Welcome to Millionaires, where we profile creators who have recently crossed the one million follower mark on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. There are creators crossing this threshold every week, and each of them has a story to tell about their success. Read previous installments here.
When Haley Price joined TikTok in 2020, she made her username @robandhaley. That’s because she thought the account would be cute videos from her and her husband as they prepared to start a family.
Now, four years later, Price is one of TikTok’s fastest-growing true crime creators, and while the @ doesn’t quite fit anymore, she can’t change it. Too many people know her now, she says.
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Price, like many people, has cultivated an interest in true crime over the last few years. Pre-COVID, she had a job that required a two-hour drive both to and from work, so she passed the time listening to true crime podcasts. During lockdowns, and with her fresh new TikTok account, she started following other true crime creators, but was “just creating fun content” herself, “not really directly related to true crime at all,” she says.
Then, in 2021, she learned about Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus. The three women had been kidnapped by a man in Cleveland and held captive for nearly a decade. “I heard a podcast episode about that case and was really interested and wanted to know more,” she says. “I tried to find another podcast I could listen to that had more, and I didn’t find any that were in-depth about that specific case.”
So, she decided to make her own. She reached out to a friend, who’s now her cohost, and they spent weeks researching, reading firsthand accounts from Knight, Berry, and DeJesus. They published their findings as a 12-episode podcast called Inhuman, and by the time they’d finished that case, they had listeners writing in, asking for more.
“That’s how we shifted to doing new stories weekly,” Price says.
She and cohost Andrea Shaenanigans have since produced almost 300 more episodes, releasing two each week. Those, like with the Knight, Berry, and DeJesus cases, tend to be long deep dives about solved or cold cases. Over on TikTok, Price has grown to over 1.3 million followers with shorter, real-time videos about current cases and people of interest. Price says she knows there are ethical concerns with true crime coverage, and that, to mitigate them, she reports only what’s confirmed by law enforcement or other official sources. She also “[does] try to take extra steps to look up people who are missing that are of minority groups or missing and murdered Indigenous women because those don’t always make the big news outlets.”
She says that in the four years she’s been doing this, she’s had families of victims reach out to her and thank her for spotlighting their loved ones’ cases.
“That was something that fired me up to want to continue doing this,” she says, “because I saw the difference that it was making.”
Check out our chat with her below.
@robandhaley The List Family // part 1 #listfamilymurders #truecrimecommunity #truecrimetok #truecrimestory #truecrimetiktoks #truecrimepodcast #truecrimestories #truecrimepodcasts #truecrime #foryoupage #americasmostwanted ♬ Spooky, Quiet, Scary Atmosphere Piano – Bucyrus Audio
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Let’s dive in and just get a little bit of background about you for anybody who’s not familiar with you and hasn’t seen your videos. Where are you from? What did you do in your early life before social media? Did you have a job before this? Did you go to school? That kind of thing.
Haley Price: I am from Los Angeles, California, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and I’ve lived here pretty much my whole life. I went to school in Indiana and got a degree in marketing and also a minor in psychology, so I’ve always been interested in psychological aspects of things. Then for the past five years, I’ve also been working in data analytics, and I recently transitioned into doing social media and my podcast full-time.
I started doing social media back in 2019, I believe, and then when the pandemic hit and everybody was at home, like many, I downloaded TikTok and just started randomly posting. I was just creating fun content, not really directly related to true crime at all, but I did start my true crime podcast in May of 2021. Then in September of 2021, when Gabby Petito went missing and a lot of people were hearing about it, I decided to post about it on TikTok, just sharing her missing poster and saying, “Hey, let’s spread the word about this.”
It went pretty viral, and a lot of people started following the case, and then I just kept providing updates, so that’s how I started getting into posting true crime on TikTok. Since then, I’ve just continued posting about missing persons. I post about true crime cases that I cover on my podcast, but also other cases, and I try to stay up to date on true crime news and things that are currently happening, whether that be a missing person or a trial that’s going on, or a case that was just closed or anything in that realm.
Tubefilter: The Gabby Petito case was haunting to watch unfold.
Haley Price: No, it was. It was something where I was in the true crime community already because of my podcast, and when I heard about it, something just compelled me to post on TikTok. I think part of it was that I felt really similar to her, like a vlogger, I was engaged at the time, she was engaged. I felt a pull to her, so I just decided to post about it, and it captivated the nation. We saw how viral that went, and then I just kept posting about missing people and victims that don’t get enough attention.
Tubefilter: I feel like this is piggybacking off your answer to that a little bit, but what aspects about a case particularly draw you? What makes a case interesting for you to cover?
Haley Price: It’s a variety of things. I try to post about as much as I can. I am a mom, and so I only have so much time in the day. If I could post every single missing person, I would. I try to post about things where there’s enough information out there to be able to share credible information, so I really stray away from posting theories or things that haven’t been confirmed by law enforcement. I try not to post that.
As long as there’s enough information and law enforcement has come out and said, “This person’s missing,” or “These are the details of this case,” I try to post about that. As far as what I post, because I’m a mom, I can’t do this all day every day, unfortunately. I just post about what I see in the news. I follow several different news outlets that post about true crime news or things going on, or people will DM me and say, “Hey, have you heard about this person that’s missing or this trial that’s going on?” Things like that.
That’s how I find what I post about, and like I said, I do my best to make a variety of what I post, so I do try to take extra steps to look up people who are missing that are of minority groups or missing and murdered Indigenous women because those don’t always make the big news outlets, so I follow several accounts that are dedicated to minority missing people or things like that to try to stay up to date on that because, like I said, it’s not always in the big news outlets.
Tubefilter: Very important. I wanted to ask–I know your TikTok username is “@robandhaley.” Is Rob your partner?
Haley Price: Yes, Rob is my husband. It’s only “Rob and Haley” because I started my social media as a family blog. I made it @robandhaley because I thought that that sounded fun, and that was just what I decided to go with. I kept it like that, and then when my videos started going viral for true crime stuff, I didn’t change it. Then it was too late because that’s how everybody knows me.
My husband has absolutely nothing to do with my accounts. He actually does not like true crime and makes me turn off shows when I’m watching them, and it’s all just me. I’ve thought about changing my username, but I’m known as @robandhaley now, so I’ve just got to leave it like that.
Tubefilter: Out of curiosity, why doesn’t he like true crime?
Haley Price: I think it just freaks him out. He’s just not the type of person that likes the scary, creepy things. I was watching a Netflix documentary on the Night Stalker, and that one really freaked him out because we’re in Los Angeles and that’s where it happened. He’s just not the type of person that likes anything in that realm, and he gets really freaked out that I can watch and listen to this stuff and then go to bed at night.
Tubefilter: Clearly you’re balancing a lot of things right now, but in terms of producing videos and your podcast, a lot of this stuff is really timely, so I’m really curious about your production schedule.
Haley Price: Producing videos and producing my podcast are two separate entities, at least in my head, and that’s how I keep track of it all. For the podcast, we try to record ahead of time and be ahead of schedule so that we can put content out in a timely manner, and that content isn’t as fresh/new content. It’s more like cases that have been either resolved or cold for a long time, so all the information’s already out there. That is what I do on one side.
As far as producing content for TikTok, it is very time-consuming. I have several Google alerts set up so that at least once a day I’ll get an update on some of the bigger cases that I’ve been following, like Gypsy-Rose Blanchard or the Idaho murders cases. There might be updates on a daily or every other day basis. I get Google alerts so that I can look through the recent articles about them and what’s being said.
Other than that, it’s really just Google searching. I will plug in a name and see what’s new, read through some articles, and then if there’s a lot of new updates, I will put together a video. If there’s a trial, for example, when the Ruby Franke hearings were going on and she was being sentenced and all of that, I knew what day that was happening, so that day I just kept refreshing my browser and looking at the newest articles that were coming out following accounts on Twitter that were, or X, I guess now it’s called, that were reporting on it and that kind of thing.
Producing content, it takes me…I’ve gotten it down a little bit more now, but it does take me quite some time because, like I mentioned, I try to only report on facts and things that have been reported on in proper media outlets. I try not to post things that might come from Reddit or theories that haven’t been confirmed by law enforcement, and if I do ever post about that, I make it very clear that it has not been confirmed and it’s just rumor or theory or whatever it may be.
I just put bullet points together of what I want to share in a video and then go and record that video, and lately with my move and with my baby, it’s been a little bit more challenging, because I don’t have a proper studio setup, and when I’m home all day with my baby, I can only get away so often to record. He is very talkative now. If he’s not mapping, I can’t really record. I try to just create content as timely as I can and keep updates out there.
Then I also, on times when there’s not big cases I’m following or something like that, I’ll post about other cases that are maybe older and all the content is out there or things like that. I’ll post about cases that we covered on our podcast as a brief overview and then “Hey, go check out the podcast for more information, a more in-depth analysis of the case.”
Tubefilter: There are ethical concerns with covering true crime, especially with cases that are ongoing. I’m curious how you approach ethical concerns.
Haley Price: I try to, like I’ve said, only report on fact, and things that have been reported by news outlets that are well known. There are ethical concerns, and that’s why I always try to remain respectful of the victims or the people that I’m talking about. I try to keep things just as high-level if there’s not a lot of information out there. Then if there is something that’s not confirmed but I feel is relevant, I will make it very clear that this is a rumor. This is a theory. I saw that a lot in the Gabby Petito case when she was still missing. Then when Brian Laundrie was still missing, there was a lot of theory circulating.
I shared what I thought were the most relevant ones or ones that were getting a lot of attention so that I could say, “Hey, this is just a theory, but here’s the information.”
Tubefilter: You started your account with the intention to be a family account. I know you said Gabby Petito was where your account really started taking out, but when did you know that this was going to be a job for you? Was there a specific turning point for that?
Haley Price: This became a job for me when my podcast started to get more listenership, because that was something that we could do consistently. Social media is so up and down and you never know what’s going on. Once the podcast was something solid that we had, and we have listeners that listen every week when we release new episodes, I started being able to see this as a job and starting a business and being able to continue to grow and use this to support my family. Also just seeing people’s interests and wanting to know and wanting to follow true crime.
I think with Gabby Petito, like you said, it was one of the first cases that our generation as adults followed closely and watched. I think a lot of people saw the impact of social media and saw the impact of them sharing about it on their own social media or talking to people about it and how everybody knew her name. Seeing that and seeing how we can make a difference and I’ve had families of victims reach out to me and with appreciation that I shared their loved ones’ story. That was something that fired me up to want to continue doing this because I saw the difference that it was making.
Tubefilter: What led you to start a podcast?
Haley Price: I started a podcast because I was really into true crime podcasts. Before the pandemic, I was commuting to work in Los Angeles and my drive was about two hours each way. I kept myself awake and alert by listening to podcasts. I actually heard a podcast about one case, it was three women who were kidnapped and held captive for years by one man in Cleveland. I heard a podcast episode about that case and was really interested and wanted to know more. I tried to find another podcast I could listen to that had more, and I didn’t find any that were in-depth about that specific case.
I reached out to a friend who’s now my cohost and said, “Hey, would you want to start a podcast with me?” Because we had chatted about, one day, both of us wanting to start a podcast. She agreed, and we started researching the case. We read the victims’ books, we went really in-depth, and that was how our podcast started. We did a 12-episode deep dive into that specific case. Then from there, people were saying, “We want more. We want to hear more true crime stories.” That’s how we shifted to doing new stories weekly.
Tubefilter: You have a baby, which is the majority of your time right now, but in terms of your content, do you have a trajectory? Any plans or goals for the next year or so that you want to accomplish?
Haley Price: Yes. I am really passionate about just continuing to share on TikTok. Hopefully, once my baby becomes a little more independent, which, who knows, he might be crazy and be running around and I won’t have more time. But if I do have more time, I hope to just post more often on TikTok. Through being sick in my pregnancy and then having a baby, I haven’t been posting as much. Posting more often, following more current cases, is a big goal of mine for the next year. Then I also hope to start doing some longer-form content on YouTube.
That’s something that I’ve done before a little bit, and I really like it, and people seem to like that longer-form content. I just need to find the time for it, but I do think that that’s a really great way to share cases as well, especially ones that are cold cases or cases where there’s a lot of information out there, but no resolution. I think that’s a really great way to get that information all in one place and for people to learn about these victims that they may have never heard of. I plan to continue doing that, and then also just continuing to grow the podcast, trying to grow our listenership so that more people can hear these stories.
On the podcast, we tend to share a lot of cold cases or missing persons cases, just ones that don’t have answers. Our goal with that is to just try to spread awareness because a lot of these victims, people just don’t know their names and haven’t heard of them. Being able to get their names out there, even if it’s to our almost 20,000 Instagram followers or people that listen to the podcast, that’s something huge for these victims if more people can know their names. I hope to continue that. And then in my three- to five-year timeline, I also eventually want to write a novel. I have a couple of ideas and things that I’d like to put into words, but that’s a little bit of a longer-term goal.
Tubefilter: Are you thinking something mystery/crime-related?
Haley Price: Yes, I’m thinking of something thriller. I have a couple of things up in my head that I have written down and want to eventually get to. Some sort of thriller novel and then I’d also like to do something about the impact of sharing about true crime in today’s world.
Tubefilter: What has been your favorite part of joining the true crime community?
Haley Price: I think there are two things that have been my favorite of really growing in the true crime community. One is just connecting with people who are passionate like me, people who want to share about these cases, want to deep dive into the psychology of some of these cases and things like that. I’ve met a lot of people just through my DMs or people reaching out to me after they’ve seen my videos or listened to my podcast. It’s just been really neat connecting with people.
Then the other side of that is I have had, like I mentioned, some family members of victims reach out and show their appreciation for me sharing these stories, whether it be on TikTok or on my podcast. Just seeing how especially families of victims who don’t have answers and cases that remain open, them being so appreciative that their loved one’s name is getting out there, the story’s getting out there…That’s been such an incredible part, because I can’t imagine what they must be going through. To see how it has helped them, or how I have been able to help a little bit by sharing it and getting it out to my TikTok followers or listeners, has been really great.
Tubefilter: To wrap up, say there’s someone who wants to get into true crime coverage. What would be your one piece of advice for them?
Haley Price: My biggest piece of advice for anyone to break into this field would be to stay true to yourself, and remain ethical. Make sure that you’re sharing facts, being respectful of victims, not sensationalizing these stories. While it is entertainment, in a sense, these are real people. These are real victims. Sharing the stories in a respectful manner and sharing the facts and the information and not turning it into some crazy, wild story, I think, is the most important part of being able to share this content.
Haley Price is repped by Viral Nation.
