The true crime genre has skyrocketed in popularity, whether consumed via TV, movies, podcasts, books, or social media accounts.
We love engrossing ourselves in riveting narratives about the darker side of human nature.
Experts have devised numerous reasons why it captivates audiences, from loving mysteries to feeling accomplished from a closed case to general intrigue to wanting to understand the human psyche to just being fascinated by evil.
Regardless of why we crave these stories, we are always looking for the next fix, so here are the most mesmerizing true crime docuseries of 2024.
Unsolved Mysteries – Volumes 4 and 5
While not every single episode of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries (a reboot of the original NBC Unsolved Mysteries series) is crime-based, the majority are, and the rest may leave you feeling more uneasy than any true crime story could.
Just watch The Mothman Revisited episode in Volume 4 of the show.
As for true crime, Volume 4 covers Jack the Ripper, a husband who found his wife dead in their basement, the discovery of an unidentified severed head in Econmy, PA, and the unsolved murder of a Trenton State College graduate student on the theatre’s stage.
For Volume 5, the first episode is about two friends who are shot dead and found in a popular Cleveland park, but the creators decided to go with paranormal activity for the rest of the season, discussing a profile of a paranormal researcher, the phenomenon of mutilated cattle, and the Roswell UFO incident.
While these cases may not be solved, their mystique is varied and captivating. Of course, the “who did it” never coming to light is a common reason for the lack of resolution, but we also wonder why, how, and even who surrounds the victim.
Watch Unsolved Mysteries Online
I am a Killer- Season 5
The latest season of I Am a Killer focuses on the disturbing cases of convicted murderers while in prison.
What makes this show so fascinating is how it tells their stories. Its intimate style consists of interviews with the prisoners, the victim’s family or friends, and/or the criminal’s family or friends.
However, the latest season of the Netflix original felt a little different in the best way possible. It focuses more on the psychological factors behind these crimes and how the act of murder or being in jail has changed, or not changed, the prisoner.
You can tell who is a true sociopath, who is lying through their teeth or feels no remorse, who is self-centered, and who genuinely feels guilty and sorry for their victim’s family.
One gripping aspect is that you hear these accounts from the criminal’s perspective, and you start feeling or thinking one thing, but then hearing the victim’s family or friends’ interviews leaves you with a completely different attitude.
The latest season features the story of an inmate who claims to have turned his life around, but not everyone believes him, a young couple looking to run away, which results in the death of the boy’s grandmother and the killing of a store clerk by a 16-year-old.
It also shares the murder of a bar worker through an inmate’s rage, a man convicted of killing his grandmother, and the story of a prisoner who claims it was self-defense against a rival tribe, but eyewitnesses tell a different story.
Watch I Am a Killer Online
House of Horrors: Secrets of College Greek Life
Anyone familiar with the Greek life system understands the basics of how it operates.
But what happens when the dark secrets of these organizations are brought to light? A truly binge-worthy A&E true crime docuseries with an ending episode that needs to be talked about more.
It’s extremely interesting to see how something that, really, at the end of the day, is only “important” for four years of your life and then basically forgotten about can control, manipulate, and ruin the lives of young people who it claimed as “family.”
Whether you want to hear it or not, yes, sororities and fraternities are cult-like. Maybe not all are upfront about it, but the concept behind their creation and how they operate are.
Each episode tells a story of how the secrecy, power, and control of fraternities and sororities can create a sinister atmosphere, leading to a skewed reality where everything from drug use to sexual assault to hazing deaths to the deep-rooted racism at the University of Alabama has thrived to an unbelievable capacity.
Watch House of Horrors: Secrets of Greek Life Online
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
This true crime docuseries is a two-part retelling of a driven mom who wants to solve the mysterious murder of her daughter she put up for adoption as a baby.
Part of the enchantment comes from the idea that this mother never knew or had contact with her daughter after giving her up for adoption.
In 2010 she received a letter asking for DNA from the police in hopes of trying to identify a woman’s body who was brutally murdered. While the body was not her daughter’s, this sparks a truly shocking search of her own as she then learns her daughter ran away from her adopted parents at 14 and was never seen again.
Hitting home to her own story as she also ran away, she knows the police won’t look for her daughter because they didn’t look for her.
How she goes about her investigation with the help of her husband and an online investigator with so much fierceness and motherly instinct, as well as the details revealed at each step, is touching and compelling in a way that is hard to put into words.
The spiritual connection between a mom and daughter who never met and the story’s outcome make this docuseries one of Netflix’s most alluring true crime retellings.
Watch Into the Fire The Lost Daughter Online
Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult
Similar to other careers that lean into the more creative side of the brain, becoming a professional dancer who can solely live on the beautiful art form alone is very hard to come by.
Here enters Robert Israel Shinn, cult leader and master manipulator. Shinn takes advantage of young TikTok dancers with massive potential and offers them a spot at his “agency,” making all their dreams come true.
At first, everything seems fine, but as stranger things are asked of them, some of the dancers start to realize there’s something very off about the situation.
The story is told through personal accounts of dancers who ended up leaving the cult/agency, plus from the family of a girl who is clearly beyond brainwashed. Sadly, there seems to be no hope of bringing her back to reality.
The infatuation with this series comes from how TikTok seems to be the center of many social media crimes and how Shinn entices these dancers.
Along with how he keeps them and convinces them he is doing what is best for them despite the crazy practices he instills, abuse, and noticeable financial exploitation.
Like most cults, the followers are told their families are bad for them and are coaxed to cut them out of their lives because, you know, cult leaders don’t want their manipulated minds to realize what is going on, nor do they want the media to know.
The way the story is told through first-hand accounts and the family of prominent TikTok dancing sisters gives the docuseries an edge that makes it hard to stop watching.
Watch Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult Online
The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping
The Program is a docuseries that needs to be watched to understand why it is one of 2024’s most mesmerizing series. It is unbelievable, and trying to describe it would almost be offensive to the victims of the featured disciplinary school.
When teens acted up, not that long ago, the answer was sending them to these “troubled teen disciplinary schools and camps,” which were not educational or helpful in any way.
Instead, it created a thriving industry that exploits and abuses children, and it has proven to be hard to take down, given the numerous documentaries surrounding it.
The Program’s emotional rollercoaster will have you crying, feeling sick, and wanting to hug the men and women who were forced to go through a heinous experience that has left many with understandable PTSD.
It is gripping and revealing in a tragic yet beautiful way and has a realness element beyond comparison.
Directed and narrated by a former Academy at Ivy Ridge student, she tells her and other’s stories and films them in such a way that makes you feel as if you are also trying to grapple with the trauma caused by the academy.
Watch The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping Online
The Real Murders on Elm Street
Thanks to Discovery, ID (Investigation Discovery) is home to some of the finest true crime docuseries, and The Real Murders on Elm Street is no exception.
The Max streamable series tells the story of six murders in small suburban towns across America that all happened on different Elm Streets. These deaths tear communities apart and show that evil doesn’t discriminate based on quaintness.
It starts with an episode titled Killer in the Walls, which takes place in Townsend, Massachusetts, and what unfolds is precisely what the title implies, and it is bone-chilling. It’s followed by a horrific murder in the Spokane area, which describing as overkill would feel like an understatement.
The show’s basis, actual murders on Elm Streets, is enticing, and the unimaginable narrative adds another level of eeriness and enchantment.
The series tackles “the Camp” compound led by Gerald Cruz in Salida, California, whose ideology combined white supremacy and voodoo, followed by the discovery of a body in a trash can during a popular Cincinnati street festival.
The last two stories take place in Minnesota, where a convoluted Thanksgiving missing persons case is full of twists, and in Greenville, Ohio, with the retelling of an actual Halloween murder on Elm Street.
Watch The Real Murders on Elm Street Online
Death in the Dorms
Death in the Dorms Season 2 tells the morbid stories of six college students who died while attending college. Unfortunately, there is something about campus murders that is unsettling but interesting.
Maybe it’s because they are the last place you would think a murder would or should happen, and the tragedy can be pictured by almost anyone who has persuaded a postsecondary education.
The Hulu true crime docuseries hides no gory detail and includes the victim’s family, friends, and fellow students, revealing how a campus death affects the student body as a whole.
The way it is set up fosters an emotional connection for viewers, leaving an impactful swell of sentiment, making audiences invested.
The schools featured in Season 2 are Jackson State University, Louisiana State University, the University of Miami, Temple University, Binghamton University, and the College of Charleston.
Watch Death in the Dorms Online
American Nightmare
American Nightmare is a true crime docuseries that tells the story of Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, who were tortured and drugged by an intruder, resulting in the kidnapping of Huskins.
This was a very sensational case in 2015 because the details of what the couple underwent were hard to believe, but even more so because, due to some similarities, it became known as the Gone Girl case.
The mesmerizing aspects of this series start with what the two went through that horrific night, then just the disturbingly horrible way the police mishandled this case, how they treated Huskins and Quinn, and how the real perpetrator eventually was caught.
Watch American Nightmare Online
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV
What Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV reveals about Dan Schneider, Nickelodeon, and the company he kept is beyond horrible and shocking.
When I was younger, Drake & Josh, iCarly, The Amanda Bines Show, Zoey 101, and so many more Nickelodeon classics were my childhood. This docuseries is challenging to watch but so unbelievable that turning it off feels like an injustice to the victims.
Not only should the truth be public, but much more needs to be done about the abuse and trauma endured by the many child actors during this time.
It’s shocking that so much was allowed to happen to these children, and the fact that we’re talking about huge names of actors increases the intrigue.
More importantly, it heightens the shock value that not only did this happen but that so many people stood by and let it happen.
Watch Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV Online
American Murder: Laci Peterson
The Laci Peterson murder investigation has absorbed the public for over 20 years now. Anything with that much draw is bound to make a mesmerizing docuseries.
To this day, Scott Peterson, Laci’s husband, insists he is innocent. Although this is not the only docuseries covering the matter, as Face to Face with Scott Peterson was released in August 2024, its interviews with people close to the couple, including Scott’s sister and Laci’s mother, make it something special.
The enthralling aspects of this case and docuseries are just how convinced members of Scott’s family are of his questionable claimed innocence and how people will take one grain of doubt and hold on to that despite everything else presented.
Of course, we don’t want to think a family member is capable of something so horrible, and these perspectives, plus the detective’s impressive way of presenting the crucial pieces of the case, are truly fascinating.
Watch American Murder: Laci Peterson Online
This is the Zodiac Speaking
Netflix’s This is the Zodiac Speaking gives probably the most notorious serial killer a fresh take, which is not an easy feat considering crime enthusiasts or not; the majority of people have heard of the zodiac killer.
The docuseries is gripping because it features interviews with the Seawater family, who had the suspected man behind the encrypted messages and codes, Arthur Leigh Allen, as a teacher while he was actively killing.
The now grownups perspective is unique, captivating, and bone-chilling.
It’s hard to look away when people are talking about their relationship with someone who they trusted and have fond memories of, who it turns out is strongly suspected to be a serial killer. It’s an infatuating context to give viewers.
There is also a powerful interview with a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist, who was one of the first people to start suspecting Allen as the Zodiac killer, who also discusses the times when law enforcement almost got Allen, making it fascinating as well.
Watch This is the Zodiac Speaking Online
Influencers appear to have it all, but the Discovery+ ID docuseries Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders reveals how looks can be deceiving.
There is a dark side to being an influence and an even darker side to the digital communities and social media landscapes where influences get their fame.
The pace and manner in which these shockingly true crime stories are told are alluring and impressive. Plus, the toxic culture that these communities have fostered and the disturbing situations these influencers found themselves in are unthinkable.
From an outsider’s perspective, we are all curious about what it is like to be an influencer. In retrospect, the concept itself is still relatively new, and the idea that someone can make that much money and gain that much fame from doing what an influencer does is honestly hard to grasp.
So, any true crime docuseries revealing the downside of an influencer’s seemingly perfect life will surely garner intrigue, and the grim revelations are heartbreaking.
Watch Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders Online
Worst Roommate Ever
The Netflix true crime docuseries Worst Roommate Ever has one of the year’s most significant shock values. The stories it highlights are thrilling, ravishing, and effective.
The lengths people will go to, the manipulation, the pure savagery, are mind-blowing. This series can only be described as wild and jaw-dropping.
It is well made and hypnotic because it could be anyone in that situation. It could be you, me, or the average Joe walking down the street. You never know who someone is until you live with them, and that factor alone is hauntingly magnetic.
Watch Worst Roommate Ever Online
Yes, 2024 revealed some disturbingly mesmerizing true crime docuseries.
We hope this list helps you find your next watch.
Let us know in the comments what your favorite 2024 true crime docuseries is.
Here’s to creating new nightmares together!