True Crime

The former "Family Feud" contestant, who joked he regretted getting married on the show, has been found guilty of murdering his then-estranged wife -- after her sister testified the victim previously said she was worried her husband would harm her.

Timothy Bliefnick was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and home invasion following a nearly week-long trial in Illinois.

You'll recall, Becky Bliefnick was found dead inside her home back in February -- and her estranged husband was charged with breaking into her home and shooting her multiple times. The former couple was living apart at the time, and in the process of divorcing.

Perhaps the most sinister testimony came when Becky's sister took the stand, and said Becky worried [Timothy] might harm her, as they fought over custody of their 3 kids.

The sister said Becky texted her in 2021, saying ... "If something ever happens to me, make sure the No. 1 person of interest is Tim."

As we previously reported, Bliefnick had joked back in 2019 -- while on "Family Feud" -- that the biggest mistake he made at his wedding was saying "I do."

A mysterious adoption more than a decade ago is getting the spotlight thanks to an upcoming docuseries ... about a Ukrainian girl who allegedly tried blending in as a small child and attempted to murder her new family.

Attorney Beth Karas joined us on "TMZ Live," giving us the scoop ahead of the first episode of ID's "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" ... which follows an American fam that adopted Natalia back in 2010, only to discover she was MUCH older. A few years in the parents believed she wasn't 8 years old ... they were sure she was around 22.

Beth says Natalia repeatedly threatened her new family with knives and even tried poisoning them.

Natalia's child persona had folks split on whether she was a kiddo or fully grown -- she would interact with young children as if she were a peer but also displayed an adult side.

Her tale has often been compared to the horror flick "Orphan" ... which came out the year before Natalia's adoption and is based on a horrifyingly-similar story.

Murder's just the tip of the iceberg with Alex Murdaugh ... the feds say he plotted with bank CEOs and other attorneys to plunder millions from clients, and the estate of the housekeeper who died mysteriously in his home.

The feds just dropped a 22-count indictment on the convicted murderer, and according to the docs ... Murdaugh had quite the operation going behind the scenes of his family's personal injury law firm.

Perhaps the most disturbing charge involves Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs' longtime housekeeper, who died in 2018 after an alleged slip and fall -- caused by the Murdaughs' dogs -- in the family's home.

According to the indictment, Murdaugh recommended Gloria's family hire another attorney ... who was one of Murdaugh's close friends.

That lawyer negotiated settlements for Gloria's death from 2 insurance companies -- Lloyds of London and Nautilus Insurance Group -- totaling about $4.3 million. However, the feds say the lion's share of that settlement got funneled into an account Murdaugh set up to look like a legit consulting firm ... but it absolutely was not.

Gloria's family members spoke out in the Netflix documentary, "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," and said they never saw a dime of the insurance payouts. This indictment backs that up, and provides an answer for where the money went ... allegedly.

The Satterfields are just one of several of Murdaugh's financial victims, according to the indictment, which details other alleged incidents of pilfering his clients' funds.

He's accused of money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Bryan Kohberger has officially pled not guilty in his quadruple murder case in which he’s accused of killing 4 University of Idaho students last year ... a plea that was entered by default as he chose to "stand silent" to the murder charges.

Kohberger was in court Monday morning in an Idaho courtroom where he was arraigned on 4 counts of first-degree murder.

Kohberger answered "yes" to the judge as he read statements about rights and identity, but when it came time to officially enter a plea, Kohberger's attorney said they'd "stand silent" -- so the judge entered a default "not guilty" plea.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Kohberger for the murders as well as 1 count of burglary. If convicted, he could face the death penalty ... although, prosecutors have not announced whether they will be seeking it.

After his arrest, the judge ordered Kohberger held without bail ahead of his trial.

As we've reported, Kohberger's being accused of sneaking into the off-campus home of the University of Idaho students ... and killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle.

A search for the killer went on for weeks before Kohberger was eventually arrested in December at his parents' home near Scranton, PA. Police had asked the public to be on the lookout for a white Hyundai Elantra that belonged to him.

Investigators later revealed they were hot on Kohberger's tail for several weeks, saying they had a description of him from one of the surviving victims -- not to mention cell phone records that showed him on the move the night of the killings.

They also say they found some of his DNA on a leather sheath found at the crime scene.

According to a search warrant, Kohberger had knives, a gun, masks, and gloves in his family's Pennsylvania home when the FBI searched the place. Authorities also say they found another knife and a shovel in his car.

Zak Bagans and Holly Madison are officially back together ... rekindling their romance nearly two years after they broke up.

Sources close to the couple tell TMZ ... Zak and Holly are an item again and, actually, had never really fallen out of touch. You'll recall, it was an amicable split back in 2021 -- and our sources say that proved to be true because they've been communicating on and off ever since.

Holly and Zak had known each other for years, but their romance didn't start until after her May 2019 visit to Zak's Haunted Museum in Las Vegas.

We're told Holly travels back and forth between L.A. and Vegas because of her kids, and Zak travels a ton for the filming of his show ... but they still find time to see each other almost every week.

The couple have kept their relationship mostly out of the public eye and have rarely been photographed together. Last month Holly wished Zak a happy birthday on IG with a photo of a clown birthday cake.

We broke the story when the "Ghost Adventures" star and former Playboy model ended their relationship after 2 years of dating.

Both of them have a lot to celebrate these days -- Discovery Channel renewed Holly's show "The Playboy Murders" for a second season and Zak's "Ghost Adventures" series was recently picked up by the network.

A twisted scene at an Arby's restaurant in Louisiana, as a body, believed to be that of an employee, was discovered inside the freezer.

According to KADN News 15, it was around 6:30 Thursday night when an employee walked inside the restaurant's freezer and discovered the lifeless body of a female. At this point, it's not known how long the woman was in the freezer, however, investigators believe it was an accident.

New Iberia Police Capt. Leland Laseter said, "A situation like this is unusual, so we're taking extra precautions during the investigation. (We) pretty much have completed our process at the crime scene. After completely processing the crime scene ... this does not seem like a homicide, it seems like an accident."

Police say an autopsy will be conducted on the employee to determine the cause of death and confirm her identity.

The man linked to the infamous 2005 death and disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba will finally get his day in a U.S. court for allegedly extorting her mother.

Joran van der Sloot has long been suspected of killing Holloway, who was 18 when she vanished during a high school trip to the Caribbean Island in May 2005. Holloway was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, who was interrogated by police at the time, but never charged with her disappearance. A judge declared Holloway dead in 2012. The case, which garnered worldwide attention, remains unsolved to this day.

But, van der Sloot is now facing some accountability. The feds have formally charged him with fraud in the Holloway matter and will be extraditing him to Alabama from Peru, where he is serving a 28-year prison term for the unrelated strangulation murder of student Stephany Flores in 2010.

That same year, van der Sloot was indicted on federal charges of wire fraud and extortion by a Birmingham, AL, grand jury for trying to solicit $250,000 from Beth Holloway on the false promise that he would tell her what happened to her daughter and where to find her body.

According to court documents, van der Sloot reached out to Beth and asked her for a $25,000 down payment to escort her legal advisor, John Kelly, to her daughter's gravesite in Aruba. van der Sloot, the docs say, also demanded that Beth pay him the rest of the money after Kelly identified Natalee's remains.

But, Beth smelled a rat and contacted the FBI, which set up a sting operation. Here's how it allegedly worked: Beth sent $15,000 to van der Sloot via wire transfer. She also wired $10,000 to Kelly, requesting that he personally deliver the money to van der Sloot, which Kelly did.

van der Sloot then allegedly brought Kelly to the purported burial site, but it turned out to be one big scam. Natalee's corpse wasn't there.

That's when the FBI closed in on van der Sloot and prosecutors eventually filed charges against him.

Addressing van der Sloot's extradition, Beth Holloway released a statement, which read in part, “It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee."

A United 767 scheduled to take off from JFK Airport on September 11, 2001, could have been the 5th plane targeted by hijackers ... this according to the flight attendants and the pilot on that plane. TMZ will present the story of United 23 Monday on FOX at 9 PM ET.

TMZ has conducted a 6-month investigation into United Flight 23 -- scheduled to leave JFK at 9 AM ... bound for Los Angeles. We interviewed 3 flight attendants, the pilot, the United dispatcher, a member of the 9/11 Commission and others about a series of suspicious activities on the plane ... suspicious enough for the FBI to get involved.

Four passengers in first class aroused suspicion shortly after they boarded. The flight attendants say one of the passengers was a man disguised as a woman. The purser [first class flight attendant] tells us those passengers did not eat meat, and there were only 2 fruit plates in the galley. She wanted to get more fruit plates so the passengers could eat, and it triggered a heated argument ... with one of the passengers insisting, "We do not want to eat. We don't need food. We want to take off ... We just want to go."

There were other reasons the flight attendants were suspicious of the 4 passengers in first, along with 2 others in business class.

The plane taxied to the runway and was close to taking off when the World Trade Center was hit and the airport shut down. United 23 went back to the gate and was evacuated -- the plane was empty and locked. Twenty minutes later, people on the ground saw 2 uniformed people running in United 23's passenger cabin. Authorities came a short time later, opened the door and found the hatch -- that led from the belly of the plane to the cabin -- was open.

The pilot believes those 2 people may have been there to remove weapons or other incriminating evidence. We don't know what was removed from Flight 23, but we do know someone put box cutters in the first-class seat pockets in the plane parked next to United 23 ... a plane that was not scheduled to take off at that time. The United 23 pilot believes those boxcutters were intended to be on his flight but someone confused the 2 planes.

The FBI interviewed the flight attendants later that day and even took them to a lineup at the Port Authority to see if they could ID the 4 passengers.