With nearly 35 seasons of Dateline, there are close to 3,000 episodes of the news show, but the best Dateline episodes are those that deal with the most compelling, complex, and longstanding cases. The series’ real-life exposés on crimes, criminals, and their victims have been captivating audiences since the 90s, and shows no sign of slowing down — despite increasing competition in other formats. From true-crime books to documentaries, and the proliferation of the podcast format of true-crime stories, there is an embarrassment of true-crime riches available today — which also means that some have forgotten the original true-crime series.

Long before podcasts were even an idea and HBO and Netflix were filled with true-crime documentaries, Keith Morrison, Lester Holt, Josh Mankiewicz, and a host of other anchors and correspondents were detailing gruesome and ghoulish crimes for the NBC series that premiered in March 1992. In each episode of the long-running show, a sensationalized story from the news is presented. While many struggle with loose threads, some of the best Dateline episodes focus on cases that are ongoing. The series explores the most fascinating and horrifying news stories that have a mystery or an intriguing character at the center.

15

Conduct Unbecoming

Season 19, Episode 32

The vast majority of Dateline episodes focus on crimes that take place within the United States. It makes sense considering that is where the news program and its correspondents are based. Every so often, however, the series tells the audience the twisting story of something that happened in another country.

Such is the case in “Conduct Unbecoming” which focuses on the stories of several different women who had intimate items and clothing stolen from their homes in the Canadian province of Ontario. Initially, it seems like the episode is recounting several disconnected cases, but they’re all actually linked by the same man, who is eventually charged with breaking and entering, sexual assault, and murder.

Part of the reason this episode is so fascinating for those interested in true crime stories is because it examines how a person’s criminal activity can escalate over years. Former Royal Canadian Air Force colonel David Russell Williams is someone whose story initially sounds impossible. He managed to break into more than 80 different homes and steal items from women, wearing those items as trophies, before he graduated to more violent crimes.

14

The Terrible Night on King Street

Season 33, Episode 28

Although more recent seasons of Dateline have struggled to keep the same audience engagement as older seasons, some episodes in the modern era have been particularly intense, interesting, and harrowing. Dateline season 33, episode 28 (which on Peacock may be listed as episode 54) revolves around a group of University of Idaho students who were brutally murdered, seemingly without cause.

The victims, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, were all in an off-campus house at the time of the murders, and the Dateline episode dedicated to their case works through the intense twists and turns surrounding their untimely ends. With forensic evidence and cell phone records, Bryan Kohberger, a doctoral student in criminal justice, was arrested for the quadruple homicide. While there had yet to be a completed trial by the air date of the Dateline episode, Kohberger has since plead guilty to the murders without providing motive, and was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences.

13

The Pink Skirt Plot

Season 28, Episode 4

There are quite a few cases explored in Dateline over the years that don’t highlight a straightforward investigation of a few months. Many of the episodes chronicle investigations that can take years. This one takes nearly 15. Adam Joel Anhang Uster and his estranged wife Áurea Vázquez-Rijos were leaving the Pink Skirt Club in Puerto Rico when they were attacked in 2005. Uster bore the brunt of the attack and died from the altercation while his wife ended up with only minor injuries.

Multiple people were examined as suspects, and one was even arrested and found guilty in court, only to later be exonerated as an investigation continued to see if his estranged wife was involved in the case. She fled Puerto Rico and settled in Europe, eventually ending up in Italy. Her globetrotting created a difficult investigative trail to follow and meant she couldn’t be arrested for over a decade. This investigation is definitely one of perseverance and patience.

12

At The Bottom Of The Lake

Season 27, Episode 3

“At The Bottom Of The Lake” is one of the most interesting Dateline episodes because the criminal investigation it tracks over more than two decades will leave the audience wondering if it’s actually murder or simply a mistake that a young man tries to outrun.

The episode focuses on the case of a young woman found in a Cessna plane in a lake in Montana, drowned, and abandoned there by the plane’s pilot in 1982. It took more than 20 years before the man, who had since changed his name and built a new life for himself, was found. The story, however, is that the two were going to run away together, eloping, and when they ended up in the lake, he couldn’t free her from the plane. The authorities, however, believe that is a lie.

When correspondent Keith Morrison spoke about the episode with Great Falls Tribune right before it originally aired, he called it, “the most interesting and bizarre story I have ever done,” at least at the time. He also said there was so much information to go through over the course of the investigation (which Dateline had been following since 2006) that he wasn’t sure it would all fit into their two-hour window to tell the story.

11

The Secret In Black Rock Canyon

Season 32, Episode 28

This Dateline episode is for those who see horror movies as cautionary tales. It’s very much the kind of real-life event that inspires a slasher movie, but it’s a tragedy in the life of a teenage girl.

Cassie Jo Stoddart house sits for someone, invites her boyfriend over to watch a movie with her, and is later murdered. Because her boyfriend is the last known person to see her alive, he’s the initial suspect. He tells investigators about a pair of friends who also came over to see Stoddart while she was house-sitting, and it’s those two teenage boys who are ultimately found guilty thanks to a videotape of them recounting their crimes.

Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik were both lovers of horror who wanted to experience what it was like to be the killer in a horror story. They recorded themselves right before and right after the murder, giving both authorities and the audience a horrifying glimpse into their actions.

10

Secrets Unmasked

Season 34, Episode 29

Dateline’s most recent season, which has aired throughout 2026, featured a shocking episode that revolved around the 2001 case of Regina Hicks. A mother whose case went unsolved for decades, Hicks’ body was found in a car submerged in a pond in Willard, Ohio. Exploring the ins and outs of the case, Dateline provided a fascinating interview with someone who was close to the case and helped it to go from cold to closed.

After Steve Gates, a friend of Hicks’ estranged husband Paul, came forward to share what he knew about their relationship long after Regina’s murder, officials were able to make connections and build their case against him. The slow-burning mystery of the Dateline episode, which brought Paul into the fold to share his story, feels like a classic iteration of the series rather than a modern episode.

9

Dead Man Talking

Season 31, Episode 29

Nicholas Alahverdian is one of the strangest and most frightening characters to appear on Dateline. His tale includes sexual assault, a faked death, and the COVID-19 pandemic, making it one of those Dateline episodes that feels stranger than fiction. In 2018, when Utah began processing backlogged sexual assault kits, one came up as a positive match for Alahverdian, in a case from 2008.

At around the same time, Alahverdian was being investigated for credit card fraud and domestic abuse. Then on February 29, 2020, it was announced that Alahverdian had passed away due to complications with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and COVID-19, only for him to be discovered hiding in Glasgow, Scotland. It’s a twisting, unbelievable tale and Alahverdian comes out looking both monstrous and brazenly untruthful, lying about the smallest facts of his life. “Dead Man Talking” may not be the most abhorrent Dateline story, but Alahverdian is one of its most captivating villains.

8

Haunting

Season 25, Episode 24

In “Haunting”, there are two double murder cases, both equally brutal and shocking. In the first, a doctor, William Hunter, came back to his house in Omaha, Nebraska to discover his son Thomas and his 57-year-old housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman, dead. Both had been stabbed by knives found in the kitchen.

When investigators assigned to the case visited another murder scene, that of Roger and Mary Brumback, they found the bodies killed similarly to Hunter and Sherman. Thanks to some eyewitness accounts, Anthony Garcia was investigated, and it was discovered that Garcia had recently been removed from Creighton Pathology, where Hunter and Brumback both worked. He targeted these doctors, considering them the reason behind his firing. The truth of who Garcia is and the relationship between the victims (and a possible third one) makes the episode a tense and shocking watch all the way through.

7

Along Came Sarah

Season 31, Episode 30

Sarah Jean Hartsfield is the star of “Along Came Sarah”, a 2023 story about the titular woman who left a long string of deaths in her wake. Hartsfield has been married five times, engaged once more, and two of her partners have ended up dead. The most recent death occurred in February 2023. Joseph Hartsfield was admitted to the hospital with a suspicious illness and quickly passed away.

Though Sarah seemed distraught, the ER nurse thought that the chemical levels in Joseph’s body implied something had been done to him, prompting her to call the police. Sarah was then arrested and charged with murder, leading to the reopening of another investigation involving Sarah’s previous husband, David Bragg.

Sarah shot and killed her husband in May 2018, but she was cleared of any wrongdoing after the murder was determined to be made in self-defense. It’s a fascinating look at Sarah and, despite her facade, the Dateline episode paints her as calculating, cold, and almost a puppet master in her dealings with her previous husbands.

6

The Secret Keepers

Season 27, Episode 44

“The Secret Keepers” kicks off with a phone call, as many great Dateline episodes do. In this one, a woman, Kelly Baker, calls the police to tell them she came home to find her husband dead. At first, presumed to be death by natural causes, the coroner finds two small bullet holes in Randy Baker’s body. Now assuming this case is a murder, investigators uncover one of the more surprising conspiracies in the show. Each time more lengths of the spider web are unspooled, the tension is ratcheted up.

It turns out that Randy’s wife Kelly Baker, his sister Carol Baker, and his nephew Kelly Raisley plotted to kill Randy for the insurance payout. Kelly pulled the trigger, but all three plotted the murder. It’s shocking and completely unexpected, even for those well-versed in the twists of Dateline episodes.