Come Closer

Everyone knows what Lorena Bobbitt did with a kitchen knife in 1993. Instead of asking WHY it happened, most people laughed instead.

The world turned a domestic-violence and marital-r*pe case into the decade's biggest punchline.

In the very first episode of Come Closer, Rae: Aries Goddess and Keeper of Dark Stories, tells it the way it actually happened: Years of documented violence, a law that barely counted her as a victim, two trials, and a culture that laughed instead of looking.

And underneath all of it, THE REAL CRIME. Because marriage was never a love story. It's a 4,000-year-old scam, and Lorena Bobbitt is the proof.

Come closer. It's darker than you think.

⚠️ Content warning: this episode discusses domestic violence, sexual assault, and abuse. Please take care.

📚 The Witness Library: My hand-picked list of the true crime & dark history docs that actually got it right. Get it HERE

💌 IG, TT, YT- @rae_review

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Credits: Video editor / Sound Design: gavin.mc.cabe.sound@gmail.com

Chapters:

0:00 The 10 seconds everyone remembers

· 1:40 Meet Rae

· 4:40 The love story

· 7:00 The marriage turns

·12:30 The night it happened

· 15:00 The media circus

· 17:00 Two trials

· 25:00 Marriage: the real crime

· 30:30 The Verdict
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I'm back, and I know what you're thinking... yes, I've had a haircut.

Come closer. It's darker than you think.

July 22nd 2026.

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📚 The Witness Library: My hand-picked list of the true crime & dark history docs that actually got it right. Get it ⁠HERE ⁠

💌 IG, TT, YT- @rae_review

Hosted by Mercury Podcasts. See for information about the collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Credits: Video editor / Sound Design: gavin.mc.cabe.sound@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get my list of essential true crime documentaries HERE

Velma Barfield: The “Grandmother” Serial Killer, Arsenic Poisonings, and America’s First Female Lethal Injection

Rae profiles Velma Barfield, a little-known serial killer who killed at least four people and became the first woman executed in the U.S. in 22 years and the first ever by lethal injection.

The episode examines competing explanations: sociopathy, addiction-driven fraud, and dissociative identity disorder. Before detailing her death row conversion, and attempted clemency by Governor Jim Hunt, and execution on November 2, 1984.

00:00 Serial Killer You Never Suspected
00:59 Velma Barfield Overview
01:58 Content Warning And Support
02:58 Abuse And Invisibility
04:24 Marriage And Medical Spiral
07:07 Bodies Begin To Pile Up
10:32 Caretaker Deaths And Fraud
11:37 Arsenic Autopsy Breakthrough
12:42 Why Did She Kill
18:51 Death Row And Execution
21:42 Monster Or System Failure
23:10 Wrap Up And Next Steps
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Rae Review featuring Detective Dan Jackson — the Austin Police cold case detective who solved the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders.

For 34 years, the murders of Amy Ayers, Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, and Eliza Thomas went unsolved. The case landed on Dan Jackson's desk on his very first day in the cold case unit. He never imagined he'd be the one to answer the question on the billboards: who killed these girls?

Three years later, using DNA and ballistics, he identified serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers as the man who did it.

Detective Jackson joins Rae to talk about the science that finally cracked it, who Brashers really was, the promise he made to one victim's mother, and the phone call he made to the original 1991 detective before the news broke.

Following our conversation with director Margaret Brown, whose HBO series The Yogurt Shop Murders just aired its final episode, The End of Wondering.

Content note: discusses violence against young girls, sexual assault, and wrongful convictions.
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Documentary filmmaker Margaret Brown joins Rae on Dark Stories to talk about the Yogurt Shop Murders - the 1991 case that haunted Austin, Texas for over three decades.

The fifth and final episode, "The End of Wondering," premieres Friday, May 22, 2026 on HBO and HBO Max.

On December 6, 1991, four teenage girls, Amy Ayers, Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, and Eliza Thomas, were murdered at an "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" shop in Austin, Texas. The case sat unsolved for 34 years. Four men were wrongfully accused. One was killed by police before his name was cleared. Then in September 2025, the case was finally solved.

Margaret spent three and a half years with the families. She joins Rae to talk about grief, resolution, the wrongfully accused, and what it means when the truth finally comes.

Content note: discusses violence against young girls, sexual assault, and wrongful convictions.

The HBO Original documentary series The Yogurt Shop Murders continues with a new 90-minute fifth episode, "The End of Wondering," directed by Margaret Brown ("Descendant"), from A24 and Fruit Tree. The episode debuts Friday, May 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
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