2023 in review: Crime stories followed by NewsNation

(NewsNation) — From the biggest trial of the year in South Carolina to new developments in one of the Midwest’s most shocking cases, NewsNation kept tabs on a number of crimes this year.

As 2023 comes to a close, here is a look back at them, some of which NewsNation will keep following in 2024:

Alex Murdaugh Trial

Alex Murdaugh reacts as he addresses the court during his sentencing for stealing from 18 clients, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023, at the Beaufort County Courthouse in Beaufort, S.C. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

It was the verdict that sent shockwaves through South Carolina: once Low County royalty, now-disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted in the murders of his wife and younger son.

Authorities say Paul, 22, and Maggie Murdaugh were both shot in the head near dog kennels on the family’s sprawling rural property in 2021.

It took the jury just three hours to deliberate and find Murdaugh, once the patriarch of a powerhouse legal dynasty, guilty. He was eventually sentenced to life in prison. There were more than 75 witnesses called, and 800 photographs, reports and exhibits presented as evidence. Murdaugh himself even testified, admitting several times that he lied and stole millions from his clients and law firm. Eventually, Murdaugh reached a plea deal with prosecutors for these financial crimes, though he maintains his innocence in the murders.

Murdaugh’s lawyers are now asking for a retrial, as they claim the Colleton County Clerk of Court pressured jurors to return a guilty verdict. Last month, South Carolina filed a response saying these claims are unfounded.

The Idaho College Killings

FILE – A flyer seeking information about the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found dead is displayed on a table along with buttons and bracelets on Nov. 30, 2022, during a vigil in memory of the victims in Moscow, Idaho. A suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania, a law enforcement official said Friday, Dec. 30. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Last November, four University of Idaho students, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, were found stabbed to death in their rental home in Moscow, Idaho.

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing them, was arrested in Pennsylvania at his parents’ house after weeks of investigation, and flown back to Idaho to face murder charges. Since he didn’t verbalize one in court, a judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial, and victims’ families say the legal process has moved painfully slow for them. There is no exact time frame for a trial at this point.

Families of the students who died are also upset as the University of Idaho plans to demolish the home where they were found.

Lori Vallow Trial

FILE - A boy looks at a memorial for Tylee Ryan and Joshua "JJ" Vallow in Rexburg, Idaho, on June 11, 2020. The investigation started roughly 29 months ago with two missing children. It soon grew to encompass five states, four suspected murders and claims of an unusual, doomsday-focused religious beliefs involving "dark spirits" and "zombies." On Monday, April 10, 2023, an Idaho jury will begin the difficult task of deciding the veracity of those claims and others in the triple murder trial of Lori Vallow Daybell. (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, File) — FILE – A boy looks at a memorial for Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow in Rexburg, Idaho, on June 11, 2020. The investigation started roughly 29 months ago with two missing children. It soon grew to encompass five states, four suspected murders and claims of an unusual, doomsday-focused religious beliefs involving “dark spirits” and “zombies.” (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, File)

Idaho mom Lori Vallow was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her two youngest children: JJ Vallow, 7 and Tylee Ryan, 16. She was also convicted this year of conspiring to kill her husband Chad Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy.

The children’s bodies were found burned, mutilated, dismembered and buried on Chad Daybell’s property in Rexburg.

Prosecutors say Vallow got sucked into Daybell’s cult-like beliefs. Daybell would often talk about “zombies,” souls leaving bodies, and theories about the world ending.

Vallow believed her children were evil, prosecutors said, and the couple spoke about demons possessing them, according to texts shown in court.

Daybell’s trial is set for April 2024, while Vallow still faces criminal charges in Arizona, where, according to Fox 10 Phoenix, she is accused of conspiring in the fatal shooting of her estranged husband and planning the attempted killing of her niece’s ex-husband. Vallow has pleaded not guilty to these charges.

Delphi Killings

Teenagers Libby German and Abby Williams were murdered in Delphi, Indiana in 2017. (Courtesy: family)

The bodies of Abby Williams, 13 and Libby German, 14, were found near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017. The case has seen its fair share of disruptions since then.

Indiana State Police arrested Richard Allen in 2022, and he was charged with two counts of murder. Allen has pleaded not guilty.

This past year, Allen’s initial attornies withdrew from the case after confidential photographs of the crime scene were leaked. A friend and former co-worker of one of the attornies was charged after admitting to taking pictures of sensitive evidence related to the killings and leaking them online.

In December, Allen was moved from the Westville Correctional Facility to the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, Indiana. His previous attorneys had filed a motion in April asking for Allen to be moved, arguing that his physical and mental well-being had deteriorated because he’d been kept in conditions “akin to that of a prisoner of war.”

Now, Allen’s trial is set for next year. The Indiana Supreme Court announced a hearing on Jan.18, 2024, will be livestreamed.

Brian Walshe

Brian Walshe’s case continues to weave its way through the court process after he pleaded not guilty to charges including killing his wife Ana, misleading a police investigation and improperly moving a body.

Ana Walshe was reported missing on Jan.4, though Brian Walshe told investigators she left home on Jan. 1.

Evidence in the initial indictment included Ana Walshe’s phone pinging in the vicinity of the family’s home after she supposedly left, as well as surveillance footage and cellphone data showing Brian Walshe made trips to area dumpsters and purchasing cleaning supplies around that time. Traces of blood were also found during searches of the Walshe home and Brian Walshe’s car.

Part of the indictment also went into his Google searches, which included “Can you be charged with murder without a body?” information on how to dispose of a body and how to destroy evidence.

He’s set to be back in court in January 2024.