Hawthorne, California, pleaded guilty after prosecutors said he sent Bitcoin-related ransom messages to Nancy Guthrie’s family after she vanished and after an earlier ransom demand had already been made. Derrick Callella is expected to receive 5 years probation, not prison, when he is sentenced on Sept. 10.
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by former homicide prosecutor Matt Murphy, author of The Book of Murder and host of the podcast In The Well on MK True Crime, to discuss whether this punishment fits the crime and what the case could mean for scammers who target grieving families during active criminal investigations.

The Nancy Guthrie case just got even more confusing, as the FBI is now pushing back on reports that every alleged ransom note tied to Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother was fake. Reuters reported that FBI sources believe all of the ransom-related messages are bogus, but TMZ’s Harvey Levin says his FBI contacts are telling him something very different: that some of the original ransom demands may still be considered potentially legitimate. 
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield breaks down the chaos over the Nancy Guthrie ransom notes, the FBI’s new statement saying the case is still being investigated as a kidnapping for ransom, the role of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, and why the alleged messages sent to media outlets have become such a critical and controversial part of the investigation. Ashleigh is joined by James Hamilton, former FBI Supervisory Special Agent and founder of Hamilton Security Group, to discuss how investigators evaluate ransom demands, why different FBI sources may be giving different assessments, and what this latest twist means for the search for Nancy Guthrie.
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Alex Murdaugh is heading back to court for a new murder trial in 2027, and one overlooked piece of evidence could become a major problem for prosecutors: unknown male DNA found under Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernail. 
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield breaks down the latest pretrial hearing in the Murdaugh murders case with Peter Tragos, host of The Lawyer You Know, including the defense’s argument that Alex Murdaugh’s orange jumpsuit and shackles could poison the jury pool before the retrial even begins, why mystery male DNA under Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernail may get new attention with modern testing, how much of Murdaugh’s financial crimes history jurors may hear, the Becky Hill jury tampering fallout, and whether Alex Murdaugh has a real shot at beating the murder charges this time around.
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Lawyer You Know: https://www.youtube.com/@LawyerYouKnow
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A critical new detail in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping mystery may help explain why investigators have been taking the first ransom note so seriously. According to new reporting from CBS, the first ransom note received on February 2, 2026, included a highly specific detail about Nancy Guthrie’s Apple Watch: that it had a white band and was on the floor of Nancy's bedroom. 
In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield is joined by Crime Junkie Breaking News Reporter, Brianna Whitney, who has seen the wording of the ransom notes and shares what stood out to her, including the strange language, the apology, and what it was like reporting on the Nancy Guthrie case in real time as the first clues were coming in.