The best true crime documentaries to watch in 2025

Sarma Melngailis in Bad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, Fugitives.

Sarma Melngailis was a 'rising star' in New York's raw-vegan food scene

(Image credit: Alamy / Everett Collection Inc / Netflix)

By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK, Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK

last updated 23 May 2025

From meticulous re-examinations of "old, well-worn cases" to shocking introductions to "crimes we never knew existed", there's no shortage of "excellent" true-crime documentaries, said Rolling Stone. These gripping shows can keep us "glued to our couches for hours on end". Here are some of the most bingeworthy series to watch this year.

Con Mum

Back in 2022, the celebrated British pastry chef Graham Hornigold "received a message that he had been waiting for all his life" from a woman claiming to be his "long-lost mother", said Benji Wilson in The Telegraph. As the title reveals, she turns out to be a "nasty piece of work" and by the time she's finished with her son, she has "ruined his life and destroyed his marriage". It's a "breathtakingly depressing" story that ends with a shocking twist you won't see coming.
Netflix

This "tantalising" four-part Netflix docuseries explores how a "rising star" in New York's "raw-vegan food scene" was swindled out of $2 million by her con man lover, said Vanity Fair. Director Chris Smith (known for "Fyre: the Greatest Party that Never Happened") turns Sarma Melngailis' ordeal into an exhilarating show that involves "canine immortality, alleged brainwashing and – ironically – a Domino's pizza order gone very wrong".
Netflix

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"What are we going to do with all the bad people? Like, really?" said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. Such are the thoughts that spring to mind when confronted with the likes of this "grimly shocking" documentary about the murders of Stephen and Carol Baxter. The "devoted" couple's bodies were discovered by their daughter, Ellena, in 2023 at their home in West Mersea under "baffling" circumstances. With no signs of a break-in or any injuries, the police are initially puzzled. What unfolds from there on in is an "astonishing" tale, weaved together from the Baxters' home security cameras and police bodycam footage. It soon transpires that close family friend Luke D'Wit has much to hide beneath his "preternaturally calm" exterior. "There are no bells or whistles here – the makers have enough sense and respect to let the story and its sorrows stand alone."
itv.com

When a suburban American family adopts a six-year-old Ukrainian girl, Natalia Grace, they allegedly find themselves in a nightmarish situation reminiscent of 2009's horror movie "Orphan", said Entertainment Weekly. They believe she is "an adult with murderous intent". Examining this "uniquely unsettling case" and the ensuing legal battle, the series draws viewers into the "thought-provoking borderlands where truth and myth intersect". It makes for a gripping watch.
Apple TV+

This three-part documentary about a Mormon "mommy vlogger", Ruby Franke, who ends up in prison for child abuse is "pointed and insightful", said The New York Times. Some of the most "arresting" footage looks just like any other "peppy family vlog". But this "pert blonde woman in bright lipstick" isn't delivering "chummy tips" on parenting – outtakes reveal "startling and cruel" exchanges with her young children. Going beyond the "tabloid fodder", it's a sensitive documentary that shows you can never really know "what's going on behind closed doors".
Disney+

Unlike most other missing persons docudramas, Sherri Papini (pictured above) "doubles as the captive and the culprit", said Rolling Stone. The three-part series begins by "painting a glossy picture" of Papini, a happily married mother of two who vanishes, before returning three weeks later "covered in bruises". But what makes the story so "enthralling" is that Papini was "never kidnapped at all" and her claims of being abducted by two Hispanic women were entirely false. It's a "troubling case" that "gave a new name to the hapless white damsel in distress".
Disney+

This chilling documentary explores the controversial relationship between Anna Stubblefield, a white philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and Derrick Johnson, a non-verbal Black man with cerebral palsy. Netflix's account of the case is a "shocking crosscurrent of race, romance and consent", said Vanity Fair. Stubblefield, who had "devoted" her life to the study of disability rights, was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault (her conviction was later overturned). The film carefully "lays out the case" before using her husband's words to accuse Stubblefield of being a "pathological liar" with a "saviour complex".
Netflix

Originally aired as a podcast, the "UK's longest-known case of catfishing" has "come to Netflix in the form of a new film". Victim Kirat Assi tells the "gobsmacking tale" of how she began a relationship, eventually becoming engaged, to someone who did not exist "in the way she'd been led to believe", said GQ. Beginning with a Facebook friend request, the friendship "deepened into a virtual romance, an engagement and eventually an all-consuming web of unfulfilled promises" that consumed most of Kirat's 30s, said The Guardian. Kirat is a "cogent and remarkably grounded narrator", who explains "how she grew closer and closer to 'Bobby', as well as to his friends and family".
Netflix

When a decaying corpse wrapped in 41 layers of plastic turns up in the "sleepy" village of Beddau in south Wales, the community is "shaken", said The i Paper. As we start to hear from locals, an elderly woman soon emerges as the prime suspect: Leigh Sabine. Expertly mixing the "claustrophobia" of a small town with a "family mystery spanning generations", the first episode sets a compelling scene. "It's been a long time since a film gripped me quite like Sky's stylish and surprising" three-part series.
Sky

"The odd thing about the characters" in this saga is "how familiar they are from fiction", said The Telegraph. "A powerful family ruling over a small town. An indulged and entitled son who thinks he's above the law. Corruption and murder in a Deep South setting." The two seasons feature a fatal boating accident, in which the wife and younger son of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh were found dead. The filmmakers "do a fine job spinning the yarn, pulling the viewer this way and that, and letting the 'Can you top this?' details slowly pile up", said Rolling Stone.
Netflix

Adrienne Wyper has been a freelance sub-editor and writer for The Week's website and magazine since 2015. As a travel and lifestyle journalist, she has also written and edited for other titles including BBC Countryfile, British Travel Journal, Coast, Country Living, Country Walking, Good Housekeeping, The Independent, The Lady and Woman’s Own.