Kelly Ripa and 'Queen of True Crime' Ashley Flowers Break Down the Menendez Brothers Case, Karen Read and More

The pair sat down for an episode of Ripa's 'Let's Talk Off Camera' podcast and dissected some high-profile cases — as well as their theories about what happened

Los Angeles Times via Getty; David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty  Erik and Lyle Menendez; Karen Read

Los Angeles Times via Getty; David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty

Erik and Lyle Menendez; Karen Read
  • Kelly Ripa invited true crime podcaster and author Ashley Flowers onto her podcast for a special Halloween episode

  • The pair discussed high-profile true crime stories of the Menendez Brothers, Karen Read and Ada Haridine

  • Ripa and Flowers shared their theories about the alleged crimes and subsequent trials

Kelly Ripa and Ashley Flowers went deep on a handful of high-profile crime cases, just in time for Halloween.

During the latest episode of SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, in what's being dubbed a special Halloween episode, the 54-year-old Live with Kelly and Mark star was joined by the Crime Junkie host and author to break down cases that have generated buzz — and some she's previously dissected on her podcast.

Among the cases the pair discussed were the case of Menendez brothers Lyle and Erik MenendezKaren Read's high-profile murder trial, and the murder trial of an Indiana woman named Ada Haridine, who Flowers covered on her podcast earlier this month.

Ripa and Flowers reflected on their first experience of the Menendez brothers trial, which has garnered renewed interest given a new Netflix documentary and drama series from Ryan Murphy. The pair were convicted on March 20, 1996 of first-degree murder in the deaths of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty Erik and Lyle Menendez on December 29, 1992

VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty

Erik and Lyle Menendez on December 29, 1992

Related: Where Are the Menendez Brothers Now? A Look at Erik and Lyle's Lives in Prison — and the New Evidence That Could Get Them Out

"When I first moved to New York City, the Menendez brothers ... were standing trial," Ripa recalled. "I was shooting something where I was working in a trailer. And my trailer had a television, and the television only got Court TV."

Flowers — also a bestselling author of crime novels — added that people "have very specific idea about these rich kids that killed their parents because they wanted their money, and that's not really the whole story."

On Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Mendendez shot their parents and were later tried twice, as they claimed their father was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive and that their mother Kitty was addicted to drugs and alcohol, physically abusive and enabled Jose. The pair were each convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in March 1996.

In 2023, the brothers' lawyers filed a petition to vacate the brothers' convictions in light of new evidence, and as recently as this month, the Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón was looking to schedule a hearing in which prosecutors and the defense will submit arguments for and against their release.

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Karen Read appears in Norfolk County Superior Court

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty

Karen Read appears in Norfolk County Superior Court

Related: All About the Karen Read Murder Trial that Ended with Deadlocked Jury — and What Happens Next

Flowers and Ripa also touched on the murder trial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman accused of backing her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. “So what’s your gut instinct?” Ripa asked her guest. “Do you believe that allegedly this cop died within that house and was tossed outside, and then [Karen] was set up to take the fall?”

Read's first trial ended in a hung jury, after prosecutors claimed she dropped O'Keefe off at the Canton, Mass., home of a retired Boston police officer after a night of drinking, before she allegedly backed into him and left him in the snow to die. Her attorneys, however, claimed that she was framed in a cover-up after O'Keefe was allegedly jumped by people at the Alberts’ house.

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“I think that they presented enough evidence at trial to make that a question that leads to reasonable doubt,” Flowers said, before later detailing some theories.

“The thing I can’t say is why," she added. "But everyone was trashed, and I don’t think you make rational decisions when you’re trashed ... and they’re just bad witnesses. You can tell who was at the house that night and who wasn’t just by them being on the stand, because if you were at the house that night, you can’t recall shit, and everyone else seemed to be able to have a decent memory.”

Cass County Sheriff's Office Ada and Ed Haradine

Cass County Sheriff's Office

Ada and Ed Haradine

Flowers and Ripa also shared their thoughts on the case of Ada Haridine, a 40-year-old Indiana mother of two who vanished in 1985 before her remains were discovered in a nearby wooded area three years later. Haridine's story was covered in the second season of Flowers' The Deck Investigates — for which she interviewed family members to shine a light on the circumstances surrounding her death.

"The 80s was prime housewives-going-missing time," Ripa said. "Housewives were vanishing and going missing and it there was always this narrative that maybe she ran away to start a new life. And I always go, I don't know any mom that runs away to start a new life."

The latest episode of Ripa's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast with Flowers is now available.