Plot Synopsis

Each one-hour episode of MURDER IN THE WICKED WEST explores a murder that was committed in some of the wildest and most remote towns in the western United States. With few or no witnesses, no CCTV and oftentimes a dead phone signal, these can be the hardest cases for cops to crack. With access to law enforcement, victims' families, local characters and sometimes the perp, each episode chronicles one murder investigation through to trial. Cases range from the vanishing of cowboy Rex Tanner and his partner June who work at a sprawling Utah desert ranch where the owner keeps a pet lion, to the gunning down of a popular truck driver in in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma which takes investigators deep into the closed world of rodeo; from a wannabe cowboy who winds up hog-tied and buried in the California desert, to a country singer and drifter known as Cowboy Mike unmasked as a serial killer. MURDER IN THE WICKED WEST debuted with back-to-back episodes on Monday, December 12, 2022 from 9-11pm ET/PT on Investigation Discovery:

"Utah's Lion King" (9pm): When ranch-hand Rex Tanner and his friend June Flood go missing in suspicious circumstances, local investigators Ralph Stansfield and Wally Hendricks uncover an explosive story of paranoia, greed and dynamite in the remote desert canyons of central Utah.

"Murder on Main Street" (10pm): Oklahoma newlywed Rex Harper is shot dead at the wheel of his truck on Main Street in what investigators believe is a professional hit. With no witnesses or clues, detectives must crack the cowboy code of silence to reveal the key to his killing.