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

Mar. 15, 2025

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

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

Kelly RipaandAshley Flowerswent deep on a handful of high-profile crime cases, just in time for Halloween.

Among the cases the pair discussed were the case ofMenendez brothersLyleandErik Menendez,Karen Read’s high-profile murder trial, and the murder trial of an Indiana woman named Ada Haradine, who Flowerscovered on her podcast earlier this month.

Ripa and Flowers reflected on their first experience of the Menendez brothers trial, which has garnered renewed interest givena new Netflix documentaryand 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.

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

VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty

Flowers — also abestselling authorof 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' lawyersfiled a petitionto vacate the brothers' convictions in light of new evidence, and asrecently 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.

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

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty

Flowers and Ripa also touched on the murder trial ofKaren 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?”

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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.

Ada and Ed Haradine.Cass County Sheriff’s Office

Cass County Sheriff’s Office

“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’sLet’s Talk Off Camerapodcast with Flowers isnow available.

source: people.com