The 15 Best Dateline Episodes Ranked

What is it about true crime stories that makes them so compelling? Maybe it's the subconscious belief that if we watch enough of them, we'll be able to spot trouble when it comes our way. It's hard to deny the allure of an intriguing mystery that keeps us guessing. Whatever the reason, few do a better job of telling these stories than the gifted correspondents at "Dateline NBC." Framed by a straightforward introduction from sober-faced anchor Lester Holt and his scene-stealing vest, each episode explores a single story through interviews with those whose lives were affected by the crime or crimes in question. 

From the quiet compassion of correspondents like Andrea Canning and Dennis Murphy to the almost lyrical storytelling style and velvet-soft snark of Keith Morrison, every story explores the unthinkable without glamorizing or sensationalizing it, instead painting a full-color picture of its victims. To fuel your next true crime binge, we've ranked the top 15 episodes of "Dateline" below.

Keith Morrison is the correspondent for this painful cautionary tale that serves as a reminder to be careful who you trust, especially when it comes to money. Not long after announcing to a good friend that she planned to move to Canada and pursue a career in art, Sarah Stern disappeared — a fact that came to light when her abandoned car was discovered on a New Jersey bridge. As detectives looked into her case, her friends shared how loved she was -– friends like an aspiring film producer named Liam and her former prom date Preston. 

Investigators soon learned that Sarah had come into some money that her mother had squirreled away over the years for her. But had she taken off north of the border without so much as a goodbye or thrown her life away on a bridge for reasons unknown? As is often the case with "Dateline," the grim truth eventually surfaces.

Reported by Andrea Canning, the "Dateline NBC" episode "The Alibi" tells the story of a vibrant young mother who lit up the lives of everyone around her. After enlisting in the army, Private First Class Karlyn Ramirez moved into an intelligence role where she made friends easily and began to create a life for her daughter while stationed hundreds of miles away from her husband, Maliek. When Karlyn was found shot, her husband's alibi seemed airtight. With no leads on who might have killed Karlyn, investigators and her family wondered if her death could be connected to her top-secret work on base, or even related to espionage. 

As small fractures began to appear in her husband's story, electronic data would undermine his alibi and eventually reveal the truth of what happened. What investigators found as they dug deeper was a story of infidelity, betrayal, military violations, and abuse that all led back to a destructive marriage at the center of the crime.

It should come as no surprise to fans of true crime documentaries that people are continually willing to pay killers-for-hire to 86 their exes. After all, who needs the pain and suffering of a messy breakup when for only a short investment, you can exit the relationship with the halo of a grieving lover and a nice little chunk of change in your pocket to help ease the pain of the breakup? But what's often surprising to even the most seasoned true crime followers is how frequently these folks do a terrible job of hiring a killer, whether they're trying to cheap out on costs or due to sheer ineptitude. In the "Dateline" episode "The Sting," recounted by Dennis Murphy, this level of faulty judgment finds Dalia Dippolito face-to-face with her own criminal incompetence.

When police contacted the newly married Dalia to give her the devastating news that her husband had been murdered, showing her a graphic image of the crime scene, she was understandably distraught. But not nearly as distraught as she would be when her husband appeared alive and well in the interrogation room to help convict her of soliciting murder-for-hire. This episode details the sting that led to that moment, including her husband's role in the whole thing.

Just two weeks after losing her husband Larry in a fatal boating accident on a frosty February morning, Idaho widow Lori Isenberg found herself under arrest for a seemingly unrelated crime –- grand theft and forgery from the non-profit she worked for. As Keith Morrison dives into the days leading up to this strange turn of events, it becomes clear that Lori –- like so many spouses featured on "Dateline" -– was keeping a few secrets and, they all came to light that fateful February.

After years on the job as a model employee, Lori was called out for problems with her financial recordkeeping just as she and Larry were gearing up for their annual road trip. An investigation uncovered upwards of $900,000 embezzled by Lori in about a three-year period — crimes her husband knew nothing about and would likely have left her for. While Larry recovered from a strange bug that left him feeling under the weather, news of Lori's job hit the papers, and it would only be a matter of time before Larry learned the truth. When a cornered Lori sensed her Jenga tower of lies was about to topple, she took drastic measures to ensure her husband would never find out what she'd been up to.

For most people, the idea that they could be going about their lives one moment and then arrested for a murder they didn't commit the next seems impossible. But that's exactly what happened to Pete Coones, the subject of the "Dateline NBC" episode "The Phone Call." Narrated by Natalie Morales, the episode is a heartbreaking warning against the dangers of prosecutorial tunnel vision and a reminder that not everyone in prison belongs there. As Coones' elderly father became more dependent on his housekeeper Kathleen Scholl, he got gradually more isolated from his own family, eventually changing her to his only insurance beneficiary after his death. When Scholl and her husband died in an apparent murder-suicide, the investigation quickly turned into a homicide charge after Scholl's family revealed she'd called them moments before her death claiming that Pete Coones was trying to kill them.

Despite an alibi, a complete lack of evidence, and health issues that would have made killing both Scholl and her husband physically difficult if not impossible, Coones was convicted of Kathleen's murder twice. When a new Kansas City D.A. began to look into wrongful convictions, however, new forensic evidence and testimony from the M.E. would lead to Coones' exoneration after nearly 13 years in prison. Tragically, Coones -– whose wife and children never gave up on him –- died of cancer only 108 days after his release, according to Law & Crime.

Correspondent Dennis Murphy narrates this strange tale of a politician's untimely demise. "The Hands of a Killer" looks at the strange conspiracy theories that popped up after a popular Arkansas state senator was murdered in her home and how the crime eventually came to be solved. When beloved senator Linda Collins was found murdered, rumors swirled about a dangerous ex-husband who had allegedly tried to kill her in the past, but police weren't convinced. After a politician in a neighboring state died, QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories ran wild until his death was ruled a suicide. 

When police finally zeroed in on the real killer, a friend and employee of Collins, the chaos would only continue to escalate as the accused worked from inside the prison to sow doubt and mayhem. But in the end, the whole truth would become crystal clear thanks to a well-placed camera and a close-up of the blood-soaked killer stashing the weapon.

Competing with doomsday mom Lori Vallow for Cult Mom of the Century is Amy Carlson, the main focus of the "Dateline NBC" episode "The Ascension of Mother God." The world would come to know her story after police found her mummified body wrapped in Christmas lights and covered in glitter in a home inhabited by her followers. Keith Morrison speaks with followers from her "Love Has Won" cult and people who knew Amy before she "ascended" and began calling herself Mother God, including the family she left behind. Carlson's cult gained its following via YouTube, with members abandoning their loved ones to live in a home with the cult amid claims of brainwashing from their families.

After the group moved to Hawaii, where they faced off with angry members of the local community, they returned to Colorado in late 2020. There, Amy's health began to markedly decline, with her followers live-streaming that their leader was "slowly going out of her vessel." Questions abound in this episode, and two of the most pressing are how Amy died and what caused a seemingly typical young woman to take such a dive off the cult deep end and drag so many people with her.