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From internet-fueled horror stories to courtroom sagas that had everyone talking, these cases left a lasting mark on an entire generation. Join us as we explore the true crimes that shaped millennial culture, sparked national debate, and changed how we see justice, privacy, and social media.
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at true crimes that had a significant impact on millennials around the world.
00:05Stabbed 19 times, allegedly by two of her friends, who said they were trying to impress a fictional internet character
00:12called Slender Man.
00:15The Craigslist Killer.
00:16I mean, you never want to hear about anyone being hurt like that, you know, especially someone who you knew
00:22and who was your friend.
00:23For millennials, stranger danger didn't disappear when the internet arrived. It simply moved online.
00:27In April 2009, masseuse Julissa Brisman arranged to meet a client at a Boston hotel after advertising her services on
00:34Craigslist.
00:34She was robbed and fatally shot.
00:36Police connected the attack to two similar robberies involving women who had also advertised online.
00:40In the doorway, he pushed me up against the wall and tried kissing me, and I was trying to futively
00:47push him away and say, no, Phil, get off me.
00:50Their suspect, medical student Philip Markoff, hardly matched the public's image of a violent criminal.
00:55He was arrested and charged with Brisman's murder, although he maintains innocence and died in jail before the case reached
01:00trial.
01:00Dubbed the Craigslist Killer by the media, Markoff became associated with the risks lurking beneath the internet's promise of convenience
01:06and anonymity.
01:07A generational cohort accustomed to meeting, shopping, and working online was reminded that the person behind the screen could be
01:12anyone.
01:12What do you think it is about this that we're also intrigued by?
01:17I think this is a young man studying to be a doctor who would take care of us.
01:22Healing profession, right.
01:23Yes, yes.
01:24And just such a shock that someone like that would commit these sort of crimes.
01:28The Golden State Killer identified through DNA.
01:31For over 40 years, countless victims have waited for justice.
01:38Over these years, hundreds of individuals have sought justice for these victims and their families.
01:46The Golden State Killer committed his crimes before most millennials were born, but the way he was finally identified belonged
01:51unmistakably to their time.
01:52Between 1974 and 1986, a perpetrator terrorized communities throughout California, committing at least 13 murders and dozens of sexual assaults.
01:59The case remained unsolved for decades.
02:01Then in 2018, investigators uploaded crime scene DNA to the genealogy website Jed Match.
02:06Jed Match then is able to search that profile against the other public profiles that individuals have placed in there
02:13and produce literally a simple table that indicates how much DNA that person shares with the profile that I uploaded.
02:23By identifying distant relatives and constructing an enormous family tree,
02:27they narrowed their search to former police officer Joseph James D'Angelo.
02:30DNA collected from items he discarded confirmed the match.
02:33D'Angelo eventually pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 kidnappings and received multiple consecutive life sentences.
02:38His identification helped popularize genetic genealogy as a crime-solving tool,
02:42while also raising a distinctly modern privacy question.
02:45Even if you never submit your DNA, could someone in your family expose it for you?
02:48I believe very strongly that it's the greatest tool ever given to law enforcement.
02:52But for American users of these DNA kits, the thought of police sifting through their genes is potentially discomforting.
02:59Most sites don't divulge customers' data to police unless they have a court order,
03:03but they admit there is no guarantee of privacy.
03:07If you want to keep examining the cases that define a generation,
03:10check out the WatchMojo livestream.
03:11Join the chat as we break down major true crime stories,
03:14discussing their lasting impact, and uncover the details that still have people talking.
03:17In a statement, the company says,
03:19while the database was created for genealogical research,
03:22it's important that GED match participants understand the possible uses of their DNA,
03:28including identification of relatives who have committed crimes or were victims of crimes.
03:33The Brock Turner assault case.
03:35Now to some growing controversy over a former Stanford University athlete
03:39sentenced to just six months in jail for a sexual assault conviction.
03:43The significance of this case reached far beyond one conviction.
03:46In January 2015, two graduate students discovered Brock Turner sexually assaulting
03:50an unconscious Chanel Miller outside a Stanford University fraternity house.
03:54They intervened and restrained Turner until police arrived.
03:56A jury later convicted him of three felony sexual assault charges.
03:59However, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to only six months in county jail,
04:03of which he served three.
04:04I had hoped for more time.
04:07We fought for more time.
04:10The victim deserved more time.
04:11The perceived leniency provoked widespread anger,
04:14particularly after Miller's victim impact statement was published online and read by millions.
04:18California subsequently established mandatory prison sentences
04:21for certain assaults involving unconscious victims.
04:23Voters also recalled Persky from office in 2018.
04:26How many judges want to come home one day and find this political mailer addressed to their wife?
04:37And this mailer accuses the judge of failing to protect his community.
04:43When Miller publicly revealed her identity the following year,
04:46she reclaimed a story that had often centered her attacker.
04:48For millennials, the Turner saga forced a reckoning about whose future the legal system
04:52seemed most concerned with protecting.
04:53Turner will still serve three years of probation,
04:56but perhaps more significant than that is that he is now a sex offender
05:01who must register under the applicable law.
05:04The Casey Anthony trial.
05:05To your understanding, how did she die?
05:07I don't know.
05:08You don't know?
05:09Something about drowning, possibly?
05:12Everyone else has their theories.
05:14I don't know.
05:15Uh-huh.
05:16So your parents had her?
05:18My dad did.
05:19And next thing you know, she's missing, right?
05:24Few courtroom sagas closed the uncomfortable gap between cable news and social media quite like this one.
05:29Kaylee Anthony disappeared in June 2008, but her absence wasn't reported to police for 31 days.
05:33Her remains were discovered near the Anthony family's Florida home that December.
05:37Kaylee's mother, Casey Anthony, was tried on charges including first-degree murder.
05:41As to the charge of first-degree murder, verdict as to count one, we the jury find the defendant not
05:47guilty,
05:48so say we all, dated at Orlando, Orange County, Florida, on this 5th day of July, 2011, signed for a
05:55person.
05:56In July 2011, the jury acquitted her of those charges while convicting her of providing false information to investigators.
06:01The verdict stunned much of the public, whose perception of Anthony had been shaped by months of fiery television coverage.
06:07Time called it the social media trial of the century, and it's hard to deny that the description fit.
06:11Millions followed the proceedings online, dissecting evidence alongside professional commentators.
06:15The main takeaway?
06:16The court of public opinion could reach a unanimous verdict, even when an actual jury didn't.
06:20Instantly, as those verdicts were read, heated reactions flooded websites like Twitter.
06:25User Thickey Tam tweeting,
06:27Wait, wait, wait.
06:29Casey Anthony got off for the murder of her child.
06:32Please, someone tell me that's not right.
06:34The Watts family murders.
06:35That she's somewhere safe right now, and with the kids.
06:40But, I mean, could she have been, could she have just taken off?
06:43I don't know, but if somebody has her and they're not safe, like, I want them back now.
06:48From the outside, Chris and Shannon Watts appeared to have built an enviable suburban life.
06:52Shannon frequently shared videos and photographs with the couple and their young daughters,
06:55Bella and Celeste, on social media.
06:57That carefully maintained image went up in flames in August 2018 when Shannon, who was pregnant,
07:01and the children disappeared from their Colorado home.
07:03Friend Nicole Utoff says she got worried when Shannon, who is also 15 weeks pregnant,
07:09missed a doctor's appointment and would not answer texts.
07:12I'm just concerned, and Shannon, if you're hearing this or you're out there,
07:17please, please let somebody know you're okay.
07:20Chris initially appealed publicly for their safe return.
07:23Within days, however, he admitted responsibility for Shannon's death.
07:26He later acknowledged murdering his daughters as well.
07:28Why take their bodies out of the house and bury them?
07:32I was scared.
07:34I didn't know what else to do.
07:35Watts pleaded guilty and received five life sentences, three of them consecutive.
07:39Police body camera footage, text messages, and the family's own internet posts allowed the public
07:43to watch the investigation unfold with disturbing intimacy.
07:46On social media, the Watts' appeared happy and secure.
07:48Offline, their marriage was collapsing, and Chris would soon commit an unthinkable act of violence.
07:53Prosecutors say he was having an affair with a co-worker and wanted a, quote, fresh start.
07:58She almost said, when we told her about her apartment, I'm sorry.
08:05I didn't tell her how much she just knew.
08:07The slender man stabbing.
08:09We went to the park.
08:10I didn't realize that it was actually going to happen until Morgan lifted up her waistband
08:17and showed me the handle of the knife.
08:19The monster was an ancient folklore.
08:21It had been invented on an internet forum only five years earlier.
08:24In May 2014, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weir lured their friend Peyton Lutner in the woods
08:29near Waukesha, Wisconsin.
08:31There, Lutner was stabbed 19 times and abandoned.
08:33She managed to reach a road where a passing cyclist discovered her.
08:36She ultimately survived the attack.
08:38The knife came directly down at this point where this large branch was coming off of this
08:44major artery and cut through the tissue overlying it so that the vessels were totally
08:49exposed by this injury.
08:51The knife cut through the tissue, but not the artery itself.
08:54Exactly.
08:55Geyser and Weir told investigators that they believed killing their friend would appease
08:58Slenderman, a fictional character popularized through online horror stories known as Creepypasta.
09:03What were you trying to do with her when you stabbed her?
09:06Kill her.
09:07I might as well just say it.
09:09We were trying to kill her.
09:10Both girls were tried as adults, but ultimately found not guilty by reasons of insanity and
09:14committed to psychiatric institutions.
09:16Unsurprisingly, the attack sparked a furious nationwide debate about young people's relationship
09:20with the internet.
09:20Geyser and Weir's crimes showed how dangerously blurred the line between internet folklore and
09:24real life could become.
09:25He is the thing that we fear that we don't actually encounter, right?
09:30So we check under our beds for the Slenderman, but he's not actually there.
09:35The Boston Marathon bombing.
09:36And now to the latest on the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing.
09:40The evidence is mounting against Johar Zarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, who was killed in the gun
09:44battle with police.
09:45But no matter what proof the FBI may come up with, the suspect's parents say it is America
09:50that's to blame.
09:51On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston
09:56Marathon.
09:57The attack killed Martin Richard, Crystal Campbell, and Lindsay Liu, while injuring more than 280
10:01others.
10:01Investigators eventually identified brothers Tamerlan and Jokar Zarnaev as the perpetrators.
10:06This is Tamerlan and his siblings.
10:08The little boy in front, that's his little brother Jahar, who would allegedly grow up to
10:12be his partner in terrorism.
10:15Tamerlan moved to America with his family from a poor and dangerous part of Russia at age
10:2014.
10:21The ensuing manhunt included the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier, a carjacking
10:25and a shootout in Watertown.
10:26Tamerlan died during the confrontation.
10:28Millennials followed the crisis through smartphones, live blogs, and rapidly updating social media
10:32feeds.
10:32Those tools provided immediate information, but also enabled dangerous speculation.
10:36Reddit and 4chan played a huge role this week in piecing together information, looking at
10:42photos, finding patterns, getting clues, and they kind of did what the FBI told them to
10:47do when they said, do anything that you can to help us figure this out.
10:51But there have been a few missteps.
10:55Reddit users attempted to identify the bombers themselves and falsely implicated innocent
10:58people, including missing Brown University student Sunil Tripathi.
11:02Reddit eventually apologized.
11:04Jokar Zarnaev admitted helping carry out the Boston Marathon bombing and revealed that
11:08he and Tamerlan had planned another attack in Times Square.
11:10He was later convicted on all 30 federal charges and sentenced to death.
11:13The federal government sought this death penalty primarily for two reasons.
11:17The heinous nature of the crime and the fact that there was so much premeditation.
11:22Law enforcement officials said that they wanted to show the public that they took this case
11:27seriously and that the most severe punishment was warranted in this case.
11:31The murder of Meredith Kersher.
11:33Nearly one year after Meredith's murder and her family are back here in Perugia to be in
11:38the courtroom tomorrow.
11:39Do you believe justice will be done?
11:41Yes, we do.
11:42Yes, we do.
11:43Are you confident of that?
11:45Yes.
11:45Meredith Kersher was a 21-year-old British exchange student studying in Perugia, Italy
11:50when she was murdered in November 2007.
11:51But much of the international coverage soon concentrated on her American roommate, Amanda
11:55Knox.
11:56Rudy Gaudet became the only person definitively convicted of Kersher's murder.
11:59But tonight, with the Grady verdict, Meredith's parents can perhaps take some small comfort
12:04in this first conviction.
12:06Knox and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Solicito, endured a far more complicated legal ordeal.
12:11They were convicted, acquitted, retried, and convicted again, before Italy's highest court
12:15definitively cleared them of the murder in 2015.
12:17The case was a global tabloid spectacle, complete with sensational nicknames, conflicting national
12:28narratives, and endless arguments over Knox's behavior.
12:31Most troublingly, the fixation on Knox frequently pushed Kersher herself into the background of
12:35the story about her own murder.
12:36Knox wasn't cleared of every charge, however.
12:38In 2025, Italy's highest court upheld her separate slander conviction for falsely implicating
12:42her former employer, Patrick Lumumba.
12:44During an interrogation she has long maintained was coercive.
12:58The Elliot-Roger Isla Vista killings.
13:00Good evening, David.
13:01Tonight, you can see this small memorial, some candles and flowers for the three men that
13:05police say Elliot-Roger killed inside his apartment complex here.
13:09But like so many things about this case, the victims were discovered only after this violent
13:15rampage ended.
13:16On May 23, 2014, Elliot-Roger murdered six people and injured 14 others in Isla Vista,
13:21California.
13:22He first stabbed three young men inside his apartment before driving through the community,
13:26opening fire, and striking pedestrians with his car.
13:28Before beginning the attacks, Roger uploaded a YouTube video announcing his intentions and
13:32emailed a lengthy manifesto to relatives, acquaintances, and his therapist.
13:35Girls gave their affection and sex and love to other men, but never to me.
13:44I'm 22 years old and I'm still a virgin.
13:47Both were steeped in venomous resentment toward women and sexually active men, whom Roger blamed
13:52for his loneliness and perceived rejection.
13:54Roger took his own life at the end of the attack, but his ideology only continued circulating.
13:57The killings exposed a growing incel subculture that recast sexual rejection as misogynistic
14:02grievance.
14:03Some adherents would later celebrate Roger as a hero and martyr, citing him as inspiration.
14:07They also inspired the hashtag YesAllWomen campaign, through which women shared their experiences
14:11with harassment, discrimination, and violence.
14:13Let me put up one tweet on screen that's representative.
14:15This person wrote,
14:16Not all men harass women, but all women have, at some point, been harassed by men.
14:21Food for thought.
14:23Want more true crime on WatchMojo?
14:26Check out our dedicated 24-hour livestream.
14:29True crime all the time.
14:31We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl.
14:34The murder of George Floyd.
14:35No pulse, no breathing.
14:37And in my opinion, the law enforcement's subdual restraint and the neck compression was
14:42just more than Mr. Floyd could take by virtue of those heart conditions.
14:46Minneapolis police arrested George Floyd on May 25, 2020, after a store employee accused
14:50him of using a counterfeit $20 bill.
14:52Floyd was handcuffed and forced face down onto the street, where officer Derek Chauvin pressed
14:56his knee against Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.
14:5817-year-old Darnella Frazier recorded the encounter, as Floyd repeatedly said that he
15:02couldn't breathe.
15:02Her footage spread around the world, leaving little room for the incident to be hidden behind
15:06an official account.
15:07He was stating that he was in pain.
15:10He said his neck, his back, everything hurts.
15:13I can't breathe.
15:16Mom, he said I would get up if I could.
15:19Chauvin was later convicted of two murder charges and one manslaughter charge.
15:23The other officers involved were also convicted of violating Floyd's civil rights.
15:26Protests erupted across the United States and in more than 60 countries, producing one
15:30of the largest racial justice movements in history.
15:32For a generation raised with camera phones and social media, Floyd's murder demonstrated
15:36that recording injustice could force the entire world to witness it.
15:39Well, there's no question social media is a powerful platform.
15:42Just as quickly as it can spread misinformation, it can unite people around a common cause.
15:47Seeing is believing.
15:48And seeing those videos of George Floyd's arrest and his death spread across Twitter and Instagram,
15:54and a movement was born.
15:55The hashtag Black Lives Matter gained momentum and went global.
15:58Which of these cases do you believe had the greatest impact on the millennial generation's
16:02understanding of crime and justice?
16:03Are there any we missed?
16:04Be sure to let us know in the comments.