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Welcome back to Kern Affairs, our show about the cases of Love Gone Fatally Wrong that
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are in the news right now.
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If this is your first Love Murder episode, tune back in on Wednesdays for our main full-length
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Today, we have three shorter stories, and our first is called a Fake Livestream.
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On December 18, 2022, a 32-year-old woman named Natalie McNally was stabbed to death
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inside her home in Lurgen, Northern Ireland.
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She was 15 weeks pregnant.
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Natalie was described by her family as warm, vibrant, and deeply loved.
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Her boyfriends, Steven McCullough, was a YouTuber and gaming streamer with tens of thousands
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He ran a channel where he played Grand Theft Auto, Robot Wars, and other games.
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He posted commentary and did some streaming for his audience.
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On the night that Natalie was killed, Steven appeared to have an airtight alibi, a six-hour
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live stream of Grand Theft Auto, Vice City, broadcasting to viewers, and what looked like
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Natalie herself had been tuned in from home, watching what she thought was her boyfriend
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When police questioned McCullough, he pointed to the stream as proof he'd been at his own
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residence the entire evening.
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Investigators released him, and Natalie's family believed he was devastated and mourning
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They took him in and embraced him in their grief.
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But when detectives pulled at the thread, his alibi collapsed.
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The entire six-hour stream had been pre-recorded.
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Steven McCullough had said it to play automatically on a timer while he drove to Natalie's home
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She suffered stab wounds to the next triangulation and heavy blows to the head.
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How are you going to think they're not going to figure that out?
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I mean, I don't think this guy is exactly a brain trust.
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Ultimately, the court was fairly aghast at the level of pre-meditation.
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This was not a crime of impulse.
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He sat down, recorded himself playing the video for six straight hours, set the footage
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to broadcast on schedule, and then drove to the home of his pregnant girlfriend and murdered
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All the while, she sat watching what she believed was him live on the other end of the stream.
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She was watching him, and he was on his way to kill her.
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In Monday, March 23, a court in Northern Ireland found Steven McCullough guilty of murder.
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He faces a mandatory life sentence.
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Next up, a murder for hire in Murietta.
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On January 13, police in Murietta, California responded to a call at the Arbor's at California
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Inside one of the units, they found the body of 30-year-old Aaron Parr.
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He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide.
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For weeks, detectives worked on the case quietly.
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They combed through physical evidence, digital records, and investigative leads that stretched
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Then on January 30, they made their first two arrests.
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Aaron Parr's ex-girlfriend, 40-year-old Ignacio Cadeo's Perkins, was picked up locally in Murietta.
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In acquaintance of hers, 43-year-old James Lawrence Petrie was arrested over 2,000 miles away
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in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Both were charged with murder, murder for financial or other consideration, and criminal conspiracy
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From there, the investigation kept expanding.
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A March 20 police announced two additional arrests tied to the case.
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Jerry Wheeler, 34, was taken into custody in Brookhaven, Georgia.
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Kenneth Maxwell, 39, was arrested in midfield, Alabama.
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Same charges across the board, both are being extradited to California to stand trial.
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The Brookhaven Police Department, which assisted in Wheeler's arrest, described the killing
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as a murder for hire that had been deliberately and methodically planned.
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The Murietta Police Department has said that they are withholding additional details, including
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how Parr was killed, what the motive was, and the exact nature of the relationships between
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the suspects, because the investigation remains active and ongoing.
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Finally, an update now on the case of Gerhard and Ariel Coneck.
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I'm sure you'll remember this.
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Coneck is the Maui anesthesiologist charged with trying to kill his wife, Ariel, during
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a birthday trip to a Wahoo in March of 2025.
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He allegedly lured her onto a steep cliff trail and then tried to push her off the edge.
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He has pleaded not guilty.
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On Tuesday, exactly one year to the day after the alleged attack, Ariel took the witness
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The trial was live streamed by court TV.
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Her testimony walked the jury through what she said happened on that trail.
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She described Gerhard grabbing her by both arms as she tried to move away from the edge,
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telling her he was done.
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She said she saw a syringe in his hand and heard him say, hold still.
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She testified that he pinned her to the ground, held her down with one hand, and then rifled
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through his backpack with the other.
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She said she could see him gripping a vile.
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This is so terrifying.
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Oh my god, could you imagine?
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Not even a little bit.
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But according to Ariel, he told her to shut up that nobody would hear her out there and
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that nobody was coming to save her.
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She said she tried to reason with him by talking about their children.
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She told him their kids would be orphans that he'd go to prison and she'd be dead and
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the children needed both of them.
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He allegedly responded that they didn't need her anymore.
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According to her testimony, he appeared to calm slightly, to the deep breath, and then
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started hitting her with rocks.
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Two hikers heard her screaming and called 911.
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Ariel remained composed through most of her testimony.
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She broke down only once when the defense showed her a card Gerhard had written for her
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on the morning of the hike hours before the alleged attack.
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Gerhard was seen taking notes as she testified.
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The trial is ongoing.
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Wow, what a monster cannot even fathom.
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We will continue to keep you guys posted on the outcome of that trial as well as our
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other cases on Current Affairs.
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Until next time, I'm Jesse Bray, and I'm Andy Cassette signing off for Love Murder
