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A hospital is supposed to be the place where panic ends.
In this case, it was where it began.

In this episode of True Crime Consumes Me, we travel to Germany and inside intensive care units where an unthinkable pattern went unnoticed for years. Patients who were stable suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Resuscitations became routine. Deaths were explained away as complications.

But the numbers told a different story.

This is the case of Niels Högel, a nurse later convicted of killing dozens of patients by deliberately inducing cardiac emergencies so he could step in and play the hero. Investigators believe the true number of victims may never be known.

This episode is a long-form, detailed examination of the crimes, the medical methods used, the whistleblower who finally spoke up, and the systemic failures that allowed the pattern to continue.

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In April 2019, 22-year-old Nicholas Jeffrey Hietpas vanished in Wisconsin. His disappearance left behind more questions than answers — and years later, those questions remain.

In this Missing Monday episode of True Crime Consumes Me, we say Nicholas’s name, share what’s known, and keep the focus where it belongs: on the person who’s still missing.

Because being missing isn’t the same as being gone.

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On a quiet Monday morning in 1979, routine shattered outside an elementary school in San Diego. Two adults were killed, eight children were wounded, and a community was changed forever.

In this episode of True Crime Consumes Me, we take a deep, careful look at the case of Brenda Ann Spencer, focusing not just on the violence, but on the years that led up to it. Missed warning signs, untreated mental health struggles, access to firearms, and systems that noticed pieces of a problem but never acted in time.

We walk through the events of January 29, 1979, the actions of staff and first responders who ran toward danger, the impact on parents and families, and why parole has been denied decades later.

This is a story about responsibility, prevention, and what happens when routine is trusted too much.

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