December 22, 2024
In 2024, true-crime buffs can expect several trials to head to court. Chad Daybell and Richard Allen are two defendants standing trial this year.
In 2024, true-crime buffs can expect several trials to head to court. Chad Daybell and Richard Allen are two defendants standing trial this year.



Chad Daybell, Lori Vallow, Sarah Boone, Richard Allen and Bryan Kohberger will be tried for their alleged crimes. 

For some, like Daybell, a trial has already begun. Others, like Kohberger, have been through a line of hearings revealing new information, but a trial date is not yet set. 

If you’re a true crime buff, read on for the details of five cases to look out for in 2024. 


THE DARK SIDE OF TRUE CRIME

Chad Daybell, Lori Vallow’s husband, is being tried in Idaho for the alleged murders of his wife’s two children, 7-year-old J.J. Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and his former wife, Tammy Daybell, in 2019. 

Daybell and Vallow were originally scheduled for a joint trial, but Daybell’s defense attorneys motioned for a separate trial in 2022, citing “mutually antagonistic defenses” between the two cases, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

“Our version of the facts of this case will differ greatly from what Ms. Vallow and her legal counsel are going to be presenting,” John Prior, Daybell’s attorney, said during a November 10, 2022, court proceeding, according to Fox News Digital. 

WATCH THE TRIAL OF CHAD DAYBELL 

Vallow was found guilty in May 2023 on multiple counts, including first-degree murder for the 2019 disappearances and deaths of J.J. and Tylee. The murders of her children were allegedly done with the help of Daybell. 

Vallow was arrested in February 2020, and her husband was arrested a few months later in June. 

Jury selection for Daybell’s trial began in early April, about a year after Vallow was convicted. 

At the time of writing, Daybell’s trial is ongoing. The trial can be seen live on Fox Nation. 

Vallow was found guilty in May 2023 of killing her two children, J.J. and Tylee. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

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She was also found guilty of grand theft and also conspired to kill Daybell. 

Both children were found in shallow graves on Daybell’s property in June 2020. This was after their disappearance in September 2019. 

WATCH A LORI VALLOW INVESTIGATION WITH NANCY GRACE I FOX NATION 

After their children went missing and Tammy’s death, Vallow and Daybell jetted off to Hawaii to get married. 

Since being charged, Vallow has been extradited to Arizona, where she faces two charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her own ex-husband, Charles Vallow, and Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece, according to CBS. 

Her trial is expected to begin Aug. 1.  

Sarah Boone’s trial has yet to begin, nearly four years after her alleged crime was committed. 

Boone, a central Florida woman, is accused of second-degree murder after her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., died after being zipped into a suitcase. 

According to Boone, his death was the result of a hide-and-seek game gone wrong. She told investigators they were drinking wine and playing the children’s game in February 2020, when he was zipped in a suitcase and left for hours. 

Authorities said they found a video on her phone of him yelling to be released from the suitcase, saying he couldn’t breathe.

SUFFOCATED IN A SUITCASE: THE DEATH OF JORGE TORRES JR.

Boone was arrested Feb. 25, 2020, by Orange County deputies after detectives said they found Torres Jr. in the suitcase, according to NewsNation. 

Boone, who called 911 after finding her boyfriend inside the suitcase, admitted to being the one to zip it before going to bed, according to the source. She told investigators she thought he could free himself from the zipped suitcase. 

This trial has had many delays, mostly because of Boone’s lawyers withdrawing from the case, many citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for doing so, according to NewsNation. 

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The trial was scheduled to start in April 2023 before being pushed back until July 2024. 

Delays brought the trial to early 2024. The trial still has not begun at the time of writing. The judge has scheduled another hearing for June 7, Court TV reported. 

Richard Allen is the suspect in the 2017 murders of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams on a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana. 

“Richard Allen has been his own worst enemy throughout this process. We’ve learned through multiple filings that he’s made incriminating or damaging statements to what sounds like around 30 people — inmates, prison guards, police officers, family members — about this [crime], and I think that is going to severely tamper him at trial,” journalist Áine Cain, who co-hosts “The Murder Sheet” podcast with Indiana-based attorney Kevin Greenlee, previously told Fox News Digital of the suspect in this case. 

This trial is another with years of delays. 

Allen was first arrested in 2022, five years after the two young girls disappeared. They went missing along the Monon High Bridge Trail on Feb. 13, 2017, and were found dead the following morning, Fox News Digital reported. 

Allen was brought in for questioning months after they were found, but was not arrested. 

According to prosecutors, the reason Allen was linked to the crime was due to an unspent bullet found at the scene that “had been cycled through” a pistol belonging to Allen, according to Fox News Digital. 

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When he was arrested in 2022, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, according to Fox News Digital. 

The delays have been due to Allen’s attorneys temporarily withdrawing from the case last fall during a leak of information.

At the time of writing, the trial has been set for October 2024. 

Even though Bryan Kohberger’s trial likely won’t begin until 2025, there have been details revealed regarding his case through a number of hearings. 

Kohberger is the suspect in the murders of four University of Idaho students killed in their rental home close to campus in November 2022. 

Kohberger allegedly went into the house and killed Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. 

Kohberger was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, when the murders occurred. 

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His DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath found under Mogen’s body, according to court documents. Additionally, cell phone pings put him in the area of the crime scene. 

He faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Last year, the judge entered not guilty pleas to the charges on Kohberger’s behalf during his arraignment. 

The latest developments in the case include an alibi submitted by Kohberger’s defense team. 

“Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars,” his lawyers wrote. “He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho, including Wawawai Park.”

There is no trial date set for this case at this time. 

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