Motive to Murder
Motive to Murder takes a psychological look into some of the real-life murder cases that have made headlines around the world: from crimes of passion and serial killers, to opportunistic slayings and mass shootings.
- 2016-2026
- 2 seasons
- A Red Arrow Studios Company
- Documentary, Suspense
Motive to Murder takes a psychological look into some of the real-life murder cases that have made headlines around the world: from crimes of passion and serial killers, to opportunistic slayings and mass shootings.
Season 1 Episode Guide
36 Episodes 2016 - 2017
Episode 1
Deadly Affairs
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 19 mins
When a distinguished Navy doctor and his wife are founded stabbed inside their San Diego home, police launch a hunt for a brutal killer. The attack leaves the doctor dead, and his wife clinging to life.
Episode 1
Mexican Wrestling Maniac
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Someone is strangling elderly women throughout Mexico City. There's no apparent connection among the victims, and no apparent motive. After a police investigation goes nowhere, the killer is caught red-handed.
Episode 2
Psycho Shooter
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 21 mins
In 2011, a lone gunman sets off on a killing spree at an Arizona shopping center. His target a prominent Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. After killing six and wounding thirteen, police capture a disturbed, twenty-two-year-old suspect.
Episode 2
Panic at Canyon Lake
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
The upscale, gated-community of Canyon Lake, California seems like the safest place on earth. Yet, someone is mysteriously murdering old ladies. Detectives uncover a trail of credit card fraud that leads them to a surprise killer.
Episode 3
Killers by Blood
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a beloved grandfather goes missing in rural Utah, investigators begin a multi-state search for him. What starts as a simple missing persons case becomes a complex crime of kidnapping and a shocking murder.
Episode 3
Evil Stranger
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a young woman disappears from the streets of Southampton, England, police launch a massive manhunt. But the killer is one step ahead and flees to India. The victim's parents pursue this killer to get justice for their daughter.
Episode 4
Texas Teen Love Triangle
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A beautiful high school girl goes missing in the middle of the night without a trace. When her body is found, the entire community of Mansfield, Texas is in shock. Rumors buzz around the high school that a killer is walking the halls.
Episode 4
Deadly Curves
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Individuals seeking a curvaceous physique visit one self-proclaimed doctor who specializes in buttock enhancements. Shockingly, this medical unprofessional injects into tire-sealant into her patients- with homicidal consequences.
Episode 5
Pickaxe Murders
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Houston, Texas is rocked by a grisly crime scene- a man whose head is practically hammered off his body and a semi-nude woman riddled with pick ax wounds.
Episode 5
Stranger at the Station
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a popular young student mysteriously goes missing her boyfriend tells police the last time he sees her is at Oxford station with a mysterious stranger. The police sketch bears a remarkable resemblance to someone close to her.
Episode 6
Fast Food Massacre
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A Wendy's restaurant in Queens, New York is hit by a pair of robbers just before closing time. The robbery escalates as the pair slaughter five employees, while leaving another two for dead.
Episode 6
Vulture Feeder Fiend
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
During their investigation into serial killer Ed Kemper, detectives become painfully aware that there is another serial killer on the loose. Someone is dismembering bodies and bashing in brains.
Episode 7
Speed Freak Killers
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A drug-fueled, killing spree terrorizes a small California town. Police believe they are dealing with a serial killer who lives quietly among them. They are shocked to discover not one but two childhood friends.
Episode 7
Knight of Swords
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
In Santa Cruz, California, police believe they have another Manson family-type serial killer on their hands when they come across a series of ritualistic killings of a self-proclaimed hero who kills to prevent the apocalypse.
Episode 8
Mysogynist Murderer
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 19 mins
In a small Australian town, residents start finding bodies of dead women in rural locations. The killer leaves behind strange marks on the victims that seem to be made with a homemade knife.
Episode 8
Gambled on Murder
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
In London, prim and proper Carole Waugh is leading a double life. Through her tawdry escort work, she meets a gambler and a swindler. The con goes on after Carol suddenly goes missing.
Episode 9
Southside Slayer
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Los Angeles is a dangerous city in 1986 with over a 1,000 homicides reported and many going unsolved. Police find the bodies of more than 50 African-American women dumped into the trash.
Episode 9
Semper Free
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Yvonne Baldelli and Marine Corps veteran Brian Brimager fall in love and move to a Caribbean island. But paradise turns into a nightmare when Yvonne e-mails that she's left Brian for another man and they're moving to Costa Rica.
Episode 10
South African Strangler
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A police reservist stumbles across a mass grave of women just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. The investigation leads to the leader of a child advocacy group who lures dozens of women with the promise of a job helping kids.
Episode 11
Camden Ripper
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 21 mins
A homeless man finds bloody, body parts in a North London dumpster. Police soon find more and realize they have a killer in the neighborhood. The investigation stalls until a suspect's door is left slightly ajar revealing weapons.
Episode 12
Cosa Nostra Killer
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 21 mins
For decades, Italy is in fear from a Mafia hit man known as "Ice Eyes." He is an emotionless killer and the authorities can do nothing to stop him. However, claiming 80 murders he is betrayed while planning the mob's most daring hit ever.
Episode 12
The Viking Funeral
Sun, Jan 1, 2017
A spouse makes waves by burning the boat with the partner's remains on board. Witnesses film the blazing ship, but the body is never recovered. Without any evidence of a murder can justice prevail?
Episode 13
Bound to Die
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Nineteen year-old Elizabeth Marriott goes missing. The investigation leads to Kat McDonough who claims that Marriott died during rough sex but she admitted to authorities that she offered Marriott to her dominant boyfriend, Seth Mazzaglia.
Episode 14
Doctor Death
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
An English doctor who makes house calls has the bedside manner of a saint for his elderly female patients, but when the family of a deceased patient contests the will-the truth is exhumed.
Episode 15
Texas Tower Sniper
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
In America's first mass slaying, a sniper randomly guns down students and pedestrians from atop the University of Texas clock tower. Police have no plan in place for such an event; the police are out-gunned and over their heads.
Episode 16
Co-Ed Killer
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 21 mins
Young, female students have disappeared with alarming frequency from the college town of Santa Cruz, California. Then mutilated body parts show up as almost a human jigsaw puzzle.
Episode 17
Hawaiian Horror
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a killer burst into a Honolulu conference room at a button-down, no nonsense office, he leaves behind seven dead - and the biggest mass slaying in Hawaiian history.
Episode 17
Folsom Wolves
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A series of random killings in Redlands, California leaves police with no clues. But then the manager of a fast food restaurant finds the ID of one victim in the trash. And with it, another ID which leads to a suspect.
Episode 18
The Killer Nurse
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 20 mins
At hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, patients are mysteriously dying. The rumor is that a serial killer is at work. After the Reverend Gall unexpectedly dies in 2003, tests reveal that he has five times the dose of medication.
Episode 19
Snuff Film Killers
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A fisherman in Bates City, Missouri, discovers the nude body of a woman - 41-year-old Marsha Spicer. Police learn she was an acquaintance of ex-con Richard Davis. For years, Davis had a fantasy to make a snuff film.
Episode 19
Dixie Mafia
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Legendary lawman Buford Pusser cuts his teeth battling the Dixie Mafia, a rogue's gallery of thieves, crooked gamblers, and killers operating in the American South.
Episode 20
Christmas Eve Massacre
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 20 mins
A man wearing a Santa suit makes a surprise visit to a Pardo family Christmas Eve party in Covina, California, in 2008. The man is carrying a gift-wrapped flamethrower in one hand and in the other, a handgun.
Episode 20
Machete Murders
Mon, May 11, 2026
In 1971, someone hacks to death twenty-five men and buries them in shallow graves in a California orchard. The following investigation shocks the nation, sparks charges of racial bias, and introduces America to a new term: serial killer.
Episode 21
The Fiendish Friend
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Samuel Herr and Julie Kibuishi are a young couple living in California. On May 22, 2010, Julie's partially clothed body is discovered in Herr's apartment, and Herr, apparently, is on the run.
Episode 22
The Makeover Murder
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 20 mins
The former beauty queen Michele MacNeill married a prominent surgeon Martin MacNeill in Utah. On April 11, 2011, her husband and six-year-old daughter find her dead in the bathtub and suspicious circumstances arise.
Episode 22
Kiss of Death
Mon, May 25, 2026
The most vulnerable patients in an Ohio hospital are dying at an alarming rate. Someone close to these patients decides who lives and who dies after receiving signs from a demonic spirit guide.
Episode 23
Bus Stop Killer
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Jessica Keen, an honor student and cheerleader, gets in an argument with her boyfriend. Jessica strolls to a nearby bus stop. This is the last time anyone sees her alive. Police focus their investigation on her ex-boyfriend.
Episode 24
House of Horrors
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
In Gloucester, England, Rosemary Letts meets 27-year old Frederick West, married father of two daughters, on her 15th birthday. They move in together, and soon, one of his daughters, and then his wife, disappear.
Episode 25
Lying in Wait
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A man kills 16-year old Colette Aram in Nottinghamshire, England and goes to a local pub to wipe his own cuts with a napkin. Twenty-five years pass until police matches the blood on the napkin from the pub to a relative of the killer.
Episode 26
Dangerous Obsession
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Joanna Clare Yeates is a 25-year old landscape architect from Hampshire, England, who goes missing. Eight days later, someone finds her strangled body along the roadside.
Episode 39
Ashes to Ashes
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a trashcan is found holding the decomposed body of a woman, an international investigation follows to find her killer. Police suspect a top chef of cooking up a recipe for disaster.
Episode 40
Collar Bomb Killer
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A pizza deliveryman enters a bank wearing a bomb around his neck, claiming he's being forced to rob the bank. After the bomb goes off, investigators look into one of the strangest robberies ever.
Episode 41
Day of Retribution
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
There's a killing spree in Santa Barbara. When the dust settles, it appears the killer snaps when he doesn't win the $120-million lottery, dashing his plans to get a girlfriend and lose his virginity.
Episode 42
Double Crossed
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
On a lonely California highway, a prominent doctor and his wife are shot point blank in their car. An investigation reveals that the doctor gets a referral from his mistress for a hit man to kill his wife.
Episode 44
Bad Fortune
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a popular fortune teller and her daughter turn up dead covered in white paint, the case baffles police. Eventually, detectives cobble together a bizarre case. The motive? Revenge for a prediction that doesn't pan out.
Episode 45
The Christmas That Wasn't
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
It will test the skill of investigators to solve the Christmas Eve killings of a couple murdered 27-years ago. A jailhouse informant and tenacious police work make sure one killer receives 103 years in prison.
Episode 46
Cabin Fervor
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
Stephen Epperly takes Gina Hall to a cabin in the woods of Virginia to an intimate late night party. No one ever sees Gina again. What happens to her remains a mystery to this day.
Episode 47
Sinister Minister
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
When a parishioner commits suicide in his pastor's officer, it opens up a Pandora's Box of adultery, deceit, and murder. Does a well-respected man of God find a simple way out of his vows, "till death do us part"?
Episode 48
S&M and Murder
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
A sex slave in Norfolk, England, says she will do anything it takes to prove her obedience to a sadistic, psychopathic master. When he tests her by handing over a list of people for her to murder, will she comply?
Episode 49
Evil Eyes
Thu, Aug 13, 2026
One morning in 1990, someone in a Dallas, Texas suburb finds the body of a prostitute, her eyes surgically removed. Two similar murders later, the FBI zeros in on a killer.