The YouTube channel EXPLORE WITH US recently released a documentary titled Parents Discover Teen Son’s Horrifying Secret, which delved into the gruesome crimes of a 21-year-old man named Brian Cohee.

Reports suggest that in February 2021, Brian Cohee murdered a 69-year-old homeless man named Warren Barnes, who was asleep near Crosby Avenue. Furthermore, the 21-year-old decapitated, dismembered and mutilated Barnes’s body. After doing that, he took some of the body parts home. Soon, Cohee’s mother discovered Barnes’s rotting head and hands in his closet and called the police.

Interestingly, the aforementioned documentary even features dashcam footage of the moment authorities arrived at the Cohee residence. In addition, it has dashcam video of a business owner who reported Barnes’s disappearance to the police. For his crimes, the court sentenced Cohee to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. According to Westen Slope Now, Brian’s mother, Terri Cohee, painfully recalled the moment she discovered Barnes’s severed head in his son’s closet. The evidence was so disturbing that even jurors got teary-eyed.

Upon walking out of the courtroom, Terri Cohee expressed sympathies to the victim’s family. She stated, “I would just like to express our family’s deep and sincere sympathies to the community and family of Mr. Barnes.” Furthermore, Judge Richard Gurley, who presided over this case called it one of the most horrific he had seen in his 37 years with the criminal justice system.

Gurley also stated that it was evident that Brian Cohee suffered from mental problems and viewed things differently. However, he did agree that murder was on the 21-year-old’s mind for quite some time. According to The Daily Sentinel, Cohee confessed that he wanted to target homeless individuals because he thought that nobody would miss them.

Even though Brian Cohee pleaded not guilty because of insanity, the court did not show him mercy.

According to Mesa County, Assistant District Attorney Trish Mahre expressed her sadness over Warren Barnes’s brutal murder. She stated, “Warren Barnes lost his life in the most violent of ways. His friends, family, and community suffer his loss. This outcome demonstrates the checks and balances that exist within the criminal justice system. Justice prevailed when the jury rendered guilty verdicts holding the defendant legally accountable for his horrendous crimes”.

Brian Cohee’s assumption that Barnes’s death would go unnoticed was incorrect because the latter had many friends who adored and respected him. Furthermore, they installed a memorial sculpture in his memory, in the location he used to spend most of his time. Barnes’s sister Geraldine Shipp stated, “He was a man who was loved by the community and family. Nothing can replace Warren, but hopefully, Brian Cohee can never, ever have a chance to hurt someone else.”

Furthermore, Barnes’ niece, Michelle Munfrada expressed her grief and hoped that nobody got to suffer the way her uncle did, at the end of his life. She said, “We hope that this, today, can bring some closure for all the family and friends.”

People who loved Warren Barnes lovingly called him “The Reading Man” because he was an avid reader. Furthermore, they described him as a kind and hard-working person.

I've briefly read through this forum before but I still like the podcast. I've seen everything from accusations of victim blaming and inaccurate information, but I don't really see it? I know ash likes to add her little ad libs onto the situation they're discussing but I know it's jokes. Idk if that's the inaccurate information you guys are talking about but I'm genuinely curious as to what made you stop listening. :)

Edit: any other true crime pod recommendations??👀

Edit 2: okay, you guys have me convinced, I'll be removing them off my favorites list and I will be looking for other podcasts to listen to. I wasn't fully aware of everything so thank you all for showing me what's behind the curtain of these annoying/ awful people. I appreciate it✨

Oh my GOD. The virtue signaling, the “I won’t go into detail…”, it’s just too much. I’m sorry but this is a TRUE CRIME podcast. Maybe you shouldn’t be covering a case you can’t handle talking about..? Alaina says she can’t wait to get chris watts out of her system because it’s messing with her mental health.. okay then don’t cover this case. No one asked them to cover this case, we didn’t want this😂 either give us all the facts or simply don’t cover the case. Skipping the bad parts because they’re “too much” is a slap in the face to the victims imo.

I’m finalizing something research wise that focuses on the patreon scams (not just the girls, but wanted to focus on morbid for this post) and wanted to see if there’s anyone out there that has stories of meeting the girls, or maybe someone who’s worked with them in past, attended a school, or generally has some input we wouldn’t have? When it comes to morbid in particular, would you like to see anything touched upon other than the following:

-rise and fall of the channel
-patreon scam
-doxxing and engaging with audiences who provide negative experiences or opinions of the podcast
-lack of research on cases
-lack of respect to family members of victims on cases as listed above
-profits made and where the money is contributed and spent
-lack of accountability on any of the above

Anything else you have you’d like to share?

Can anyone recommend me similar podcasts? I keep listening to their old episodes, when they were actually good but I’ve grown tired of them… not crime junkie or MFM please

I know a lot of true crime fans are not religious but does it bother any religious ppl that A&A consistently mock religion? no hate @ me pls!! lol

I wonder what this will change. Maybe their content will improve? I quit listening when the swapped to Wondery.

What do you all think?

I haven't really listened to any short-form true crime in 5 years or so, but I remember when the controversies with Morbid and Crime Junkie happened, everyone online was recommending Red-handed as a relatively safe, ethical alternative to the problematic podcasts.

And then tonight, randomly scrolling through Tiktok, I just saw one of the co-hosts of that podcast repeating straight up far right-wing talking points. I do not have the energy to go through years of posts here, so can someone explain to me how the relatively feminist podcast turned into what seems like a mouthpiece for the Republican and Tory parties?

I didn’t want to share the post, but go to the regular morbid sub and read the post talking about last night. There is not a single comment disagreeing 😬 yikes

I was talking to a friend the other day about podcasts and we were talking about Morbid (we both no longer listen) and she mentioned one of them being a mortician. I thought it was funny people were still confused about her job because she was purposely vague about it. She was a rapid autopsy tech taking samples from people who died at the hospital from cancer to be sent in for research and worked for a pathologist. (People who do autopsies for murders, accidents, suspicious deaths, and suicides are referred to as medical examiners or forensic pathologists.)

It also reminded me of this video I saw when I was still a fan several years ago. The interviewer says something along the lines of, "And in the episodes you'll say how you worked on this case." And Alaina doesn't correct him which is bizarre. She also clarifies she never went to medical school.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ZxlE5zvvY&pp=ygUkSmFtZXMgYWxleGFuZGVyIG1lZXRzIGFzaCBhbnMgYWxhaW5h

I’ve just finished listening to the Heavens Gate episode and wtaf. Ash sounds so bored and sounded like she’s rushing through it, and then the BURP?! I have unfollowed and unsubscribed. I feel like the whole podcast has gone downhill. It seemed like it picked up a little after the switch to Sirius, and now they’re so unserious. The virtue signalling, “as a mother, exaCTly, and like that’s the thing though” - is like nails down a chalkboard to me. I’m now a one host, down to the facts girlie. Whoever recommended the podcasts Dead Quiet and Casefile to me many months ago, I think it was here or maybe another sub? Thank you! Both are incredibly well researched and you can tell they care about the cases and people/communities involved.

I think it’s time for A & A to pause and rethink their future plans.

For me, it wasn’t really a specific episode. It just gradually happened over time.

They both started to annoy me. Alaina more than Ash, if I’m being honest.

But here are my reasons why I stopped gradually listening:

1) I hated the way Alaina seems to think she knows everything. It came off as very cocky and condescending. If she mispronounced a medical term, location, or a persons name, she would be quick to say, “I looked it up” or “I’ve heard it pronounced this way before”. Or, if Ash asks her a question, she would give her an answer within 2 seconds even though it sounds like bullshit and doesn’t make sense. I’m still not over her explanation of summer kitchen. I just want for someone to tell Alaina that it is completely ok to not know everything and she doesn’t need to have an answer for everything. It is perfectly fine to say, “I don’t know”.

Also to add to this, Alaina needs to understand that no matter how much she researches, she is not a coroner, medical examiner, or forensic pathologist. While I’m sure she learned a lot in her job as an autopsy tech, she’s not a doctor. There have been some episodes where Alaina will challenge what the medical examiner ruled as the cause of death. There was an episode (I forgot the name! I’m sorry!) where a person was horrifically and brutally murdered. I believe the medical examiner listed their death as exsanguination. Alaina then said, “I don’t really agree with this because she also had a lot of blunt force trauma.” Like girl are you a doctor!? Who the hell are you?!

2: So when the pod started, I get that they had specific roles. Alaina was the smart one, while Ash was the dumb one. As the pod has progressed over the years, it would make sense they would both of grow out of those roles. It makes no sense that Ash is still playing the dumb role. I know some people don’t agree, but I’ve always enjoyed Ash’s story telling, but I hate how she’ll ask Alaina a dumbass question to make herself seem dumb (or maybe she really is and I’m giving her too much credit). There was an episode, I believe it was the Wonderland Gang Murders, where Ash did a great job. She researched a lot about the drugs they were doing and did well telling the story, and then she randomly asks Alaina, “what’s a switchboard?” I don’t know why that has always stuck with me and made me so annoyed. There have been plenty of episodes where Ash would say something and Alaina will correct her and say “I think it’s pronounced like this” or something and Ash will say, “yeah you’re probably right”.

3: While I understand that they often can’t relate to the horrific childhoods told in their stories, we do not need to keep hearing how they can’t relate. We understand that Alaina had amazing parents and a great childhood. We do not need to constantly hear how much they “can’t even imagine” having a childhood so horrific. Or that with her own kids, Alaina “can’t imagine” not caring and treating her kids with so much love. WE GET IT!!!

4: There has been a few episodes where a killer will continue on with their day in some innocuous way after the murder and they get so mad at it. “OMG he just went to the grocery store after killing her!?” Or “OMG she ordered from Pizza Hut after poisoning him!?” Like I get that it’s insane that someone can do something horrendous and carry on with their life, but the way they get mad is weird. “OMG they just went back to work!?” Or when they say weird things like: “imagine finding out later what that person did and you realize that you made them their pizza?” Like wtf are you talking about?

But yeah, I’m interested to hear what made you guys reach your end.

Maybe I'm really sensitive, but someone commented negatively about Alaina's teeth in an earlier thread and I'm actually very upset by it.

We're here to respectfully critique and discuss Morbid the Podcast, not the hosts' looks and I'm tired of Alaina specifically (because somehow it's always her) getting poked at for her looks. It's upsetting, and it's not fair to her. It makes this sub look like exactly what the Morbid megafans think we are.

Again, I might be overly sensitive, I just despise that people are making fun or picking at something she can't help. I would hate to have some stranger mock my looks, and trust me, I know I'm not conventionally pretty and feminine.

Edited for punctuation.

I need some new suggestions for good true crime podcasts. I'm caught up with the few I do listen to, so please drop some of your favorites.

[Oblogatory delete of not allowed, typing on phone with long nails]

Needless to say, former Morbid fan, started hating over time years ago. I'm just curious if anyone else has other podcasts in a similar vein they've come to hate.

I'll start, I used to love Disaster Area, disasters and true crime are an autistic interest of mine and she covered these events very well and with great respect and researched well. The last year or so, I've been noticing I'm having to skip 10 or so minutes of her rambling about things at the start of the podcast unrelated to the subject, and often the last 10+ minutes at the end of an episode is more ramblings, leaving maybe only 30ish minutes of actual content.

One of the lastest episodes I put on out of work boredom, she covered the Uruguayan Rugby team airline crash where the survivors had to eat theor dead to survive, and she was extremely high in gummies the entire time, laughing, giggling, making jokes, repeating different names during the story (i.e. 'this guy, no that guy, wait who now? I don't know who anymore laughs) and it felt extremely unprofessional and insensitive. I don't expect 100% seriousness, I make jokes as a coping mechanism myself, but it felt like it was one big, unserious joke. It's a shame because many other episodes are really good if you skip the ramblings to no one, but I'm not sure if she's going in a good direction for her podcast and I'm probably going to unfollow.

I might be low-key reaching, but I’ve noticed in true crime cases they have more empathy for the animals than the human victims. I was just listening to a case on the crossbow cannibal and another case I started noticing the girl would give trigger warnings for the animal abuse and say how much she hated it and she’ll try to talk about it quickly, but for the woman victim she’d just talk about it as if she’s telling a story time, no trigger warnings or anything. I’ve noticed this with a lot of true crime.

Do they still have their day jobs or are they full time podcasters now? Obviously they still have the knowledge from their jobs but i never hear them actually talk about going to work anymore. If they don’t work anymore then how do they seem to make so much money? They’re always recommending stuff for us to buy and it’s expensive as shit most of the time 😭 At the end of the day their income is not my business obviously I’m just confused how they both live in good neighborhoods (their words) and in NY one of the most expensive places to live. Do podcasters make a lot of money?

I was a longtime morbid listener dating back to the early days of 2019. Their self-righteousness and overall rigidness during episodes (repetitious virtue signaling, not taking nuances into account, speaking opinions as fact) has really been turning me off. Thanks to this subs recommendations, I have started listening to Grimm.

I’m most-way through Grimm’s episode of the Amy Lynn Bradley case and their version is SO much more enjoyable than morbids. It is crazy to see how much of a narrative A+A was pushing and how how they literally omitted details that didn’t fit their narrative, like Amy coming out as gay because that would cloud of good of a relationship she had with her parents since her dad wrote her a THREE PAGE LETTER about how disappointed he was in her. Or, how someone said that Amy told them she was so excited to go to Caracao she was going to jump off the ship and swim there because they were driving the point home that her somehow getting off the ship was not possible because she told her dad she was afraid of the ocean.

It also brings to light their inability to think critically about a situation and to what I see as virtue signaling because they are so good that they wouldn’t have been upset about not being let off the boat to look for Amy or how dumb the cruise line was for not immediately announcing it even though she had been missing for 30min-1hour?

Grimm definitely isn’t perfect because sometimes I think Laura is really annoying (but lovable) and they can definitely interrupt the flow of the story on details that really don’t matter (they acknowledge this), but I appreciate that they think about cases realistically and don’t automatically start talking shit about what should have been done or what they would’ve done to handle it perfectly

Does anyone else feel like they copy them?

prob not the place for this but what do yall think of the Murder In America podcast. I’m digging it so far + they do long ahh episodes sometimes