Best of 2017: Crime Reporting

Who you marry might be the most important decision of your life, but it can also be the least rational.

Sarah Marshall Contributor to Buzzfeed, The New Republic , and the Life of the Law podcast.

On the late afternoon of November 20, 2012, just a few weeks shy of her 20th birthday, Sage Smith stepped out of the neon pink-walled apartment in Charlottesville, Virginia, she shared with two friends. After a tough and tumbling childhood, things finally seemed to be falling into place: She had moved out of her…

Was President Trump’s richest adviser focussed on helping the country—or his own bottom line?

I like this piece because it tells the rollicking story of a USC football player turned international drug kingpin, complete with a strange cast of characters (just wait until R.J. Cipriani shows up.) It also captures something universal: that pretty much anyone is capable of turning to the dark side.

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah spoke with Dylan Roof's family, friends, former teachers, and the victims' families to unlock what created one of the coldest killers of our time.

You’ve probably never heard of Leslie Arnold. But his shocking tale is one you’ll never forget: The 16-year-old Omaha boy killed his parents and buried them in the backyard. He

A wiseguy’s son steps out of his father’s shadow—and into the boxing ring. But the legacy of organized crime isn’t so easy to leave behind.

Unlike what happened in Las Vegas, most mass killers in the U.S. target those closest to them.

No one saw the Sutherland Springs massacre coming. But the signs were there.

How do you live after unintentionally causing a death?