What makes these horrific crimes worse than Halloween horror movies is that they actually happened in real life. I don't watch scary movies, but I stay glued to channels like Investigation Discovery, Oxygen, First 48, Forensic Files, etc. I always take note of whenever Western New York crimes are featured. These 6 grisly homicides that happened here in WNY have been featured in true crime shows.

1. The Lake Erie Murders - The Butcher of Buffalo

Episode 6 of season 1 features the murder of a Buffalo mother,

Mother of three Joan Giambra is discovered strangled, lying naked under her comatose young daughter, Kat. In a close-knit community, ex-husband Sam rapidly becomes the prime suspect but without hard evidence, the investigation hangs on Kat. ~ IMDb

Credit: The Lake Erie Murders via Youtube

2. Solved - Bike Path Killer

The episode first of the Investigation Discovery channel show aired on August 9, 2010.

A University at Buffalo student is found raped and murdered on a Bike Path in upstate New York. Police connect her murder to a series of rapes and later to two more murders. After more than a decade, they manage to connect the evidence and discover the murderer. ~ IMDb

Credit: Solved via Youtube

It was also featured in an episode of To Catch a Serial Killer.

Credit: Dan Oshier Productions via Youtube

3. FBI: Criminal Pursuit - Pierced Heart

The episode first aired on the Oxygen channel on aired May 9, 2012. The crime was committed in Cattaraugus County.

Small-town family man Andie Gasper is murdered behind a shopping center in broad daylight, and the tragic case goes unsolved for 15 years. FBI agents are brought into the cold case, and uncover a twisted tale of sex, greed and broken promises. ~IMDb

The murder was also featured on a cold case episode of Snapped on Oxygen.

Credit: WIVBTV via Youtube

4. Talhotblond

Talhotblond is a docu-movie about a "catfish" story that ended in murder in Erie County.

Thomas Montgomery (screen name: marinesniper), a 47-year-old married man, pleaded guilty to murdering his 22-year-old co-worker Brian Barrett (screen name: beefcake). The two men were involved in a love triangle with "Katie", who they thought to be an 18-year-old girl with the screen name 'talhotblond'. While both men knew each other from work, neither had ever met "Katie" in person. ~Wikipedia

Credit: Movieclips Classic Trailers via Youtube

5. Still A Mystery - Small Town Secrets

The episode (season 3, episode 11), which is about the murder of a mother in Jamestown, first aired on June 29, 2021.

In Jamestown, New York, Yolanda, a young mother of four disappears, her car the only trace left behind. When a massive search is undertaken, secrets rise to the surface, and the town discovers a clandestine tryst with one of the officers searching for Yolanda. ~ IMDb

Credit: Still A Mystery via Youtube

6. Fear They Neighbor - Burn Neighbor, Burn

The deadly fight between two brothers who are also neighbors in Alden was featured on Fear Thy Neighbor,

In peaceful Alden, New York, Helena Sindrewicz and husband David Ward have built the house of their dreams right beside Sindrewicz’s childhood home. Her brother Andrew still lives in the family home where he tends their ailing mother, Anneliese. All is well between the neighboring siblings until their other brother, Raymond, returns after many years away and moves in with Sindrewicz. Old tensions and grudges erupt between the brothers, and things get ugly, threatening, even physical. When Sindrewicz finally decides to sell the family home out from under Andrew, he brings their civil war to a shocking, fiery conclusion.

Credit: Cream via Youtube

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