#7 - Jennifer Lynne Faith
On October the 9th of 2020, Jennifer Lynne Faith and her husband, James, left their Dallas
home to walk their dog around the neighborhood. A sudden barrage of gunfire left 49-year-old James,
an American Airlines executive, with 7 critical gunshot wounds, to which he ultimately succumbed.
In the immediate aftermath, Jennifer portrayed herself as a grieving widow, pleading for members
of the general public with information about her husband’s killer to come forward. In an interview
with a local media outlet, the woman recounted the fateful incident, saying, “I heard running
behind me, and I turned around and all of a sudden somebody just started shooting at him”,
calling the situation “devastating”. Investigators got a break in the case the following January,
when they arrested 48-year-old Darrin Ruben Lopez and charged him with the murder. Lopez,
a Tennessee resident, was accused of driving all the way to the Faiths’ home in Dallas,
where he laid in wait until the couple took their dog out for a walk. He gunned James down with a
.45-caliber handgun, which was later found inside his Dickson County residence. It subsequently
emerged that Jennifer and Lopez had dated in high school and college. The woman admitted
to texting him daily to help him through a recent divorce, but denied any intimate involvement with
her husband’s killer. Upon seizing the pair’s cell phones, however, detectives unearthed over
14,000 calls and texts they’d exchanged between September the 30th and October the 30th,
many of which involved Jennifer coaching Lopez on what to say to law enforcement and how to
hide evidence of the crime. In early 2021, the manipulative woman was charged with one count
of destruction of an object with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation after
factory-resetting her phone in order to hide her damning communications with Lopez. In September,
prosecutors added a charge of interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire,
accusing her of persuading Lopez to commit the murder by falsely convincing him that
she was being abused, and also providing him with financial compensation. Jennifer pleaded guilty
in February of 2022, and in June, was sentenced to life in prison. Lopez entered a plea of not
guilty, and, as of the latest updates, was awaiting trial at the Dallas County Jail.
#6 - Borce Ristevski
Australian woman Karen Ristevski went missing on June the 29th of 2016, having last been seen
at her family’s Avondale Heights residence. The 47-year-old’s whereabouts weren’t determined until
8 months later, when a group of horticulturalists came upon her remains beneath a pile of tree
branches in Macedon Regional Park. The subsequent autopsy was inconclusive in determining the cause
of Karen’s death. The woman’s loved ones laid her to rest during a funeral service in which
her husband, Borce, served as a pallbearer. By all accounts, the man seemed an “innocent, grieving
widower”. However, in December of 2017, following an extensive police investigation involving audio
recording devices and thorough analysis of CCTV footage, the authorities filed criminal charges
against Borce in connection to his wife’s death. The man eventually confessed to the killing, but
refrained from providing a description of how she died. Prosecutors were unable to prove murderous
intent on Borce’s part, and he thus agreed to a plea bargain on the lesser charge of manslaughter,
which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. During a pre-sentencing hearing in the
Supreme Court of Victoria, the couple’s daughter, Sarah, refused to provide a victim impact
statement, instead giving her father a glowing character reference. Criminal psychologist Laura
Richards subsequently stated her belief that Sarah had been manipulated by her father into supporting
him despite his guilty plea. Borce was sentenced to 9 years in prison, with his daughter’s
testimony likely serving as a mitigating factor for his seemingly lenient punishment.
#5 - Craig Rouget
In 2007, a man from the English Channel Island of Guernsey was given a life sentence for the murder
of 21-year-old James Dean in Saint Peter Port. Years later, while Craig Rouget was incarcerated
at HM Prison Dartmoor, he faced further criminal charges after it emerged that he’d conspired
with his girlfriend to smuggle the synthetic cannabinoid Spice, as well as mobile phones,
into prison. Rouget, then in his early 30s, allegedly manipulated mother of one Katie
Hayes into doing his nefarious bidding by falsely promising her marriage. In court,
Hayes was described as a “scared” and “vulnerable” young woman whom her imprisoned lover had taken
full advantage of. She reportedly helped him sneak the contraband into prison by way of sheets of
paper that had been soaked in the Class B drug. Both Rouget and Hayes pleaded guilty to what
Plymouth Crown Court Judge Robert Linford called “an extremely serious offense”. In early 2022,
Rouget had 2 years and 10 months added to his life sentence, while Hayes was given a
suspended 12-month jail sentence, and was also ordered to perform 180 hours of unpaid work.
#4 - Melina Roberge
A luxury cruise ship called the MS Sea Princess was raided by Australian Border Force officials
with sniffer dogs shortly after docking in Sydney on August the 28th of 2016. Officers reportedly
found 35 kilograms of cocaine in the cabin being shared by Canadian influencers Melina Roberge,
a former escort, and Isabelle Lagace, an ex-adult film star. An additional 60 kilograms
of the illicit substance was discovered in the cabin belonging to 65-year-old Andre Tamine.
The 95 total kilograms, valued at upwards of $16 million, was reported as the record for
cocaine smuggled in luggage through an Australian air or sea port. The three Quebec natives were
arrested and charged for their alleged roles in the drug smuggling operation. In court,
24-year-old Roberge claimed to have initially refused to take part in the 7-week cruise,
but was manipulated into doing it by her unnamed “sugar daddy”. She indicated that she and Lagace
were simply tasked with making the smuggling operation look like a glamorous vacation,
while others had been responsible for overseeing the actual collection of the drugs. A tearful
Roberge was sentenced to 8 years in prison during a hearing in New South Wales District
Court in 2018. Her counterpart received a 7 and a half year sentence of her own. In May of 2021,
having served her minimum sentence, Roberge was released from Australian prison,
at which point she was deported back to Canada. She co-authored a book about her experience,
while Lagace reportedly signed an agreement with a Canadian production company to make a documentary
about “her personal story”, aiming to “dissuade others from getting involved in drug trafficking”.
#3 - Joanna Dennehy
Over a 10-day period in March of 2013, three men were found dead from apparent stab wounds,
with each of their bodies having been dumped in ditches outside the city of
Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, England. The first victim was Lukasz Slaboszewski,
a Polish national. The next two were property developer Kevin Lee and John Chapman, both of
whom were killed on March the 29th. Lee was found the following day, his body having been dressed in
a black sequined dress and posed suggestively in a ditch near Newborough. Shortly after the killings,
a pair of male dog walkers were stabbed in the street in the cathedral city of Hereford,
but both of them ultimately survived. Investigators eventually identified
the perpetrator of each of the stabbings as Cambridgeshire woman Joanna Dennehy,
who’d been aided in her killing spree by two men, Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton.
The woman allegedly sought to kill 9 men in total, expressing a desire for her and Stretch to be like
Bonnie and Clyde. Dennehy was accused of carrying out the murders for the sake of “entertainment”,
at one point telling her accomplice, “I want my fun. I need you to get my fun”.
In November of 2013, she pleaded guilty to each of the 3 killings, as well as the 2 additional
attempted murders. Following a psychiatric evaluation, she was diagnosed with psychopathic,
anti-social and borderline personality disorders. In court, it was described how Dennehy had “cast a
spell” over her male accomplices, and “manipulated them into doing things she wanted”. The men were
nevertheless punished for their actions. Stretch was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced
to a minimum of 19 years in prison, while Layton was jailed for 14 years after being convicted of
perverting the course of justice. In February of 2014, Dennehy received a life sentence,
with the presiding Old Bailey judge recommending that she never be released.
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#2 - Mia Khalifa
During an appearance on the BBC show Hard Talk in September of 2019, social media influencer
Mia Khalifa opened up about how she’d been manipulated into working in the adult film
industry for 3 months. Back in 2014, she’d allegedly been approached on the street by
people who told her she’d be well-suited for nude modeling. Khalifa was subsequently given
a tour of an adult film production studio before being convinced to sign a contract with “jargon”
she didn’t understand. The Lebanon-born celebrity began using her prominent social media presence to
post fashion and travel content after her brief stint in adult films came to an end in 2015.
She recounted being “intimidated” and “scared” by production executives who coerced her into
continuing to perform despite her expressed desire to stop. Khalifa indicated that her
adult film career had caused her family to disown her, which left her feeling “alienated and alone”.
#1 - Dionne Timms-Williams
In the early morning hours of July the 20th of 2021, consultant psychiatrist and father-of-two
Gary Jenkins was “cruelly beaten” and “tortured” in a city park in Cardiff, Wales. The incident,
which ultimately proved fatal for Jenkins 16 days later, was described as a “prolonged homphobic
attack” carried out by a trio of assailants, 2 male and 1 female. The police subsequently
arrested Dionne Timms-Williams, who was 16 at the time, on suspicion of being involved in the
assault. Shortly thereafter, investigators reached out to Timms-Williams’ friend,
18-year-old Lewis Newman, for an interview. Newman claimed that the accused teenager had
been staying with him on the night of the attack. Detectives gathered from other witnesses that
Timms-Williams had spoken about being with a pair of homeless men on the night in question,
and admitted to getting in a “fight” in Bute Park, where Jenkins was accosted. Newman was
consequently taken into custody on a charge of perverting the course of justice, after the police
determined his testimony to have been false. In court, the young man was described as “naive”
and having been in “awe” of Timms-Williams, who used his feelings for her to manipulate him into
helping her cover up the crime. Timms-Williams and the two men accused of taking part in the
attack with her were each sentenced to life in prison. For his role in the subsequent cover-up,
Newman was sentenced to six months in a young offenders’ institution, suspended
for 12 months. He was also ordered to perform 150 hours of unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather date someone who was an FBI-trained interrogator
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