Top Best New True Crime Podcasts of May 2026
This months true crime recommendations list is so good! I have two brand new excellent Irish true crime podcasts that I am excited to tell you about as well as the absolutely gripping Melanie Reid true crime podcast that is top of my list this month. So let’s get straight into it!
1. Delve: Diagnosis of a Crime: The Trial (Season 2) - Hosted By Melanie Reid - newsroom.co.nz.
This is the follow on true crime podcast to the previously featured season one of the podcast Diagnosis of a Crime which I featured on noroadlongenough.com in October 2025. If you haven’t already listened to season one then you should probably go back and listen now before getting stuck into season two.
In season two, host Melanie Reid takes us inside the Dunedin (New Zealand) courtroom where the pro-athlete (who we met in season one) stands accused of harming his new born baby boy, an accusation that he and his wife have always strongly denied. They are now fighting to prove his innocence in the New Zealand courtroom.
This true crime podcast is absolutely gripping! I am purposely not looking anything up online related to this case and instead just listening as it unfolds in my ears.
The first ten episodes are available now.
2. Pirate Predator - Narrated By Peter Mulryan - RTE Documentary on One.
A brand new Irish true crime podcast is second on my list this month. In this true crime podcast, Pirate Predator, we hear all about the life and despicable crimes of Eamon Cooke who was:
“… a man of many faces who, on one hand, became a cult like figure in the 70s & 80s, while on the other became one of Ireland’s most prolific child sexual abusers.” (Source here).
In this poignant true crime podcast we hear from many of his young victims (now adults) as well as from those who worked with and/or knew Eamon Cooke. Cooke used his position as a pirate radio operator in Dublin Ireland to access young children and his campaign of grooming only evolved and escalated as the years passed.
This true crime podcast is packed with information and solid dates and timelines. Another brilliant Irish true crime podcast brought to us by the excellent team at RTE Documentaries on One.
The first three episodes are out now.
3. Ghost: The Disappearance of Sandra Collins - Hosted By Nicola Tallant - Crime World.
Another brand new Irish true crime podcast in spot number three this month from the renowned and award winning Irish journalist Nicola Tallant and the excellent team at Crime World (Tallant and Crime World have featured many times on noroadlongenough.com).
Over nine episodes, this true crime podcast, Ghost: The Disappearance of Sandra Collins assesses and explores the investigation into the disappearance of Sandra Collins on the 4th of December 2000 from a small fishing village named Killala in rural County Mayo. Sandra Collins was just ten days from turning twenty-nine when she vanished. She was the eldest of six children.
“On a bitterly cold winter’s night, more than a quarter of a century ago, a 28-year-old woman vanished from a small fishing village on Mayo’s north coast. Sandra Collins was last seen in a takeaway in Killala shortly after 11pm on the 4th of December 2000. The next day her aunt raised the alarm, sparking a massive manhunt, both on land and sea. But apart from a fleece jacket that mysteriously turned up five days after she disappeared, no sign of Sandra has ever been found since. Her disappearance remains one of the most tragic and frustrating unsolved missing person cases in recent Irish history.” (Source here).
This is such a tragic true crime story. We hear a lot from Sandra’s brother Patrick and her sister Bridie as they give us their heartbreaking account of Sandra’s life before her disappearance and how much their lives have been impacted by it.
The first three episodes are available now and you will be hooked from the first moments.
4. Intrigue: To Catch a King - Hosted By Sue Mitchell & Rob Lawrie - BBC Radio 4.
In this, the latest season of the excellent true crime podcast Intrigue: To Catch a King the hosts are investigating a new “people-smuggling boss” who is operating routes into the UK and they take us along every step of the way.
This is a suspense filled true crime podcast as the hosts try to get as much information as they can about the smuggling gang and who its leader really is. However, the stories told of lives lost due to greed and the inhumane treatment of those most desperate are shocking.
A truly bingeable true crime podcast - the first three episodes are out now!
5. Jean: The Real Lady Justice - Hosted By Naomi Channell - REAL.
Naomi Channell is back with another stellar true crime podcast, I binged all six episodes in one day - so captivating.
In Jean: The Real Lady Justice we hear from Jean Taylor who has been through so much heartbreak it makes you wonder how much a person can take. In 1998 Jean lost her beloved sister Joyce who was murdered by her violent partner. In 2000 her son Stephen was murdered by a female acquaintance. Then in 2004 her daughter Chantel went missing from Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. This later evolved into a murder case and Stephen Alan Wynne was charged with this crime. Of course there is so much more and you will hear all about it from the ever resilient Jean Taylor through this true crime podcast.
Following all these tragic and needless occurrences in Jean Taylor’s life, Jean, to put it mildly “had enough” (and who would blame her) and so she set her mind to generating change, creating support for victims’ families and ensuring that justice is served to those found guilty of these horrendous crimes. Jean states:
“The fire in me was a fire that led me to fight for changes in the way the law deals with those who take lives. The destruction these people leave within a family is immense; they don’t just take one life but many. We must make the law give out sentences that fit the crime, life must mean life. More must be done for us victims and our families.” (Source here).
Jean Taylor set up the Families Fighting for Justice organisation and you can visit its website here. This organisation campaigns for:
“‘Life should mean life’, for first-degree murder and murder with intent, also tougher sentences for manslaughter” and they are “… working for change for victim’s families of homicide, we are also a peer support group for those who have lost someone to acts of murder or manslaughter.” (Source here).
As aforementioned, all six episodes are available now so do not delay, get listening and spread the word of Jean’s great advocacy work.
6. Shadow World: Stolen Years - Hosted By Jemma Gander - BBC Radio 4.
I’ve only listened to the first two available episodes of this true crime podcast and I can’t wait for more episodes to drop. In this podcast we hear about a wrongful conviction which saw Andrew Malkinson imprisoned in the UK in 2004 for seventeen YEARS for a crime he did not commit. The host of this true crime podcast Jemma Gander follows Andrew as he tries to rebuild his life after his release in 2020:
“Andrew Malkinson’s wrongful conviction of a brutal rape in 2003 has been recognised as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in UK history. He’s angry and says the criminal justice and appeal systems let him down. Now that the right man has been convicted, he wants answers, and reform.” (Source here).
This case is still very much relevant now as the man, Paul Quinn, who was subsequently identified as the real perpetrator of the crime (via DNA evidence) was only convicted in April of this year, 2026.
As aforementioned, the first two episodes of this immersing true crime podcast are out now.
7. Uncover: The Expert Witness - Hosted By Sam Mullins - CBC.
This is a super interesting true crime podcast diving into the role that AI (Artificial Intelligence) played in “solving” a number of previously unsolved murders in a small town in Ohio, USA. I was completely invested in this true crime podcast from the beginning. Host Sam Mullins takes us down some rabbit holes as he investigates this new AI technology, the man behind it and how reliable and accurate this AI technology really is - can it be trusted with peoples lives?
“And suddenly those cold cases? Started to get closed. A ground breaking Canadian AI technology was coming to the rescue. Tracking criminal behaviour to bring justice where humans had failed. But as the cases stack up, and charges are laid, two lawyers grow skeptical. Human cracks appear in the mysterious new tech. Can the doubters open up this black box and reveal its true workings, before it takes hold across the world?” (Source here).
The first three episodes are out now so definitely get caught up before episode four drops!
8. The Binge Crimes: Cut, Color, Kill - Sony Music Entertainment.
Fabio Sementilli was an award winning and highly respected hairdresser who was murdered in his own home in Los Angeles (USA) in January 2017. In this true crime podcasts, Fabio Sementilli’s murder is investigated and many secrets and mysteries are uncovered:
“At first, it looked like a burglary gone wrong. But as detectives began to dig deeper, they realized this wasn’t random. His murder was planned meticulously. Someone had plotted to take Fabio out. Investigators would uncover a hidden life that no one saw coming.” (Source here).
This is another great option for bingeing as the story takes so many unforeseen turns that you will find it hard to turn off once you start listening. The first four episodes are out now.
9. Blood and Water - Hosted By Stefanie Ramos - ABC News.
In this six-part true crime podcast host Stefanie Ramos deep dives into the 2001 brutal murder of Leslie Preer in her Washington, D.C. home.
While investigators first focus on Leslie’s husband as the perpetrator of the crime, DNA evidence from the scene points in a new direction.
In Blood and Water we hear from some of the Preer family members as they recount their memories of the day Leslie was murdered and the aftermath.
The first five episodes have already been released so just one to go now!
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