The Crime Ledger: August 28, 2026

This briefing includes child homicides and a family annihilation. Victim names below are those officially released.

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: Friday, August 28, 2026, midday ET
Scope: Cases with a verified arrest, identification, plea, verdict, charging upgrade, or other official move from August 26–28. Routine local shootings, tabloid-only items, and deaths not confirmed as homicides were cut. The New Yorker had no matching crime/courts piece in the window.

Two forensic identifications landed in the same cycle. Riverside County prosecutors announced that the last unnamed victim of Keith Hunter Jesperson — the “Happy Face Killer” — is Lydia Jane Wade McWhorter of Texas, closing a 34-year gap that had left her known only by the name Jesperson used. In Universal City, Texas, police and Texas Rangers said a 1981 walking-home killing of Yolanda Herrera produced an arrest and a reported confession after forensic genetic genealogy matched preserved autopsy DNA to Kelly Lee Brower, now in Arizona awaiting extradition on a capital-murder warrant. Overlaying those cold-case resolutions is an active family-annihilation investigation in Billings, Montana, where authorities identified Alan Smith, 44, as the man who killed eight relatives, including four children, at a Sunday dinner and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot after setting the house on fire. In Massachusetts, a Plymouth County jury returned Friday morning for a second day of deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy trial. Wisconsin closed the four-year Lily Peters case with a guilty plea and a life sentence; a Jacksonville Beach jury returned the first conviction in the Jared Bridegan murder-for-hire; Michigan continued a rare no-body murder preliminary against John Skelton; and London, Ontario, police upgraded an elderly break-in stabbing to second-degree murder after the 73-year-old victim died in hospital this morning.

Happy Face Killer Victim Named McWhorter

Riverside County authorities said DNA testing has identified the final unnamed victim of convicted serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson as Lydia Jane Wade McWhorter, 26, of Texas. Investigators had known her only as “Claudia,” the name Jesperson used. Jesperson pleaded guilty in Riverside County in January 2010 to her murder and is serving multiple life sentences in Oregon. No new defendant.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that a DNA sample from a maternal relative — McWhorter’s sister, Brenda Burks — confirmed the identification after a public genealogy lead and earlier work by the county’s Regional Cold Case Homicide Team. McWhorter’s body was found August 30, 1992, along Highway 95 about seven miles north of Blythe. Jesperson, a long-haul truck driver who mailed taunting letters marked with smiley faces, confessed to killing her and seven other women between 1990 and 1995; he told investigators he met her while she was hitchhiking. The office said the identification closes the last open case tied to the murders for which he was convicted, and that victim services are working with the family on how she will be laid to rest.

A named victim replaces a killer’s nickname after 34 years. Public genealogy plus official DNA confirmation, not a speculative solve.

Sources:

• Los Angeles Times — ‘Happy Face’ serial killer victim ID’d. Public helped crack the case
• Press Enterprise — Riverside County victim of ‘Happy Face Killer’ identified 34 years after her death
• DNAsolves / Riverside DA — After decades, “Claudia” Jane Doe is now identified

Eight Relatives Killed at Billings Dinner

Authorities identified Alan Smith, 44, as the man who killed eight relatives — including four children — during a Sunday dinner at a suburban home on the outskirts of Billings, set the house on fire, and died of a self-inflicted gunshot as officers arrived. Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O’Donnell named the dead: Evelyn Smith, 92; Dana Smith, 73; Barbara Smith, 72; Megan Ireland-Ghekiere, 39; Landon Ghekiere, 15; Charlotte Ghekiere, 12; Owen Ireland, 13; and Chloe Ireland, 7. Smith is deceased. There is no charging case.

The shooting was Sunday, August 23. O’Donnell said Smith arrived in the neighborhood shortly before 6 p.m. A 911 call went out just after 6. Officers heard gunfire, saw smoke, and later found that multiple fires had been set inside the home, which burned to its foundation and complicated the scene. Relatives told the Associated Press that Smith’s parents had asked him to move out weeks earlier after he had lived in the house for years; he returned unannounced during the family’s weekly dinner. Autopsies were still underway as of midweek. O’Donnell said some questions may never be answered because the people who could answer them are dead. Billings Police Department and Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office.

Four generations, including four children and a 92-year-old great-grandmother. The official scene is now limited by fire and by the suspect’s death.

Sources:

• Associated Press — Police seek answers after family member kills 8 at Sunday dinner
• CNN — Investigators search for evidence at burned Montana home where 8 relatives were killed
• USA Today — Suspect in mass shooting, fire that killed 8 family members identified

Clancy Jury Back for Day Two

After closing arguments Thursday, a Plymouth County jury began deliberating whether Lindsay Clancy is criminally responsible for strangling her three children and returned Friday morning without a verdict. The victims are Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder; jurors may also consider second-degree murder or manslaughter. She acknowledges killing the children in January 2023 and is pursuing a lack-of-criminal-responsibility defense based on postpartum psychosis.

Closings were delivered Thursday by defense attorney Kevin Reddington and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague. The 12 deliberating jurors — nine women and three men — were sent out around 12:30 p.m. and dismissed shortly after 4 p.m. without a verdict. They were due back at 9 a.m. Friday. Clancy jumped from a window of the family home after the killings and was left paralyzed. The defense argues she was not criminally responsible because of postpartum psychosis and what Reddington has described as failed medical care; the state argues she acted with extreme atrocity and cruelty and understood what she was doing. Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office; trial in Plymouth Superior Court.

The live question is criminal responsibility, not whether the children were killed.

Sources:

• The Patriot Ledger — Lindsay Clancy murder trial day 23: Jury sent home without verdict
• CNN — Jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial ends deliberations for the day and will return Monday
• Associated Press via Spectrum News — Jury will return to deliberations Monday in Clancy trial

Arrest in 1981 Herrera Killing

Universal City police and Texas Rangers said forensic genetic genealogy and a DNA match to preserved autopsy evidence led to the arrest of Kelly Lee Brower, who they say confessed to the 1981 killing of Yolanda Herrera, 23. Texas DPS identified Brower as 68. He was arrested August 19 in Cottonwood, Arizona, on a capital-murder warrant and is awaiting extradition to Bexar County. Police say he has confessed. He is presumed innocent.

Herrera was last seen around 2:30 a.m. on April 11, 1981, after leaving Johnny’s Inn and was believed to be walking home. Two days later, children walking to school found her body in a field near East Aviation Drive. An autopsy found multiple blunt-force injuries; investigators have long said she was also sexually assaulted. DNA from fingernail scrapings and other autopsy material sat without a CODIS hit for decades. In 2025 the sample went to Othram; a genetic-genealogy lead pointed to Brower, who had lived in Universal City in 1981. Investigators obtained his DNA in Arizona in October 2025, said it matched the autopsy profile, then traveled with Texas Rangers to interview him. Texas DPS issued its official announcement August 28. Police say they do not believe he and Herrera knew each other.

Forty-five years: stored autopsy DNA, a named defendant, and a reported confession. Treat the confession as what investigators say, not as a verdict.

Sources:

• Texas DPS — Texas Rangers, Universal City Police solve 1981 murder
• KSAT / News 4 San Antonio — Murder suspect arrested after 45 years at large after positive DNA match
• FOX 7 Austin — DNA leads to arrest in 1981 cold case murder of Texas woman

Life Sentence in Lily Peters Killing

Carson Peters-Berger, now 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree intentional homicide in the 2022 killing of his 10-year-old cousin, Iliana “Lily” Peters, and was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for extended supervision after 25 years. He was 14 at the time of the offense. First-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault of a child under 13 causing great bodily harm were dismissed and read in as part of the plea.

Chippewa County Judge Steven Gibbs accepted the plea August 26 and imposed the life term, crediting time served since Peters-Berger’s 2022 arrest. A November jury trial will not proceed. According to the criminal complaint, Lily was riding her bike home from her aunt’s house in Chippewa Falls on April 24, 2022, when Peters-Berger persuaded her off a trail into the woods; her body was found the next morning. An autopsy determined she had been beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted. Chippewa County District Attorney’s Office; Chippewa Falls Police Department.

Four-year child-homicide prosecution ended in an on-the-record admission and a life sentence, with the sexual-assault counts dismissed but preserved for the sentencing record rather than tried.

Sources:

• Associated Press — Cousin of 10-year-old Wisconsin girl pleads guilty to her killing and gets life in prison
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Cousin of Lily Peters pleads guilty for her murder, sentenced to life
• WEAU — Peters-Berger pleads guilty in homicide of Lily Peters, sentenced to life in prison

First Conviction in Bridegan Plot

A Jacksonville jury convicted Mario Fernandez Saldana of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the 2022 roadside ambush of Microsoft design manager Jared Bridegan, 33, a father of four. His toddler daughter was in the vehicle when he was shot. Fernandez Saldana, 38, faces a mandatory life sentence; sentencing is October 5. Shanna Gardner, 39 — Bridegan’s ex-wife and Fernandez Saldana’s estranged wife — faces the same charges, with jury selection then set for August 31. Henry Tenon, the alleged gunman, is set for trial in 2027. Unconvicted defendants remain presumed innocent.

Jurors deliberated about three and a half hours on Wednesday. Bridegan was shot February 16, 2022, after he stopped to move a tire that prosecutors say was placed in the road to lure him out of his SUV following a visit with his children. The State Attorney’s Office, Fourth Judicial Circuit, argued Fernandez Saldana helped plan the killing and recruited Tenon; both sides have said Tenon fired the shots. Tenon initially pleaded guilty and agreed to testify, then withdrew that plea. Motive presented at trial centered on a bitter custody conflict, not on any public finding that Gardner has been convicted. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office assisted.

First verdict in a four-year murder-for-hire case that left a child in the car. The alleged co-conspirator’s trial was then set to start the following week.

Sources:

• State Attorney, Fourth Judicial Circuit — Mario Fernandez Saldana found guilty of murdering Jared Bridegan
• Florida Times-Union — Jury convicts Mario Fernandez Saldana in Jared Bridegan killing
• ABC News — Alleged co-architect of fatal ambush of Microsoft manager found guilty

Skelton No-Body Hearing Continues

Day four of a preliminary examination ended Thursday in the case against John Skelton, who is now charged with murdering his three sons 15 years after they vanished over Thanksgiving weekend 2010. Their bodies have never been found. Andrew, 9; Alexander, 7; Tanner, 5. Skelton, 54, is charged with three counts of open murder and three counts of tampering with evidence. He previously served a 15-year sentence for unlawful imprisonment in the boys’ disappearance and was charged with murder shortly before his scheduled release. He is presumed innocent.

Wednesday’s testimony included family accounts of a duffel bag left on a relative’s porch the morning after the boys were last seen, containing three children’s coats and three toothbrushes. On Thursday, Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Michael Peterson testified that when he interviewed Skelton in prison on November 3, 2025, Skelton gave a new account: that two people from an “underground sanctuary” took the children around midnight on November 26, 2010, and that he “burnt everything.” Skelton’s first ex-wife also testified. The hearing is to determine probable cause for trial, not guilt. Testimony is set to resume Monday, August 31. Bond has been reported at $60 million. Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office; Michigan State Police; Lenawee County court.

A no-body homicide charged 15 years later, after a sentence that never required the state to prove the boys were killed.

Sources:

• ClickOnDetroit — John Skelton case: Investigators, ex-wife take stand on Day 4
• WILX — Preliminary exam continues for Michigan man accused of killing his three sons

London Break-In Upgraded to Murder

London Police said a 73-year-old woman stabbed during an August 22 break-in has died in hospital, and Nelson Enrique Cornejo, 40, has been additionally charged with second-degree murder. The official release did not name her. He also faces earlier charges of aggravated assault, break and enter with intent, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, and obstructing a peace officer. He is presumed innocent.

The official update was issued this morning (release 26-83738). On August 22 at about 6:10 a.m., in the Wellington Road and Base Line Road East area, the woman was woken by a noise, found a man entering her home, and was assaulted and stabbed before she could call 911. Officers said the accused threw broken glass at them; one officer was slightly injured. Police said the suspect and victim were not known to each other. She was first described as having serious but non-life-threatening injuries; she died in hospital on August 28. The death has been deemed a homicide in collaboration with the Chief Coroner’s Office. Cornejo remains in custody and is expected back in London court on August 31. London Police Service Major Crime Section.

Same-day official charging upgrade on a stranger break-in that killed an elderly woman.

Sources:

• London Police Service — Woman stabbed during early morning break and enter 26-83738
• London Free Press — Neighbours ‘uneasy’ after woman dies from stabbing in home break-in
• CBC News — 73-year-old woman dead following south London stabbing

Also watching

Isabelle Rose Johnson, 38, is charged with murder in the death of Jason Coulthart, 43, whose remains were found June 25 on a Freeport, Florida, property. She was captured August 13–14 after a multi-state manhunt. Prosecutors have alleged disguises during the flight. Watch for a bond ruling and any new accessory filings. Do not treat tabloid “master manipulator” language as fact. Fox News.

Georgia has set a September 16 execution date for Stacey Humphreys, 53, convicted of the 2003 Powder Springs killings of real estate agents Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21. A U.S. Supreme Court stay application was filed August 28. FOX 5 Atlanta.

Metropolitan Police charged a 15-year-old boy with murder on August 27 in the August 25 stabbing of 17-year-old David Wynter at Brent Civic Centre in Wembley. The boy cannot be named for legal reasons. BBC.

Alisa Goods, 63, of New York, was found dead August 20 in an embankment near Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Cause and manner of death are not public. Not treated here as a homicide.

Bryan Kohberger: a judge has calendared 2027 dates on his bid to withdraw a guilty plea in the University of Idaho killings. That is a schedule, not a disposition, and not a new trial.