Alaskan Sophie Sergie came from a remote Yupik village of 70 people. She was going to be the first in her family to graduate college. The last thing she told her family was a promise to bring her little brother a brand new kite. She never came home.

On April 25th, 1993, Sophie Sergie was found violently murdered in a University of Alaska Fairbanks dorm bathroom. Her case went cold, and it stayed that way for more than a quarter century, until a woman uploaded her DNA to an ancestry site and unknowingly pointed investigators straight at her nephew, Steven Downs, who had been quietly living as a nurse in Maine the entire time.

Ed covers Sophie's emotional story, the 28-year cold case, and the genetic genealogy breakthrough that finally brought justice.

Ep. 107 | Collegiate Crimes Block | Murder Unscripted | June 2026

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409

https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

Yeardley Love was 22 years old and ten weeks from graduating from the University of Virginia. She was a D1 lacrosse player, a political science major with plans for law school in New York, and by every account, the kind of person who made every room warmer just by being in it.

She was also in an abusive relationship with a men's lacrosse player, George Huguely V, that had been escalating for years. Obsessive contact. Jealousy. Physical violence.

In February 2010, just weeks before her death, he had her pinned to a bed with his hands around her throat. Witnesses pulled him off. Yeardley told her mother. She even wrote a letter ending the relationship.

Yeardley locked her door...but he kicked it in.

In the early hours of May 3rd, 2010, Yeardley's roommate came home to find her unresponsive on her bed. She was gone. That's when police find an email from George in her inbox that read: 'I should have killed you.'

In this episode, Melissa walks through the full story of Yeardley's life and death, including: the escalation pattern that followed every textbook sign of a dangerous relationship, the trial that convicted George Huguely of second-degree murder and sentenced him to 23 years, the 2022 civil verdict of $15 million in damages, and the most important thing to come out of all of it: the One Love Foundation, built by Yeardley's mother Sharon and sister Lexie, dedicated to teaching young people to recognize the warning signs of unhealthy relationships before they become fatal.

This one is heavy, but it matters. If this episode makes you think of someone in your life, please take that seriously.

One Love Foundation: https://www.joinonelove.org

Written by Sue Grice | Hosted by Melissa Spivey

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership

murderunscriptedpod@gmail.com | @murderunscripted

If you haven't listened to our DC Sniper episode yet (E104), start there first. This is the conversation that follows it.

Dr. Mildred Muhammad was married to John Allen Muhammad for 12 years. She knew him as a soldier, a father, a man she loved. What she didn't know was that after their separation, he had begun stalking her, that he had kidnapped their three children and taken them to Antigua for 18 months using forged documents, that she had been living under a restraining order that still permitted visitation, and that during October of 2002...while the DC metropolitan area was being terrorized by a sniper...she was living in that same region with no idea the man behind it was her ex-husband.

And then she found out she was allegedly the intended target all along.

In this episode, Dr. Muhammad walks us through her entire story. Growing up in Baton Rouge. Meeting John. What the marriage looked like from the inside. The kidnapping of her children and the 18 months she spent fighting to bring them home. The moment she learned his name. The aftermath. Being treated as a potential accessory. The court refusing to allow domestic violence evidence at trial. And what she has built since as an author, advocate, speaker, podcaster, and appointed member of the Maryland State Board of Victim Services.

Oh and listen until the end. We play a fun little game at the end testing Mildred's knowledge of all things Louisiana. She's from Baton Rouge. Melissa is not. It went about as well as you'd expect. 😂

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

💛 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MurderUnscriptedPod/membership

📬 murderunscriptedpod@gmail.com | @murderunscripted