Enthralling cases explored in true crime documentaries, One Night in Idaho and Amy Bradley is Missing

I’m a fan of true crime documentaries, series and podcasts, but a few years ago I had to seriously cut back my intake.

There was, and still is, so much true crime content out there, so much so it felt like falling down a very morbid rabbit hole. And coupled with the fact I was surrounded by depressing news every day in my job, I knew my limits.

I still watched and listened to the occasional offering, but in recent weeks a couple of gripping documentaries have drawn me right back in.

Firstly, I came across the doco One Night in Idaho, about the senseless and evil slaying of four US college students in 2022: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle. The chilling crime made global headlines and I remember reading about some of the details at the time, then lost track following it.

The documentary doesn’t answer all the questions you’re desperate to know, in particular why killer Brian Kohberger decided to murder a group of strangers in their sleep (yet leave two housemates alive). His motive, even after he was sentenced, remains a mystery: was he part of the incel (involuntary celibate) movement, was he stalking one or more of his victims in the lead-up, was the warped criminology student looking to commit what he deemed the “perfect crime”?

This four-part doco is grounded in the emotion and heartache of the victims’ families and friends. Some of them give interviews for the first time, providing glimpses into their raw grief and the ripple effect of four stolen lives.

Something said by the mother of Madison Mogen, on how her daughter wouldn’t want her to wallow in grief, has particularly stayed with me in the weeks following: “You never know how strong you are until strong is all you can be.” It is powerful stuff.

The other documentary I binge-watched recently centres on another baffling mystery, but one incredibly I had never heard of before.

Amy Bradley is Missing (the title gets right to the point) is about a young American woman who had just embarked on a Caribbean cruise with her parents and brother in 1998 when she vanished without a trace.

While at first it seems a likely case of misadventure or suicide, the plot does not take long to thicken. The case is a tangled web of theories, but unfortunately after 27 years Amy’s family still have no answers and are stuck in the cruellest of time warps.

Did Amy jump or fall overboard? Did foul play happen on board or on shore if Amy left the ship of her own accord? Was she smuggled off the ship and sold into human trafficking? The latter theory comes with witness accounts from people who claim they encountered Amy years after her disappearance.

While one is solved and the other has gone cold, unfortunately neither of the cases explored in these documentaries offer any satisfying conclusion or resolution.

But from start to finish, it’s viewing that left me transfixed, appalled, unsettled, baffled and heartbroken — often all at once. I couldn’t stop watching — nor Googling during and after.

One Night in Idaho is streaming on Prime Video, Amy Bradley is Missing is streaming on Netflix