Netflix True Crime Roundup (August 2025)
It’s time once again for our monthly True Crime check in, pulling together all of the new Netflix titles from 2025. This month, we’re sharing upcoming and recent releases for August. Check out the complete list below, and stay safe out there True Crime fans!
Upcoming August Releases
The Truth About Jussie Smollett? (8/22)
The producers of The Tinder Swindler and Don’t F**k With Cats are back, and diving into the 2019 events that made multiple headlines when Mighty Ducks and Empire actor, Jussie Smollett claimed to be a victim of a hate crime in Chicago involving a noose, but was later found to have orchestrated the events with two accomplices. A slew of law suits, countersuits, and appeals followed, making this pop culture landmark fertile ground for an in depth documentary.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (8/29)
Fiction becomes reality when two Michigan teens receive lewd and threatening texts from a blocked number. But this is no Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars, and the FBI eventually becomes involved. Promotional materials promise shocking twists, and a perpetrator who may be closer to the victims than anyone expected.
Released + Ready To Stream
The Echoes Of Survivors: Inside Korea’s Tragedies
This docuseries is a follow-up to 2023’s In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal which covered the JMS cult/sex abuse scandal, which Director Cho Seong-hyun connected to the South Korean police force, which was audited and investigated for obstructing the investigation in 2024. New episodes dive into other chapters of national history, such as the Busan Brother’s home, Chijon Family kidnapping, and criminal negligence in the Sampoong department store collapse explore the broadscale trauma left by these newsworthy events.
Songs From the Hole
This documentary slash visual album is the work of rapper James “JJ’88” Jacobs, who was incarcerated at 15 for murder, and director Contessa Gayles, who combines phone calls with prison footage to explore Jacobs’ personal experience with incarceration, loss, and search for freedom. Before his release in 2022 after serving 18 years, he has an encounter with his brother’s killer that transforms him spiritually. Not your typical investigative style film, this is still a new angle on true crime worth watching.
Stolen: Heist Of The Century
The 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, perpetrated by a group known as “The School of Turin” made history when hundreds of millions worth of gems were taken from a supposedly impenetrable vault (it’s giving Titanic vibes) without any force or violence involved. If you’re in the mood for a real-life Ocean’s Eleven, this one is for you, and most of the diamonds are still missing to this day, which only adds to the allure.
Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes
Re-examining the 1970’s Son of Sam, also known as “.44 Caliber Killer”, murders, this documentary includes never-before-heard interviews recorded with David Berkowitz in 1980 at the Attica Correctional Facility. Detectives, survivors, journalists, and criminal profilers contribute to the present day commentary on this case that has captivated us for over half a century.
Amy Bradley Is Missing
A 23 year-old girl disappears on a cruise with her family in 1998 and remains unfound to this day, despite multiple claims of sightings in Curaçao, Barbardos, and San Francisco. This year, in July podcast host Ethan Klein offered a $1M reward for any information that leads to her safe return. Dissect all of the theories from foul play to sex trafficking with this in-depth documentary.
Angi: Fake Life, True Crime
This two part series dives into the 2008 murder of Ana Páez in Barcelona, and in what was nicknamed “The Near Perfect Crime” her friend María Ángeles Molina assumes her identity in order to commit fraud for financial gain. Molina’s husband mysteriously died in 1996, and the documentary pokes holes in lingering questions surrounding that case as well.
I’m Your Venus
This new documentary about the unsolved murder of trans icon Venus Xtravaganza, born Venus Pellagatti, and known for the 1990 film Paris Is Burning, seeks justice through the advocation to reopen her cold case. With participation from Venus’ three biological brothers, as well as her chosen family from the ballroom community, lead NYPD to reopen their investigation, leading to new evidence, and a confession that complicates understanding of the case.
The Many Deaths of Nora Dalmasso
If you feel like you’ve exhausted all of the true crime cases from the U.S. this three-part series on Argentina’s most notorious unsolved murder is perfect for your next watch. The brutal killing that drew media spectacle and scrutiny, allegations of police misconduct, and the acquittal of both Dalmasso’s husband and son, receives a new lead with DNA evidence arriving in 2024, 18 years after the crime, and outside of the country’s statute of limitations.
Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders
This three-part docuseries tackles the 1982 cold case that killed seven in the Chicagoland area after bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol were poisoned with cyanide. The randomness of the deaths caused wide-spread panic that led to a national recall and challenged local and federal law enforcement. While one suspect, James William Lewis, was linked to a threatening letter, there was ultimately insufficient evidence to charge him with the crime. The case has been reopened multiple times over the years, but no one was ever charged, however, the lasting impact of tamper evident seals on the pharmaceutical industry is a direct result of the tragic case.
Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror
This year marks the 30th anniversary of this deadly domestic terror attack that killed 168 and injured over 600 people, and this film revisits tragic events of Timothy McVeigh’s attack through a modern lens. Using a truck bomb filled with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, and targeting the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, McVeigh harbored deeply radical anti-government sentiments following his service in the Gulf War. The film draws parallels to contemporary movements, includes never-before-seen footage, and highlights the impact the event had on law enforcement and surveillance.
A Deadly American Marriage
This documentary covers the 2015 death of Irish widow Jason Corbett, who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat and a concrete paver after relocating to North Carolina. His remarriage to former nanny, Molly, sparks investigation into her and her father, who claim Jason had been physically abusive. Using a combination of interviews, courtroom reconstruction, and media coverage, filmmakers are able to construct a story that has received praise for it’s sensitivity, especially towards Jason’s children and family.
Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story
This three part docuseries covers the famed “House of Horrors” that was home to one of the UK’s most notorious serial killer couples. Fred and Rose West tortured, abused, and murdered at least twelve young women and girls between 1967 and 1987, and their own daughter Heather was among the victims, many of whom were buried in the couple’s backyard. Despite being an older case, the docuseries claims never-before-seen footage, as well as interviews with family members of victims who have chosen to speak publicly for the first time.
American Murder: Gabby Petito
True crime aficionados will immediately recognize this story from the widespread national news coverage the disappearance of the New York teen during a cross-country road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, whose evasion of law enforcement led to another high-profile search. Critics praise the chronological order of this documentary, which serves to refresh and reframe all of the media coverage. Interviews with Petito’s parents and nuance with the role of social media and domestic violence played in the case will give viewers a more in depth understanding of events.
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer
Covering a series of murders spanning almost two decades, from 1993 – 2011, this docuseries dives into the Gilgo Beach serial killings and is told from the perspective of the victims and their friends and family. The case originated as a search for Shannan Gilbert following her disappearance from a gated community in 2010.
The search led law enforcement to discover the remains of four victims who came to be known as “The Gilgo Four”, while Gilberts remains and five others where located later in 2011. It’s a wild case that led to the arrest of a Manhattan architect, when investigators relied not on a smoking gun, but a discarded pizza crust to piece together the events of the murders.
CHAOS: The Manson Murders
For true crime junkies, the Manson murders is akin to the Marvel or DC Universe. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, by continuously inspiring new content. This documentary adapts 2019’s CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties written by Tom O’Neill with Dan Piepenbring. Mixed reviews praise the film for it’s analysis of the crime’s lasting cultural impact, but criticize the time it spends following red herrings without concrete conclusions.
American Nightmare
This true crime series covered the kidnapping of Denise Huskins in 2015, which police and FBI accused her of staging as a hoax in collaboration with her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn. Dubbed “the real Gone Girl” by the media, this docuseries does a great job of covering the details of the case in a succinct three-episode arc that presents a much happier ending than we can typically expect from this genre. A must-watch for its analysis of the role media plays in high profile cases.
Con Mum
Celebrity chef and TV judge Graham Hornigold had lived without knowing who or where his mother was his entire adult life until a woman by the name of Dionne reaches out claiming to be her, as well as the illegitimate child of the former Sultan of Brunei. She weaves astonishing webs of deception that con Hornigold and others out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, and puts an enormous strain on his marriage and the birth of his first child. Full of champagne, caviar, and Swiss bankers, this film is perfectly paced for a quick true crime fix.
Bad Influence: The Dark Side Of Kidfluencing
This three-episode docuseries covers YouTube star Piper Rockelle, her manager-mother Tiffany Smith, and a cohort of other child collaborators they recruited, examining the ways social media is somewhat of an unregulated “Wild West” when it comes to child entertainment and exploitation. Culminating in an high-profile lawsuit brought against Smith and her boyfriend in violation of child labor laws and sexually inappropriate behavior, it exposes the vulnerabilities minors face at the hands of coercive caretakers who view them as a means to generating attention, revenue, and “content”.
iHostage
This feature length thrilled is based on the true events of a 2022 hold-up of an Apple store in Amsterdam in which a gunman held a man hostage for five hours. It’s a crime that is close to home for director Bobby Boermans, literally, who lives near the actual store where the events took place. Taking a different approach to true-crime storytelling, the film reimagines and recreates the actual scenes and events, where a docuseries might only summarize. A must-watch for anyone who is looking for that firsthand experience as a viewer.
