Santa Maybe, a Criminal

Episode 1: The First Day of Christmas – A Partridge in a Pine Tree

It's like Santa Claus. As a suspect. On Dateline. In the South.

Santa Claus expects milk and cookies on his Christmas route. What he does not expect is a cup of hunch punch strong enough to stun a reindeer. But one wrong sip in a tiny south Georgia town sends the big man spiraling into trouble - serious trouble. By dawn, he’s the prime suspect in a DUI and the hit-a...

Episode 2: The Second Day of Christmas – Vehicular Man's Laughter

It's like Santa Claus. As a suspect. On Dateline. In the South.

Christmas Eve takes a bizarre turn when Sheriff Bradley DeBerry discovers an abandoned sleigh, nine restless reindeer, and a tragedy in the ditch off County Line Road. With one reindeer sporting a suspiciously glowing nose, and jars of Ruthie Barker Guest’s scuppernong preserves cracked open nearby, the ...

It's like Santa Claus. As a suspect. On Dateline. In the South.

As the community gathers in a packed country church to honor Ruthie Barker Guest, Richie Buck can’t shake a gnawing question: if Santa was arrested on Christmas Eve… then how did the rest of the world wake up to presents under the tree? While the vigil lifts Ruthie’s life and legacy, Richie is pulled even deeper into the myst...

The Fourth Day of Christmas – Naughty or Nice It's like Santa Claus. As a suspect. On Dateline. In the South.

Richie Buck returns to the correctional facility for a second conversation with Santa Claus — now stripped of his iconic beard, dressed in a red jumpsuit, and looking more like a weary small-town umpire than the mythic keeper of Christmas. As Richie presses him on how the presents were delivered after his arrest, Santa lea...

The Fifth Day of Christmas - The Case Against

Richie Buck heads straight into the lion’s den - the prosecutor’s office.  There, he hopes to understand exactly what Santa Claus is up against. But what he finds isn’t a quiet room of legal briefs… It’s a true-crime trophy hall, every wall plastered with mugshots of past convictions like hunting mounts. And the prosecutors, Chet and Sally, treat justice like a competitive sport. Or wor...

The Sixth Day of Christmas - The Case For

Richie Buck returns to the correctional facility, only to discover that Santa’s arrest has turned the mailroom into a 24/7 operation, overwhelmed with letters from children who still believe. When he finally sits across from Santa, the jolly man drops the “ho, ho, ho” act and speaks like a regular person, revealing cracks of doubt, frustration, and fear beneath the persona the world expects...

Richie Buck is all in, and now it’s permanent. After uncovering new evidence, hiring a flashy new defense attorney, and learning that the blood on Santa’s sleigh wasn’t human at all, Richie takes the ultimate leap of loyalty: getting a full-on Santa tattoo. As the needle buzzes, he doubles down on his mission to prove the big man’s innocence and restore Christmas for everyone.

But with his departure for the North Pole imminent, the...

The Eighth Day of Christmas - Intercontinental Ballistic Mistletoe

Richie Buck’s journey through the North Pole takes a sharp, disorienting turn as he finds himself deep inside the abandoned institution where elves once labored until their final cuckoo clock. There, amid smoke, shadows, and the lingering scent of some "elfin tobacco,” Richie meets the elusive Todd O. Tannenbaum - better known as The Toddfather.

At first, Richie t...

Richie Buck’s time at the North Pole is running out, but the deeper he digs, the stranger - and darker - everything becomes. At the urging of Cam D. Kain, the head of the ELF-BI, Richie is taken to a fenced-in wasteland known as the Blandfill, a desolate dumping ground where old toys, forgotten gifts, and waddling penguins replace the seagulls and garbage of a normal landfill.

There, Richie discovers something that rocks his unders...

Richie Buck wakes up on his final morning at the North Pole with a pounding headache, a mysterious gift in his pocket, and Mrs. Karen Claus standing in his bedroom.

Karen drops every bombshell on him at once: her affair with Cam D. Kane, Santa’s own affair with Ruthie Barker Guest, and her belief that Santa may have run RBG down “like a dog in the street.” And she wants Richie to be the messenger.

But she also gives Richie one ques...

The world is talking about Santa Claus. True crime podcasters are weighing in, conspiracy shows are spinning theories, and Richie Buck finds himself caught in the crossfire as the story explodes far beyond his small podcast. Richie pushes the chatter aside and throws himself back into the investigation, beginning with a meeting he both needs and fears. Dr. Peter Vimsickle has completed Santa’s psychological evaluation, and the resu...

Richie Buck finally has the evidence he has been waiting for. After Sheriff Bradley Dewberry repairs Richie’s ancient VCR, Richie plays the 1985 Christmas tape Ruthie Barker Guest recorded in her living room. What he discovers is explosive. Ruthie rants about Santa, threatens revenge, and whispers a strange clue that rewrites everything Richie thought he knew. She mentions the Easter Bunny. And the Tooth Fairy.

With this revelation...

Detective Samantha Strong calls Richie Buck with the news he never thought he would hear. Santa Claus is gone. His cell is empty. The news makes Richie’s heart sink. Santa once told him that only the guilty run. Now Richie is forced to confront the possibility that the man he defended might have vanished under the weight of his own secrets.

Shaken and angry, Richie storms into Sheriff Bradley Dewberry’s office looking for answers. ...