401: Disney Cruise Busted, Missing Scientist & Makayla Settles’ Dad Pleads Guilty
Serialously with Annie Elise
Annie Elise & Audioboom Studios
4.7 • 10.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Headline Highlights: Outrage is growing after Makayla Settles’ father pleaded guilty to incest and supplying alcohol to a minor, yet only faces a maximum sentence of just three years in prison. Kouri Richins has officially been sentenced to life without parole for murdering her husband, though many are now focused on her emotional courtroom statement where she continued claiming innocence. In a shocking update, Alex Murdaugh has been granted a new murder trial after the court ruled that jury misconduct by the trial clerk violated his right to a fair trial. A federal operation involving multiple cruise ships in San Diego has sparked major backlash and speculation after 28 crew members were removed and deported over alleged involvement with CSAM. And, the disappearance of Melissa Casias has fueled major online speculation after the Los Alamos employee vanished in 2025, leaving behind her belongings and two factory-reset phones before being seen walking alone near a highway in New Mexico…
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, true crime besties, welcome back to an an all new episode of Serialessly with me, your host and your true crime bestie, Annie Elise. Today's Thursday, which A means I hope you're having a good week so far. And if you are, |
| 0:40.6 | I'm sorry because it's almost over. But if you're having a bad week so far, then yay, it's almost |
| 0:45.0 | over. But no, it's Thursday. So Thursdays mean we are not doing our normal deep dive into one case, |
| 0:52.9 | but we are going over a lot of cases in headline highlights. |
| 0:56.7 | We're going to talk about things that are brand new cases happening this week, cases where there are |
| 1:01.5 | updates, cases where there has been no fucking justice in my opinion, and I'm a little pissed off |
| 1:07.6 | about it. And we have a lot to go over. One of the main things, too, |
| 1:11.3 | that we are going to be disgusting. Disgusting, actually, that actually is the new word that I'm |
| 1:16.3 | going to use. I meant to say discussing, but one of the things we will be disgusting is the Disney |
| 1:22.3 | Cruise Predator bust, because there is so much to unpack with this Disney Cruise situation and it's getting |
| 1:30.8 | buried in the news. And I know that there's a lot of conspiracies out there being like, oh, |
| 1:35.2 | that's the whole reason people brought up Hontovirus to bury the Disney Cruise scandal. |
| 1:39.4 | But let me just tell you, we need to talk about it. So before we get into the cases and today's updates and all of the |
| 1:47.3 | things i do want to make a quick announcement because i feel like i like to keep you guys in |
| 1:53.4 | the know and let you know all things going on with my life you are my friends i keep you updated |
| 1:58.0 | and today i am so thrilled to be joined by someone that I have |
| 2:03.1 | looked up to my whole life and that feels like an older sister of sorts. Welcome to the show, |
| 2:09.6 | Amy Colette. Thanks, Moppy. Thanks. Bosh. Bosharoni. Do you think that I will ever not do a trickery intro? I think you've got people |
| 2:21.6 | shocked. They have no idea who's going to be here. They're shook right now. Somebody just rearended |
| 2:26.3 | someone on the freeway because they are so shocked that you are the guest today. I know. Well, |
| 2:31.2 | Heller. Heler. Welcome back. Thank you so much for having me. You're, |
| 2:35.0 | you're very welcome. Okay. So we have a lot to talk about. I'm going to talk about the first, |
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