Life Multiple Killers

Aaron James McKinney is an American convicted murderer responsible for the fatal beating of 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998. McKinney and accomplice Russell Henderson kidnapped and robbed Shepard before taking him to a remote location, where McKinney repeatedly struck him with a handgun and left him tied to a fence. Shepard died six days later. McKinney was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery and received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Adam Matos murdered his former girlfriend Megan Brown, her parents, and her new boyfriend in a brutal quadruple homicide in Hudson, Florida, in 2014. Matos killed Megan, 27, her parents Gregory and Margaret Brown, both 52, and Megan's new boyfriend, Nicholas Leonard, 37, at the waterfront home where Matos had been living with members of the Brown family. Megan and Gregory were shot, while Margaret and Leonard were killed by blunt-force trauma. Matos subsequently moved the bodies from the property and left them stacked in a nearby field, where they were discovered during the investigation.

Alexander Christopher Ewing was responsible for four murders during a series of violent attacks in the Denver metropolitan area in January 1984. On January 10, he sexually assaulted and murdered 50-year-old Patricia Louise Smith in her Lakewood home, and six days later attacked the Bennett family in Aurora, killing Bruce Bennett, his wife Debra and their seven-year-old daughter Melissa with a hammer. The crimes remained unsolved for more than three decades until DNA evidence linked Ewing, who was already serving a prison sentence in Nevada, to the killings. He was convicted of the three Bennett murders in 2021 and Patricia Smith's murder in 2022, receiving three consecutive life sentences for the Bennett killings and another life sentence for Smith's murder.

Alex Murdaugh became one of America’s most infamous disgraced legal figures after being convicted of murdering members of his own family in South Carolina in 2021. The case exploded into national headlines because Murdaugh came from one of the most powerful legal dynasties in the American South, with generations of influence over law enforcement, prosecutions and politics throughout the region. As investigators examined the murders, they uncovered a far larger web of corruption involving financial fraud, opioid addiction, theft, insurance schemes and abuse of legal power spanning many years. The collapse of the Murdaugh family empire transformed the case into one of the most heavily publicized American criminal scandals of the modern era.

Anthony Todt became one of Florida’s most infamous family annihilators after murdering his wife, three children, and family dog inside their Celebration, Florida home in 2019. Prosecutors alleged Todt killed the family over several days before living alongside the decomposing bodies while attempting to avoid financial collapse, criminal exposure, and personal ruin. The case generated intense national media attention because Todt publicly presented himself as a successful physical therapist and family man before the murders were uncovered. Investigators later revealed mounting financial fraud allegations, insurance investigations, and severe personal pressures surrounding Todt before the killings. The horrifying circumstances inside the home, combined with Todt’s shifting explanations and bizarre courtroom behavior, made the case one of the most heavily discussed family annihilation murders in modern American true crime.

Austin David Thompson carried out a mass shooting in Raleigh's Hedingham neighborhood on October 13, 2022, killing five people and injuring two others. Thompson, who was 15 at the time, first killed his 16-year-old brother James inside their home before leaving the house and shooting people in the surrounding neighborhood, including off-duty Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Torres. He later pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and additional charges. In February 2026, Thompson was sentenced to five consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

Brendan Banfield was convicted of the aggravated murders of his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan in Fairfax County, Virginia, on February 24, 2023. Prosecutors said Banfield and the family's au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, were having an affair and devised a scheme to lure Ryan to the Banfield home and make it appear that he had killed Christine before being killed himself. Banfield was convicted in February 2026 of two counts of aggravated murder, firearm use and child endangerment. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in June 2026 and has since filed notice of an appeal.

Chad Doerman murdered his three young sons, Clayton, Hunter and Chase Doerman, at the family's home in Monroe Township, Ohio, on June 15, 2023. Doerman shot seven-year-old Clayton, four-year-old Hunter and three-year-old Chase with a rifle in what prosecutors described as execution-style killings. His wife and stepdaughter were also injured during the incident. Doerman was initially charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping and felonious assault and faced the possibility of the death penalty. In August 2024, he pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 16 years for the assault convictions.