Takeaways from Las Vegas’ CrimeCon 2026

1 week ago 5 min read 27
Sincity Press Brief

CrimeCon was possibly the safest place to be all weekend, considering all the K9 units, FBI agents and police circling about.

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Nancy Grace at CrimeCon

Photo: Amber Sampson

Tue, Jun 2, 2026 (2 a.m.)

Crime sleuths came forth. For the archetypal clip since 2022, CrimeCon returned to the Las Vegas Strip May 29-31 for 3 days of subsister stories, stunning accounts of acold cases being cracked and eye-opening panels connected however to stay watchful in a satellite of injustice.  

CrimeCon was possibly the safest place to beryllium each weekend, considering each the K9 units, FBI agents and police circling about. And past determination were the people, the “legal eagles,” arsenic famed TV writer Nancy Grace called them. These were the folks who lived and breathed existent transgression podcasts and binged episodes of The First 48. As transgression sleuths packed the Caesars Palace ballroom connected Friday, a montage of captured criminals flashed onscreen from high-profile cases. Attendees cheered, celebrating convictions similar their location squad scoring the game-winning goal. But the behaviour was acold from romanticizing these crimes. It was more a show of zeal for justice.

“We judge successful justice, and that is not casual to get,” Grace told the assemblage during her treatment connected the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie. “People ask, wherefore bash we attraction truthful much? Why not? Why wouldn’t you attraction truthful much?”

In respective instances, it’s the existent transgression enthusiasts who person helped lick cases, Grace said. Two question bloggers spotted the precocious Gabby Petito’s van, tipping the constabulary disconnected to the determination of her remains. That vigilance is precisely what this play astatine CrimeCon acceptable retired to celebrate. –AS  

It was a woman’s world. A fewer years ago, a survey from Pew Research Center found that women are nearly twice as apt arsenic men to perceive to existent transgression podcasts. That was reflected successful the assemblage astatine the Las Vegas variation of CrimeCon. Hundreds of women, representing a wide scope of ages and backgrounds, streamed into the convention’s sprawling ballrooms, anxious to prosecute with stories that, connected the surface, look unsettling and grim.  

The country raises the question: Why are women truthful drawn to existent crime and stories of violence, deception and loss? For many, the entreaty lies not successful the morbidity itself, but successful the lessons these stories offer. True transgression tin service arsenic a signifier of education and self-preservation. A mode of learning what informing signs to recognize, what to avoid and however to navigate a perchance unsafe situation. For others, it tin supply a means of processing trauma, offering reassurance and solidarity done the experiences of those who person endured akin hardships and emerged on the different side. 

That dynamic was connected afloat show during Friday afternoon’s sheet featuring Eva LaRue, Athena Klingerman and Amber Rasmussen, the women down the Paramount+ documentaries My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story and Don’t Date Brandon. As they recounted their experiences, whether it was involving an chartless stalker oregon maltreatment wrong an intimate relationship, a communal thread emerged. Though the circumstances differed, their stories echoed 1 different successful striking ways. 

It is simply a sobering world that truthful galore women stock experiences rooted successful fear, harassment or violence. Yet the sheet underscored wherefore existent transgression storytelling continues to resonate. Beyond the headlines and sensational details, these narratives connection thing galore radical seek, which is understanding, validation and, successful immoderate cases, immoderate measurement of closure. –GR

Attorney General Aaron Ford was close astir Roblox. In 1 of the astir eye-opening panels, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen investigated Roblox, a fashionable free-to-play title containing countless assemblage created games. Roblox has caught sizeable vigor aft respective states person sued the level for serving arsenic a breeding crushed for kid predators. While onstage, Hansen even demonstrated a unrecorded chat with a questionable alien on Roblox, revealing conscionable however unsafe this can beryllium for children if gone unchecked. This April, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with Roblox to enactment kid-focused programs and nondigital activities, and to implement safeguards connected the app for minors. Nevada, similar galore different states now, leads by illustration successful this commitment to protecting kids successful virtual spaces. –AS 

Vegas’ existent transgression inactive mystifies the masses. CrimeCon’s jam-packed schedule featured everything from self-defense demonstrations to panels with serial slayer profilers and Jeffrey Epstein survivors. Still, Las Vegas’ ain unsolved mysteries and tragedies kept existent transgression junkies connected the borderline of their seats. We heard from section detectives and LVMPD officers who responded to the Route 91 Harvest Festival wide shooting successful a two-part panel. Then “Buffalo” Jim Barrier, a boisterous wrestling promoter who became a Vegas icon successful the precocious ’90s, received the spotlight aft his mysterious motel decease successful 2008 resurfaced successful an occurrence of Unsolved Mysteries, prompting household and friends to allege foul play. CrimeCon even shed airy connected casino heir Ted Binion’s untimely death, leaving america to consider: Sometimes what happens successful Vegas truly does enactment successful Vegas. –AS 

Photo of Gabriela Rodriguez

Gabriela Rodriguez is simply a Staff Writer astatine Las Vegas Weekly. A UNLV grad with a grade successful journalism and media ...

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Photo of Amber Sampson

Amber Sampson is the Arts and Entertainment Editor for Las Vegas Weekly. She got her commencement successful journalism arsenic an ...

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